Another talk I gave in Dakar in my "Back to Basics" series. We discuss what are the challenges when growing the technical teams in an agency context. I also included a practical example for a quickly-growing startup. Feel free to send any questions to thomas@sarlandie.net!

1. Organizing technical teams
Thomas Sarlandie
2013 02 26

2. Should my developers specialize
on one technology ?
When is more meetings a waste of time?
How do I keep the team motivated?
How to deliver on time ... more often?
How to stop working nights?

3. Your Goals as CTO
It’s easy to get lost if you are not sure where
you are going ...

4. Business Goals
Deliver projects on time
Maximize productivity with existing resources

5. Productivity in an agency
productivity: Productivity is an average measure of the efficiency of production. Productivity is a ratio of
production output to what is required to produce it. (Wikipedia)
In the teams of a service business,
productivity can be defined as the number
of man-days sold for each actual work day
One of the worst thing that can happen to you is to have unused resources
in the team.

6. On-time delivery
is a vast subject ...
Let’s assume the following helps:
Start project on time
Put enough resources on the project
Productivity and on-time delivery both require planing and lots of time to
communicate with the other teams in the company (sales, project management,
hosting, etc)

7. Human R. Goals
Keep the team highly motivated
Adapt the team to the business: Size and skills
Improve the team

8. Motivation Motivation is literally the desire to do things.
(Psychology Today)
Communication is essential
Teams want to know what is going on in the company
They can “rush” if they understand why
Career plan
If you do not make one for each of your employee, they will make one that does
not involve you ...
One on one meeting and Annual reviews are great tools for the manager!
A minimum of stability
Do not reorganize everything - every two months!

9. Growth
To increase the revenues of the company, your team will have to grow
What is the forecast growth of revenues this year? What does that mean for
your team at the end of the year?
What are you selling?
What are the most demanded skills? How is that changing?
External resources
Who are they? When are they available? When is it better to hire?

10. Improvement
It is not a substitute to hiring
I have yet to meet a company where there is room for 50% improvement...
Is required to manage growth
Your problems are getting bigger, everything moves faster: you and your
teams need to develop new tools to deal with that growth
There is always room for it...

11. How to organize the team(s)?

12. You need ...
To meet your business goals
Communication with the rest of the
company
Production planing
Good estimates
Make sure that everyone is busy
most of the time
To keep the team motivated
Weekly communication with your
employees and annual reviews
Training
An organization that works today
and at least for a year
Globally
Constant improving of your tools
and process

13. Experience shows ...
It is really hard to manage large
teams
But each added manager to the
structure will reduce productivity

14. Experience shows ...
It is really hard to manage large
teams
But each added manager to the
structure will reduce productivity
Teams larger than 7 should
have a dedicated manager in
charge of the team planing,
weekly communication and
annual review

15. Experience shows ...
Specialization increases
productivity
But then one team will be very
busy and the other one not

16. Experience shows ...
Specialization increases
productivity
But then one team will be very
busy and the other one not
Start specialization when you
have groups of 4/5 people
doing the same thing

17. In practice

18. Step 0
CTO / Dev /
Project Manager
Dev Web
Dev iPhone +
Web
Dev
iPhone +
Web
HC: 4

19. Step 1
CTO is directly in charge of a team of 6 people - probably does not have much
time to code anymore ...
Some developers are specialized - Some have mixed talents
One weekly meeting with everyone on the team ... probably a little too long
CTO
Dev Web Dev Web
Dev Web +
Learning
iPhone
Dev Web /
Project Manager
Dev
iPhone
Dev
iPhone
HC: 7
+3/+75%

20. Step 2
Team is split in two specialities
CTO is “acting” as leader of the new
team
One guy in the web team stepped
up to be Web team manager
(planning+weekly review)
CTO still takes part in annual review
(training time for the new manager)
HC: 11
+4/+57%CTO
Technical Team Leader Web
(still doing a little dev)
Dev
Web
Dev
Web
Dev
Web
Dev
Web
Dev
Web
Dev
Web (+iPhone)
Technical Team Leader
CTO Acting
Dev
iPhone (Sr)
Dev
iPhone
Dev
iPhone

