Antonio van der WeelFeb 2017

How we created our product culture at Werkspot / Instapro

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Product-first company culture

Our Management Team background

Product at the center of the Management Team

ChiefStrategyOfficerChiefProductOfficerChiefMarketing&Sales

CEO

Scaling our company culture

Howdowekeepourgreatcultureandatmosphere,whilegrowingfastfrom70to140employeeswithin2years?

Make Core values explicit

Inspiredby:Netflixhttp://www.slideshare.net/reed2001/culture-1798664Kayako https://medium.com/life-at-kayako/capturing-and-scaling-startup-values-2c8a84731acc#.xzxf24oge

Risksifyoudon’tmakevaluesexplicitwhilegrowing:§ Hiringthewrongpeople§ Teamswithdifferentcultures§ Unclearwhatbehaviortorecognizeandreward

Hiring the right people

§ Youcan’tteachvaluestopeople

§ Seriouspartofrecruiting(cultureinterview)

§ Performanceofanindividualdeveloperisnotthesameasteamperformance

Image:integreatleadership.com

Objective driven product teams

How wedo things How wedon’t dothingsAgileAgilehelpsteamsrespondtounpredictabilitythroughincremental,iterativeworkandfeedback.

WaterfallWedon’tupfrontdefine andscheduleintodetailforalongperiod(likeayear)everythingwewanttodo.

LeanThecoreofLeanmethodologyisabuild-measure-learn feedbackloopbasedonaminimalviableproduct(MVP)approach.

Heavy research&assumptionsWedon’tdoveryheavyresearchupfrontanddefineourrequirementsbasedonassumptionsofthis.

ProblemandopportunitydrivenWestartwithfindingout anddefininga(user)problemtobesolved.

Solution drivenWedon’tstartwithdefining features, theyarearesultofaspecificproblemwewanttosolve.

FocusonuservalueStartwiththeneedoftheuser. Businessresultswillfollowwhendoingthingsright.

FinancialdrivenWedon’tstartwithourfinancial goalsbutwestartwithuserneeds.Wearenotblindforbusinessgoalsbuttheyarearesult,notthegoal.

OwnershipOurproduct developmentdepartmenthasownershipandmandatetofindthebestsolutionforthegivenobjectives.

Topdown solutionsWedon’tdictatesolutionsonwhatorhowtodothingsbymanagement(butsteeronobjectivesandkeyresults)

How we do product development

OKRs: Objectives & Key Results

EXAMPLEOKRsQ12017Objective:IncreaseuserbaseKeyResults:1. Increasedailypageviewsto1,0002. Totalmonthlynewusersto10,000

§ Objectivesareambitious(80%reachable)§ KeyResultsaremeasurable(SMART)§ OKRsarepublic

7Geese to track OKRs and recognize core values

How we go from company mission to stories

CompanymissionEasiest&mostreliablewaytoarrangehomeservices

StrategictracksMakeiteasierforServiceProfessionaltowinjobs

Objectives&keyresultsImprovedmatching>Win-rateimprovedby25%

EpicsMatchingsettingsduringonboarding

Releases/storiesTBDbyscrumteam

Inspiredby:Intercom:https://blog.intercom.com/how-we-build-software/Spotify:https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1018963/Articles/HowSpotifyBuildsProducts.pdf

Yearlyupdated

quarterly

quarterly

Epics

Leading your team by objectives & vision

Epicstoriesfocusontheobjectiveandresults.Startquarterwithvisionpresentation§ Helpstokeepsteamfocusedondoingimpactfulthings

§ Leavesspaceopenforteaminputonsolutions

§ Guidesteamonscopequestions

Image:illustratedagile.com

Challenges of working objective driven

§ DelicatebalancebetweentoospecificandtoobroadKeyResults,enoughspaceneededtopivot

§ CanyoubetrulyleanifOKRsendwithinthequarter?Limitsabilitytoiterate

§ Investors/managementneedstolearnthereisnoanswerto‘whatwillyoubuildthisyear?’.Wecreatequarterlyshort-termproductroadmaps,basedonlong-termstrategicobjectives

Ask Me Anything

antonio van der weel