Mike de Boer, engineering manager at Mozilla goes through how his team gets things done. From the tools they use, the mix of agile and issues with backlog. You can view the video of the talk on the UXDX YouTube channel here; https://youtu.be/TW4qBCCxTP0 Mike de Boer Engineering Manager, Mozilla UXDX Community 2019 - Amsterdam

1. Mozilla Firefox
How we make sh*t Work.

2. Agenda
Challenges
Things we face daily.
What’s my place...
... in this maelstrom?
What’s Firefox, again?
Let’s reiterate.
Time for questions!
AMA, for real.
Conclusion
a.k.a. the Summary, perhaps.
Plan de campagne
Our unique approaches.
3.
2.
1.
6.
5.
4.

3. What’s Firefox, again?
Let’s reiterate

4. Let’s reiterate
Numbers game
• Ranking second place, below Google Chrome
• Yes, you may call us the underdog
• Netmarketshare.com: 66.89% for Chrome, 9.39% for Firefox
Not a perfect measure, but the best public one
• > 330 million active users
• Great audience to build for
• Largest open source project in the world
What’s Firefox, again?

5. Let’s reiterate
Meltin’ pot of technologies
• Birth place of industry-changing programming languages
• JavaScript, 1995
• Rust, 2006
• Gecko, the engine
• Layouting
• Rendering
• JavaScript JIT, WASM
What’s Firefox, again?

6. A movement
• A manifesto
• From Netscape to Mozilla
• Foundation vs. Corporation
• To ensure the Internet is a global public resource,
open and accessible to all
Let’s reiterate
What’s Firefox, again?

7. What’s my place...
...in this maelstrom?

8. Engineer
...in this maelstrom?
Started young, self-taught, got caught, can’t
escape...
• HALP!
• zOOm Media Gallery, eBuddy.com, Ajax.org,
Cloud9 IDE, etc
• Complex JavaScript application enthusiast
• Enjoys having mentors and being one
What’s my place...
Manager
For real now, after a couple stinty
intermissions
• Search team
• Organisational challenges
• Non conventional solutions
• Agile, but different ™

9. Challenges
Things we face daily.

10. Time Zones
Things we face daily.
• 46% works remotely, 54%
from an office
• 39% works outside the US,
spread over 14 countries
• We all get together twice a
year
Challenges
Cultures
• Taking Open Source
seriously
• Participation
• Diversity & Inclusion
• Nationalities, religions,
traditions, politics
Process
• Classic hierarchy
• Empowered middle
management
• Strong individuality focus
• Trust
• Agile, but different™

11. Plan de campagne
Our unique solutions

12. Making remote work
Time Zones

13. Tools
• Bugzilla
• Mediawiki
• Trello
• SmartSheet.com
• GSuite
• GitHub
• InVision
• Phabricator
• ...and many more
Time Zones
Plan de campagne

14. Cultures

15. Agile mix
• Project manager = Scrum Master
• Product manager = Product owner
• UX, UR & Engineering = Scrum team
• Daily standups are costly, thus rare
• Planning poker sessions are costly, thus rare
• Business value game is costly, thus rare
Cultures
Plan de campagne

16. (Finally he explains
about this ‘Agile, but
different™’ nonsense!)
Process

17. Problem of the Backlog
• Challenge: keeping the backlog rollin’
• Problem: Product owner is responsible
• Solution: apply the principle of cross-functional teams to backlog grooming
• Yes, this is the ‘Agile, but different™‘ thing I was talking about
Process
Plan de campagne

18. How it works
Agile
Backloggin’
Assemble the team
Kick-off
Collect
Requirements
Scope-ing session
Product
increment
1
2
3
4
5

19. Conclusion

20. Questions?

21. Thank You