In the past, architecture choices, ensuring quality, and security and compliance technologies were the ways to enforce governance through tollgates, centralized approvals, and silos. Three years ago we started recommend_tech, which uses crowdsourcing to make technology choices at Target.

1. Governance to
Guidance to
Awesome Product
Levi Geinert @levi_online
Dan Cundiff @pmotch
Luke Rettig @LukeRettig

2. Levi Geinert
Director Engineering
@levi_online

3. governance to guidance
real example
awesome products

4. 350,000+ team members
1,835 stores
39 distribution centers
6 HQ locations
5% Target profit goes to communities
56 years of service
300+ product teams
4500+ people in technology
tech.target.com

5. our evolution

6. (re)building an
engineering
culture

7. changing the way
we work

8. customer centric
products

10. governance to
guidance

11. “When teams can decide
which tools they use, it
contributes to software
delivery performance and, in
turn, to organizational
performance.”
--Accelerate, Chapter 5,
Forsgren et al., 2016

12. too many tools in your
toolbox makes it hard
to carry

13. what does guidance
look like?

14. accessible - everyone can contribute
transparent - everyone should be able to see
flexible - easy to change
cultural - community driven

15. dojo.target.com changing the way we work

16. Dan Cundiff
Principal Engineer
@pmotch

17. how we used to choose
technologies

18. recommended_technologies

22. developer focused

23. pull request workflow

24. git blame

26. automate workflows

27. resist complexity

28. rotating volunteers

29. big change?
take it to the top.

32. Luke Rettig
Principal Product Owner
@LukeRettig

33. view from a
product manager

34. survey

35. building the wrong
thing is a nightmare

37. silos
Credit: Nicole Forsythe @NicoLibrarian

38. awesome
products
Credit: Nicole Forsythe @NicoLibrarian

39. role of the product
manager

40. advice to engineers
w/ skeptical product
managers

41. awesome
product
symptoms
Credit: Nicole Forsythe @NicoLibrarian

42. obstacles that still
remain

43. thank you.