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By Madison Malone Kircher@4evrmalone
Illustration: Intelligencer Rachel McMahon is a teen from Michigan you almost certainly haven’t heard of before this week. Her name appeared in a blog post from BuzzFeed’s former head of quizzes and games, Matthew Perpetua, where he noted that McMahon was the “second highest traffic driver worldwide” for the site’s quizzes. (Perpetua was one of several hundred people — 15 percent of the company — laid off from BuzzFeed this month.) McMahon has contributed hundreds of quizzes for free — BuzzFeed has for years allowed and encouraged so-called community users to submit quizzes without paying them — and says she never really had any idea how much traffic, and by extension revenue, she was bringing the company. Intelligencer caught up with McMahon to talk about her quiz prowess, her guilt over BuzzFeed staffers losing their jobs, and why Pop-Tarts plus Disney princes is a recipe for success on the internet.
Hi, Rachel. Thanks for talking with me today. I imagine this has been a wild 48 hours for you. I’m a little overwhelmed. My notifications are going crazy right now.
ADVERTISEMENTSCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT So I guess my first question is are you actually a teen? Yes, I’m actually 19. I’m a sophomore at Grand Valley State University in Michigan. It’s not that big of a school. I’m a communications major.
When did you start making quizzes? I first started making quizzes during my high-school yearbook class. We had computers with us all the time and I would always get my deadlines done fast, so at free time me and my friend Katie would take quizzes. One day I actually realized anybody could make them and I thought that was pretty cool. I think my first quiz was in April 2017.
Do you remember what it was? It was not good. I think it was something like “What Justin Bieber Album Are You?” It was weird and bad and it did not get any views at all. But I thought it was fun to make, so then I started making more. My first quiz that got promoted to the front page was at the end of April and I was super-excited to get the email telling me that it happened. After that, I just kept going at it.
So BuzzFeed notified you when you had a quiz on the front page. Did they give you any insights about your traffic? You get an email, “This quiz was promoted to the front page.” They’ll also tell you if something is trending or not. If you go to your BuzzFeed account, there’s a dashboard and it shows you some of the viral trends and it also shows you your top posts in the last 30 days.
Get unlimited access to Intelligencer and everything else New York. LEARN MORE » ADVERTISEMENTSCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT How many have you made? High hundreds. I went through all my quizzes and counted them. If I didn’t mess up, 692 is the total.
Do you know what your biggest hit was? I’ve made so many that it’s hard to keep track. If I go to my account, it shows how many each have gotten. Here’s one with 578,000. One with 428,000; 499,000; 534,000.
What quiz is the 578,000 one? [Clicking sounds.] See this one’s weird, but people like it. It’s “Which Pop-Tart Flavor Matches Your Personality Best?” It’s like the most random things, the little things that people really seem to like. That’s how I make my quizzes. I think of something random. Here’s another with 596,000. “Pick 12 Cupcakes and We’ll Give You a Disney Prince to Marry.” My highest was actually “Like or Pass on These Pop-Tart Flavors and We’ll Guess Your Relationship Status.” That has 851,000 views.
What do you think makes a good quiz? I look at trends. Food has always been a big thing with people on BuzzFeed. The food quizzes. Or if there’s a TV show that’s trending. What really helped was when I got added to a BuzzFeed community Facebook page by BuzzFeed workers. They’d give us challenges. Like if it was near Christmas, they’d be like, “Oh it’s a Christmas challenge, make as many Christmas-related quizzes and post them in here and we’ll promote them.” The workers helped give me ideas on quizzes.
Is it fair to say BuzzFeed really encouraged you, as a community member, to contribute for free? It always seemed to me that they wanted me to make quizzes, but now I’m getting responses [on Twitter] where people are saying I should have realized I was taking these people’s jobs. I never really got that vibe because they were telling us to make more quizzes.
