Shaping Engineering Culture in a Chaotic Environment

If you've worked for a rapidly growing tech startup, you know that in the blink of an eye your organization may go from 300 to 2000 people. Hiring craze, you can't keep track of the organizational chart anymore and your productivity takes a huge hit because there are so many conflicts.

This talk is about shaping an engineering culture and scaling it to your organizatio even when everything seems to be turned into chaos. Of course there are no single right answers to everything, but here are some valuable lessons learned out these "growing pains".

Transcript

1. Shaping Engineering Culture In A Chaotic Environment @tuttiq
2. Hi there! • Tutti (@tuttiq) • From ⇒ ⇒ • Major in Computer Engineering • Software Engineer for ~8 years • Manager @ Mercari, Director of Women Who Code Tokyo • Engineering Office Team • Diversity & Inclusion + Learning & Development
3. Engineering Office? Mission: The best employee experience for all engineers Activities: Organizational development, engagement, DevRel and people growth across the Engineering division E.g.: • Hiring and onboarding experience for engineers • Learning opportunities, engaging work environment • Culture and Processes • External relations with Dev community
4. The Journey 1 BOLD CHALLENGE 2 HOW TO DEFINE CULTURE? 3 CHANGE MANAGEMENT 4 LESSONS LEARNED
5. Bold Challenge What do you mean by "Chaotic Environment"?
6. Rapid growth Mercari's headcount in 4 years
7. Diversity taken to the next level Over 40 Countries People from almost all regions of the world.
8. Diversity taken to the next level • 40 different nationalities mostly on the Engineering Division • Japan, and Eastern Asia in general, have some of the most traditional and homogeneous cultures • People from almost all regions of the world: all americas, west, east and north europe, middle east, africa, south, southeast, west and east asia, oceania, etc • No such thing as "everyone is kinda used to western culture" like I've seen in other places
9. Language barrier • Only about 20% of Japanese people can speak conversational English • Less than 10% can speak with business-level fluency • Majority of the foreigners in Japan also speak English as a second language
10. Rapid growth Mercari's headcount in 4 years
11. Mercari organization in 4 years Organization development
12. Organization Development
13. How do you define culture in a large and diverse organization? Spoiler alert: it's not by sticking your values on your cool office walls.
14. How do you shape culture in a large and diverse organization? • How do we resolve disagreements? • What should be considered a priority? • How to evaluate engineers and their contributions?
15. Engineering Competencies: An Open Discussion "What competencies make good engineers?" • Led by the CTO, fed by everyone • Open discussion on Slack • Tons of research and references • Open document that anyone could add comments • Town Hall discussions
16. Feedback loop of hell -- But it's worth it.
17. One step back: from Competencies to Principles Hiring Onboarding & Training Setting goals Career ladder (core skills + technical skills) Evaluate / Promote Engineering Principles
18. One step back: from Competencies to Principles CTO Vision + Town Hall discussions Interviews with EMs and Tech Leads Mercari Company Values & Culture Diverse committee with local & global experience Mercari Engineering Principles 9 items that can be understood and applied to any member of the engineering division, from new grad to VP Research on other tech companies
19. Mercari Engineering Principles Go Bold Seek Continuous Improvement Go Bold, Fail Fast & Learn Early Take Action & Responsibility All For One Focus On The Customer Strive For Alignment Foster Trust & Inclusion Be A Pro Deliver With High Quality Share To Empower Be Strategic & Efficient
20. Mercari Engineering Ladder (more like a matrix)
21. Make sure the message is clear We know every engineer is different from another and we encourage and celebrate diversity. We will not expect individuals of the same level to have exactly the same progress on the ladder. We know that people will grow in a different pace in different competencies. This diversity of strengths and weaknesses is good because engineers can complement one another with different skill sets.
22. メルカリはそれぞれのエンジニアの個性や違いを認識し ダイバーシティを尊重し推し進めてきました。 同じレベルにいるエンジニアが必ずし同じラダーのプログレスを進むことを想定して いません。個人個人で成長スピードや得意分野が違うことも認識しています。 それぞれの強みや弱みにも多様性があるからこそ、エンジニア同士でそれぞれを 補うことができ、良い結果につながります Make sure the message is clear: in 2 languages!!
23. Make sure to explain the full picture Hiring Onboarding & Training Setting goals Career ladder (core skills + technical skills) Evaluate / Promote Engineering Principles
24. Our Values Whatever we thought sounded cool for PR and the employees want to hear
25. Principles "on the wall" Changing your words, your careers site and your employee manual is not enough. You will only begin to change culture if you live and breath your values everyday through your ACTIONS: • Hire according to your principles • Reward/praise (or give feedback to shift direction) • Evaluate and promote the right behaviors/competencies
26. Change Management Yes, it takes forever. Applying to your processes and systems
27. A clear proposal to solve a clear problem • An evidence-based and specific problem statement • An aligned vision of the ideal future (for the specific thing you are trying to change) • A clear proposal of your idea to solve the problem • A high-level plan to implement your proposal
28. Explain very clearly the full picture Hiring Onboarding & Training Setting goals Evaluate / Promote Engineering Principles 1st step Career ladder (core skills + technical skills)
29. How everything connects Hiring Onboarding & Training Setting goals Evaluate / Promote Engineering Principles 2nd step Career ladder (core skills + technical skills)
30. Step by step Hiring Onboarding & Training Setting goals Career ladder (core skills + technical skills) Evaluate / Promote Engineering Principles 3rd step
31. Create a framework to apply it to your cycle Level expectations Level expectations Level expectations SWE 1 SWE 2 SWE 3 Goals Evaluation Promotion Goals Evaluation Promotion Management path Specialist path
32. Training your managers • Lots and lots of sessions, Q&As, open doors • Hands-on workshops • Bring the discussion to hiring managers
33. Define a guideline / best-practices • Start of the quarter: use it to set goals • Middle of the quarter: use it to check progress • End of the quarter: use it to retrospect Using the career ladder to reflect and discuss often, it will become a tool for better self-assessment, member review and feedback ✅ ⏳
34. Incorporate into the systems: Onboarding As soon as possible, add it to your onboarding process! • Explanation of the principles, where to find the full matrix, how to use it on a regular basis • New members and especially new managers
35. Incorporate into the systems: Evaluation • Part of the cycle (goals, 1:1s, continuous feedback) • Shape your evaluation questions (Self-assessment, peer reviews, manager review) • Embed it into your system (literally!)
36. Incorporate into the systems: Hiring • Shape the hiring questions • People involved in the hiring process should know how to assess candidates based on it • Promotes consistency on the new member level placement
37. More challenges ahead • Refining expectations and implementation on all fronts • Achieve full understanding across teams • Promotion guidelines based on ladder progress • Fluid/hybrid career paths, lateral change of roles ALWAYS
38. Lessons Learned Oh, if only we knew...
39. Lessons Learned (the hard way) • Shorter experiment+learn cycle (leaner/agile) • More diversity of roles, not only managers • Better stakeholder mana- gement, no loose ends • ALWAYS overestimate the effort
40. Lessons Learned (the good way) • Incremental implementation (step by step) • Open and collaborative process • Have all engineering functions represented • 100% language inclusiveness is REALLY HARD, but possible
41. Keep evolving! If your first version is great, you're probably late to release it If you are not unsatisfied with your work from 1 year ago, it means you're not growing And remember, change management takes time, patience and practice
42. Thank you! Questions? Tutti Quintella https://tuttiq.me @tuttiq About Mercari Group: https://about.mercari.com Mercari JP: https://mercari.jp | Mercari US: https://mercari.com Free illustrations on this presentation by Freepik