The third antipattern is X-led, where x can be user, design, product, etc. This can lead to 'product' making the decisions and 'engineering' building the thing – the opposite of what we want, Webber said.

Communication is primarily done through the hierarchy. With product vs engineering, we have an organisation that has split itself into two main areas, product and technology. Working on multiple teams, hours are wasted on context switching, Webber mentioned. The designer doesn’t have enough time for any of the teams, and no headspace to dedicate any thinking time to the teams. Then there’s another team that needs a designer, and the work is split into three teams. The designer can’t be in the stand-ups or retrospectives of both teams. She mentioned three collaboration anti-patterns that she has observed in her work:Īn example of one role across many teams would be a designer who works in two teams. Why can’t we all just get along, Webber questioned. Nowadays the ideal is to have specialists working together to create valuable outcomes. The question is, is that true for you, or for anyone? she asked. Webber started her talk by asking the audience to imagine what the best team can look like, having all the roles, and expertise, collaborating toward the outcome, with shared responsibility and great working relationships, and the ability to learn and try out new things.

She shared some approaches and techniques to break silos down to work together better. At QCon New York 2023 Emily Webber presented Bridging Silos and Overcoming Collaboration Antipatterns in Multidisciplinary Organisations, where she showed a worrying trend in the industry of specialisation and silos at the expense of collaboration, shared responsibility, and valuable outcomes.

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