You mentioned on Twitter that you feel bad and like you might have been a cause of the layoffs. I just want to tell you, and I know a lot of people on Twitter have been saying this too, that none of this is on you. When I first read Matthew’s [Perpetua, formed head of quizzes and games at BuzzFeed] blog post I thought, “I’m that Michigan teenager. I’m causing all this traffic.” I felt a lot of weight on me. Luckily, people have been reassuring me that it’s not my fault. I really felt like it was as I first learned about the layoffs. I felt really bad.
Was Matthew ever in that Facebook page you mentioned? I don’t believe so. I never had contact with him, or even really heard of him, before the blog post. It was more of the smaller, BuzzFeed quiz-makers who would talk to us.
Did you ever have a moment where you realized how good you were at making quizzes and start to wonder if you shouldn’t be giving away your work for free? I would always tell my friends and family about it and they’d always ask why they weren’t paying me. I understood that, but at the same time I felt like it was my choice to give out these quizzes. I knew that I wasn’t going to get paid. I think it would be nice, who wouldn’t want to get paid? It was always just a hobby. I used to do dance but when that ended this was just a new thing I picked up on.
I noticed your bio on BuzzFeed is “hire me.” Was that the end goal?When I first started in 2017 that was the bio I put up. I thought it was funny. I never thought of it seriously, but I had thought about maybe wanting to work for BuzzFeed. I talked to some of the staff in the Facebook page and they told me about internship opportunities, but at the time I was too young. I always thought a job at BuzzFeed would be fun, but with the recent layoffs, I don’t even know if they are looking for someone in that position. It seems like they are just going to rely on the community from now on.
In the past, websites like the Huffington Post have gotten called out for publishing writers without paying them. BuzzFeed never really seemed to face the same flak for the community quiz model. Why do you think that is? I was reading about the Huffington Post stuff and I think it’s because quizzes seem like a game. They don’t seem serious or like work. I never really thought to ask for money, but seeing all these tweets saying I should have been paid has been eye-opening.
Right, you were driving significant traffic, and revenue, for the company. Did you ever have any idea that was the case? I never knew I was the second-highest driver worldwide. I always knew my quizzes did well based on my dashboard views. Toward the end of the year, BuzzFeed actually sent me a package with some clothes and water bottles, a recipe book, and a coffee mug — BuzzFeed swag stuff, I think you can actually buy it online. They told me I was the number-one user this year with all my views. I didn’t know it was that big of a thing, though.
You published a quiz this week. Do you plan to continue making quizzes now that you’ve learned everything you learned? I published the Jim Carrey one yesterday at noon, it was before I read the blog post and got all the notifications. I don’t really know what my next step is right now, but I’m definitely taking a break from making and posting the quizzes
Makes sense. I just feel so badly about the layoffs. It’s a lot. I didn’t realize anybody would really see my tweet.
