The Good the Bad the Ugly: Making Teams Perform Better

What is the focus of your work these days?

I am an Engineering Manager at Deliveroo. I joined the company about 3 years ago as a software engineer and changed roles 2.5 years ago. I look after Logistics Algorithms and Rider Pricing teams at the same time.

What is the motivation for your talk?

I think it is really useful to bring real case studies to the audience and share my takeaways about working in a really fast-paced environment. My talk will reveal real examples of challenges and specific actions that we took in order to solve them as well as what I have learned from being in a multidisciplinary team that has built Pricing systems from the ground up.

How would you describe the persona and the level of the target audience for your presentation?

I think it is relevant both for ICs as well as managers, really anyone who’s building products and working in multidisciplinary teams. I would say it will probably be especially relevant for Engineering Managers Lead or aspiring lead ICs. Even if individuals are really successful, the team might not be. And this is something that I'm going to touch on in my talk.

What do you want this persona to walk away from your talk with?

A team could achieve more than the individuals. There is a lot more overlap between disciplines and functions that you can imagine! Spoiler Alert: I’m going to bring an example of Engineers and Data Scientists and how they have removed the barriers between the two disciplines. Another takeaway is that change is the only constant in a fast paced working environment. We need to be very intentional about making and adapting to change, because it brings good. There is no point in resisting change. Iterate and find what works and take time to think from the first principles.