Communication is constant and core. Generally, we communicated well in and outside of core hours but facilitating communication between disciplines on the team can always improve. Even when the team is working in stride, it's a constant goal to evaluate and improve the health of the team.

Conflict of interest can be difficult to juggle. During the course of development, I was lucky to work with close friends. Maintaining a professional boundary meant being an ear for frustrations but making it clear when I was acting as producer, not as a friend. 

Hierarchy is more than a job title. Our team was greatly affected by our lack of defined structure. It may have ruffled feathers to elevate certain members into roles with more leadership responsibility, but the cost to accountability and decision-making resulted in wasted time and effort.

There are some problems you shouldn't (or can't) fix. Acting as a middle man instead of a mediator likely dragged out problems between team members. By the end of development, it was far more productive to mediate conversations rather than act as a messenger.