

No Managers: Why We Removed Bosses at Treehouse - mijustin
http://ryancarson.com/post/61562761297/no-managers-why-we-removed-bosses-at-treehouse

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mijustin
This is a pretty bold move. Interesting that they felt that management might
be the source of cynicism, indifference and politics (I think they might be
right). Can't wait to see how this experiment turns out.

I wonder if they'll still have Product Managers?

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ryancarson
No sir, no Product Managers.

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mijustin
Wow. Who decides what gets in the product, and what doesn't? Is there no final
say? (anyone can deploy anything they want?)

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rhizome
It would be interesting to let developers push whatever features they like to
wherever they like, and use responsive design and usage tracking to push
elements with greater use to the top (and left, optionally) of the page and
push those with lesser usage to the bottom or to sub-pages. /spitball

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ruppy
As someone already said, it is a very bold move. Being in a manger role
myself, I have often wondered about the value the managers add and my
conclusion is it depends on the company. In a large company, managers are
there to protect, support and develop their people - not to get in their way.
Though, I will also admit that very few managers are actually good at that. If
you are a small company with very smart people, with little to no bureaucracy
then you can easily get away with no managers. In an environment where the
loudest voice gets heard the most, you probably do need 'good' managers.

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dchymko
Great article Ryan. I had heard about the Valve Employee Handbook but never
had taken the time to look at it. I just read the thing from front to back and
it's pretty incredible. It seems like a pretty good balance between autonomy
and making sure short term tasks align with longer term goals. Its also
interesting that they do have some concept of hierarchy on project teams but
thats its organic and temporary.

Looking forward to your future posts to see how you guys implement it!

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ryancarson
I'll explain how decisions on the Product are made. It's a pretty interesting
process.

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mijustin
Here? Or in future posts? ;)

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EllaMentry
From the image: "There will be teams organized around business goals....and
teams organized around what they do (like teaching, video, developer etc.)"

Sounds an awful lot like an executive group....(read: managers)

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mijustin
Here's the image:
[http://media.tumblr.com/82182785894eabe40d94ac3c69f9dc67/tum...](http://media.tumblr.com/82182785894eabe40d94ac3c69f9dc67/tumblr_inline_mtay78bW4g1rneiz8.png)

I don't think it's one executive group; it just sounds like all employees are
in teams, and that the teams (as a group) work towards specific goals.

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brador
No managers is nice, but does it scale? Who handles firing?

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NonEUCitizen
Once you've removed managers, there aren't many non-productive people left to
fire.

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bowietrousers
If only this were true. And yes, it's cutely naive and tunnel-visioned to
think so. However, I've been in teams where the drag on the ticket was very
much a developer. When that happens, you need processes and experienced people
in place to fairly manage their performance, help them into contributing more
effectively, and if they don't improve, get rid of them.

A gaggle of developers are not going to be able to do this. Hell, 50% don't
even have the social skills to say hello to each other in the morning.

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johnjlocke
Or...you could very carefully hire the right people in the first place, people
that are motivated to work on their own and believe in the mission of the
company, and would be doing the same thing regardless.

Vetting hires for temperament and internal qualities as well as skills makes
this much more possible.

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bowietrousers
Sounds like the recipe for a monoculture. And people wonder why the Valley
gets stick for being exclusive.

