[teampractices] How deviantART organizes its work

[Erik Moeller]

On Wed, Nov 27, 2013 at 8:30 AM, Steven Walling <swalling at wikimedia.org> wrote:
> This is somewhat related to an idea I like a lot: trial weeks.[1]
>
> 1. http://www.sequoiacap.com/grove/posts/akzj/trial-week-our-hiring-secret

Automattic does this as well, for a longer time period:

"Coming on board · When you make it past the interview stage we’ll do
a project together on contract, typically lasting between 3-8 weeks,
to see how we work together. When you join full-time, regardless of
your position, you’ll do customer support for WordPress.com for your
first three weeks. We believe this early connection with the people
who use our products is irreplaceable."
http://automattic.com/work-with-us/

I think it's definitely worth considering as standard operating
procedure for any permanent hire. It does come at a cost - not
everyone's willing to do that kind of thing - but the productivity and
quality differences in the world of engineering/product can be so
large that it seems like a very worthwhile potential tradeoff.

Erik
-- 
Erik Möller
VP of Engineering and Product Development, Wikimedia Foundation