TDD (Team-Driven Development)

Samantha Quiñones

Samantha Quiñones (keen-YO-ness)

@ieatkillerbees

http://samanthaquinones.com

mainframes360.com

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“Dog Walker” © by Anthony Arrigo licensed under (CC BY 2.0)

“Ramen - Super H Mart” © Wes Bryant licensed under (CC BY-SA 2.0)

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“If there’s no user group in your area, congratulations, you’re it.”

If your team has no leader, congratulations, you’re it.

–Ken Kesey

“You don’t lead by pointing and telling people some place to go. You lead by going to that place and making a case.”

– RADM Grace Hopper

“If it's a good idea, go ahead and do it. It is much easier to apologize than it is to get permission.”

Photo by © Adib Wahab licensed under (CC BY-ND 2.0)

Photo © Christoffer A Rasmussen

Image © David Celis

Growing Your Team

• The whole team should be involved in the hiring process.

• Bad first impressions happen. Be careful about dropping people after the 1st meeting

• Focus as much on social & cultural IQ as much as technical skills

Care and Feeding

1 in 5 Americans are effected by mental illness

nimh.org, 18.2% of US adults

Many people hide their problems.

Photo © Margie Korshak Associates, public domain

Develop an honest interest in your teammates.

Empathy

Empathy Is… (Wiseman’s 4 Attributes)

• The ability to take the perspective of another person.

• The ability to understand another person’s feelings.

• The ability to communicate that understanding.

• The ability to avoid judgment.

Empathy is Not Sympathy

• Empathy is sharing another person’s experience.

• Sympathy is acknowledging another person’s experience.

Empathy is a skill that can be learned and improved.

We must allow ourselves to be vulnerable

You are not alone.

We are all human.

Your teammates are worth the effort.

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Are You Listening?

• Speculating about our partner’s agenda

• Trying to remember that amazing article that refutes our partner’s argument

• Thinking about our own problems

• Thinking about that one time (times?) that our partner was a jerk

Slow down and pay attention.

Share your partner’s context.

Ask good questions.

Proceed when…

• You understand the topic your partner is trying to address,

• You understand your partner’s key points, and…

• You understand what your partner expects from the interaction.

It’s OK…

• To suck at this. It takes practice!

• Pause or reschedule when you are (meaningfully) distracted

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Photo by Josh Plueger USAF, public domain

Photo © Carsten ten Brink, licensed under (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Productive Arguments

• Have a topic and a goal

• Allow all interested parties equal time to make a case

• Have a neutral referee

Be timely. Don’t let conflicts fester.

Stick to your main points. Explain your reasoning.

Be attentive, and listen to comprehend.

Don’t let it be personal. You are not your ideas.

Focus on the end, not the means.

It’s not about winning or losing.

Strong teams are built on trust.

Trust build bonds. Bonds make teams unbreakable.

Diversity of Educational Background

Diversity of Work History

Diversity of Language & Culture

Diversity of Gender and Sexuality

Diversity of Socioeconomic Status

Establish Community Space

Open Source the Workplace

• Discuss projects in the community space

• Make side-conversations open to interested parties

• Adopt a pull-request ethic

Develop a culture of service

Play Together

• Host hack-a-thons

• Code contests

• Obfuscated X

• Slowest useful SQL query

Learn Together

• Attend conferences together

• Have a weekly in-house conference

Mental Health Resources

• Prompt - http://prompt.engineyard.com/

• Mental Health First Aid - http://www.mentalhealthfirstaid.org/

• Open Sourcing Mental Illness - http://funkatron.com/osmi.html

Other Resources

• Brené Brown on Empathy - http://youtu.be/1Evwgu369Jw

• Servant Leadership - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Servant_leadership

Feedback

• @ieatkillerbees

• https://joind.in/13446