Leading Effective Engineering Teams: A Deepdive

Characteristics of Autonomous Teams The best decisions and products result from teams with the following characteristics: Independent. Teams are self-directed with clear goals and boundaries they can play within. Empowered. Teams perceive that their decisions aren’t constantly questioned; they have a clear understanding of their decision rights. Ac

... See more

You should protect your team’s “deep work” at all costs. Traditional work environments optimize for rapid-fire communication. Meetings, Slack, text messages, and stand-ups are examples. Levels thinks these defaults are disastrous and reduce the amount of “deep work” its team can do. It does everything possible to protect this time.

In order to maximize positive outcomes, everyone, especially those in senior roles who have a disproportionate impact on organizational culture, need to (1) be more leader and less commander, (2) foster psychological safety, and (3) leverage the fact that product development and organizational change is emergent, not deterministic. There is a need

... See more

- Lower the barriers to communication ○ Elect tools that encourage easy communication and transparency § Slack § Zoom § Figma - Make shared objectives explicit ○ Common cause is the glue that binds a team together ○ Before launching your team, start by specifying the why § 2 months: ask "what should our team accomplish in two months?" □ Encourage d... See more