I highly recommend liberally muting anybody making you feel bad. This is an industry-wide problem you didn’t cause. I saw a tweet earlier saying they hoped the college student who caused people to get laid off gets “depression and stuff.” That’s not the nicest thing to read. I just hope now that my name is out there I can find a job. Maybe not at BuzzFeed, but still a job
無論恒指回升幾多千點，很多人都會視之為熊市反彈，繼續安心等股災。投資畢竟是個人選擇，喜歡一等再等悉隨尊便，唯一是想忠告一句，睇淡還是不要造淡好，造淡賺錢難度超高，需要極大的操作彈性，並不是一般人可以駕馭。
股市中最容易賺錢的方法，始終是吼中好位買優質資產，近期最成功例子莫過於新地（00016）。改用收租股的角度去衡量價值，於是有信念大注買兼且安心坐，帶來相當可觀的回報，最重要是不用營營役役，為了二三個百分點的股價波幅走出走入。
經濟縱差 毋須all out
大部分人有一個錯覺，是社會整體經濟增長和股市表現掛鈎，其實真正的關鍵，是巨型企業的盈利前景，因為股市指數是由一批巨企所組成，近年流行ETFs，資金更加傾側流入這些股票為主。
經濟溫和增長，甚至輕微衰退，對於巨企股票反而往往更有利，因為更加容易突顯經營上的優勢，例如業主肯租，人才肯留，借貸成本和中小企之間的分野亦更大，往往為下一個增長期打好基礎。美國是一個成熟經濟體系，不少行業出現天然寡頭壟斷的狀況，就是經歷過若干個經濟周期之後，巨企逐步蠶食市場份額而壯大，並不是純粹因為新經濟贏家全取的經營模式所致。所以只要認定不是經濟大崩盤，投資股票是存在先天性優勢，這個亦可以說是筆者其中一個主要信念。在之前大調整跌市期間，只是為組合去蕪存菁，從來未有想過要全軍撤退。記住經濟唔好股市好，並非不合邏輯，因為股市好，是只需要少數公司好。反過來看，2009年之後中國經濟增長數字極好，股市反而迷失5年有多，因為盲目擴張，間間企業死頂難頂，個個盲目入場創業，有營業額無盈利，股價只會插水，否則以當年GDP增長的速度，A股早就應該是舉世矚目。
作為一個小市民，始終不應該all out，尤其是愈來愈難創業跟巨企對抗，If you can't beat them, join them。NBA球星Kevin Durant為求冠軍指環，一身絕技尚且如此，我們只是凡夫俗子，當然不得不向現實低頭。
良禽擇木而棲，應懂得篩選贏家巨企來投靠。
基金持有新地。豐盛金融資產管理董事
30 ausjke 6 hrs 25
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互聯網商機處處， 近年不少港人競相做老闆，初創成功融資變身「獨角獸」，往往登上報章財經版顯眼位置，可謂威風八面。投資講眼光，時光倒流至網絡創業風尚未吹起的九十年代，Outblaze行政總裁蕭逸已早着先機，創立網頁寄存公司、獲「科網Icon」李澤楷青睞，後來轉戰手遊、衝出香港到澳洲上市。不過，這位本港第一代IT創業家，對目前本地初創生態看法頗為悲觀：「香港社會其實相當缺少信任，當你不信任一切時，你看事情就會變得消極。」
