At Xtreme Labs, Agile is not an engineering process, it's a way of life. Not only do they practice agile engineering - an iterative process that uses pair programming - they also have a flat management hierarchy and employ a 'Do-ocracy' mantra. Beginning as a start-up and growing to a 200+ employee company in under five years, Xtreme Labs owes its success in part to their ability to move quickly and deliver products in an efficient manner. In his talk, Farhan will address how Xtreme's development processes, company structure and policies have enabled them to grow rapidly and produce quality products in tandem.
Farhan has been named one of “Toronto’s Top 25 Most Powerful People In 2010”, and is a well-known and respected figure in Toronto’s tech community. Before joining the Xtreme team, Farhan held the positions of Chief Software Architect at I Love Rewards, Head of Search & MSN Platform for Microsoft Canada and Technical Lead at Trilogy Software. In addition to being a programming and engineering guru, Farhan also uses his wealth of industry and mobile expertise to mentor aspiring mobile and tech startups.
10. Background
• Waterloo Comp Sci/Elec Eng
• U of T MBA – Financial Engineering
• Trilogy
• Celestica
• Microsoft
• Achievers (!)
@fnthawar
@xtremelabs
11. Agenda
• Freedom vs. Frameworks
• How to work
• Career advice
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@xtremelabs
20. Physical Space
• In-office vs. WFH
–Breakfast hacks
• Sit close together vs. offices (Joel and
37Signals)
• Great machines + fast internet
• Location
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@xtremelabs
21. 4a) Means as:
Formulation vs. Implementation
Rank & File
•Implement decisions
•Arms and legs
•Work in hierarchy
•Get “bought-in”
•Get controlled
Leaders
•Formulate decisions
•Brain
•Head up hierarchy
•Sell to get “buy-in”
•Create control procedures
Lower-order
Choices
Higher-order
Choices
@fnthawar
@xtremelabs
22. Freedom vs. Frameworks
• Flat hierarchy
–Well not that flat now…..but, few approvals
• Responsibility not accountability
–“Accountability is what’s left once responsibility has
been subtracted” – Pasi Sahlberg
–“Tight controls cause blowups” – Nasim Taleb
@fnthawar
@xtremelabs
23. Freedom vs. Frameworks
• Approvals
– “You should feel the dangers and stressors” –
Nasim Taleb
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@xtremelabs
25. At a high level
• “Managers create work for each other” – Tim
Burns
• No Policies (rework)
• 1:1’s
• Faster to talk to someone than
email/phone/IM
@fnthawar
@xtremelabs
26. Socials
• Wed social
• 3:3 lunches
• Friday social
• Team events
–Batman!
• Interns
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@xtremelabs
28. • “Being busy is a form of laziness”
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@xtremelabs
29. 1. Consider options and make decision, informing
other party subsequently
2. Provide options to other party along with own
recommendation on choice
3. Generate options for other party and ask other
party to make choice
4. Describe a problem to other party and ask for
specific help in structuring it
5. Ask other party to solve problem, but make it
clear you will watch and learn for next time
6. Drop problem on other party’s desk and signal
helplessness
@fnthawar
@xtremelabs
Responsibility Ladder
30. • Democracy vs. dooacracy or decisions over
deliberation
@fnthawar
@xtremelabs
31. How to Work
• Remove processes
–“Let process be implemented by those who
practice it” – Yishan Wong, first Facebook Eng
Manager
• The great decider!
• Fight fires/sales calls/unblock engineers (or
anyone else)
@fnthawar
@xtremelabs
40. Span of control
• Average is 8
• 150 engineers
@fnthawar
@xtremelabs
41. Stats
• Can hire 60+ coops from Waterloo in first
round (get more resumes than FB, MSFT,
Twitter, Apple, Square, Yelp, Foursquare)
• Low attrition
• Always outrun other teams
• Less hero syndrome
• More female engineers (17%)
• Happy people
@fnthawar
@xtremelabs
42. Quotes
• “You guys are doing something amazing” –
Fred Wilson
• “I’ve never seen this before in the valley” –
Yogen Dalal
• “Uh… wow?” – Brad Feld
@fnthawar
@xtremelabs
43. Ask me anything:
@fnthwar / farhan@xtremelabs.com
@fnthawar
@xtremelabs
Thank you and we’re hiring