Onboarding at Scale
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The document outlines Wix's onboarding strategies to scale its development teams, focusing on training kits and structured programs like 'Kickstart' and 'Crash Course.' These programs aim to efficiently onboard new hires, reduce overhead, and maintain quality reference materials while addressing challenges like costs and recruitment. Key lessons emphasize the importance of dedicated resources, ongoing marketing efforts, and the necessity of mentors in the onboarding process.
Onboarding at Scale
- 1. Onboarding at Scale Tomer Gabel Velocity 2016 Amsterdam Image: Akheree Monajat (CC BY-SA 3.0)
- 2. Wix is… • A web publishing platform • Distributed R&D – Tel-Aviv (Israel) – Be’er-Sheva (Israel) – Dnipropetrovsk (Ukraine) – Kiev (Ukraine) – Vilnius (Lithuania) • Growing rapidly – Jul 2013: 120 engineers – Now: 400+ engineers
- 3. Scaling up is hard Fundamental premise:
- 4. RESEARCHImage: Martine Perret / UNMEER (CC BY-ND 2.0)
- 6. Our Customers Server Guild React Guild NG Guild
- 9. Product Suite KickstartTraining Kit Crash Course Images: Jeff Robins (CC BY 2.0), Vernon Cunningham (Public Domain), Paul Fisher (CC BY-SA 2.0)
- 10. Training Kit
- 11. Training Kit: Customers As a Guild Lead, I want to: • Start onboarding early • Reduce overhead • Have quality reference material Image: KCNA
- 12. Training Kit: Customers As a Team Lead, I want to: • Simplify training of new hires • Minimize disruption to my team • Have quality reference material Image: John Kennicutt, USMC (Public Domain)
- 13. Training Kit: Customers As a new hire, I want to: • Understand the technology stack • Be productive quickly • Learn on my own (and not be a pest) Image: Cubmundo (BY-SA 2.0)
- 14. Training Kit: Design Goals Guided self-learning Customizable Based on external resources
- 15. Kickoff • Meet the Guild Lead – Validate assumptions – Identify key (technical) partners • Scope definition – Meet key partners – Set scope and expectations – Generate “bucket list” of desirable topics • Review and prioritize
- 16. Development • Guild Days – Ask for some volunteers – Host them for a full day – Volunteers pick subjects – Volunteers search & evaluate material
- 17. Development • Postprocessing – By a professional training developer – Wording, formatting – Consistent structure
- 18. Feedback Collection • Per-subject feedback – Simple web form – Highlights substantial issues (if any) • Guild Day (one-off) – Technical review by experts • Interviews (one-off) – Team leads – New hires
- 19. Lessons Learned Assumptions • Content – Only developers can evaluate content – Minor post-processing – Focus on learning • Structure – Topics are atomic units – Customizable set/order Reality – Dedicated professional can take over – Most of the actual work – Need actionable content (exercises, koans etc.) – Topics are interrelated – Modules are necessary
- 20. Lessons Learned Assumptions • Marketing – R&D will self-market – No need for special effort • Maintenance – Mostly ad-hoc – Developer pull requests • Future efforts – Proper UX Reality – Little known, little used – Initial push insufficient – Constant, significant work – Little participation – Not that useful, for now
- 21. So what’s next? 1. Dedicated content/training developer 2. Revise structure for modularity 3. Significant in-house marketing effort Image: Booyabazooka (CC BY-SA 3.0)
- 22. Kickstart
- 23. Kickstart: Overview Takes juniors as input, outputs web developers 9 weeks, fully salaried End result: professional web developers
- 24. Kickstart: Tiers 1. Individual self-learning 2. Teamwork and agile methods 3. Full product lifecycle
- 25. Kickstart: Challenges Expensive (salaries, resources) Tightly coupled recruiting effort Mentorship and preparation
- 26. Recruitment • Unique requirements – Experience/skill level – Recruiting in bulk – Cost mitigation • A dedicated pipeline – “Recruiting days” – Carefully orchestrated
- 27. Lessons Learned Why do this? • The social element – Company culture – Built-in “buddy system” • Sustainable recruiting – Easy to plan for – Marketing-bound, really – Great people! Why not? • Expensive – Facilities, staff, amenities… – And fully salaried to boot • Hard to do consistently – Staff turnover – Buy-in is a constant effort – Dedicated staff is critical
- 28. Crash Course
- 29. Crash Course: Overview Mid- to senior-level onboarding course Recurring, every ~2 months 3 weeks End result: a working MVP
- 30. Crash Course: Rationale End-to-end production experience Groups mimic team structure Focus on methodology, philosophy
- 31. Crash Course: Challenges Cost-prohibitive below 10 participants Requires mix of server/front-end Mentorship and preparation
- 32. Planning • Week 1: Ramp-up – Heavy on doctrine (TDD, CD) – Tech stack (Scala, TypeScript) • Weeks 2-3: Project time – Guided bootstrapping – Constant mentorship
- 33. Lessons Learned Why do this? • Break down the wall – The server-client divide – Reinforce TDD, CD etc. – Makes our stack accessible • Reduces new employee friction • Huge marketing boon
- 34. Lessons Learned Why not? • Expensive – Facilities, staff, amenities… – And fully salaried to boot • Tight scheduling – Lots of ad-hoc adjustments – Everything needs a backup • Minimal recruiting rate Image: Jenny Poole (CC BY 2.0)
- 35. POST-MORTEMImage: Daniel X. O’Neil (CC BY 2.0)
- 36. Lessons Learned • These are long- running projects • For best results: – Assign dedicated staff – Long-term • This means you can’t rely on engineers – Trust me, I am one… Program Manager Project Manager Training Developer
- 37. Lessons Learned • Scaling up is hard • Doing it ad-hoc works! • Until it doesn’t – It’s not about size – It’s about growth • Consider ROI carefully! Image: Damian Gadal (CC BY 2.0)
- 38. Lessons Learned • Mentors are your biggest asset – You need their buy-in – You need them to come back • Give them what they need – “Soft skills” workshops, simulations – Expectation setting and guidance – Hold status/venting sessions. Pay attention!
- 39. Lessons Learned • These are big projects • Success is about logistics – Huge todo list – Scheduling hell – Constant interruptions – Follow-ups • That’s a lot to keep track of • Hire a Project Manager. “Behind every great leader there was an even greater logistician.” - M. Cox Image: Rom Logistics (CC BY-SA 3.0)
- 40. QUESTIONS? Thank you for listening tomer@tomergabel.com @tomerg http://engineering.wix.com To contact Wix academy (ask us anything!): academy@wix.com This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Editor's Notes
- #2: Image source: http://walletgroove.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/crowded-subways-1.jpg
- #7: Image source: https://flic.kr/p/qMJNdx
- #9: Image sources: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6e/Wikimedia_Foundation_Servers-8055_17.jpg
- #10: Icon source: http://www.checkster.com/solutions/automated-reference-checkup/
- #37: Icon source: https://pixabay.com/en/user-person-generic-single-general-23874/ and https://pixabay.com/en/people-avatar-green-icon-abstract-306295/
- #44: Image source: https://flic.kr/p/4M5Wz1