Engineering Teams
Exalynt is a community of stable, collaborative Engineering Teams. Each team is a long-lived group of engineers who work together, support each other, build shared practices, and pursue excellence together. Teams serve clients with continuity and shared ownership, and every engineer keeps the freedom to contribute wherever they can create meaningful value. This page is the home for how teams work: who is on them, how they relate to clients, and how engineers work across them.
- Engineers belong to one team, but can contribute anywhere in Exalynt.
- Teams provide continuity, not exclusivity.
- Team Leads facilitate collaboration and coordination, not traditional management (details).
- Teammates are paid to help each other, through team support on every block (details).
What a team is
A team exists independently of any client, project, or capacity purchase. It gives engineers a stable group of colleagues to build familiarity, trust, and good working relationships with over time. Succeed together
- Each engineer belongs to exactly one team at a time, including the engineer who leads it.
- Each team has one Team Lead, who is a member of that team and leads no other.
- Membership is stable. Engineers can move between teams when it makes sense, but changes are intentional, not routine. Exalynt doesn't reorganize teams just to use short-term capacity more fully.
- Exalynt decides who is on each team. It may consult Team Leads, engineers, or clients where that helps, but the decision is Exalynt's.
- Membership doesn't limit where you contribute. Being on one team never stops an engineer from working with or helping another (details).
A team has 2 to 6 engineers, including the Team Lead: small enough that everyone can collaborate closely, communicate easily, and share an understanding of the team's work. A "two-pizza team" is a good informal guide. 6 is the most a team can have.
Teams and clients
Every active client receiving engineering services has at least one assigned team. A team may serve one client or several, especially when those clients each need a modest amount of capacity. A client may have more than one assigned team when the scale or nature of their work warrants it. Exalynt assigns teams to clients.
We prefer a stable relationship between a client and their team. Whenever practical:
- The same team keeps supporting the client over time, and gets to know their business, software, goals, and priorities.
- New capacity goes first to engineers on an assigned team (details).
- Assignments aren't shuffled to fill short-term gaps. Exalynt changes them when the client's needs justify it, such as assigning another team as the work grows.
- A client keeps their team when they pause. A client who isn't buying capacity for a while still has an assigned team when they return.
Team assignments represent ongoing relationships, not reservations of engineering capacity or guarantees of any engineer's availability.
A product on an operations plan also has a named owning team and an escalation path. The owning team shares accountability for that product in production, so the plan names a team rather than relying on one engineer.
Continuity, not exclusivity
Teams provide continuity, not exclusivity.
A client benefits from what their assigned team knows about them, and can also benefit from expertise and capacity elsewhere in Exalynt. In the same way, a team has ongoing client relationships without being limited to working only for those clients. These ideas work together: continuity is what the client gets from a team, and non-exclusivity keeps teams connected and the capacity model flexible.
| Continuity means | Non-exclusivity means |
|---|---|
| Familiar engineers on the client's work whenever practical. | A team may serve several clients. |
| Client-specific knowledge is kept and shared within the team. | Engineers from any team can help when that serves the client. |
| Consistent relationships and a consistent engineering direction. | A client doesn't reserve particular engineers or capacity. |
| A team that understands, and cares about, the client's success. | A team's engineers also contribute to other teams' clients. |
| Less time re-explaining the same business problems each iteration. | Who fulfills capacity can adapt as needs and availability change. |
A client works with Exalynt as an organization, supported by a familiar team, rather than depending entirely on one engineer. If one person is away, busy, or moves on, their team still knows the client and the software.
How capacity is fulfilled
Clients buy Engineering Capacity in blocks, one iteration at a time. Teams don't change what a block is, what it costs, or how its engineer is paid: each block is still fulfilled by one engineer and never shared, and the engineer's teammates are paid team support on it. What a team changes is who Exalynt looks to first.
- The assigned team comes first, where practical. When a client buys capacity, Exalynt assigns it to engineers on the client's assigned team, within their availability, before looking elsewhere.
- Work goes where it best serves the client. Who takes a block depends on availability, relevant expertise, context, and what the work needs.
- Membership isn't an entitlement. Being on a team doesn't entitle an engineer to its clients' blocks, and Exalynt doesn't allocate capacity just to keep someone busy.
- Engineers fulfill what's assigned within their availability. Engineers tell Exalynt how much capacity they can fulfill, and are expected to fulfill capacity assigned within it (details).
A team assignment doesn't require the client to buy a fixed amount of capacity, or any capacity in a given week.
Working across teams
We want Exalynt to work as one connected community of engineers, not a set of isolated teams. Team boundaries are there for belonging, stability, and accountability, not to keep people apart. Whatever team you're on, you can:
- Fulfill capacity for clients assigned to another team.
- Help another team when it doesn't have enough capacity available.
- Bring specialized expertise to another team's work.
- Pair and review code with engineers on other teams.
- Help troubleshoot difficult problems wherever they come up.
- Share knowledge, practices, and discoveries so other teams can build on them.
Ordinary reviews, pairing, and help are part of every block's shared engineering contribution. When cross-team help grows into sustained ownership or substantial implementation, coordinate it so it's handled through assignments and compensation under existing policies (details).
