
The Tandberg Way [video] - rspivak
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34FLhwkrwoQ
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pgt
Fantastic talk! Key engineering takeaways from The TANDBERG Way - principles
for effective product development that built TANDBERG to be acquired by Cisco
for $3.3bn:

    
    
      - Embrace chaos. Continuously observer and adapt, because you can't plan far ahead in a complex world.
      - Celebrate the whole organisation, not individuals or teams. Celebrate when things are tough (before launch), not after launch.
      - Engineering and sales focused. Aim for 90% "productives" vs 10% "non-productives".
      - Beware the Observer Effect: observing knowledge work disturbs it. Coders are more likely to add code than delete code while being observed, or to just think for 30 minutes.
      - Introduce slack (as in free time, not the chat app) to do things right. You can't be agile and responsive without slack.
      - Communication over documentation. Make the customer pay for documentation.
      - Beware the Sinclair Effect. Don't talk about upcoming products, or people won't buy what you have on offer.
      - Focus on execution. Ban innovation hackathons. When your ability to innovate exceeds your ability to execute, focus only on execution.
      - No time writing or detailed cost control. Specify working hours and holiday times and then let the employees take care of it.
    

Full list of principles @ 51:00. Book recommendations @ 18:58.

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tlb
> Celebrate when things are tough (before launch), not after launch

This is contrarian advice, but I can imagine why it might work. Can anyone
share more experience with celebrating before/after launches?

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anordal
Wow, this explains a thing or two … I happen to work for one of those spin-
offs he didn't mention (Appear TV).

I've never seen it written as a list like this, but it made me nod a lot. We
have changed in some ways, but I feel the basic spirit lives on at Lysaker.

The best parts of this till-now unwritten culture is also something we strive
for, in one way or another. Take communication: A colleague and I are going to
hold a technical meetup … some time next month, but we won't reveal the theme
yet.

