5 Rules for Co-dev
co-dev (noun) Co-develop. To work with another team. Often used when teams are at different locations.
The greatest challenge to overcome when working co-dev is.
Can’t we just do this in-house?
You can get away with a lot when the team is in the same room. When a team is not in the same physical space, much of what we take for granted must be done intentionally.
It’s not rocket science however. With a solid understanding of the fundumentals, you will be able to create a highly effective co-dev team.
Let’s look at how to do this below.
Chat with video every morning
Not being in the same room is a hurdle the team must overcome. We tend to naturally congeal if we are in the same space together. If we are not, these opportunities and rituals must be intentionally constructed.
Chat with video every morning. Encourage a good atmosphere. Keep things relaxed and don’t be afraid to make a joke. Keep things professional, but remember you are talking to a human, not a robot. Balance being considerate with being yourself.
Focus on building a good relationship with teammates. This will build up trust, the ability to believe another person. As direct oversight is limited, being able to take someone at their word is a necessity to move forward.
Without them we’re toast
Provide something that is critical to your co-dev partner, that they cannot find locally. That could be a level of quality or expertise in several areas that can be uniquely combined.
Without this, your co-dev partner has no logical reason to continue working with you. As many things are easier with someone in-house, this is an unstable situtation to be in as you could be replaced at any moment with little to no downside to them.
By providing critical value, the relationship will have a solid foundation.
The flip-side to this is to artifically create a dependence, such as Apple locking iMessage to only work within their ecosystem. This is a sliding scale, but be careful with this as it can be perceived badly.
Knock it out of the park
Delivering beyond expectation is a sure-fire way to improve team morale and strengthen relationships + trust.
There is no substitute for pure effort put in to overcome challenges.
Teach yourself to fish
Often instead of directly drilling into a problem, if you take a step back you can often find a way to sidestep the issue with minimal effort.
By then tweaking everyday process to include this change, you will avoid this pitfall in the future.
Always bring omiyage
Work to consistently raise the bar
Work in the same space
Work in a shared space JIRA, etc. Put work and personal task organization in a spot that is naturally visible to other team members.
Be honest
Focus on Communication
Be honest about both successes and risks.
Extreme Ownership
This is to take ownership and responsibility of problems, even if they are not your fault. This is because if you don’t, things will simply stay the same or get worse. By doing this, you will set the example for team members. This attitude can also be encouraged directly in team members, by tweaking how areas of responsibility are chosen and owned. The ownership allows you to as much of a degree as possible make your own plan. You will be much more motivated to carry out this plan. Also, if something goes wrong, which it inevitably will, you will be motivated to tweak and improvise the plan, instead of going back to the person who made the plan and saying, “This plan sucks.” It is necessary to support others, the most effective I have seen are those who support their teams while giving them as much ownership and responsibility as they can bear.
Planning and Execution
It can be important to clearly define the difference in mindset required for planning and analysis, and in the moment execution. What motivates us in these two states is very different, and confusion between these can lead to a lack of motivation when implementing them plan.
When planning something, we are motivated by what our long term goals are, and often cut things apart to analyze them and discover flaws. However, what motivates this logical part of ourselves is very different than what motivates you at 5:30 am.
When doing something, we are motivated by emotion. If doing something makes us feel happy, nostalgic, relaxed. How we feel towards other people. Fear can be a great motivator, if we understand how things will fall apart if we don’t put in the effort now. If in the moment we try to motivate ourselves with long term goals, it will not work as more visceral emotions are needed to motivate us in the moment.
In the moment it is important to enjoy doing, be satisfied, be relaxed by doing something. This is what motivates you to continue doing it. On the other hand, when analyzing and planning something, cutting it into pieces and seeing what could be tweaked, things such as long term goals or improving the work environment come into focus. Both are important and complement each other, but are motivated by quite different things and need to be separated or they can become confused and misapplied to each other.
Fly out to meet team for three weeks at start of project
Notes
be specific and action oriented.