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Sadly, this doesn't go into too much detail, but it does mention a few things that explain how Mozilla ended up becoming the bloated mess it is now. > They hir

Sadly, this doesn't go into too much detail, but it does mention a few things that explain how Mozilla ended up becoming the bloated mess it is now. > They hired someone from the mobile industry to run the company, this led to some culture changes : no more a flat org, but a pyramidal one with middle managers. Culture became way less engineering centric, and started being a bit more top -> down. > Besides becoming more like a normal company, the new CEO grew the size of our teams, added project managers, Sales people, to make sure B2G would reach a huge audience.

deleted 1y ago
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resource_waste 1y ago
I'm a bit less critical on the management thing than most. As an engineer, we all want to think engineers are all that is needed. However sales and management are needed. Too many layers are a real problem, but it doesnt say much when its coming from people at the bottom. They can't see what is happening above them.
- owebmaster 1y ago
  > but it doesnt say much when its coming from people at the bottom. They can't see what is happening above them. Oh they could and the results show it. The new people made a lot more money including the Google deal. While destroying Firefox
- this_user 1y ago
  I depends on what kind of company you are what and who you need. That may be the problem with Mozilla that they don't really know what they are. They started out as a vehicle for the browser, but then they broadened their mission to some vague notion of "defending the open Internet" or something like that. And since they had enough free cash flow, they were able to get into all kinds of areas and projects where they had no real expertise and set themselves up to fail. And this is a common management mistake: "We have the money, we need to grow." Meta have basically been doing that for years now, launching all kinds of projects that were mostly failures. But their ad income from FB and IG is more than enough to compensate for that. Google are in a similar position. When was the last time they actually launched a truly successful new product? Maybe it would be better to let it be. In the case of Mozilla, focus on Firefox on all of the different platforms. On the other hand, not trying to grow is a career risk for management. If you are not implementing a growth strategy, why exactly are we paying you millions per year?
- potato-peeler 1y ago
  The point the author is trying to make is, opinions from engineers are not taken into account while management decisions are made. I have been in such companies, it becomes frustrating when your voice is not heard. Then you start to focus more on office politics and less on your work.

deleted 1y ago

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resource_waste 1y ago

I'm a bit less critical on the management thing than most. As an engineer, we all want to think engineers are all that is needed. However sales and management are needed. Too many layers are a real problem, but it doesnt say much when its coming from people at the bottom. They can't see what is happening above them.

owebmaster 1y ago
> but it doesnt say much when its coming from people at the bottom. They can't see what is happening above them. Oh they could and the results show it. The new people made a lot more money including the Google deal. While destroying Firefox
this_user 1y ago
I depends on what kind of company you are what and who you need. That may be the problem with Mozilla that they don't really know what they are. They started out as a vehicle for the browser, but then they broadened their mission to some vague notion of "defending the open Internet" or something like that. And since they had enough free cash flow, they were able to get into all kinds of areas and projects where they had no real expertise and set themselves up to fail. And this is a common management mistake: "We have the money, we need to grow." Meta have basically been doing that for years now, launching all kinds of projects that were mostly failures. But their ad income from FB and IG is more than enough to compensate for that. Google are in a similar position. When was the last time they actually launched a truly successful new product? Maybe it would be better to let it be. In the case of Mozilla, focus on Firefox on all of the different platforms. On the other hand, not trying to grow is a career risk for management. If you are not implementing a growth strategy, why exactly are we paying you millions per year?
potato-peeler 1y ago
The point the author is trying to make is, opinions from engineers are not taken into account while management decisions are made. I have been in such companies, it becomes frustrating when your voice is not heard. Then you start to focus more on office politics and less on your work.