In this episode of Building Better Developers, hosts Rob Broadhead and Michael Meloche explore how to improve team collaboration in software development through the lens of AI-driven insights. Whether you’re a solo developer, part of a tight-knit team, or scaling across departments, collaboration remains the backbone of efficiency and success.
AI kicked off the discussion with a powerful insight: define “efficiency” in context. But more importantly, it highlighted that collaboration fuels efficiency, not just working faster, but working better.
Effective collaboration avoids:
Rob emphasized that a productive team isn’t rushing through tasks but solving the correct problems—together—on the first try.
Even solo developers need structured collaboration between their tools, their future selves, and their automation stack.
Top collaboration tips for independent devs:
“Solo doesn’t mean siloed. Collaborate with your tools, your past decisions, and future goals.”
For teams of 2–10 developers, Rob and Michael discussed how tight feedback loops and structured communication are essential to avoid chaos.
Recommended practices for small team collaboration:
Michael emphasized Agile’s power in synchronizing team efforts, avoiding duplicated work, and solving problems more efficiently as a unit.
“Agile helps teams collaborate—not just communicate. It keeps everyone moving in the same direction.”
AI highlighted four universal collaboration pain points and solutions:
Michael zeroed in on testing paralysis, especially in early-stage projects, where developers are too busy scaffolding to write tests. Without collaboration on testing plans, critical issues may be overlooked until it is too late.
Rob addressed context switching, warning against excessive meetings that fragment developer flow. Leads should shield devs from distraction by delivering distilled, actionable feedback.
As teams grow, minor issues scale fast, and so do inefficiencies. Tools, meetings, workflows, and expectations must all scale intentionally. Rob reminded leaders to summarize and distill information before passing it to their teams and to make clever use of tools like AI, recordings, and summaries to keep everyone aligned without wasting time.
“If you’re building better developers, you’re also building better collaborators.”
We invite you to join our community and share your coding journey with us. Whether you’re a seasoned developer or just starting, there’s always room to learn and grow together. Contact us at info@develpreneur.com with your questions, feedback, or suggestions for future episodes. Together, let’s continue exploring the exciting world of software development.
