The Crazy Proposal<\/h3>\n
Chris\u2019s idea was this.\u00a0 Don\u2019t do the reorg.\u00a0 Let people decide what they want to work on.\u00a0 Concretely, he proposed a process where we\u2019d get the whole team in the room.\u00a0 We\u2019d write the list of \u201cfeature teams\u201d, investment areas, business priorities or whatever else you want to call it on a whiteboard and give everybody a sticky note to write their name on.\u00a0 In mass everyone would go to the board and put their sticky note next to the job they wanted.\u00a0 This included the manager positions on the teams.\u00a0 Once everyone had nominated themselves for a job we\u2019d facilitate a group discussion until each manager role had one name next to it and each feature team had the right number of members.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s crazy, I thought.\u00a0 But he swore he had done it before and had been successful with it.\u00a0 As much as it sounded progressive and fun, I couldn\u2019t bring myself to do it.\u00a0 I could see all the potential downsides \u2013 everyone wants to be on the cool new feature team, everyone wants to be the manager, all the strongest people end up on the same feature team, people argue over who gets to be the manager, etc.\u00a0 Real fears or not, I couldn\u2019t get myself to try something quite this crazy.<\/p>\n
The slightly less Crazy Idea<\/h3>\n
I liked the idea enough though that we took it and tweaked it to a new process that we\u2019ve been using ever since.<\/p>\n
The revised model works like this:<\/p>\n
- \n
- It all starts with a planning process to make sure we understand what our goals and rough product investments over the next year or two will be.\u00a0 From that, we decide what feature teams we are going to have, how big they will be, etc.<\/li>\n
- Next, we work through who we are going to make the Engineering managers and Program managers for each feature team (that\u2019s 2 people out of 10-12 that will be on each feature team).\u00a0 I\u2019d describe this as a someone traditional org model approach where we evaluate aptitude, interest, past performance, etc.\u00a0 We do this, of course, in concert with the candidates for the roles to make sure each ends up with a role they are happy with.<\/li>\n
- We then have a team meeting where each Engineering\/Program manager pair present their feature team to the whole team and \u201csell\u201d it.\u00a0 The goal is to convince people to want to be on their team.<\/li>\n
- After people have had a day or two to think about it, discuss with the managers, peers, etc., we get the whole team together again.\u00a0 We give everyone 3 sticky notes (First choice, Second choice, Third choice) and everyone goes to the whiteboard and puts their 3 sticky notes next to the teams they want to be on, in order of preference.\u00a0 The fact that people do this together in a room is important because it allows them to assess not only what they are working on but also who they are working with.\u00a0 In most cases, there are people they very much want to work with.\u00a0 In some cases, there are people they don\u2019t want to work with.\u00a0 One of the inputs into your decision is what preferences other people are expressing.<\/li>\n
- After the meeting, the managers get together and discuss forming their teams.\u00a0 Each manager has some say on who is on their team.\u00a0 We want to make sure teams are balanced, have the right skills to be successful, etc.\u00a0 At the same time, we very heavily weigh each individual\u2019s personal preference.\u00a0 We leave this meeting with a first draft of the teams.<\/li>\n
- That\u2019s usually followed by some one-on-one\u2019s with various people to make sure they are happy with where they are landing, etc. and the teams are then finalized.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
After step 1, this whole process takes 3 or 4 days \u2013 so it\u2019s actually pretty darned fast.<\/p>\n
Some realities of the slightly less Crazy Idea<\/h3>\n
There are some realities of this process that are worth discussing.<\/p>\n
- \n
- Ahead of the process, managers do some private recruiting.\u00a0 They\u2019ll pick a small number of people they really want on their team and do a little selling ahead of time.\u00a0 In my mind this is OK as long as it doesn\u2019t turn into arm twisting.\u00a0 In the end, the individual still gets to make their choice.<\/li>\n
- Not everyone gets their first choice.\u00a0 That said, I\u2019ve been shocked how many people get their first choice.\u00a0 The last time we did this, a couple of years ago everyone got their first choice except about 4 people who got their second choice and 1 person who got their third.\u00a0 And, in the exercise we just completed, every single person got their first choice.\u00a0 I\u2019ve never seen that happen and never would have predicted it.<\/li>\n
- Sometimes there are special cases.\u00a0 I can think of one time where we had an engineer on a specific feature team and we *really* needed him to stay there.\u00a0 We knew he wasn\u2019t excited about it but he was the core of that team and we didn\u2019t see how the team would succeed without him.\u00a0 We talked to him ahead of time and \u201cbegged\u201d him to please stay on that team for one more cycle and promised that the next time he\u2019d be guaranteed first choice.\u00a0 He did and, on the next cycle, he was given his first choice and it all worked out well.\u00a0 I can only think of one example where we\u2019ve done this but I think it is a compromise that you have to consider.<\/li>\n
- On occasion, we\u2019ll encourage someone to switch teams.\u00a0 If they\u2019ve been on the same team\/technology for a long time and we think it will help their personal development, we might encourage them to consider changing.\u00a0 Again, in the end, it\u2019s their choice but this process doesn\u2019t completely relieve managers of the responsibility of thinking about how individuals best develop in their careers.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
My assessment<\/h3>\n
So this is chaos right?\u00a0 Everybody changes teams all at the same time?\u00a0 No body changes teams and the org stagnates?\u00a0 Again, it\u2019s amazing how organized it is.\u00a0 We\u2019ve found, pretty consistently about 20% of the org decides they want to change what they are doing and work on something else and about 80% decide to keep working on what they are working on.\u00a0 That provides a nice ratio of continuity, fresh perspectives, opportunity to try new things, etc.<\/p>\n
After each of the exercises I go around and take an informal poll.\u00a0 I talk to the managers.\u00a0 I talk to engineers who\u2019ve been on the team for years.\u00a0 I talk to people who are new to our team.\u00a0 I talk to people who stayed on their team.\u00a0 I talk to people who switched teams.\u00a0 I ask them all what they think of the experience.\u00a0 I ask them if they are happy with both the process and the outcome.\u00a0 The overwhelming response I get is that people love it.\u00a0 Even people who choose to stay on the same team say they are grateful for having the opportunity to learn about all of the other feature teams and to make a decision about what they want.<\/p>\n
It was a crazy idea.\u00a0 Maybe I could have made Chris\u2019s even crazier idea work, but I like the variation we\u2019ve adopted.\u00a0 We\u2019ve done it 3 times\nnow over the past ~7 years and have been happy with the results every time.\u00a0 I can\u2019t promise it will work as well in every org but I can\u2019t think of any reason why it can\u2019t.<\/p>\n
This week<\/h3>\n
As I mentioned above, we just completed our latest round of this exercise this week.\u00a0 We actually didn\u2019t do my whole team this time.\u00a0 We did it in one part of my team which is an org of about 80 people.\u00a0 And, as I mentioned, every person got their first choice.\u00a0 That doesn\u2019t mean every feature team was full.\u00a0 We have some open positions and we filled in gaps with open positions.\u00a0 I don\u2019t believe any team ended up with more than 2 open position but some had 0, some 1 and some 2.\u00a0 So it\u2019s not quite as big of a shocking coincidence as it sounds but still pretty amazing to me.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a picture of the managers organizing their sticky notes for the post meeting negotiations \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n
![\"Image](\"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/bharry\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2015\/07\/0636.clip_image001_thumb_1B18BA26.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n