Substack Week: The Shared Ownership Challenge, Understanding Clear Accountability in Engineering Teams With Rafa Páez

Welcome to our Substack Week, where we interview thought leaders who publish newsletters on Substack to help you find inspiring voices that drive our community forward. In this episode, we explore the concept of shared ownership and its pitfalls with Rafa Páez, an experienced engineering leader with insights on creating clear accountability in teams.

In engineering teams, shared ownership often manifests as ambiguity in responsibility and accountability. Rafa shares a personal experience where assigning two engineers to lead an initiative resulted in nothing getting done, as each assumed the other would take action. This phenomenon highlights how shared ownership without clear accountability can lead to missed deadlines, poor quality deliverables, and team conflicts.

"It might not be my fault because I thought the other person was available, I thought the other person had more time to actually work on that initiative."

The bystander effect, a psychological phenomenon first identified by social psychologists, explains why people are less likely to take action when others are present. In a team setting, this manifests as members assuming someone else will take responsibility, leading to collective inaction. This effect can significantly impact team productivity and project outcomes.

"Because there are more people there, someone thinks that someone else will take care of that thing, whether it's a project, initiative, or any other action."

The Directly Responsible Individual (DRI) concept, popularized by Gitlab and Apple, addresses the accountability gap by ensuring one person is clearly responsible for each significant initiative. This framework emerged after a failed project launch where no clear ownership led to quality issues. The DRI approach creates clear lines of responsibility while maintaining collaborative team dynamics.

"You can have multiple DRIs for different aspects, but at the end, it needs to be one responsible for the overall project."

For leaders implementing the DRI framework, several key considerations are crucial for success. DRIs should be assigned thoughtfully based on skills and experience, with senior team members often better suited for these roles. The framework must be supported by a culture that empowers DRIs to make decisions while maintaining team collaboration.

"DRIs need to be empowered to make decisions. If they are not empowered to make decisions, this role is not going to work because they're going to feel frustrated."

When implementing the DRI framework, leaders should be aware of potential anti-patterns that can emerge. These include DRIs becoming bottlenecks, erosion of team collaboration, and overuse of the framework for minor tasks. Success requires finding the right balance and ensuring the framework enhances rather than hinders team dynamics.

"Another issue or anti-pattern is the erosion of collaboration - some people might get the wrong concept about DRIs and say 'I don't need to collaborate anymore.'"

Creating a successful culture of accountability requires clear communication about the DRI role and its implications. Leaders must ensure DRIs are supported while maintaining team collaboration and avoiding the framework becoming overly bureaucratic. The focus should be on enabling effective decision-making and clear ownership while preserving team dynamics.

"Consider the skills when assigning DRIs, support people in this role, and remember that DRI is an organizational agnostic framework that adapts to the organizations we are within."

• The Gitlab handbook article about the DRI concept

• The book: Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink

• The Engineering Leader newsletter by Rafa Páez

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About Rafa Páez

Rafa is a Software Engineer and Engineering Leader with over 20 years of experience, including more than 7 years in leadership positions within fast-paced startups. Based in Spain, he works remotely as an Engineering Manager for Remote. Previously, Rafa worked for companies such as Cabify and Funding Circle. He is passionate about leading high-performing teams and scaling platforms and engineering organizations.

You can connect with Rafa Páez on Substack.