December 2018

http://solvi.to/1

Scaling (“Agile”?) TeamsSolvitur Ambulando and the Circle of Trust

Carl Leubsdorf Jr.Tech / Product / Agile

Not a designer. Once a (scripting?) coder. Recovering Economist.Tiny to medium-sized startups, medium and large companies, and huge government agencies, as CTO, GM, consultant

This talk in four points1. Solvitur Ambulando2. The Circle of Trust3. Know your team goals4. Effective teams = effective technology

1. Solvitur Ambulando

(“It is solved by walking”)

1. Solvitur Ambulando

Diogenes the Cynic

Sophists: All motion is unreal

Diogenes: [Stands and walks away]

QED.

Sidebar: Latin verb forms as a source of domain (company) namesEasy to spell (for English Speakers)Relatively short.com often availableMay have actual meaning

Latin verb forms make good domain (and company) names

FuturePassiveImperative:“It Shall Be Solved”(as a command)

Solvo = “To Solve”

2. The Circle of Trust

Using “Solvitur Ambulando” to expand your team

The Motley Fool aka Fool.comFinancial publishing / adviceAttract, addict, convertAvailability, speed, functionality

Team = Trust

● Late 1990s Startup Culture

● Foosball

● Friday (and interview) beers.

● Pep-rally meetings; jester hat trivia.

● Trust your teammates - go the extra mile - benefit of the doubt - not just shirking.

The Team - Fool Early Days

Kevin (Web Dev)Keith (Content Prod)

Circleof

Trust

The Foolish Web Dev Crüe

Carl (Web Dev)Thom (Web Dev)

Other Web Devs...

Circleof

Trust

Web Dev and Content Production

ContentProduction

WebDev

Fifteen-foot corridor

Circleof

Trust

Web Server

Web Server

“Do not remove this comment”? YES!

Web Site Load Balancing - Primitive View

Web Server

The Internet Load Balancer

“Do not remove this comment”? YES!

“Do not remove this comment”? YES!

“Do not remove this comment”? No!!

Web Server

Web Server

“Do not remove this comment”? YES!

Web Site Load Balancing - Primitive View

Web Server

The Internet Load Balancer

“Do not remove this comment”? YES!

“Do not remove this comment”? YES!!!?!?!

WTH are they doing (aka WTHATD)?!?

● What you can do now: (Get up and) Go talk to them. (Solvitur Ambulando)● Does everyone know (enough of) how it all works? Is there a diagram?● Communications failure can happen a few feet or meters away, another floor or

building, another country or continent.

● Expand the circle of trust○ Frequent (daily?) interaction, face-to-face if possible○ In-person team building helps (a lot)

Web Dev and Content Production: WTH are they doing?

ContentProduction

WebDev

Fifteen-foot corridor

Circleof

Trust

Web Dev and Content Production

Circleof

Trust

ContentProduction

WebDev

2. The Circle of Trust:Solvitur Ambulando Stop WTHATD - get up and go talk

to them (or slack, facetime, ...)

Be conscious of the circle of trust - who is on “your” team?

Agile: think about who is in your daily standup or sprint review.

3. Know your team goalsMatch.com Japan = eCommerce Site

● Click, register, subscribe = ¥ ($)● Aggressive revenue target● Public Company: Hit profit goal!

○ Perception - important factor?

Quality = Safety(a theory)

the ease of setting tobacco free

● Historical dating site stigma / ‘incidents’

● No betas - polished, beautiful sites.

● Local cultural/design paramount.

● “The Menu Incident”

The Plan: Project zero defects

● Make the site beautiful

● Use a local agency for both web dev and design

● Reduce errors & fear

● Theory: Zero defects + Local design = ¥!

Match Asia Team - Initial State

Tech Team: Web Dev, QA, DB, Product

Dallas

🇺🇸

Ocean / Culture / Language

Business & Content

Production Tokyo

🇯🇵

Tokyo Design Firm

Match Asia Team - Initial State, Motivations

Revenue!Product flow!

Beautiful Design!!

Different goals

Revenue!Partnerships!

Tech Team: Web Dev, QA, DB, Product

Dallas

🇺🇸

Ocean / Culture / Language

Business & Content

Production Tokyo

🇯🇵

Tokyo Design Firm

Circleof

Trust?

Voila! New Design!

