The document discusses building, scaling, and leading high-performance teams. It covers cultural values, attracting top talent through transparent hiring processes and a magical interview experience, coaching and growth through onboarding, knowledge sharing, mentoring, and feedback, and leadership through execution, vision, emotional intelligence, and effective team design. The speaker is an engineering manager sharing experiences from Uber on developing teams and talent.
5. Values
● Values, beliefs & behaviours
practiced in the organisation
● Core asset of the organisation, can
be a competitive advantage
● Attracts great people, amplifier to
individual + team performance
● Shared understanding
● Guides hiring and feedback
processes
● Continuously evolving with the
organisation
9. Hiring
Fast & Consistent Process
● Transparent career ladder
● Evaluate technical, leadership,
execution, communication and
relationship skills
● Diverse interview panel + calibration
(ensures consistency)
Cultural Values
● Very important part of the interview
● Best practices / sample questions
for eliciting culture fit
11. Hiring
Training the interviewers
● Training courses & detailed best
practices
● “backup” interviews before becoming
a lead interviewer
● Ask interviewees for feedback
Removing bias
● Unconscious bias / stereotypes
● Diversity and inclusivity
● Starts with the job description
process
● Diverse interview panel
● Calibration + review evaluations
14. Attracting talent
Magical experience
● Interviews go both ways
● Tell the story of your team’s mission
● Candidates should leave the
interview impressed & excited
● Ask interviewees for feedback
● Ask interviewers for feedback
Brand ambassadors
● Every team member is a “brand
ambassador”
● Many organisations tell the story of
their great products. What about their
awesome teams?
17. Knowledge sharing & continuous learning
On-boarding
● Getting new hires up to speed (fast)
● Consistent best practices
● Continuous improvement
● 30/60/90 day plans for new hires
Knowledge Sharing
● Regular internal knowledge sharing
channels
● “All hands” on the team / group /
company level
● From weekly to quarterly (depending
on size)
● Lean towards oversharing
18. Mentoring
Everybody is a mentor
● Expected by all team members
● There’s always newer or more junior
team members
● Reward & recognise mentors
Career growth plans
● Prepare personal development plans
● Look 2-3 years into the future
● Encourage continuous personal
development & growth
● Transparent & clear career growth
ladder
19. Promotions
Promotion
● Clear criteria - what’s
needed/missing for the next level?
● Find “stretch” goals & projects (to
demonstrate working at next level)
● Consistent process across the
organisation (peer reviews &
calibration)
20. Continuous feedback
Regular 1:1s
● Direct, skip level, peer
● Never, ever cancel a 1:1
● Personal, structured, effective
● Open, high-impact questions
1:1 topics
● Feedback
● Short & long term growth
● Team dynamics & happiness
● Productivity blockers
● Progress updates
22. Continuous feedback
360 degree feedback
● Aligned with the cultural values &
role expectations
● Manager, peers, directs
● Immediate feedback (various tools)
● Specific & constructive, mindful of
the emotional impact
Best practices
● Be mindful of biases (e.g. recency)
● Try to follow th 5:1 ratio of
positive/motivational vs constructive
feedback
24. Recognition
Recognition Wall
● Regular recognition of individual and
team achievements
● Visible to the whole company
● Actively encourage everyone to
contribute
27. Leadership
Execution
● Removing obstacles for your team
(“chaos-destroying machine”)
● Efficiency vs Effectiveness (doing
things right vs doing the right things)
● Extremely good time management &
prioritisation skills
Strategy & Vision
● Clearly explain the mission, purpose
& impact of the team (and team
members)
● Alignment with the organisation's
vision & culture
30. Effective teams
Team design
● Self-sufficient teams, minimise
dependencies
● Autonomy / continuous delivery
● Team should help with customer
support too
Remote sites
● Autonomy - own a set of products
● Self-sufficient, complete
● Consistent hiring (beware of
acqui-hiring)
● Full HQ support, 1st class citizens of
the organisation