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

Tue Apr 2 16:46:43 UTC 2013

Hi Nemo,

No, nothing is on hold. The Board and I were really explicit about this
when we talked together about the transition: we're going to continue with
everything as-is -- nothing will go on hold purely due to the transition.

That doesn't mean I won't change plans or make adjustments on a
case-by-case basis because I think the circumstances warrant it: I might.
But the default assumption should be that everything continues as planned,
unless I make a specific decision otherwise.

Thanks,
Sue

Sue Gardner
Executive Director
Wikimedia Foundation

415 839 6885 office
415 816 9967 cell

Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the
sum of all knowledge.  Help us make it a reality!

https://donate.wikimedia.org/

On 2 April 2013 01:50, Federico Leva (Nemo) <nemowiki at gmail.com> wrote:

> Erik Moeller, 06/11/2012 04:03:
>
>> FYI
>>
>
> Is it safe to assume that, until <https://meta.wikimedia.org/**
> wiki/ED_Transition_Team<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<https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate>
>>
>>
>>
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