Building a Team of Engineers in the UK

Transcript

1. Mercari Tech Conf 2017 VP of Engineering, Mercari Europe Shinji Tanaka How to build a development team in the UK (イギリスでの開発チームの作り方)
2. Shinji Tanaka @stanaka 2016 Sep Joined Mercari as VP of Engineering, Mercari Europe 2016 Nov Relocated to UK Background: Researcher (Ph.D) → Web Engineer, CTO → Mercari Europe
3. Mercari in the UK 2017 March Release
4. Mercari Europe
5. Mercari Europe
6. Product Members in Mercari Europe • Total 19 (9) • PM x 5 (3) • Engineer x 8 (4) • Manager x 1 (1) • iOS x 2 (1) • Android x 2 (1) • PHP x 3 (1) • Designer x 2 (1) • BI x 2 (0) • QA x 2 (1) Only full time members (The number of members from JP)
7. History of Mercari in UK 2016 Sep .. Started development Nov .. Move to the UK 2017 Feb .. Complete the initial version Mar .. Initial release 〜 Continuous improvements Jul .. Tube advertisement
8. Tube advertisement (Jul 2017)
9. Hiring Engineers in London
10. Mission Initial Resource • 3 Engineers from JP • iOS, Android, API • Technical skill >> English proficiency Goal • Release a UK Product and improve it continuously • Build a development team in London
11. First trial of hiring engineers in London • Try a hiring agent at first • Various hiring agents in London • Some members are already hired via an agent Try to understand hiring market in London
12. Initial Results • Certain knowledge of the hiring market • Though reading many CVs, grab patterns of careers, salary expectations, skill sets • Improving accuracy during interview experiences
13. First member is important • First member of each region: API, iOS, Android, QA • They create culture • Initial challenges of Us • Unknown company • Few Japanese internet companies • Some ex-Sony or other ex-big-Japanese-company • Negative image about overworking
14. Expand hiring channels • Hiring agent at first • Can launch without any past record • Web services (scouting) • hired.com • Referral • Direct application
15. Current hiring status in London • iOS・Android・API・QA • At least 1 member for each area • Paring with JP member • Become easier to hire another member
16. Hiring Process • Create job descriptions → Filter candidates • Interviews 1. Check CV/Resume 2. First interview 3. Coding test 4. Final interview Simplified from steps used in Mercari JP
17. Job Description • Used by Agent for filtering candidates • Phone screening • Need to be detailed and precise • Job Description is used for performance review after employment.
18. Topics in interview • Background • Technical skills • Motivation • Personality / Working style • Cultural match Everybody becomes nervous
19. It’s speed that matters • Some companies make a hiring decision in a day • 1 week is practical, 2 weeks at the latest • For the whole process
20. The point of hiring in London • Use industry standard technologies
21. Characteristics of Engineer in London • Oriented to build a professional career • Experienced engineer seeks a leading position • Strong correlation between salary and position • Want to take a good position for CV • Contribution to products • Experience of new technologies • Short average longevity • 2-3 years. 1 year or less is not so rare Software Engineer → Senior SE → Lead SE/ Engineering Manager
22. Where candidates come from
23. Final goal in hiring • Increase the rate of referral and direct application Build a technology brand in Europe Known among engineers
24. Sponsorship
25. Operating Development team In London
26. Operating Development team in London • Multi-region development • Management of engineers in the UK
27. Multi-region development San Francisco (PDT -7:00) London (BST +1:00) Tokyo (JST +9:00) PM5:00 AM1:00 AM9:00
28. Trade-off “Efficiency of resource” and “Optimisation to speed” A B A B Eng 1 Eng 2 A B Eng 1 Eng 2 C D Dependency
29. Trade-off “Efficiency of resource” and “Optimisation to speed” Current UK position Make our product market-fit Speed should be prioritised Focus on each region
30. Focus on each region • Planning features based on the observations of users • Hiring PMs/Engineers who knows the local market well • Real/practical sense Handover responsibilities to local PMs/Engineers
31. Ex: User interview • Hearing the users voice is crucial • Feedback to product features Using dedicated facilities
32. Development Process in the UK • Cherry pick from Scrum • Kanban (JIRA) • Daily standup meeting • Weekly Planning meeting • For features that would take weeks to implement • Define milestones • Clarify dependency of client and API
33. Support from JP • Not whole functions are located in the UK • Resource restriction • Global optimisation • Loose coupling teams • Example • SRE (Site Reliability Engineer) • CXI (Customer Experience Improvement)
34. Management engineers in the UK • On-boarding • Career development • 1on1 • Performance Review
35. On-boarding • Easy on-boarding • Documentation in English • Industry standard tools • Adapting to each hire engineers • Small tasks • Paring with Japanese engineer • Supporting carefully
36. Career development • Support engineers to build a career • Introducing new technology • Appropriate problems • Adjust requests/expectations from PMs Improving as we go
37. 1on1 with Engineers • The basic • Sometimes they becomes stressful/nervous due to: • Trying to meet expectations • Having commitment Good communication is important
38. Performance Review • Based on Job Description • Overall → Performance during a half-year • Vision → Behaviours based on company-wide culture • Skill → Exercising specialities
39. How important English proficiency is • It matters in the management layer • Cover by an attitude to have a conversation
40. Summary and Meaning of being in London
41. Pros, Cons in London • English-speaking country • International / multi-cultural • Many Europeans • Many technology events • Easy to go to events in Europe, not only in London • It’s not the centre of the world, like SF seems to be
42. Future of the development team • Proceed localisation • Make Mercari market-fit in the UK / Europe • Grow the development team • Make multi region development more meaningful • Mixing advantages of localisation and globalisation • Gather knowledge from all over the world
43. Summary • Mercari Europe introduction • Product / Company • Target: Make Mercari market-fit • How to hire, operate a development team in London • Multi-cultural environment • Using Industrial standard • Providing chances for new technology • Value of being in London
44. Thank You