Case Study 2: Team Dynamics

Fell asleep writing Case Study 1, so Case Study 2 has been delayed. Instead of open ended discussion, I think this time round I'll just stick to some of the points listed. (this stifles though ><)

And maybe I'd just link back to the stuff I said yesterday. That sometimes sadly people have to leave a project if their motivations aren't in alignment. Cruel fact of life for organizations that are product-focused, and not people-focused. But, how many people-focused organizations can really cater to the needs of every single member and still ship great things? As you grow, bureaucracy sets in, and the explicit list of what you can and cannot do just grows.

Why do I feel so sensitive about this? Learnt this from my HR class (engin core mod). In this age, the workforce is very mobile. They can seek employment from anywhere. We assume that the team that the company has is already a good fit, chosen by means of alignment of vision and purpose. Now as time progresses, as the company grows, we want to retain these people, but how do we do this? Companies therefore need strong retention policies, and career development programs. Note the use of "career". "Career" implies the need for the person to grow and develop lifelong skills and interests together with the company, and not just skills like MS word, presentation skills. Investment both ways must occur - to make the fit both ways even better. This is what I call a people-focused organization.

But I digress. Back to small project groups or startups (they're about the same environment, just that startups have one more motivation - to make money and build their bottom line).

1. Lanh said, “It would be really bad if we have a great idea but are unable to execute it successfully”.
What are your views? Which is more important - the idea or the execution? Why?

One thing that we've seen so far is that execution matters in bringing an idea to life. If the idea is good, but implementation is wrong, the idea's going to be something worthless as a product. But if the idea isn't well thought-out in the first place, what good execution can we really talk about?

2. What have you learnt about Facebook so far?

Crazily hard to build for, especially if you're using it as an IFrame app. No proper ways to control what you can do. Communication between the platform and developers is often just one way, (maybe with the exception of major players like, eg Zynga?)

3. Comment on the ideas for Another Life and Fan Gang.

Another Life just seemed too difficult. Fan Gang was something that seemed more managable.

4. Should the team have changed their idea for the Final Project mid-way or  stuck to their original idea? Why, or why not?

Of course, one of the main problems was the scope. It seemed that Another Life had too many things that we required to be done, with huge time commitment. Maybe, they could have decided on a much smaller feature set and progressively build up from there, instead of a one-shot-do-everything. Of course there are milestones that they have to meet, like basic user interactivity, and essential stuff. Key is not being too ambitious I guess.

If they had scaled down early enough, it might not be that drastic to require a change in idea.

5. List the major problems (obvious and non-obvious ones) in faced by the team? How could they have done differently and better?

Could not gauge the amount of effort that they needed. Lack of time management (related to the first point). Synchronization of work (waiting on each other), eg for poster presentation, and even the framework used.

6. What did the team do right/well?

Sought advice constantly. Decisive about changing to another project (so it seems).

7. What would you do if you were Jeremy on the evening of 24th April (and the deadline for the final project submission was the next day)?

I would have sought eg a 1 hour discussion session earlier in the week, and understand from the rest of the group where the work remained to be done. And over the progress of that week, grasp some skills somewhere to make the app work, one feature at a time. If it's the night before, it's a bit too late I guess...

8. How would you handle a situation where one of your team members is unable to deliver on the work he/she promised because of personal problems?

I have actually had this situation before, where one of the groupmates did not show up for the task and the report. To our indignation, the coordinator asked us to include his name on the report. This was such an unpleasant experience since the guy didn't contact the rest of the group regarding his absence or provide a proper explanation. Just disappeared poof.

If it happens again, my expectation would be to attempt the work anyway, or at least inform the rest in reasonable time that he's unable to complete the work. Should follow up on a promise unless there's something really bad that happened. If I see that he has tried his best, I'll take over the work gladly if I have spare energy and time.

9. What, in your opinion, are the key learning points from this case study?

Might not be solely from the case study, but in general.

Understand and understanding. At all stages of the project, everyone should understand their motivation for the project. If the expectation diverges, it's important to realign everyone again to get everyone on the same track again.

At times, people do get caught up in issues, and sometimes they can't deliver what they had promised. Who knows, the next person might be me? So don't blame, but take on the work if you can. Forgive and forget. If no one can do the task, it's probably time to see if it's really that important. Or re-evaluate the priority of all the tasks to find out what's really essential.

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Back to FYP.