Continuing the topic of processes, I want to share an interesting article about the engineering principles of one of the co-founders of Nubank, a large Brazilian neobank.
The principles themselves do not seem to be something new and unusual, but it is interesting to read about the approach of the guys, as they consider it. 2 Approach to business scaling:
- You can try to articulate the “why” as a principle behind “why we are this way” and then have people self-organize and align to that
- Or you could try to set up a bunch of rules, gatekeepers, and reviewers, forming a bureaucracy that enforces your rules.
Actually, the second option is not very suitable for knowledge workes, so the guys use explicit high-level principles that people can interpret independently and apply in their work. Here are the principles:
Statements of Engineering Principles – How We Operate
- Leverage through Platforms
- Customer Trust is Hard to Earn and Easy to Lose
- Data as a Strategic Asset
- Ownership and Technical Resilience
- Canonical Approaches, Consistently Applied Statements of Engineering Principles – How We Build Teams -Multiple perspectives build better software
https://building.nubank.com.br/nubanks-engineering-principles-interview-with-co-founder-ed-wible/