THE BLACK MAGIC

ENGINEERING
MANAGEMENT

Growing a start-up requires individual and

organizational change, here are some helpful
approaches.

Thrilled to be here

F I R S T T I M E I N S PA I N
F I R S T N O N - T E C H N I C A L TA L K
FIRST VELOCITY CONFERENCE
R E N E W E D N E R V O U S N E S S O N S TA G E

ABOUT

ME

C O M PA N I E S
- OSAF
- SLIDE
- MOZILLA
- SAUCE LABS
JOBS
- QA ENGINEER
- WEB DEVELOPER
- J AVA S C R I P T A R C H I T E C T
- A U T O M AT I O N M A N A G E R
- DIRECTOR OF WEB DEV
- VP OF ENGINEERING
LIFE
- FROM CASCADIA
- H A P P I LY M A R R I E D
- T R AV E L , S K I , S A I L
- ~9 YEARS OF SF

GH: github.com/admc
TW: twitter.com/admc

SAUCE LABS

Open Sauce

447 Device/OS/Browser Platforms

This talk was fully written on Thursdays and

Sundays.
CONFERENCE DRIVEN { DEVELOPMENT }

So what happened?

SAID NO TO MANAGEMENT
I HIRED A BUNCH OF AWESOME PEOPLE.
S TA R T E D A S S I G N I N G T H E M TA S K S .

T O D AY

One of the great things about building a tech company is the

amazing people that you can hire.
Ben Horowitz, The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers

BLACK MAGIC?

The managers function is not to make

people work, but to make it possible for
people to work.
Tom DeMarco, Peopleware : Productive Projects and Teams

I enjoy optimizing people, more than code.

INVERTED PYRAMID

You (the manager!)

Engineering Management is

UNINTUITIVE
INDIVIDUALIZED
C O N S TA N T LY I T E R AT I N G
ABOUT PEOPLE
O F T E N A N A N T I - PAT T E R N

DEAR ENGINEER,
W E L C O M E T O M A N A G E M E N T.

Success in engineering management doesnt

just happen, its like anything else, your have
to geek out on it to be awesome.

STEP 1: Know yourself.

TIME MANAGEMENT
CALENDAR & EMAIL & THINKING
HOURS OF SLEEP
W H E N A R E Y O U AT Y O U R B E S T
FIGHTING OR FLIGHTING
H A P P Y, L E A R N I N G , G R O W I N G ?
CAN YOU SCALE?
C O N S TA N T R E F L E C T I O N

STEP 2: Get help, immediately.

SEEK OUT MENTORS

READ BOOKS
SOLICIT FEEDBACK, LISTEN.
COUNT ON SR TEAM MEMBERS
GET A COACH
Y O U W I L L FA I L , A C C E P T A N D M O V E O N .

Marc: Do you know the best thing about

startups?
Ben: What?
Marc: You only ever experience two
emotions: euphoria and terror. And I find that
lack of sleep enhances them both.

Ben Horowitz, The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business
When There Are No Easy Answers

S TA R T U P C U R V E

admc @
Portland

The fundamental response to change is not

logical, but emotional.
Tom DeMarco, Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams

T H E E V O LV I N G R O L E
D I S C O V E RY
LEAD BY EXAMPLE
TA K E O N R E S P O N S I B I L I T Y
BE AN AGENT OF CHANGE
S U R V I VA L
TECH CRUNCH
STRUCTURAL GROUND WORK
CONTROLLED CHAOS
P R O D U C T E X P E R I M E N TAT I O N
GROWTH
C U LT U R E
PROCESS
HIRING & RECRUITING

