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MoreNiche is a highly successful performance and affiliate marketing agency based in Nottingham, UK. Founded by CEO Andy Slack in 2002, the company has weathered dramatic market shifts and recessions to become a successful, durable and high-energy organisation. After a structural change in April 2019, Andy decided it was time for a reboot, and wanted to create a values-driven, innovative organisation that was a great place to work as well as being highly successful in an ever more competitive marketplace.<\/span><\/p>\n To assist us on this journey, the key MoreNiche values were distilled through a series of workshops and collaborative work:<\/span><\/p>\n Alongside using these values to help us on our journey, it was clear that the \u201cold\u201d ways of working weren\u2019t going to get us there, and so the MoreNiche \u201cTeam of Teams\u201d concept grew from Andy\u2019s concept of a highly autonomous, flat team structure that burns the ships of traditional hierarchies and command-control management.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Whilst teams at MoreNiche used to be aligned around functions, they\u2019re now aligned towards value streams and goals, such as particular brands or projects. This reduces dependencies outside the teams, meaning team members can decide and act more autonomously, without having to go outside the team, and this improves flow, delivery and quality. Team members can join and leave teams when and if they can add value to the team.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Teams are limited to seven members, with exceptions occasionally permitted if necessary, and people may be on a maximum of three teams at any one time. This way, team members do not over-commit themselves and increase their cognitive load or workload to a point where they feel their performance would be affected.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Each team has a leader, and they understand how much time and effort is committed by everyone and thus can plan accordingly. Roles are defined within a team to ensure that the team possesses the skills required to execute 99% of the work required, and only occasionally will need to go outside the team for assistance. We\u2019re very aware that team members, including team leaders, cannot contribute effectively if the cognitive load is too great<\/a>, so the remit of team roles is sized appropriately.<\/span><\/p>\n Great Product Ownership is essential to delivering great value to customers, and to our business, so we also put a lot of effort into measuring business value and prioritising work based upon knowing what\u2019s truly important. This is delivered by quarterly planning sessions across teams where the priorities are established, and any constraints, dependencies or risks are identified. Every objective possesses a \u201cconfidence\u201d score as well as business value, and this confidence score is updated and communicated regularly, meaning that problems can be identified and resolved quickly, and team members feel safe in highlighting a concern that may impact delivery.<\/span><\/p>\n MoreNiche value-stream aligned teams are fully cross functional – people from almost every function are represented, so that decisions can be made quickly and actions can be taken inside the team without often having to pull in outside expertise or dependencies. Where certain technological dependencies exist, the \u201cEnabling\u201d team type in the Team Topologies model is represented in MoreNiche by teams such as SRE (Site Reliability Engineering), who\u2019s members are also members of value-stream teams but in addition possess their own backlog of work focussed on reliability, monitoring, pipelines and cost control. This SRE team also takes on some of the characteristics of the Platform Team type, largely because the size and shape of the organisation doesn\u2019t warrant a dedicated platform team.<\/span><\/p>\n As with any organisation, there are areas where multiple people across multiple teams share a common interest, skillset, or expertise. At MoreNiche, we call these groups Tribes, which facilitate innovation and knowledge sharing across the various stream-aligned teams.<\/span><\/p>\n Being \u201cRadically Inclusive\u201d is one of MoreNiche\u2019s core values, and not only are MoreNiche teams truly cross-functional, but a great deal of our team members are remote, so the teams value effective and high-cadence communication. Some teams have daily stand ups, some asynchronous stand ups via slack, and some rely on weekly video calls. Whatever the method, good communication is essential.<\/span><\/p>\n Some teams work in sprint-like periods of focussed time, some with a continuous kanban style of work, and some simply use basic to-do lists. It really depends on what the team needs – one of our values is \u201cKeep It Simple\u201d, so we don\u2019t add complication where it\u2019s not required.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Another one of MoreNiche\u2019s values is \u201cEvolve or Die\u201d, which means everything we do is an experiment. So everything from the planning process, the tools we use, the marketing campaigns or the technology we build is all subject to review and retrospective. If we do something and don\u2019t check in to see if it\u2019s working, how do we know that we\u2019re spending time and money on the right things? Of course, it\u2019s also necessary to allow processes to mature, and people to learn, improve, and build expertise, so some of those experiments may be months long while some may be just hours long. In that vein, our entire operating model is subject to review, improvement and change, so by the time you read this, it\u2019ll certainly be out of date.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n We\u2019re crucially aware of team dynamic models like Tuckman\u2019s forming-storming-norming-performing<\/a>, and of course we\u2019re always striving towards performing. However, getting there takes time, practice and patience, so when people join a team, we ask that they commit to a minimum period. In the same vein, we want people to stay at MoreNiche for the long term, so providing pathways for career progression and recognition are important. Conversely, if someone leaves, we\u2019re glad to have been part of their journey, and we offer a return ticket back, should their career path cross our way again.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n We know that psychological safety is critical for building high performing teams, so we\u2019re adopting practices and skilling up team members and leaders to understand what roles they can play in increasing psychological safety in the teams that they\u2019re in, or indeed in teams they\u2019re not in. We want people to not only perform, but enjoy their work too. High performing teams aren\u2019t happy because they\u2019re high performing, they\u2019re high performing because they\u2019re happy.<\/span><\/p>\n We\u2019re learning so much from this process, and more importantly, we\u2019re having a lot of fun whilst doing it! If you\u2019d like to find out more, get in touch<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" MoreNiche is a highly successful performance and affiliate marketing agency based in Nottingham, UK. Founded by CEO Andy Slack in 2002, the company has weathered dramatic market shifts and recessions to become a successful, durable and high-energy organisation. After a structural change in April 2019, Andy decided it was time for a reboot, and … <\/p>\n\n
Cognitive Load<\/span><\/h2>\n
Cross-functional, stream-aligned teams<\/span><\/h2>\n
Experimentation<\/span><\/h2>\n
Psychological Safety<\/span><\/h2>\n