challenges in fast growing tech companies
TRANSCRIPT
CHALLENGES IN FAST GROWING TECH COMPANIESTomas Kazragis
QUICK FACTS
50.000.000.000+ Transactions per day1.000.000+ Requests per second3000++ High performance serversComplex calculations per request needed in less than 20 ms7 data centers across the worldHigh availability load balancing and failover40 Gigabits per second internet consumption
BROAD TECH STACK
GROWING TALENT POOL
Technology part growth January 2015 – April 2016
Target for end of 2016 – 450 employees worldwide
ATTRACT & RECRUIT
YELLOW BELTS
Success story: http://blog.adform.com/adform/yellow-belts-18-months-of-wisdom /
TALENT ACQUISITION
Company positioning: http://life.adform.com/Open positions: http://join.adform.com/Internal referralsSourcing:
aMeet-ups & conferences
Head huntingFollow talents
INTERVIEWS
Agreement between:TeamPeersLeads
Behavior & attitude vs Skills
ONBOARD
VALUES
Team results firstOwnership mindsetOpen, informal & dynamic
a
TEAM RESULTS FIRST
NO for brilliant jerks
OWNERSHIP MINDSET
Flat network organization:DevOps instead of DEV vs OPSEveryone contributes instead of controlling & reporting
It is my business: create -> release -> maintain -> improve
OPEN, INFORMAL & DYNAMIC
New initiatives and ideasPlans, roadmapsFinancesLessons learnedSharing informationFast adaptationWork hard – party harder!
RETAIN, DEVELOP & EMPOWER
TEAM FREEDOM AND ACCOUNTABILITY AT WORK
Constantly improve the way we workShare and gain feedbackParticipate in decision makingBalance between proficiency and learningCommitmentShare knowledge
FREEDOM TO CHOOSE
Use internal serviceDo it yourself:
PresentTryGet challengedCreate a service
Get it outside the company
FREEDOM TO CHANGE
Learn new things – books, conferencesChoose next me programTry new experiences – internshipsMove onDon’t forget to change!
FREEDOM TO ORGANIZE
Every function tends to become a bottleneckYou can try to solve them, but it’s a never ending storyGive freedom for teams to organize themselves
NETWORK ORGANIZATION
PROVIDING SERVICES INSTEAD OF OPTIMIZING AROUND YOURSELF
Imagine you have to earn moneyTry your customer’s shoesDevelop with 2x capacity in mindRework is expensive and hurts moraleTime costs as well
THE WAY WE WORK
RELEASE MANAGEMENT: DREAM
DEV VS OPS
RELEASE MANAGEMENT: CONSEQUENCES
RELEASE MANAGEMENT: SOLUTION
ACCESS RIGHTS MANAGEMENT
Previously Now
AUTOMATED SERVER DELIVERY
SOLUTION: MATURE SELF SERVICE
LOOKING FOR A ROLE MODEL
Within a team – “I want to become like you…”Outside the company – “How are you doing this?”
CHANGING PERSPECTIVE
Instead of wondering:How big is big?Can I buy?Can I refactor?What can I expect from tomorrow?Do I have a mandate?
Go and ask!
CONCLUSIONS
• Decentralization speeds-up growth• Happy employee leads to good results• Constant investment in employees ensures extra mile• Freedom goes well with ownership mindset• Transparency prospers in open environments• Freedom leads to innovations• Monitoring is a key for complex and dynamic environments• Technology is a team sport
