Roles & Titles

Improving the team members relationship in a new team with conflicting environment

When a new team is formed with new joiners to the company, the relationship between them can be poor. After talking to them individually, it was unclear who was creating the conflicting environment. To improve the situation, an off-site event was organised to get to know each other better and agree on an action plan. Follow up sessions were held to assess the team's happiness and spread knowledge. Ultimately, the team improved, but members were switched around to provide more opportunities. The key lessons learned were to start knowing each other well, share the impact of their actions, and have an off-site session for open and transparent conversation.

How to Effectively Communicate on Slack

After receiving feedback from users, a leader devised a framework for using Slack that was recommended company-wide. This framework included using public channels instead of direct messages, using threads to reduce noise, and using standup notes to document progress. After 3 months of iteration, the framework was adopted and proved to be effective for the organization.

A 4-Step Structure for Improving Your Pull Request Review Process for Better Code Delivery

The text discusses the importance of providing context in pull requests (PRs) to improve the PR review process and code development speed. It suggests that a strong PR should include sections such as an overview of the problem the change solves, the context for understanding the impact of the change, instructions for evaluating and replicating the change, and additional information like screenshots or documentation. By providing this context, reviewers can better understand the purpose and impact of the change, leading to more effective and efficient reviews.

Dropping the Ball Explicitly

This story is about a program manager who was given significant responsibility in a large corporation. He accepted the responsibility halfheartedly and ended up not delivering on it, leading to a fire drill. He learned the lesson that it is okay to drop the ball as long as it is done explicitly, and to always ask for help when needed. He now makes sure to communicate clearly if he is unable to deliver on a project.

Establishing Communication in a Growing Engineering and Product Team

The company had difficulty regulating communication between engineering and product teams due to different locations. To fix this, they introduced daily stand-ups, weekly demos and planning, bi-weekly engineering and product staff meetings, monthly OKR reviews, and quarterly Recap and Launch Days. They learned that communication needs to be operational, consistent, and tailored to the user profile.

Measuring the Morale of a Team

It is important for leaders to measure the morale of their teams in order to ensure productivity and good code. This can be done through frequent check-ins and one-on-ones, anonymous surveys, and tools such as 15five. Building an open and trustful relationship with employees is key to understanding their morale, as well as tracking data to identify trends over time.