Richard Orme, CTO of Photobox Group spoke to CIO UK about the decision to set up a multidisciplinary ‘Squad team’.
“Eight months ago, we completely re-imagined the operating model for the business,” said Orme. “We moved to a squad model, which was a really big jump for us to make. The idea of a squad model is a group of people who have very diverse skill sets, who would traditionally either sit in marketing, or software engineering, or testing, or infrastructure, or security, or commercial and pricing. Now, all working on one goal.”
“All that they are measured on and supported on is, how do you get to the goal?” Orme said. “It’s about how much of a challenge you want, in terms of solving a problem – because any idea within the squad is a valid idea that the squad debates, so we’ve removed hierarchy to some degree.”
So far, the squad model is working well, with squads exceeding expectations. The squad model was first piloted within Photobox’s sister brand, Moonpig, and resulted in £7 million in incremental revenue being made in the last financial year, as well as boosting employee engagement, the quality and speed of delivery of products.