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

[Erik Moeller]

On Tue, Apr 2, 2013 at 7:49 PM, MZMcBride <z at mzmcbride.com> wrote:

> Sue or Erik: is there any update on this e-mail from November 2012? (Or
> some place interested folks should be watching for news?)

In addition to the original note from November, please also see Sue's
follow-up restructure announcement from December, which made explicit
that the decision to split the engineering/product department was
deferred for now:

http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2012-December/122971.html

Splitting the department is still my recommendation to Sue. When we
last met to discuss it, we decided to defer the posting of a VP
Engineering by at least 6 months, and to explore other strategies in
the interim to increase the department's ability to scale, including
more peer decision-making on the Director-level, better embedded
recruiting support, greater focus by HR on supporting engineering
through coaching/development, etc.

However, Sue is in favor of the plan overall, and the VP Engineering
position is part of our current 2013-14 draft budget for this reason.
We've also recently opened the Director of Analytics and Director of
User Experience job openings that I referenced in my note:

http://hire.jobvite.com/Jobvite/Job.aspx?j=otv0WfwE&c=qSa9VfwQ
http://hire.jobvite.com/Jobvite/Job.aspx?j=oJriXfw9&c=qSa9VfwQ

Filling both those positions, in combination with continuing growth,
will further stretch the ability of any one person to run the
department.

As to whether the VP Engineering position can be filled before a new
ED is hired, my personal view is that it's the kind of decision that,
ideally, should be finalized by the new ED (this may mean that the
hiring process is well underway but that they have the chance to veto
or extend it), since otherwise they may find themselves with a new VP
Engineering and new org structure they didn't sign off on, which could
make a risky change even riskier for the org. But that'll be Sue's
call to make and will also depend on how the various timelines play
out in reality.

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

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