It can be tough to get all of your team members on the same page.
As a leader, it’s up to you to make sure that even when times are uncertain or things are moving fast, your team feels supported and is able to collaborate effectively. Here are some simple guidelines for helping boost team productivity:
Be clear about priorities
Your team members may have half a dozen different projects in motion simultaneously—but if they don’t know where to focus, they’ll always be distracted and rushing from one task to another, taking longer to complete each one. While engineering teams will often need to work on multiple projects simultaneously as they move through different stages and wait for other engineers to contribute to the code base, make sure they understand which projects or initiatives are high priority, which are medium priority, and which are low priority. That way, they can better plan their sprints with your end goals in mind.
Create time and space to be productive
Engineers don’t all operate the same way. Some do their best when they’re able to check in with their teammates and managers regularly to gain inspiration, and others prefer to work in isolation so that they can focus. Make sure you’re providing your team members with the right tools and flexibility to work the way they want to—whether that means leaving them alone to code through all hours of the night, or providing them with collaboration and chat tools so that they can work through problems with teammates in real-time.
Go all in on organization
Your team members will be looking to you to help them make sense of their projects. Map out everything in detail, with clear structure and delegation so that each team member knows what their responsibilities are. While you might think your team would chafe at micro-management, they’ll actually appreciate your organizational skills—otherwise they’ll end up confused and unclear about what’s needed.
Give your team a safe and transparent space to collaborate
It’s essential for your team members to be able to ask and answer questions in a central place, where users can search for content by keyword or filter it by tag. Rather than referring to a set of technical documents, this space should be a current, constantly updated knowledge center that all team members can contribute to.
By making a concerted effort to provide a structured and supportive environment for your development team, you’ll be able to take their productivity to the next level.
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