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Key Takeaways
- Breaking employees into small, cross-functional teams can make productivity and communication better, and improve motivation.
- The nature of these teams requires collaboration, which inherently boost creativity and productivity already.
- Teams function better as a whole rather than a group of individuals — it boosts morale and creates a culture that makes employees want to be at work.
Back in 2014, I was at a crossroads.
My company, Jotform, was growing, but our output wasn’t. At the time, we had about 15 employees, and while everyone was working hard, it felt like we were spinning our wheels.
Each person was siloed, toiling away at their own projects. I was frustrated because the staff had grown too big for me to be directly involved in the product the way I had in our early days. I felt disconnected, and so did my employees.
So in 2015, I decided to switch things up: From then on, employees would be broken into small, cross-functional teams. Instead of bouncing between priorities, each team focused on a single product. I also paired each group with its own designer and gave them ownership from start to finish. It was a turning point.
Almost overnight, the quality of our work improved. The teams moved faster, communicated better and felt more motivated. Since then, cross-functional teams have become a core part of our culture — and one of our biggest competitive advantages.
Here’s why they work so well — and what other founders can learn from our experience.
Related: 4 Easy Ways to Build a Team-First Culture — and How It Makes Your Business Better
The human drive toward teamwork
It’s well-documented that humans are social creatures who thrive in group settings.
“The world is so complex, no one person has the skills or knowledge to accomplish all that we want to accomplish,” psychologist Susan McDaniel told the American Psychological Association. “Interdisciplinary teams are the way to make that happen.”
Beyond that, collaboration is known to boost creativity and productivity, which drives down cortisol levels and leaves employees feeling more fulfilled and engaged. As a white paper published by the University of North Carolina’s business school put it: “At the most basic level, people want to feel a sense of belonging, and as such, collaboration takes center stage because it helps create an environment in which people want to belong.”
Of course, it’s up to leaders to cultivate an environment where such teams are formed. In the early days of Jotform, I had just a handful of employees who were all close-knit, with everyone sharing in a sense of purpose. As we grew, we became more diffuse, and I felt our goals becoming hazy.
It was only then that I realized that being a great leader, for me, meant building a great team — one where everyone brought something different to the table, and whose skills complemented and strengthened the rest.
Related: 10 Simple Steps to Build an Exceptional and Efficient Team
The role of communication
Anyone who has hired knows how crucial it is to strike the right balance of personalities, skills and strengths. The same goes for assembling cross-functional teams.
Our teams are relatively compact, consisting of between three and five people — a senior developer, a front-end developer, a back-end developer, a designer and a CSS developer. Some also have project or product managers. They operate autonomously — what they work on and how they work on it is up to them, with some parameters.
Because of this autonomy, communication is absolutely crucial. Everyone contributes a unique set of skills, and it’s important to make sure each person is on the same page. This means that some teams are remote and others are co-located, but we never mix remote and on-site within the same team.
When forming a new team, it’s essential that communication norms are established off the bat, advises organizational psychologist David Burkus in a piece for Harvard Business Review. Early on, team members should decide on the basics of how they want to interact, from how often to do status updates to the preferred method of delivering feedback.
It may seem basic, but sorting the kinks out early can make a huge difference down the line. “Failure to establish collaboration norms tells teammates they can work and communicate however they want, making it more likely for messages to get missed,” Burkus writes. “In addition, without clear guidelines, some people will inevitably end up feeling out of the loop while others feel like they’re doing all the work.”
I completely agree. Communication breakdowns are responsible for a large proportion of inter-team friction. By addressing these would-be pain points early on, small teams are better positioned for success.
How cooperation builds trust
We keep our teams small for a reason: Being close-knit builds trust.
I’ve noticed that when our cross-functional teams trust each other, they work harder. No one wants to let others down.
Research bears this out: According to the Greenlight Research Institute, 74% of respondents don’t think their team is committed to their shared goals, while 71% aren’t committed to elevating one another through feedback. As such, the majority believe performance suffers, with 81% asserting that their team is not operating anywhere near their full potential.
Contrast that with what happens when teams work genuinely well together. I’ve observed firsthand that our teams function better as a whole than they do as individuals. They lift each other up when someone is stuck, celebrate their wins together and work through problems as a group.
It’s been 10 years since cross-functional teams became a cornerstone of Jotform’s culture, and I can say for certain that it was one of the best decisions I’ve made. As a leader, I have learned that your organization is only as strong as the people who work there, and that my role is to create an environment that allows them to thrive.
That doesn’t mean micromanaging or stepping in with all the answers. It means building the right structures, setting clear goals and then trusting your team to do what they do best. When people feel empowered, supported and connected to a common purpose, they deliver their best work.
Key Takeaways
- Breaking employees into small, cross-functional teams can make productivity and communication better, and improve motivation.
- The nature of these teams requires collaboration, which inherently boost creativity and productivity already.
- Teams function better as a whole rather than a group of individuals — it boosts morale and creates a culture that makes employees want to be at work.
Back in 2014, I was at a crossroads.
My company, Jotform, was growing, but our output wasn’t. At the time, we had about 15 employees, and while everyone was working hard, it felt like we were spinning our wheels.
Each person was siloed, toiling away at their own projects. I was frustrated because the staff had grown too big for me to be directly involved in the product the way I had in our early days. I felt disconnected, and so did my employees.
