Organisational effectiveness isn't just about making team members more productive, but properly structuring teams and understanding how they work together.

Small teams with high trust can make decisions quickly and maintain better context of what they're building, while being mindful of the cognitive load placed on members.

Matthew Skelton is the author of Team Topologies. He developed patterns for team organisation and devops that were adopted by companies like Netflix and Accenture. His work focuses on how to structure teams effectively in organisations, particularly looking at concepts like team cognitive load and team interaction modes.

Three reasons to listen

• Learn how small teams can achieve faster results and deliver value more effectively to users
• Understand the principles behind Amazon's "two pizza team" approach, including how trust enables quick decision-making in small groups
• Discover how organisations often lack self-awareness and how this becomes a major obstacle to their success

Episode highlights

• [00:11:47] The road to Team Topologies
• [00:17:18] Why collaboration is not the only answer
• [00:22:05] Creating flow for small teams
• [00:23:34] Making work humane
• [00:28:10] The Uswith example
• [00:30:45] Alternative schools of thought
• [00:34:56] Impact on team leaders
• [00:37:31] Conway's law
• [00:40:48] Decoupling of teams and architecture
• [00:46:08] Matthew's media recommendations
• [00:48:59] Takeaways from Pia and Dan

Links

• Team Topologies: Organizing Business and Technology Teams for Fast Flow –Matthew’s book
• The jazz ensemble: the ultimate team? – We Not Me
• Team Topologies’ Uswitch case study
• Conway's law
• Empowered Agile Transformation: Beyond the Framework, by Alexandra Stokes
• Architecture Modernization, by Nick Tune
• Frozen II (2019)
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