On this episode of the Traction podcast, host Lloyed Lobo of Boast.AI welcomes Jeff Lawson, CEO and Co-Founder of Twilio, for a lively discussion about how to build high performing software teams.

Jeff goes over his career journey, which included stops at Stub Hub and Amazon before starting Twilio. Along the way, he discovered that it is difficult to put in the time and energy needed to build a product or service if you aren’t passionate about it.

The way to get developers passionate about what they’re doing is to give them ownership of the project. Writing code is a creative problem-solving process. Developers don’t want to work on assignments — they want to solve problems using their knowledge and experience.

Developers work best in small teams. No matter how much the organization grows, keep teams at around 10 people, and give them a single threaded leader. Then that team can own one specific problem, and they will be passionate about solving that problem. As the team grows, divide it into new, smaller teams. This will keep the passion flowing.

You can tell by listening to Jeff that he has an infectious passion for building strong software teams.

Resources:

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How To Build High Performing Software Teams, with Jeff Lawson, Twilio

Traction