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by dools 988 days ago
I ran a team of 26 people who worked together to produce software according to a set of procedures. There were clear instructions about accountability, moving stuck tasks, when/how work should be moved from one person to another, how the work was tested and so on. There was a role called Scheduling Assistant which was fulfilled by a person with no engineering experience, their only role was to ensure compliance with the process and pick up when something wasn't proceeding as expected.

I was a product manager but not really a project manager. I was also a tech lead: when things went awry and someone couldn't figure out how to get it unstuck I would unstick it, but in general the system just produced functional software. My primary inputs were sketches at the start and ongoing client feedback and so on.

All the workers were in different locations, in completely different timezones, and they all reported a high level of satisfaction. So I don't even think you need AI, you just need better procedures.

2 comments

Can you talk more about this (or share links if others have written about it)? Sounds fascinating!
What planet were you on where 26 people could be in completely different timezones?
Workers in different locations

Locations in different timezones