this linkedin post's TL;DR says: "people shouldn't be promoted based on how big their teams are.". Unfortunately team size is exactly what comes to mind when people are deciding whether to promote or not. Sure, there are some fluffy stuff in the promo doc like impact and stuff, but it's literally on the HEADER of the promo doc how big of an org the person has Tech companies need more General Managers to manage their business like a standalone company vs growing teams indefinitely ---- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/scarletink_adding-value-through-subtraction-why-removal-activity-7042958413479235584-Vrmp Tech teams became bloated, inflation started, and layoffs spread like wildfire. But why? You get more of what you incentivize. (Credit to Stefan Haney for reminding me) This is true for everything in life, from parenting to managing teams. When you identify a recurring cultural problem, you should look at changing your incentive structure. At almost all tech companies, employees are highly incentivized to grow. Managers certainly grow their scope (more projects), and team size (more employees). Engineers are even incentivized to design larger and more complex projects. As you'd enter the yearly planning at Amazon, 97% of the managers would propose growth for their teams. In the rare 3% situation, a manager would recommend that their team stay the same size. I don't remember *ever* seeing a manager suggest that their team shrinks. Why? Because there is no incentive for accomplishing the same with less. Frugality is a leadership principle at Amazon, but it was paid minimal lip service during the planning process. Frugality is when you only ask for 20% growth instead of 25%. Why are system redesigns so popular? In part, because engineers don't get promoted by slightly changing systems, they get promoted by rebuilding them. What's the way back from this cultural issue for Amazon (and others)? 1. Decrease the visibility of team size. A manager's promotion document features their team size prominently in the header. Remove it. 2. Reward engineers for impact, not work. An engineer on my team saved over a hundred million dollars with a few lines of code. It was *incredibly* valuable. It was also *incredibly* hard to reward him for it. Allow promotions on impact alone. We can deal with the problem of a few engineers being promoted a little early. Stop letting people get promoted for massive (but failed) projects, and you'll see more focus on impact. 3. Create more GMs. Kurt Beidler felt like a true frugal CEO while running the kids group at Amazon. He repeatedly questioned team expansion, and cut costs when possible. You need fewer 2500-person groups, and more 250-person groups. Make people *own* their P&Ls. 4. Reward managers for cost savings. If I did cut my headcount, I *might* get a small pat on the back from my manager. We need to start giving more raises and promotions to those who accomplish more with less. I want to see a promotion document quote, "Maintained the same scope, but cut her headcount by 15% over 3 years." Team bloat isn't due to bad managers. It's an issue from the very top down. It's a problem of how employees are rewarded. You're getting *exactly* what you incentivize. Maintaining my commitment to always post with links, here's an article where I discussed the value of removing, not always adding. https://lnkd.in/g5h2VhU
You don’t get rewarded for cutting headcount because it’s expensive and reflects poor planning.
Are you thick? They said “managers should be rewarded for meeting the goals with lesser headcount” how is this expensive and poor planning?
If they could meet the goals with less headcount, they shouldn’t have added the headcount in the first place. This suggested incentive rewards hire-to-fire, which is bad for the business.
Finally someone got it right.been part of Alexa, cannot still believe they approved investment on that kind of shit show
20+ years of lip service to the LPs will be hard to overcome.
aMzn is a 🦕 now.
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I have worked at TikTok US core tech for 3 years. AMA.
Guy asked for promotion, didn’t get it, noted.