Mike Curtis, VP of Engineering at Airbnb, discusses how Airbnb structures leadership goals to align commercial growth with software infrastructure health on the a16z Podcast.
“The way we've been thinking about it and the way that we try to do it now is that the business leaders who are responsible for furthering the business also have goals that are associated with bugs, performance, like all the things, like systems science.”
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More from Mike Curtis
Insight
Mike Curtis: Engineering teams cannot hire their way out of technical debt
“And like you can't hire your way out of that. Every, every person that you hire just ends up becoming less and less productive.”
Mike CurtisJan 2, 2019▶ 24:31a16z Podcast | Engineering Intent
Insight
Mike Curtis: 10x engineering output stems from alignment, not static ability
“My thinking on that is slightly different in that I think that, you know, people have periods of time where they can be, like, producing X, what their peers might be, and it's that magical moment when they're aligned with the right project, with the right skil…”
Mike CurtisJan 2, 2019▶ 26:09a16z Podcast | Engineering Intent
AssertionSupported
Mike Curtis: Airbnb reveals host and guest reviews simultaneously to stop retribution
“So, so one of the things that we did was we changed it so that we have a simultaneous reveal of the reviews. So both the host and the guest have two weeks to write a review, and then they're revealed at the same time.”
Mike CurtisJan 2, 2019▶ 12:44a16z Podcast | Engineering Intent
Disclosure
Airbnb open-sources all internal data pipeline and analysis infrastructure
“We regularly open source our own internal technologies, particularly around data, like everything we do from managing data pipelines to how we do data analysis, we pushed out to open source.”
Mike CurtisJan 2, 2019▶ 19:12a16z Podcast | Engineering Intent
Insight
Mike Curtis: Engineering managers' main duty is enabling peak alignment moments
“This is, like, one of the most core fundamental premises behind engineering management, is, like, understanding the person. What motivates them? What are their skills? What are they trying to develop? That magic moment that I talked about, like, being able to …”
Mike CurtisJan 2, 2019▶ 26:49a16z Podcast | Engineering Intent
AssertionNot checkable as stated
Mike Curtis: Airbnb tests guest reviews as predictive signals in search matching
“And one of the areas that we're experimenting with now is being able to use the reviews that were given on a place as a predictive signal in the matching model all the way back.”
Mike CurtisJan 2, 2019▶ 1:25a16z Podcast | Engineering Intent
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