Late last year, Webreakstuff expanded into a team instead of being a one-man-army shop. There were more project proposals than the ones I could manage, and some were a little too exciting to ignore and not be involved with. Plus, there was a lot of potential for growth in the market we’re working with.

So, back in late 2005, people I trust were brought into the idea. Webreakstuff as it is today was born. It’s been a few months now, and many things have been done, projects have been started, ideas have been discussed, and (luckily, because we have our own lives to manage) money has been made. Throughout this process, a lot has been learned as well. This series of posts documents our findings, hoping to help those who have yet to take the first step.

Individuals do a lot, teams can do better

During the 2 years prior to establishing Webreakstuff as a team, I ran everything by myself. I did a lot of design, a lot of development, and some consulting work. There were times that by anyone’s judgement, the way I ran things would be called productive. Those times were amazing, and honestly I can’t say I regret any of the steps I took.

However, that doesn’t compare to the possibilities that become available when you’re working with more people - particularly when they’re experts in things of a complementary nature to what you do. Having real-time input to the building process is priceless. An example: if I screw up on the UI, I have immediate feedback on its shortcomings and do better. If someone does a bad piece of code, it automatically gets criticized, fixed and optimized by everyone else. The result couldn’t be more measurable: higher quality work.

Managing productivity is a great concern

Face it - people don’t have the same productivity patterns, and trying to force that into shape creates uncomfortable situations. I’ve always believed that forcing work patterns on someone will only do worse than supporting the person in maximizing productivity in the schedule they feel good working at.

Ultimately, the goal of the manager (I wouldn’t necessarily call myself a manager in our environment here - but I’ll still make the point) is to provide the conditions for those working with him to excel in what they’re doing. For me, the right balance between maintaining steady productivity and keeping people happy with what they’re doing is the hot spot.

The realization that people have lives

Strongly attached to the fact that happy (and passionate) people do far better work is the realization that people have their own private lives to attend to, and that sometimes (more often than not) private life can influence both the teams’ spirit and its productivity. Naturally there’s very little that can be done to avoid these situations, so the key is to understand and work around them.

Wrapping up

There’s a few more things to be said on this topic, so this will become a multiple part article - stay tuned for the next installment. However, the closing note here is that great work comes from great people if you let it, and that the way to get the best of them is to instigate passion in the work being done.