蕭逸在美國大學畢業後，1995年回港發展，那時候本地互聯網尚未普及，港人普遍關心的話題是九七回歸、賭馬及地產；曾於彼邦科技公司任職的蕭逸，發現在港無法收發電郵，毅然創立互聯網供應商Cybercity，讓用戶寄存網頁。由於表現不俗，1998年公司被美國科企收購，蕭逸利用資金創辦Outblaze，免費為企業製作網站及提供留言版和電郵等服務，吸引瀏覽量並開拓廣告收入。創業幹出成績屬好事，更重要是懂得把握機會踏上成功階梯，令事業更上一層樓。
獲李澤楷入股 26歲成科網富豪
兩年後「科網狂潮」席捲香港，Outblaze獲電訊盈科（00008）主席李澤楷先後以逾2億元入股，令Outblaze市值暴漲至超過6億元，蕭逸當時僅26歲，便成為早年本港科網富豪之一。被傳媒封為「神奇小子」的他，曾因是某美資銀行「尊貴理財」客戶，該行把其個人照片製成數層樓高巨型廣告海報，掛在金鐘商廈外牆，風頭一時無兩。
可惜好景不常，科網泡沫迅速爆破，曾有報道提到蕭逸旗下業務也大受打擊，更形容他「一蹶不振，銷聲匿跡」。今日的蕭逸笑看風雲過，予以否認：「（泡沫）爆破可謂我們公司遇過最好的事，因為之後生意大增。」他解釋：「雖然很多互聯網公司因此裁員，但仍需電郵服務，我們在這方面收費比對手便宜一大截，故能於2000至2001年很快搶佔了大部分市場。」
蕭逸深諳有危也有機的定律。當年Outblaze不單逆市擴張，稱霸本地電郵服務市場，更乘勢進軍美國，同樣憑價格優勢風靡當地用戶，「幾乎盡攬該國所有我們接觸到的客戶」，公司高峰期一度佔據全美近40%電郵流量，蕭逸經常港、美兩地「飛來飛去」談生意、參與展覽等，「那時候主攻歐、美、日、韓市場，或許公司在港可能較少新聞，於外國卻很受關注。」
泡沫爆破 反利逆市擴張攻美
海外攻堅助公司打響知名度，更獲美國科技巨擘IBM睇中，2009年收購Outblaze通訊業務，並納入Lotus Notes程式，蕭逸自言「可能是本港首次有美巨企收購香港科技公司的大型交易」，「神奇小子」再締造港產神話。
經此一役，時年36歲的蕭逸升上「神枱」，成為業界傳奇。他的科網創業路沒就此止步，而是改變模式，由大電腦轉戰小屏幕，2011年創立Animoca、主力開發手機遊戲；同年，伴隨第二代蘋果iPhone面世的App Store，累計下載量突破100億次，顛覆軟件業流動應用程式（App），令手遊正式進入全球爆發期。
分拆澳洲上市 未考慮回流
「天下武功，唯快不破」，意指所有武功都有漏洞，只有「快」無法破解。自幼於歐洲奧地利長大的蕭逸不諳中文，在創業上實現這道理，覺得要領先正值爆發期的手遊市場，就要比對手走得更快；公司在短短兩年間成為本港最大手遊開發商之一，與日本著名動畫《小飛俠阿童木》、《多啦A夢》等品牌合作，推出300款遊戲，總下載量錄得1.5億次。2015年，蕭逸把Animoca Brands從公司分拆出來，大本營設於本港數碼港，卻選擇於澳洲證券交易所（ASX）上市。蕭逸說此舉是考慮到中小型手遊公司在港上市易被忽略，「投資者會想，為何要買你而不是騰訊（00700）？我們當年在澳洲是唯一的手遊股。」至於會否考慮回港上市，「這裏未必是小型公司上市合適地點，假如回來，先要有更大業務規模。」
製作八段錦App掀起議論
去年一宗關於香港創科局「天價資助八段錦App」的新聞，令已趨低調的蕭逸及其公司再受關注；惹起爭議的「八段錦健康遊戲」由Animoca Brands開發，項目獲創科局452萬元資助，有意見質疑估值過高，甚至形容「創科局利益輸送」。
蕭逸指部分原因是該程式被標籤成遊戲，「大家會覺得只是娛樂、所以太貴，未必明白那是遊戲化應用程式。」即透過目標、挑戰與互動等元素，吸引使用者達成特定目標的設計模式。「儘管大家都未必了解過該項目內容及設計，便很快作出判斷……是我們沒考慮到部分港人現時心態。」
