5 ms·

This posts makes Mozilla problems better understood. One thing are slightly overpaid bosses, but there is more... "After leaving MDN, I took on a dual role: WA

This posts makes Mozilla problems better understood. One thing are slightly overpaid bosses, but there is more... "After leaving MDN, I took on a dual role: WADI (Web Advocacy & Developer Initiative) and Firefox OS for TV Partner Engineering. With WADI I had the pleasure of contributing to the Service Worker Cookbook. With the TV role I got a beautiful 60" ultra HD TV where I helped partners bring their video sites and games to life." it seems there are some jobs at Mozilla that might not necessarily contribute significantly to its success. And it looks like overall management in Mozilla is not in the greatest shape: "When things got a bit tough at Mozilla, I shifted to Mozilla's "Productivity Tools" team. My first two weeks were nothing short of hilarious; my new manager didn't know I was a front-end engineer, so I stumbled through completing a big python migration."

toomuchtodo 6y ago
> it seems there are some jobs at Mozilla that might not necessarily contribute significantly to its success. Important observation, and it demonstrates where room for improvement is needed and actionable. One of the failings of Mozilla was not recognizing this and making active efforts to spin out useful (but not useful to Mozilla's core efforts) projects (for example, MDN should've been spun out long ago, similar to Thunderbird). Best wishes David on your journey.
- wbl 6y ago
  MDN is extremely useful for Firefox as it documents Firefox capabilities so web designers can use them. Without it people would think webkit=the internet.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - est31 6y ago
    Yeah places like caniuse are biased towards Chrome. They rarely add a feature that's only present in Firefox, but often add features only present in Chrome. Also caniuse is no full MDN replacement.
    - robin_reala 6y ago
      Caniuse is open source, anyone can PR in new functionality that’s only in Firefox (and I have).
      - est31 6y ago
        What I saw is that the open source data is only partial and that PRs are often kept open until Chrome adds the functionality as well.
    - markmark 6y ago
      Let's face it, the answer to "caniuse" a feature that isn't in Chrome yet is "no".
- m12k 6y ago
  It's a common pattern: The main revenue source (in this case licensing money from Google) isn't cutting it/drying up, so the company tries all sorts of things to try to come up with another success. In reality they're just throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks, which is usually not a recipe for success, but you also can't really fault them for trying - when no really good plan B ever materializes so you can just go all in on that, you're left with the scattershot approach, or just lying down and dying.
  - bronson 6y ago
    Or C, shrink down to the size you should have been all along.
    - toomuchtodo 6y ago
      This is unlikely to occur due to management incentives (grow clout, influence, status, etc).
      - cutemonster 6y ago
        What's a way to find/hire people who are immune to such things
        thatguy0900 6y ago
        I would think you'd have to hire someone who doesn't want the job to begin with
        cutemonster 6y ago
        Hmm, My thoughts are more like hiring someone who cares a lot about the company's higher goals and vision, more than about his/her own career. Maybe that's not possible to find in traditional profit maximizing companies, because who cares about maximizing the shareholders' profits
mStreamTeam 6y ago
People don't leave jobs because things are going too well... Mozilla is a mess, and they need to can anyone who can't contribute code
- okprod 6y ago
  That would result in feature bloat and products, if they ever make it to market, that don't address consumer needs. Competent management is just as needed as technical contributions.
  - mStreamTeam 6y ago
    Mozilla already has a ton of useless products and features without a market fit due to incompetent management...
  - dont__panic 6y ago
    One of management's biggest jobs at a company like Mozilla is aiming developer resources at the problems that do address consumer needs. In the last few years, Mozilla hasn't really been doing that, so it sounds like they need new management because the current management isn't competent.
  - rndgermandude 6y ago
    That's indeed exactly what happened. Lots of moonshot products that were dead on arrival such as FirefoxOS (and TV/IoT) or BrowserID, features nobody really wanted, while taking away features that people did want. Even right now, with their "refocusing" they killed or stymied features/products that people do want or at least gave them some rep with the power users and tech people (aka the people who will later recommend/install the browser to/for friends and family), e.g. devtools and MDN.
- preommr 6y ago
  I can't stress enough how important and amazing MDN is. It's probably (one of) the main things I think of for what keeps developing for the web a somewhat sane and cohesive experience.
shuckles 6y ago
Firefox OS was launched at a yoga retreat near Lake Tahoe because the head of marketing wanted to attend.

