Coffee as collaboration

Craig Kerstiens & Mattt ThompsonMonki Gras — January 31, 2013

Co as Co!aboration

• 85 people

• 21 teams

• 5000+ heroku apps

• 500+ releases a day

• 200+ deploys a day

• 100+ public github repos

• Move fast and improve over time


• Experiment constantly at a small scale


• Experiment constantly at a small scale

• Focus on creating great experiences

Working

Working Communicating

PeopleWare Engineer Survey


“interrupted regularly”


38%Top Performers



38%Top Performers

76%Bottom Performers


15 – 20 minutesto get back into flow

2 hoursof continuous,

uninterrupted work per day

Staying Productive

• Headphone rule

• Caves and commons

• Maker’s day

Headphone Rule

Headphone Rule

Headphones On

Headphone Rule

Headphones On =

Headphone Rule

Headphones On = DO NOTDISTURB

Caves & Commons

•Work in Caves

•Dwell in Commons

Maker’s Day

Maker’s Day

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

Maker’s Day


No Meetings

Maker’s Day


No MeetingsAll-HandsMeeting

The Allen Curve

There is an exponential drop of frequency of communication between engineers as the distance between them increases.

Meetings are Evil

Staying Connected

• Lunch

• Beer Club

• Coffee

Lunch

• Catered Everyday

• Long Tables (each seat ≥ 12)

• Eclectic Variety

Beer Club

• Fridays @ 4:30

• Gourmet Spread

• Really Good Beer (and whiskey)

Coffee

Coffee

• ≥ 2 servings

Coffee

• ≥ 2 servings

• 10 – 15 minutes

Coffee

• ≥ 2 servings

• 10 – 15 minutes

• Learnable / Teachable Craft

Challenges

Challenges

• Remote Employees

Challenges


• Tool & Service Consolidation

Challenges


• Tool & Service Consolidation

• Dunbar’s Number (~ 150)

Craig Kerstiens & Mattt ThompsonMonki Gras — January 31, 2013

Co as Co!aboration

Technology