scaling engineering teams

SCALING ENGINEERING TEAMS

FRANK LAMANTIA

ABOUT ME

FRANK LAMANTIA, CTO @ CROSSCHX▸ Employee #14 (December 2013)

▸ April 2015

▸ 2 teams

▸ 8 engineers

▸ December 2015

▸ 5 teams

▸ 33 engineers

▸ Engineering, Product, QA, DevOps, Support

WHAT THIS TALK IS

FOREWARD▸ This is the presentation I needed in April of 2015.

▸ This is intended for CTOs, VPs or Engineering leaders.

▸ Based on my personal experiences; your mileage may vary.

SETTING YOUR

EXPECTATIONS

SETTING YOUR EXPECTATIONS

SCALING A TEAM IS HARD.▸ People, Process & Organization have to scale in unison.

▸ Organizational units must be created to divide work.

▸ Communication channels must be created across these units.

▸ People have to grow into new responsibilities.

▸ Processes must change to coordinate across teams.

▸ For every 1 hire we made, 80 candidates started the interview process.

▸ Finding qualified people is tough.

▸ By the way, you still have a day job.

SETTING YOUR EXPECTATIONS

SETTING YOUR EXPECTATIONS

HUMAN PROBLEMS ARE MORE COMPLEX THAN TECHNICAL PROBLEMS1. Some people will resent becoming a “small fish”.

2. Some people will not want to scale with the organization.

3. You will make bad hires.

4. You will have to deal with the brilliant jerk.

5. 90% of issues are caused by communication breakdowns.

6. You will have tough conversations.

7. You are an example.

ADVICE TO MYSELF

WE ONLY HIRE THE BEST

BECOME A TALENT ACQUISITION MACHINE.▸ Hiring is your #1 responsibility as a leader.

▸ Hire for attitude first, aptitude second.

▸ Focus on the process — from interview to on-boarding.

▸ Be upfront & transparent about working hours, responsibilities, values, expectations.

▸ Run ScaleTech meetings as a secret way to recruit talent.

WE ONLY HIRE THE BEST

ADVICE ON HIRING▸ Be picky.

▸ Implications of a bad hire are too great.

▸ Rigorous interview process sets expectations.

▸ Don’t be afraid to walk away.

▸ Hiring process doesn’t stop until after a person is fully assimilated.

LEADERSHIP

LEADERS BUILD LEADERS.▸ Teach leaders how to think — not what to think.

▸ Urge them to come up with solutions and evaluate options together.

▸ Resist the urge to fix all of the problems all of the time — let people fail.

▸ Recognize and express the importance of ownership.

▸ Understand & encourage different types of leadership.

KNOWLEDGE SILOS

BE PROACTIVE ABOUT ELIMINATING KNOWLEDGE SILOS.▸ Being proactive with FNG syndrome.

▸ Multiple approaches:

▸ Documentation (formal & informal)

▸ Demonstrations or Presentations

▸ Architecture & Code Reviews

▸ “Battle buddy” system

▸ Repeat 21 times. Seriously. (Don’t Repeat Yourself)

UNITY OF COMMAND

EXPLICITLY DEFINE ROLES & RESPONSIBILITIES.▸ Define roles and titles for each type of leader.

▸ People Leaders focused on growing people.

▸ Delivery Leaders focused on keeping teams on task and productive.

▸ Technology Leaders focused on application of new technologies and ensuring overall architecture.

▸ Unity of Command

TEAM OF TEAMS

FLASH TO BANG▸ Minimize the number of organizational units required

to deliver value.

▸ Minimize the chain of communication.

▸ Encourage smart, decentralized decision making.

▸ “Think Horizontally” by building cross-functional teams

▸ Then scale out of them.

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER

ALWAYS BE LEARNING▸ Read: Netflix culture, Spotify Engineering culture, Amazon,

etc. etc

▸ Suggested books

▸ Entreleadership — Dave Ramsey

▸ Good to Great — Jim Collins

▸ Extreme Ownership — Jocko Willink

▸ Work Rules — Laszlo Bock

▸ The Obstacle is the Way — Ryan Holiday

▸ Watch: Ben Horowitz, Steve Jobs, etc

RETROSPECTIVE

RETROSPECTIVE

WHAT WOULD I HAVE DONE DIFFERENTLY?1. Always be recruiting.

2. Identify and build people leaders now.

3. Use design & code reviews to share knowledge.

4. Hire for the future.

FINAL WORDS

IN THE END

THE PROMISED LANDIn the end, if• You are eternally optimistic• You are able to learn from mistakes• You provide a sense of purpose• You always turn failures into learning opportunities

… your team will eventually do better things than you are capable of.

QUESTIONS?