1. Team up!
Leadership, process, survival and pride @ the Agile era
Team Lead Role
Oren Ellenbogen (@orenellenbogen)

2. Who am I ?
Oren Ellenbogen
* Blogger: www.Lnbogen.com
* Engineer @ Commerce Sciences
* ex. Delver (Sears) – Director of Engineering

3. The Agile/Lean Crusade 2.0

4. Food for thought
When
Pressure
Beats
The crap
Out of
Leadership

5. Meet the tech leader
He’s smart, ridiculously smart
Bob (the CEO):
“What about Chris? He’s amazingly talented!
I guess he can handle it…”

6. The company adjusts…
New team = our smart dude +2 teammates
magic!

7. A leader in trouble
?
?
?
“I match my shoes to my pen”
“I love reading hex”
“I shave per new version of Ubuntu”
“I guess I can tell others what to do”
Maybe we need more than technical skills?

8. Meet the “passionate” leader
“Let’s use Scrum!”
[process kicks in, time passes]
Ozzi (a developer):
“why do we need a daily report?
Shouldn’t a weekly status suffice?”

9. A leader in trouble
“Let’s do it!” is a great attitude! ??
But people forget reasoning fast
?
Why should we do it? why now? why ever?
Maybe we need more than passion?

10. Meet the “experienced” leader
• Working for 6 years as senior dev
• Knows all the secret God classes
• All the magical javascript quirks
“I am technical enough and experienced
enough to lead a team. I’m doing it for
a long time now, I deserve it!”

11. A leader in trouble ??
?
• Does he know what leading means?
• Does he care enough to make others shine?
Maybe we need more than experience ?

12. Are you feeling ready to lead?
Can you define
what a “great team lead” means?
Do you currently have
enough management tools?
Are you suffering from a
process without leadership?

13. Why?
(Some background)

14. Organization IQ: f(pressure)
Our reality:
• Organizations constantly need to change
• Pressure constantly adds up
• Lean/agile processes makes things even faster!
Pressure has its impact:
• We adapt poorly
• Picking (sometimes) the wrong people
• Neglecting proper guidance, forgetting the why

15. There is 1 reason to become TL

16. Lack of putting thoughts on paper
Thoughts are volatile, you’re missing:
• Self retrospective
• Passing it on
• Ideas writing (instead of “good memory”)
• …
1

17. Team lead role –
WTF is it then?

18. Define: team leader
If you had to pick 3 qualities of a great
team leader, what will they be?
(hint: “a leader” is not a quality)

19. Attempt: team leader
 Visionary
 Product vision (can you explain the why?)
 Architecture vision (incorporated with product
requirements)
 Team vision (incorporated with architecture)
 Cares about people
 People will follow your heart (honesty)
 ROI driven
 Pick your battles, explain the why, offer tradeoffs

20. Caring?
It’s the small stuff
That counts most
* Welcome gift to a developer, after writing FB message saying it’s SWEET!

21. Your attempt: team leader
My definition is only my point of view
The real question is do you
have your own definition written?

22. It’s about confidence
 Your boss: you’re on top of things, actively report.
 Your people: things will be handled (technical
backlog), you have their back
 Your peers: You’re able to deliver & communicate (team
player)
 Your company: You help the company to deliver faster
with higher quality
 Yourself: You’re able to make other shine.

23. Ideas / tools / thoughts
How to make others shine

24. Different unit of productivity
Time to change your state of mind
Then Now

25. Key decisions list
Document it!
Guidance:
Why: to be able to reflect later, with yourself & others

26. Visibility > progress
No glory in running
forward in the dark
Guidance :
1. Ask for ETA (when?) and their COMMITMENT!
2. Thinking end->backwards (how?)
3. Early *complete* breakdown (what?)
Why: ETA > Progress (create visible organization)

27. Gut feeling estimation
Does it get any better?
Range is good!
Why: allow quick re-prioritization (product/business)

28. Must, Delegate and External
Is it really my
responsibility?
Guidance :
1. Team leaders should specify:
1. MUST
2. DELEGATE (HOW?!)
3. DEAR BOSS, PLEASE DO X, Y, Z
2. Challenge and consider how to do less MUST and more Delegate
Why: reduce personal pressure to take care of the MUST

29. Ownership as a driver
Increase your execution unit
Guidance:
1. Give ownership to drive commitment.
2. Set your expectations!
3. Ask them to stand behind their commitment (not nice to have)
4. Help them be effective (close feedback loop)
5. Don’t stand in their way
Why: get to know your bottlenecks

30. Estimate together
Teach the dark magic of estimation
Guidance:
1. Consider practices to estimate faster (Poker Planning)
2. Try to reach some consensus and endorse
open conversation about the estimation
3. Track estimations (estimated vs. actual) over time and analyze
your team’s gaps
Why: avoid “you said 2 but I’m doing it, It’s a 10”

31. Test to last
Avoid the (default) graph:
Guidance:
1. Create an environment striving for production-quality
code in your tests
a) Tests instead of overkill documentation
b) Reduce maintenance time when changing behavior
2. Consult and learn how to build maintainable tests
a) IoC, tests structure, open-source projects, language tricks
Why: tests == confidence == easier release cycle

32. “Beautiful Document”
Document’s worth = f(“initial value”, time)
• Like a car, it’s around 40% less valuable 15 minutes
after you finish writing it.
• Unlike car, people won’t use it every day.
My attempt: a beautiful document is when…
 Requirements, pains, motivation and
known constraints are well specified.
 Why: less time to write and most chances, it won’t change

33. Bullets knowledge base
Keep your
Documents relevant
Guidance:
1. Phrase (Owner)
2. Small explanation about each phrase
3. Talk with (Owner) for further details
4. Practice to learn the details
(pair-programming, leading a feature)
Why: relevant know-how is key to fast release cycle

34. “Beautiful Code”
Unique != beautiful:
 Unicorn style of code is not really beautiful
My attempt: beautiful code is when…
 It should be easy to add new features.
 It should be easy to change existing features.
 It should be easy for new teammate to become
productive almost immediately.

35. Final note

36. Pay it forward
Think forward, teach today
Guidance:
1. Teaching helps us think of what’s important to know
2. Delegate so you could move forward (future growth)
3. Prepare to grow from day 1
4. Teach so you could grow internally (opportunity > need)
5. Teach to be taught (you’re strong at A, she’s at B)
Why: Job Safety is so 90’s

37. Thank you!
Oren.Ellenbogen@gmail.com
www.Lnbogen.com
@orenellenbogen