how we build redfin

How we build Redfin.com

Matt GoyerLead Product Manager

What We’ll Chat About• Who Am I?• How We Do It At Redfin

• Who does what• Team structure• What next?• Offsite• Focus group • Survey• Spec it, Code it, Try it, Test it• Release it• Feedback

• Conclusion

Who Am I?• University of Waterloo

• B.Math (Computer Science)• Distracted by startups

• Microsoft• Program Manager on Windows Media

Center

• Redfin• Lead Product Manager for Search

Who Does What?• Program/Product Manager (PM)

• Customer representative • Co-ordinates design, development and QA

• Designer• Makes it pretty

• Software Development Engineer (SDE)• Writes the code

• Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET or QA)• Tests the code by writing more code

Team Structure• “Feature Teams”

• Commerce• Data • Query and Statistics• Search

• Made up of:• 1 PM• 1 QA• 3 Developers

What Do We Do Next?• Listen to Customers

• Surveys• Emails from customers• Forums• Blogs

• Watch Competitors• Watch Related Companies

Offsite• What happens:

• Presentations• Brainstorm• Think outside the box

• What is produced:• Vision• Goals• Tentative feature plan

Focus Group• Invite 10 customers• Two hours• Talk about what they like• Talk about what they don’t like• Summarize that night• Send out plan

From Idea to Booked Work• Survey

• Confirm plan• Tools

• Zoomerang• Survey Monkey

• Communicate plan• Present to leadership team• Present to company

Functional Specification• Problems and Opportunities• Feature Breakdown and Priorities• User Scenarios• Success Metrics• User Interface Design• Requirements & Dependencies• Reporting & Analytics• Performance

Schedule• Why?

• A commitment• Tool to track progress

• Rule of thirds• Plan• Code• Test

Code It• Design spec• What did we forget?• Track against schedule• Have fun!

User Test It• How?

• Hallway usability• Usability test

• What?• Recruit participants• Draw up a plan• Don’t lead the witness

Quality Assurance• Bugs?

• No one is perfect• Bugs not all equal• Priority/Severity• Database

• Finding them• Test Plan• Test Pass• Bug Bash

• Triage

Release• What’s driving you?

• Quality vs. Date

• Get to zero bugs• Release Candidates (RC0, RC1,…)• Release to operations (RTO)• Release to web (RTW)• Get the word out

• Press release• Engage bloggers• Social network

Feedback• Numbers

• Analytics• Metrics

• People• Tech support• Forums• Blogs

Recommended Reading• Joel On Software

• By Joel Spolsky• Also a blog: http://www.joelonsoftware.com

• The Art of Project Management• By Scott Berkun

Questions?• mail@mattgoyer.com• http://blog.mattgoyer.com