SRAM, LLC Leadership & Management

What’s a quotable hallmark of good management on your team — and how is it reinforced?

A hallmark of good management on our team is the consistent use of structured problem-solving to turn issues into learning and action quickly. We train teams across our global sites to use common frameworks so problems are clearly described, root causes are understood, and solutions are proposed by the people closest to the work. This approach has enabled effective cross-site collaboration, such as when our Taiwan operations team partnered with development teams in the United States and Europe to improve production test accuracy. Starting with understanding before action helps us focus on the changes that matter most.

That discipline works because leaders model poise under pressure and explicitly reward surfacing issues. Leaders are expected to stay calm, curious and constructive when something breaks, reinforcing the idea that you can’t fix what you don’t know is broken. This has been a hallmark of SRAM since our founding, modeled at the highest levels. High trust shows up clearly in our sprint retrospectives. We set the expectation of high candor and continuous improvement, ensuring nothing is too sacred to question if it helps the team get better.

Which forum or ritual keeps priorities and expectations clear?

We reinforce alignment through tiered standups held at the team, manager and senior leadership levels. These forums focus on surfacing exceptions quickly, clarifying tradeoffs and ensuring the teams get the right support. Leaders challenge themselves to clear roadblocks for their teams and demonstrate servant leadership. When work spans locations, we deliberately invest in relationships through strong communication, virtual collaboration and in-person workshops.

Quarterly OKR planning aligns strategy and execution. Teams don’t just receive objectives — they help shape them by identifying what’s working, what’s broken and where improvements closest to their work can advance our goals. For example, in support of a high-level objective to reduce waste and clarify processes, we’re taking a fresh look at how we review and release our electronics designs. We’re revisiting process participants and reviewing content to improve effectiveness and reduce cycle time. These improvement initiatives are kept visible alongside project work in our agile backlog, revisited quarterly, and adjusted or retired if they no longer have impact. That discipline keeps us focused on changes that matter.

What part of the strategy excites people — and what metric shows progress?

SRAM benefits from a workforce deeply connected to the products we build, as many employees are cyclists and users of the products. That connection creates shared pride in our work and a sense of achievement when we launch something new. Our strategic focus — to create products and experiences that inspire cyclists and expand the potential of cycling — keeps us very centered around that shared passion.

Over the past decade, SRAM has led our industry, bringing electronics and software to high-end cycling. As software engineering has become critical to SRAM, we’ve raised our bar for excellence within the function. We’re making improvements across the software lifecycle, from early architecture to integration test automation. This objective has been brought to life through several team-driven initiatives aimed at high-impact opportunities.

We’re now piloting use of DX experience development metrics, enabling tracking and honest evaluation of our progress. Metrics include both objective measures of development effectiveness, as well as subjective assessments of developer experience. Through periodic measurement and high-candor feedback from our teams, we’ll re-focus areas for improvement over time.