Shrink to Grow

How to perform a 'Shrink to Grow' in your team

Definition

Shrink to grow (S2G) is a paradoxical truth: the best way to grow, or to improve quality, is actually to first get smaller.

S2G is an exercise which identifies the ICs that need to be sent to RemoteCamp, sends them to RemoteCamp, and systematically increases your team’s quality. S2G is powerful, easy to execute, but requires some short term pain.

The #1 reason bad managers have for keeping the bottom performers is "I know their output is much lower than the best performer, but I need their meager output to hit the overall team goals".

This is a short-term mindset that produces the exactly wrong decision. Elite managers love S2G because it constantly increases quality and sharpens their team members.

S2G is closely tied to Rank and Review. Your Rank and Review will help you estimate the number of ICs you should send to RemoteCamp and S2G will provide you with the hard data to know the exact number to send.

Note: there is a strong productivity lesson in S2G but this lesson focuses on the quality impact of S2G.

How to do Shrink to Grow for your Team

We will use the following example to walk you through S2G step-by-step

Step 1: Calculate the average FTAR for your team

Step 2: Decide the number of people to send to RemoteCamp

See step 3 in Rank and Review to start with a base number of ICs to send to RemoteCamp. This does not have to be a hard and fast number, we just want to start with a number and will solidify it in step 8.

Step 3: Calculate the new average FTAR

Step 4: Calculate the impact on quality after shrink

This number will show you what your immediate impact on quality will be. This number will help you validate your S2G decision and set expectations with your manager.

Step 5: Estimate your returning ICs’ FTAR will be

ICs learn the WSPro frameworks during RemoteCamp which necessarily means their individual quality will increase once they graduate and return to your team.

For your S2G, you will need to estimate what their FTAR will be once they return; this number should be between the team’s average and 100.

Step 6: Calculate the new FTAR when ICs from RemoteCamp return

Step 7: Calculate the impact on quality after shrink and grow

Step 8: Try N+1 and N-1

In step 2 we started with a number from Rank and Review and now it’s time to decide a final number to send to RemoteCamp.

To be fully confident you are making the right decision, you need to run some simulations and observe what will improve quality the most. Run simulations for +1 and -1 of your first number.

Note: You do not need to blindly follow the output from this simulation and a certain level of discretion is necessary to make the right decision.

You may have a newcomer on the team who is rapidly improving quality but currently is towards the bottom of the stack rank.

Instead of sending this IC to RemoteCamp, it may be right to temporarily remove him from your Rank and Review and give him the standard ramp time for your team.

Use data-driven arguments, combined with your discretion, to make the right decision.

Step 9: Execute the decision

After this analysis, it’s time to send the ICs to RemoteCamp. As you do, make sure you communicate your decision clearly by explaining to the ICs why they are going to RemoteCamp.

They are not bad people who are about to get fired. While they are currently at an unacceptable level of quality, you believe in them and are paying them to learn tangible skills for four weeks and then plan to welcome them back to your team.

(If you don’t believe in them and even RemoteCamp will not be able to equip them for success, please see Rank and Review).

Be sure to communicate this message to your other team members so they understand this is a quality-improving decision.

Lastly, be sure to speak with the RemoteCamp leadership team so they are clear on your expectations for your ICs.

To ensure Engineering RemoteCamp is the right spot for your IC, you should identify 2 specific skills you expect your IC to learn while in Engineering RemoteCamp that will fix the root issue.

The complete list of skills is available in the ‘What is the WSPro Framework Matrix’ chapter. As you make ‘Send to RemoteCamp’ decisions in your slides, explicitly mention the 2 skills that, once learned, will fix the root issue of your IC.

Note: even if your team has a really smooth distribution (i.e. all members within +-1 standard deviation from average), there is still benefit in doing Shrink to Grow: you can still increase your team’s quality and provide your team members with four weeks of valuable and challenging training (all while they continue to earn their salary).