MTC2018 - Developing Across the Pacific: The Role of Tech Lead in an International Team

Speaker: Tomoaki Imai

Starting this year, every platform team at Mercari, regularly draws up a technical roadmap, and looks at the initiatives they can take to contribute to our products from a technological perspective. The Android Team for Mercari US drew up a technical roadmap focused on the goal of creating a highly mobile and elastic team. In this session, Imai will discuss how the team formulated and pushed forward with this roadmap and his role in the process as a Tech Lead.

Transcript

1. Developing Across the Pacific: The Role of Tech Lead in an International Team Tomoaki Imai Tech Lead (Android)
2. Tech Lead Android Tomoaki Imai
3. A Development Team and Tech Lead Reaching Overseas
4. • The tech lead’s role in Mercari • What the tech leads have worked on as part of a development team reaching overseas What We’ll Talk About Today
5. US Mercari Android 2017 → 2018
6. US Android Project Sudden birth of the project Mercari Plus released Merged with Mercari Rebranding
7. US Android Project プロジェクト爆誕 Mercari Plus released Merged with Mercari Rebranding
8. US Android Project プロジェクト爆誕 Mercari Plus released Merged with Mercari Rebranding
9. US Android Project プロジェクト爆誕 Mercari Plus released Merged with Mercari Rebranding
10. US Android Project プロジェクト爆誕 Mercari Plus リリース Mercari と統合 リブランディング • Number of releases after renewal: 42 (200 including the beta release, etc.) • Code (Java, Kotlin): 100,215 lines • Number of screens ◦ Native: About 60 ReactNative: About 40 • Client AB test: About 40 (as of October 2018) Fun Facts
11. US Mercari Android Team 2017 → 2018
12. US Mercari Android Team
13. US Mercari Android Team Joined! (Feb 2018) Joined! (Jan 2018)
14. US Mercari Android Team Joined! (Feb 2018) Joined! (Jan 2018) Moved from SF → Palo Alto
15. US Mercari Android Team Tech Lead (Jan 2018) Tech Lead (July 2018) Joined! (Feb 2018) Joined! (Jan 2018) Moved from SF → Palo Alto
16. Why Are Tech Leads Necessary?
17. January 2017 • 2 members • US members only January 2018 • 5 members • Core infrastructure is managed on US side 20XX • Over 100 members • Each country acts independently and develops at high speeds • Provide a high-quality, large-scale product US Mercari Android Team’s Development Structure
18. January 2017 • 2 members • US members only How do you maintain code quality and speed? How do you make members take ownership? US Mercari Android Team’s Development Structure January 2018 • 5 members • Core infrastructure is managed on US side 20XX • Over 100 members • Each country acts independently and develops at high speeds Provide a high-quality, large-scale product
19. Our purpose is to build a flexible and highly scalable team where members take ownership. The Tech Lead is the one who drives the team from a technical standpoint.
20. What I Worked on as a Tech Lead • Making a technical roadmap • Leading the technical roadmap
21. What I worked on as a Tech Lead • Making a technical roadmap • Leading the technical roadmap
22. What Is a Technical Roadmap? • Technical milestones that must be cleared to achieve our future vision • Mercari US establishes its platforms’ technical objectives using the company-wide roadmap as a base.
23. What We Keep in Mind with the Technical Roadmap Technical things we want to try Value for users What we aim to be Productivity/quality Focusing on providing value for users and moving toward our goal
24. 3 Main Issues Scalability Ownership ・Increasing practical knowledge and personalized specs ・Catch-up costs required by increasingly complex code ・Communication costs and delays caused by remote offices ・Not enough dividing of technical roles Quality ・Increasing code quality and productivity ・Dealing with vulnerabilities
25. 3 Main Issues Scalability Ownership ・Increasing practical knowledge, and personalized specs ・Catch-up costs required by increasingly complex code ・Communication costs and delays caused by remote offices ・Not enough dividing of technical roles Quality ・Increasing code quality and productivity ・Dealing with vulnerabilities Modularize Kotlinize Design Language Security Focusing on these 4 areas in 2018
26. What I Worked on as a Tech Lead • Making a technical roadmap • Leading the technical roadmap
27. How Does a Team Reaching Overseas Execute Its Roadmap? Become a teacher for topics Be more involved with technical inspection than anyone else Build a culture of ownership 1 2 3
28. • Become the best at explaining topics ◦ What the problem is ◦ How we want to solve it • Share tasks ◦ Make and present a pitch deck Become a Teacher for Topics 1 Why? How? • To give members a strong interest in their topics and help them fully understand why they need to be solved
29. What to make clear, why, and how Share rough ideas, too (Just don’t go too deep) Open Q&A and discussion on the slides Example of a Pitch Deck
30. • Actively inspect solutions • Take on the most challenging cases • Share your experiences Be More Involved With Technical Inspection Than Anyone Else 2 Why? How? • To fill in any holes you leave and help provide members with new tech and ideas
31. Code Inspection Receive feedback while inspecting Make a document about the inspection results and anything else of note
32. • Because a team working together is stronger than a tech lead alone Build a culture of ownership 3 Why? How? • Owner system for tasks • Technical support when needed
33. Each owner can work on the tasks they are responsible for Task ownership Tech roadmap-related tasks, DevTask, etc. are managed via Github issues
34. Task Ownership 1-week US business trip to promote the Flux project 1-week US business trip for the modularization project Meeting with the Google team
35. • The tech lead’s role is to drive the team forward from a technical standpoint and maintain scalability. • Design a roadmap while focusing on providing value for users. • Me as a tech lead: “Become a teacher for tasks,” “Be more involved than anyone else,” “Build a culture of ownership” Summary