[Wikimedia-l] Fwd: [Tech/Product] Engineering/Product org structure

[Federico Leva (Nemo)]

Erik Moeller, 06/11/2012 04:03:
> FYI

Is it safe to assume that, until 
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/ED_Transition_Team> ends, all this is 
on hold?

Nemo

>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Erik Moeller <erik at wikimedia.org>
> Date: Mon, Nov 5, 2012 at 5:38 PM
> Subject: [Tech/Product] Engineering/Product org structure
> To: Staff All <wmfall at lists.wikimedia.org>
>
>
> Hi folks,
>
> consistent with Sue's narrowing focus mandate, I’ve been thinking &
> talking the last few weeks a fair bit with a bunch of different people
> about the future organizational structure of the engineering/product
> department. Long story short, if we want to scale the dept, and take
> seriously our identity as a tech org (as stated by Sue), it’s my view
> that we need to split the current department into an engineering dept
> and a product dept in about 6-8 months.
>
> To avoid fear and anxiety, and to make sure the plan makes sense, I
> want to start an open conversation now. If you think any of the below
> is a terrible idea, or have suggestions on how to improve the plan,
> I’d love to hear from you. I’ll make myself personally available to
> anyone who wants to talk more about it. (I'm traveling a bit starting
> tomorrow, but will be available via email during that time.) We can
> also discuss it at coming tech lunches and such.
>
> There’s also nothing private here, so I’m forwarding this note to
> wikitech-l@ and wikimedia-l@ as well. That said, there’s no urgency in
> this note, so feel free to set it aside for later.
>
> Here’s why I’m recommending to Sue that we create distinct engineering
> and product departments:
>
> - It’ll give product development and the user experience more
> visibility at the senior mgmt level, which means we’ll have more
> conversations at that level about the work that most of the
> organization actually does. Right now, a single dept of ~70 people is
> represented by 1 person across both engineering and product functions
> - me. That was fine when it was half the size. Right now it’s out of
> whack.
>
> - It’ll give us the ability to add Director-level leadership functions
> as appropriate without making my head explode.
>
> - I believe that separating the two functions is consistent with Sue’s
> recommendation to narrow our focus and develop our identity as an
> engineering organization. It will allow for more sustained effort in
> managing product priorities and greater advocacy for core platform
> issues (APIs, site performance, search, ops improvements, etc.) that
> are less visible than our feature priorities.
>
> A split dept structure wouldn’t affect the way we assemble teams --
> we’d still pull from required functions (devs, product, UI/UX, etc.),
> and teams would continue to pursue their objectives fairly
> autonomously.
>
> It’s not all roses -- we might see more conflict between the two
> functions, more us vs. them thinking, and more communications
> breakdowns or forum shopping. But net I think the positives would
> outweigh the negatives, and there are ways to mitigate against the
> negatives.
>
> The way we’d get there:
>
> I’m prepared to resign from my engineering management responsibilities
> and to focus solely on my remaining role as VP of Product, as soon as
> a successor for VP of Engineering has been identified. We would start
> that hiring process probably in early 2013. I’m recommending to Sue
> that we seriously consider internal candidates for the VP of
> Engineering role, as we have a strong engineering management team in
> place today.
>
> So realistically we'd probably identify that person towards the end of
> the fiscal year.
>
> Obviously I can’t make any promises to you that in that brave new
> world, you’ll love whoever gets hired into the VP of Engineering role,
> so there’s some unavoidable uncertainty there. I’ll support Sue in the
> search, though, and I’m sure she’d appreciate feedback from you on the
> kind of person who you think would be ideal for the job.
>
> The VP of Product role would encompass a combination of functions.
> Howie and I would work with the department to figure out what makes
> sense as an internal structure. My opening view is that Analytics and
> User Experience are potential areas that may benefit from dedicated
> Director-level support roles. (Analytics is tricky because it includes
> a strong engineering piece, but also a research/analyst piece working
> closely with product.) The new structure would therefore be as
> follows:
>
> * VP of Engineering -> Directors of Engineering
> * VP of Product -> Director of Product Development, plus new
> Director-level functions (we've discussed UX/Design as a likely new
> leadership function, and Analytics as a _potential_ area to centralize
> here because it works so closely with product)
>
> Why Product? I’m happy to help the org in whatever way I can; I
> believe I’d be most useful to it in focusing there and helping build
> this relatively new organizational function. Based on my past
> experience, Howie & I make a great team. I know how engineering
> operates, which could help mitigate against some of the aforementioned
> issues. Plus, our product priorities generally already reflect lots of
> thought and consideration, and we have no intent of reopening
> questions like "Is Visual Editor the top product priority".
>
> I look forward to hearing your thoughts & discussing this further in
> coming weeks.
>
> All best,
> Erik
>
> --
> Erik Möller
> VP of Engineering and Product Development, Wikimedia Foundation
>
> Support Free Knowledge: https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate
>
>