34. Not just team building, dream building with Brittany Summitt

When you work with a great team, it’s a magical experience and everything seems to fall into place. It might seem like it just happens organically, but a great team culture doesn’t happen on its own. It takes time, planning, and nurturing. To put it simply, it takes a lot of effort.

This week, we talk with Brittany Summitt, Product Owner at Carrier, about how to make sure we create an environment where high-performing teams can grow, sustain themselves, scale, and influence other teams along the way.

Brittany offers a ton of great tips and tricks, including a framework she’s come up with to help us ensure we are paying as much attention to building our team’s culture as we are to writing clean code or pixel-perfect wireframes.

Topics:
• 03:03 – How do we assess the culture to know where to start?
• 05:09 – What are some common culture issues with teams?
• 05:22 – “People will never forget how you made them feel”
• 06:59 – Are people just people, regardless of role?
• 09:45 – You don’t have to be a manager to influence team culture
• 10:17 – Do the self-management it takes to be a manger
• 10:57 – Takeaways when moving into a senior role
• 12:27 – On psychological safety
• 14:45 – On creating team values
• 16:14 – Changing team dynamics but keeping team culture requires intention
• 18:21 – When might a team need to establish and document values?
• 19:57 – How can our culture be scalable and reusable?
• 23:42 – Don’t lead with the process, lead with the people
• 26:05 – SmartShop’s team values
• 26:57 – Once you establish your values, figure out how to keep them top of mind
• 29:31 – How do you build a real good culture?
• 30:11 – A framework for incorporating people work in software development
• 30:45 – What: what are we doing? What am I doing, what are you doing?
• 31:24 – Who: Who are we? What do we believe in?
• 31:41 – How: How do we work together as a team?
• 33:17 – Where: Where are we going as a team? Where am I going with my career?
• 36:22 – Why: Why are we doing what we’re doing? Why did we make this decision?
• 40:35 – Organic moments don’t just happen. It takes effort to get the team there
• 41:17 – Organic moments might not be transferrable across different teams
• 41:44 – The principles and foundations are transferrable
• 43:15 – Layering in the fun doesn’t have to be expensive
• 43:55 – Include as many people in user research as possible

Helpful Links:
• Brene Brown – The Power of Vulnerability
• Brene Brown on Instagram
• ” I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou

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About Brittany
Brittany works as a Digital Product Owner. She’s a career changer, coming from student affairs at colleges and universities to software. She has a diverse background in digital product management including experience at Disney, Hilton, and GE. She’s passionate about people, culture, and process work. Brittany lives in Florida with her husband and two children.  

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Episode thumbnail by Hannah Busing on Unsplash