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Google wants employees to move faster

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Re: Google wants employees to move faster

#61

Post by piva00 »

mxuribe wrote: post #48
UncleMeat wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. My experience at Google over the past two years has been that "we need to be nimble and move faster" has led to increased scrutiny on ongoing projects but few actual changes in ongoing projects. So there's more docs and slides presented to VPs justifying work (taking up time) but VPs aren't willing to say "this isn't a priority - go help with this key project over here." There's minimal vision from above, so…

> ...has been that "we need to be nimble and move faster" has led to increased scrutiny on ongoing projects but few actual changes in ongoing projects. So there's more docs and slides presented to VPs justifying work (taking up time) but VPs aren't willing to say "this isn't a priority - go help with this key project over here." There's minimal vision from above, so the net effect of all of this is that people move s…

> so odd that many seem to be experiencing similar tactics from "Above"! Did all the top management companies whisper the same set of tactics to all corporations recently!?!

They all read the same HBR articles, they all take advice from the same management consulting companies, they all study the same business school curriculum, etc.

It's quite rare that executives have innovative ways to do business, as in any job if you try to step too much out of the line of the status quo you will have to deliver much more value to empirically prove yourself right or you will be fired.

So many of those folks are just going through the same motions because it's safer. A very good example is Google itself under Sundar Pichai, there's no real vision or business innovation, he's been trying to just not rock the boat and keep milking the cow but now the cow is running dry and he doesn't know what to do. It's pretty clear that Google could have any other professional CEO and go through the same issues because most of them are just there to follow the business schools Zeitgeist.

Re: Google wants employees to move faster

#62

Post by afavour »

Zigurd wrote: post #43
afavour wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually think he’s right. Us Hacker News types don’t trust Google at all but for the average person it’s where they go to find information, and we’ve seen time and time again that the majority either don’t understand or don’t care about many privacy concerns. All this stuff is a little handwavey but a 2023 report: https://pro-assets.morningconsult.com/wp-uploads/2023/05/Mos... Has a specific breakout about Google.…

Slide decks like that make me feel like there is another species out there for which brands matter. It's literally disorienting.

Those decks feel absurd but brands do matter. There’s a slide in there about hospitality brands… when staying in a new city I absolutely look to the hotel brand when making a reservation, because the experience tends to be very consistent across locations. It’s not like “ooh I have such a fondness for the Marriott logo”, it’s “I’d like a consistent experience so I go to Marriott”.

Re: Google wants employees to move faster

#63

Post by cletus »

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #60
cletus wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And we arrive at collectivism vs individualism and the tendency of people to privatize gains but socialize losses. Yes, search and ads are the golden goose but so many things contribute to that success. Chrome, for example, is absolutely crucial to search quality. Maps is huge. Android is also critical. Search and ads use a whole bunch of infra (eg Borg, storage, load balancing, serving infra, traffic management, dat…

Maps is part of the search org. Chrome is part of the android org. I already included those. I'm basically not counting YouTube, Cloud, most of Gsuite, Waymo (and all the other bets).

> Maps is part of the search org

Is that true now? It certainly wasn't when I worked there.

> Chrome is part of the android org.

This only happened in the last month.

> I'm basically not counting YouTube ...

Youtube revenue was 20% of search's revenue in Q4 [1] and it's of strategic importance on many levels, including to search directly.

> ... Cloud ...

Cloud is of strategic importance too. Why? Because it helps keep data center costs down. Why? Because Cloud increases the demand for RAM, CPUs, hard drives and flash storage. This allows Google to demand lower prices for all of these things from suppliers.

> ... Waymo

This one is fair. It's a vestige of GoogleX AFAIK. I'm kinda surprised it still exists in the same company that de-prioritized Google Fiber, which realy is core to Google's business.

[1]: https://www.marketingdive.com/news/alphabet-google-q4-2024-e...

Re: Google wants employees to move faster

#64

Post by mxuribe »

piva00 wrote: post #61
mxuribe wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ...has been that "we need to be nimble and move faster" has led to increased scrutiny on ongoing projects but few actual changes in ongoing projects. So there's more docs and slides presented to VPs justifying work (taking up time) but VPs aren't willing to say "this isn't a priority - go help with this key project over here." There's minimal vision from above, so the net effect of all of this is that people move s…

> so odd that many seem to be experiencing similar tactics from "Above"! Did all the top management companies whisper the same set of tactics to all corporations recently!?! They all read the same HBR articles, they all take advice from the same management consulting companies, they all study the same business school curriculum, etc. It's quite rare that executives have innovative ways to do business, as in any job i…

> ...They all read the same HBR articles, they all take advice from the same management consulting companies, they all study the same business school curriculum, etc...