F LY I N G S A U C E R S

C O M M U N I C AT I O N

REVISIT EVERY TIME YOU DOUBLE

E N G I N E E R I N G A L L H A N D S ( M O N T H LY )
E N G I N E E R I N G M G M T M E E T I N G ( W E E K LY )
T E A M S TA N D - U P S ( W E E K LY )
S C H E D U L E D 1 : 1 ( W E E K LY, O R B I W E E K LY )
S L A C K , E M A I L , L U N C H , G TA L K , S K Y P E , H A N G O U T
DONT GET CRUSHED BY MEETINGS

VA L U E S Y S T E M S

PROVIDE ORDER AND COHESION

DECISION SYSTEM, BLURRED LINES
RE-VISITED, ADAPTED, HONORED
EXIST FROM INSIDE OUT

O U R VA L U E S

EXCELLENCE AND PERSONAL GROWTH

T R U T H A N D T R A N S PA R E N C Y
I T S O K AY T O B E W R O N G ; N O T S TAY W R O N G .
INTEGRITY
RESPECT

https://saucelabs.com/our-values

Visual supervision is a joke for development

workers. Visual supervision is for prisoners.
Tom DeMarco, Peopleware : Productive Projects and Teams

C U LT U R E
- UNIFIED MISSION AND PURPOSE
- TRUST AND RESPECT
- F R E E D O M T O I N N O V AT E
- LONG TERM INVESTMENTS
- FUN AND CHALLENGING
- C E L E B R AT E W I N S

We made a video. I revisit it often.

BALANCE
- BREAKS AFTER BIG PUSHES
- TECH CRUNCH ALL NIGHTERS
- P R I O R I T I Z AT I O N
- S AY I N G N O
- R E A L V A C AT I O N S
- REAL BOUNDARIES (24/7 EMAIL)

Decided at an 8 hour offsite.

HIRING
- C U LT U R A L F I R S T, T E C H N I C A L S E C O N D
- B E C R E AT I V E A N D O P E N M I N D E D
- QUALITY OVER QUANTITY
- SLOW AND STEADY WINS THE RACE
- TRUST YOUR GUT

Hiring is long term planning, and will slow you down.

One of your many jobs as manager is

information conduit, and the rules are
deceptively simple: for each piece of
information you see, you must correctly
determine who on your team needs that piece
of information to do their job.
Michael Lopp, Managing Humans: Biting and Humorous Tales of a
Software Engineering Manager

ORG STRUCTURE

DO YOUR HOMEWORK
CROSS FUNCTIONAL PROJECTS
CROSS FUNCTIONAL TEAMS
DIS-ORG CHART
E V O LV I N G G R A P H , N O T T R E E

http://pando.com/2013/02/28/why-yammer-believes-the-traditional-engineering-organizational-structure-is-dead/

R U L E S T O L I V E B Y

D E F I N E & S TAT E Y O U R G O A L S
H AV E A V I S I O N
M A K E D A I LY P R O G R E S S
T H E C A L M , I N D I C AT E S A S T O R M
WHISKEY

Are people happy on your team?

MISCONCEPTIONS

THE JOB OF A MANAGER

MANAGERS AND CODING
MANAGERS VS LEADS VS PMS
MANAGEMENT EXPERIENCE
CTO VS VPE VS CHIEF ARCHITECT
PEOPLE && ARCHITECTURE

Manager

S TAY A W E S O M E

MY KINDLE
- MANAGING HUMANS
- PEOPLEWARE
- HOW NASA BUILDS TEAMS
- THE HARD THING ABOUT HARD THINGS
- S H O G U N : A N O V E L O F J A PA N
- THE 48 LAWS OF POWER

We are hiring @ Sauce Labs

- WEB DEVELOPMENT
- DISTRIBUTED SYSTEMS
- MOBILE AND HARDWARE HACKERS
- SYS ADMIN, SYS ENGINEER
- NETWORK ENGINEERING

THANKS!
M Y O F F I C E H O U R S AT V E L O C I T Y. E U :
18-11-2014 11:15 - 11:50 CET (35 MINUTES)
R O O M : TA B L E B ( S P O N S O R PA V I L I O N )