4 Unconventional Practices From the Most Productive Engineering Team I've Studied

I've spent the last 2 years studying how hundreds of engineering teams operate. I've seen teams with elaborate processes that ship slowly, and lean teams that move fast but sacrifice quality. But nothing prepared me for what I discovered at Pylon.

Their engineering team breaks almost every conventional rule about how software teams should work. Yet they ship faster and with higher quality than teams with far more sophisticated processes. Here are the 4 things they do differently that completely changed my perspective on engineering productivity.

1. Zero Meetings Policy

Engineers at Pylon have zero scheduled meetings. When I asked to see a senior engineer's calendar for the week, it was completely empty. No standups, no sprint planning, no recurring meetings of any kind.

This approach ensures uninterrupted blocks of deep work for every engineer. There's still plenty of collaboration, but it happens organically when needed rather than on a predetermined schedule. Engineers can focus for hours without context switching, which is when the best engineering work actually happens.

This only works because they're in person 5 days a week. Remote teams need more structured communication, but when you're physically together, information flows naturally without the overhead of formal meetings.

2. Tight Knit Team

A majority of Pylon's engineering team worked at the same company previously. This gives them shared context that's impossible to replicate with new hires. They know who is good at what, implicitly follow the same practices, use the same tools and patterns, and genuinely enjoy working together.

The team also eats lunch together every day. This creates natural opportunities for information sharing without formal status updates. Engineers discuss what they're working on, surface potential conflicts before they become problems, and stay aligned on priorities.

Team chemistry and shared context are force multipliers for productivity. A cohesive team that trusts each other can move much faster than individually talented engineers who don't have established working relationships.

3. Optional Code Reviews

Code reviews at Pylon almost never happen. Engineers merge their own code and only request reviews if they need input, think they have a risky change, or are still onboarding.

This goes against conventional wisdom about code quality, but their reasoning is simple: if you hire skilled engineers and trust them, there's no reason to bottleneck every change with mandatory reviews.

This works because they hire carefully and only bring on engineers they trust to make good decisions. They're also their own customers, so any bugs or issues get caught quickly by internal users. The feedback loop between writing code and seeing results is as tight as possible.

The productivity gains are substantial. Engineers can ship features as soon as they're complete instead of waiting for review cycles. They can iterate quickly on ideas without getting stuck in approval processes.

4. Clean Up After Yourself

Pylon engineers address tech debt as it's created rather than letting it accumulate. Instead of prioritizing new features over code maintenance, they clean up complexity and update dependencies as part of their normal development process.

Most teams operate differently. They ship features first and assume they'll come back to clean up later. But "later" rarely comes, and tech debt accumulates until it becomes a major productivity drain.

Pylon's approach prevents this cycle. They're building for the long term, so sustained high velocity comes from continually minimizing code complexity and keeping the codebase modern. Engineers always work with clean code rather than fighting against legacy systems.

The Core Philosophy

All of these practices stem from one principle: hire builders you can trust and remove anything that slows them down.

Instead of adding process to catch mistakes, Pylon hires people who don't make mistakes. Instead of scheduling meetings to ensure alignment, they create conditions where alignment happens naturally. Instead of mandating reviews to maintain quality, they hire engineers who care about quality and trust them to deliver it.

This approach requires exceptional hiring and a willingness to break conventional rules. Most companies add process instead of solving the underlying trust and hiring problems. But when you get the people right, you can eliminate most of the friction that slows down typical engineering teams.

What Other Teams Can Learn

Not every team can immediately adopt Pylon's practices. But the underlying principles apply everywhere:

Minimize interruptions. Be ruthless about eliminating unnecessary meetings and processes that break focus. Engineers do their best work during uninterrupted deep work sessions.

Invest in team chemistry. Create opportunities for informal interaction and build trust between team members. This pays dividends in productivity and alignment.

Question mandatory processes. Many teams have standups, code reviews, and planning meetings because that's "how things are done," not because they add value. Challenge these assumptions.

Address problems at the source. Instead of adding process to catch issues, solve the root cause. If code quality is a problem, hire better engineers rather than adding more review steps.

The lesson from Pylon isn't that every team should copy their exact practices. It's that exceptional productivity comes from optimizing for trust and focus rather than adding oversight and process.

Sometimes the best way to improve your engineering team isn't to add something new. It's to remove the things that are slowing them down.