Adjusting Best Practices as a Company Grows

Problem

"When I first arrived at Blablacar, I was the only engineering manager. Some others arrived over time, but I quite naturally became head of the engineering manager crew, thanks to my seniority."

One of my favorite rituals was a weekly meeting, which gathered all the engineering managers together. Everyone was involved in preparing for the meeting, and this worked well at the beginning. However, as the team of engineering managers grew, people became less and less committed to this meeting and I stopped receiving the input about interesting topics I had expected.

Actions taken

I understood that the value of this meeting was not appreciated anymore, and the decision was made to stop holding it. However, this meeting was useful, providing a time where engineering managers could synchronize and ensure consistency throughout their engineering department. Removing this meeting led to heterogeneous behaviors between the engineering teams.

Lessons learned

"If I had to do it again, I would change the way I led the meeting. Past a certain number of engineering managers, I should have suggested solutions, instead of asking for them too much during the meeting."