Scaling Engineering at Wolt with Niilo Säämänen, CTO
Jul 13, 2023
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Niilo Säämänen, CTO of Wolt, talks about lessons learned while scaling an engineering organization in the shadow of Covid. Topics include focusing on the right areas, product management in a 3-way marketplace, principles-driven development, turning big things into reality, customer-centered approach, Wolt's culture, excellence driven by data, recruiting and hiring, growth challenges, ownership and standardization, and Niilo's journey as a CTO.
Transitioning from leading individual teams to scaling the entire organization, focusing on recruitment and setting up minimal processes.
Emphasizing the involvement of engineers in product problem-solving and promoting collaboration between engineering and product teams.
Prioritizing agility and fast decision-making while maintaining high-quality products through the development of a scalable and customizable platform.
Deep dives
Journey to Scaling the Engineering Organization
In this podcast episode, Neil Osamman, former CTO of Lolt, discusses his journey and experiences in scaling the engineering organization. He highlights the transition from leading individual teams to scaling the entire organization. As the company grew, they shifted their focus from hands-on coding to recruitment and setting up minimal processes. The need for leadership and structure arose as the company recognized the importance of fast execution and the need for high ownership teams. They introduced technical lead roles and engineering leadership to align teams, prioritize business outcomes, and build a culture of excellence.
The Role of Product Management in Scaling
Neil Osamman explains that product management emerged as a role in the company when they began scaling, with the first product leaders being founders. Over time, they expanded the product management team, in alignment with their focus on outcome-oriented product development. They emphasized the importance of involving engineers in product problem-solving, encouraging a product-minded approach to engineering. By bringing engineers close to customers, operational counterparts, and data, they aimed to ensure a thorough understanding of customer problems and promote collaboration between engineering and product teams.
Moving Fast and Balancing Business Demands
As the company rapidly expanded, moving quickly became crucial to stay competitive in the market. The competitive nature of the business required a fast-paced approach to adapting and making changes. To support agility, the company prioritized building tools and internal tooling that enabled country teams and operations to run efficiently. They aimed for a balance between fast decision-making and maintaining high-quality products. The focus on moving fast necessitated a scalable and customizable platform, which enabled customization while allowing the development of features that created incremental value.
Importance of Collaboration and Teamwork
Collaboration and teams are essential values at Vault. The emphasis is on working together and valuing team efforts over individual contributions. This collaborative approach has been instrumental in the success of Vault, enabling them to operate at a world-class scale even with limited resources. They prioritize being ambitious and doing things well together.
Shift towards Data-Driven Decision Making
Vault has evolved from an intuition-driven approach to a more data-driven one. While they still value intuition to some extent, they heavily rely on data and user research to make informed decisions. They have placed a strong emphasis on quality engineering, even while moving at a fast pace. For example, they have implemented testing and validation processes, ensuring features have value before dedicating significant resources to build them. By embracing data and user feedback, Vault has made deliberate choices to ensure customer satisfaction and continuously improve their product.
Niilo is the CTO of Wolt, a subsidiary of DoorDash. In this episode, he talks to Swarmia founder and CEO Otto Hilska about lessons learned while rapidly scaling an engineering organization.
Timestamps
(0:23) Niilo’s background
(03:49) Where to focus first
(06:02) Product management in a 3-way marketplace
(07:36) Principles-driven development
(09:18) Turning “big things” into reality
(12:26) Choosing the right work
(15:18) Staying close to the customer
(17:26) The culture at Wolt
(21:17) A high bar for excellence, driven by data
(24:11) Recruiting and hiring
(32:43) Growth & Growing Pains
(41:30) Ownership and standardization
(47:11) Niilo’s journey
Find the transcript: https://unblocked.fm/episodes/niilo-säämänen-cto-scaling-wolt
