The Unicorn Project: A Novel about Developers, Digital Disruption, and Thriving in the Age of Data

by Gene Kim

It may not be the most elegant piece of software she’s seen, but things that have been in production for twenty years rarely are. Software is like a city, constantly undergoing change, needing renovations and repair.

In her MRP team, any developer could test their own code and even push code into production themselves. They didn’t have to wait weeks for other people to do that work for them. Being able to test and push code to production is more productive, makes for happier customers, creates accountability of code quality to the people who write it, and also makes the work more joyful and rewarding.

This is not the famous Amazon ideal of the “two-pizza team,” where features can be created by individual teams that can be fed with two pizzas.

In hindsight, giving the team a unique name is probably long overdue. She’s always loved the Tuckman phases of teams, going through form, storm, norm, and perform. She’s ready to start norming and performing! And team names help create an identity for the entire group, not just for individuals, and they reinforce the notion that team goals are more important than individual goals.