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The Black Magic of Engineering Management

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Adam Christian
Adam Christian

This talk outlines a number of the lessons and principals I have learned in my 5 years with Sauce Labs and experiencing its growth and success from a development and management perspective.

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THE BLACK MAGIC ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT
Growing a start-up requires individual and organizational change, here are some helpful approaches.
Thrilled to be here… • FIRST TIME IN SPAIN • FIRST NON-TECHNICAL TALK • FIRST VELOCITY CONFERENCE • RENEWED NERVOUSNESS ON STAGE
ABOUT ME COMPANIES - O S A F - S L I D E - MOZILLA - SAUCE LABS JOBS - QA ENGINEER - WEB DEVELOPER - J AVASCRIPT ARCHITECT - AUTOMATION MANAGER - DIRECTOR OF WEB DEV - VP OF ENGINEERING L I F E - FROM CASCADIA - HAPPILY MARRIED - T R AV E L , S K I , S A I L - ~9 YEARS OF SF GH: github.com/admc TW: twitter.com/admc
SAUCE LABS Open Sauce 447 Device/OS/Browser Platforms
This talk was fully written on Thursdays and Sundays. • CONFERENCE DRIVEN { DEVELOPMENT }
So what happened? • SAID “NO” TO MANAGEMENT • I HIRED A BUNCH OF AWESOME PEOPLE. • STARTED ASSIGNING THEM TASKS. • … • TODAY “One of the great things about building a tech company is the amazing people that you can hire.” ― Ben Horowitz, The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers
BLACK MAGIC? “The manager’s function is not to make people work, but to make it possible for people to work.” ― Tom DeMarco, Peopleware : Productive Projects and Teams
I enjoy optimizing people, more than code.
INVERTED PYRAMID • You (the manager!)
Engineering Management is… • UNINTUITIVE • INDIVIDUALIZED • CONSTANTLY ITERATING • ABOUT PEOPLE • OFTEN AN ANTI-PATTERN
DEAR ENGINEER, WELCOME TO MANAGEMENT.
Success in engineering management doesn’t just happen, it’s like anything else, your have to geek out on it to be awesome.
STEP 1: Know yourself. • TIME MANAGEMENT • CALENDAR & EMAIL & THINKING • HOURS OF SLEEP • WHEN ARE YOU AT YOUR BEST • FIGHTING OR FLIGHTING • HAPPY, LEARNING, GROWING? • CAN YOU SCALE? • CONSTANT REFLECTION
STEP 2: Get help, immediately. • SEEK OUT MENTORS • READ BOOKS • SOLICIT FEEDBACK, LISTEN. • COUNT ON SR TEAM MEMBERS • GET A COACH • YOU WILL FAIL, ACCEPT AND MOVE ON.
Marc: “Do you know the best thing about startups?” Ben: “What?” Marc: “You only ever experience two emotions: euphoria and terror. And I find that lack of sleep enhances them both.” ― Ben Horowitz, The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers
STARTUP CURVE admc @ Portland
“The fundamental response to change is not logical, but emotional.” ― Tom DeMarco, Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams
THE EVOLVING ROLE • DISCOVERY • LEAD BY EXAMPLE • TAKE ON RESPONSIBI L ITY • BE AN AGENT OF CHANGE • SURVIVAL • TECH CRUNCH • STRUCTURAL GROUND WORK • CONTROLLED CHAOS • PRODUCT EXPERIMENTATION • GROWTH • CULTURE • PROCESS • HIRING & RECRUITING
FLYING SAUCERS
COMMUNICATION • REVISIT EVERY TIME YOU DOUBLE • ENGINEERING ALL HANDS (MONTHLY ) • ENGINEERING MGMT MEETING (WEEKLY ) • TEAM STAND-UP’S (WEEKLY ) • SCHEDULED 1:1 (WEEKLY, OR BIWEEKLY ) • SLACK, EMAIL, LUNCH, GTALK, SKYPE, HANGOUT • DON’T GET CRUSHED BY MEETINGS
VALUE SYSTEMS • PROVIDE ORDER AND COHESION • DECISION SYSTEM, BLURRED LINES • RE-VISITED, ADAPTED, HONORED • EXIST FROM INSIDE OUT
OUR VALUES • EXCELLENCE AND PERSONAL GROWTH • TRUTH AND TRANSPARENCY • IT’S OKAY TO BE WRONG; NOT STAY WRONG. • INTEGRITY • RESPECT https://saucelabs.com/our-values
“Visual supervision is a joke for development workers. Visual supervision is for prisoners.” ― Tom DeMarco, Peopleware : Productive Projects and Teams
CULTURE - UNIFIED MISSION AND PURPOSE - TRUST AND RESPECT - FREEDOM TO INNOVAT E - LONG TERM INVESTMENTS - FUN AND CHALLENGING - CELEBRATE WINS We made a video. I revisit it often.
BALANCE - BREAKS AFTER BIG PUSHES - TECH CRUNCH ALL NIGHTERS… - PRIORITIZATION - SAYING “NO” - REAL VACATIONS - REAL BOUNDARIES (24/7 EMAIL)
Decided at an 8 hour offsite.
HIRING - CULTURAL FIRST, TECHNICAL SECOND - BE CREATIVE AND OPEN MINDED - QUALITY OVER QUANTITY - SLOW AND STEADY WINS THE RACE - TRUST YOUR GUT Hiring is long term planning, and will slow you down.
“One of your many jobs as manager is information conduit, and the rules are deceptively simple: for each piece of information you see, you must correctly determine who on your team needs that piece of information to do their job.” ― Michael Lopp, Managing Humans: Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager
The Black Magic of Engineering Management
ORG STRUCTURE • DO YOUR HOMEWORK • CROSS FUNCTIONAL PROJECTS • CROSS FUNCTIONAL TEAMS • DIS-ORG CHART • EVOLVING GRAPH, NOT TREE http://pando.com/2013/02/28/why-yammer-believes-the-traditional-engineering-organizational-structure-is-dead/
RULES TO LIVE BY… • DEFINE & STATE YOUR GOALS • HAVE A VISION • MAKE DAILY PROGRESS • THE CALM, INDICATES A STORM • WHISKEY Are people happy on your team?
MISCONCEPTIONS • THE JOB OF A MANAGER • MANAGERS AND CODING • MANAGERS VS LEADS VS PM’S • MANAGEMENT EXPERIENCE • CTO VS VPE VS CHIEF ARCHITECT • PEOPLE && ARCHITECTURE
Manager…
STAY AWESOME
MY KINDLE - MANAGING HUMANS - PEOPLEWARE - HOW NASA BUILDS TEAMS - THE HARD THING ABOUT HARD THINGS - SHOGUN: A NOVEL OF JAPAN - THE 48 LAWS OF POWER
We are hiring @ Sauce Labs - WEB DEVELOPMENT - DISTRIBUTED SYSTEMS - MOBILE AND HARDWARE HACKERS - SYS ADMIN, SYS ENGINEER - NETWORK ENGINEERING
THANKS! MY OFFICE HOURS AT VELOCITY. E U : 1 8 - 1 1 - 2 0 1 4 1 1 : 1 5 - 1 1 : 5 0 C E T ( 3 5 M I N U T E S ) ROOM: TABLE B (SPONSOR PAVILION)

