Presentation given at the 2015 Kansas City Developer Conference (#kcdc2015) that gives a plan for Generalists to find their way onto teams at all levels of a company, and for Specialists to help become more integrated.

1. Specialists & Generalists
Team
up
for
Success!
Heather Wilde, CTO
ROCeteer

2. Titanium
Sponsors
Pla0num
Sponsors
Gold
Sponsors

3. 3
Hi, I’m Heather
They call me the Unicorn Whisperer.
Attended a Liberal Arts college.
Startup & Corporate Veteran for over 15 years.
Former Evernote Executive.
Chief Technical Officer of a company that coaches and advises
executives around the world.
I am absolutely a Generalist.

6. WHICH
ONE
ARE
YOU?

7. Much faster and more effective with the right types of projects
Require fewer transitions between projects or roles to feel fulfilled
Tend to get bored less quickly than generalists (especially if they are
technical folks working on challenging problems.)
BENEFITS
Versatile, resourceful, and learns new skills at a speed that most
specialists will never have.
Can find the solution to any problem, then set up a process for
others to solve it predictably thereafter.
Truly great generalists are rare, and difficult to identify.
If you aren’t careful, you’ll end up with someone who isn’t really
good at anything at all.
Cost more (often much more) than generalists, by virtue of supply and
demand.
Are harder to recruit.
If your company shifts goals, the specialist will either be rendered useless
or quickly become disengaged.
DETRIMENTS
BENEFITS
DETRIMENTS

8. HOW
CAN
THEY
WORK
TOGETHER?

9. Knows Google-Fu Action Oriented
DecisiveCommunicative
Generalists can execute
with little to know
information, and will figure
things out while working
The generalist among you
will have the most
persistent browser tabs for
quick access to research
anything, anytime.
When a decision needs to
be made, they can make one
quickly and move on.
Generalists like to give
updates on what they are
doing, and encourage
communication
GENERALIST SPOTTING
It’s
Specialized-­‐Generalist
Incep0on!

10. Project Managers,
Agile, Customer Care
Sales, Business
Development,
Partnerships
Researchers,
Administrative
workers
PROCESS DEAL INFORM
GENERALIST SPECIALTIES
Finding
the
right
place
in
your
team

11. TEAM UP
Penny,
meet
Sheldon.
Natural Networker Tends toward Isolation
Loves Structure
Loves a Challenge
Specialists generally hang
with their own crowd, and
the more specialized, the
smaller the crowd.
Your Generalist is a natural
networker. Let them take the
lead in introductions.
See those “resources” that
the generalists need to
solve problems? Yeah,
those are specialists. Give
them problems to solve,
they’ll be happy.
Generalists love to solve
problems and take on
challenges. Give them
access to resources and
they will direct a project.

12. “
”
“It’s like a jazz band
—although each
musician is
autonomous and
plays their own
instrument, they
listen to each other.”
Henrik Kniberg
STARTUP: You need people that can
switch from meeting with customers,
to balancing the books, to sweeping
the floor without blinking.
MID-STAGE: Add in more specialists
in strategically critical areas like
building out your competitive
advantages and revenue generation.
MATURE: You can add functional
specialists and give them career
paths as well.
SIZE MATTERS
OK,
Be
Honest!

13. ARE
WE
BETTING
THE
FARM
ON
ONE
GUY?

14. GETTING THE RIGHT MIX
Avengers,
Assemble!
Teams
beat
individuals
every
1me.
Generalists
can
apply
their
hands
to
most
things,
but
they’re
never
going
to
master
everything.
Specialists
are
best
placed
in
roles
where
they
work
alongside
other
team
members,
rather
than
separately.
Make
good
use
of
your
specialists
by
integra=ng
them
with
your
generalists
and
posi=oning
them
to
guide,
teach,
and
ins=ll
passion
in
your
teams.

15. ARE
WE
LEVERAGING
ALL
THE
SKILLS
WE
HAVE?

16. 16
With a well functioning team, you can decrease your project
time by up to 50%.
BECOMING ADEPT

17. ACQUIRE DEVELOP ENCOURAGE PLAN TRANSITION
Recruit, attract,
and onboard the
right people
Assess and build
skills and
knowledge
Direct, support,
recognize, and
reward
Monitor, assess,
plan career
moves over time
Migrate to
different roles as
appropriate

19. 19
Guilds
Forming
a
guild
allows
common
solu0ons
to
be
communicated.
It’s
an
opportunity
to
share
experiences
among
teams.
Brown
Bags
Encourage
healthy
debate
among
colleagues
with
whom
you
don’t
necessarily
collaborate
on
a
regular
basis.
Open
Source
Give
everyone
the
ability
to
contribute
to
your
source
code
or
designs
by
replacing
0cket-­‐
based
systems
with
a
model
similar
to
GitHub’s
pull
requests.
Hack
Days
Hack
days
allow
people
to
work
with
colleagues
they
wouldn’t
normally
work
with,
in
a
situa0on
where
fresh
ideas
are
encouraged
and
innova0on
is
rewarded.
FOSTERING GROWTH
Oh,
you
thought
you
were
done?

20. #AskMeAnything
@heathriel
@roceteer_inc
heather@roceteer.com
heathriel.com