21. Step 3
Two full times technical leaders in charge of
planning, weekly meetings, annual reviews
Senior in Web team helps with sales
support and backups the team leader when
he is away
CTO is now doing mostly crisis
management, sales support, recruitment,
etc
Tools are starting to be really important :
planning, bug tracking, etc
Training is also a challenge at this scale
HC: 17
+6/+54%CTO
Technical Team Leader
Web
Dev
Web (Sr)
Dev
Web
Dev
Web
Dev
Web
Dev
Web
Dev
Web
Dev + PM
Web
Technical Team Leader
Apps
Dev iPhone Dev iPhone
Dev
iPhone
Dev
iPhone
Dev
iOS/Android
Dev
Android
Dev
Android

22. Step 4
Three team leaders in charge of
planning, etc
Several Senior members in the
teams for sales support, training,
commando-style jobs
Biggest problems now are
recruitment, employee retention and
lack of flexibility
HC: 23
+6/+35%CTO
Technical Team Leader
Web
Dev
Web (Sr)
Dev
Web (Sr)
Dev
Web
Dev
Web
Dev
Web
Dev
Web
Dev
Web
Technical Team Leader
iOS
Technical Team Leader
Android
Dev
iPhone (Sr)
Dev
iPhone (Sr)
Dev
iPhone
Dev
iPhone
Dev
iPhone
Dev
iPhone
Dev
iPhone
Dev
Android
Dev
Android
Dev
Android
Dev
Android
Dev
Blackberry

23. A few tips and FAQ

24. Write job descriptions for every
role in your organigram
Build your organigram with Roles
in mind - Put people in the roles
later
Build your organigram for the
headcount expected at the end
of next year
Use “Acting” people if you do not
have enough staff yet
Do not multiply the number of
specialties
Give time to the new managers -
Increase their responsibilities
progressively
Create space for technical
experts that are not managing

25. FAQ
Where do I put product/framework development? In a dedicated R&D
team?
Pro: It is the only way to make sure that the R&D actual gets done without
interference from customer projects.
Con: It will give the rest of the teams the feeling that they are not “good
enough to be in the R&D team” - The R&D team will quickly forget what it is
like to work on customer projects
Use your good judgement. Apply the other rules: if the dedicated team is not
going to be at least 3/4 people then it is probably too early. Be careful of your
communication on that new team.

26. FAQ
What about external resources?
Long time resources (2+ months)
They should fit in your organigram just like anyone else. Apply the same management
practice to them.
If you need external resources for more than 2 months, you should probably consider
hiring.
Short term resources
They can be very helpful when the teams are overwhelmed (aka crisis-mode).
Use them in “project mode”, under the management of project manager. They should
work in of some internal resources who will make sure that the processes of the
company are respected (code is commited, best practices are followed, etc).

27. FAQ
My team has to manage 7 different types of technology with only 5
people. How should I manage specialization?
No teams can be efficient if it cannot focus on a small set of technology.
If you have 7 different technologies to deal with on a daily basis, then you
have a big problem.
You need to rationalize: work with the sales team and global management
to reduce this to a more manageable number.

28. FAQ
Who has time to think about that and make slides of next year’s
organigram? I am too busy taking care of projects ...
Building an organization in which you have space and time to think about
the organization is your #1 responsibility. If you do not do it, you will be
overwhelmed by the flow ...
The company will fail to grow - or worse crash due to the pressure of
competition
Or your partner/boss will kindly ask you to step away as a real CTO
steps in

29. FAQ
Recommended reading for new managers?
Behind Closed Doors (Johanna Rothman / Esther
Derby) is excellent and highly recommended.

30. Final words
Do not worry if you do not get it right - the
worst thing would be to do nothing.

31. Final words
If you are not busy being born, you are busy dying... (Dylan)
And expect to do it all over again next year ...
it’s part of the fun!
Do not worry if you do not get it right - the
worst thing would be to do nothing.