26 Jul 2010

Getting your tech team pumped up !

At SubMate, we're blessed with a super cool team of engineers. We got Clément, a killer ruby on rails developer who joined the team last month, and Kevin, a ninja iPhone hacker who joined last week. Both are ultra motivated by our project, and don't count hours.

Fresh air

As business guys, Jonathan and myself know how frustrating it can be to work on the very same issue for a few days in a row.
The same goes for any engineer, working on complex problems to solve. Spending days, weeks, on similar items can be exhausting, and make you loose interest, motivation on the long term.
It's great to get some fresh air, test new technologies, get your hands on that new cool framework everyone is buzzing about. Those might not be adapted to your main project. For instance, Rails3 is not stable yet for mainstream release), but the challenge to master it is super-motivating for a tech guy hacking on rails. MongoDB is hot right now, and we wanna test it before further deployment.
 
We're not Google. But...
 
Our team starts as interns, before a potential hire. We're a startup, our funds are limited, but they want to work on a great project with an amazing team ambiance, and accept a lesser financial reward than what they could get in the Fortune 500 company.
What Google does is great : Google allows its engineers 20% time to work on something that interests them.
How could we adapt this to SubMate?
We're not Google, we cannot afford loosing 20% of our manpower on the project, especially when tech and financial resources are limited. But we know that 90% of a fresh and happy brain is more efficient than 100% of an exhausted one.

Go for a run!

So Jonathan and I took a cool initiative today. What we decided to do is super simple. And seeing the reaction of our tech team, it was a good idea. 
Our tech team will be allowed, as for Google, to work on a different project a few hours a week, and will benefit financially of any outcome it will bring.
We put all variables into a single big fat cooking pot to define the scope: 
  • it must be beneficial for the company and sharpen their skills (non-negotiable), 
  • the project should be fun,
  • they have to push their skills to the top (non-negotiable),
  • it could be transactional so that they can benefit of the financial results,
  • they can work together or individually, 
  • it should bring them fame, girls, power, and ninja skills,
  • SubMate is their job, their mission in life, their reason to live, ... :)
  • Oh, and did I mention their skills ?
The most important thing, of course, is that it remains a side project. One afternoon per week, one day every two weeks, the format is to be adapted to our load on SubMate. Also, we need to make sure that what they learn will benefit the company as a whole.
And we know what you might be thinking right now: who has time for side projects in an early stage startup?? We think that when you're 120% on a project, you should spend 10% on other things, just to cool down and see other things. 
 
What else?
 
Have you worked in a company putting that kind of measures in place? Have you yourself implemented something similar for your company? What other variables should we consider? What's your opinion as an engineer on the subject? 
 
Also...
 
You're a genius engineer and wanna work for the best coolest friendliest anything-est company on earth?? Contact us!!