Day-to-Day Lead Expectations

General

• Use the project channels for all project-related discussions (it keeps everyone informed) - no sidebars

• Write dates as Month 00, instead of 00/00 to avoid confusion with the American vs. Global format

• Write times as 00:00 am/pm in a 12-hour format with a time zone

• Be inclusive of everyone’s time zone

• If you cannot attend a meeting or will miss a deadline, let your Lead know as soon as possible

• Meetings will be scheduled when 60% of folks can attend. Meetings will be recorded and notes will accompany meetings so if people miss, they can catch up.

Communicate with the other Leads (and Project Coordinator)

Communication is vital for any project to succeed. We recommend once you have determined the list of apprentices to interview share that on the Lead’s channel. It is common for apprentices to apply to multiple roles on a project, so it is nice to share with other leads just in case you both are competing for the same person. Having the Project Coordinator informed can also help. They might have knowledge about the applicant, whether they accepted a role on another project but has not been announced or if the apprentice has a history of poor performance.

Meetings

• Daily stand-ups (async should take 2 minutes) to make sure team is aware of what you’re working on and of any potential roadblocks

• Stand up channel

  • Encourage all members to do daily stand-ups for proper agile methodology experience

    • This is not a place for detailed information. These daily slack stand-ups are to be used as cross-functional exchanges of information for your team to stay up to date on what everyone is doing so there are no surprises as the work progresses.

    • Use the “Reply” function to post your standup under the first standup post of the day.

      • Y: What did you do yesterday?

      • T: What are you doing today?

      • B: Do you have any blockers?

• Schedule all meetings ahead of time with agendas in mind you never want to come to a meeting unprepared

  • Use the project name as a prefix when scheduling meetings: “Project” Daily Stand Up, “Project” Research, “Project” Sprint Planning, etc.

• Post all meetings on the shadow channels and always add [e-mail] to all meetings to make sure they’re reflected on the tech fleet calendar for everyone to see

• Make sure you’re on track with the product roadmap and that you’re letting your product team know of any necessary pivots

Servant Leadership

Servant leadership is crucial for successful Agile teams. Being a servant leader means you're not telling people what to do or giving them the answer, or preventing them from failing. You are their guide and empowering them to find the answer on their own. Leads are not managers, they are not above anyone else on the team; they are contributors on the team who happen to lead and guide others to success while learning themselves.

Read more about Tech Fleet Agile principles that need to be adhered to in the Agile Handbook.

🏃‍♀️Agile Handbook

Team Norms

💡 As we all work remotely, it’s important we clarify how we’re going to work together to be most effective.

• Treat one another with dignity and respect

• Actively listen

• Be open-minded with all suggestions

• Celebrate accomplishments

• EVERYONE is welcome to join all meetings - this will assist with cross-functional interactions! (with the exception of NDA projects)

Team Liaisons

Something started in the Earth Hero project that has proven to be a great way for teams to collaborate and encourage cross-team understanding is team liaisons. A team liaison is a member of a different team that commits to attending another team’s meeting. One person from design goes to all the research meetings, another goes to content meetings, another goes to strategy meetings, and so on. If an apprentice has an interest in another specialty this is a good opportunity to pair them up with that team.

Here is an example of how The Serious Type Phase 4 organized their team liaisons:

Team Schedules

Conflict resolution

• Strive to understand each other's perspectives, rather than jumping to conclusions

• Try to resolve problems without blaming

• It is important that the team feels heard or that they are able to talk about their concerns. Make it known that they can reach out to you or other leads. We are all here to support & uplift each other!

Consensus options

• Differing opinions are valuable but remove ego when making a consensus decision

• Agree to discuss how an idea could work and why it is a viable option