Overcoming Bias

Speak Up To Avoid Larger Issues

The company hired an EVP of engineering who made one of the team members a director without considering his lack of experience. This resulted in a year of disruption and damage before the team member was made an individual contributor again and someone else was put in charge. This situation taught the speaker to trust their gut and speak up when necessary.

Managing Team Conflict and Helping Engineers Gain Confidence

This story is about a junior engineer who was feeling disrespected and talked over by a senior engineer. The author, a new manager, was able to help the junior engineer by listening and empathizing, coaching her on how to receive critical feedback, and introducing team practices that gave everyone a chance to speak. Through regular coaching sessions, the junior engineer gained trust and confidence in herself and the team. In the end, she became a star performer and went on to work for a major Silicon Valley company. The author learned the importance of listening, problem solving, teaching empathy, setting good team practices, and pulling rank only occasionally.

Taking a Product From a Concept to Launch

The speaker heard from customers that they needed a way to easily manage their products, so they did a market analysis and gathered data from stakeholders, competitors, and customers. They developed a product requirements document, did a build-versus-buy analysis, and presented the recommendations to the executive team. They ended up OEMing a third-party vendor software and building integrations around it. Lessons learned included doing a 360-degree analysis, making decisions quickly, and testing thoroughly with end-to-end customer scenarios.

Improving Communication Between Remote Teams

When SugarCRM's remote and onsite teams were having communication and trust issues, the team lead took action to bridge the gap. He held weekly team meetings, encouraged more travel between the two main offices, and encouraged constructive venting. This allowed the teams to work together better and to understand what was happening in the company. He also encouraged discussions and a consensus-based approach to management.

Diverse Teams Have Greater Customer Empathy

This article outlines the steps taken to build a better mass-market product for an audience of older users. These steps included using personas, advocating for inclusive design principles, and implementing diverse friendly hiring practices. Ultimately, these changes resulted in a more accessible product and helped attract great talent to the team. The article emphasizes the importance of diverse teams in empathizing with diverse audiences and building better products.

Play to Their Strengths: Effectively Utilizing Offshore Resources in the Face of Deep-Rooted Prejudice

A developer on a team with offshore resources in Hyderabad was tasked with salvaging the situation before the resources were dropped due to poor output and utilization. After careful evaluation, the developer identified the core of the problem as a combination of poor communication, excessive "blockers", and racial bias. The developer took steps to address the time zone difference, identified an individual with exceptional intelligence, and made him the technical lead. This resulted in improved code quality, increased confidence, and better job satisfaction. The developer learned lessons about recognizing racial bias, evaluating dysfunctional team dynamics, and making changes to solve problems.