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From Building a Marketplace to Building Teams
Mike Brittain discusses the evolution of his career from engineer to VP of Engineering at Etsy, emphasizing the distinct role of leadership compared to technical contribution. He outlines key leadership responsibilities, including hiring the right people, enabling team performance, and managing group dynamics while advocating for building a network of fellow leaders. Brittain highlights the importance of preparing teams for autonomy and adapting leadership focus as the organization grows.
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From Building a Marketplace to Building Teams
- 1. From Building aMarketplace to Building Teams Mike Brittain VP Eng., Etsy @mikebrittain mikebrittain.com/talks
- 2. A. Do youconsider yourself a manager, tech lead, team lead, leader, etc.? B. See yourself eventually transitioning into that leadership category?
- 3. C. “Hell no,you’ll take my editor away from me over my cold, dead body.”
- 4. 2010: Sr. Engineer-> Team Lead -> Eng. Mgr. 2011: Eng. Director: Core, Devtools, Perf, CI 2012: Eng. Director, Mobile 2014: VP, Eng.
- 5. Disinguished Eng. Principle Eng. Sr.Staff Eng. Staff Eng. Sr. Eng. Software Eng. (2) Software Eng. (1) VP Sr. Director Director Sr. Manager Manager
- 6. Leading a teamis a distinct role from being a contributor on the team.
- 7. “We want youto be the director of technology. We want you to run the team. You’re in charge. And, of course, you’ll still be able to write code 75% of the time.”
- 8. Leadership is arole that requires 100% of your effort.
- 9. Hire the rightpeople. Get them onto the right teams.* Create a sense of mission and purpose. Ruthlessly remove the blockers. Enable them to do what they are great at.
- 10.
- 11. * Group developmentis almost entirely what your role is about as a leader.
- 13. Manage ambiguity. Createcertainty.
- 14. Regularly scheduled Q&Atime with the team. a.k.a., “Truths, Lies, and Rumors”
- 15.
- 16. Leadership is alonely role only if you allow it to be.
- 17. Build your cohortof fellow leaders.
- 18. Not just personnelmanagers, and not just those within your own company. Build your cohort of fellow leaders.
- 19. Build your cohortof fellow leaders. Not just personnel managers, and not just those within your own company. Be explicit about when a conversation is to be held in confidence.
- 20. Leaders think abouthow the team will work in the future.
- 21. Running good meetingsis a topic unto itself.
- 22. Allow your meetingsto expire.
- 23. Allow your meetingsto expire.
- 24. You (w|d)on’t havetime to know everything that is going on in the team. Where you expend effort and attention must change as the team grows and the company grows.
- 26. Put yourself outof a job.
- 27. Go on along vacation. Prepare your team (over time). Assign temporary* delegates for everything. Turn off your email. Spend time thinking about how the team is performing.
- 28. Assign temporary* delegatesfor everything. “Hey, Bob. I heard from the team that you’re doing an excellent job taking care of X, Y, Z. I’d like you to be in charge of these full-time. We’ll announce that to the team in this week’s All-Hands.”
- 29. Put yourself outof a job.* * WARNING: May not be appropriate outside of growth-stage companies.
- 30. You’ll ship lessfrequently when you’re a leader.
- 31. “It’s impossible toget any ‘real work’ done during the day.”
- 33. Take some creditfor yourself. (You know, from time to time…)
- 34. Thank you! Mike Brittain VPEng., Etsy @mikebrittain mikebrittain.com/talks