● Outcome: Nothing to show for it - conversion, registrations, subscriptions, revenue all flat.● Designers’ goal was a great design, not subscriptions or revenue. (e.g. CTAs)

十一億円 (1.1 billion ¥)

● Focus all effort on a specific goal: 十一億円

● Two day team offsite with follow-up● Add in-house designers, Beijing dev team● Switch to smaller, incremental releases

(sprints)● Evaluate based on evidence

○ A/B Testing: does it move the numbers? ○ Sprint goals tied to 十一億円 and

direct-impact KPIs, (click, reg, etc.)■ 1,000 Registrations/Day

● Celebrate (sm)all wins - shared success builds team cohesion and trust.

● Team-building (including karaoke)

Match Asia Team - One Goal

Design/ marketing

Tokyo

🇯🇵

Tech/ product Dallas

🇺🇸

Web DevBeijing

🇨🇳

十一億円

Circleof

Trust

3. Know your team goalsMake product decisions based on evidence: Solvitur Ambulando!When using an agency, make sure their goals and yours are aligned.Agile: base sprint goals on user (biz) goals. Deliver and measure every sprint.Share wins and Have fun!

Design/ marketing

Tokyo

🇯🇵

Tech/ product Dallas

🇺🇸

Web DevBeijing

🇨🇳

十一億円

Circleof

Trust

4. Effective teams = effective technology

National Institutes of Health (NIH) LoginSingle-sign on service for all NIH Applications30-50,000 users daily.Availability (uptime) and speed.Desired availability (“SLA”): 99.99%. Actual availability: 82% at worst, typically 95%.30 hour outages; frequent (weekly) slowdowns.

Sidebar: SLA, SLO, SLISLA: Service Level Agreement (what you promise)SLO: Service Level Objective (what you shoot for)SLI: Service Level Indicator (what you measure)Stated NIH Login SLO: 99.99%See: https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/gcp/sre-fundamentals-slis-slas-and-sloshttps://uptime.is/

Source: https://uptime.is/four-nines

App Server

Active DirectoryDB

Login Server

Switch (Network)

BigLink

The Internet

Big

Link

Tiny

Link

Tiny

Link

Application Down, butServer “Up”

STOP

Network Congestion(slow but not “down”)

SLOW

SLOW

SLOW

Down - Server person: if I can ping it, it's up. (Wrong SLI)

Slow - Network person: I told the consultant.

Conway’s law"Any organization that designs a system (defined broadly) will produce a design whose structure is a copy of the organization's communication structure."[1]— Melvin Conway

[1] http://www.melconway.com/Home/Conways_Law.html

Fausto de la Torre, “Applying Conway's Law to improve your software development”https://www.thoughtworks.com/insights/blog/applying-conways-law-improve-your-software-development

Conway’s law App Server

Active DirectoryDB

Login Server

Switch (Network)

BigLink

The Internet

Big

Link

Tiny

Link

Tiny

Link

"Any organization that designs a system (defined broadly) will produce a design whose structure is a copy of the organization's communication structure."[1]— Melvin Conway

[1] http://www.melconway.com/Home/Conways_Law.html

Conway’s law

Em

ail

Server Team

EmailAD Team

Login Team

Em

ail

Network Team

Email

Email

Circleof

Trust

"Any organization that designs a system (defined broadly) will produce a design whose structure is a copy of the organization's communication structure."[1]— Melvin Conway

“Because the design that occurs first is almost never the best possible, the prevailing system concept may need to change. Therefore, flexibility of organization is important to effective design.”[2]— Melvin Conway

(Cited by Fred Brooks in The Mythical Man-Month[3])

[1] http://www.melconway.com/Home/Conways_Law.html [2] http://www.melconway.com/Home/Committees_Paper.html [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mythical_Man-Month

SSO Solvers Tiger Team

Server Team

AD Team

Login Team

Network Team

99.99%

Circleof

Trust

4. Effective teams = effective technology

4. Effective teams = effective technology

4. Effective teams = effective technologySo how’d we do?Q1 2014: 99.89-99.95% uptime.

NIH Login Availability - Q1 2014

4. Effective teams = effective technology

http://status.asm.ca.com/30534/

Draw a picture!Systems mirror team communications Know your SLIs. Make them public.Agile: structure your (scrum) team based on user goals; refactor it when needed.

This talk in four points1. Solvitur Ambulando x 3: contemplate, go forth, prove it.2. Find ways to expand the Circle of Trust.

Agile: Think about who is in your stand-up or sprint review.

3. Know your goals and share them (especially w/ agencies)Agile: sprint goals = user/biz goals.

4. Effective teams = effective technologyAgile: Refactor teams when necessary

** Celebrate wins to build cohesion and trust.**

Thank You!Special Thanks to:DevJamDavid Hussman

Contact: carl@solvitor.com

Access these slides here: http://solvi.to/1 (PDF version: http://solvi.to/1-pdf)