Life in the tech trenches (2015)
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Julien Simon, CTO of Viadeo, shares insights on fostering a strong culture in fast-growth startups, emphasizing the importance of hiring the right talent and maintaining efficient processes. He warns that complacency can lead to organizational decline and encourages the adaptation of methodologies like Agile to suit the team's needs. Simon also highlights the critical balance between technological advancement and managing workplace politics, advocating for transparency and teamwork within engineering teams.
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Life in the tech trenches (2015)
- 1. 15 awesome *ps for a great culture in fast-‐growth startups Julien Simon, CTO @ Viadeo
- 2. 15 awesome *ps for a great culture in fast-‐growth startups Julien Simon, CTO @ Viadeo
- 3. Life in the tech trenches Julien Simon, CTO @ Viadeo
- 4. Who am I ? • 20+ years in R&D teams, from smartcards to web plaLorms • VP Eng @ Digiplug, CTO @ Pixmania, VP Eng @ Criteo, CTO @ Aldebaran Robo*cs • Grew teams from 8 to 60+ people • Managed teams up to 150 people
- 5. I’ve seen things you wouldn’t believe (and done a few myself, I have to admit) Disclaimer (ooooh): I’m going to be rude, harsh and cynical. Feel free to disagree 100% J My only goal tonight is to help you avoid some of them.
- 6. The beginning of the end Your company is running fine, You’ve got 5-‐10 fine engineers, Management says you have to hire 10 more, Celebrate now, because…
- 8. Yes, winter is coming Hiring Tools Methodology Processes Technology And the worst of all.. Poli*cs They will creep in your company (no, you’re not special) Guard the wall, because if you don’t, who will? And if you don’t want to do it, you picked the wroooooong job, buddy.
- 9. Hiring We should really stop doing it
- 10. Hiring : default answer is « no » • Can you convincingly answer : – « Why this candidate? » « What does (s)he bring that we don’t have? » – « Why now ? » « What if we wait a few more months ? » – No Asshole Rule ? • How ? – Coding interviews : « Cracking the Code Interview », Codility, Project Euler, etc. – « Do you code outside of work? » : Github, open-‐source projects, Stack Overflow – Reference checks ! • Caveats – Rockstars: « This guy was awesome at Google/Microsoi/etc. We must have him». Maybe, maybe not. Different company, different game. – Dev leads: raise the bar. Then raise it again. Cost of mistake is sky high. – Hire « anyway » (especially juniors). No, no and no : wrong hire à more problems. – Made a mistake ? Fix it ASAP. Things NEVER « get beker ». Minimize damage to the code base and to team morale.
- 11. Yes, I’m a biker middle-‐aged man Passion for a job well-‐done has become an excep*on (do you hear me, Gen Y?). Proper Computer Science skills (Knuth, Meyers, GoF, etc) are so rare it’s scary. Once again : GIVE THEM A LONG, HARD LOOK & KEEP THE BAD ONES OUT!
- 12. Tools « The Joel Test: 12 Steps to Beker Code » (2000) Your real score is the one I’d find if I audited you ;) Bonus: « Joel Test for Programmers » (ar*cle on simpleprogrammer.com)
- 13. Real-‐life examples … from leading companies. Makes you wonder about the other ones, huh? #1 : « Yes, we use SVN and everyone commits to TRUNK» #2 : « Yes, Gérard does it on his PC and puts a ZIP file on our filer» #3 : « Yes, well no, not for the last 6 months » #4 : « Yes, we use a custom version of Flyspray 0.8». Variant: « Excel works great » #5 : « No, MarkeOng won’t let us » #7 : « Why? We are an Agile team » #10 : « Yes, we test in producOon because it’s more convenient » There is no excuse for not geung this right. This is priority #1 for the CTO.
- 14. Methodology Yes, you need one
- 15. Methodology • Agile, Agile, Agile – Agile has become a cult (like ISO9001 30 years ago). Be a prac**oner, not a priest. – Yes, it’s OK to adapt Scrum/Kanban to your own context. Whatever works. – The Agile Manifesto (2001) is the light in the dark. Stay on the path, you’ll be fine. • Mul*-‐discipline teams – Engineering + ops + designers + product managers working as one. – A unicorn? Not at Viadeo (one of the reasons I joined, actually). – Awesome, but VERY VERY hard to get right. – Long-‐term CxO commitment mandatory. • Lean product development – Lean, MVP, walking skeleton: fine, but make sure you eventually deliver something consistent. Sum of demos and PoCs != Product – « Fail fast », « move fast, break stuff », « trial and error »: fine too, but make sure you have solid tests and the right KPIs or else, how will you know you failed?
