InRhythm

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Unleashing The Potential Of Your Offsite Team

Thriving vs Surviving

Are You Unleashing Your Team’s Potential? Or, are you an engineering Practice Lead or Manager who’s unconsciously capping your team’s potential? While there may be the odd diabolical leader who intents on deliberately holding his or her team back, I like to think that doing so is not the norm. Leaders of agile craftsmen want their teams to flourish and fly through each sprint. Doing so will require creating an environment and work culture that fosters improvement and unleashes a team’s potential.

With a new year and decade here upon us, the idea of making resolutions to catalyze changes isn’t new. It’s a centuries-old tradition that has begun to fall out of favor. Given that < 8%  of us make it through the year, performance and motivation coaches suggest that we set goals for the year instead of resolutions. By setting a goal, we know which direction we’re headed for and it allows us to “slip back” or go off-course occasionally yet still track towards the goal unlike resolutions, which do not offer the same latitude. 

Here at InRhythm, we’re looking forward to achieving continued success in 2020. With increased efforts to build and empower our 10x teams and to better enable our clients, we have set several key goals for the year ahead.

2020 Goals

  1. Continue to put our customers first and make every effort towards 100% customer satisfaction
  2. Foster a culture that truly embodies the Agile Manifesto
  3. Grow our footprint in new markets and industries 

As the Practice Lead , I’m conscious of how well my team is performing and how the toll of being onsite at clients’ workspaces affects them. I’m also aware that I need to give the team space to work together on a sprint and to figure things out on their own. When they hit an obstacle or begin struggling with forward progress, that’s the time to jump in. Until then, leaders must encourage their teams to experiment and err, support them, and back them when the choices they’ve made may not be the ones anticipated by their employer but they’re exactly the right ones needed for the client.

In addition to giving your team some latitude and space so that they can creatively solve problems without you helicoptering over them, you also need to think about giving them recognition. Of course, nobody wants to celebrate repeated failure, but, if a software developer made an informed decision to try to do something in a new way and everyone could extract lessons learned from that effort, then s/he/they should be celebrated for making a bold move and trying to do something different. It should go without saying that the successes also need to be celebrated. Recognition motivates teams to try harder.

Efforts in the opposite direction will have – no surprise – the opposite effect. For example, a lack of recognition for doing well or finger-pointing when there is an error will demotivate teams and start to put restraints on their ability (and desire) to flourish. Powering up 10x teams requires motivation and support so that members can dig deep and unlock their potential. Motivation should be a weekly or monthly focus and not reserved for the one day each year when companies formally recognize their employees, clients or management team. 

Here at InRhythm, we’re encouraging more dialogue between members and practice leaders and added the role of a liaison designed to facilitate open and honest discussion. We’re creating a culture where it’s safe to respectfully voice an opinion and to try new things that could make a difference for our clients. It’s also about accountability. If a team member come forward and voices a concern or a need that does not get addressed with an effort towards closed-loop communication, that member’s potential becomes thwarted. 

Have you made 2020 all about your team’s potential? Are you subconsciously thwarting it or actively boosting it? Be the practice leader that helps teams thrive – not just survive.

The Importance of Placing Individuals Above Processes and Tools

Empathy should be regarded as a super-power. Not enough people have it and the workplace – indeed, the entire world – would be a better place if more people did have it. When you have project deadlines or you’re in the midst of an intense all-hands scrum, it’s easy to forget about the people factor. That is, there are people working with you and for you who are missing celebrations, concerts or the opportunity to just chill out at home because their effort is critical to your product development effort.

But you’re on a tight timeline. You have key deliverables. Your client has worked backwards from the launch and expects that you will deliver a bug-free software solution by the date circled on the calendar. As the Practice Lead, you may be luckier than most in your role if you have a dedicated team cranked up on caffeine and working late into the evening – every evening, in fact. This is great for deadlines but it can have far-reaching negative consequences if this pace is expected to  be sustained.

The Agile Value #1 requires that we value individuals and interactions over processes and tools. Yet you’re conflicted. Project deadlines and deliverables are what they are and you’ve explained them to your team. Missing a due date and delaying a launch is not going to happen on your watch. Processes for coding, testing, documenting must happen as prescribed, regardless of the yeoman’s effort required to get it done. Your team understands this, right? Surely you told each team member that they were doing great work when you met last year for their performance review?

Maybe they do. Or maybe they don’t. Agile product development places enormous demands on the people doing the work. Both the team members and their practice leads have to grapple with the relentless pressure and the temptation to skip part of the process to move things along faster. 

When you’re building high velocity teams, you need to make daily investments in your people, processes and infrastructure. Take any and every opportunity to express empathy, understanding and gratitude for the work that your team, and each individual on your team, is doing. Expressing appreciation once per year during a performance review will likely end up becoming a one-and-done experience because that employee likely won’t be around this time next year.

There are simple ways to bolster your team’s productivity and motivate them to stay on track with respect to processes. The easiest way is to say, “Thank you.” If you want a high velocity team who is loyal, dedicated to the needs of your customers and proud of the work they do, then say what you mean and mean what you say. Be sincere. 

To help ensure that your agile engineers remain “your” agile engineers, go one step further and acknowledge the efforts of individuals in front of others. People are human and their efforts, sacrifices and basic needs must be openly acknowledged. As software engineers in a hot market, we have the flexibility to go wherever we like towards the goal of being part of a community that values our membership. Agile leaders must reinforce appreciation of these “extra efforts” through grace, gratitude and occasionally, through special dispensation. Catering dinner (that’s not pizza) for the team every once in a while is a good expression of gratitude. This is how to build trust and long-term relationships, as well as high velocity, agile teams. 

