Non-stop
If I had to describe our growth team's collaboration culture in one word,
A PO leading a cross-functional organization doesn't just discover and define problems within the product; they're also required to build a collaborative culture within the team as a leader to continuously grow target metrics with their teammates. Since the right collaboration culture can vary depending on product attributes, member personalities, and the leader's personal strengths, there's no single right answer. The important thing is not to overlook that finding and establishing a collaboration culture is a crucial role of the PO. Unless you're a PO of a task force that disbands after hitting a short-term milestone, a growth PO who has to continuously grow target metrics must constantly strive to find the perfect collaboration culture for their team.
The same goes for the collaboration culture of the Subscription team (hereafter 'Subs') currently handling Alarmy's subscription growth at DelightRoom. Through multiple trials and errors, we've built a collaboration culture that fits us today. We definitely didn't start with a specific right answer in mind, and like all cultures, I didn't build it alone. It's the current result of what everyone has optimized together for sustainable growth.
Looking back at how far we've come and examining our current team culture, I realized I could express it in a single word. It was a word that popped into my head during a retrospective for the sprint where that culture was most vividly apparent. That word is 'non-stop'.
Non-stop implies two meanings.
Running continuously without stopping
Entertaining like a sitcom
Currently, our growth team has a non-stop culture.
We are running continuously without stopping, while simultaneously having fun working together like in a sitcom. Let me record the specific aspects of this.
Non-stop #1. Running continuously without stopping
As I already mentioned in a previous post about team culture, 'The Joy of Working with Teammates Who Make Things Happen', we basically have a hustling culture of getting things done. If the last post showcased the facets of our hustle through our teammates' extraordinary coping mechanisms (steering towards getting things done) when faced with unexpected problems, this post will straightforwardly show you the pure essence of hustle through our hardcore running.
A. There are no dead ends along the way.
Whether in the planning process or the QA process after actual development, we always welcome additional requirements with open arms to raise design quality or solve problems more definitively. It's a level of hustling where if a path is blocked, they look ready to drill right through it.
B. If a teammate is busy running another task, I run for them.
As long as the problem is solved and value is well-delivered to the user, who does the work doesn't matter. Because everyone knows and trusts that we are all running intensely, everyone is well aware of how valuable it is to run on behalf of a teammate.
C. Sprinting at full speed from the start.
We start running on the very day of planning. You'd think we might slowly warm up at first, but our initial rush is actually incredible. The QA channel doesn't get a moment's rest as builds for large and small tasks pop up left and right and get processed. The real-time back-and-forth during this time is absolutely thrilling.
D. We don't stop even after finishing all the sprint tasks.
Since we ran so hard from the start, you'd think that if we finish our tasks early, we'd pause our running and save our energy for the next sprint. But instead, we use our remaining time to work on refactoring and minor bug improvements so we can run even better in the next sprint. Just like in actual running, if you stop completely in the middle, starting up again becomes exhausting. Rather than stopping the run itself, temporarily slowing down to catch your breath helps you keep going continuously. Our team's development sprints might operate on a very similar mechanism.
Non-stop #2. Entertaining like a sitcom
The common driving forces for a team that runs hard are divided into internal motivations—like the thirst for personal skill growth and the ambition to increase team performance—and external motivations, like performance-based evaluations and rewards. Here, an effective element that ignites these driving forces is the 'fun' of working together. While other motivations take effect over the mid-to-long term, 'fun' is highly short-term and immediate. As such, it can make a stimulating, direct contribution to boosting productivity within the team. Let's take a brief look at some aspects of this.
A. We mix in little bits of small talk during collaboration.
Once a sprint starts, our team rarely sees each other's faces. We conduct most of our collaboration during the sprint via Slack. Because of this, to make collaboration more fun, we often keep up a steady stream of minor small talk on Slack, just like we would when collaborating in person—and we each tend to sprinkle in our own little ambitions to be funny.
B. We joyfully celebrate every completed collaboration.
Fundamentally, we always share the performance results of our past tasks. If the results weren't great, we focus on sharing the lessons we learned, and if the results were good, we massively share the metric itself and celebrate.
Furthermore, even for tasks that haven't been deployed yet, whenever QA is completed and the work is totally done, we praise each other's hard work and have mini celebrations with emojis. Especially when a more grueling task is finished, we celebrate and enjoy it even more fiercely. We call this the Done Done Dance, meaning we dance after the work is done.
C. We regularly have offline team talk time.
When a grueling two-week sprint run comes to an end like this, we all gather together and have team talk time. Sometimes we grab coffee, sometimes we eat lunch, and sometimes we have dinner. This is entirely separate from the sprint review and retrospective; it's a concept of unwinding in a slightly more casual format. We have a fixed morning team talk time every two weeks, and if a particular sprint is expected to be exceptionally tough, we adjust the schedule and set it as an evening talk time. Usually, we share our thoughts on the previous sprint or discuss the mid-to-long-term direction we should take, but a significant portion goes to lighter topics—funny stories happening in the industry, what we're watching on OTT, and everyone's personal family and dating lives. It's one of the fixed times our team prioritizes just as much as sprint planning, reviews, and retrospectives.
Wrapping up,
Non-stop #1. Running continuously without stopping
A. There are no dead ends along the way.
B. If a teammate is busy running another task, I run for them.
C. Sprinting at full speed from the start.
D. We don't stop even after finishing all the sprint tasks.Non-stop #2. Entertaining like a sitcom
A. We mix in little bits of small talk during collaboration.
B. We joyfully celebrate every completed collaboration.
C. We regularly have offline team talk time.
If even one of the two attributes of the non-stop culture above were missing, it would end up being an unsuitable culture for a growth team.
If we run continuously without stopping but have zero fun, we could quickly burn out and drop off. We might achieve short-term results, but driving mid-to-long-term results could be tough. If it's purely fun and we don't run at all, then that's a social club, not a growth organization.
That's why a regular retrospective is essential so that these two attributes can be blended in proper balance.
As for this sprint,
Did we push ourselves too hard running?
Or was the fun element too lacking or too excessive?