This document summarizes the scaling of Meero's product team from 5 developers in 2018 to over 70 developers spread across 13 squads and 3 tribes in 2019 as the company grew rapidly. Key phases included initially having no formal product team and responsibilities dispersed (Phase 1), forming an initial product team of 5 people (Phase 2), moving to 3 squads of 5-18 people each (Phase 3), and expanding further to 13 squads organized into 3 tribes (Phase 4) as the workforce and needs grew. The scaling process emphasized continuous improvement, a human-first approach, team spirit, and necessary delegation and overcommunication.

1. Scaling
a product team
in an hypergrowth
environment

2. “Hypergrowth”
you said?💥

3. Skyrocketing fundraisings
2018
$45M
2017
$18M
2016
Founded
2019
$230M

4. A worldwide
community
700 employees
6 offices
60k photographers
...in 3 years
Marketing
Product
IT
R&D
Data
PhotographySales
Operations
Partners
Community
Customer
Service
Production
PostProduction

5. From 0 to 70 in 3 years
More developers
every day

6. From 0 to 14 in 1 year
A booming
product team

7. For photographers
For customers
For Meeronauts

8. A (crazy) product
adventure 🤯

9. 2018
January
5 Devs
PHASE 1 - January 2018
No product team

10. PHASE 1 - January 2016
No product team
Product responsibility dispatched
Agility is our motto
Spreadsheets are most of our tools ;-)

11. PHASE 1 - January 2016
No product team
Quickfixs everywhere
- No real specs
- No documentation
- No automated testing
Too much to deal for the existing teams

12. 2018
January
2018
June
5 Devs
1 Product
5 Devs
PHASE 2 - June 2018
Product was born

13. PHASE 2 - June 2018
Product was born
Evangelize Product inside Meero
Understand Meero
Spec, test, document & deliver features
Communicate internally

14. PHASE 2 - June 2018
Product was born
Too far from developers
Impossible to address some topics
No squad for a maximum of agility
Suffering the roadmap

15. 2018
January
2018
June
2019
January
5 Devs
5 Products
18 Devs
1 Designer
1 QA
1 Product
5 Devs
3 squads
PHASE 3 - January 2019
Moving to squads

16. PHASE 3 - January 2019
Moving to squads
3 squads myMeero, Running & Core
QA & Product Designer joining the game
Organized feedbacks from Meeronauts

17. PHASE 3 - January 2019
Moving to squads
Too many direct contacts for the VP
Lack of design resources & QA
Workforce is growing
Releases are larger and larger
More and more languages

18. 10 Products
70 Devs
3 Designers
2 QAs
1 Releaser
1 Research
1 Localization
2018
January
2018
June
2019
January
2019
June
5 Devs
3 squads
3 tribes
13 squads
5 Products
18 Devs
1 Designer
1 QA
1 Product
5 Devs
PHASE 4 - June 2019
Tribes & more squads!

19. ENGINE USER GOFAST
Operations
Running
Finance/legal
R&D
Cloud
myMeero
Meero Drop
Flying SquadAPI
Mobile
Photographer Exp.
Customer Exp.
New Markets

20. Tools
and rituals 🛠

21. Product
Design
Dev
Knowledge
Data
Other

22. Product training

23. Product training
Product retro

24. Product training
Product retro
Product acting

25. Product training
Product retro
Product acting
(Product week)

26. Product training
Product retro
Product acting
(Product week)
(Product with beers)

27. Product Champions
Feature tester
When necessary, before
a release
Point of contact
Help her teammate on simple
product questions
Squad member
Involved in product
development from day 1
Every team at Meero has one
They are the representatives of the product in their own team

28. What’s
next?

29. Tech globalization
Data driven mindset
Product vision

30. Take
away

31. Human first
Team spirit
Continuous change
Necessary delegation
Over communication

32. Thank you!
Nicolas Venet
VP Product @Meero
nicolas.v@meero.com
Maxime Azoulay
Product researcher
maxime.azoulay@meero.com