Scaling to 100+ as a Director: Lessons From Growing Engineering Organizations
Thiago Ghisi: I'm really excited to show you the journey to an engineering org over 100 people. I'll cover the ups and downs and lessons learned. I'm Thiago Ghisi, an engineering director at Nubank, with experience at Apple, American Express, and Thoughtworks. I'll share my org growth history and key lessons, especially from the last 3 years of significant scale-up.
- Personal and Org Growth: Eng Leader Across Companies
I'll start with my personal and org growth to provide context. How many of you manage ICs (individual contributors)? How many are people managers? How many manage other managers? Before diving into org size growth, I'll discuss the foundational aspects of people management.
My career trajectory: sales engineering to project management. I've managed engineers, contractors, and TPMs, and now lead a team of 100+. I'll focus on the last 3 years of high growth.
- Establishing Operational Cadence and Managing Performance
Key points:
- Establishing operational cadence is crucial for effective org management.
- Managing low and high performance is essential for engineering leaders.
- Prioritize progress over perfection; ship early and iterate.
- 2022: Org grew from 30 to 50 engineers; focused on operational cadence and performance management.
- 2023: Emphasized leadership team cohesion and shaping culture.
- 2024: Prioritized leveling up people, teams, and systems.
- Lessons Learned: People Management and Org Scaling
- Bad decisions are better than no decisions.
- Performance management: Start improvement plans early, address low performers promptly.
- Treat peers as your first team; foster peer relationships.
- Culture: Actions speak louder than words; back up culture with actions.
- Managerial cost: Avoid small squads; prioritize larger teams with dedicated managers.
- Reorgs: Dry run, roll out in waves, prioritize alignment over consensus.
Manage skip levels like down levels; build relationships and inspire.
Three Levels of Impact: Evolving Leadership as the Org Scales
Understand customer needs and company goals.
Act inside-out: Start with your org, then skip level, then company.
Continuously improve org chart and performance management.
Focus on goodwill, relationships, and core skills for promotions.
Conclusion: Great leadership involves distilling complexity, establishing cadence, and driving execution. It's about sharing and driving the vision, ultimately building organizational resilience.