他又提到，港府在《財政預算案》預留數百億元支援創科發展，自己觀察到不少本地初創不敢申請資助，「他們擔心外界覺得公司加入政府陣營，甚至受其控制，為什麼要看得如此負面呢？」近年本地科網創業潮再興起，言談間未見蕭逸感興奮：「香港社會其實相當缺乏信任，他們不信政府、不信老闆、不信權威；當你不信一切，看事情就會變得消極。」
「大家問我，為什麼北歐芬蘭、美國矽谷在創新方面如此強大？原因就是信任與多樣性（Diversity）；當社會沒有信任時，你就不會分享自己想法與技術，可能怕被他人知道甚至偷去；你也不信他人會研發出更好的產品，只覺對方想謀取利益，或是想『偷納稅人的錢』。」
採訪、撰文：吳志南 攝影：黃勁璋
政府在1月初公布開放數據的措施，提到數據集將會以「機讀格式發放」，以「提升數據的可用性」。有朋友問到「機讀格式」是什麼意思、有什麼重要性。
「機讀格式」又稱為API（application programming interface），中文叫「應用編程介面」。API把龐大的軟件系統劃分如方塊積木一樣的小部件組合，方便程式開發員發揮創意，建構不同種類的應用程式（App）。
由此衍生了「API經濟」。「API經濟」是指企業對外開放自家數據資料的API，讓其他開發者可以在企業本身的產品和服務之上建立新的App。例如早期蘋果開放iPhone的API，吸引了不少人創建新穎的App，令App Store欣欣向榮，也同時令它的iOS生態系統短時間內迅速發展。去年7月，金融管理局也宣布開放API，指此舉有助鞏固香港作為國際金融中心的地位。其實亞馬遜、Uber、騰訊（00700）、Google、阿里巴巴以至新加坡都已施行了「API經濟」。
率先開放API的是拍賣網站eBay。1999年eBay系統發生故障，令服務停頓了一整天，痛定思痛，知道要建立堅實而廣闊的支援，不能只依賴內部的IT團隊，而向外開放API是解決方法之一，故此在翌年開始實施。大企業以API開放自家數據，讓眾多規模較小但較靈活的App開發商補其不足，而且這些公司發展新服務往往十分有效率，一旦不成功又可快速下架。這樣以快打慢，是互聯網時代的競爭之道。
新加坡推動科技惠民
新加坡被譽為以API治國。當地政府把API分開兩部分：一個只供內部使用，即部門之間的資訊以API互通；另一個對外開放，即有名的Data.gov.sg。新加坡的目標之一是，如Google般，民眾只須登入一次，即使在不同App之間轉換，系統也能辨識，毋須再輸入個人資料。
至於香港，其實政府在開放數據尤其在提供API方面，近年也做了不少工夫。根據政府公布的資料，去年底在「資料一線通」上的數據集已有千多項（逾兩成）以API開放，包括一些實時交通資訊，如行車時間、車速、特別交通消息等；以及一些有用訊息，如電動車充電站位置、空置車位等。
不過，許多部門慣於默默耕耘，宣傳欠奉；同時，因為牌照條款未有規限，許多私人企業如巴士公司和停車場都未有開放資訊；即使有，數據格式往往不是API，因此資訊顯得非常零碎。
故此，政府下一步應該更全面地把資訊API化，建構一個「空間數據共享平台」（CSDI），同時審視不合時宜的牌照條款，讓私人企業和政府與時並進，趕上互聯網時代的步伐，改善民生，也以實際行動促進香港的創科發展。
鄧淑明博士 香港大學建築學院及工程學院計算機科學系客席教授
Game Loop 326 tosh 19 hrs 37 http://gameprogrammingpatterns.com/game-loop.html news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19009206 Unable to load the content http://gameprogrammingpatterns.com/game-loop.html
