This document discusses changes that occurred at a company between 20-25 employees. It summarizes the CEO's realization that he needed to take on formal responsibilities of being a CEO like people management. It also describes moving to a more structured system of project management, employee reviews, raises, and an organizational chart. The company introduced policies like personal coaches for employees and PD Clubs to foster employee growth and development as it continued expanding beyond 25 people.

2. Everything Changes at 20-25
@peldi - #BoS2017

3. Warning: lots of screenshots!

6. ?v.0
Experiment
v.1
It’s Working!
v.2Small
Team
v.3
Handbook
v.4
Kaizen
v.5
????

13. IMMEDIATE
COMPREHENSIVE
TOTAL FREAKOUT.

14. HELP!

16. Slam on the breaks.

18. In Today’s Talk…
1. What I should do as a CEO
2. How we get stuff done
3. How we give each other feedback
4. Policies we added at 20-25

19. In Today’s Talk…
1. What I should do as a CEO
2. How we get stuff done
3. How we give each other feedback
4. Policies we added at 20-25

20. Rookie CEO Grows Up
…Reluctantly
Giacomo ‘Peldi’ Guilizzoni - Business of Software 2015 - @peldi #BoS2015

21. Joel Spolsky Patrick McKenzie Andy Brice

25. The “B” word

27. That Was

28. Fine then, you can call me boss
whatever that means

29. Balsamiq is “flat”

30. IMMEDIATE
COMPREHENSIVE
TOTAL FREAKOUT.

31. Paul, what’s my job?

33. CEO’s Areas of Responsibility
1. People
2. Money and Policies
3. Strategy and Vision
4. Brand Guardian

34. 1. People
• Plan Staffing
• Recruiting Process
• Employee Development
• Employee Engagement

35. 2. Money and Policies
• Finances
• Kaizen

36. 3. Strategy and Vision
• Where is the market going, and what’s our place in it?
• Be the keeper and communicator of the vision

37. 4. Brand Guardian
• Keep the brand current with who we are as we change
• Review marketing and community

38. 1. People
• Plan Staffing
• Recruiting Process
• Employee Development
• Employee Engagement
2. Money and Policies
• Finances
• Kaizen
3. Strategy and Vision
• Where is the market going, and
what’s our place in it?
• Be the keeper and communicator
of the vision
4. Brand Guardian
• Keep the brand current with who
we are as we change
• Review marketing and community
I’m a
CEO
!

39. –Balsamiq Handbook
“Trying to be too flat is a lot of work. When we
notice that putting a policy in place to solve
something in a flat way is way too much work
(diminishing returns), we take a shortcut and
use Peldi as "the boss" instead.”

40. –Paul Kenny
“Stop trying to make people happy.”

41. –Paul Kenny
“Clear your schedule.”

42. I have to tread carefully
• I have to sell my ideas
• I have to repeat myself
• I have to be more mindful of micro-aggressions
• I have to make changes VERY incrementally

43. In Today’s Talk…
1. What I should do as a CEO
2. How we get stuff done
3. How we give each other feedback
4. Policies we added at 20-25

44. People Management = BAD
Project Management = OK, I guess

60. In Today’s Talk…
1. What I should do as a CEO
2. How we get stuff done
3. How we give each other feedback
4. Policies we added at 20-25

61. Up until 10 employees
• It didn’t even cross my mind
• No-one brought it up, we were just all working very
closely together

62. Between 10 and 16 Employees
• People started asking for reviews
• I tried hard to avoid doing them
• I’m not your boss!
• I just want to code!
• No-one was thinking about people’s development
• Some people didn’t get a raise for 3 years

71. 25 x 4 = 100

78. Personal Coaches
• It’s flat
• It’s organic
• It scales
• It’s in line with the our servant-leadership style
• We like it!

83. In Today’s Talk…
1. What I should do as a CEO
2. How we get stuff done
3. How we give each other feedback
4. Policies we added at 20-25

86. PD Clubs

92. In conclusion

93. Org Chart

95. Organism Chart

97. Growing up hurts

99. • Not everyone can come to the retreat
• Not enough time at the retreat to have quality time
with everyone
• Using #announcements is really expensive
• Good discussions don’t happen in large groups
• ~100 concurrent projects = you HAVE to give up on
trying to follow of all of them.
• Reaching whole company consensus is hard and
very painful

102. 4th week of June
4th week of June
11 Weeks After Easter

103. Shift from company to teams
the right way

104. Culture Trumps Everything

107. We’re good people, and we care.

108. Will it last?

109. Thank you. @peldi - #BoS2017