Share the core responsibilities of technical TL from a management perspective
Guide
"How to become a good technical director? In ", 阿里巴巴高级技术专家云狄from the three perspectives of development specifications, development processes, technical planning and management, share the understanding and thinking of technical TL.
Next, he will continue to discuss this topic in depth and share the core responsibilities of technical TL from a management perspective, including team building, team management, team culture, communication and coaching, recruitment and dismissal, etc.
background
The technical team management of Internet companies is usually divided into two directions: technical management and team management. There is still a big difference between the technical TL of Internet companies and the PM of traditional software companies. The PM of traditional software companies focuses more on project management. Including the dismantling of project tasks, project schedule and risks. For most Internet companies, the technical TL's more responsibilities are no longer limited to the project perspective, but must have a deep understanding of business and technology, like a beacon in the dark, which can guide and correct the course of team members. Comprehensive technical and business perspectives to
think deeply about problems, have a certain forward-looking, and invest continuous enthusiasm for learning in the technical field, preach to team members, make up for shortcomings, and improve the combat effectiveness of the entire team.
Technical TL responsibilities not only need to formulate daily specifications, including development specifications, process specifications, etc., to promote the implementation of specifications, and to avoid unnecessary internal consumption with public mandatory conventions. The other half of the time may be spent on the decomposition and distribution of development tasks, development practices, In terms of technical architecture review, code review, and risk identification, the remaining time is spent on various planning, collaboration, communication, and management required to ensure the on-time delivery of the system.
Management master Peter Drucker said: "The purpose of the organization is to allow ordinary people to do extraordinary things." However, not any group of ordinary people can do extraordinary things together. Even a group of good people gathered together may be just a mediocre organization. As large as a country, as small as a team, any excellent organization must have an excellent leader. The leader is the soul of an organization, and the leader largely determines the height that the organization can achieve.
Ali has an old saying "ordinary people, extraordinary things". The same is true for technical teams. The manager's strategic vision, management methods, personality charm, etc. will have a decisive impact on the team's work results.
In fact, the background of each company and each team is different. Some questions are discussed from the perspective of management, and there is no unified standard answer. Some of the views in this article are only personal views, and more of them have grown from my personal perspective to technical TL. At the same time, I have also absorbed some excellent management concepts from my predecessors, including my most respected General Electric CEO Jack Welch, Apple CEO Jobs, Intel CEO Grove, and my most respected technical manager in China, Robbin (丁香园Vice President of Technology).
Team building
It has been 5 years since I started to lead this business technical team in 2014. In retrospect, all the problems that can be encountered in team management have been encountered. Among them, there are countless stumblings. They are all lessons learned in practice. Here is a brief sharing of team building. Of course, there are also not enough. Good place.
Everyone in Ali can feel the embrace of change. Basically, the organizational structure will be adjusted every year, and even some teams will be adjusted every six months. In 2014, I was assigned to this team to be responsible for this business. This business is the business of the group's acquisition of a subsidiary. The entire team culture and technical system are very different from Ali. Generally speaking, new officials take up three positions. After the new technology TL is airborne, they will often recruit people and promote reforms quickly, and some technology TLs like to move in some old ones.
At that time, I was not eager to do this, did not recruit a new employee, but based on stabilizing the existing team, mainly based on the following reasons:
● The team and the business are not deep enough: I don’t know enough about the current team’s personnel and business. , I don’t know what pits and traps are in it. Once the initial battle is unfavorable and the trust of the leader is overdrawn, it may be difficult to gain a foothold in the company, let alone reforming the team and giving full play to their talents.
● Process and system: Regarding the problems of the team's status quo, my preliminary judgment is not a human problem. Many problems are organizational, process, and system problems. I think that only a good system can create a good team. Recruiting new people before solving the problems of the existing team will not only not bring new productivity, but will cause chaos in the team. We should lay a good foundation before recruiting. People can do more with less.
● A sense of team security: I don’t want the existing members of the team to feel like a courtier, and worry that they will be marginalized and abandoned in the team. On the other hand, it can make the existing team mentally safer, and can work with peace of mind without further turbulence.
After several months of investigation and understanding, it is probably clear that some problems and reasons existed in the team at that time:
● Irregular business cooperation: The cooperation between product, operation, and R&D departments did not establish a reasonable work flow, such as the PRD review of product requirements. Standards, there are no quantitative indicators for operational needs, and everyone is exhausted to meet demand, which leads to not enough enthusiasm for everyone.
