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HOW TO EAT A BURRITO
(AND OTHER LESSONS LEARNED SCALING
ENGINEERING TEAMS)
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© me
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THE SECRET TO SCALING TEAMS
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¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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LESSONS
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© me
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Founders, leaders, managers, engineers
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THIS IS US!
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TEAM GROWTH
0
50
100
150
200
250
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
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~90
ENGINEERING
STAFF
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~125
PRODUCT AND
ENGINEERING
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#1 HIRING IS NUMBER ONE
https://unsplash.com/photos/fY8Jr4iuPQM
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https://unsplash.com/photos/sUXXO3xPBYo
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• EVERYONE IS
HIRING!
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•“The quality of coworkers is the single
greatest determinant of workplace
happiness”
-- Yishan Wong
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Hiring is a feedback loop
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HIRING IS NOT A
CHECKBOX
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•“Make hiring your number one priority, always.
•This means that it needs to be your
organization's first priority, it needs to be each
manager's first priority, and it needs to be each
engineer's first priority.”
-- Yishan Wong
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BE CONSISTENT
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Standard interview process, no exceptions (e.g. phone
screen, technical test, review call, in office interview)
Standard questions for all candidates
Standard test with blind reviews
Reduce bias at every stage.
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Be Human. Be Kind. Be Yourself.
Glassdoor is watching you.
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Provide feedback
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Be human!
Put in the hours , invest your time
Think creatively
Get out there, exhaust your network
Optimise the funnel
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#2 MO’ MONEY, MO’ PROBLEMS
Photo by Clarence Davis, NY Daily News Archive (Getty Images)
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© Universal Pictures, 1985
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Junior
Mid
Senior / Manager
Lead / Senior Manager
Principal / Head
CTO / VP Eng
•Define levels
⬅ Dual ladder
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•Define basic expectations
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•Or just steal them.
progression.fyi
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Intern ?
Junior ??
Mid ???
Senior / Manager ????
Lead / Senior Manager ?????
Principal / Head ??????
•Bands
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Intern 23k
Junior 25 - 35k
Mid 35 - 50k
Senior / Manager 50 - 65k
Lead / Senior Manager 65 - 80k
Principal / Head 80 - 90k
•Bands
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Review bands annually. Use insight from pipeline,
network, reports.
Use expectations to discuss performance and progression
regularly, run 360 feedback.
Annual salary reviews, bi-annual promotion reviews.
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#3 ONE IS THE LONELIEST NUMBER
© DC Comics
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•“Software development is a team sport”
-- Brian Fitzpatrick & Ben Collins-Sussman
Team Geek
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%
Feature #1
&
Feature #2
'
Feature #3
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•Single Points of Failure
✅ Knowledge silos
✅ Increased pressure
✅ Reduced happiness and motivation
✅ Inconsistency creep. Drift from standards
✅ Reduced code quality. Technical debt.
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•Work as a team, not a collection of
•individuals
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Build collegiate teams, not silos
Work together as a team, not a collection of unique
individuals
Focus on reducing single points of failure (in people and
systems architecture!)
Optimise for the long term – team sustainability and
scalability
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#4 HOW TO EAT A BURRITO
https://unsplash.com/photos/MaHkiMGQFZM
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* SCALING ENGINEERING
TEAMS BY WRITING THINGS
DOWN
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* SCALING ENGINEERING
TEAMS BY WRITING THINGS
DOWN
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POP QUIZ
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What’s our deployment process?
When do I get a salary review?
How do I get on the VPN?
Why are we doing this feature rather than that one?
What does a senior engineer get paid?
WTF am I supposed to be doing?
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COMMUNICATION
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DOCUMENTATION
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⛔ CODE COMMENTS
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⛔ CODE COMMENTS
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•“Good code is its own best documentation.
As you’re about to add a comment, ask
yourself, ‘How can I improve the code so
that this comment isn’t needed?’”
-- Steve McConnell
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CLARITY
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•Team Knowledge Base
Common standards, style guides
Development process - “How We Work”
RFDs
Incident reports
Our Toolkit (GitHub, DataDog etc)
Runbooks
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Unless you’re Homer Simpson you might want to try the “lunch-
sized” burrito
Unwrap the burrito from the top, like a pack of digestives
As you eat, unwind the foil to expose more burrito
Always ensure you have something between your burrito and the
table/your lap: The burrito will leak
If you have a burrito for lunch, remember to bring enough for
everyone
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RFDs: REQUESTS FOR DISCUSSION
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ARCHITECTURAL DECISION RECORDS
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DISCUSSION
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• Side Effects
Becoming a better writer
Public blog posts
Hiring
It becomes part of the culture
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•It’s about the long game
You’re trying to scale, the last thing you need is for your
velocity to decrease.
New engineers not knowing how things work, or having
to ask for assistance every time they do something, will
just slow you down.
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https://unsplash.com/photos/rK_nz3DswX4
#5 PULLING THE RIPCORD
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WHEN SHOULD YOU LET GO?
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Technical founders hiring your first engineer
Engineers transitioning into management
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•When should you let go?
Day 1, when you’ve hired your first engineer.
Consider yourself no longer on the critical path.
Contribute, but put your energy into supporting your
engineers, create the culture, remove roadblocks.
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PLAYER MANAGEMENT
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•“Moonlighting managers ain’t got no time
for bullshit”
-- DHH
https://m.signalvnoise.com/moonlighting-managers-aint-got-no-time-for-bullshit/
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• Team first, technical contribution second
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CONCLUSION
https://unsplash.com/photos/keSFbPQAJRE
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Hiring is #1: Be Human. Be Kind. Be Fair. Be Consistent.
Mo’ Money Mo’ Problems: Clear expectations, fair salaries, dual ladder
One is the loneliest number: Software development is a team sport
How to eat a burrito: Scale teams by writing things down
Pulling the ripcord: Get off the critical path, focus on your team