- 16. Processes: skip this slide if… (you’re totally delusional about the sorry state of your engineering prac*ce) Bugs are always assigned and solved in *me, Your code scales endlessly, Monitoring always catches produc*on issues, You never run out of budget (or hos*ng space, or servers), Your Disaster Recovery plan is just a click/script away, The same problem never happens twice, Etc. etc.
- 17. If not… processes, then • Yes, I hate them as much as anyone, all the more if they’re arbitrary and inefficient. • Wikipedia says : « a collec*on of ac*vi*es that takes one or more kinds of input and creates an output that is of value to the customer ». • I sez : «For beker or worse, I know only one way to do some things right. And one way is all I need ». • Sit down, write some simple, proven rules that prevent real problems and make sure they’re enforced every day (ass kicking may be required). • Could it be that this is what the ‘C’ in ‘CTO’ stands for? Hmm?
- 18. Technology The ‘T’ in ‘CTO’, remember? « LOAD ON THE MYSQL MASTER IS 252.4 » ? WHAT DO YOU MEAN
- 19. Technology : the big secret (ooooh) 1. Focus on business needs: don’t build cathedrals, don’t get « lost in the Bazaar » (great ar*cle by Poul-‐Henning Kemp) 2. Iden*fy top challenges: *me to market? UI? Perf? Security? Don’t know? 3. List candidate technologies, expec*ng them to last a least a year (think 10x) 4. KPIs, benchmarks, PoC: educated guess is OK, random decision isn’t! 5. Implement, deploy and monitor 6. Anything on fire ? – Can it be fixed by code op*miza*on/refactoring? – If not (are you really sure?), can it be fixed with new technology? • Yes: you need a new building block in your stack, GOTO 2. • No: WTF? Are you scared? Man up! Not moving = death – If there is absolutely no other way, add servers… but it won’t work forever! KISS, DRY, and watch out for NIH
- 20. Must…read…books because you don’t really learn anything useful in school or at work and they’ll look great on your desk ;)
- 21. Ever heard these? Real-‐life examples that will restore your faith in well-‐educated, well-‐paid engineers • Trolls: « Java is for pussies. Real men use C++ » • Luna*cs: « Erlang is the bomb. Can’t you see, old man? » Also works with Haskell, Clojure, etc. • Living in the past: « SQL Server has always worked for us » • New boss: « Let’s rewrite everything in … » • Boss buddies: « My ex-‐colleagues at MicrosoZ would like to meet you about Azure » • And the worst of all, fanboys & hipsters: « guys, HackyLib v0.1 has just been pushed to Github. It’s totally awesome. SpoOfy, Ne_lix and Valve are already using it in producOon. Let’s use it too! » • Variant: the latest trend your boss read on Business Insider, HBR or worse: « We need a Big Data strategy » à DIE, DIE, DIE
- 22. You need to make YOUR OWN choices and build YOUR OWN plaLorm. Ideology, conserva*sm or trends won’t get you anywhere. Which leads me to…
- 23. Poli*cs « You’ve got to watch them, be quick or be dead » Iron Maiden
- 24. Poli*cs • CTO = tech leader + people manager + execu*ve (that’s what the ‘O’ means) • You have to be all three. Able to? Want to? Allowed to? Encouraged to? • In a web company, technology cannot take a back seat (willingly or not). – Don’t be the tech dude who « executes » while the big boys « strategize ». – Let tech be heard. No one is going to do it for you… You owe it to your team! – Try to work efficiently with non-‐tech managers, but don’t forget: most of these guys were TAUGHT poli*cs and they LOVE it. – The odds are against you, so be smarter, run faster… and pick your fights. • Engineering = teamwork, transparency, facts, con*nous improvement. • Poli*cs = ego, lies, twis*ng facts, status quo. à NO POLITICS allowed inside the IT team. Zero, none, zilch, nada. Get it? • Especially between you and your team. Remember that asshole manager you had to work for in a previous company? Don’t be him. Simple as that.
- 25. Fear is not an op*on Whatever happens, kick ass, stay true and try to have fun
- 26. Thank you very much for listening Happy to answer ques*ons or listen to comments. Staying in touch: [email protected] Twiker: @julsimon Blog: juliensimon.blogspot.com And of course on Viadeo… and LinkedIn ;)