Scaling PET at Vend
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We've grown the PET (Product Engineering and Technology) team at Vend massively in the past 18 months, while retaining a strong culture and fast pace. Here's some insights about how we did it, and what we've learned from others.
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Scaling PET at Vend
- 1. Do Less, Scale Faster Trust people
- 2. The problem: Grow a dev and product team from 8 to 80 in one year, while retaining great culture and shipping constantly.
- 4. Netflix Spotify GitHub …plus many more Who has solved this before? Available Solutions
- 5. Culture heavily based on output and trust No limit on sick or holiday leave “Sustained B-level performance, despite “A for effort”, generates a generous severance package, with respect” http://www.slideshare.net/reed2001/culture-1798664 Netflix Available Solutions
- 7. Structured as many small startups Slim management structure High autonomy, High Alignment https://ucvox.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/113617905-scaling-agile-spotify-11.pdf Spotify Available Solutions
- 10. No managers Remote work to attract the best “Primary responsible person” GitHub Available Solutions
- 12. Common Themes
- 13. Create small teams each with laser-sharp focus
- 14. Lead via trust and autonomy
- 15. Encourage responsibility and ownership
- 16. But what about Vend?
- 17. Not as rich as Netflix Nowhere near as many engineers as Spotify Not as remote as GitHub …still cool though yeah? Vend Hacking our own solution
- 18. The basics are non-negotiable: A culture of trust, with ownership behaviour in return Focus is a constant battle, but is absolutely necessary Hacking our own solution Hacking our own solution
- 19. We can’t pay $300k salaries But we can teach people how to grow with the company Vend has a strong culture of learning $5000 personal development fund for all engineers Implementing a “Head of Learning” position very early Lastly: never solve growth problems by adding process Closing the “Netflix” skills/process gap Hacking our own solution
- 20. Quantum team structure It sounds like bullshit, but bear with me Creating a “Spotify” model without enough people Hacking our own solution
- 21. Creating a “Spotify” model without enough people Hacking our own solution
- 22. Creating a “Spotify” model without enough people Hacking our own solution
- 23. Avoiding context switching is the hardest problem Focus helps (Do less. Stop starting and start finishing) Perhaps the only place where “managers” are actually useful Is this team structure temporary, to get through a growth phase, or permanent? Creating a “Spotify” model without enough people Hacking our own solution
- 24. How do we decide what each of these teams are working on? In a culture of trust and ownership, who determines the roadmap? Direction versus Management Planning and Roadmaps Hacking our own solution
- 25. Product Themes Objectives Mission “#1 global company focussed on bringing delight to S-M retailers" Hypotheses Solutions Hacking our own solution http://blog.intercom.io/how-we-build-software/
- 26. Example: Hacking our own solution Product Theme Objective Hypothesis Solutions Beautifully designed, functional and accurate. I can trust what Vend is telling me Stopping a retailer from adding invalid data, will result in more accurate inventory data. Feature A Documentation/ Education Solutions are not always code!
- 27. Golden Rules of Scaling
- 28. Focus is unbelievably important Avoid context switching Keep teams together as long as possible Eradicate management tasks by being supportive and trusting Have a framework to support great decision making Rule 1: Do Less Tips and Summary
- 29. Use learning to close the process gap Reduces the need to hire managers Hire only as slow as you can cope with (i.e. incredibly fast, but not stupid-fast) Rule 2: Go Faster Tips and Summary