● Cross-team collaboration and chaos: There is no standard for cross-departmental work coordination. Departments shirk each other. Any business person will give orders to R&D personnel at any time. If this happens, it will hurt the enthusiasm of the R&D team.
In response to the above problems, I mainly sorted out the cooperation process specifications, formulated a relatively reasonable and standardized product cooperation process, and made three chapters with product classmates, clarified the standards and specifications of PRD output, and the business requirements of operations are also uniformly output by the product. Eliminate the need for one sentence. Uniform standard procedures for collaboration with the product, front-end, UED, and QA teams. The downstream must have clear standards and specifications for the work output by the upstream relying party. All oral statements are invalid and they refuse to cooperate.
Regarding the chaos of cross-team collaboration, I would like to clarify that the R&D department is not a business department that directly generates revenue, but assumes the role of a server in the business department. As a server, you often stand in a passive and disadvantaged position, and it is easy to be commanded by the business staff to unconditionally obey you with the stick of income. The business department staff randomly assign tasks and change requirements at will, and the teammates are at a loss. In this way, no matter how reasonable the internal plan of the department is, it will be easily broken by external forces, leaving the teammates at a loss as to what to do, causing everyone's work activity to
be low and they like to shirk their responsibilities. Over time, employees have developed a sense of self-protection. Whenever they work, they should go back as much as possible and their responsibilities should be pushed elsewhere as much as possible. They don't seek merit but no fault.
In order to break the self-enclosed sense of protection developed by employees and encourage them to take the initiative to do things, what I can do is to carry these responsibilities on myself and personally coordinate each work so that team members have no worries and let The teammates believe that I can take care of what they worry about, and if there is any problem, I can come back and create a relatively loose and free working space for my team, and protect the team from all kinds of external chores.
Team management
People tend to overestimate themselves and underestimate others. Many managers feel that the work they hand over is not perfect enough. They don’t think about it well here and there is verbose, but many times you just see what others are not good at, or just the other person. Different from your starting point, different solutions are given.
Many times, we are not as strong as we thought. After fully understanding some management concepts, managers continue to practice and collect feedback and iteration in actual management work, so that they can form their own management style and find the best management method for the current team.
As a team manager, there are usually two styles of management strategies, which are briefly summarized as a centralized management style and a decentralized management style.
Centralized management: The manager’s style is detailed, clearly defined work objectives, and the work objectives are broken down very meticulously, so that the team under them can move forward step by step in accordance with the entire plan. This is a style, relatively speaking. Compare to centralized power.
It can be said that my first year with this team is this style. I will even participate in every requirement review, no matter how big or small the requirement is, I will write code with R&D classmates. I will do a detailed code review of the R&D team and lead it personally. The R&D team conducts technical exchanges and sharing, participates in technical discussions and confirms the architecture scheme, thus establishing full trust with everyone.
Decentralized management: Define big goals, grasp big directions, and make key decisions. However, it does not go into every detail to control the execution details of the team, and is result-oriented.
One year after I joined this team, the business process has been clearly established. The key employees can fully understand the business and meet my requirements. At this time, delegation of authority can fully mobilize the team’s autonomy and creativity. Most technical personnel like to be Leaders do not like being managed.
There is no right or wrong for the above two types of management styles. Which method is more suitable depends entirely on the situation of the team. In fact, I would like to talk more about the decentralized management style. For a team that has just established a system, the process has not yet run smoothly, the team is incomplete, and the backbone employees have failed business capabilities, it is wrong to adopt decentralized management. You must start with the details of the first-line business, teach them how to do things correctly, how to meet your requirements, and build the core structure of the team.
I have seen too many cases over the years. The management never really went deep into the business, and lacked a deep understanding of the business, and failed to find the essential cause of the problem. I always hope to recruit people to solve the problem. As a result, the problem will never be solved after another generation of people, and I never deeply reflect on whether I personally try to solve the business problem.
Many times the problems reflected by the structure are actually organizational and process problems. In short, as a management, if you don't have the determination and courage to solve problems by yourself, it is difficult for this team to make new breakthroughs and successes.
Team culture
In the first few years when I started working, I heard some concepts about team culture and corporate culture, and I was not particularly impressed. Especially after reading the book "Everlasting Foundation", I feel that for a company, it is skills that determine the short-term, strategy in the medium-term, and culture in the long-term. Corporate culture is really important to a company, and team culture is also very important to a team. I also ignored the impact of team culture when I led the team.
