Make the Right Thing the Easy Thing

How to Design Systems and Processes Teams Actually Follow

by Jason Lengstorf
@jlengstorf · jason@lengstorf.com

Slides: git.io/right-thing-easy-thing

Team work

it’s our jobto keep our team running

When the pressure is on
we have two choices

Wintergatan, a complex, marble-powered musical instrument.

Fix the process

Fix the problem

Being the team’srockstarfeels really good

Being the team’sauditorfeels... less good

There’s just oneproblem

Rockstarsdon’t get days off

What is your code’sbus factor?

What is your code’svacationtolerance?

The problem withrockstars:

They become bottlenecks
They create dependent teams
They build knowledge silos
They eventually leave

We need to dobetterfor our teams

We need to fix therealproblem

We need to create aProcess

...wait, what?

What slows teams down?

Lack of confidence in ability, knowledge, or autonomy
Lack of clarity about the goal of a given project

A good process createsconfidence& clarity

+ autonomy + trust + ownership + safety
+ other buzzwords meaning “happy team”

When a team feels confident, they can act without feeling like they need to seek approval — and that’s a good thing, because the parameters for what someone can do without approval are clearly defined in the process. Since the goals and accountability chains are crystal clear, no one needs to wonder where to start or what to work on next. This leads to a team of people who trust each other because the proper guard rails are in place. And because there’s trust, team members feel real ownership in the projects and process: they have a voice, and that voice is being heard. And because the process defines what is and isn’t acceptable, the whole team can feel safe to bring up potential issues. Usually, though, a good process means the issues get caught way earlier, before they become huge problems. All of this leads to the kind of high-collaboration, high-functioning environment every management consultant dreams about.

A good process createsstronger teams

No one is a bottleneck
Each dev can make decisions independently
Knowledge is shared and documented
No chaos if devs take vacation, get promoted, or quit

How can wecreatesolid processes?

A good process needs

Excellent onboarding and documentation
Ongoing internal education and training
Frequent code reviews and coaching
Comprehensive test suites
Internally consistent style and quality guidelines

“I’ve tried this!No onewill listen!”

Why processesfail

Knowvsfeel

The Rider and The Elephant

The elephant and the rider, by Kristin Noelle. — Credit: Kristin Noelle

Book cover for Switch, by Chip and Dan Heath.

Make the Right ThingThe Easy Thing

By focusing on four core values:
Emotional Rewards + Automation
+ Simplification + Yak Shaving

Emotional Rewards
Automation
Simplification
Yak Shaving

Make the Right Thing the Easy Thing: part 1

EmotionalRewards

Less effort required to do things the new way
Immediate praise and positive feedback
Public recognition and gratitude

One of the most rewarding things is to make people more efficient — it feels really good to do great work ahead of schedule, so we should try to make sure that every process we introduce feels like an upgrade. Some processes require extra work, though, so we should make sure to frequently and immediately praise great work from the team. When someone follows the process, reinforce that behavior by thanking them personally. Remember, it never sucks to hear you’re doing a good job, and usually we have to live with “no news is good news”; offer positive feedback early and often. When there’s a team meeting or a company all-hands, recognize the team publicly for doing good work. It’s a small effort, but it goes a long way.

“Very few things at work feel better than the validation of other people praising your contributions in public.”Marisa MorbyProduct Manager, Gatsby

“It doesn’t matter how objectively correct your solution is; it only matters if people will use it.”
Me, just now

Make the Right Thing the Easy Thing: part 2

Automation

Set up CI/CD (e.g. Travis, Jenkins) for tests
Run and commit Prettier automatically
Use ESLint, Danger.js, etc. to catch quality issues
Automate code coverage checks
Use semantic-release for versioning and releases

Don’t fail onstyleJust use Prettier

Tired:

Code Cops

👮‍♀️ 👮🏽‍♂️

Wired:

Code Bots

🤖 🤖

Make the Right Thing the Easy Thing: part 3

Simplification

Consider onboarding and training costs of new tools
Use open source tools if a stable option exists
Write code that’s small and easy to delete
Build for now, not 5 years into the future

It can be tempting to build a project in, say, React, and then start adding tools: Redux, Thunk, Sagas, Recompose, and so on. But each of those tools adds extra complexity and cognitive overhead for the team. Don’t add a tool until you’ve got a real reason. If you definitely need a tool, look for a well-documented, stable, open source tool first; building stuff in-house means someone internal is on the hook to document, maintain, and support it, and that’s rarely a sustainable option for utilities. And don’t try to predict the future; code is a relatively short-lived product, so trying to build something “future-proof” is a bit of a fool’s errand. Code with deletion and replacement in mind, not infinite flexibility and scalability.

