Nurturing Top-Notch Teams

Mike Marsiglia and Drew Colthorpwww.atomicobject.com

Nurturing Top-notch Tech Teams

mailto:[email protected]




@atomicobject spin.atomicobject.com 2

Our Challenge

http://spin.atomicobject.com



We are poly-skilled, co-located,

teams of makers




helping companies & entrepreneurs

create multi-platform software products




that people love to use.




We love making awesome software,




and we’re dedicated to our culture,




so as we grow,




we want to hold on to the things




that make us strong

and unique.




Atomic in 2002 • 7 employees — all developers• Close-knit• Direct access to everyone• Communication is easy




Atomic GR in 2013

• 43 employees in two offices• Developers, designers, testers,

and more• Communication is a challenge



@atomicobject spin.atomicobject.com

How do we teach and integrate new employees?

How do we build bonds?

How do we keep our culture strong?

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Economics of AO




Economics of AOAnnual class for new employeesThe basics of how our business works:• how we make money• how we spend money• how we stay competitive • other metrics we care about

Taught by President or Vice President




Economics of AOTopics• Basic financial terms• How to read our profit and loss statement • Our open books management• How to use our company financial model to experiment

with ideas

We’re considering adding other classes:• The Marketing of AO• The Communication of AO

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Information Radiators




Information RadiatorsWhy?• Economics of AO not visible, not

on peoples’ minds. • Want to encourage continual

awareness• Radiators aren’t “Out of site, out of

mind”• Encourages thinking that’s

consistent with the operation of the company and business model.




Information RadiatorsTypes• Continuous Integration Monitor• Stoplight• Server Monitor• Central Dashboard




Central Dashboard




Central Dashboard

Shows how busy/billable every employe is.• X axis – Average hours/week for current quarter• Y axis – Percentage of time spent on projects

Each person will fall into 1 of 3 quadrants:• Green zone – Working full-time & highly utilized• Yellow zone – Evaluate your non-billable activities;

are you using your time wisely? • Red zone – Not meeting expectations

Utilization




Central Dashboard

Possible Risks:• Competition to have more hours• Non-billable time isn’t bad – should just be

considered against other possible activities (billable or not)

Utilization




Central Dashboard

Each employee blogs every 40 days.As your due date approaches, your bar grows shorter.• Yellow means 10 days left.• Red means you’re overdue.

Blog Radiator




Central Dashboard

Shows how our active projects are testing.

Continuous IntegrationAggregator




Central Dashboard

Real-time analytics via ChartBeat.Blog & Website Traffic




Culture Pairs




Culture PairsWe practice pair programming – what about a culture pair?• Every new employee is assigned a culture pair• Form a relationship• Transmit AO culture• Make it easy to ask questions• Actively seek out opportunities to teach and learn

Mixed results: participation tends to drop off quickly.

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Pair Lunches




Pair LunchesGoal• Foster personal relationships

Rules• 2 employees have lunch

together• Company pays• Not more than once a month

for each pair• Encouraged to talk about fun

or personal topics




Pair LunchesGraph shows our pair lunch data for 2012:• 228 pair lunches; that’s 450ish

hours of bonding• Lots of people participated• Lots of random connections• Bold lines show common pairs

(they’re rare, which is good)




Spin Down




Spin Down

•Monthly Friday evening party w/bartender & snacks•Chance to bond, share project stories• Invite families, customers, sales opps, potential hires




Workshop Series




Workshop SeriesWhy?• We’re becoming a

firm that specializes in product dev.

• We all do design.• Needed a way to

spread design thinking about the company.

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Strategy

Scenarios

Sketching

Planning

Prototypes

IA & IxD Patterns

Markup

CodingHi-fidelity

Design

Designers Developers




Workshop SeriesInternal, crowd-sourced professional dev. series• 10 Workshops (5 after work with beer & 5 during lunch)• Average attendance: 22 (Min: 18, Max: 30)

Topics included• What is design?• Storytelling• Design thinking• Visualizing ideas• Visualizing data




Tactic Cost Impact

Economics of AO 2 hours per new employee Business understanding

Information Radiators Design and Development time Personal responsibility

Culture Pair Free Distributed management

Pair Lunches $28 per pair lunch Personal relationships

Spin Down $500 per event Personal relationships

Design Series $19/hr of training Broader design knowledge

