Scaling from new start to enterprise platform
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Transcript of Scaling from new start to enterprise platform
Scaling from new start to enterprise platform
Ali Khajeh-Hosseini
@AliKhajeh
Oct 2014, Product Tank Edinburgh
®
®
I’m here to talk about…
a few things I learned going from a 2-person startup to working in a 150-person startup
What’s a startup? A startup is a temporary organization designed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model. Steve Blank
As you scale…
What do we do? We let you deploy your software on whatever cloud you want, then give you tools to manage, monitor and scale it. Our products: Cloud Management, Self-Service, Cloud Analytics
Cloud Analytics
Forecast costs based on switching clouds or
increased growth
Who buys our products?
Enterprises like Sony, EA Games, PBS,
Pearson Publishing, Zynga…
Jan 2009: Started researching cloud cost forecasting in St Andrews
Dec ‘11: With Hassan, we launched PlanForCloud
Jul ‘12: Acquired by RightScale
Nov ‘13: Launched Private-Beta of Cloud Analytics
Mar ‘14: Cloud Analytics goes into Public-Beta
Oct ‘14: Cloud Analytics is Generally Available
Our story so far…
Academic origins
Khajeh-Hosseini A, Greenwood D, Smith J W, Sommerville I. 2012. The Cloud Adoption Toolkit: Supporting Cloud Adoption Decisions in the Enterprise. Software: Practice and Experience Khajeh-Hosseini A, Sommerville I, Bogaerts J, Teregowda P. 2011. Decision Support Tools for Cloud Migration in the Enterprise. IEEE 4th Int. Conf. on Cloud Computing (CLOUD 2011)
Khajeh-Hosseini A, Greenwood D, Sommerville I. 2010. Cloud Migration: A Case Study of Migrating an Enterprise IT System to IaaS. IEEE 3rd Int. Conf. on Cloud Computing (CLOUD 2010) Khajeh-Hosseini A, Sommerville I, Sriram I. 2010. Research Challenges for Enterprise Cloud Computing. LSCITS Technical Report
Sriram I, Khajeh-Hosseini A. 2010. Research Agenda in Cloud Technologies. LSCITS Technical Report Smith J W, Khajeh-Hosseini A, Ward J S, Sommerville I. 2012. CloudMonitor: Profiling Power Usage. IEEE 5th Int. Conf. on Cloud Computing (CLOUD 2012)
Rooksby J, Khajeh-Hosseini A. 2012. Diagnostic Work in Cloud Computing. ACM Conf. on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW 2012)
1. Install… Eclipse 3.5 Modelling bundle, Python 2.6, PyDev, Libxml2-python-2.7.4, Libxslt-1.1.26, matplotlib-0.99.1, networkx-1.0.1, numpy-1.3.0-superpack, cost modelling tool.
2. Spend 5mins configuring Eclipse… From the Eclipse Pydev Package Explorer, right click on companyX > New > Other > UML 2.1 Diagrams >
Deployment Diagram. Each deployment diagram will have two files: a .uml file that contains the model, and a .umldepl file that contains presentation information. Open the model’s .umldepl file using Eclipse’s Deployment Diagram Editor, right click on the screen anywhere on the model and select Load resource > Browse workspace > then open the profile/Deployment.umlprofile file. Right click on the Palette window in Eclipse…
Usability of research tools
Academia to startup Ditched all the prototypes Started a new Rails app Simplified it a lot
Business plan The YCombinator application form is a good way to think about your startup https://apply.ycombinator.com
The acquisition We predicted it in our YC application form by listing 5 companies that might acquire us early Why did we go ahead with it? 1. The potential of what we could do together with RightScale
was much bigger than what we could do our-self 2. There was a great product fit between PlanForCloud and
RightScale 3. There was a lot of trust between the two companies
Starting up
We both did a bit of everything, one focused on building it, one focused on getting users.
2 people Use money to buy time so you can focus on users & the product Tools: GitHub, Heroku, MonsterTemplates, 99designs
Keep it simple
Google docs does the job
Growing to 4 people Look for people who complement your skill-sets,
not someone like you! full-stack eng + designer.
It’s difficult to hire first few people. Go to every
meetup/conference with your company tshirt,
give talks, write blogs etc.
You might find 10 people that say
they’ll apply but only 4 will,
and there “won’t be a match” for 3…
Be super-selective
Do technical interviews (i.e. coding or a
task) and non-technical interviews.
You’re building the core team so look for
experience, passion and quick learners.
If it doesn’t work out, act quickly as an
empty seat is better than a seat filled
with the wrong person.
I spent more time on pairing, reviewing stuff,
and hiring.
Hassan spent more time with users and
thinking ahead.
New tools: whiteboard, web-based scrum tool
Our roles changed slightly
6 people Our role changed from
describing what we should do next to
explaining the problem and
setting the context
and letting the team come-up with solutions
Focus on keeping it fun, spend money on food, events, office toys.
New tools: started using wiki, continuous integration
10 people Two teams with overlaps, but different focuses
Product-to-production workflow
Weekly backlog grooming meetings
Weekly front/back-end meetings
Product roadmap meetings
Team retrospectives
TechTalks
End of sprint demos
A lot of new tools
Our roadmap Roadmap vision features: features that we’re looking at building, but have not yet been
designed in a wiki.
Product iTimes: features that have been worked on by anyone during their Friday afternoon
iTime projects.
In Design: features that have been designed in the wiki, but have not yet been implemented.
In Development: features that are currently in development or are being tested, and will be
released soon.
Live for RightScale employees: feature is visible to employees.
Live for private-beta users: features is visible for private-beta or selected users.
Live for all users: shipped!
Cool stuff coming out of iTime
We build prototypes and let
users try them using their live data!
150 people ~100 people in engineering & product
~50 people in sales, marketing, services, finance
PMs spend a lot of time communicating with Sales & Marketing
Setup of teams is reflected in our products
PMs & architects are key to integration across products
Give people freedom to experiment, Friday afternoon is iTime
Strive for transparency, and trust people to execute
Communicate the context; give people problems to solve, not
solutions to implement
Manage your managers
Empower people to change things
What’s important?
Lead the way
Edinburgh, Santa Barbara and remote…
RightScale Employee Meetup (a week of fun in California)
Dev tools
Invest in good tools
Invest in design
eng.rightscale.com
Invest in open source
Invest in automation Meet Leeroy: our bot
Our quotes page
Remember that as you scale…
Inspired: how to create products customers love: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Inspired-Create-Products-Customers-Love/dp/0981690408
Engineering Management: http://algeri-wong.com/yishan/engineering-management.html
The Leadership Challenge: http://www.leaderpresence.com/resources/The%20Leadership%20Challenge.pdf
Netflix Culture: http://www.slideshare.net/reed2001/culture-1798664
How Google Works: http://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Google-Works-Eric-Schmidt/dp/1455582344
Some articles that have influenced my thinking