Forming teams
Collabsprint learnings on team formation
For Collabsprint, I’m working in a team of 5 people based in different countries. We have Product Management, Design and Engineering representatives. We were placed together to work on a brief to create a new digital product utilising AI technology. Currently it is week 6 of an 8 week project (only 2 weeks left!)
One of the key things I’ve been reminded of during the project is the nature of team formation. A model attributed to educational psychologist Bruce Tuckman outlines 5 stages that teams go through:
Forming
Storming
Norming
Performing
Adjourning
We definitely started in Forming, a stage where everyone introduces themselves and we try to gauge where we fit, what unique contribution we can make and how to proceed. At this stage, people look for direction. I had feelings of wanting to step in and lead, but also wanting to step back to observe. Part of the value in taking part for me is ensuring I’m up to date and adopting a Product Management lens. I found that I was excited to explore the problem further, keen to start research and involve all members of the team in discovery.
As we are working remotely, having shared spaces to talk and save ideas is essential. Slack and Miro are serving us well with this, but there was also suggestion from the team of using WhatsApp. I thought this was an interesting insight about modern communication, with messages by phone still emerging as a popular default. But it also helps to separate work and personal communication by having work-only spaces to collaborate, so Slack fitted the bill.
AI transcription tools now appear to be used commonly in team meetings (Otter being the favourite for our team). I found this a slight adjustment at first. The beginnings of meetings often include pleasantries and random comments about the news and weather, whether people’s microphones are working etc. AI transcripts can clearly edit this stuff out, but the sense of everything being recorded typically created a different atmosphere in meetings of the past. For example, if you were recording a presentation to share, you might loudly say ‘Right everyone, I’m recording now’ to silence any chat about last night’s dinner! Having an automated summary of every discussion should aid with accountability and misunderstanding, but we all have to trust it and read these summaries!
Storming is the stage of teamwork where clashes can happen. It’s characterised by being difficult to get through, as personalities emerge and people may have different views on how to proceed with a project. I’ve found that when working remotely, these concerns can be silent. I encouraged the team to use the think aloud principle when communicating via Slack. This is a key part of the guidance to users during usability testing, as we want to hear exactly what their thought process is when tasks are attempted. But we also need to encourage our own teams to openly express confusion, concerns or questions as we progress. It’s hard to do this without fear of judgement, particularly when you are new to a field or role, yet it is essential to keeping teamwork on track. I decided to post reminders and recaps of what we’d agreed so far and the overall weekly project plan to help surface any concerns.
One area we identified is that Product Management and Design need to be working very closely together, but then Engineering can seem disconnected. It’s key for all team members to be clear on goals and decision rationale, plus sharing regular updates, for a good culture to develop.
Norming is where things settle into an established routine and the team functions efficiently. I think we might be here now, which means Performing (where we become well-organised and with increasingly strong output) is coming soon! 8 weeks isn’t long to evolve through the stages but it provides scope to think hard about what makes teams work. I’m looking forward to making it to Adjourning where we wrap up and reflect on the process and our product.
Seeing these stages play out on a micro scale has been such a useful reminder of the 5 stage model and how important it is to keep communicating.