Team Triads How product, design and engineering work better together.

STEVE KING | SERVER PRODUCT MANAGER | @STEVEATHON

SUMMIT, 2017

Modern software development

A remix.

Photographer; Source (example.flickr.com)

What’s a triad?

A leadership team within the development team creating balance between the business, the customer and the

product.Photographer; Source (example.flickr.com)

Engineering

What does a software team triad look like?

ProductDesign

Triads and the balance of responsibility. Balancing responsibility across multiple roles is about sharing the ownership equally?

The magic.

Engineering

DesignProduct

Triads are great, but they are a guiding

structure for the whole team.

Photographer; Source (example.flickr.com)

So a triad is prescriptive - and it just works?

TRIADS IN TEAMS

What other triads exist in Atlassian?

Workplace experience is another team where

you see the triad operating, but not like

we do in software teams.

People

Experience team triad

CohesionProperty

Service Team Continuous value delivery through a faster pipeline.

Product Team Slower delivery of value but

in larger pieces of work.

Our team type

Traditional team formation

FORMING OUR TEAM

Team formation goals

Team goals Why does our team exist, how will we measure our success.

Team structure How will we structure ourselves for success and deliver against our goals.

Delivery style How will we deliver value to customers and stakeholders and on what schedule.

Signs of trouble.

LEARN AND ADAPT

LEARN AND ADAPT

Team formation

First roadmap in place

Delivering on roadmap

Missing deadlines

Can’t seem to make fast decisions

June July Aug Oct Dec

What did we do to fix it?

Identify the problems

We were lacking momentum - spending too much time planning.

Unable to make decisions, or agree as a leadership group.

Get clear about our measurable goals

Demonstrate value to stakeholders and customers

TRUST

Triad rebalance Realizing that there’s some shared responsibility, but making sure we’re clear about how to get decisions made.

The magic.

Engineering

DesignProduct

Engaged a program manager to help us out.

BUILDING A TRIAD

Like doctors?

Clear process.

BUILDING A TRIAD

CLEAR PROCESS

We built a ‘how we work’

CLEAR PROCESS

Release Review

Review

DefineRefine

Define Refine BuildDiscover

Clear ownership.

BUILDING A TRIAD

Roles and responsibilities play.

Now we find the balance. Mixes of shared responibility, with different levels of crossover on each role depending on the project.

The real magic™.

Engineering

DesignProduct

Product Manager Represent the customer, the wider business and the stakeholders to the team and vice versa.

Development Lead Deliver the feature to the product, ensure reliability and stability and respond to issues.

Design Lead Make the product coherent and provides the voice and personality for the product.

The triad and the tribe.

Product Manager Represent the customer, the wider business and the stakeholders to the team and vice versa.

Development Lead Deliver the feature to the product, ensure reliability and stability and respond to issues.

Design Lead Make the product coherent and provides the voice and personality for the product.

The triad and the tribe.

Product Manager Represent the customer, the wider business and the stakeholders to the team and vice versa.

Development Lead Deliver the feature to the product, ensure reliability and stability and respond to issues.

Design Lead Make the product coherent and provides the voice and personality for the product.

The triad and the tribe.

Communicate with eachother.

BUILDING A TRIAD

Individual factors Remember the team is made up of individuals with different skills, experience and personalities.

COMMUNICATE WITH EACH OTHER.

Organisational factors Internal and external factors of the organization and the teams role within it.

COMMUNICATE WITH EACH OTHER.

Team factors Value the team and make time for team cohensiveness.

COMMUNICATE WITH EACH OTHER.

Build respect.

BUILDING A TRIAD

TRUST

Build respect.

Learn the process, Refine the process.

Build respect.

Impact on other teams and new starters.

Build respect.

Mutual accountability.

Learn.

Too much product.

LEARN

Express lane.

LEARN

Discovery

Support Issues

Customer Interviews

AnalysisCustomer Pain

Validation

Top of the funnel

PM Review

Customer Value / Product Fit

Envisioning and prioritization

Build

Ship to Master

Ship to Customer

Express lane.

Discovery

Support Issues

Customer Interviews

AnalysisCustomer Pain

Validation

Top of the funnel

PM Review

Customer Value / Product Fit

Envisioning and prioritization

Build

Ship to Master

Ship to Customer

Express lane.

Discovery

Support Issues

Customer Interviews

AnalysisCustomer Pain

Validation

Top of the funnel

PM Review

Customer Value / Product Fit

Envisioning and prioritization

Build

Ship to Master

Ship to Customer

Express lane.

Discovery

Support Issues

Customer Interviews

AnalysisCustomer Pain

Validation

Top of the funnel

PM Review

Customer Value / Product Fit

Envisioning and prioritization

Build

Ship to Master

Ship to Customer

Express lane.

We don’t have some things on our team.

Blame.

LEARN

Overly negative thinking.

LEARN

What can you do to start your journey towards a triad, or improve the process in your team?

TAKE AWAY

Photographer; Source (example.flickr.com)

TAKE AWAY

Be a catalyst!start small, keep tinkering

TAKE AWAY

Fail fast!but always learn from your mistakes.

TAKE AWAY

Know your strengthsof you and your wider team

TAKE AWAY

Embrace change!but try to focus on the things that you don’t do well first.

TAKE AWAY

bit.ly/team-playbookGo see our Program Managers out in the Expo hall.

Questions?

STEVE KING | SERVER PRODUCT MANAGER | @STEVEATHON

Thank you!

STEVE KING | SERVER PRODUCT MANAGER | @STEVEATHON