Our minimum team spec consists of 5 people. 2x front-end developers, 2x back-end developers, and 1x QA engineer. The pairs of developers will either be Senior + Senior or Senior + Mid-level. This minimum spec means a team is a) as small as possible, b) cross-functional and c) able to perform effective code reviews.
Our optimal team spec consists of 7 people and is achieved by adding 1x Junior front-end and 1x Junior back-end developer to the Minimum Spec.
Our design team consists of 2 people: the Head of Design and a Senior UX/UI Designer. They act as a floating resource for the development teams and marketing department.
All teams are given autonomy to tweak their own processes, as long as they don't impact other teams.
All team members have an equal voice when discussing ideas.
Examples include: refactoring Work Item statuses, new backlog templates, PR and Code Review processes.
All teams regularly review their own processes as part of their retrospectives.
We originally used Scrum, however we've found that Kanban really suits the level of autonomy we like to give our Engineers and find the level of administration and collaboration to bring the outcomes we need.
Work is centred around a continuous flow of work on a Kanban board and deployments are small and often. We still preserve some aspects of Scrum in terms of regular stakeholder demos and updates to help keep everyone in the loop and allow for feedback.
Teams organise their own retrospectives and these can vary in length and style, but generally they consider these things:
What might a random day look like?
| Activity | Description |
| Morning Stand-up | You'll meet with your team mates, normally over Teams, first thing in the morning. You'll have updated your work items beforehand and, during the short call, you'll all talk about yesterday, today and any blockages. |
| Deep Work | We value deep work. The sort of work you can only do when you're uninterupted for an extended period of time. Engineers can "go dark" in order to produce better results and avoid distractions. |
| Estimation planning | We take a pragmatic view on estimation and planning when working with our Product Managers. You may be asked to establish T-Shirt sizing to assist planning and resource allocation. |
| Code Review | You need to help out your team mates by Code Reviewing their Pull Requests. You'll use this opportunity to learn and promote best practices. |
| Video conference call | We use Microsoft Teams for our internal chat rooms and collborative calls. As a remote team we regularly speak to solve problems and resolve issues. |
| 1-2-1 | We hold regular 1-2-1s. This is an opportunity for you to openly discuss your thoughts and get feedback and talk about things that have excited you. |
| Updating the Kanban Board | We've tried Sprints in the past but right now, Kanban is the perfect fit for us. Not too many meetings and the right amount of structure to allow the work to flow.' |
As part of the Engineering Team we expect you to work hard, be driven, inspire your team mates and produce brilliant products. We expect you to be present at all required meetings, on time, and to prioritise the times when other people in the company will need to interact with you.
Your permanent place of work is your home. Expenses for travelling to and from our London office are covered by us, but you'll pay the first £50 of any journey.
You choose. You can work from our London offices, from your home, from a library or other space that suits the type of work you are trying to do on that particular day.