Chapter 11. Planning
Andrew: We wanted to start out by asking you about your background. How did you come to know about the things you know about how teams work?
Mike: Well, I guess I got kind of lucky in one of the first programming jobs I had. My boss didn't know what to do with us. He wasn't a manager of programmers at all, so he ended up putting me in charge, even though I didn't have a lot of experience doing that myself. I had a little bit more than the other developers that I was working with, as there were just four of us at the time. I just kind of ended up being a team lead there. From there, I ended up running various software development teams, and worked my way up to being a VP of engineering at a handful of companies. I got a lot of exposure to different types of companies from that.
Jenny: Through all of that experience, can you tell us specifically what characterized some of the better teams that you've been on, and if there's anything that they've had in common?
Mike: Normally what the better teams I've been on have really ...
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