Helping Teams Embrace Experimentation by Jennifer Parker

A lot of us put undue pressure on ourselves to get something to work immediately. Because of that, when we encounter obstacles, we make value judgements about our abilities. We tell ourselves that we should have the perfect solution or perfect architecture immediately, leaving no room for growth and learning.

The same holds true for teams. Teams that seek to lay blame and point the finger cultivate a culture of fear, uncertainty and doubt. If people are afraid of taking a risk, code-bases stagnate and languish as innovation takes a backseat to safety. Nobody wants to be seen as the person that caused a failure so everybody plays it safe, not doing anything until they are 100% sure of the outcome.

When we cast all of that aside and embrace the idea of failing as learning, amazing things start to happen. Retrospectives can shape this. When teams start to focus on what they learned and applying those learnings in real-time, transformative changes take place. Teams start to relish the idea of failing fast and experimentation as a catalyst to innovation.

One of the primary advantages of the "fail fast" approach is its ability to expedite learning. By encouraging rapid iterations and experimentation, software engineers and architects gain invaluable insights into what works and what doesn't at an early stage. This iterative process of trial and error allows for quick identification of weaknesses or inefficiencies, enabling teams to pivot swiftly toward more viable solutions.

Moreover, failing fast fosters a culture of innovation and adaptability within software development teams. When failure is destigmatized and seen as a natural part of the process, it encourages team members to take calculated risks, explore unconventional ideas, and push the boundaries of what's possible. This mindset shift also encourages and promotes empathy and team building within teams. When an individual is no longer stigmatized for failing or asking for help, diverse view points and ideas from others on the team can become the breakthrough needed for a great new solution or architecture.

By actively encouraging experimentation, teams open doors to new methodologies, technologies, and approaches. Experimentation allows for the exploration of uncharted territories, sparking creativity and uncovering innovative solutions that can significantly enhance software systems and architectures.

Furthermore, embracing failure and experimentation cultivates a culture of continuous improvement. Through constant iterations and refinements based on real-world feedback, software engineers and architects can fine-tune their designs and code, resulting in more robust, scalable, and maintable solutions. User adoption testing can refine the user experience through quick feedback loops. This iterative process promotes agility, enabling teams to adapt quickly to changing requirements and market demands.

Failing fast is not about recklessness or haphazard risks. It's not about shirking accountability or teams being okay with everything going wrong all the time. It's more about promoting a culture of experimentation where it's okay if certain assumptions and risks don't yield the outcomes we were initially hoping for; it's about systematic experimentation, collecting data, analyzing outcomes, and applying insights to drive meaningful progress.

By reframing failure as a valuable learning opportunity and fostering a culture of experimentation, teams can innovate more effectively, build resilient systems, and deliver software solutions that better align with evolving needs and expectations.

With the pace of innovation at an all-time high in 2023 and the promise of even more accelerated innovation in 2024, it’s critical that organizations adopt a framework and mindset for creating space within teams to promote new ideas. It’s our job as technology leaders to foster this through empathy and modeling these behaviors in 2024 and beyond. As we start off 2024, my wish for teams is for lots of great failures that lead to some amazing insights and breakthroughs.