Yep, sadly, the evidence is clear that they're all lemmings and staying that way! Also, your 100% correct on your other points as well...And said truth is quite frankly sad; sad for both Google, but also for all other corporate-type companies, at least that I know about in the U.S. :-(

Re: Google wants employees to move faster

#65

Post by ryandrake »

mxuribe wrote: post #64
piva00 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> so odd that many seem to be experiencing similar tactics from "Above"! Did all the top management companies whisper the same set of tactics to all corporations recently!?! They all read the same HBR articles, they all take advice from the same management consulting companies, they all study the same business school curriculum, etc. It's quite rare that executives have innovative ways to do business, as in any job i…

> ...They all read the same HBR articles, they all take advice from the same management consulting companies, they all study the same business school curriculum, etc... Yep, sadly, the evidence is clear that they're all lemmings and staying that way! Also, your 100% correct on your other points as well...And said truth is quite frankly sad; sad for both Google, but also for all other corporate-type companies, at leas…

Look at how aligned they all are on Returning To Office work. Nearly every major company is saying the exact same things, to the point where you can probably find exact wording matches between internal memos. They're obviously getting all their ideas from the same place.

Re: Google wants employees to move faster

#67

Post by 0x000xca0xfe »

korginator wrote: post #19

“If there’s a clear and present market reality, we need to twitch faster, like the athletes twitch faster,” he said. “There is something to be learned from that faster-twitch, shorter wavelength execution,” he said. Raghavan urged employees to “meet this moment” and “act with urgency based on market conditions.” After that he goes to praise the teams working 120 hours a week, that's basically 17 hours a day. Early in…

I've worked 100 hours a week for a few months to finish my thesis on time. It felt like the upper limit of mental work you can sustain for more than a single-digit number of weeks when you are 100% motivated and deeply care about the work.

But 120 hours? Do they even shower? RTO must be fun for their colleagues.

This level of human depravity is just sick. And for what?

Re: Google wants employees to move faster

#68

Post by JohnFen »

paxys wrote: post #6

Meaningless executive speak. How should employees move faster exactly? Unless you are sharing exact guidelines, cutting down pointless projects and reducing work load, removing red tape etc. how do you expect everyone to magically ship quicker? If startups are beating you at your game with a tiny fraction of the employees, funding and resources, it should be obvious that the number of hours put into the job isn't the…

> If startups are beating you at your game with a tiny fraction of the employees, funding and resource

If you're a huge corporation like Google, you're not even playing the same game as any startup in the first place, and trying to compete with them as if you were is likely to end in tears.

The same is true the other way around. If you're a small company, you're unlikely to beat a major corporation by playing the game that major corporations play.

Being a small company gives strengths and weaknesses that large companies don't have -- and vice versa. Smart companies of any size play to their own strengths rather than trying to play to the competition's strengths.

Re: Google wants employees to move faster

#69

Post by onlyrealcuzzo »

cletus wrote: post #63
onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maps is part of the search org. Chrome is part of the android org. I already included those. I'm basically not counting YouTube, Cloud, most of Gsuite, Waymo (and all the other bets).

> Maps is part of the search org Is that true now? It certainly wasn't when I worked there. > Chrome is part of the android org. This only happened in the last month. > I'm basically not counting YouTube ... Youtube revenue was 20% of search's revenue in Q4 [1] and it's of strategic importance on many levels, including to search directly. > ... Cloud ... Cloud is of strategic importance too. Why? Because it helps kee…

> Is that true now? It certainly wasn't when I worked there.

It depends how you define "org".

Re: Google wants employees to move faster

#70

Post by 0x000xca0xfe »

tyingq wrote: post #16
sgt101 wrote: post #7

He's got problems... He says his teams are working 120hrs a week, but he wants them to work more. I think that this is not going to happen!

"He praised the teams working on Gemini, the company’s main group of AI models. He said they’ve stepped up from working 100 hours a week to 120 hours to correct Google’s image recognition tool in a timely manner." So, assuming they work 7 days a week, that's 17 hours a day. Leaving 7 hours for commuting, sleep and life. And it feels like he's offering that up as an example of "move faster". Just wow.

I hope the executives are at least sharing some of their PEDs. Coffee is not enough for those teams...
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