How we broke and fixed team autonomy. A story of a restructure in a software organization towards an "autonomous teams" model, various ups and downs as it shook out. Lightly edited from @cj_smithy's and my original deck.

1. How we broke and fixed
team autonomy
The 'A' Word
Elizabeth Ayer
@ElizAyer

3. What we wanted
•Engaged, motivated teams
•Teams feeling effective
•Product Development fit to scale

4. What C-suite wanted
“We’re not getting the most out of our dev
teams.”
“If we hire such great people, why are our results
so mediocre?”
”I walk by and see people on Facebook, wtf”

5. What we wanted
•Engaged, motivated teams
•Teams feeling effective
•Product Development fit to scale

6. Why “autonomous teams”?

7. 3 factors to increase employee
satisfaction and performance
Autonomy
Mastery
Purpose

8. Giving control, not taking control
Pushing decisions to the information
Leader-leader model

9. We had the right conditions for
autonomous teams

10. We do our best
work in teams

11. Restructure
• Small teams:
• Technical Team Lead
• UX Designer
• 5 Software Engineers
• Coaching:
• Quality, Agile, Tech Comms
• Product Group Pairings:
• Development Leads & Product Managers

13. Chapter 1:
"Autonomy"

14. Not this.

16. “
”

17. “

18. Clear expectations

19. 3 factors to increase employee
satisfaction and performance
Autonomy
Mastery
Purpose

20. 3 factors to increase employee
satisfaction and performance
Purpose
Autonomy Mastery

21. https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_ho
w_great_leaders_inspire_action#t-128122

23. Chapter 2:
The Capability
Gap

24. Building a set of
principles for our
teams

26. Owl
We learn about the users
of our products
Team members engage with our
users and strive to learn about
them and their world.
Team members understand the
domain in which their products
exists.
Teams use this knowledge to
make critical decisions and build
software that our customers love.

27. Development teams at Redgate enjoy delivering valuable, ingeniously simple
solutions with the help of six Fantastic Beasts
FANTASTIC BEASTS
With the power of the Porpoise
we stay focused on our
purpose
The agile Chameleon
reminds us to adapt as we
frequently inspect feedback
and learn from our situation
The transparency of the
Jellyfish keeps us open and
honest
The wise Owl focusses us on
learning about our users and their
world
The collaborative Meerkat
encourages us to listen and
be mindful of others
The proud Koala
maintains a healthy
balance between
delivery and quality

28. How do we get closer to our users?

29. “Ohmygodohmygodohmygod… user calls!!!”

30. It’s OK; we know agile.
Right?

31. “ View into chasm known as Huntsman Leap”
by Colin Park is licensed under CC BY 2.0
The chasm
between a
product’s
strategy and
a backlog

32. Chapter 3:
Developing
Leaders

33. What leadership means to us

34. Attributes of a Redgate Leader*
1. Growing others
2. Courageous
3. Accountable and responsible
4. Encourage clarity
5. Value collaboration
* These WILL be different for your org.

35. Tech Leads at 1 month

36. Tech Leads at 6 months

37. Giving control, not taking
control
Pushing decisions to the
information
Leader-leader model

38. Tech Leads at 6 months

39. Too much delegation to Tech Leads
AND
not enough delegation from them

41. Where is Redgate now?

42. •More engaged and motivated teams
•Teams feeling effective for the business
•Product Development fit to scale
Moved the needle on

43. Inertia

44. Lessons
1. ‘Autonomy’ is an explosive word
2. Don’t introduce extra tension. Orgs have
enough.
3. Align on Purpose. Autonomy and Mastery
must support ‘why’.

45. Lessons
4. Engage teams in their own improvement.
5. Capability assessment needs both team
and manager.
6. Leaders need to grow leaders who grow
leaders.

46. End model
Business and Product Strategy ‘as normal’
Dev teams take on parts of the PO role
• Managing their own backlog
• Sprint goals
Dev hooks up with business via mutually agreed OKRs (mostly Os)
Dev teams drive improvements in their own effectiveness
• Dev managers supply perspective and education options
Management creates an environment for teams to thrive by setting
general direction and giving support.

47. Resources

48. Resources
• The Spotify Model
• https://medium.com/the-ready/how-to-build-your-own-spotify-model-
dce98025d32f
• Start with Why
• https://startwithwhy.com/
• Fantastic Beasts
• https://www.slideshare.net/chris_smith1976/fantastic-beasts-and-where-to-
improve-them-agile-cambridge-29th-september-2017
• Involving dev teams in user research
• https://www.slideshare.net/ElizabethAyer/aitc2018-ux-impact-elizabeth-ayer
• Delegation
• https://medium.com/ingeniouslysimple/how-to-get-more-done-by-doing-less-
f047d2f53d47

49. Questions?