Scaling PET at Vend

Do Less, Scale FasterTrust people

The problem:

Grow a dev and product team from 8 to 80 in one year, while retaining great

culture and shipping constantly.

Available Solutions

Netflix

Spotify

GitHub

…plus many more

Who has solved this before?

Available Solutions

Culture heavily based on output and trust

No limit on sick or holiday leave

“Sustained B-level performance, despite “A for effort”, generates a

generous severance package, with respect”

http://www.slideshare.net/reed2001/culture-1798664

Netflix

Available Solutions

Netflix

Available Solutions

Structured as many small startups

Slim management structure

High autonomy, High Alignment

https://ucvox.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/113617905-scaling-agile-spotify-11.pdf

Spotify

Available Solutions

Spotify

Available Solutions

Spotify

Available Solutions

No managers

Remote work to attract the best

“Primary responsible person”

GitHub

Available Solutions

GitHub

Available Solutions

Common Themes

Create small teams each with laser-sharp focus

Lead via trust and autonomy

Encourage responsibility and ownership

But what about Vend?

Not as rich as Netflix

Nowhere near as many engineers as Spotify

Not as remote as GitHub

…still cool though yeah?

Vend

Hacking our own solution

The basics are non-negotiable:

A culture of trust, with ownership behaviour in return

Focus is a constant battle, but is absolutely necessary

Hacking our own solution

Hacking our own solution

We can’t pay $300k salaries

But we can teach people how to grow with the company

Vend has a strong culture of learning

$5000 personal development fund for all engineers

Implementing a “Head of Learning” position very early

Lastly: never solve growth problems by adding process

Closing the “Netflix” skills/process gap

Hacking our own solution

Quantum team structure

It sounds like bullshit, but bear with me

Creating a “Spotify” model without enough people

Hacking our own solution

Creating a “Spotify” model without enough people

Hacking our own solution

Creating a “Spotify” model without enough people

Hacking our own solution

Avoiding context switching is the hardest problem

Focus helps (Do less. Stop starting and start finishing)

Perhaps the only place where “managers” are actually useful

Is this team structure temporary, to get through a growth phase, or

permanent?

Creating a “Spotify” model without enough people

Hacking our own solution

How do we decide what each of these teams are working on?

In a culture of trust and ownership, who determines the roadmap?

Direction versus Management

Planning and Roadmaps

Hacking our own solution

Product Themes

Objectives

Mission“#1 global company focussed onbringing delight to S-M retailers"

Hypotheses

Solutions

Hacking our own solution

http://blog.intercom.io/how-we-build-software/

Example:

Hacking our own solution

Product Theme

Objective

Hypothesis

Solutions

Beautifully designed, functional and accurate.

I can trust what Vend is telling me

Stopping a retailer from adding invalid data, will result in more accurate inventory data.

Feature A Documentation/Education

Solutions are not always code!

Golden Rules of Scaling

Focus is unbelievably important

Avoid context switching

Keep teams together as long as possible

Eradicate management tasks by being supportive and trusting

Have a framework to support great decision making

Rule 1: Do Less

Tips and Summary

Use learning to close the process gap

Reduces the need to hire managers

Hire only as slow as you can cope with

(i.e. incredibly fast, but not stupid-fast)

Rule 2: Go Faster

Tips and Summary

Trust your people

[email protected]