For the past two years, we have been the product owners of the team building the wonderful platform on which you are currently reading this article. In many ways, Ingenuity has a very special place in our hearts. But looking back, there are a few lessons that make it particularly stand out. And is there a better way to sign off the project than by sharing our lessons on this very platform?

Lesson 1: Transparency and structure is key in a remote setup

Working remotely has been the reality for all of us since last year. However, for our team nothing has really changed in March 2020. We have always worked remotely as since the beginning of the project not all team members are located in the same country. Over the years, we have developed this platform from Bulgaria, Egypt, France, Germany, Nigeria, Serbia, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, and the UK. Clear guidelines and open communication have proven to be the success factor for this setup. There are defined processes for everything we do as a team, extensive documentation around the project in our wiki and in the codebase and an open channel policy in our chat tool. Every information and every conversation are open for everyone to read. This transparency allows for everyone to be up to date and helps overcome the physical distance. What also helped us was to focus on a clear definition of roles and responsibilities. However, we always helped each other out to reach the common goal.

Lesson 2: It does not work without a bit of face-to-face time

While we all have experienced that working remotely can be smooth and productive – no team works successfully without a personal connection. Nothing beats meeting face-to-face and when it has been possible for us to travel internationally, we have met up in one location for onsite workshops and team building events. Over the past 2,5 years, we managed to meet 3 times in Munich, and Belgrade. Personal time helps to get a better understanding of the different personalities and get a grasp of how people tick – which allows us to work better together. And have a lot of fun along the way.

Spending time beyond the work time and exploring Belgrade together was a lot of fun!

Lesson 3: Being truly agile is not about meetings and processes but about the mindset

Many companies are working agile now, but for being truly agile it needs more than just introducing new roles, meetings, or processes. Agile is all about the mindset and living up to the agile principles. Of course, no one is perfect, and also our team has not played by the agile guidelines in every second. But we really try to.

We are having this discussion with the goal in mind of continuous improvement. Regardless of what we discover, we understand and truly believe that everyone did the best job they could, given what was known at the time, their skills and abilities, the resources available, and the situation at-hand.
Our mantra for the sprint retrospectives

We use our retrospectives for continuously improving how we work. There is a very thin line between discussing setbacks, screw-ups or problems without finger pointing or blaming someone. However, this mantra helps us to really focus on what is the whole purpose of a retro: learning from mistakes and making sure that next time we will not make the same mistake again. In these, and every other discussion, we have been very hard in the matter but always respectful with each other. Because we know that everyone is always giving their best and that by bringing all the different perspectives together, we will make the best decision we can in the end. But not less important is to also celebrate wins, identify what went well and how this successful approach could be expanded. And in both cases counts: we will succeed as a team and we will fail as a team – together.

What does agile mean for us? We regularly reflected on that in the team meetups.

Another principle that guides us is the focus on MVP’s, approaching big issues step-wise and the courage to leave a gap. Our backlog is full of great ideas and concepts that go way beyond what you can find on the actual platform. Thinking big but starting small has been very helpful for us to find the right features that added the most value at the time.

Lesson 4: Meeting at eye-level means to let go sometimes

We experience our team always as ONE big team. The organizational lines between different agencies and the hierarchical structure between client and agency are there on paper, but never within our daily work. Trust and openness between team and management allows this to work. But of course, this has been a learning process and letting go is not easy. This trust has been built over time, and it took a bit to learn and believe that the team will always make the decision with the users in mind and for the best interests of the client. We all needed to learn to not take ourselves too seriously and to hold back from the time to time. That also means to accept that certain requirements are declined or accepting that things require too much of an effort to be realized. In all discussions, the decisions are based on the best arguments, not based on roles. At least within our team 😉

Lesson 5: Allowing everyone to be passionate about the product and take ownership helps in tough times

Another success factor is to allow the full team to take ownership and actively participate in building and evolving this platform. Ingenuity is not only the “baby” of one product owner on the client-side, but everyone highly identifies with the project and the platform. We have discussed the strategy and ideas in the big round many times, and the different perspectives have shaped Ingenuity for the better. Additionally, fostering ownership drives people to go the extra mile when needed. And in times with hard deadlines, this has been very helpful.

Lesson 6: The difference between a good team and a great team is the personal connection between its team members

We all have learned that mental health is important and the last 1.5 years have not been easy for any of us. No one is a machine and delivering at 100% at all times. We need to accept that sometimes things take longer or don’t work as expected. Over the time we team members have really opened up to each other, and shared our struggles. This trust to be vulnerable needs to be build over time, and it is up to everyone in the team to create this safe space for everyone else.

The team supported the NGO of one of our own. Great to share the support beyond the borders of our team.

But seeing the human behind the colleague does not only count for bad days. Every one of us has a genuine interest in the people and what they are passionate about next to their daily work. It starts with small things by sharing delicious recipes to big things such as donating to the NGO one of our team members leads in his free time. This is why the introduction slides of the new team members do not include the career steps and professional information, but only hobbies, family and things that inspire us or we have grown from.

Lesson 7: There is no deadline tough enough to stop living up to the values and principles

During our two years, we have lived by these values and principles not only in relaxed times but also under high pressure with a tough deadline and a lot to lose. Of course, in these times the team discussions were shorter and fewer. But still, we never stopped them. And we have also protected and defended this mindset when others, stakeholders or colleagues with outside interests, have not seen the necessity for it.

So, what do we all take with us?

That when you live up to the agile values and become one team, anything is possible. And that this does not come by itself, but as with every relationship needs constant work and nurturing.

Thumbs up after a successful strategy session

Now a lot of us step back, and we leave the stage to a new team. So, we will keep cheering from the sidelines and are curious and excited to see how the team and the platform will evolve in the next months and years. And with that, all that is left to say is a huge thank you to all the wonderful people who worked with us:

Addae Abeng, Aissatel Amet, Benjamin Gabriel, Caslav Sunjika, Dasha Luna, Djordje Cetkovic, Fabian Fischer, Florian Misteli, Gemma Plank, Jan Schlösser, Jenny Beaumont, Jens Scholz, Johanna Prestele, Katrina Radic, Marek Prasek, Markus Zistl, Matthew Haines-Young, Max Hummel, Moritz Adam, Onyeka Aghanenu, Paul de Wouters, Pauliina Jamsa, Prasath Nadarajah, Rade Knezevic, Roland Angerbauer, Sander van Dragt, Shady Sharaf, Siri Breen, Tamara Mijailovic, Tom Nowell, and Yuliana Yordanova.

The old and new team during the virtual onsite yesterday