Small things, Big team. We had the pleasure to listen to…
By: Kris Curtis
Tags: Teamwork, Data, Dataviz, Team

Last week lots of employees from JUST EAT got the opportunity to meet up from across the world. Our #data team lead by Alberto Rey Villaverde , Chloë Stubbins and Matthew Cresswell made the decision to fly the majority of the data team in from across the globe.

We had the pleasure to listen to Matthew Davies — The Trust Triangle, which was informative and entertaining. Although rushed, we faced some honest truths about how we work as a team. I for one appreciated this and reflected on how my team and I can be better.

Teams are not just 3 or 4 people you sit next to each and every day, but teams consist of individuals that cover lots of different positions and skills. They work together with their unique skills to achieve success.

Think about professional sporting teams. How there are specialists in Cricket (bowlers, wicketkeepers and batsmen). In NFL you have teams split by their main function (Offense, Defense and Special Teams). Baseball you have pitchers and fielders on defense. Each fielder is also a specialist in offense/batting, in some cases that is their primary skill and fielding is sacrificed.

The point is, no matter what your role is or how specialised you are, remember that you rely on the rest of your team to succeed. Sometimes this is on a small project only relevant to you, but can also be across whole departments.

I personally wanted to thank the leadership group for this and look forward to build on our success and improve our weaknesses.

My team are called DataViz.

Team DataViz

They are are an amazing group of people, of who I am incredibly proud, but equally demanding of. It’s my job to make sure they reach their potential.

Our vision statement is

To deliver data products to facilitate understanding and inform decision making across Just Eat. Through the use of consistent design and quality data, we build trust in our products and focus our users by making data easily discoverable and accessible. We support data delivery by communicating and educating, converting data into innovative and ergonomic visualisations. We want to be the vital bridge between data, people and decision making. We are taking the data out of data each day.

The get together was also a great excuse to get a team t-shirt done. A special treat and a bit of fun to give my direct team an identity. Apologies to the brand team for possibly not being fully brand compliant.

Why the Peacock? I hear you ask.

At the start of the year we spent a day brainstorming strategy and objectives. Part of this was an exercise about “what is our team spirit animal?”

I do this to get people to think about what are the characteristics we want to be demonstrating, but in a fun way. We draw our animal and then talk about what it does.

We had an interesting range of animals from squirrels (prepared — storing acorns over winter) to honey bees, who are so passionate they are willing to die for their team (hive).

Each trait from the animals is incorporated into our team charter. Each team member has contributed to this and can see their input and was discussed with the others.

The values for our team are:

1) Prepared (Squirrel) — planning for the future, we build solutions that are not disposable and can grow for the business and can be used for years.

2) Communication (Capuchin monkey) — actively communicating who we are and what we do with the rest of the business, we build trust in our products and champion the delivery of high quality data

3) Positivity (Lion) — Looking at every situation in a practical perspective. Knowing you have to deliver because people are depending on you. We find solutions and learning opportunities as well as thinking the best of everything and everyone.

4) Confidence (Peacock) — Being bold in decision making, having a flair for design and faith in our processes and standing behind our work with pride.

5) Awareness (Meerkat) — Vigilant and resilient. Always on the lookout for where there is danger and risk, but being able to raise the alarm and avoid any disaster.

6) Passionate (Honey bee) — Surrounding ourselves with others who share the same enthusiasm and dedication to the end goal.

By associating a team with a mascot, in this case a Peacock, we reinforce our values we created in our minds. It is also a conversation starter, lots of people we may not known or have worked with yet were able to easily ask about it. One of the important topics raised in our Trust Triangle session, creating opportunities for introverts to engage with others if they want to.

So a few t-shirts and some iron on transfer didn’t break the bank, but it made a difference to my team. Just the thought that I was thinking of them and wanted to do something nice for them. Small things like taking your team for a lunch, or coffee or a game of mini golf. I am a firm believer that these little things add big value.

What are you doing to let your team know that they are special?