At the beginning of leading this team, I privately asked some teammates to do 1on1 communication. I found that the problem was quite serious. Many people were afraid to refactor and optimize the code in order to avoid failures and were punished. The small circle does not have too many pursuits and ideals, and there is no last elimination mechanism before. Everyone feels that they can continue to eat a big pot of rice. At that time, the departments were all elderly people who had worked for many years, and the old customs and habits had formed a very stubborn bad culture, and work mood was greatly affected.
The old bad culture includes:
● No enthusiasm for doing things;
● Never admit one's mistakes, always find excuses to shirk responsibility, and it will always be someone else’s problem;
● Do not seek merits but seek no faults; Poor sense of responsibility, treat yourself at work Low requirements;
● Like to bargain over work arrangements;
in a bad cultural atmosphere, excellent employees will be squeezed out, the team has no centripetal force, it is difficult to retain good talents, and the turnover rate of employees will be very high. I think that to measure whether a team’s cultural atmosphere is attractive, there is a very important indicator, the turnover rate of new employees: If a team atmosphere is very good, new employees are often able to quickly join in after joining, and the turnover rate is very low; if the team atmosphere Poor, new employees are more at a loss and difficult to integrate after entering the company, and they often leave soon, and the turnover rate is very high. In fact, being unable to retain new employees is far more terrible than being unable to retain old employees.
The next culture I hope to establish for the team is:
- Candid, open and transparent;
- Get along with each other as equals and eliminate the sense of hierarchy;
- The working atmosphere is relaxed and the team relationship is harmonious;
- Dare to take responsibility and take the initiative;
- Achieve others and be willing to share.
The topic of team culture is actually very broad, and you can write a separate article. Here I mainly based on the above points of team culture, talk about some of my personal views.
Candid power
First of all, I think honesty is also a value for both a TL and team members, and it is very important for the development of a team. As a TL, leading a team, I think the most important thing is that TL must be honest. Only by being honest with the team can trust be formed with the team, and only by forming trust with the team can it become a tacit understanding. team.
General Electric CEO Jack Welch once said: What is trust? When a leader is sincere, frank, and will do what he says, trust will appear. It's that simple. Why does a spirit of honesty work? It's simple, because honesty has the power to reduce complexity!
A frank character is the most basic requirement of managers. Only managers who are frank can gain the trust of the team. Show-style speeches and rewards can not really win the team’s heart. You still need to be down-to-earth and do a good job. The most ordinary things. Honesty allows you to face your own shortcomings, change yourself in a targeted manner, solve team problems, and create a team atmosphere of mutual trust.
I have seen a typical case. In daily work, the supervisor is not honest with the subordinates. In the usual work communication between the subordinates and the supervisor, the subordinates did not do well enough, and the supervisor did not communicate and counsel in time. As a result, the KPI assessment was beaten. Low performance. Think about it in another way. I am the one who was beaten with low performance. I will not be convinced. Why don't you tell me in advance if there is a problem, let me correct it in advance. You must have the courage to deal with subordinates, dare to point out their problems, and dare to criticize and manage employees who perform poorly, such as why you are fired. These conversations and conflicts often make people uncomfortable. I also admit that every time you talk about low performance, you have to bite the bullet, but you must have the courage to be honest not only to those who perform well, but also to those who perform badly. People.
Apple founder Steve Jobs is a terribly honest person to himself and others. He is honest and cruel and faces the truest side of things. It is true that a frank attitude will make others feel uncomfortable in many cases. Jobs's crude frank attitude is also controversial, but I think if you are a result-oriented person, you should try to stick to the frank attitude, otherwise the final result may be Far away from your goal.
Allow your subordinates to challenge you
Secondly, let me talk about getting along on an equal footing and eliminating the sense of hierarchy. I think the most important thing is to let everyone feel your affinity, not a superior leader. For example, in many cases, the decision-making of some technical solutions of the team is not made by you alone. Sometimes it is better to listen to the opinions of the team members and allow them to challenge you.
In fact, the corporate culture that requires subordinates to obey is very common at home and abroad. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Especially if the company has too many people with ideas, and the ideas cannot be unified, the company's overall strategy is in a state of schizophrenia. Not far away. Therefore, the management unites the company's strategy, and the front-line employees emphasize that the mission must be achieved.