【即時文摘】男神的髮線（畢明） 19小時前6.2K 即時果籽
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未知輸，焉知贏。
我喜歡看「魔術警訊」，那些解構魔術師如何「你呃人」的節目。拆穿西洋鏡，踢爆掩眼法，很療癒，也很反枱。我喜歡弄清楚自己如何受騙，是對方高明，還是自己笨蕉，並嘗試學會下一次聰明點。
據說，近年有幾次震撼世界的全民投票，出人意表的結果，像變魔術一樣，叫世界目瞪口呆。
奧巴馬第一次當上美國總統、特朗普「爆冷」成為美國總統，還有到現在還塵埃翻飛的Brexit，都是匪夷所思的。
「人人都知道誰贏了，但不是人人都知道是如何贏的」。《Brexit：the Uncivil War》的主角 Dominic Cummings一開頭便如此說，顯示遊戲本身他懂得比你多，他是知道魔術師衣袖機關乾坤的人，他，就是那魔術師。HBO新推出的電視電影，在脫歐完成之前上映了，真人真事改編。
廣告
現實中，Dominic Cummings是政治策略師，正是那成功令公投結果，叫英國以至全世界掉盡下巴與眼鏡的人。更貼切的說，他是改變歷史、改變歐洲局面、改變遊戲的game changer，由男神Benedict Cumberbatch主演。
政治策略師有點像廣告企劃的創作總監，但他執行的非商業而是政治任務，廣告要攻取的是消費者的鈔票，政治要的是你投他陣營的票。
對手，要留，他，要脫。兩大陣營，各為其主。
是如何贏的？用他的說法，是「Hack了政治系統，改變政治生態」，他打的也是一場新媒體之戰、大數據之播弄。
是underdog的反敗為勝。誰都沒想過奧巴馬會贏，誰都以為特朗普會輸，全世界都以為英國不可能脫歐，都發生了。以前，舊媒體時代，「做莊」的形勢比人強，勝算高而穩，閒家很難爆冷，處下風很難逆轉勝。如今，新媒體世代，要扭轉局面，多了很多以前沒有的工具和途徑，要反勝，多了很多之前沒有的可能性。
贏慣的，有贏慣的一套，較少走新路，主守；奪位的，要破局、要出奇，才能制勝，注定創新，主攻。《Brexit：the Uncivil War》示範了任何企劃的必勝法：聆聽、攻心。
政治家和廣告商，最喜歡自說自話，空談願景。Cummings第一步棋就是聆聽，非自以為是定出一廂情願的策略。聽，聽清楚社會的恐懼，市民的需要，英國的情緒。
Take back control，他最後敲定的。脫歐，代表重新獲得命運自決，代表安全感，其實代表"make Britain great again"。
聆聽、攻心，不算新鮮，問題是如何聽、如何攻。全片最叫我終於聽見蝴蝶拍翼，慢鏡看見子彈命中紅心，是他清楚地知道要發動「藍海進攻」的一剎。
你很難叫喝可口可樂的，轉飲七喜，叫喝七喜的轉投可樂亦然，很清楚自己是脫還是留的人，很難左右。Brexit的魔術，關鍵是在左膠與右翼之間，投其所好，左右逢源；更在左膠和右翼「之外」，找一些從來不知道他們存在、莊閒雙方都未開發過的新水源，廣告術語叫：Blue Ocean Strategy。
有了大數據，可以聽之前聽不到的聲音，脫歐派不找喝可樂的人，不找喝七喜的人，找到一批「投票素人」，他們在政治雷達下被遺漏，也主動放棄參與，徹底我討厭政治。Cummings其中一個戰略，是瞄準三百萬對家不知道存在的票：沈默而隱形的大堆人。
一間公司，兩大股東爭話事，忽然股份少些那方，找出大批一直沒出過聲的小股東。
不理你留或脫、左定右，先埋了身，家訪，根據對你的分析了解，導你投脫，登記你做投我的選民。劍橋分析這個大名，多次出現在特朗普競選工程和脫歐運動中不是偶然，它的恐怖，是比父母和枕邊人更了解你，分析你的likes、怒、笑、悲，和在社交網分享的一切，可將你透徹地庖丁解牛。同一個槍械管制的議題，它可以拆開，用左膠啱聽，或右翼喜歡的切入點打動你、把你收編，是史上最準確的見人講人話，見鬼講鬼話，史上最有說服力的催眠和哄騙。
