Jason Yip presented on effective product development culture. He outlined 3 core beliefs: we're in it together, people are trustworthy, and performance comes from playfulness. There are also 9 guiding principles like consent over consensus and enabling autonomy. Key practices include using aligned, autonomous cross-disciplinary teams, test-driven development, and continuous delivery through research, design, and delivery. The presentation provided perspectives on building an effective culture from Jason's experiences.

1. “We’re in it together” and
other perspectives on
effective product
development culture (2023)
A presentation by Jason Yip
Senior Manager Product Engineering, Grainger
Former Staff Agile Coach, Spotify
Former Principal Consultant, ThoughtWorks

2. Expressions of culture I’ve
found interesting over the
years

3. Original (2009) 2nd edition (2009) Current
Netflix culture deck (2009)

4. Zappos culture books (2008 - 2019) Mostly collections of
employee and
customer stories

5. Spotify engineering culture (2013 - 2014)
How Spotify builds Products (2013)
Spotify Engineering Culture - Part 1 (2014)
Spotify Engineering Culture - Part 2 (2014)
(I worked at Spotify from 2015 - 2022
so I’m most familiar with this one)

6. What might we say about effective
product development culture today?
Why bother?

9. TL;DR

10. TL;DR
● 3 core beliefs
○ We’re in it together
○ People are trustworthy
○ Performance comes from playfulness
● 9 guiding principles
○ Consent over consensus;
○ The basic unit is the team, not the individual;
○ Enable autonomy with clear intent and technical
excellence;
○ Cross-pollination over imposed standards;
○ Develop products by developing people;
○ Think big, work small;
○ Use quality to generate speed;
○ Limit the “blast radius”;
○ Think for yourself
● 7 key practices
○ Aligned, autonomous cross-disciplinary teams;
○ TDD, evolutionary design, pairing/mobbing;
○ Continuous Delivery normally; release trains
when regular synchronisation required;
○ Heartbeat retrospectives and blameless
postmortems;
○ T-shaped people;
○ Decoupled architecture and gradual rollout;
○ Continuous Research, Continuous Design,
Continuous Delivery
Jason’s perspective on effective product development culture (circa 2023) | by Jason Yip | Medium

11. Effective product
development cultures have
particular “core beliefs”

13. 3 core beliefs
1. We’re in it together
2. People are trustworthy
3. Performance comes
from playfulness

14. Core Belief: We’re in it
together

15. Let’s imagine a team is blocked, delaying the
overall delivery. What’s the reflex?

16. Coworker

18. Core Belief: People are
trustworthy

19. What’s the reflex on
transparency?

22. Theory X and Theory Y - Wikipedia

23. Core Belief: Performance
comes from playfulness

26. 3 core beliefs
1. We’re in it together
2. People are trustworthy
3. Performance comes
from playfulness

27. Effective product
development cultures
follow particular “guiding
principles”

29. 9 guiding
principles
1. Consent over consensus;
2. The basic unit is the team, not
the individual;
3. Enable autonomy with clear
intent and technical
excellence;
4. Cross-pollination over imposed
standards;
5. Develop products by developing
people;
6. Think big, work small;
7. Use quality to generate speed;
8. Limit the “blast radius”;
9. Think for yourself

30. Guiding principle: Consent
over consensus

32. Unilateral decisions lead to false progress

33. Consensus leads to slow decision-making

35. Guiding principle: Enable
autonomy with clear intent
and technical excellence

37. MindSpring Presents: "Greatness" by David Marquet - YouTube
Enable
autonomy
Technical
excellence
Clear
intent
Focus on
these

38. Guiding principle: Think Big
Work Small

40. TBM 4/52: Think Big, Work Small (Part 2) - by John Cutler (substack.com)

41. 9 guiding
principles
1. Consent over consensus;
2. The basic unit is the team, not
the individual;
3. Enable autonomy with clear
intent and technical
excellence;
4. Cross-pollination over imposed
standards;
5. Develop products by developing
people;
6. Think big, work small;
7. Use quality to generate speed;
8. Limit the “blast radius”;
9. Think for yourself

42. Effective product
development cultures use
particular key practices

44. 7 key practices
1. Aligned, autonomous
cross-disciplinary teams;
2. TDD, evolutionary design,
pairing/mobbing;
3. Continuous Delivery normally;
release trains when regular
synchronisation required;
4. Heartbeat retrospectives and
blameless postmortems;
5. T-shaped people;
6. Decoupled architecture and
gradual rollout;
7. Continuous Research,
Continuous Design,
Continuous Delivery

45. Key practice: Aligned,
autonomous,
cross-disciplinary teams

48. Key practice: T-shaped
people

51. T-shaping adapts to varying demand

52. T-shaping means less people needed

53. T-shaping helps with communication

54. Key practice: Continuous
Research, Continuous
Discovery, Continuous
Delivery

58. 7 key practices
1. Aligned, autonomous
cross-disciplinary teams;
2. TDD, evolutionary design,
pairing/mobbing;
3. Continuous Delivery normally;
release trains when regular
synchronisation required;
4. Heartbeat retrospectives and
blameless postmortems;
5. T-shaped people;
6. Decoupled architecture and
gradual rollout;
7. Continuous Research,
Continuous Design,
Continuous Delivery

60. Questions?
● 3 core beliefs
○ We’re in it together
○ People are trustworthy
○ Performance comes from playfulness
● 9 guiding principles
○ Consent over consensus;
○ The basic unit is the team, not the individual;
○ Enable autonomy with clear intent and technical
excellence;
○ Cross-pollination over imposed standards;
○ Develop products by developing people;
○ Think big, work small;
○ Use quality to generate speed;
○ Limit the “blast radius”;
○ Think for yourself
● 7 key practices
○ Aligned, autonomous cross-disciplinary teams;
○ TDD, evolutionary design, pairing/mobbing;
○ Continuous Delivery normally; release trains
when regular synchronisation required;
○ Heartbeat retrospectives and blameless
postmortems;
○ T-shaped people;
○ Decoupled architecture and gradual rollout;
○ Continuous Research, Continuous Design,
Continuous Delivery
Jason’s perspective on effective product development culture (circa 2023) | by Jason Yip | Medium

61. Leading broad line distributor of MRO
(maintenance, repair, operations) products and
services determined to Keep the World
Working®
through innovative technology
solutions and deep customer relationships
Largest
MRO distributor in
North America
$15.2B
in 2022 sales
1927
Company
founded
>
4.5M
Active
customers
~
26K
Team
members
>
30M
Products
offered globally
>
75%
Orders originate
through a digital
channel
35
Distribution
centers
© 2023 W.W. Grainger, Inc.
Note: All metrics as of December 31, 2022 unless otherwise noted
Jason Yip
Senior Manager Product
Engineering
https://jobs.grainger.com/