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I think Google tried this a while ago (flattening the org). It didn’t work, so they went back to having managers.
It only works if the person at the top is a real visionary. And you’re talking about a handful of people on earth who have this frankly.
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How is it nonsense? Vision doesn't matter - customer feedback matters. You start off with a hypothesis (X will solve Y's problem by doing ...), you build a prototype, and then you start testing with multiple Ys. Based on that feedback, you then tweak your initial hypothesis or you scrap it and pivot. The whole point of engineering is to build tools that solve a specific class of problems for the buyer.
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That's the test part, is it not?
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How is it nonsense? Vision doesn't matter - customer feedback matters. You start off with a hypothesis (X will solve Y's problem by doing ...), you build a prototype, and then you start testing with multiple Ys. Based on that feedback, you then tweak your initial hypothesis or you scrap it and pivot. The whole point of engineering is to build tools that solve a specific class of problems for the buyer.
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Thus, for most folks releasing a product and getting to market/revenue is more important than anything else. Then iterate from there.
YMMV of course. But the older I get, the more I realize "just get it done" is far more important than almost any other metric there is. There is a ton of navel gazing in tech that provides negative value. If I had released some of the things I worked on in the past vs. carefully designing and polishing them, I might still be working on them today. Competing products have maybe 50% of the "quality" of even my prototypes of 10 years ago - but they exist in the market and are used every day by customers to generate income.
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How can you be less innovative than Block? Their products are 100% ripoffs of better products
Eh, Square and Cash App were pretty innovative when they came out. The industry is mature enough now that all the products are ripping each other off
I listened to his podcast episode on the Sequoia podcast a few days ago. Interestingly, his argument was "we don't need middle managers" and he plans to have all 6000 employees eventually report to him. In other words, companies don't need managers anymore. Except for one manager. Him.
I think Google tried this a while ago (flattening the org). It didn’t work, so they went back to having managers.
1: https://www.slate.com/blogs/business_insider/2014/04/25/goog...
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The build fast and test model was nonsense to begin with. Ultimately it’s a way of saying “I have no vision so I just want to quickly throw a bunch of shit on the wall and see what sticks”.
How is it nonsense? Vision doesn't matter - customer feedback matters. You start off with a hypothesis (X will solve Y's problem by doing ...), you build a prototype, and then you start testing with multiple Ys. Based on that feedback, you then tweak your initial hypothesis or you scrap it and pivot. The whole point of engineering is to build tools that solve a specific class of problems for the buyer.
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How is it nonsense? Vision doesn't matter - customer feedback matters. You start off with a hypothesis (X will solve Y's problem by doing ...), you build a prototype, and then you start testing with multiple Ys. Based on that feedback, you then tweak your initial hypothesis or you scrap it and pivot. The whole point of engineering is to build tools that solve a specific class of problems for the buyer.
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In the USA at least sure. This was in a country with lightly better employment protections so it’s quite uncommon.
Counterintuitively, systems with heavier employment protections can make it more common to cut recent hires. Employment protections usually come with a probationary period before they kick in, so employers can remove bad hires early. This creates an incentive to remove new hires before their probationary period is up if they're showing any signs they might not be the best candidate for the job. Even when new hires ar…
And this person was removed before any probationary period, before they started, without cause.
Laying off employees by seniority is not the same level in my opinion.
Block signed a friend of mine, they quit their other job, then block was like whoops layoffs including people like this person who hadn’t even started. Super unethical.
Why did they even hire if they had to just fire a person who hadn't even started. It really reflects to the level of incompetence within the company. I am sorry for your friend, I hope that he is doing fine, Is there anything that they can legally do for this to block?
After his stunt with the mass firings "because of AI," employees now bring prototypes, not slides, to meetings with Jack Dorsey . These clowns live in a dreamworld created by their PAs and cronies
IBM hadn't done many layoffs ever at that point and apparently didn't have system for it. He showed up on layoff day and they laid everyone off with a very generous baseline layoff package, including substantial education benefits. So he just went back to school on their dime for several years ;)