脫歐是如何贏的？各位觀眾：Social Engineering。
找素人和議題拆骨，再因你體質打（毒）針，雙線進行。
這電影本身未算最好看，但其反思和啟發性，任何關心政治的人必看。
忽發奇想，唔好打頭，如果FB的10 year challenge，背後可以或者可能，是提升face recognition的詭計，那麼政府今次超煩派錢，又引出、辨別出了一班什麼人來？要身份證、住址證明，登記做選民嗎？沒交稅，無物業，九曲十三彎，會否是些投票素人？勞民傷財，與選票有無關係，與什麼有關呢？
你當然可以不加思索，便說是「謬波齋蠢」，正如有人看《Brexit：the Uncivil War》祇驚呼關注男神的髮線。脫歐，怎脫髮兩個字了得？
網上一個黑客論壇上月中出現大批外洩資料，包括逾7.7億個電郵地址，以及2122萬個密碼，相信是歷來發現的最大批網上外洩資料。
外洩資料Collection #1容量達87GB，較早一批是2008年的MySpace賬號，較近期有2016年的LinkedIn賬號 ，由網絡安全研究員亨特（Troy Hunt）發現，他估計外洩資料來自數以萬計的不同來源，而非黑客單次入侵一個大型服務供應商。網民可登入亨特營運的Have I Been Pwned網站，搜索密碼是否已外洩。亨特表示，在外洩資料中發現自己的電郵地址及一個舊密碼，但現在已沒有使用該舊密碼，因此不受影響。安全專家指出，Collection #1事件反映網民需利用1Password、LastPass一類的密碼管理器，去儲存每個隨機而獨特的密碼，此舉總好過在不同網站使用同一個密碼。
正所謂「工欲善其事，必先利其器」，即使智能手機多先進，沒有周邊配件的助力，亦未能發揮手機功能的最大效益。
現代人智能手機不離手，早已融入日常生活之中，相應的周邊產品亦層出不窮，有特地為手機拍片而設的無線咪高峰，或是專攻拍攝方面的相機、迷你相片打印機等，而娛樂享受必備的揚聲器也是熱門之選，令手機運用更加多元化。
近年多得活躍於社交媒體上的KOL、YouTuber等大流行，隨手拿起手機拍短片是等閒之事，而Sennheiser品牌及傳播經理周穎琪（Vicky）亦見近年坊間對短片的畫面質素和音質要求愈來愈高，不再滿足於手機本身的硬件配置，愛自行添置手機專用的鏡頭或咪高峰，她說：「作為專業的音響品牌，一向都有專業級咪高峰推出，細分為不同功能，如針對錄音室、拍劇等，全都是有線咪，而且不是單用一支咪就可以，還要接駁不同器材才可正式收音。」
為了方便隨時用手機拍片，咪高峰最緊要方便易用，智能手機專用的Sennheiser Memory Mic便打正此旗號登場，Vicky說：「有朋友喜歡拍煮食示範，當她架好手機確定畫面ok後，又發覺距離太遠，基本上講話都聽不太清楚，後來開火時更是油花四濺，噼嚦啪啦，更加什麼也聽不到。」這種手機拍片遇上遠距離收音差的情況時常發生，而無線設計的Memory Mic便沒有此問題，只要跟手機應用程式接駁後，將咪高峰夾在衣衫上便可直接收音。即使沒有貼着手機說話，也有清晰的錄音效果。Vicky亦笑說這款咪高峰很受家長歡迎，「家長特別喜歡記錄小朋友成長的每個時刻，如踩單車、參加學校才藝表現等，當他們舉機拍片時便會發現只拍到身影，完全聽不清楚對話或現場聲音，實在太可惜。」當使用Memory Mic錄音時，手機內置收音咪仍能正常收音，最後可透過應用程式來自由混音及調節靈敏度，平衡現場感和語音清晰度，帶來更乾淨的聲音。
