Download - 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
