When Product meets Engineering :: Landing Festival Berlin 2019

1. When Product meets
Engineering
03 - 04 April 2019 - Berlin, Germany

2. When Engineering
meets Product
03 - 04 April 2019 - Berlin, Germany

3. Hi there! I’m Pedro!
Engineering Director @
Impact-driven person
Jack of All Trades, Master of Some
Agile, Lean and DevOps aficionado
10+ years of experience running engineering teams

4. Hi there! I’m Pedro!
Engineering Director @
Impact-driven person
Jack of All Trades, Master of Some
Agile, Lean and DevOps aficionado
10+ years of experience running engineering teams
5

5. And a few years ago I wondered!
Why is this the typical structure of Software
Engineering organizations?

6. CEO
VP Product
Product Director
Product
Manager
Product
Manager
Associate
Product
Manager
Product Director
…
… VP Engineering
Engineering
Director
Engineering
Manager
Engineering
Team
Engineering
Team
Engineering
Manager
…
Engineering
Director
...

7. 2630 BC–2611 BC
The date of one of the first records of an “organization”
that separated Product from Engineering
Source: http://www.timelineindex.com/content/view/1178

8. Source: https://www.trainingjournal.com/articles/feature/leadership-lessons-pharaohs

9. Source: https://www.trainingjournal.com/articles/feature/leadership-lessons-pharaohs

10. Source: https://www.trainingjournal.com/articles/feature/leadership-lessons-pharaohs

11. Source: https://www.trainingjournal.com/articles/feature/leadership-lessons-pharaohs

12. Source: https://www.trainingjournal.com/articles/feature/leadership-lessons-pharaohs

13. Source: https://www.trainingjournal.com/articles/feature/leadership-lessons-pharaohs

14. More recently
A few more examples of separated areas

15. Requirements
Design
Implementation
Testing
Maintenance

16. I want
change
I want
stability
DEV OPS

17. Don’t split your value chain!

18. So I had a crazy idea!
What if… Product and Engineering would be combined
and not separated in different areas / departments of
an organization?

19. Engineering without Product
The following, 130 characters, one liner, C
program, shows current time using text-art:
main(_){_^448&&main(-~_);putchar(--_%64?32|-~7[__TIME__-_/8%8][">'txiZ^(~z?"-48]>>";;;====~$::199"[_*2&8|_/64]/(_&2?1:8)%8&1:10);}
Source: http://www.ioccc.org/years.html#2006

20. Engineering without Product
!!!!!! !!!!!! !!!!!! !!!!!! !!!! !!!!!!
!! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !!
!! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !!
!!!! !!!! !! !! !! !! !! !! !!!! !! !!
!! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !!
!! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !!
!!!! !!!!!! !!!!!! !!!!!! !!!!!! !!!!!!
Source: http://www.ioccc.org/years.html#2006

21. Product without Engineering
The following watch was shipped 19.5 million times in 2018
Source: https://www.phonearena.com/news/Apple-Watch-Series-4-sales-report_id109181

22. Product without Engineering
Source: https://www.phonearena.com/news/Apple-Watch-Series-4-sales-report_id109181

23. So now that (hopefully) you are
convinced and agreeing with me
How would I see an Software Engineering organization's
structure?

24. CEO
VP Acquisition
Product
Engineering
Director
Product
Engineering
Manager
Product
Engineering
Team
…
…
…
VP Retention VP Monetization
Product
Engineering
Director
Product
Engineering
Manager
Product
Engineering
Team
Product
Engineering
Team
Product
Engineering
Manager
…
Product
Engineering
Director
...
VP Platform

25. And you ask: WIIFM?

26. And you ask: What’s in it for me?
Why should I care?

27. Avoids multiple sources of OKRs/KPIs
Engineering
Team
...
Engineering
Product
CEO >> VP Product vs VP Engineering vs VP Customer
Services

28. By having straight forward OKRs/KPIs
CEO >> VPs >> Directors >> Managers >> Teams
Increase ARR by X%
Acquire P% of logos
Deliver customer
commitment ABC
Increase CSAT by Y%
Retain T% of logos
Launch new feature
XPTO
Achieve Z% of uptime
…
Move infrastructure to
self-healing platform
CEO
Acquisition
Product Engineering
Team
Retention
Product Engineering
Team
Platform
Product Engineering
Team

29. By having straight forward OKRs/KPIs
CEO >> VPs >> Directors >> Managers >> Teams >> Individual
Increase ARR by X%
Acquire P% of logos
Deliver customer
commitment ABC
Increase CSAT by Y%
Retain T% of logos
Launch new feature
XPTO
Achieve Z% of uptime
…
Move infrastructure to
self-healing platform
CEO
Acquisition
Product Engineering
Team
Retention
Product Engineering
Team
Platform
Product Engineering
Team

30. Avoids team “schizophrenia“
Line reporting teams <> Delivery teams

31. By having a single team to belong to
Line reporting teams == Delivery teams

32. Avoids “exclusive” meetings
“Product” Meetings where “Engineering” isn’t involved
and vice versa

33. By having meaningful meetings
Team meetings with all the relevant people attending

34. Avoids Delivery ownership “dispute”
Is Product the owner of Delivery? Is it Engineering?
Why?
How?When?

35. By having a single head
Team responsible for the Delivery and the manager
accountable for it
Why?
How?
When?

36. And you say: I like it! Tell me More!

37. Maximizes intrinsic motivation
Autonomy
Mastery
Purpose

38. Makes “Us” vs “They” done right
Closes the gap between dependent areas
Minimizes silos
“Us” would be an entire autonomous area
“They” would be the org’s competition

39. Keeps a startup mindset
Extreme ownership
Reduced dependencies
High focus on the customer

40. Optimizes for speed (and not cost)
Market-oriented teams vs Functional oriented teams
Thanks to: Gene Kim, Jez Humble, Patrick Debois, and John Willis (The DevOps Handbook authors)

41. And the funny thing is
There are already some (successful) companies
doing this

42. So if you would only remember one slide
TL;DR: Stop creating teams around roles or systems and
create them around the company’s strategy

43. And like Michael Jordan once said
“Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence
wins championships.”

44. Danke schön!
03 - 04 April 2019 - Berlin, Germany