Phil's $.02

In March, I cross-posted Rodney Barlow’s article about the Fire Chief role on an Agile team.  In his article, Rod told us:

• Teams can have their cake and eat it too: Responding to problems without killing yield
• Removing the “Fire Chief” from a team’s capacity can increase velocity and improve quality
• A culture of passion and ownership can make an otherwise tough role coveted and fun
• Practical steps for creating an effective Fire Chief on your team

Twitter post from @uclajug inquiring about the yield of the Fire Chief role

Rod has posted a case study (“Fire Chief Role Yields Results”) on the real results of the Fire Chief role at Shopzilla.  The proof seems to be in the numbers.  Since the inception of the Fire Chief:

• The team’s average completion rate has gone up by 48%
• Their “worst” iteration improved more than 300%

Nice job Inventory

Like all good things, my time as Shopzilla’s VP of Engineering has come to an end after 5 years and more than 225,000 miles logged in my daily commute.  As I look forward to my next adventure, I’d thought I’d share some of what inspired me to commute more than 200 miles for work each day:

A truly world-class team

I get it… Everyone says it.  Some even believe.  I know it.  In a company full of good people, Shopzilla’s technology teams are truly world-class – sporting some of the best and brightest minds in the industry.  After setting the stage for a few years, Tech at Shopzilla evolved into true business partners and thought leaders; A team passionate about the mission and their role in achieving it.

A special shout-out goes to Jody and to my Sr. team – Tara, Juan Paul, Rony, Bernadet, Rod, Tim, Siobhain and Lauren.  Thank you for your leadership and for allowing me to lead you.  I am proud of what we’ve created.  (those without links should take the hint to put your blogs up

A challenge worthy of the best

Shopzilla has both great people and great opportunities for them to achieve and learn from.  From Red October (before my time), to Site 2, Ratings, B2B, Publisher, Nouns, Beso and a thousand other projects big and small, Shopzilla has always risen to the challenge of being and building the best.

When I first arrived at Shopzilla I heard the story of a company that barely survived the dot bomb days.  With very little money left and nothing to lose, somebody had the “crazy” idea of turning a merchant ratings company into a comparison shopping marketplace.  From that idea to building one of the largest comparison shopping networks on the planet, Shopzilla is full of epic business, product and technology challenges for our people to sink their teeth into.

A little bit of magic

Then, there is the magic.  Maybe it’s the special mix of people and opportunity. Maybe it’s the fact that the company is built on relationships and an unusually strong sense of shared mission.  Whatever the magic is, Shopzilla is special and people can feel it from the time they come in for an interview.

That magic has helped fuel some of the greatest successes of my career and some of the most impactful relationships and friendships of my life.

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Of course, I’ve had some downs with my ups; Shopzilla is a long way from perfect.  Still, Shopzilla was a fantastic journey filled with challenge, growth, great people, achievement, success and a magic that just isn’t found everywhere.  Shopzilla is also where I discovered a passion for creating products that marry disruptive technology with a large and demanding consumer audience.

What’s Next?

My next adventure is with Betfair, a London-based peer-to-peer betting exchange.  With transaction volumes that rival the mainstream stock markets, Betfair have found their huge, eager and demanding audience.

Why’d I pick this company?

• I’m passionate about our users – so are they.
• I’m passionate about performance at extreme scale – CHECK.
• I’m passionate about creating world-class products based on truly disruptive technology – them too.
• I’m also passionate about building teams that can accomplish anything.  Something tells me Betfair will be into that one as well

So far, so good.

I start in May and I literally can’t wait to hit the ground.  Betfair, if you are listening, Here I come!  With a little hard work, we’ll make some magic of our own.

Rodney Barlow, a seasoned Architect at Shopzilla, has introduced the concept of a Fire Chief – an Agile role designed to protect a team’s yield while still responding to production issues.  In his article, Shopzilla’s Fire Chief – Running Cover for your Team, Rod tells us:

• Teams can have their cake and eat it too: Responding to problems without killing yield
• Removing the “Fire Chief” from a team’s capacity can increase velocity and improve quality
• A culture of passion and ownership can make an otherwise tough role coveted and fun
• Practical steps for creating an effective Fire Chief on your team

Why does any of this matter?  Rod writes:

With few exceptions, it generally doesn’t take an entire team to fight a fire.  The “all hands on deck” approach to production issues is often born from a misguided – albeit well-intentioned – desire to resolve an issue quickly in order to get back to work on the “new stuff”.  Best case, this approach may optimize a single engineer’s time-to-resolution at the cost of lowering the overall yield of the team.  Worst case, “drop everything” is a trained response designed as much to create the appearance of motion as any real progress.

…

While the first step may be acknowledging the need for a strategy, the real “magic” in making your strategy work comes from teams’ ownership of the need.

(entire article here)

Read more about Shopzilla’s approach to creating business value through technology on Shopzilla’s Tech Blog.