toomuchtodo 6y ago

> it seems there are some jobs at Mozilla that might not necessarily contribute significantly to its success. Important observation, and it demonstrates where room for improvement is needed and actionable. One of the failings of Mozilla was not recognizing this and making active efforts to spin out useful (but not useful to Mozilla's core efforts) projects (for example, MDN should've been spun out long ago, similar to Thunderbird). Best wishes David on your journey.

wbl 6y ago
MDN is extremely useful for Firefox as it documents Firefox capabilities so web designers can use them. Without it people would think webkit=the internet.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- est31 6y ago
  Yeah places like caniuse are biased towards Chrome. They rarely add a feature that's only present in Firefox, but often add features only present in Chrome. Also caniuse is no full MDN replacement.
  - robin_reala 6y ago
    Caniuse is open source, anyone can PR in new functionality that’s only in Firefox (and I have).
    - est31 6y ago
      What I saw is that the open source data is only partial and that PRs are often kept open until Chrome adds the functionality as well.
  - markmark 6y ago
    Let's face it, the answer to "caniuse" a feature that isn't in Chrome yet is "no".
m12k 6y ago
It's a common pattern: The main revenue source (in this case licensing money from Google) isn't cutting it/drying up, so the company tries all sorts of things to try to come up with another success. In reality they're just throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks, which is usually not a recipe for success, but you also can't really fault them for trying - when no really good plan B ever materializes so you can just go all in on that, you're left with the scattershot approach, or just lying down and dying.
- bronson 6y ago
  Or C, shrink down to the size you should have been all along.
  - toomuchtodo 6y ago
    This is unlikely to occur due to management incentives (grow clout, influence, status, etc).
    - cutemonster 6y ago
      What's a way to find/hire people who are immune to such things
      - thatguy0900 6y ago
        I would think you'd have to hire someone who doesn't want the job to begin with
        cutemonster 6y ago
        Hmm, My thoughts are more like hiring someone who cares a lot about the company's higher goals and vision, more than about his/her own career. Maybe that's not possible to find in traditional profit maximizing companies, because who cares about maximizing the shareholders' profits

mStreamTeam 6y ago

People don't leave jobs because things are going too well... Mozilla is a mess, and they need to can anyone who can't contribute code

okprod 6y ago
That would result in feature bloat and products, if they ever make it to market, that don't address consumer needs. Competent management is just as needed as technical contributions.
- mStreamTeam 6y ago
  Mozilla already has a ton of useless products and features without a market fit due to incompetent management...
- dont__panic 6y ago
  One of management's biggest jobs at a company like Mozilla is aiming developer resources at the problems that do address consumer needs. In the last few years, Mozilla hasn't really been doing that, so it sounds like they need new management because the current management isn't competent.
- rndgermandude 6y ago
  That's indeed exactly what happened. Lots of moonshot products that were dead on arrival such as FirefoxOS (and TV/IoT) or BrowserID, features nobody really wanted, while taking away features that people did want. Even right now, with their "refocusing" they killed or stymied features/products that people do want or at least gave them some rep with the power users and tech people (aka the people who will later recommend/install the browser to/for friends and family), e.g. devtools and MDN.
preommr 6y ago
I can't stress enough how important and amazing MDN is. It's probably (one of) the main things I think of for what keeps developing for the web a somewhat sane and cohesive experience.

shuckles 6y ago

Firefox OS was launched at a yoga retreat near Lake Tahoe because the head of marketing wanted to attend.