I don't understand the dichotomy between speed and efficiency. What's speed is the author talking about, and whose efficiency?
Adopting Microservices at Netflix
11–20 of 70 posts
Re: Adopting Microservices at Netflix
#12Earlier quoted context omitted.
This would seem to echo Hastings' Netflix culture slide deck published in 2009[1]. It's worth reading even if you disagree. The deck was the first time I had heard of a major company having a "no vacation tracking" policy. It was presented in the same context as the HR manual. The policy of having no policies is built on employee trust. Employee trust is built on the standard of only hiring top quality employees. I'v…
Kind of a tangent, but having worked at two companies that have a "unlimited" vacation policies, I can say that I detest the concept. It's basically an anti-policy. There are two major ramifications of unlimited vacation policies: 1) It changes how you feel about taking time off. Rather than paid time off being something that you have "earned", you evaluate your PTO in comparison to your teammates - specifically most…
Seems like #1 would be a symptom of having the policy without the culture to back it up. Was that your experience?
For #2, I've worked for several companies, only one of which had a compensation package for unused vacation. All the rest have been use-it-or-lose-it by the end of each year. Getting paid for unused time sounds like a luxury.
But I also recommend negotiating for more time off when you sign on, especially if you have several years of experience in the industry. Even if a company says first-year employees get X days of vacation you can still negotiate. Especially for cash-strapped companies, vacation may be the only part that can change.
Re: Adopting Microservices at Netflix
#13Netflix doesn’t have an HR manual. There is a single guideline: “Act in NetFlix’s best interest.” The idea is that if an employee can’t figure out how to interpret the guideline in a given situation, he or she doesn’t have enough judgment to work there. If you don’t trust the judgment of the people on your team, you have to ask why you’re employing them. It’s true that you’ll have to fire people occasionally for viol…
This seems like something where "when it works, it works great", but when it doesn't...
I can easily see just a couple rotten apples spooling that who could damage that whole system very quickly.
Re: Adopting Microservices at Netflix
#14Netflix doesn’t have an HR manual. There is a single guideline: “Act in NetFlix’s best interest.” The idea is that if an employee can’t figure out how to interpret the guideline in a given situation, he or she doesn’t have enough judgment to work there. If you don’t trust the judgment of the people on your team, you have to ask why you’re employing them. It’s true that you’ll have to fire people occasionally for viol…
Would love to hear from any Netflix employees lurking around here.
Re: Adopting Microservices at Netflix
#15Netflix doesn’t have an HR manual. There is a single guideline: “Act in NetFlix’s best interest.” The idea is that if an employee can’t figure out how to interpret the guideline in a given situation, he or she doesn’t have enough judgment to work there. If you don’t trust the judgment of the people on your team, you have to ask why you’re employing them. It’s true that you’ll have to fire people occasionally for viol…
I don't disagree, but I thought this was an interesting tweet on the subject "The more talent density u have the less process you need. The more process u create the less talent you retain. -- Reed Hastings (@netflix)" https://twitter.com/billwscott/status/571761964839505920
The second sentence I agree with, but not the first.
An 'untalented' developer is one who is perhaps slow to complete features, needs work on their design patterns, produces buggy code, etc.
Process isn't needed for these people, rather it is for people who do or try to get away with things like: expense excessive purchases, frequently lie about being sick to get out of working, speak or act in a lewd or unprofessional manner, etc.
Nobody is under the impression that mandating wearing a business suit (process) makes one suddenly better at programming (talent), the converse is equally absurd.
edit: punctuation
Re: Adopting Microservices at Netflix
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
Kind of a tangent, but having worked at two companies that have a "unlimited" vacation policies, I can say that I detest the concept. It's basically an anti-policy. There are two major ramifications of unlimited vacation policies: 1) It changes how you feel about taking time off. Rather than paid time off being something that you have "earned", you evaluate your PTO in comparison to your teammates - specifically most…
Seems like #1 would be a symptom of having the policy without the culture to back it up. Was that your experience? For #2, I've worked for several companies, only one of which had a compensation package for unused vacation. All the rest have been use-it-or-lose-it by the end of each year. Getting paid for unused time sounds like a luxury. But I also recommend negotiating for more time off when you sign on, especially…
Re: #2: in some US states, if you are laid off you are entitled to be compensated for vacation days you have accrued but not used.
Re: Adopting Microservices at Netflix
#17"If you ask any developer whether a slower development process is better, no one ever says yes. Nor do management or customers ever complain that your development cycle is too fast for them."
I've never known a developer not to speak up when the development cycle is too fast or a user who is not averse to the resultant buggy software.
Re: Adopting Microservices at Netflix
#18The submission title should include 'Lessons for Team and Process Design', as it's a part of a series.
Re: Adopting Microservices at Netflix
#19Netflix doesn’t have an HR manual. There is a single guideline: “Act in NetFlix’s best interest.” The idea is that if an employee can’t figure out how to interpret the guideline in a given situation, he or she doesn’t have enough judgment to work there. If you don’t trust the judgment of the people on your team, you have to ask why you’re employing them. It’s true that you’ll have to fire people occasionally for viol…
> Is this just a fancy way of saying "If we don't like you, you're out of the door?"
I'm sure it is, but is there any company where that isn't the policy?
Re: Adopting Microservices at Netflix
#20Netflix doesn’t have an HR manual. There is a single guideline: “Act in NetFlix’s best interest.” The idea is that if an employee can’t figure out how to interpret the guideline in a given situation, he or she doesn’t have enough judgment to work there. If you don’t trust the judgment of the people on your team, you have to ask why you’re employing them. It’s true that you’ll have to fire people occasionally for viol…
G'Day, I work at Netflix, and we hire what's been called "fully formed adults". Here's a quote that can explain it better than I (also see the full article):
Source https://hbr.org/2014/01/how-netflix-reinvented-hr/ar/1:
"Hire, Reward, and Tolerate Only Fully Formed Adults
Over the years we learned that if we asked people to rely on logic and common sense instead of on formal policies, most of the time we would get better results, and at lower cost. If you’re careful to hire people who will put the company’s interests first, who understand and support the desire for a high-performance workplace, 97% of your employees will do the right thing. Most companies spend endless time and money writing and enforcing HR policies to deal with problems the other 3% might cause. Instead, we tried really hard to not hire those people, and we let them go if it turned out we’d made a hiring mistake."
I trust myself, and everyone on my team to act in Netflix's best interest. Throughout my career, I've worked with many professional engineers who could have been trusted to work in the company's best interest. But there have been many times when we've been prevented to do so, due to process. So I've been fascinated at how Netflix is operating, and it's been great working here.
It's important to know that a key role of management is to provide context to employees: what problems exist, what challenges we are facing, what opportunities might exist, what's important to Netflix right now. So that we know what to do, and how to exercise judgement.
I've written about working at Netflix earlier this year on my blog (someone else posted a link).