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Culture Change at Google

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Re: Culture Change at Google

#21

Post by V-eHGsd_ »

AlbertCory wrote: post #15
kyrra wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eric leaving. Larry and Sergey stepping back. And the hiring of Ruth Porat as CFO. My money is on Ruth being the biggest change to Google.

Could be. Patrick was just so perfect as a Google CFO. Only-at-Google. His backpack full of hundreds (supposedly). But Ruth: she could be anywhere in the corporate world.

patrick "sorry I missed the last tgif I was running a marathon in paris with my daughter" pichette.

and I don't say that disparagingly. that was endearing.

(i'm probably getting some details of that wrong, it was ... dear lord, a long time ago)

Re: Culture Change at Google

#22

Post by eftychis »

baron816 wrote: post #5

> Early employees would often encourage each other to "fail fast" as a means to innovation, but that's no longer easy in an environment where failure implies a layoff. Big tech is in a really tough spot when it comes to innovation. Google has developed a reputation for killing off products too easily. Many have commented here and elsewhere that you can’t trust them to invest in using their new products because they m…

The mistake Google has done here is that it deploys and launches and uses to garner attention projects under it's name.

There is little to no, this is an experimental project by x team. It is this is a Google product.

If everything is a product and you don't support most or expect most to die, then you damage the collective product that is the Google brand. And as a result how your employees feel and are treated about experimenting.

Re: Culture Change at Google

#23

Post by eru »

darth_avocado wrote: post #19

> Early employees would often encourage each other to "fail fast" as a means to innovation, but that's no longer easy in an environment where failure implies a layoff. Something that is amazing that often leadership fails to realize is the above. During my last days at X (formerly known as Twitter :P), everyone was just risk averse because it automatically meant a middle of the night firing. So much engineering time…

Sounds like their internal interest rates have gone up?

Re: Culture Change at Google

#24

Post by zamfi »

Is any company still like this?

I was at Google in ‘06-07, and again ‘09-11, and already there were obvious differences. You just can’t scale “total internal transparency” when the company doubles in size every year.

And at some point you need just plain-old-“good” engineers to make the A/B tests happen and all the other stuff that doesn’t excite the PhDs. And at some point you need product people too, because you start to build products you’re not in the target audience for. And at some point your employees aren’t all going to be fabulously wealthy from an upcoming IPO, and so they’ll start playing political games for coveted titles and $1M+ comp so they too can have their house in Tahoe.

At some point the real world just gets in the way.

Re: Culture Change at Google

#25

Post by brcmthrowaway »

zamfi wrote: post #24

Is any company still like this? I was at Google in ‘06-07, and again ‘09-11, and already there were obvious differences. You just can’t scale “total internal transparency” when the company doubles in size every year. And at some point you need just plain-old-“good” engineers to make the A/B tests happen and all the other stuff that doesn’t excite the PhDs. And at some point you need product people too, because you st…

So the real answer is to join the next Google.. :)

OpenAI?

Re: Culture Change at Google

#27

Post by kderbyma »

Alphabet has ruined it's entire portfolio if measured by the initial vision of each product. They have decimated the once great platforms they developed in pursuit of ever canabalizing their consumers

Re: Culture Change at Google

#28

Post by nequo »

brcmthrowaway wrote: post #25
zamfi wrote: post #24

Is any company still like this? I was at Google in ‘06-07, and again ‘09-11, and already there were obvious differences. You just can’t scale “total internal transparency” when the company doubles in size every year. And at some point you need just plain-old-“good” engineers to make the A/B tests happen and all the other stuff that doesn’t excite the PhDs. And at some point you need product people too, because you st…

So the real answer is to join the next Google.. :) OpenAI?

What is the company culture of OpenAI like? How does it compare to early Google?

Re: Culture Change at Google

#29

Post by hiAndrewQuinn »

For me, the important sentence is "Google is still a great place to work -- far better than most companies -- and still doing amazing things." This is very interesting, but I like that the author notes the outside view, because I still get the feeling I'd like to work there someday.

Re: Culture Change at Google

#30

Post by V-eHGsd_ »

kweingar wrote: post #26

Is there any tech company, big or small, with the same kind of dynamic engineering culture that Google once had?

i'm sure there are. but google's arc, the engineering culture wasn't just dynamic, it was dynamic and (apologies to use an eric schmidt-ism) impactful.
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