Engineering Productivity: Camille Fournier (Managing Director at Two Sigma)

In software development when capacity is the problem, most managers think they need to hire more developers. But you can push engineering productivity higher by creating the right context for your existing developers. We interviewed Camille Fournier on the topic of productivity, to learn what she's been doing as a tech leader to keep it high in her developer teams. In this interview we're covering: Defining engineering productivity How to measure engineering productivity Challenges for managers with engineering productivity On-boarding for maximum engineering productivity Effects of mentoring on engineering productivity Keeping engineering productivity high How to improve engineering productivity Excerpt from the interview: "Many engineering managers struggle with setting goals. They think about goal setting in a way that’s inspiring to their team without making it easy or pushing too hard. Some managers say the way to build a productive team is to hire smart people and get out of their way. I have never seen that work. It might work in theory if you have clear goals and if you motivate people to achieve those goals. Most managers aren’t good at setting clear goals. When you're always adjusting your goals, you can’t expect to just hire smart people, get out of their way, and watch them be productive. Most engineers don't learn how to be productive on a team without having experienced it. If you've never been an engineer on a hyper-productive team, you won’t know what it’s like or what you could do to make a productive team happen."