“Get Stuff Done Faster: Why Engineers Should Work with the ‘Dark Side’ of Tech”
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This document discusses team building at the e-commerce company Gilt. It explains that teams at Gilt are formed based on "ingredients" rather than job titles. These ingredients include skills like product vision, design, coding, analysis, and team motivation. The document then profiles four Gilt employees, describing their primary and secondary ingredients. It emphasizes focusing one's efforts in their best areas. Effective teams are formed when individuals focus on utilizing their key ingredients.
“Get Stuff Done Faster: Why Engineers Should Work with the ‘Dark Side’ of Tech”
- 1. Get Stuff Done Faster: Why Engineers Should Work with the ‘Dark Side’ of Tech
- 2. Justin Riservato Director, Program Management
- 3. Welcome! - What is Gilt? - How teams are formed at Gilt - The role of ingredients in teams - Let’s hear from the experts
- 4. What is Gilt? adjective ● covered thinly with gold leaf or gold paint noun ● a young pig
- 5. What is Gilt? ● Gilt (www.gilt.com) is an e- commerce company focused on flash sales. We provide insider access to top designers at up to 60% off, in sales typically lasting 72 hours. ● We’re also one of the top tech companies in NYC! ● Check out tech.gilt.com to learn more about us!
- 6. It’s important to understand “Why” before figuring out “What”
- 7. How We Work @ GILT Strategy: Big Areas of Focus Initiatives: What are we doing / not doing? KPIs: Answering WHY Teams: Who do we need? Ingredients: Qualities, Not Titles Execution: Get Working!
- 8. You are more than your job title!
- 9. Product Visionary Driving product vision and strategic innovation. Strong point of view. PR and Relationship Manager Managing the external view of the team. Communicates well both verbally and via email. Knows how to deliver an excellent presentation. Product Ideator Thinking creatively and driving tactical innovation. Being the voice of the customer. Visual Designer Creates on-brand visual designs. UX Build wireframes, runs usability tests, designs user interactions. Coder Writes feature and test code. Create queries and reports. Product Marketer Analyzes the market and competitive landscape, determines product/feature positioning so the customer clearly understands the benefit, figures out ways to drive traffic to the product or feature. Business thinker Driving KPI thinking. Understanding business mechanics. Sizing opportunities. Organizer Driving planning of work, running productive meetings, keeping the team focused on execution. Engineering Architect High level system design. Managing technical debt. Building for the right amount of performance and scale. Providing technical leadership and mentorship. Quality Manager Ensuring the quality of releases. Making sure that the right amount of automation is built (unit tests). Motivator Creating a sense of urgency while ensuring a sustainable pace for the team. Cruise Director Making things fun. Creating a sense of team spirit. Analyst Drives product instrumentation. Proposes tests (e.g. a/b tests). Analyzes data. Creates and tests hypotheses and uses these to influence product direction. Can clearly communicate what data means. Technical Operator Drives product instrumentation. Pays attention to production operational parameters (alerts, tuning, etc).
- 10. Cruise Director Making things fun. Creating a sense of team spirit.
- 11. Motivator Creating a sense of urgency while ensuring a sustainable pace for the team.
- 12. Business Thinker Driving KPI thinking. Understanding business mechanics. Sizing opportunities.
- 13. The Secret Sauce How many ingredients can you do well? Great! But how many can you do well at the same time? Maybe it’s time to bring in the specialists...
- 14. Team productivity increases when individual people focus on what they do best.
- 15. Andrew Chen Director of Product
- 16. My Ingredients Primary: Product Visionary PR and Relationship Manager Product Ideator Business Thinker Analyst Secondary: Product Marketer Organizer Motivator Cruise Director
- 18. Key Skills - Andrew - Sharp focus on KPIs and Vision - Understanding/communicating customer pain points - Data and metrics based decision making - Rallying/leading across disciplines
- 19. Susan Thomas Senior Business Systems Manager
- 20. My Ingredients Primary: Product Visionary PR and Relationship Manager Product Ideator Business Thinker Analyst Motivator Secondary: Organizer Cruise Director
- 21. My World
- 22. My Toolbox ● I am “Nancy Drew” ● Technical POV to Business ● Business POV to Engineering ● Designing process solutions vs. tech solutions ...while keeping focus on the KPI and overall company vision!
- 23. What’s the difference? Internal vs. External Systems & Process vs. Customer Cost vs. Revenue
- 24. Myron Miller, PMP Senior Program Manager
- 25. My Ingredients Primary: PR and Relationship Manager Organizer Motivator Cruise Director Secondary: Business Thinker Quality Manager
- 26. Identifying Program Opportunities Legacy Q3 Project 2 Legacy Q3 Project 1 Legacy Q3 Project 3 Stakeholder Maintenance Backlog Red Hot July August September Legacy Q3 Project 4 Legacy Q3 Project - Canceled
- 27. Identifying Program Opportunities Q3 2014 Maintenance Completed vs. Red Hot Completed per Stakeholder Q3 2014 Maintenance Backlog per Stakeholder
- 28. Implementing Tools - Program Portfolio Management - Project Briefing Discovery - Input Channel Management Methodology - Enhanced Communication Channels
- 29. Q1 Program Rebaseline Plan Rebaseline Maintenance Project 1 Red Hot Rebaseline Project 1 January Rebaseline Maintenance Project 2 February March
- 30. Results - Happy Stakeholders! - Happy Engineers! - Transparency - Communication - Agile and Responsive
- 32. Right work, right people
- 33. Let’s stretch!
- 34. And don’t forget