The document discusses Wix's organizational structure of "Gangs and Guilds" for scaling their engineering teams. It begins with functional teams organized around client and server work, then shifts to a business unit model with silos. Wix adopts a hybrid model with product-focused "Gangs" and expertise-focused "Guilds" to balance product ownership and technical skills sharing. The model continues evolving with "Companies" for large product segments and "Guilds" providing additional support. Key aspects include minimizing dependencies, developer growth through Guild training, and transparent knowledge sharing across teams.
3. Wix In Numbers
86M registered users from 190 countries
3 Data centers + 2 Clouds (Google, Amazon)
~1200 people work at Wix
Of which ~ 400 in R&D
http://www.calcalist.co.il/local/articles/0,7340,L-3660020,00.html
The most searched work place (in Israel) by software engineers - 2015 Google search survey
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4. From 100 to 1000 in 5 Years
http://indy100.independent.co.uk/image/19112-1y4vb9d.png
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9. Functional Model
Disadvantages
Lack of product ownership
Lack of product level expertise
Hard to predict and plan product roadmap
Cross-function communication is hard
Less focus on delivery and time to market
Client
Team
Server
Team
TL
TM
TL
TM
TM
TM
TM
TM
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10. Disadvantages
Resource and work duplication
Architecture alignment is hard
Technology knowledge sharing is hard
Limited opportunity for professional
development
Product integration is hard
Project ProjectProject
TL TL
TM
TMTM
TM
TL
TM
TM
Business Unit Model
Creates Silos
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11. Our Assumptions
There is no perfect model
It depends on the company’s current challenges, life cycle
phase and culture
Every model should be tuned constantly and evolve with the
company
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13. Wix’s Gangs & Guilds Model
Products: <10
People: ~400
Client
Team
Server
Team
TL
TM
TL
TM
TM
TM
TM
TM
14. Gang GangGang
Wix’s Gangs & Guilds Model
Products: <10
People: ~400
A Guild is a group of people that
share expertise, knowledge, tools,
code and practice
Guild
Guild
GMGL
GL GM
TL TL
TM
TMTM
TM
TL
TM
TM
A Gang is a group of people that work on related products,
composed of all required resources from different disciplines.
15. Independence of the product Gang
Technical power of the Guild
Healthy balance between product and tech
Product features and technical equal in
priority
Gangs & Guilds – Why?
No Silos
Gang GangGang
Guild
Guild
GMGL
GL GM
TL TL
TM
TMTM
TM
TL
TM
TM
How
16. Wix’s Gangs & Guilds Model
Products: <10
People: ~400
A Guild is a group of people that
share expertise, knowledge,
tools, code and practice
A Gang is a group of people that work on related products,
composed of all required resources from different disciplines.
Gang GangGang
Guild
Guild
GMGL
GL GM
TL TL
TM
TMTM
TM
TL
TM
TM
Team Lead /
Product
Team
Members
Guild Lead
Guild
Masters
Guild Core
Teams
17. Guild’s Role
Recruitment (hiring and firing)
Assignment to product teams
Setting the professional guidelines and methodologies.
Training.
Setting compensation.
Professional development / career.
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19. Managing Large Product Segments
Guild
Guild
Gang GangGang Gang
Products: >10
People: >800
20. Wix’s Company Model
Company focus on large segment
Has all the resources it needs to be
independent
People within the company are aligned
with the Guilds
Company
CEO VP R&D
Guild
Guild
Company
Gang GangGang
CEO CTO
Gang
Product Product
Company
mgr
Tech mgr
Products: >10
People: >800
21. Wix’s Company Model
Each head of company
reports to a chairman on the management
board.
All products share the same infrastructure
Company
Guild
Guild
Company
Gang GangGang Gang
Product Product
Cross-Engineering Teams
23. Company
Guild
Guild
Company
Gang GangGang Gang
Product Product
Cross-Engineering Teams
Guild’s Additional Roles
Align between “Companies”
Support the engineers working in
“Companies”
Review and guidance
Develop shared infrastructure
Improving development velocity
Temporary help “Companies” in need with
additional resources from the Guild
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26. Remember Conway’s Law
“Organizations which design systems ... are constrained to
produce designs which are copies of the communication
structures of these organizations”
Conway, Melvin
27. How many Engineers can Work on a Single Project
?
http://cdn.wp.sunmotors.co.uk/get/2014/03/cars.28.620x413.jpg
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Quality = Better Engineers
Better Engineers = Professional Growth
Professional Growth = Investment in People
/ Training
Enter the Guilds
39. Guild Day
Engineers work 4 days with their company
Thursday is Guild day.
Developers conduct quality enhancing activities with the
Guild.
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40. Guild Day Goals
Builds cross-team relationships
Shares knowledge
Assimilate the culture
Lesson learned
Continuous improvement
Promotes innovation
Professional development
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41. Guild Day Schedule
10:00-11:00 Open Space
11:00-11:15 Break
11:15-11:40 Project spotlight
11:45-13:00 Tech talk or Workshop
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44. Guild Week – Games of Gangs
One week each quarter
Pair programming with a person from another company
Enhancing infrastructure
Building tools
Helping companies
Work on open source
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Goal #1 – Improve engineering skills and quality
49. Do Not Compromise on Hiring
Hire only good people
Fit the culture
Excellent technically
Candidates can be dropped
By anyone
At any time
If there is any doubt, then there is no doubt
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50. Seeds new Teams with Ambassadors
Train “ambassadors” that practice dev-centric culture from
the Guild
Seed new teams with at least one dev-centric ambassador to
assimilate new employees.
Beware of hiring more people than you can train / assimilate
successfully into your culture
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51. Hiring Team Leads can Mess Up Your Culture
Do not hire people directly into team lead position
Hire potential team leads
Only after a person can be a dev-centric ambassador she
can become TL
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52. Elements to a Healthy Growth
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Transparency
Quality
Trust &
Collaboration
Independence
Growth
53. @aviranm
Don’t leave quality and velocity to
chance, create a system that balances
quality, growth and velocity
Guilds Companies
http://www.psdgraphics.com/file/gold-scales.jpg
Fast
Features
Better
Quality
54. Read some more:
http://goo.gl/c3WLsz - Building engineering culture http://goo.gl/fGUSZe - Building a Guild
What happens if we invest in
developing our people and they leave
us?
“
CFO asks CEO:
CEO:
“What happened if we don’t and they
stay? “
“
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