The Right Stuff

Do you have the right stuff to be part of a delightful team ready to change the world?

People are your most expensive cost in an design company. People are also the reason you will reach a goal ahead of schedule. People who can dream, design, decide and develop are the reason you will change the world.

Characteristics of High Performers

Much has been written about what are the best qualities for a high performance team. Here are a dozen behaviors that come to mind when I think of awesome team members to partner with on my next venture:

• analytical
• confident
• focused
• detail-oriented
• critical-thinkers
• happy
• adaptable
• calm
• patient
• experimental
• socially-aware
• deciders

Take your time and think about what these behaviors mean to you. They are more than just a list of words in a checklist.

While you do that, let me tell you my opinionated approach.

1. Hire people who have a proven track record.

Look for people who have proven success in your desired domain. If a person has measurable success that means they did something right.

1. Hire craftspeople.

Hire craftspeople. When skills meet discipline meet passion you get a craft. Look for people who can share their work today. If you are trying to hire a software developer then look at their Github repo and check out the quality of their work and then discuss their decisions they made to create their own work.

1. Bootcamp: Trust but verify.

Have a self-contained project for the person to do during their first week. Give them a very specific goal to achieve. In my experiences about 30% of the people in such a bootcamp succeed. It is so important to make decisions quickly and not make any excuses to keep people who do not pass your bootcamp.

What do you want to observe and measure during the bootcamp process?

First and foremost look for opinionated designers, developers and engineers. Opinions matter! Look for people with opinions that they can defend and adjust.

Hire Scientists

Science is a discipline and not a belief. You are building a team of designers, scientist and engineers, if for any reason you hire people who do not have a science inclination you and your team will constantly be frustrated. It could be when you are trying to address a technical problem. It might be when you are all in the break room and you just want to talk about global warming and how your technology is going to change the world for the better. Look I am opinionated and I am looking for people who I do not have to explain the fundamentals, the process, the approach, and the history of science. Every team has to have some common language for us this is the language of science. The core discipline in our profession is after all called Computer Science.

Manage Complexity

All important problems are complex.

Do not hire tinkers. Tinkers are not craftspeople. Craftspeople build the best products right the first time. Tinkers tend to quit when problems become complex. You want somebody who approaches any problems with the same discipline as if it is a complex problem. You want a team to start by being calm and are not phased that the problem is complex. They know there are no obvious answers and relish in solving new and unique problems. It is creativity and not administration that reduces a complex problem into a set of manageable and solutions.

Hire Critical Thinkers

Examine a person’s critical thinking approach as they solve complex real world problems.

Critical thinkers:

• Know every problem has its own story, audience and intent
• Focus on framing the problem and resisting all urges to solve a problem or draw conclusions before it’s time
• Love challenges and the willingness to solve new and unique problems

Hire Those That Focus

Do not confuse creativity, curiosity and imagination with a lack of focus. I do not believe in multi-tasking. People who say, “Wow you can do so many things at one time” are just observing that I am moving from one focused activity to the next. I am ever mindful that I have to break and change my hat and role as I switch between very different tasks. We all fail as multi-taskers or tinkers.

All successful people can focus. Focus can be learned and the environment you provide can greatly affect how team members focus. During the bootcamp, look for those people who stop their work and start to listen to other people’s discussions. These people are unable to filter out what is not important to them. These people are allowing noise to clutter their mind. Be ever-vigilant and weed out the team members who cannot focus and cannot stay in their zone! I will repeat: It is the job of management to provide an environment that allows the best people to operate in their zone and in their team’s zone.

We live in a connected world where our smart phone is just a gesture away from some social community. Liquid builds predictive social apps for businesses. I am posting this article on a social media channel. Yet, understand the time and place for connection, and with whom you need to stay connected.

The most annoying thing is being in the company of a person who appears addicted to their smart phone. They are constantly checking in. They are always on some messenger application. They are constantly interrupting and being interrupted. Watch out for these people; they can take your team down. Social media is the new water cooler.

I am a big believer in team rooms. This means that you don’t need an instant messaging app to stay connected. Technology should be invisible. The only technology you want are the tools to create your craft and nothing else. This means each member stays focused and yet knows when and how to share information with other team members. Have white boards and for each team room or a set of team rooms. Have a small breakout room for one-on-one discussions.

Hire Decision Makers

Make decisions at the end of every activity and at the end of every project. The only way to reduce complexity is to make decisions. You will notice that people who make decisions also make plans and set goals.

Weed out the person who just gets stuck when it comes to difficult decisions. These people tend to lack opinions and not only will they slow down a project, they will not contribute the necessary ideas to solve problems.

Be wary of decision makers who are looking to just be controversial. You do not want a naysayer who feels saying ‘no’ all the time is the same as making a decision. There is no free lunch. Every decision has to be defended; just like every scientific theory.

Hire the Happy

Above all else you want people who can laugh and make others in the team laugh. Science is hard and fraught with failed experiments. The best medicine for setbacks is to laugh and smile. Let me put it another way: You cannot have toxic people around who create stress. Stress takes creative people and turns them into mindless zombies.

We all suck every now and then. We all have failed. All I can say is make as many mistakes as you can as long as you look for new mistakes to make. Surround yourself with people who can make you laugh, especially when you make mistakes.

What do you think? Your opinions matter and in my 30 years of building companies these are the secrets to success. I wrote this article for myself. Every now and then I slip and compromise: I have hired to fill a gap; I have hired friends; I hired the next available person; I have hired because I just need a person. While you can get lucky, when I have compromised the process, the company, the products and even more important our ability to change the world for everybody, including for the people we did not hire, has been compromised.

Come join the Liquid team of delightful designers and developers and let’s change the world together.