When I decided to create this blog, I first tried to organize some topics I would like to write about. I created a list and the most recurrent topic on it is about self-organizing teams. Once I realized it, it was clear to me that my first post could not be about anything else, but self-organized teams.
Obviously, this post will not cover all aspects of self-organizing teams, but I will focus here on the team setup topic. Can the developers of the team have the power to stop new hirings? Or to start new hiring? In which level the Manager, or even a VP, can overwhelm the team’s opinion on that? What are the possible impacts of each approach?
I am 100% in favor of team decisions, where all the team share the responsibilities and have a say on decisions. And I will repeat it a lot around here. But in my experience, sometimes it can not be like that. To be more clear, I will describe one experience I had.
I was working as a Product Manager in a new startup that was still building up the teams and also its identity. I had a deep view of all we had ahead, not only as a GoLive scope but also of the long term product development. Together with the VP and HR, we agreed that we needed more resources, more developers in this team. I shared it with the team and asked their opinion on that. The majority was against it, but part of the team shared my view that we would never be even close to our targets with the small team we had.
The result of it: The HR convinced the VP to step back on the hiring process, as they wanted to have a completely self-organized team, with the power to decide all the aspects it. And of course, this had a bad impact on the product release that had to be mitigated after.
Don’t take me wrong here. I really think the team input is important, and that was the reason why I shared that with them in the first place. But they didn’t have a strong and valid argument for deciding against it. If they had, I would be the first one to support them on that.
On the other hand, I think that if the team asks for more resources, and the company does not have restrictions on that, eg financial ones, I will fight with them until we get it. Usually, if they are asking for it, is because they really need it. Of course, I would consider the future view of the product to jumping on that with them, but a mature team is usually good at that too and will also consider that before bringing the subject up.