01
Designing effective ways of working between tech and product development teams
The examples below describe measurable impacts I've achieved through managing and coaching.
Solution: After analyzing one year’s worth of requests to the squad, I identified key improvements: first, we replaced the squad by designating one engineer within each team as an infrastructure expert. Advance planning procedures were put in place to reduce last-minute requests. In parallel, a series of meetings were held between tech and product to explain core engineering projects, which helped increase visibility, trust, and understanding on the part of the product development staff.
Outcome: Within two months after these changes were made, the number of last-minute requests from product managers had decreased by nearly 100%. This opened up engineering capacity to focus on long-neglected core projects to make the site infrastructure more resilient. Overall developer experience improved across the 150-person engineering organization, with reduced time to shipping and the ability to quickly make critical changes.
EXPERIENCE
02
Coaching technical managers to become leaders
Challenge: A first-time manager leading a remote team of six engineers with strong personalities and some interpersonal conflict, struggled to unify the team and secure buy-in for a strategy to launch a two year project to replace a legacy API with a modern microservices architecture.
Solution: With coaching support, my client developed the skills to effectively communicate a compelling vision for the project and team, and to deliver constructive performance feedback. To address buy-in, he shared the broader business context and the project's significance in group discussions, followed by one-on-one meetings. This approach generated both acceptance and excitement about their impactful contributions. To foster a culture of collaboration and trust, weekly office hours were established where engineers could bring their challenges. These sessions were consistently attended by all engineers, who appreciated the opportunity to work together on solutions. The initiative significantly enhanced trust and collaboration within the team.
Outcome: Over several months, the team transformed into a cohesive unit, with improved productivity and morale. The manager gained confidence in his communication and feedback skills. The API project was completed on time and on budget, with much faster response times and a significantly reduced footprint of code to maintain.
03
Closing the trust gap between business stakeholders and tech & product teams
Challenge: A business development team working with an external syndication partner was pressuring an engineering team to improve a critical recommendation algorithm, with millions of dollars of revenue at stake. The engineering team was unable to effectively communicate why they couldn’t deliver more quickly, resulting in internal frustration and tension with the external partner.
Solution: As a foundational step, I brought both teams together and facilitated a conversation that named the uncomfortable issue: lack of trust. This breakthrough led to a collaborative brainstorm on steps to repair the business-engineering relationship. New actions included looping engineers into communications with external partners, regular check-ins with the business team on engineering progress, and presentations to the business team on engineering development.
Outcome: Within a few weeks, the engineering and business teams had reset their working relationship. As a result of the improved communications, reduced delays, and enhanced overall productivity, the external partner was retained, along with millions in revenue.