1. Optimizing for
developer happiness
Chad Dickerson
CTO, Etsy
chad@etsy.com
@chaddickerson
Video of talk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22EECFEk9Xs

3. We deploy code to
production about 25x per day

4. Across a team of
70 engineers

5. We have a lot of people
depending on us.

6. 400,000+ active sellers

7. 9+ million registered members

8. $300+ million in sales in 2010

9. > 1 billion page views / month

10. Business in over 150 countries

11. How?

12. Culture.

13. One that optimizes for
developer happiness.

14. Erik Kastner

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

16. Connect engineers to their work

17. by making it
easy to ship

18. with the support of a community.

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

20. The way we do things
shouldn’t work.

21. It does.

22. Constant progress

23. powered by

24. radical decentralization
of authority

25. we trust people.

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

28. Ari JM Diego Eric Seth

30. Fred

31. Milo

32. Code going out to our servers
Milo
Progress bar

33. Milo

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

47. Peter Drucker

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

52. If companies really want their workers to produce, they
should try to impart a sense of meaning—not just
through vision statements but by allowing employees to
feel a sense of completion and ensuring that a job well
done is acknowledged.
-- Dan Ariely, The Upside of Irrationality (2010)

53. Easy deploys
=
developer happiness

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

59. Peter Drucker

60. “[the corporation’s] social function as a community is as
important as its economic function as an efficient
producer.”

62. We use it about 25x a day

64. The “Push Train”

65. Ross Snyder

66. IRC Topic

67. 20:11 -!- ross changed the topic of #push to: steve | mike | rachel | bill | ross

68. 1. steve
2. mike 3. rachel 4. ross 5. bill

69. “intricate ballet in which the individual
dancers and ensembles all have
distinctive parts which miraculously
reinforce each other and compose an
orderly whole.”
Jane Jacobs

71. Community

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

73. We use tools

74. to build happy
communities

75. “. . . . unconscious assumption of general street
support when the chips are down.”

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

77. Your team is
your community.

78. Help them finish things.

79. Give them a voice.

80. There is a quality even meaner than outright
ugliness or disorder, and this meaner quality is
the dishonest mask of pretended order, achieved
by ignoring or suppressing the real order that is
struggling to exist and to be served.
Jane Jacobs
The Death and Life of Great American Cities
1961

81. Build a community

82. where you allow real
human order to emerge to
get things done

83. and great things will happen.

84. Optimize for the
happiness of people.

85. Thank you.

86. 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