This blogpost is my thoughts only and does not necessarily represent the positions of current or past employers.

We don’t build software in a vacuum. Software involves people. Beyond organizations of a handful of people, hierarchy is beneficial. We get teams, commonly with engineering manager/lead, product manager, designers and engineers. What becomes crucial for the software and the product delivered then is the effectiveness of the team. Throughout my career in the industry and being part of many teams in different circumstances, I have started noticing some key patterns that really drives standout results in teams.

1. Believing in a common cause: The single biggest observation is that when a team of people believe in a common mission, they produce outsized returns. The most effective teams I have worked in all had a strong belief that they was a reason for the work they were doing. This also aids inter team collaboration over inter team competition, with teams often investing in tooling that makes the whole team better.
   
   Engineering leaders can play a key role here to frame a compelling mission for the team. Hiring for the right role also becomes super important as a highly motivated individual in a role can be 2-10x more effective than someone unmotivated with similar ability. Having a competitor or a common enemy is great since we are predisposed to bond over defending ourselves from common enemies.

2. Psychological Safety: Google’s Project Aristotle studied 180 teams over two years and came to the conclusion that psycological safety was the best signal for how effective a team is. How comfortable do people in the team feel to share vulnerability without fear of retribution? How comfortable do people feel asking questions without fear of asking something silly or share ideas without fear of being shut down without listening? Team’s with high levels of psychological safety can have conflicts, but can deal with them in a mature way, being able to separate disagreement about ideas from disagreement with people.
   
   For more senior engineers/technical leaders, this is crucially important since they are in a position to determine this culture for the team. Forming strong personal relationships with the team can be really valuable for fostering safety within the team. People like their leaders to be human, and admitting your own fallibility is a great way to form trust with team members.

3. Diversity of Thought: Diversity is a word that is commonly heard in the tech industry, and for good reason. Having diversity of people is a proven way to achieving diversity of thought, which is just one of the reasons why we must invest in software communities of women and minorities. Inclusiveness is one of the key pillars of psychological safety in a team, building on from the last section. Moreover, when software is aimed at global audience, but the team is homogeneous, it is easy to be fooled that a wide audience will get their needs met.
   
   Even teams of experienced contributors can fall prey to atrophy and decay, without fresh ideas so common in upstarts. A team of really excited newer developers may not realize that in balance lies the key to long term personal, team and product success. Diversity of experience in a team helps to avoid these common traps.
   
   Finally, cross functional teams can be more effective than teams exclusively focusing on frontend/backend/mobile. Recognizing the individual contributor’s interest in user experience/security/governance etc and enabling space for that one of the most enabling things an engineer leader can do.

4. Growth and Ownership: It is immensely gratifying for people to feel that they are growing, and knowing that they are playing a role in the growth of others. When team members feel confident about the path in front of them can still have challenges, they are far less likely to be unmotivated and plateau. This is big for retention, since job changes frequently are a result of people feeling stuck and needing to make a change. It is costly to replace engineers, especially ones already trained and performing well in their role.
   
   A key intrinsic motivator for many is the feeling of ownership. Being able to really sink their teeth into a hard problem and come up with something they are proud of. Teams where people really believed that they have strong ownership of the product also care more about the end users experience, resulting in a better product.
   
   As engineering leadership, one of the best signals of good management is to have clarity in career ladders and promote the right people. A bias for people who make others around them better can be healthy. It is my experience that promotions should rarely come as a surprise to the individual or the team. Demonstrated investment in people as future leaders is also a major indication of a company’s belief in their people, sending them to conferences, training and giving license for creativity.

5. Work Environment: This is a controversial one, but I do believe that companies today have bought way too much into the open office movement. While a return to cubicles does not feel desirable, dedicated interruption free zones (both space and time) are essential for good software. A chaotic office environment can also mean chaos in your codebase.
   
   Debates range whether standing desk or sitting is better, however many monitors are necessary. My belief here is that the team should be colocated but individuals should be empowered to find the best working situation for the track of work they are in. I have personally found that standing keeps me on my toes, making it great for lots of small tasks, whereas sitting is best for tasks that need deep thought.

When things fall apart

We do not live in a perfect world. Recessions, unexpected downsizing, market competition and many other forces can impact access to resources which could result in ways in a group of people come in to work together and stop working together. Lot of us have all worked in a team where that magic of a great team existed, and the team achieved things together what could not be achieved by individuals. It is important for us to be thinking with intention and purpose and help each other build and find teams to discover that magic.