Build Squad
A cross-functional pod of six to ten experts delivering in two-week sprints with outcome-based milestones. Small, senior teams ship faster and de-risk delivery. Squads own value, not just velocity, and maintain close alignment with stakeholders.
Overview
The Build Squad is our principal-led delivery model for rapid, high-quality execution. Comprising 6–10 senior practitioners organized in cross-functional pods, squads deliver working software every two weeks while measuring business value movement.
Unlike traditional project teams, Build Squads own outcomes end-to-end. They combine deep technical expertise with product thinking, ensuring that every feature ships with clear value hypotheses and measurement frameworks. This model scales by adding pods—not by diluting seniority.
Pod Composition
Each Build Squad pod includes a carefully balanced mix of expertise:
Leadership
- Lead Architect (principal level)
- Product Lead
- Tech Lead
Engineering
- Platform Engineers (2–3)
- Data Engineers
- Application Engineers
- Security Engineers
Operations
- SRE/DevOps Engineers
- QA/Test Engineers
- UX/Design (as needed)
Support
- Delivery Manager
- Business Analyst
- Scrum Master
Two-Week Sprint Rhythm
Every sprint follows a disciplined rhythm that balances discovery, delivery, and hardening:
Sprint Planning & Discovery
- Stakeholder alignment and requirement refinement
- Technical design and architecture decisions
- Task breakdown and assignment
- Risk identification and mitigation
Delivery & Integration
- Feature development and integration
- Continuous testing and quality gates
- Daily standups and progress tracking
- Stakeholder demos and feedback loops
Hardening & Release
- Quality assurance and performance testing
- Security reviews and compliance checks
- Sprint demo and KPI review
- Retrospective and improvement planning
Quality Built-In
Golden paths, test automation, and evaluation suites are part of the definition of done. We ship behind feature flags and roll forward when safe, ensuring that quality is not an afterthought but a core deliverable.
Automated Testing
- Unit and integration tests
- End-to-end test suites
- Performance benchmarks
- Security scanning
Feature Flags
- Gradual rollout capability
- Instant rollback mechanisms
- A/B testing infrastructure
- Targeted audience control
Golden Paths
- Standardized templates
- Best practice patterns
- Compliance by default
- Documentation and examples
SRE and Security by Design
SLOs are defined up front; observability traces user journeys end-to-end. Security controls are embedded in templates so every new service starts compliant. This proactive approach prevents technical debt and ensures operational excellence from day one.
Value Measurement
Build Squads measure value movement every sprint, not just velocity. We track business KPIs alongside engineering metrics, ensuring that every feature contributes to measurable outcomes.
Business Metrics
- Conversion rates
- User engagement
- Cost per transaction
- Revenue impact
Engineering Metrics
- Latency and throughput
- Reliability and availability
- Error rates
- Unit cost
Case Example
Retail Platform Squad
Challenge: A major retailer needed to modernize their e-commerce platform to improve performance, reduce costs, and enable faster feature delivery.
Approach: We deployed a Build Squad pod of 8 senior practitioners who delivered in two-week sprints, shipping IDP templates, recommendations API, and comprehensive observability.
Results:
- 40% reduction in lead time for new features
- 30% drop in production incidents
- 99.95% SLO achievement
- 25% reduction in infrastructure costs
- Faster time-to-market for new capabilities
Ready to deploy a Build Squad?
Let's discuss your project and assemble the right pod.