“Weigh the trade-offs and choose the thing that makes your team more productive.”
Jem YoungSenior Software Engineer, Netflix

“Premature optimization can be a violent source of tech debt. If you have experience and know it’s the right move, great. Otherwise: keep it as simple as possible for as long as possible.”
Chris BiscardiSoftware Engineer, Honeycomb

Make the Right Thing the Easy Thing: part 4

Yak Shaving

Limit the team’s exposure to yak shaving
Invest in your technical foundation
Create zero- or low-config dev environments

Don’t make people do a bunch of work before they can start working

2 hrs/week × 20 devs × $75k/year$75,000burned on yak shaving

Don’t ask people to fix a mess

Set them up tosucceed

What is a LeadDeveloper?

A lead developer isn’t

Carrying their team by doing most of the work
Inserting themself into every code decision
Single-handedly enforcing the team’s style guide

A lead developer is

Creating guard rails to encourage best practices
Defining processes to create confidence and clarity
Removing bottlenecks and knowledge silos

Lead Developers

Design processes that are emotionally rewarding

Lead Developers

Improve consistency by Automating processes

Lead Developers

Reduce training costs by simplifying workflows

Lead Developers

Invest in the foundation to Prevent yak shaving

Healthy Teams

Maintain a reasonable vacation tolerance

Healthy Teams

Operate with high levels of confidence & clarity

Healthy Teams

Know their work is both recognized & valued

Healthy Teams

Feel confident in their autonomy & safety

Healthy Teams

Are not dependent on rockstar developers

Thanks!

Jason Lengstorf
Follow me on Twitter: @jlengstorf

Make the Right Thing the Easy Thing

How to Design Systems and Processes Teams Actually Follow

Team work

it’s our jobto keep our team running

When the pressure is onwe have two choices

Fix the process

Fix the problem

Being the team’srockstarfeels really good

Being the team’sauditorfeels... less good

There’s just oneproblem

Rockstarsdon’t get days off

What is your code’sbus factor?

What is your code’svacationtolerance?

The problem withrockstars:

We need to dobetterfor our teams

We need to fix therealproblem

We need to create aProcess

...wait, what?

What slows teams down?

A good process createsconfidence& clarity

+ autonomy + trust + ownership + safety+ other buzzwords meaning “happy team”

A good process createsstronger teams

How can wecreatesolid processes?

A good process needs

“I’ve tried this!No onewill listen!”

Why processesfail

Knowvsfeel

The Rider and The Elephant

Make the Right ThingThe Easy Thing

By focusing on four core values:Emotional Rewards + Automation+ Simplification + Yak Shaving

Emotional RewardsAutomationSimplificationYak Shaving

Make the Right Thing the Easy Thing: part 1

EmotionalRewards

Make the Right Thing the Easy Thing: part 2

Automation

Don’t fail onstyleJust use Prettier

Tired:

Code Cops

👮‍♀️ 👮🏽‍♂️

Wired:

Code Bots

🤖 🤖

Make the Right Thing the Easy Thing: part 3

Simplification

Make the Right Thing the Easy Thing: part 4

Yak Shaving

Don’t make people do a bunch of work before they can start working

2 hrs/week × 20 devs × $75k/year$75,000burned on yak shaving

Don’t ask people to fix a mess

Set them up tosucceed

What is a LeadDeveloper?

A lead developer isn’t

A lead developer is

Lead Developers

Design processes that are emotionally rewarding

Lead Developers

Improve consistency by Automating processes

Lead Developers

Reduce training costs by simplifying workflows

Lead Developers

Invest in the foundation to Prevent yak shaving

Healthy Teams

Maintain a reasonable vacation tolerance

Healthy Teams

Operate with high levels of confidence & clarity

Healthy Teams

Know their work is both recognized & valued

Healthy Teams

Feel confident in their autonomy & safety

Healthy Teams

Are not dependent on rockstar developers

Thanks!

Resources

When the pressure is on
we have two choices

+ autonomy + trust + ownership + safety
+ other buzzwords meaning “happy team”

By focusing on four core values:
Emotional Rewards + Automation
+ Simplification + Yak Shaving

Emotional Rewards
Automation
Simplification
Yak Shaving