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Scaling Teams

by David Loftesness & Alexander Grosse

Strategies for Building Successful Teams & Organizations

TLDR​

  • This book tends to focus on very large teams (100-Thousands) and how to scale some of the practices that worked well with 5 people up so that your company doesn't slow down. This is very software-team centric, but may be applied elsewhere.
  • Topics of focus are hiring, people management, organization, culture, and communication: the book provides strategies for scaling up each as you grow.
  • This book was maybe a little less applicable to current situations than others consumed, but having some of this possible setbacks in mind is a good exercise in preparation.

Why?​

This book centers on how more people can actually get less work done, and strategies to ensure that does not occur.

Who should read?​

While definitely a decent read, I wouldn't call this required reading, even for managers. This is an advanced topic, likely reserved for managers of managers.

Important concepts​

  • Of particular interest, at least to me, was the "Warning Signs" to look out for, and what strategies are likely to help solve them. Examples are things like "Veterans Leaving" or "New Hires Leaving" and then providing different strategies to deal with each.
  • Culture, in general, is a massive focus thoughout the book, and strategies for communicating culture seem particularly valuable, including things like "Town Hall Meetings" and Q&A.
  • Status Meetings get a super bad rap in the book, which makes some sense since they do not scale well. We should pay close attention to these meetings.