Domestic foreign companies place special emphasis on subordinates’ obedience and take this as the basic professional quality of their employees to train. The commonly used story is "Send a Letter to Garcia", emphasizing that after the boss arranges a job, subordinates are not allowed to talk about anything. Conditions, not allowed to challenge the boss, must unconditionally obey, overcome all difficulties and complete the tasks to relieve the worries of the leadership. This kind of execution makes the boss feel very comfortable, and the difficulty of company management is relatively low.
Most managers like more obedient subordinates and think that submissive subordinates are better to use. The mentality is superior, and he will not lower his mentality to listen to the opinions of his subordinates. Even if he is wrong, he will not admit his mistakes. On the one hand, he is afraid that his authority will be challenged. I am not a saint. As a TL, I have made some mistakes. I have also talked to some classmates in private. Be happy and don't need to pay too much attention to other people's opinions. I think these are trivial things.
From some of my own personal experience, it is actually harmful to blindly require subordinates to obey. You must appropriately allow your subordinates to challenge you.
If subordinates are blindly required to obey and cannot be refuted, it will cause the team members to lack of thinking for a long time, and just blindly execute according to the idea of TL. When the subordinates do not recognize the work itself, and only complete the work professionally, The best results are qualified, and it is difficult to achieve excellence. At the same time, it will cause subordinates to lack the initiative to work, and it is easy to develop the habit of subordinates to avoid responsibility.
On the contrary, I think that as a TL, you must encourage your subordinates to think proactively, so that they can set their own growth goals, and have a sense of belonging and responsibility for the work; try to give them more freedom and do not set excessive formalistic constraints; allow them Subordinates go to challenge you, participate in your decision-making, and even question your decision-making. In this way, the subordinates' sense of belonging to the work is increased, the sense of work is stronger, more proactive, and self-driven.
When your decision is wrong, your subordinates can help you correct it. After all, the collective wisdom is higher than the individual. As the saying goes, "Three heads beat Zhuge Liang."
owner awareness
"Owner awareness" is mainly reflected in two levels: one is a serious and responsible attitude, and the other is a proactive spirit. Being serious and responsible is the bottom line of work, and being proactive is a higher level of "Owner awareness".
Selfishness is indeed human nature, not one's own. It is hard to talk about responsibility, let alone initiative. Therefore, team management is to strive to cultivate everyone's sense of responsibility and ownership. To do this, it is necessary to enhance the sense of participation of team members, let them know and understand the value and context of what they do, and continuously strengthen their sense of mission.
For example, the system, business scope, etc. can be assigned to the designated person to be responsible for various factors such as team members' points of interest and past project experience, and the reward and punishment mechanism can be clarified. It is necessary to clearly convey a thought, that is: this piece is yours, and if you do it well, you will give priority to evaluation, promotion, salary increase, etc.; if you do not do it well, if something goes wrong, you will be responsible, and I will also be responsible. . If one day you see that a team member treats his own work like caring for his own children, then your goal has been achieved and he is fully aware of the owner.
Build a learning organization
The last point I want to talk about is the establishment of a learning organization. Team members should share their knowledge and ideas as much as possible. Everyone learns from each other and can summarize the scattered knowledge points in the learning process by sharing. How to build a talent echelon is actually to establish a learning organization so that everyone can actively participate in learning and sharing. The specific method KPI is to set up a technology sharing and team contribution, and the team will take turns to share the technology. On the one hand, let everyone learn and research some cutting-edge technologies, especially some technical reserves that the team may use. If he really can If this technology is clear to everyone, then he has really mastered it, and at the same time, it also allows others to start to understand and learn this technology, while also being able to exercise their speech and eloquence.
Encourage team members to dare to share, be willing to share, and be open-minded to achieve others. Persevere in technical training and sharing, and form such a learning culture, you will find that the speed of the improvement of the technical capabilities of the entire R&D team is very amazing, and it will not take up too much extra time. When you recruit a new employee with less seniority, he can also quickly improve in this environment, usually within half a year to reach a very good level.
Of course, the team at the beginning may not have such awareness, and you need to force it as a manager to include the requirements in KPIs and evaluate them very seriously. Over time, the team will form such an atmosphere and culture. Of course, to establish this kind of learning organization, you can also set up some reading sharing sessions to share some of the books you have read. Another point is that the team’s wiki knowledge base must be established so that the team students can use some daily technical solutions and projects. The summary and fault summary are accumulated through the situation of the document.
supplement
Communication and counseling, recruitment and dismissal, etc.