3. 3Introduction
When building a product, it is easy to be focused what you are
building, but you also need to be mindful of how you build.
Your product vision is where you are going, your steering wheel; but
your engineering culture is your engine. It is what is going to get you
there faster, without breakdowns and without having to stop for gas
too often.
5. 5Introduction
Ignore your culture, and you may still get there; but you may
also have a lot of breakdowns, and stops for gas. You may
even need to replace pieces along the way.
6. 6
Culture is the manifestation of the shared values of the
organization as represented by the actions of its members
What is culture?
7. 7
Culture is the manifestation of the shared values of the
organization as represented by the actions of its members
What is culture?
8. 8
Henrik Kniberg (Agile guru)
Culture is the stuff people do without noticing it
What is culture?
12. 12
Tim O'Reilly
Apply the same level
of deep thinking
about building a
culture as you would
about building a
product
Why is culture important?
13. 13When?
The best time to start thinking about this is before you start to
grow, right at the beginning
14. 14When?
Put in the time to focus and maintain your culture as you
build the product and grow, it will help you scale.
15. 15
Cory Ondrejka,
Facebook / Linden Lab
Crucial steps like laying the
foundation for great
management or shaping a
sustainable culture get shifted to
the back burner [as you grow],
creating management debt just
as real and damaging as the
technical debt startups strive to
avoid.
Protecting yYour Culture
20. 20
Once you have the culture that you want, you still need to
work to maintain it.
21. 21
At Spotify, we survey ourselves all the time to make sure we
are living up to our values.
22. 22
If you feel that you are getting off track, fix the problems
instead of ignoring them. They will only get worse.
23. 23
Talk about your culture, not only with the leadership, but with
the rest of the organization as well. Every member is a
steward of the culture and has ownership over it.
24. 24
Focusing on your culture early means building a culture that
will grow as your product grows and maintain or even
increase speed as you mature instead of having to constantly
regroup and battle.
ENERGY!!!Who am I? - 9 years Adobe - 8 years Microsoft - startups - SGI, IBMWhat is this talk about? - building a strong engineering culture - why this is important for everyone, not just the leaders - how spotify solves this problem
When building a product, it is easy to get focused on the what, but you also need to be mindful of the howVision is the direction that you are going, but your engineering culture is what is going to get you there faster and without breakdowns or without having to stop for gas too often.
Build a strong engineering culture and things are easier and faster
Ignore your culture, and you may still get there, but you’ll have a lot of breakdowns, stops for gas and you may need to replace pieces along the way
Shared values = Shared Basic AssumptionsShared values = Things people do without thinking aboutShared Values define the cultureActions are what comes from the culture
Shared values = Shared Basic AssumptionsShared values = Things people do without thinking aboutShared Values define the cultureActions are what comes from the culture
This is simple and clear, would argue that these are the Shared Basic Assumptions from Edgar Schein, internalizedENERGY!!!
TALK ABOUT THESE, WILL GO INTO HOW THESE VALUES GET TURNED INTO ACTION LATER
The best time to start thinking about this is before you start to grow, right at the beginning
Put in the time to focus and maintain your culture as you build the product and grow
Suddenly, attention is focused on keeping ahead of the competition. Crucial steps like laying the foundation for great management or shaping a sustainable culture get shifted to the back burner, creating management debt just as real and damaging as the technical debt startups strive to avoid.The demands of building an initial product can make it easy for founders and CEOs to postpone non-product decisions. Worse, the nature of small companies hides existing and emerging problems.
From Spotify’s core values come these aspects of our culture which leads to us having
The decisions on culture will determine a lot of other things: development process, organizational structure, who you hire.Determine what your existing shared values are. Those are the core of your culture.
Agile teams
We didn’t create our Matrix Organization and then tried to create a culture. The organization is a reflection of our culture. It was the best way we could figure out to enable our cultural values. We have continued to change our organization without destroying the culture because the culture leads, everything else follows.
Once you have the culture that you want, you still need to work to maintain it.
Measure your culture not only in the happiness, attraction and retention metrics, but also in the velocity and work getting done. Tweak things along the way
If you feel that you are getting off track, fix the problems instead of ignoring them
Talk about your culture, not only with the leadership, but with the organization as well. Everyone is stewards of the culture and has ownership over it.
Focusing on your culture early means building a culture that will grow as your product grows and maintain or even increase speed as you mature instead of having to constantly regroup and battle.
So remember, your culture leads, everything else follows