from startup to KPI records in six months
At the time of summer 2023, I had already worked as a product and project manager for more than 3 years and was happy. My heart did not skip a beat when I heard the word deadline, despite the fact that the business decided to expand, and we had already been working for 3 months to launch a new project and a new company in a new country with a new team and new management. From the old one there were only ambitions to become famous and also part of the team from the previous project. I am still sure that the most important and valuable resource is people, and they were handsome.
However, our startup was gaining momentum: we strived for excellence, the business team did not lag behind in the desire to have cool products, discoveries in local legislation also added spice (= a bunch of tasks) to our backlog. Around this moment, the realization came that if the projects did not take up the old ways, that is, did not start writing code for another 3-5 people, everyone could disperse, because there would be nothing special to sell.
The simplest solution to creating an additional team was to take it from a contractor with whom we had been cooperating for many years. But there was one problem, I would say a problem: this team seemed to be able to do something, but never met the deadline, and the number of mutual complaints between the previous customer and the team was measured in megabytes of complaint letters. The team was finally accepted on board, but decapitated, and I became the new leader, who really loves challenges.
To be honest, it was a challenge: it was unknown whether the old team would even want to work with a new, incomprehensible leader. It was still unclear whether anything would work out, given that the work format was completely remote, and the team’s reputation was such that it was necessary to gather everyone in the office and sit next to them. It was definitely determined for me that there would be no intermediate result here: either we work together and everything will work out, or not, and someone will go look for a new job.
Techniques that helped you achieve success
The command works like a complex and unified clockwork mechanism. All my successful projects were done with the condition that I could form a team. Throughout the entire time, decisions had to be made about including/excluding participants in the team so that they would be compatible with each other and with me. If it seems to you that a person is different, then it doesn’t seem to you, and this is neither bad nor good – it’s just a given. You can try to structure the process in such a way as to retain a special personality on the team, or replace a piece to make the puzzle fit. I was unable to achieve high efficiency on long-term projects without replacement.
Discipline. It is very important for an agile team to have regular rituals, such as daily meetings, backlog refinements, sprint planning, retrospectives and demos based on sprint results. It is critical to keep meeting times constant and schedule them in a cluster in the first half of the day. This helps to establish a constant working rhythm in the team and have time to calmly, without distractions, immerse themselves in working on tasks. Company/team calendar and notifications about meetings 5 minutes before the start via email, slack, any messenger the team uses – a must-have. Notifications can be both personal and team in team chats. You need to pay attention to lateness, because it is respect for other people's time. And don’t forget about timings – meetings longer than 1 hour are empty and ineffective.
Keep your word. The best tool for discipline is personal example. Everything here is like in sports: there is only one reason don't come to training not do what you promised to the team – if you died. You shouldn't expect a quick similar reaction, but it definitely works.
Don't rely on memory. School is already over, so you don’t have to memorize your to-do list. Tasks in Jira for the team and notes with checkboxes in Google Keeper for the project are just what the doctor ordered. Any note/task must have an owner, priority, and expected completion date. If any of this is missing, the task will forever live in the backlog. Then all that remains is small: set up the sprint and backlog boards, put tasks there by priority, teach the team how to use the boards – and you don’t have to work anymore. Joke)
Listen a lot. At first, and maybe not only, Project will work as a psychologist and simply listen to everything that has accumulated, in order to then analyze it and improve it. Retrospectives, one-on-one sessions, long daily sessions – these are the main places where you need to shut your mouth and just listen for the first couple of weeks, letting everyone speak and not pointing fingers. It works better than any metrics, tested in practice.
Set clear tasks. In 99% of cases, the main reasons for postponing a task are its size and lack of understanding of what to do. All the fashionable books 10 years ago were shouting about a monkey in the head that doesn’t like to think, so it first completes small, understandable tasks, while large and complex ones fall behind the deadline. The books were right and to effectively achieve the result, the elephant would have to be cut into pieces. A task with an implementation period of more than 3-5 days will never be completed. At the very beginning, you need to be ready to take on and do any, or almost any, task from the team backlog yourself. It doesn’t matter that you are not an analyst or someone else, there is simply no one else. We definitely shouldn’t save time and neglect explaining why we are doing something and what will happen if we don’t do it. This practice works as good motivation. One condition: the project must first believe in its importance, otherwise the idea simply cannot be sold.
Release the steering wheel. Teamwork is a bit like an airplane. At first you are both the chief pilot and the chief flight attendant, and you don’t fly anywhere at all, because you have nothing and no one with you. Over time, the tanks are filled, the preparatory work on the ground is completed, and the team is ready. And here it is extremely important to believe and let go, to let this plane take off, at least for a little while, but when you are already sitting in the co-pilot’s seat. The next flight will last longer and will take place with fewer mistakes, because experience will come. But remember that letting go of the helm for a while means growing a mature, responsible and proactive team.
Consider risks and stakeholders. Sometimes I I feel like Eteri Tutberidze. Who is she and what does she have to do with it? E. Tutberidze became famous for her outstanding coaching services of women singles, whose students have won all Russian championships since 2015 and have taken gold and silver at the Olympic Games since about 2014. So, the rules by which participants are evaluated are baked fresh for each Olympiad. However, the coach masterfully knows how to adapt to any changes. And for me, this is a good example of a kind of agile coach, when new stakeholders suddenly appear in tasks with new requirements or valuable advice. At this moment, you have to juggle not only tasks, but also fresh input. Every change in requirements, every desire to change a built and already working process is a big chance to miss the deadline or to ruin working procedures. Everyone, of course, usually wants what is best and wishes only the best. But the best solution is not to land anything on the team until it passes at least your verification and you believe that it will be at least as good. This will definitely cause some discussions, but you are not a TV set for everyone to like. Be sure to budget 20% to 50% for “if something goes wrong.” It will definitely always work, but the team’s nervous system will not be affected.
Say thank you. In the cycle of tasks, deadlines and new projects that start faster than the old ones are completed, it is very important to remain a lively person. Just like at home in a family, when you get up from the table, you say thank you, the same should be done here, because someone tried and put their soul into the future success of the project. Your Thank You will definitely help to grow wings and confidence.
Results. After six months of work, my new team fulfilled 120% of annual KPIs, delivering all features on time in accordance with the rules, which were changed mercilessly during these six months. This was an absolute record among all working teams in the company. Team efficiency increased by 40% as measured by story points. Quality has improved by 26% (=the number of bugs and defects has decreased). After 8 months, I went on vacation, and the team exceeded the plan independently by 20% and did not miss a single important activity on the project. My team still had a very strong key developer of the project, who was already looking for work at the start and was ready to quit within the next month when I just took over the team.
It is important to note that there was nothing new here that I had not done before. I still don’t understand what it feels like to be proud, but I know what it feels like to be grateful to the team for believing in me and making it work.
P.S. And now I have another challenge, with a new team and a different technology stack – our plane is still accelerating, but I believe that it will fly by the end of the year.