More Related Content

The Black Magic of Engineering Management

  • 1. THE BLACK MAGIC ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT
  • 2. Growing a start-up requires individual and organizational change, here are some helpful approaches.
  • 3. Thrilled to be here… • FIRST TIME IN SPAIN • FIRST NON-TECHNICAL TALK • FIRST VELOCITY CONFERENCE • RENEWED NERVOUSNESS ON STAGE
  • 4. ABOUT ME COMPANIES - O S A F - S L I D E - MOZILLA - SAUCE LABS JOBS - QA ENGINEER - WEB DEVELOPER - J AVASCRIPT ARCHITECT - AUTOMATION MANAGER - DIRECTOR OF WEB DEV - VP OF ENGINEERING L I F E - FROM CASCADIA - HAPPILY MARRIED - T R AV E L , S K I , S A I L - ~9 YEARS OF SF GH: github.com/admc TW: twitter.com/admc
  • 5. SAUCE LABS Open Sauce 447 Device/OS/Browser Platforms
  • 6. This talk was fully written on Thursdays and Sundays. • CONFERENCE DRIVEN { DEVELOPMENT }
  • 7. So what happened? • SAID “NO” TO MANAGEMENT • I HIRED A BUNCH OF AWESOME PEOPLE. • STARTED ASSIGNING THEM TASKS. • … • TODAY “One of the great things about building a tech company is the amazing people that you can hire.” ― Ben Horowitz, The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers
  • 8. BLACK MAGIC? “The manager’s function is not to make people work, but to make it possible for people to work.” ― Tom DeMarco, Peopleware : Productive Projects and Teams
  • 9. I enjoy optimizing people, more than code.
  • 10. INVERTED PYRAMID • You (the manager!)
  • 11. Engineering Management is… • UNINTUITIVE • INDIVIDUALIZED • CONSTANTLY ITERATING • ABOUT PEOPLE • OFTEN AN ANTI-PATTERN
  • 12. DEAR ENGINEER, WELCOME TO MANAGEMENT.
  • 13. Success in engineering management doesn’t just happen, it’s like anything else, your have to geek out on it to be awesome.
  • 14. STEP 1: Know yourself. • TIME MANAGEMENT • CALENDAR & EMAIL & THINKING • HOURS OF SLEEP • WHEN ARE YOU AT YOUR BEST • FIGHTING OR FLIGHTING • HAPPY, LEARNING, GROWING? • CAN YOU SCALE? • CONSTANT REFLECTION
  • 15. STEP 2: Get help, immediately. • SEEK OUT MENTORS • READ BOOKS • SOLICIT FEEDBACK, LISTEN. • COUNT ON SR TEAM MEMBERS • GET A COACH • YOU WILL FAIL, ACCEPT AND MOVE ON.
  • 16. Marc: “Do you know the best thing about startups?” Ben: “What?” Marc: “You only ever experience two emotions: euphoria and terror. And I find that lack of sleep enhances them both.” ― Ben Horowitz, The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers
  • 17. STARTUP CURVE admc @ Portland
  • 18. “The fundamental response to change is not logical, but emotional.” ― Tom DeMarco, Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams
  • 19. THE EVOLVING ROLE • DISCOVERY • LEAD BY EXAMPLE • TAKE ON RESPONSIBI L ITY • BE AN AGENT OF CHANGE • SURVIVAL • TECH CRUNCH • STRUCTURAL GROUND WORK • CONTROLLED CHAOS • PRODUCT EXPERIMENTATION • GROWTH • CULTURE • PROCESS • HIRING & RECRUITING
