This document summarizes the scaling of Meero's product team from 5 developers in 2018 to over 70 developers spread across 13 squads and 3 tribes in 2019 as the company grew rapidly. Key phases included initially having no formal product team and responsibilities dispersed (Phase 1), forming an initial product team of 5 people (Phase 2), moving to 3 squads of 5-18 people each (Phase 3), and expanding further to 13 squads organized into 3 tribes (Phase 4) as the workforce and needs grew. The scaling process emphasized continuous improvement, a human-first approach, team spirit, and necessary delegation and overcommunication.
4. A worldwide
community
700 employees
6 offices
60k photographers
...in 3 years
Marketing
Product
IT
R&D
Data
PhotographySales
Operations
Partners
Community
Customer
Service
Production
PostProduction
5. From 0 to 70 in 3 years
More developers
every day
10. PHASE 1 - January 2016
No product team
Product responsibility dispatched
Agility is our motto
Spreadsheets are most of our tools ;-)
11. PHASE 1 - January 2016
No product team
Quickfixs everywhere
- No real specs
- No documentation
- No automated testing
Too much to deal for the existing teams
13. PHASE 2 - June 2018
Product was born
Evangelize Product inside Meero
Understand Meero
Spec, test, document & deliver features
Communicate internally
14. PHASE 2 - June 2018
Product was born
Too far from developers
Impossible to address some topics
No squad for a maximum of agility
Suffering the roadmap
16. PHASE 3 - January 2019
Moving to squads
3 squads myMeero, Running & Core
QA & Product Designer joining the game
Organized feedbacks from Meeronauts
17. PHASE 3 - January 2019
Moving to squads
Too many direct contacts for the VP
Lack of design resources & QA
Workforce is growing
Releases are larger and larger
More and more languages
18. 10 Products
70 Devs
3 Designers
2 QAs
1 Releaser
1 Research
1 Localization
2018
January
2018
June
2019
January
2019
June
5 Devs
3 squads
3 tribes
13 squads
5 Products
18 Devs
1 Designer
1 QA
1 Product
5 Devs
PHASE 4 - June 2019
Tribes & more squads!
27. Product Champions
Feature tester
When necessary, before
a release
Point of contact
Help her teammate on simple
product questions
Squad member
Involved in product
development from day 1
Every team at Meero has one
They are the representatives of the product in their own team