Mark Porter (MongoDB) - From Started-up to Scaled-up: Growing Teams, Leaders, and Culture.pdf
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Mark Porter, CTO of MongoDB, gave a presentation on growing organizations from startups to scaled companies. He discussed how organizational structure, culture, and communication impact product design through Conway's Law. He emphasized the importance of clear principles or tenets, such as prioritizing security and correctness over features. Porter also noted how Dunbar's Number of 150 people impacts team sizes and relationships. At MongoDB, he aims for a culture of candor, empowerment, context, and safety to promote employee engagement and accountability. This approach has helped MongoDB continue growing while maintaining positive customer and employee outcomes.
![What is Conway’s Law?
Any organization that
designs a system
(defined broadly) will
produce a design whose
structure is a copy of the
organization’s
communication structure.
Thus, the interface
structure of a software
system necessarily will
show a congruence with
the social structure of
the organization that
produced it.
Conway’s Law is a phenomenon whereby organizations build systems
that closely reflect their internal [people] structures.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/markportermongodb-fromstarted-uptoscaled-upgrowingteamsleadersandculture-220713181353-05b5c35e/85/Mark-Porter-MongoDB-From-Started-up-to-Scaled-up-Growing-Teams-Leaders-and-Culture-pdf-41-320.jpg)
Mark Porter (MongoDB) - From Started-up to Scaled-up: Growing Teams, Leaders, and Culture.pdf
- 1. From Started-up To Scaled-up Mark Porter Chief Technology Officer, MongoDB @MarkLovesTech blog.mongodb.com/mark-loves-tech marklovestech.com linkedin.com/marklovestech WELCOME! Techsylvania June 2022 | Cluj, Romania
- 2. From Started-up To Scaled-up WELCOME! Growing Teams, Leaders, and Culture
- 3. An organization’s culture is made up of the unspoken & unwritten practices and rules which drive how humans and systems act - and react
- 4. Hiring Recognition Planning Decisions Disagreements Career Advancement Org Structure Termination Innovation Compensation (...and everything else…)
- 5. From Started-up To Scaled-up Cultures Four cultures examined How humans interact Mark’s model culture
- 6. >>> Disclaimer <<< I wish these companies and their employees well. And I admire these companies for their successes. Even successes achieved in ways I myself wouldn’t have chosen. But wow do they think about culture differently… Quotes from: quotetab.com, inspiringquotes.us, graciousquotes.com, www.brainyquote.com, etc
- 9. “A word about corporate cultures: for better or worse, they are enduring, stable, hard to change. They can be a source of advantage or disadvantage… The reason cultures are so stable in time is because people self-select.” - Jeff Bezos, Founder and Former CEO, Amazon
- 10. “...I think a big piece of a company scaling—not just in size, but across a lot of geographies and customer experiences—has to do with the culture inside the company. You can’t flip a switch and have that happen.” Andy Jassy, Former CEO, AWS - current CEO, Amazon
- 12. Reflections ● All-encompassing (16!) ● 3/16 about being a better human ○ ~25 years to add 2 for social good ● Pervasive / Daily use ● Like the culture…or leave it
- 15. "I'm addicted to winning. The more you win, the more you want to win." “We pursued growth relentlessly. Growth was the center of our culture for a long time.” “Oracle's strong preference is to do everything hostilely.” - Larry Ellison, CEO, Oracle
- 16. “Taking care of your employees is extremely important…” “A corporation's primary goal is to make money.” “I used to practice what I jokingly referred to as ‘management by ridicule.’ People would be terrified to come into meetings.” - Larry Ellison, CEO, Oracle
- 17. Reflections (1990’s Oracle) ● No written culture ● Leader-Larry-driven culture ● Smart jerks are fine ● Technical excellence above all else ○ Oh, and making money ● Compete viciously - play only to win ● So very successful
- 18. https://www.oracle.com/corporate/careers/culture/who-we-are/ Oracle Core Values (Current)
- 19. Reflections (CURRENT Oracle) ● Easy to be proud of ○ Different from the past… ● 6/10 about being a better human ● Encompassing ● Pervasive? ● Larry-Driven?
- 21. "At Grab, our mission is to drive Southeast Asia forward by elevating the quality of life and solving real world problems for Southeast Asians. " Anthony Tan Grab CEO
- 22. “ ‘Iron sharpens iron’. We believe in challenging each other, finding new ways to solve age-old problems while building a nurturing and collaborative environment. While we work hard, we also work smart. We spur each other to innovate and think out of the box.” Anthony Tan Grab CEO
- 23. “Grabbers must have the heart and humility to serve, the hunger to execute and bring ideas to life, and the honour to keep their word.” Anthony Tan Grab CEO
- 27. Reflections ● Only 4! ● 3/4 about being a better human ● Social mission ● Easy to be proud of ● “We” not “I”
- 29. “I consider myself almost like the conductor of an orchestra. I don’t really make the music, I don’t even necessarily write the music, but I make sure that all the different people in the orchestra work well together and that together, we make beautiful music.” - Dev Ittycheria, CEO, MongoDB
- 30. Think Big, Go Far https://www.mongodb.com/company Build Together Embrace the Power of Differences Make It Matter Be Intellectually Honest Own What You Do
- 31. Think Big, Go Far We are big dreamers with a passion for creativity. We eagerly pursue new opportunities and markets through innovation and disruption. We have a pioneering spirit - always ready to forge new paths and take smart risks. https://www.mongodb.com/company
- 32. Embrace the Power of Differences We commit to creating a culture of belonging. We approach conversations with positive intent and believe that others value the perspective we bring to the table. We recognize that a diverse workforce is the best way to broaden our perspectives, foster innovation, and enable a sustainable competitive advantage. https://www.mongodb.com/company
- 33. Be Intellectually Honest We embrace reality. We apply high-quality thinking and rigor and operate with transparency. We have courage in our convictions but work hard to ensure biases or personal beliefs do not get in the way of finding the best solution. https://www.mongodb.com/company
- 34. Own What You Do We take ownership and are accountable for everything that we do. We empower and we are empowered to make things happen, and balance independence with interdependence. We demand excellence from ourselves. We each play our own part in making MongoDB a great place to work. https://www.mongodb.com/company
- 35. Reflections ● Only 6 ● Encompassing ● Mix of business and growth ● Humanity and impact are blended ● Bright Lines “What Not to Do” ● Pervasive? ● Inspirational
- 37. From Started-up To Scaled-up Orgs, Tenets, Trust Orgs, Tenets, Trust
- 41. What is Conway’s Law? Any organization that designs a system (defined broadly) will produce a design whose structure is a copy of the organization’s communication structure. Thus, the interface structure of a software system necessarily will show a congruence with the social structure of the organization that produced it. Conway’s Law is a phenomenon whereby organizations build systems that closely reflect their internal [people] structures.