Overflow
When a client's assigned team can't fulfill all the capacity the client wants, Exalynt may involve engineers from another team. For example:
- Team Alpha normally supports Client A.
- Client A buys more capacity than Team Alpha can reasonably fulfill.
- An engineer from Team Beta fulfills some of that capacity.
- That engineer stays a member of Team Beta, and Team Alpha stays Client A's established team.
- The two teams share the context needed to deliver value.
Helping out doesn't change anyone's team or any client's assigned team. Overflow should support continuity, not undermine it, so avoid unnecessary handoffs and repeated switching between contexts.
Being on a team
This section is for Exalynt engineers.
Being on a team is more than taking its clients' blocks. You're one of the people those clients rely on to understand their business and look after their software, and you share that responsibility with your teammates. Take ownership
Shared ownership
As a member of a team:
- Understand your clients' goals and business context, not just the task in front of you (Start from what the client wants).
- Take responsibility for the quality and sustainability of the software, including parts you didn't write.
- Share decisions and context with your teammates, so the next person to pick up the work doesn't start from scratch.
- Review and pair on your team's work where it helps, as part of your shared engineering contribution.
- Support your teammates through discussion, pairing, mentoring, and knowledge sharing.
- Keep critical knowledge from living in one head. If only one person understands something important, write it down or pair on it.
- Think about your clients' long-term success, not only the immediate block.
Working as a team doesn't mean everyone takes part in every task, decision, or project. Each block still has one engineer who owns it end to end and uses their own judgment, and each engineer stays accountable for their own work. The team succeeds when each person does their part well and keeps the others informed.
Your Team Lead
Your team's Team Lead is one of your teammates. They help the team coordinate, stay aligned on its clients' goals, share context, and work with other teams. When the team can't agree, they break the tie and have the final say on technical direction and other team decisions, and we expect them to use that sparingly and fairly (details). They aren't your manager, they don't need to approve your work, and they keep fulfilling blocks like everyone else.
A Team Lead is an enhancer, not a replacement. Having one doesn't change your responsibility to understand your clients, build good relationships with them, and own your work end to end.
Team support
Every block you fulfill pays Team support to your available teammates, and every block they fulfill pays it to you. Each available teammate is paid 3% of the block's Capacity Payout Basis, which is $210 on a Dedicated block (details).
- Available teammates are the members of the fulfilling engineer's team with some availability that week, other than the Team Lead and the engineer. A full team has up to 4, and each is paid the same share, so a block pays more team support the more teammates are available.
- It's paid by availability, not tracked. Nobody logs who helped on which block. When you're available, you're expected to help your teammates' blocks succeed through reviews, pairing, and shared context, and team support pays you for it.
- It's on top of everything else. It doesn't reduce the engineer payout or the Team Lead payout, and it doesn't change what the client pays. It comes out of what Exalynt would otherwise retain (details).
- It follows the fulfilling engineer's team, not the client's assigned team. A block fulfilled as overflow pays team support to its engineer's own teammates.
- The Team Lead isn't paid team support, because they earn a Team Lead payout on every block their team fulfills.
Frequently asked questions
Do I get a team even if I only buy a small block now and then?
Yes. Every active client has at least one assigned team. Your team may also serve other clients, which is part of what lets it stay with you when you need only a little capacity.
Do I keep my team if I stop buying capacity for a while?
Yes. Your team assignment is an ongoing relationship, so it stays in place while you pause. Some of its engineers may be busy elsewhere when you return, but the team still knows your business and your software.
Does buying capacity reserve engineers for me?
No. A block is Exalynt's commitment to apply that capacity to your work, not exclusive access to a particular engineer. We look to your assigned team first when deciding who fulfills it, and may involve engineers from other teams when that serves you better.
What happens if an engineer leaves my team?
The rest of the team still knows your business and your software, and changes are made with a handover, so the work continues. Anyone who joins starts with the context the team has built up.
Does a team cost more?
No. Block prices are the same, and there's no charge for having an assigned team. When engineers review or pair on each other's work, that's part of the capacity you already buy. Exalynt pays team support out of what it retains, not on top of your price.
Who decides who's on a team, and which clients it serves?
Exalynt. It may consult Team Leads, engineers, or clients where that helps, and it weighs clients' needs, relevant skills, availability, and sustainable workloads, but the decision is Exalynt's. Blocks are still assigned within the availability you've given (details).
Can I be on more than one team?
No. Each engineer belongs to one team at a time, including Team Leads. You can still contribute to any team or client when that's useful (details).
Can I work for a client my team isn't assigned to?
Yes. You can fulfill blocks for another team's client, for example as overflow or for your expertise. You stay on your own team, and the client keeps its assigned team.
As an engineer, am I guaranteed my team's clients' blocks?
No. Your team's clients' capacity goes to engineers on the team first where practical, but membership doesn't entitle anyone to particular blocks. Work goes to whoever best serves the client given availability, expertise, and context, and Exalynt still doesn't guarantee a number of blocks or a monthly income (details).
Does being on a team change my pay?
Your engineer payout for a block is the same whichever team's client it's for (details). What your team adds is team support: you're paid 3% of the basis on each block a teammate fulfills in a week you're available, and they're paid it on yours. Your team's Team Lead also earns a Team Lead payout on your blocks. Exalynt bears both, and neither reduces your payout.