3 Real-Life Examples of Getting Work Done Using Task Forces

Let me start with a question, as a manager, do you find yourself facing the below challenges?

• You find it hard to push new or big initiatives forward, mainly since these are out of the day-to-day routine work
• Your team has an endless backlog you want to beat, but some tasks just never seem to find their way in
• You constantly desire increased collaboration within your team or with other teams. You might have tried recurring meetings, but the impact has been limited

If these challenges sound familiar, this blog post is for you!

In this post, I’m going to talk about designated task forces. I’ll share three examples of how we, at Riskified, have leveraged task forces to address the above challenges, and more. In each example, I’ll share the problem, how a task force was part of the solution, and of course the results.
Quick note: The examples will be from my domain (Data Science), but all managers with similar challenges should be able to relate.

Before we dive into the examples, let’s define a task force:
A task force is a group of people working together to pursue a specific goal in a predefined time frame. The task force work usually differs from the force members’ daily routine work.
Now that we are aligned on what a task force is, let’s move on to the examples!

First example: Beating the backlog while having fun

Our research department is a heavy R user, and as such, we love to generate our own R packages. The problem is, R packages, like any other libraries/packages, should be maintained! We all know the importance of maintenance. But still, we found these tasks piling up in our department backlog. So, we decided to hold a “Packathon” — a 2-day concentrated work event around our packages’ maintenance.

The first step was fishing the relevant backlog tasks — short tasks that could fit the tight schedule. Second step, we split researchers into new groups; each group got responsibility for a specific package. Third step, each group came together for detailed planning of the assigned tasks. After that, we were ready for the opening shot. The event was a big success!

Accomplishments:

1. Backlog bottleneck was released — forty updates were pushed and 30 Jira tickets were closed.
2. Participants reported high satisfaction rates — they enjoyed breaking the routine and the collaboration with people from other teams.

A short joint effort with all hands on deck resulted in real business value, an increase in collaboration and an uplift in team spirit.

Second example: Achieving cross-department agreement for new methodologies

My team is the owner of Riskified’s validation report. We use this report to test our new trained machine learning models, and it has many users within the department (and outside it). At some point, we wanted to revise the report’s methodology and take it to the next level. But in order to do so, we had to generate a cross-departmental agreement around the changes. We knew some sporadic round tables and meetings wouldn’t be enough. So, we assembled a small but versatile task force, comprised of a few members from different teams.

At first, we set clear goals and agreed on the task force’s scope and open questions. This was a crucial step that helped us maintain focus throughout the process. Reaching an agreement was a key goal. So, we dedicated the first few weeks to (long) joint sessions of characterization and decision making. To maintain productivity (and sanity), we used afternoons for individual exploration work.
At the second stage, we dedicated a few more weeks to implementation. Implementation was done in collaboration, but in a looser way. The task force managed to hit all its marks.

Accomplishments:

1. No stone was left unturned — we analyzed, rethought and agreed upon all components of the validation report.
2. Substantial methodology changes were made — to support these changes, implementation was done using new tools.
3. The task force members gained end to end understanding of the process — they, later on, became the authority on validation issues within their original teams.

Assembling people from different teams helped implement substantial changes while also achieving agreement. Each member was an active contributor at first and an ambassador later on.

Third example: Taking full ownership and specializing in new domains

A while ago, we had a reorganization within our research department. As a result, my team took full ownership of Riskified’s model training internal library. The problem was, we had little knowledge of this library. It was also written in Python, while back then, we mostly worked with R. We wanted to take full control and push for new research abilities in this domain. We knew we had to tackle this big initiative differently. So, we decided to move to a new operational mode — task force mode. All team members started working solely and closely on this initiative.

In the beginning, we made an important decision. We defined the planning and preparations as a part in and of itself and as a group effort. Each of the team members got responsibility for a component or a tool. Each owner overviewed their part and shared the knowledge with the other team members. After finishing preparations, we moved on to fundamental research questions. To have an easy start, each member started with a short research question, and then moved on to more in-depth research. The end-to-end process was long, around a quarter, but it was a triple win.

Accomplishments:

1. The team gained full proficiency in the library — we became its experts & authority within the department.
2. The team gained real hands-on experience with new tools — we were, later on, able to use these tools in other projects as well.
3. We addressed all predefined research questions — we also addressed new research questions that arose during the effort.

Moving to work in task force mode enabled us to meet three goals in one strike. Owning a new domain, mastering new tools and addressing the backlog, all under the same effort.

Extra details for new adopters

I hope my above examples have got you excited about task forces! If you’re still not hooked, here are two extra benefits hidden in task forces:

1. Creativity. You might be reluctant to gather task forces, as breaking the routine is hard. Remember, breaking the routine has advantages other than fun. The biggest of them all is the ability to be creative! It’s not only innovative ideas arising from collaboration, but also working in different workflows that are more relevant to your goals.
2. Ownership. Task forces are a great way to increase people’s ability to take ownership. Members can lead different parts of the work, especially if they have diverse skills. They can also leverage newly gained knowledge and become leaders within their original teams.
   And if you have people expressing interest in management, well this is your chance to give them a managerial chance without a long-term commitment.

What about now? Do you have challenges in mind that you think are “task force material”? If so, below are two key factors to keep in mind:

1. Time and skill. The timeframe and the members’ proficiency will determine the task force’s nature. They will be vital in understanding which problems the task force will be able to tackle, and to what extent. Be very mindful of them in the early stages of planning the task force.
2. Focus is key. If your task force is not focused, you will lose precious time. Since you are on a time budget, losing time might make you miss your targets. For me, focus means three things: planning, agreement and management. Make sure you devote enough time to planning before the actual work starts. After you have your planning, achieve agreement with relevant stakeholders. Last but not least, if you consider having your task force running by itself, don’t. Make sure you have a manager to steer the boat and make it possible to meet goals.

That’s it, good luck, and may the task force be with you.