I've met with ~70 teams in the last three weeks.
One thing that sticks in my mind.
Paradoxes.
1/n: you can have...
a mid-stage startup team that is highly dysfunctional
...but due to timing and early product/market fit, they succeed (by some measure) for years
2/n: you can have...
a team of incredibly thoughtful, experienced, people
...but due to disruption of the business model and the inertia of the legacy business, they go circles.
They're stuck.
3/n: you can have...
a bunch of new hire team contributors (engineers and designers) that are excited to tackle the new strategy
...but middle-management is severely underpaid, and burnt out by buffering "the teams" from "the biz".
The new hires leave quickly.
4/n: you can have...
"very junior engineers"
...but the codebase is incredibly accessible, and there are safeguards in place to make sure people don't break anything
5/n: you can have...
a "highly successful leader who has a track-record doing X"
...but the company isn't, in fact, doing X. They are doing Y. It is just that almost no one has realized that yet.
6/n: you can have...
an "amazing company culture"
...but at a certain point, it becomes stale. People don't leave for new opportunities. It is amazing at _______, but not longer amazing at _______.
7/n: you can have...
a team of the "best engineers money can buy"
...but there is a lack of team cohesion, and those advantages quickly become big liabilities.
The codebase grows to reflect this issue.
8/n: you can have...
a team of "newbies"
...but they have a single experienced leader who encourages access to customers, and that customer connection inspires a great product.
9/n: you can have...
An executive team of leaders who don't really like it each other much. That are highly competitive.
...and it works, the incentives magically balance
...until it stops working
10/n ...
So:
...performance is a not a linear thing
...strengths have corresponding challenges
...today is a the sum of countless days
...a company is not a monolithic "culture"
...paradoxes abound
...puzzles abound
...messes abound
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