Optimizing for developer happiness

Optimizing fordeveloper happiness Chad Dickerson CTO, Etsy chad@etsy.com @chaddickersonVideo of talk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22EECFEk9Xs

We deploy code toproduction about 25x per day

Across a team of 70 engineers

We have a lot of people depending on us.

400,000+ active sellers

9+ million registered members

$300+ million in sales in 2010

> 1 billion page views / month

Business in over 150 countries

Culture.

One that optimizes fordeveloper happiness.

Erik Kastner

Ruby is designed to make programmers happy. — Yukihiro Matsumoto, aka “Matz”

Connect engineers to their work

by making iteasy to ship

with the support of a community.

Etsy operates internally like an online community: chaotic, irreverent,self-regulating and self-sustaining. -- Noah Sussman, Software Engineer

The way we do things shouldn’t work.

It does.

Constant progress

powered by

radical decentralization of authority

we trust people.

(and dogs)Dottie Milo “Dogs are part of the team, and are expected to commit code.”

Ari JM Diego Eric Seth

Code going out to our servers Milo Progress bar

Etsy respects the trade of engineering. Code as Craft. Theﬁrst time I came to Etsy there was a quilt over the roomwhere the engineers sat, it said "We [heart] engineers." - Bill Massie, Software Engineer

Peter Drucker

the traditional assembly line "deprives the worker ofsatisfaction. . . by the conﬁnement of the worker to one manipulation repeated endlessly which denies the satisfaction of ﬁnishing a job."

If companies really want their workers to produce, theyshould try to impart a sense of meaning—not justthrough vision statements but by allowing employees tofeel a sense of completion and ensuring that a job welldone is acknowledged. -- Dan Ariely, The Upside of Irrationality (2010)

Easy deploys =developer happiness

Complete.At Etsy, this cycle takes an average of 21 minutes.

Peter Drucker

“[the corporation’s] social function as a community is asimportant as its economic function as an eﬃcientproducer.”

We use it about 25x a day

The “Push Train”

Ross Snyder

IRC Topic

20:11 -!- ross changed the topic of #push to: steve | mike | rachel | bill | ross

1. steve2. mike 3. rachel 4. ross 5. bill

“intricate ballet in which the individualdancers and ensembles all havedistinctive parts which miraculouslyreinforce each other and compose anorderly whole.” Jane Jacobs

Community

The fact that the IRC and communication channels are as entertaining as theyare useful is great. It makes newcomers feel comfortable and supported. --Justin Donato, Software Engineer

We use tools

to build happy communities

“. . . . unconscious assumption of general streetsupport when the chips are down.”

Dev and ops cooperation. This can never be overstated.. . . . So manyengineers watching each others backs. --Mike Brittain, Software Engineer

Your team isyour community.

Help them ﬁnish things.

Give them a voice.

There is a quality even meaner than outrightugliness or disorder, and this meaner quality isthe dishonest mask of pretended order, achievedby ignoring or suppressing the real order that isstruggling to exist and to be served. Jane Jacobs The Death and Life of Great American Cities 1961

Build a community

where you allow realhuman order to emerge to get things done

and great things will happen.

Optimize for thehappiness of people.

Thank you.

Photo credits• Fred Wilson deploying: http://www.flickr.com/photos/allspaw/5436215259/• Eatsy: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zsqr0000/5594193193/• Coding and guitar: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zsqr0000/5181883749/• Milo pushing deploy: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zsqr0000/5269002895/• Eating at desk: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jshiell/2498464557/• Just ship tshirt: http://www.etsy.com/listing/70249006/just-ship-knuckle-tattoo-tshirt• Women on assembly line: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/fsa1992000956/PP/• B-25 bomber: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/fsa1992001167/PP/ • Planes lined up: http://www.flickr.com/photos/llarsonphotography/2434063007/• Jane Jacobs: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3c37838

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Optimizing for developer happiness

by Chad Dickerson

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