Building Teams Through Crisis: Lessons from a 40-Person Emergency Response

Crisis doesn’t build character; it reveals it. This adage is particularly true for technical teams thrust into high-pressure situations. One of the most formative experiences in my career involved leading a 40-person, globally distributed team through an existential threat: Facebook’s sudden deprecation of the Instagram API, a cornerstone of several key products including Chute.

It was a real-time scramble requiring deep product changes within an incredibly tight one-month deadline. The lessons learned about team building, leadership, and resilience in the face of adversity are invaluable.

The Unfolding Crisis: When the Ground Shifts Beneath You

Imagine core product functionalities, relied upon by major clients, evaporating virtually overnight. That was our reality. The Instagram API was not just a feature; it was integral to user workflows and data streams.

The challenge was multifaceted. We faced technical complexity that required re-architecting significant portions of multiple products. The time pressure was extreme: we had just one month to prevent catastrophic business disruption. Coordinating 40 individuals across numerous time zones, from engineering to product and operations, added another layer of complexity. Perhaps most challenging was maintaining morale and keeping such a large team focused and motivated under intense stress.

Forging Strength in the Fire: Key Leadership Strategies

Navigating this required more than just technical acumen; it demanded a specific leadership approach:

1. Crystal-Clear Communication & Shared Purpose: In a crisis, ambiguity is the enemy. The first step was to ensure every single team member understood the gravity of the situation, the exact technical challenges, and the overarching goal: business continuity. We established daily stand-ups (sometimes multiple per day for specific sub-teams) and a central communication hub to ensure information flowed freely and transparently.

2. Decisive Action & Empowered Execution: Analysis paralysis was not an option. We had to make rapid architectural decisions and empower sub-teams to own their respective areas. This meant trusting our engineers, providing them with the context they needed, and then getting out of their way to execute. Micromanagement in such a scenario breeds bottlenecks and kills initiative.

3. Structured Triage & Prioritization: With limited time, we couldn’t fix everything or build the “perfect” solution immediately. We ruthlessly prioritized features based on critical business impact, creating a phased rollout plan that addressed the most urgent needs first. This involved difficult trade-offs, clearly communicated and justified.

4. Fostering Psychological Safety & Resilience: The pressure was immense. It was crucial to create an environment where team members felt safe to voice concerns, admit mistakes quickly, and ask for help. We celebrated small wins, acknowledged the stress, and actively worked to support each other. This collective resilience was as important as any technical solution.

5. Cross-Functional Collaboration: This wasn’t just an engineering problem. Product managers, QA, operations, and even client communication teams had to work in lockstep. Breaking down silos and ensuring tight feedback loops across functions was paramount.

Technical Underpinnings of a Rapid Response

While leadership set the tone, specific technical strategies were vital. Thankfully, parts of the existing system had a reasonably modular design, which allowed us to isolate and replace affected components more easily than if it had been a complete monolith. For new API integrations or workaround solutions, we adopted a rapid prototyping approach to quickly validate technical feasibility before wider implementation.

As new changes were rolled out, intensive monitoring was crucial to catch and address any issues immediately, preventing small problems from cascading. Where possible, existing automated tests were adapted, and new critical-path tests were written to ensure the stability of the rapidly evolving codebase.

The Aftermath: A Stronger, More Cohesive Team

Against the odds, the team delivered. We successfully navigated the API deprecation, implemented the necessary product changes within the deadline, and averted major business disruption. But the most significant outcome wasn’t just the technical achievement; it was the transformation of the team itself.

Working through such intense shared adversity created incredibly strong bonds between team members. The team emerged with a newfound confidence in their collective ability to tackle enormous challenges. The ad-hoc processes forged in the crisis laid the groundwork for more resilient and agile workflows moving forward.

Conclusion: Crisis as a Crucible for Growth

No leader wishes for a crisis. But when faced with one, it presents a unique opportunity to stress-test your team, your processes, and your own leadership capabilities. The Instagram API crisis was a crucible that forged a more resilient, collaborative, and high-performing team. The lessons in clear communication, decisive leadership, empowered execution, and fostering psychological safety remain core to how we approach team building and complex projects at Toki Labs today.

Leading a team through a firestorm isn’t about having all the answers. It’s about creating an environment where the team can find them together.