The Turnaround Playbook

Diagnosis: Understanding What Went Wrong

The first step is always diagnosis, not treatment. I spend my first two weeks doing nothing but listening and observing. I interview every team member individually, review the backlog, examine the codebase, and study the communication patterns.

Common symptoms include: unclear requirements, technical debt preventing progress, lack of automated testing, poor communication between product and engineering, unrealistic deadlines, and team burnout.

The key is identifying root causes, not symptoms. A team that's missing deadlines might seem like an execution problem, but often it's a planning or communication problem upstream.

Stabilization: Creating Immediate Wins

Once you understand the problems, resist the urge to fix everything at once. Instead, identify 2-3 quick wins that will build confidence and demonstrate that change is possible.

This might mean fixing a particularly annoying bug, automating a manual process that wastes hours every week, or resolving a long-standing technical debt issue that blocks other work.

The goal of this phase is psychological as much as practical. Teams that have been struggling need to remember what success feels like before they can tackle bigger challenges.

Process Redesign: Building Sustainable Systems

With some momentum established, it's time to address systemic issues. I typically focus on three areas: planning, execution, and communication.

For planning: implement proper sprint planning with realistic capacity estimates, establish clear definition of done, and create a transparent prioritization framework that stakeholders understand.

For execution: introduce or improve code review processes, establish testing standards, and implement CI/CD if not already in place. The goal is to make quality the default, not an aspiration.

For communication: establish regular cadences for syncing with stakeholders, create visibility into progress through dashboards or reports, and foster direct communication between engineers and product owners.

Cultural Reset: Addressing Team Dynamics

Process changes alone won't fix a team that's lost trust or psychological safety. Cultural issues must be addressed directly.

I create forums where team members can voice concerns without fear of repercussion. I establish norms around blameless post-mortems and constructive feedback. I model vulnerability by admitting my own mistakes.

Often, teams have fallen into patterns of blame-shifting or learned helplessness. Breaking these patterns requires consistent modeling of better behaviors and celebrating when team members demonstrate the culture you want to build.

Scaling Success: Making Changes Stick

The hardest part of any turnaround is making sure improvements persist after the initial intervention. This requires transferring ownership to the team.

I document everything we've changed and why. I identify "culture carriers" within the team who can champion the new ways of working. I establish metrics that make progress visible and create accountability.

By the time I transition out, the team should be self-correcting and capable of continuing to improve without external intervention.

Conclusion

Turning around a struggling engineering team is challenging but deeply rewarding work. The framework I've outlined here - Diagnose, Stabilize, Redesign, Reset, Scale - has worked across different companies, team sizes, and technical stacks. The key is patience, empathy, and a commitment to addressing root causes rather than symptoms.