What's that one move that changed the way you work for good?
Shay
33 replies
We all have that before and after moment, where some part of work that didn't work before just starts to gradually pick up and fall into place because of something you changed.
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Shay@shaaay
I guess for us most of it was barriers in communication. It wasn't an overnight change. It took time but we saw progress.
The top level issue we had was, our development process was having a lot of gaps and changes being made after development. Digging deep, the root was that our team wasn't communicating well with each other, and letting know when there are bugs, or changes being made to the code.
1. So what we did was, before we started any development, we all sat down together and sketched out roughly how we are going to approach the task; including any APIs, changes to code etc. This helped us to see any barriers before hand also get everyone on the same page as to how a sprint will progress.
2. The other thing we did was we used to update our progress in our main communication channel daily, so that everyone in the team was updated.
3. We had problems with our communication being fragmented between emails and chats, so we built our own app Zapmail, because we can do both in one place. This ofc didn't happen over night, it took months for us to fine tune and build the product.
We are launching next Tuesday on PH 🎉 we hope Zapmail.app can help you guys as well!
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For me, it was the moment I started my own startup. SHIFTX at the time, changed what was defined as work for me because it was about doing everything for our customers.
@marksachintha Congrats Mark! I love it when people start their own thing and do what they love. All the best with your startup!
When I started coding, I was struck by the abundance of online websites with poor user interfaces. Determined to make a difference, I assembled a team and embarked on a journey to develop elegant websites with user-friendly interfaces. I believe that the elegance we create on the web reflects our love for development and our dedication to the community. Some notable websites my team and I developed include ElegantDoc.com, Duckist.com, and Toolel.com. As a founder and leader, this role has transformed my work for the better, allowing me to combine my passion with leadership and make a lasting impact.
@tigerteamx Hey Martin! That's awesome 🙌 It's honestly the passion in the founders that allow us to keep going even when the going gets tough. Also a good team, that believes in what you do.
Keep doing what you do. 🚀
Going agile with Scrum transformed the way I work, making it more collaborative, productive, and adaptable.
@mark_pavlyukovskyy hey Mark, that's really cool.
If you can also share how it helped you be more adaptable in terms of a startup specially would be great.
I have always had massive imposter syndrome - this usually meant I was always apprehensive about speaking up meetings even if I had ideas, or offering my opinion. I was always worried that I might be wrong or that I might sound stupid.
At some point,I started thinking "so what if I am not completely right". It is my opinion anyways, and what is the worst that could happen? The more I spoke up at work, the more people started valuing my opinion.
As I kept doing it, I realised I was right much more than I was wrong, and a lot of the doubts had been in my head. Also, even if I was wrong, it was an opportunity to correct my misconceptions early and learn more quickly.
@kkavita Hi Kavita, that's amazing to hear. I myself used to be shy and worried about what I say and how people would take it. I still am, but for sure it's so much better now.
Just like you, I decided to just do everything, eventhough it made me uncomfortable, starting from school days, I joined MUN and Gavel club, cause they make you speak in front of people there, that way I started to get used to it.
It all gets better when you see other recognizing you for what you say, and then from their onwards, it helps you to keep going right.
Once you make that first move to talk, then it becomes okay.
Learning to keep a list that distinguishes between priority, important and utility tasks.
@balamurali Yup, this is a very good idea. I mean we even do this in our sprint planning, because we have backlog of tasks, and then random bugs that come up midway.
So what we do is, we have a list of functions that are named as critical that need to work in the app no matter what, so any bug that hinders any of those functions will be high priority.
Remote working.
Our main hurdle was communication barriers within our development process, but we made progress by improving team collaboration and implementing our own integrated communication tool.
@t_long_cubs hey that’s awesome. What’s the product you guys built?
@t_long_cubs This is a problem a lot of people face in their companies. If you don't mind, I'm curious to know about the communication tool!
Spending time in the library studying programming. I think its important for it to get to where execution is not bound by technical limitations.
@truesteel23 yea knowledge is power. I wasn’t much of a reader myself, I’m more of a visual learner. So I follow a lot YouTube channels.
"Empowering Team Members for Enhanced Autonomy"
Our journey started as a tight-knit team where a select few shouldered the majority of decision-making. Over time, we noted a sluggish pace in our decision-making process, coupled with an uptick in repetitive communication.
