driving employee satisfaction, morale, and productivity final

Driving Employee Satisfaction, Morale, and Productivity at MSNBC.com

Travis McElfreshVice President – Technology

msnbc.com

Site Traffic2 billion page views / month100 million users / month

Video Traffic125 million streams / month18 million unique users / month

Software Development403,530 lines of C#46,586 lines of JS106,450 lines of XSLT110,119 lines of SQL5,546 lines of CSS

2 day to 1 year projects20-30 concurrent projects

PublishingPublish a document ~700ms~2-4K stories each day10-20 K updates per day~100 editors around the world

OperationsWeb servers: 500 req/secSQL servers: 800 batch req/sec99.993% server uptime Stable releasesMultiple datacenters

5th consecutive month at #15 million UU lead

20,00025,00030,00035,00040,00045,000

Jan-

07

Feb-

07

Mar

-07

Apr-

07

May

-07

Jun-

07

Jul-

07

Aug-

07

Sep-

07

Oct

-07

Nov-

07

Dec-

07

Jan-

08

Feb-

08

Mar

-08

Apr 0

8

May

08

Jun

08

Jul-

08

Aug-

08

Sep-

08

Nielsen Net Ratings UUs

MSNBC Digital NetworkCNN Digital NetworkYahoo! News

NOTE: CNN includes IBS local news sites, Sports Illustrated, and CNN Money• with Olympics data, August was at 52 million for msnbc.com

120 million video streams

Show fronts: Scalable customization realized

Video Analyzer Launched

9

Automatically searches and clusters frequent topics and terms

Allows user to jump directly to key words within video stream

Integrates NBC analysis to each topic

Based on voice to text technology and in-house relevance engine.

Eventually available for most video on site with minimal human touch.

This presentation….

Developing a Corporate StrategyDeciding what business you are in how you

differentiate your offerings from other companies in the marketplace in pursuit of a sustainable competitive advantage.

Creating and Maintaining an Effective OrganizationDesigning and implementing the core set of coordinated

processes that deliver value to the customer while meeting expectations of other company stakeholders.

171 hours of downtime

Very low productivity

Site scale issues

Major release issues

Extremely low morale

2003 – An Opportunity

“I am satisfied with the balance between my work life and my personal life.”

(40% Agree)

“At MSNBC, decision making includes gathering feedback from impacted groups.”

(38% Agree)

“There is good coordination between my work group and other groups.”

(37% Agree)

“I am able to have a positive impact on the strategy of MSNBC.”

(36% Agree)

2003 – An Opportunity

Checked Out

Results

Current State Desired State

@#$ PMs!

@#$ Devs!

Why should we care?

“Success is 10 percent inspiration and 90 percent perspiration.”

Thomas Alva Edison

Organizational Performance Model

SupportProcesses

CoreProcesses

AdverseProcesses

Value-Related Processes

Org’lPerformance

Intangible Resource BaseGreg Bigley, University of Washington - 2008

People Structure Culture

Good processes…Tactical developmentEngineering innovationKnowledge sharing

Adverse processes….Blaming othersReactionary developmentExecutive time constraintsPunishing the beaconsHiding in silos

Missing processes….Reduction of reworkLong term planningSuccess measurementRealistic schedulingManaging prioritiesWorking towards shared goalsCommunicating effectivelyManaging stakeholdersControlling qualityHiring / training

Organizational Performance Model

SupportProcesses

CoreProcesses

AdverseProcesses

Value-Related Processes

Org’lPerformance

Intangible Resource BaseGreg Bigley, University of Washington - 2008

People Structure Culture

People IssueNot in the gameMorale lowCapabilities?Motivation?

People FixSpecific goalsIncentivesAccountabilitySupport (KSAOs)Raise the barHave fun

Some staff changes

People Issue #2Resistant to change

People Fix #2PsychologyClear expectationsAccountabilityTraining and OTJPatience

Some staff and management changes

People Issue #3A team of individualsWeak networksPoor coordination

People Fix #3Emphasize teamworkReward for teamworkHire for teamworkMake staff changesStructure / Culture

• sStructure IssueSilo behavior

• sStructure FixSmall teamsClear goals (e.g. $)Frameworks (e.g. SDLC)IncentivesTeams write chartersAccountable to business

Culture IssueIncompatible cultures

Culture FixEmbrace both culturesBuild bridgesVirtual team expansionHave fun

…and don’t celebrate your successes

…. publicly

Penalties for working on vacation

Class IV Rafting

Beer Floats

Best Investments in HindsightReducing reworkBringing in great coachesMoving out weak playersA focus on working hard…… and playing hardEarly and small wins…… followed by raising the bar.

Best PayoutsIncreased dev yield by 2-3xDramatic increase in moraleExcellent site stabilityScalable team modelHappy stakeholders

“Less disruption of overall development of site, when emergencies with specific projects arise. “

– msnbc.com developer2006

“Made me more aware of the project cycle, and what is involved in every stage, by working more closely with the PMs and Testers on my team.”

– msnbc.com developer2006

“Groups can move faster since more autonomy is created”

– msnbc.com developer2006

“ ’Cool’ projects may go to one group more often thus creating animosity.”

– msnbc.com developer2006

“ The biggest change I can feel (since 1997) is that we now have a strong, stable, and smart leadership team. The energy and enthusiasm permeates throughout the whole company.”

– msnbc.com developer2008

“Biggest positive, and the most unusual attribute at msnbc.com compared to other places I’ve worked, is the genuine freedom we have to speak frankly about any issues that are bothering us.”

– msnbc.com test engineer2008

“Management empowers the employee to make decisions.”

– msnbc.com network engineer2008

“Over the years I’ve noticed employee morale is directly proportionate to the level at which good management is put in place.”

– msnbc.com systems engineer2008

Better than expected…Reduction of reworkSide effects of rework reductionSelf-managing capabilities of teamDegree of staff commitment

The Labrador Effect

New and remaining issues…Multi-site developmentRight hand not knowing what left

is doingNot enough on automationTest leadershipResidual cultural issues

Our Role!Clarify performance criteriaDiagnose root causeDetail future stateIdentify sources of change resistanceDevelop a change planExecute!

***Requires lots of energy and tenacity

Further Reading“The Discipline of Teams” – Harvard Business Review (July – 2005)

“Building the Emotional Intelligence of Groups” by Vanessa Urch Druskat and Steven B. Wolff, Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation, March 2001.

“Condensed and paraphrased from How to Invest in Social Capital” by Laurence Prusak and Don Cohen, Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation, June 2001.

“Organizational crisis: The logic of failure”. Academy of Management Executive, 2005, Vol. 19, No 1.

Questions?