Staying strong on execution and adhering to process is critical for success. Acknowledging the personal efforts that it took to enable that success must be acknowledged. Remember, as per agile Value #1 –  if you put people first, ahead of processes and tools, you will have created a space that fosters a high performing team’s success.

Featured Tech Talk – Andy Philbert Jr. – Javascript Recruiter Extraordinaire

 

Listen to Andy Philbert Jr. – Head Javascript Recruiter of InRhythm, deliver an insightful talk on what his kind look for when interviewing and hiring.

From Andy:
“Recruiters are usually the first people you speak to when interviewing with companies. We are not engineers and screen for non technical qualities that shows that you would be someone amazing to work with and have the potential to be or already are a great engineer. This talk discusses the recruiter’s role within the interview process and how to market yourself as a great engineer without having to rely on just showing your code.”

Session: IR Lightning Talks 1 – Aug 24, 2017, IR HQ

 

Interviewing Antipatterns

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that how a company conducts its interviews has a big impact on its growth and success. Quality people make a quality company! When vetting our future employees, we want people who share a common passion and live our values and culture.

Many interviews follow standard templates of questions and lack real engagement with the candidate. Going through the list of questions, interviewers will evaluate a score for the candidate. Based on the score cutoff, the candidate is either in or out.  We recommend taking a more holistic approach. What might that be, you ask? To start, it’s easier said than done, but it’s way more effective.

Here are a few suggestions my InRhythm Mentor gave me to help me distinguish a good candidate from a great one and get the most out of my interview:

  1. Every question should serve a purpose.
  2. If the candidate doesn’t answer a particular question, does it make the candidate a bad engineer? If not, avoid the question.
  3. Give problems to solve, not ‘gotchya’ puzzles.
  4. Ask questions that have no right or wrong answers. These make some of the most interesting conversations, while honing in on their knowledge and skill sets.

Beyond these tips and based on my experience, a good interview experience has a huge bearing on whether a candidate accepts the offer or not. With this in mind, here are a few guidelines on what not to ask:

How not to interview!

Some not-so-great questions would be:

Question 1: Implement red black tree.

Question 2: Explain Java memory model.

Question 3: Explain a few design patterns.

These are great theory questions, but they may not always be suitable in an interview. For example, if the candidate doesn’t answer the first question or has trouble with the answer, does it make him or her a bad engineer? The second question is very theoretical in nature with limited practical use. Since many candidates prepare for this question, does it really serve a purpose?

Rather, this is how you should be interviewing!

Question 3 is better asked when masqueraded as a real life problem. Instead of “Explain a few design patterns,” one should ask the candidate to “Design a shopping website like Amazon.com.” This is a great interview question because:

  • It reveals the engineer’s thought process in breaking down complex problems into simpler ones and attacking them.
  • The depth the candidate goes into designing it can assure us of how good (or how senior) an engineer she/he is.
  • It’s a real world problem, not a puzzle.
  • Since this can be solved multiple ways, there’s no right or wrong answers. This makes for a very interesting conversation.
  • The way the discussion goes helps you identify if the candidate is: good at communication, would be a good cultural fit, is adept at recognizing alternate viewpoints, and is easy to get along with.
  • Most importantly, this gives the candidate a positive impression that the company does not believe in a typical textbook style interview process. Rather, they conduct a more thought provoking and problem solving  style interview.

A Year in Review – Bring it on 2016

As 2016 begins, we are excited to look back upon a year of significant accomplishments and plan our goals for the New Year. In 2015, we solidified a refined set of core company values that we believe helped to push us towards great success. We are so thankful for your continued support and would love to share our year’s growth and new goals with you.

Bend the Space –  Prioritize and Work on High Impact Items

In 2015, we added several challenging and exciting new projects to our portfolio. We were dedicated to working with the best companies in order to have a significant impact on the space that InRhythm inhabits. We’ve established new partnerships and thoroughly enjoyed continued relationships with our clients whom we’ve helped to advance their knowledge and experience modern platform innovation and digital transformations.

In the New Year, we are excited to dive deeper into the financial sector with thought leadership across Agile, Lean UX, and development.

Hire and Work with Only the Best

We have a dedicated team of internal recruiters who focus on securing the top talent in the tech industry to join our group. We hire only the best so that you can work with only the best. In 2015, we welcomed notable contributors to our group including COO Mariya Breyter and CTO John K. Paul, both respected thought leaders in our industry. Mariya and John have each added a unique voice and expertise that has poised InRhythm to be a pioneering leader in our community.

Challenge the Status Quo – Learn and Grow Daily

At InRhythm we understand that you are never done learning. Therefore, we have added 3 monthly events to help us build relationships and gain new skills: our CTO Breakfasts, run by Gunjan Doshi, Enterprise Agile Breakfast with Mariya Breyter, and monthly Meetups with John K. Paul.

We have also begun working on a collection of internal development projects which will allow us to supply specialty apps to our Operations team to ensure on-going, high impact velocity. This also gives are developers a chance to work on different projects and explore new technologies.

Work with Clarity and Conviction

We believe in having a clear focus and direction on all tasks in order to achieve the highest levels of success. Because of the quality of our work, our business has grown exponentially. This growth has not gone unnoticed, as we were named to INC’s 500 Fastest Growing for the 3rd year in a row and Deloitte’s Fast 500 for the first time. We are extremely thankful for these accolades and are excited to continue the momentum in 2016.

Build Positive & Trusting Relationships

In 2016, we plan to continue allowing all of these core values to guide our work in order to have the best year to date. Much of our success is thanks to our relationships with you. Whether a project we have worked on together or a leadership summit where we have shared ideas and best practices, we thank you for your continued support. We plan to continue to champion thought leadership in a public way across Agile, the international Dev community and C-level 10x plans for growth and innovation.

We are ready to take 2016 by storm, are you?

Written By Ricki Steiner