Database Reference
In-Depth Information
However, because he is so popular, a lot of other artists would get his Twitter
profile incorrectly associated with them. Trying to catch these kinds of impor-
tant issues systematically was one of the first projects I worked on.
Gutierrez:
How is the data team structured and how do you work
together?
Hu:
Different people on our team work on different things at different
times. We have data engineers. We have data scientists. We have front-end
engineers. We have people up and down the stack. I think most people would
say that they work across the entire stack. There is not as much segmentation
of roles as there might be at a larger company. So it's great. We self-organize
ourselves based on what project we are working on in that cycle, rather
than sticking to specific roles. Because we are a startup—although a relatively
late startup—it's a great company environment because everybody works on
everything. There is very little restriction in terms of hierarchy.
Our work is based on two-week “cycles.”We all get together every two weeks
and we choose what projects we want to work on. And then two weeks later,
we do a demo day where we present all the projects we have worked on,
as well as all the progress that we made. We assess where we go next, and
then we choose projects again. So we work on these very short iterations.
This is based on a theory that our VP of engineering has really been a champion
of—this notion of failing quickly.
Gutierrez:
Should others move to two-week project cycles?
Hu:
I think it makes a lot of sense if you have the capability of doing it,
simply because the merits are evident—you get improved morale and you get
improved dedication. People are more interested in their projects because
they have selected them. Part of that might be unique to the industry that we
work, in, but choosing what to work on yourself and feeling invested in your
company, definitely improves motivation across the board.
Obviously, we have dealt with a lot of the struggles of maintaining such a cycle
system. The main issues are around: How do you keep people accountable?
And how do you keep people informed so that they can select their projects
to the best ends of the company? It can be challenging, but if you have the
capability of implementing this structure, it really does provide a more agile
work environment, because you can incorporate things that you have recently
learned at a conference. Or if you had an idea when you were in the shower,
you can implement it almost immediately. You do not get caught in these
long cycles where you are working on a big project without feedback-and
feedback is essential. I definitely subscribe to the ideas of quick iterations and
failing quickly.