Then, a transformative idea struck us: why not decentralize decision-making by entrusting individual features to our team members? We were fortunate to have a team rich with mid-level, highly skilled individuals who were more than up for the challenge.
This transition not only amplified ownership and autonomy but also dramatically reduced our feature cycle time. Most importantly, it fostered a profound sense of satisfaction among the team. It's an incredible testament to the potential that can be unlocked through trust and delegation within a team.
@gagandt hey we also followed different approaches to manage our team, and one of them is similar to what you are talking about here.
We got the inspiration from Spotify, and the way they do things around there. We divided the team into smaller chunks and made each person responsible of one thing (the smaller team is made of one front end, one backend, designer and BA). So the each team can function on its own. We also implemented the RACI charting within the team so they know how to function. That way we all knew at what point to reach out to who.
With this everyone was held accountable and we did see a change in how the team worked especially because now each person is more closer to the user, since they all even the developers were involved in some way in the process of analyzing users.
hey there sis,
great question! one pivotal shift in my work happened when i decided to incorporate the practice of 'time-blocking' into my routine. it was a game changer.
previously, my days were filled with a constant rush, tackling tasks as they popped up. the result? a seemingly busy day, but with little substantial progress.
then i started 'time-blocking' - dedicating specific chunks of time to particular tasks or types of work. suddenly, the chaos began to clear. focusing on one thing at a time allowed me to dive deeper, producing higher quality output. it was like turning the dial from 'reactive' to 'proactive.'
what made the biggest difference? setting aside dedicated time for deep, focused work, and equally important, time for rest and reflection. the latter often fuels the most valuable insights.
what started as an experiment turned into a habit that reshaped my productivity. i discovered that the key wasn't working 'harder' but working 'smarter,' and that time, used wisely, can be your greatest ally.
so, what's your game changing move apart from the communication improvement in the team?
@shajedulkarim_ hey I’ve heard about time blocking too. Unfortunately I’ve not been able to practice is that well. After hearing your thoughts on it, I feel like I should practice it more often 😅 because time management is a bit tougher specially in startups yea.
That’s great to hear your results🙌🏼
Well apart from that there’s been many things, but I guess one thing we tried out that helped was using board templates from Mural and Miro, to practice design thinking and lean product management. We learnt quite abit from them.
Focusing on doing what's right for the product rather than I what I want. As a developer I was enveloped in the complexity and "industry-standardness" of the backend system which led me to drop 2 years on just architecting an extremely over-engineered system for its scope (0 users lol). Now I realize that I need to dedicate my efforts to whats best for the product, focusing mainly on sales, not to fuel my own hunger for complex development.
@deds3t hey we have this issue as well. I think it comes with spending too much time on perfecting the product, even before validating the MVP and seeing if there’s a market for it.
I’m also still learning how to do that, but again like you said I think the key is to not fall in love with your idea, instead to focus on the customers, their pain points and the problem. That way it should be easier to align your product with the what the end users want.
Let me know if you have any other suggestions as well 🙌🏼
When I began coding, I was struck by the abundance of websites with poor user interfaces. To make a difference, I assembled a team and developed elegant websites with user-friendly interfaces. Our notable projects include ElegantDoc.com, Duckist.com, and Toolel.com. As a founder and leader, this role has allowed me to blend my passion with leadership, leaving a lasting impact on web development.
For me, it was about taking my time off super seriously. I started practicing High Quality Time-Off every Saturday! Made burnout not a thing. We’re actually launching an app today (90 mins left! It’s called Burnout Bot) that has a feature to recommend High Quality Time-Off vacations and weekend inspo!! Would love feedback 🙏
@yannell_selman ikr! I sometimes find it hard to sleep as well, cause I'm thinking about what to do about some issue or what to do next 🥹
And hey congrats on Burnout Bot! Will check it out 🎊
One move that profoundly influenced the way I work was embracing a growth mindset. By acknowledging that there is always room for improvement and being open to learning from others, I've been able to continuously evolve and refine my approach. It has allowed me to embrace new ideas, adapt to challenges, and strive for excellence in everything I do.
@kunal_mehta_94 Yes that's true, having an open perspective and engaging in discussions with people can go a long way. Specially for a startup, when you're leading a team, embracing the growth mindset is key, so that everyone feels the same.