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I was visiting a large successful startup that had a "no managers" mantra--they hired engineering A players who were expected to work on the right things. It t
by gav 8y ago
I was visiting a large successful startup that had a "no managers" mantra--they hired engineering A players who were expected to work on the right things.
It turns out that people want to work on the fun and challenging tasks. Nobody put the effort into the billing system and they were doing a poor job of collecting money from their customers.
That's the thing about any organization, there's plenty of grunt work and "boring" tasks to go around, but they need to get done. Scaling up any organization is an exercise in making sure that the right things get done.
- citizens 8y agoI once interviewed at a place that had "no managers' yet kept referring to the "MGMT" team. Made me laugh.
- jiaweihli 8y agoI’ve yet to see a company with no managers work out. Usually it signals lack of bandwidth to set up management, low perceived value, or pessimistically a cost-cutting measure to double up on responsibilities.
- garmaine 8y agoValve.
- toomuchtodo 8y agoRumor has it that the environment is toxic, and that a hierarchy and tribalism formed in the vacuum of leadership and a defined culture. https://www.reddit.com/r/valve/comments/8zmp07/former_valve_employee_tweets_his_experience_at/ https://www.reddit.com/r/valve/comments/8zmp07/former_valve_...
- garmaine 8y agoPerhaps true... but they are wildly successful as a company (if profits == success). There are a few other examples of flat organizations out there that have been successes, including Github (for a while).
- webmaven 8y agoWell, that can still work out if an A player is hired that thinks billing is an interesting problem to work on (Money! Whoo!), and in general, folks that, when given "boring" grunt work, will automate the heck out of it. This does require attention to diversity of thought and background, but not necessarily the sort that results in B and C players being hired.