- 42. People relationships ~= Product relationships Two software modules A and B cannot interface correctly with each other unless the designer and implementer of A communicates WELL with the designer and implementer of B. If Manager A and Manager B don’t work well together, then the code written by their teams won’t work well together. The result is a bad interface and poor testing. And a bad customer experience.
- 43. Structure your orgs like your systems
- 44. Further, keep team size in mind
- 45. From Started-up To Scaled-up Orgs, Tenets, Trust Orgs, Tenets, Trust
- 46. Tenet Noun: a principle, belief, or doctrine generally held to be true Especially : one held in common by members of an organization, movement, or profession
- 47. Customers don’t care about how wonderful the features are if it’s slow. Customers don’t care about how fast the software is if it’s down. And… customers don’t care about whether the system is up or down if the data is corrupt or has been breached.
- 48. C o s t E ffi c i e n c y C o r r e c t n e s s D u r a b i l i t y A v a i l a b i l i t y Tenets - The Onion of Requirements S c a l a b i l i t y ( O u t ) O p e r a b i l i t y F e a t u r e s S c a l a b i l i t y ( U p ) Each inner layer is more important than the outer ones. We will, if needed, give up the thing on the outside in order to get the things further in. Get everybody to think about these layers of the onion as features in their own right Security
- 49. From Started-up To Scaled-up Orgs, Tenets, Trust Orgs, Tenets, Trust
- 51. Dunbar’s Number Dunbar's Number is a suggested cognitive limit to the number of people in a group with whom one can maintain stable social relationships https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/004724849290081J?via%3Dihub
- 53. Dunbar Layers MOST MORE LESS NONE + + + + TRUST - - - - - https://www.technologyreview.com/2016/04/29/160438/your-brain-limits-you-to-just-five-bffs/
- 54. Developer-Only Advanced Version for Code If you share an address space (variables, pointers, stack) with more people than your Dunbar number, you need to refactor. Trust and Orgs and Code Structure Go Hand-in-Hand General Guideline for Organizing Teams If you have to work with more people than your Dunbar Number to get stuff done, you need to reorganize.
- 55. From Started-up To Scaled-up Orgs, Tenets, Trust Orgs, Tenets, Trust
- 56. Great culture + Conway’s Org Law + Tenets + Dunbar’s Number _________________ Healthy Teams Employee Engagement + Small (2 Pizza) Teams + Strong APIs + Unit Testing + CI/CD + Microservices _________________ Modern Development → Fast Moving Startups → Fast Moving Enterprises
- 57. From Started-up To Scaled-up MongoDB Culture What about MongoDB? (Mark’s Culture Goals)
- 58. Candor - Speak truths, delivered and received with good intent + Context - Give employees a surprising amount of business context - whatever is needed for them to make and own decisions + Empowerment - Avoid unnecessary approvals, L.G.T.M., “Have you + Safety - __________________________________________________ = Engagement & Accountability Employees who are respected and respectful, informed, empowered, and safe are… considered?” Encourage experiments & outcomes Before things go “wrong” Embrace what we learned
- 59. Candor - Speak truths, delivered and received with good intent + Context - Give employees a surprising amount of business context - whatever is needed for them to make and own decisions + Empowerment - Avoid unnecessary approvals, L.G.T.M., “Have you + Safety - __________________________________________________ = Engagement & Accountability Employees who are respected and respectful, informed, empowered, and safe are more engaged and ask for accountability considered?” Encourage experiments & outcomes Before things go “wrong” Embrace what we learned
- 60. What has this created at MongoDB? Mindful Roadmapping Constructive Leadership Training Encouraging Feedback + Engagement
- 61. Positive Customer Outcomes Optimal Collaboration + Communication
- 62. The best of both worlds… MongoDB adoption continues to grow MONGODB DOWNLOADS 265,000,000+ ONLINE EDUCATION COURSE REGISTRATIONS 1,500,000+ MONGODB ATLAS CLUSTERS 2,000,000+ TECHNOLOGY AND SERVICES PARTNERS 1,000+ CUSTOMERS ACROSS ALL INDUSTRIES 35,000+ * As of 2022-06-01 DB Engines - Ranking
- 63. Mark Porter Chief Technology Officer, MongoDB @MarkLovesTech blog.mongodb.com/mark-loves-tech marklovestech.com linkedin.com/marklovestech Thank you! Techsylvania June 2022 | Cluj, Romania Thank You! Thank You!