building and scaling technical teams

Building and Scaling Technical TeamsJason A. Hoffman, CTO and Founder

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The only private systems companyAn operating system (smartOS)A runtime (node.js)A suite of middleware that leverages both

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Only private, large scale service providerPerformance and scale sufficient for large customers.Hardware lifecycle dominants COGS. Not people.

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A business. A company.Provides something of value in exchange for money.

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Companies don’t sell to people.People sell to people.

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Companies don’t innovate.People do.

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Companies don’t discover.People do.

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Companies don’t hire people.People do.

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People. Person.Psychology. Sociology. Anthropology. Matter too.

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Packard’s Law.“No company can consistently grow revenues faster than its ability to get enough of the right people to implement that growth and still become a great company.”

from Jim Collins, How The Mighty Fall (page 55-56)

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How do you convince the right people?To give years of their life. To direct their passion.

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Myself.Army. PhD Scientist. Academic. Founder. A “CTO”.

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Comfortable team structures.I believe a basic biological aspect to them. Something “tribal”.

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Fire Team.Four. Lead by a sergeant. Three team members. Two roles each.

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Squad.2-3 fire teams plus a Staff Sergeant 8-12 “staff ” plus one “leader”.

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Baseline: you need to be capable of being on a fire team.

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Baseline: you need to be capable of running a squad.

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You’ll only ever run a “squad”.The human brain can only manage up to 8-12 people and about 600 sq ft.

Adapted from Thomas Schweich’s Staying Power

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A Marine Colonel:“We don’t promote our micromanagers, we like them exactly where they are.”

Adapted from Thomas Schweich’s Staying Power

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PhD Scientist and Academic.Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?

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Academic.People are willing to give years of their lives for something other than money.

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Scientist.Turns out to shape how I view everything. Let me take you through a series of observations.

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Scientists.Scientists don't work in a lab to "sequence DNA." They work in a lab to "cure cancer."

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Recognition.Is as important as a salary.

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Observation IHumans have a hard time thinking of the power law or punctuated equilibriums.

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Observation IIHumans have a hard time with the absolutism that's in binary states (live, dead).

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Observation IIIWe think that "evolution" is "optimization", when it's, in fact, it’s adaption to current conditions.

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Observation IVWe don't know how to change the dimensionality of a problem.

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Observation VWe have a hard time thinking of a complete system yet we can make connections, frameworks, simplifications that no computer can do.

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Observation VIWe often think that success is a thing, or it’s because of a thing.

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Diamond’s Anna Karenina Principle“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”

Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs and Steel

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Failed Domestication.Different species were domesticated because of the lack of negative reasons (traits) not because of a reason (a positive trait).

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Success.Is simply the absence of failure. It’s the absence of fatal mistakes.

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To study success.You must study failure and death.

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Models differ.Anti-patterns are the same. Know them.

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Founder.Noun. One who establishes something or formulates the basis for something.

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Founder. Foundering.Verb. Usage: “Oh yeah, I’m foundering!! Watch out.”(said by me)

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Foundering.Verb. To sink below the surface of the water: The ship struck a reef and foundered.

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Foundering.Verb. To cave in; sink: The platform swayed and then foundered.

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Foundering.Verb. To fail utterly; collapse: a marriage that soon foundered.

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Foundering.Verb. To stumble, especially to stumble and go lame. Used of horses.

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Foundering.Verb. To become ill from overeating. Used of livestock.

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Floundering?Verb. To move clumsily, thrash about. To proceed in confusion.

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OK what about Latin?Must be something positive there!

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Fundus.Noun (Latin). The bottom of or part farthest from the opening of a sac or hollow organ.

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OK. Well.Perhaps that is all closest to the verb to founder.

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CTO.Chief Technical Officer.

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Establishes.Vision, culture, organizational structure.

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CTOs are outward facing.Product and merchandising. Operational.

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Technical.Enough to validate, shape, dig in if broken. Know who is a dummy, who is a blessed unicorn.

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Vision needs to be inspiring.People do actually feel that they’re changing the world.

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Work hard.At being an exemplar and being exceptional at an aspect.

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Ideal disposition.Personal and professional humility coupled with thoughtful intellect and professional will.

Also from Jim Collins’s Level 5 leader idear.

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Culture: Don’t be an Asshole.Pricks get fired. Bullies get banished.

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Culture: TransparencyComplete, even when painful. Tough (not brutal) and honest.

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Culture: Peer ReviewAnd everyone is a peer.

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Culture: TitlesLet compensation and ownership reflect importance and contribution.

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Founding CTO. Biggest decision that you’ll make is to either become the VP of Engineering and hire a CTO, or hire the first VP of Engineering. It’s big, because can be fatal.

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VP of Engineering. Responsible for the development and delivery of the product, and recruitment.

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VP of Engineering. Has to be the Exemplar Engineer for the teams.

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Exemplar Engineer. Every single person that works for them wants to be them when they grow up. Critical for recruitment.

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Exemplar Knowledge. The teams must feel comfortable looking to them for thoughts and decisions on a wide range of technical problems.

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InnovationThen gets driven by the collaboration.

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OrganizationalYou must provide a framework and a structure. You must segment.

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Concluding Thoughts

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‣ Work hard yourself to be an exemplar.‣ Scientists don't work in a lab to "sequence DNA." They

work in a lab to "cure cancer." • Too often in the "IT" industry we focus on technology and

tools, not their higher purpose and relationship to the rest of the world. You must give your talent a higher purpose than the hammer that they're swinging.

‣ What are they looking for in a leader? • Personal and professional humility coupled with thoughtful

intellect and professional will.

‣ When you do the above, you can be free to let them talk, teach, blog, write papers (i.e. do more than patents).

• You can let them become recognized (and perhaps even tech celebrities) and known in their field.

‣ Titles aren't what important. • Let compensation and ownership reflect importance and

contribution

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‣ Thanks for Bryan Cantrill for some of the CTO vs VP of Engineering ideas. Covered in a different presentation.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAHItZ1cSNM

• http://www.slideshare.net/bcantrill/cto-vs-vp-of-engineering

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