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The Tandberg Way [video]

47 points by rspivak 7y ago

pgt 7y ago
Fantastic talk! Key engineering takeaways from The TANDBERG Way - principles for effective product development that built TANDBERG to be acquired by Cisco for $3.3bn: - Embrace chaos. Continuously observer and adapt, because you can't plan far ahead in a complex world. - Celebrate the whole organisation, not individuals or teams. Celebrate when things are tough (before launch), not after launch. - Engineering and sales focused. Aim for 90% "productives" vs 10% "non-productives". - Beware the Observer Effect: observing knowledge work disturbs it. Coders are more likely to add code than delete code while being observed, or to just think for 30 minutes. - Introduce slack (as in free time, not the chat app) to do things right. You can't be agile and responsive without slack. - Communication over documentation. Make the customer pay for documentation. - Beware the Sinclair Effect. Don't talk about upcoming products, or people won't buy what you have on offer. - Focus on execution. Ban innovation hackathons. When your ability to innovate exceeds your ability to execute, focus only on execution. - No time writing or detailed cost control. Specify working hours and holiday times and then let the employees take care of it. Full list of principles @ 51:00. Book recommendations @ 18:58.
- tlb 7y ago
  > Celebrate when things are tough (before launch), not after launch This is contrarian advice, but I can imagine why it might work. Can anyone share more experience with celebrating before/after launches?
anordal 7y ago
Wow, this explains a thing or two … I happen to work for one of those spin-offs he didn't mention (Appear TV). I've never seen it written as a list like this, but it made me nod a lot. We have changed in some ways, but I feel the basic spirit lives on at Lysaker. The best parts of this till-now unwritten culture is also something we strive for, in one way or another. Take communication: A colleague and I are going to hold a technical meetup … some time next month, but we won't reveal the theme yet.

47 points by rspivak 7y ago

pgt 7y ago

Fantastic talk! Key engineering takeaways from The TANDBERG Way - principles for effective product development that built TANDBERG to be acquired by Cisco for $3.3bn: - Embrace chaos. Continuously observer and adapt, because you can't plan far ahead in a complex world. - Celebrate the whole organisation, not individuals or teams. Celebrate when things are tough (before launch), not after launch. - Engineering and sales focused. Aim for 90% "productives" vs 10% "non-productives". - Beware the Observer Effect: observing knowledge work disturbs it. Coders are more likely to add code than delete code while being observed, or to just think for 30 minutes. - Introduce slack (as in free time, not the chat app) to do things right. You can't be agile and responsive without slack. - Communication over documentation. Make the customer pay for documentation. - Beware the Sinclair Effect. Don't talk about upcoming products, or people won't buy what you have on offer. - Focus on execution. Ban innovation hackathons. When your ability to innovate exceeds your ability to execute, focus only on execution. - No time writing or detailed cost control. Specify working hours and holiday times and then let the employees take care of it. Full list of principles @ 51:00. Book recommendations @ 18:58.

tlb 7y ago
> Celebrate when things are tough (before launch), not after launch This is contrarian advice, but I can imagine why it might work. Can anyone share more experience with celebrating before/after launches?

anordal 7y ago

Wow, this explains a thing or two … I happen to work for one of those spin-offs he didn't mention (Appear TV). I've never seen it written as a list like this, but it made me nod a lot. We have changed in some ways, but I feel the basic spirit lives on at Lysaker. The best parts of this till-now unwritten culture is also something we strive for, in one way or another. Take communication: A colleague and I are going to hold a technical meetup … some time next month, but we won't reveal the theme yet.