Why is it so hard to create an adequate working environment for good developers? Why do we have insecure managers, lots of hierarchy levels, and micromanagement instead in so many companies? It's so simple to make things better: Remove the classic tech lead, avoid the Peter principle and let small teams organize themselves. Agreed, that's not easy, and there are challenges. But I see it work everyday around me. It means that developers have to care for a bit more than just code, but the rewards are freedom to have own choices and to have a real impact on the product. Let's see how this works in reality, what works great and where there are still things to improve.

1. What motivates
developers?
How to
build a company
to maximize
motivation?
Having Impact Matters
Jesper Richter-Reichhelm (@rirei)

2. Money is
important ...
but intrinsic
motivation is even
more important

3. Check out his
TED talk at http://
bit.ly/1gqPsVe
•
•
•
Daniel Pink
Autonomy
Mastery
Purpose

4. Linda Rising
•
•
•
Check out her
keynote at http://
bit.ly/1fJ87dz
Purpose
Making progress
Reaching goals daily

5. My takeaway
•
•
•
•
•
Self organization
Improving yourself
Incremental work
Meaningful work
Changes

6. Company takeaways
Organize a
company to
maximize
motivation
•
•
•
•
•
•
Small teams
Collaboration
Innovation
Agile principles
Job rotation
Team as Function

7. Emphasizing function
Art
Product
BE Dev
FE Dev
Each team is
formed around a
function

8. Emphasizing rank
Classic view on
company
organization
How you see a problem, defines it.

9. Wooga if it
followed a classic
org chart
CTO
VP
TL
TL
TL
VP
TL
TL
TL
80 developers
TL
TL
TL
TL

10. CTO
VP
TL
TL
TL
VP
TL
TL
TL
80 developers
TL
TL
TL
TL
Varying team
sizes make this very
hard

11. Emphasizing functions
No TL but instead
self organization!

12. Wooga’s IT
‘org chart’
3 managers
80 developers

13. Team lead tasks
•
•
•
•
•
•
Matching requirements to tech
Future requirements
Development processes
Planning processes
Knowledge sharing
Cross-team collaboration

14. Developer tasks
•
•
•
•
•
•
Matching requirements to tech
Future requirements
Development processes
Planning processes
Knowledge sharing
Cross-team collaboration
Higher
requirements for
each developer

15. Team lead tasks
•
•
Hiring
Feedback
Some things are
still done by
managers

17. 2009: 20 employees

18. 2013: 280
employees

19. Scaling the
company by adding
game teams

22. Wooga is an
incubator for game
team startups

23. Game Teams

24. Each team makes
one game

25. Small teams
Start small, grow if
successful
Prototyping
Production
Live
2 members
6 - 10 members
8 - 15 members

26. Agile? Sure, but
following values not
methods
agilemanifesto.org

27. Teams can
ignore CEO’s
advice and decide
themselves
Independence

28. Freedom

29. Constraints
•
•
•
Weekly rhythm
Transparency
Fail fast

30. Standard Framework

31. Diversity breeds
innovation
n or
anba
m, K
c ru
lse?
S
ng e
ethi
som
T
ls?
oo
Data
Ar
tS
tyl
e?
Fram
ewo
rk
Innovation
Cent
er?
ing
ramm
rog
P
ge?
ngua
La
?
Exte
rnal
Serv
ices?
Innovation
allows self
improvement and
learning

32. Responsibility
keeps freedom in
check

33. The game team
is responsible for
ops & biz
“You build it, you run it.
- Werner Vogels

34. Small team
+ freedom =>
maximum impact
for everyone
Impact

35. Perfect recipe to
attract great
developers
Small
teams
Agile
principles
Independence

36. The tradeoff:
Threat of anarchy
and chaos
humanepursuits.com/2012/04/05/anarchy-on-your-lapto

37. Teams
collaborate instead
of competing
Good counter for
‘anarchy’
Collaboration

38. Exchanging Knowledge
flickr.com/photos/swamibu/2868288357

39. Exchanging Knowledge
Share
knowledge by
talking (less
writing)
flickr.com/photos/wili/233621595

40. Being transparent
Don’t hide
mistakes, make
your team
comparable
flickr.com/photos/marcomagrini/698692268

41. Personal trust
removes barriers
flickr.com/photos/gviciano/4060850226
Meeting people

42. Check out
slides at http://
slidesha.re/
18tMwBs
Collaboration
distributes
knowledge
Share
knowledge
Be open and
transparent
Build a
community

43. People

44. Hiring
flickr.com/photos/vgm8383/2803305840

45. Finding unicorns
flickr.com/photos/vgm8383/2803305840

46. Lifelong
learning
Most important
trait for a dev
flickr.com/photos/carlosporto/775089650

47. Open, sharing,
motivated ...
Social Fit

49. Tech
Crunch
Series of
interviews for final
decision on hiring

50. Developers do
Tech Crunch and
‘vote’ at the end

51. Feedback
Problem:
Manager does not
interact daily with
developer

52. Feedback
•
•
•
•
•
Solution: Feedback
based on peers
Declare peers
Send questionnaire
Interview peers
Summarize feedback
Feedback Talk

53. Trust

55. “Build projects around
motivated individuals.
Give them the
environment and
support they need,
and trust them to get
the job done.”
- Agile Manifesto

56. Only works
because you CAN
trust people
3 managers
80 developers

57. Hire good
people, then get
out of their way!
In doubt,
don’t hire
Trust
people

60. Wooga in a nutshell
Independent Teams
Transparency
Trust

61. Same approach,
but it’s even in the
name! :-)

62. Check out the
article at http://
tcrn.ch/19QWs6z

63. Organic
interaction of
service teams

64. Grandfather of
‘service teams’ ;-)

65. Works for Wooga,
works for others!
Independent Teams
Transparency
Trust

66. Give it a try!
It works

67. Thank you

68. Jesper Richter-Reichhelm
@jrirei
woo.ga/backend
wooga.com/jobs
Check out other
slides at http://
woo.ga/backend