teamwork learnings by the android wear team at ustwo

TEAMWORK LEARNINGSby the Android Wear Team

Wear Team Retrospective – March 2015


March April May June July August September October November December January

First Brief Toph + Josh has joined

API unstable EAP drop First watch faces Got devices! Gyppsy initial research

Delivered first watch face Introduction to client Sent source code to Google Sketched basic watch faces in London

Google I/O Moto 360 was not working

Client loves to working with us Team visited Google in Mountain View

Designing early Advanced watch faces Breakout Framework Mitch in Nashville Rimar hosted sketching sessions.

Too many meetings Team tentions

Confusion about delivery date Devices was not working Google Q/A Not bundle P.2 watch faces No time Not trust QA team On boarding team members problem QA team changed Team discussion with Max Team member left

Branded watch faces C-Release pushed back Decided to make frameworks Frameworks improvement Making Wear HUB and Behind the scenes video On boarding new team members Teammate’s vacation

API more stable Launch! Social media sharing Toffer in Malmö wear.ustwo.com

Design Guideline New wear hub No clear expectation from Google Teammate left

PROJECT TIMELINE Happiness

Stress

PRINCIPLES



HAPPINESS OVER STRESS

While we value the structure provided by timelines and deliverables, we value the multiplicative effect of addressing human needs more.

Individual happiness, clarity, and sense of meaning creates an inherent drive. A team of driven people works at a higher velocity and is more able to adjust to changing deadlines and deliverables. Something done right is better than something done one time or to a budget. Without a team focus on emotions, stress and friction cannot be transformed into happiness and positive forward momentum.

FLEXIBILITY OVER STRUCTURE

While we value the dependability of rules, we value the instinct to continuously and dramatically change our process more.

Process is only a means to an end and needs to change as the team and the project evolves. Our process is continuously validated against common sense and experience.



US OVER ME

While we value the uniqueness of individuals, we value working as a team with a common purpose more.

A good idea starts with one person but only the team can bring meaning to it. We believe that being together, communicating directly, and providing constant feedback is the best way to build strong teams and good things. Involving other people in your work also creates team ownership of the output.


SILLY OVER SERIOUS

We value seriousness but we’ve learnt that working and continuously looking for silliness is not a mutually exclusive thing.

This team believes in the power of silly and whimsical situations. We look for silly daily: sometimes it is even more fun to celebrate the small daily doses of silly rather than a big delivery. At the end, you can only become silly when taking it seriously.


COLLABORATION OVER HIERARCHY

While we value the simplicity and clarity of group hierarchy, we value team trust more.

We are aware that hierarchy could be used detrimentally as a cheap filler for trust. However, we believe in the hierarchy that highlights our different levels of expertise. We use hierarchy to empower with trust other team members. It takes time to build but today trust is the blood that runs within the veins and diligence of this team’s actions.

We value seriousness but we’ve learnt that working and continuously looking for silliness is not a mutually exclusive thing.

This team believes in the power of silly and whimsical situations. We look for silly daily: sometimes it is even more fun to celebrate the small daily doses of silly rather than a big delivery. At the end, you can only become silly when taking it seriously.


COURAGE OVER COMFORT

While we value a laid back environment, we value the courage to be honest with each other more.

This team values comfort only when it doesn’t prevent us to speak our minds honestly. All the actions individuals or teams take within this team are always done with good intentions. Hence, discrepancies to the consequences of these actions are communicated with nothing else but honesty. Other than that will be disrespectful to the individual and to the whole team.

We always aim for the highest quality output but if when doing so we miss the bigger picture, we will consider it a failing. Keeping attention to detail while thinking two steps ahead into thinking “what if?” and “what’s Next” is how we keep perspective.


PRINCIPLES OVER OUTPUT


THANKS