Working effectively as a small team

Chris and I are proud of the output Add Jam achieve. We’re a two man team but can compete with much bigger teams in terms of output. I think (perhaps arrogantly) that’s because we’re good at what we do but also because we plan and communicate very effectively. So I thought it would be worthwhile giving people and insight into how we work together.

Planning

First step in working well is planning. Chris and I will give ourselves something similar to a ‘sprint’. This means for a given period (usually two weeks but sometimes we stretch it out to a month) we list out all our high level tasks we would like/need to get done.

Then we play some estimation bingo. Each task should be broken down to a point where it’s 5 or less days of effort then for a task we each write down on a postit a number between 1 and 5 for how many days effort it will take.

We err on the side of caution and go with the higher number.

We add these task estimates up to get a total estimated effort. If our estimate is longer than the working days we have we have two options – A) bring in some additional resource or B) we plan our weekend and evening working to give us more time to achieve what we need to.

As it’s all based on estimates we add in some ‘stretch goals’ that hopefully we can achieve if we hit a golden path and breeze through the work load. It’s never a case that if we get the work done early we head to the pub, there’s always plenty for us to be getting on with.

Attack

Communication is key to Add Jam working effectively. Most of our communication is actually Chris and I speaking to each other but we also make heavy use of Slack.

Slack is great for channeling our conversations in topic areas. We usually do this on a per project basis but we dedicate one channel to our current workload across everything we do. We call this channel ‘attack’.

Each Monday Chris and I set aside at least 30 minutes to plan out the week. In the attack channel we create a post with 5 headings for each day of the week, under each heading we put checkboxes of tasks that are ticked off as we go. Pretty simple.

Yeah a trello or Asana or one of the countless other project management tools could do this and might be better geared towards task management but we find this approach works for us.

I don’t really know why this approach works for us. Maybe it’s because we already have Slack on all our devices but we find it’s flexible and allows us to easily add additional notes, files and images. We write the plan in markdown so it’s fast for us to add new items and it’s always being updated. Each week a new attack post gets added and we have a clean slate to start from.

More communication

As odd as it may sound playing pool is key to what we do.

Our office has pool table which is used in a few ways. Firstly it can be a break from difficult task. I’m sure it happens across professions but sometimes you just stare at a problem and make little progress. You take a break and come back with a fresh perspective.

Over the years Chris and I have gotten good at knowing when the other needs that break (one of us talking to ourselves is a good sign). Second way pool is useful is a reward, at least once in any given day you’ll hear one of us call it out, “after I implement feature x let’s grab a game of pool” (although usually with some slack talk thrown in).

Lastly a game of pool is just a good time to talk. We’re away from the desk and able to talk about the challenges we’re currently having or ones we think might be springing up in the coming days. It really helps us make sure the team are aware of what’s going on.

Just the two of us

Does this scale? Probably not. Well certainly the pool won’t. But that’s ok, as we are, we’re a small team and we have a long path ahead of us. We need to focus on what works for us today. And that’s not being wreckless or having a lack of ambition; we’re mindful about what will help us work well as we grow but for the here and now we need to focus on what helps us ship our products.

Worrying about how a bigger team works at this moment is just another form of premature scaling.

Add Jam are creating useful software products in the heart of Glasgow. If you’re ever nearby, feel free to pop into our office for a cup of coffee or a game of pool. If you’re looking for a team to build your product, get in touch.