  • 21. COMMUNICATION • REVISIT EVERY TIME YOU DOUBLE • ENGINEERING ALL HANDS (MONTHLY ) • ENGINEERING MGMT MEETING (WEEKLY ) • TEAM STAND-UP’S (WEEKLY ) • SCHEDULED 1:1 (WEEKLY, OR BIWEEKLY ) • SLACK, EMAIL, LUNCH, GTALK, SKYPE, HANGOUT • DON’T GET CRUSHED BY MEETINGS
  • 22. VALUE SYSTEMS • PROVIDE ORDER AND COHESION • DECISION SYSTEM, BLURRED LINES • RE-VISITED, ADAPTED, HONORED • EXIST FROM INSIDE OUT
  • 23. OUR VALUES • EXCELLENCE AND PERSONAL GROWTH • TRUTH AND TRANSPARENCY • IT’S OKAY TO BE WRONG; NOT STAY WRONG. • INTEGRITY • RESPECT https://saucelabs.com/our-values
  • 24. “Visual supervision is a joke for development workers. Visual supervision is for prisoners.” ― Tom DeMarco, Peopleware : Productive Projects and Teams
  • 25. CULTURE - UNIFIED MISSION AND PURPOSE - TRUST AND RESPECT - FREEDOM TO INNOVAT E - LONG TERM INVESTMENTS - FUN AND CHALLENGING - CELEBRATE WINS We made a video. I revisit it often.
  • 26. BALANCE - BREAKS AFTER BIG PUSHES - TECH CRUNCH ALL NIGHTERS… - PRIORITIZATION - SAYING “NO” - REAL VACATIONS - REAL BOUNDARIES (24/7 EMAIL)
  • 27. Decided at an 8 hour offsite.
  • 28. HIRING - CULTURAL FIRST, TECHNICAL SECOND - BE CREATIVE AND OPEN MINDED - QUALITY OVER QUANTITY - SLOW AND STEADY WINS THE RACE - TRUST YOUR GUT Hiring is long term planning, and will slow you down.
  • 29. “One of your many jobs as manager is information conduit, and the rules are deceptively simple: for each piece of information you see, you must correctly determine who on your team needs that piece of information to do their job.” ― Michael Lopp, Managing Humans: Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager
  • 31. ORG STRUCTURE • DO YOUR HOMEWORK • CROSS FUNCTIONAL PROJECTS • CROSS FUNCTIONAL TEAMS • DIS-ORG CHART • EVOLVING GRAPH, NOT TREE http://pando.com/2013/02/28/why-yammer-believes-the-traditional-engineering-organizational-structure-is-dead/
  • 32. RULES TO LIVE BY… • DEFINE & STATE YOUR GOALS • HAVE A VISION • MAKE DAILY PROGRESS • THE CALM, INDICATES A STORM • WHISKEY Are people happy on your team?
  • 33. MISCONCEPTIONS • THE JOB OF A MANAGER • MANAGERS AND CODING • MANAGERS VS LEADS VS PM’S • MANAGEMENT EXPERIENCE • CTO VS VPE VS CHIEF ARCHITECT • PEOPLE && ARCHITECTURE
  • 36. MY KINDLE - MANAGING HUMANS - PEOPLEWARE - HOW NASA BUILDS TEAMS - THE HARD THING ABOUT HARD THINGS - SHOGUN: A NOVEL OF JAPAN - THE 48 LAWS OF POWER
  • 37. We are hiring @ Sauce Labs - WEB DEVELOPMENT - DISTRIBUTED SYSTEMS - MOBILE AND HARDWARE HACKERS - SYS ADMIN, SYS ENGINEER - NETWORK ENGINEERING
  • 38. THANKS! MY OFFICE HOURS AT VELOCITY. E U : 1 8 - 1 1 - 2 0 1 4 1 1 : 1 5 - 1 1 : 5 0 C E T ( 3 5 M I N U T E S ) ROOM: TABLE B (SPONSOR PAVILION)