對手機拍片音質有要求之餘，畫面質素同樣重要，即使手機硬件配備不俗，仍不及專業攝錄機的一系列針對性功能，就如一向主打無人機和雲台相機的DJI，也順應潮流推出全球最小巧的三軸雲台相機Osmo Pocket，只比唇膏大一些的尺寸輕便易攜，更具備多樣的拍攝功能，特別是能夠拍攝4K超高清短片，吸引力十足。
連接手機來使用雲台相機，利用應用程式將手機熒幕作為顯示用途，更為方便操控一眾拍攝功能，或是進行更多專業功能設定的Pro模式，如製作有趣的Story模式短片等。小巧機身令邊走邊拍片更為輕鬆，此時三軸機械防震功能便發揮作用，令畫面依然保持穩定。加上具有可鎖定特定目標拍攝的智慧跟隨功能，即使場面混亂也不怕主角走失，還可隨時點擊相機屏幕兩下，進一步設定人臉跟隨，確保目標置於鏡頭中心。追求現場感的短片時，就要使用第一人稱視角功能來拍攝，鏡頭會隨着用家手持角度來同步，呈現出當事人的視野所見。
融AR技術
近來節慶聚會頻頻，親朋好友見面總少不了拍照拍片留念，此時專為手機而設的迷你相片打印機HP Sprocket便大派用場，透過手機應用程式便可直接將手機和社交平台中的相片，打印成2"×3"的貼紙相片，同時還能配合濾鏡效果、相框、添加文字等功能，令相片變得生動有趣。
打印機除了支援多部手機同時連接打印外，還將AR技術融入其中，如用手機掃描打印機機身正面，便可通過AR技術查看正在排隊打印的訊息。甚至將影片變成動態相片，先將影片其中一格照片打印出來，再以應用程式掃描相片，便可在手機畫面上觀看相關的影片，十分有趣。
當Spotify、Apple Music等音樂串流平台大行其道，各式各樣的手機專用耳機、揚聲器產品便應運而生，若要便攜又不累贅時，Apple專用的Pioneer Rayz Rally迷你揚聲器正是好選擇。小方形機身有Lightning插口，直插直用夠方便，方便聽歌和使用免提通話功能。揚聲器內置30mm動態單元，聲音宏亮，按下機身唯一的按鈕，便可啟動Siri、播放或暫停音樂和短片等。加上其內置360度麥克風，足以勝任電話會議所需。
撰文：劉妙賢
miulau@hkej.com
指數基金之父博格爾（John Bogle）辭世，其創立的被動投資法可說極為成功，以低廉收費為投資者帶來合理回報。畢非德推崇說：「如果要為一位對美國投資者作出重大貢獻的人，並豎立雕像向其致敬，那人必定是John Bogle」。然而「橘過淮而為枳」，在美股適用的，不一定便適用於港股。
博格爾認為被動投資法就是最好的投資法，買個股不如買大市，賣出買入也會產生費用，與其被支出蠶食回報，不如就買指數吧。
「我將收益分為兩部分，一部分是投資收益，一部分是投機收益。投資收益就是股息率加上未來增長率，平均來說是5%，再高一點可能是6%、7%，除非面對經濟衰退，否則也不太可能會低過2%。」
「投機收益則和估值相關。市盈率從10倍升至20倍，每年便可以額外賺取7%。這情況80年代出現過，90年代也出現過，但該不會再出現。因為市盈率可以從10倍升至20倍，20倍升至40倍，但絕不可能升至80倍。」
即是股價上升，一是來自企業盈利增長，另一方面便是估值提升，但後者無法預計，所以你只需要專注前者。但找出王者太難了，所以與其選股，不如買大市。
中港市場未必奏效
被動投資法過去50年表現十分不錯，為投資者帶來不俗回報，現在美股有近三分之一買賣，便是來自ETF。可是套用在中港市場，恐怕就不是這麼一回事了。
美股長升長有，納斯特指數過去5年年均回報達14%，投資者應該收貨。但過去5年恒指和國指的年均回報有多少？才分別4%和1%。如果你是港股指數ETF的投資者，大概便很難笑得出了。
為何被動投資法適用於美股？因為美國是自由經濟，企業優勝劣敗。好企業出類拔萃，壞企業退出指數，指數永遠都充滿活力，故此才能長升長有。
看看恒指國指那些名字，恒指還好一點，還有一些新經濟企業和本地專利企業。國指裏卻是內銀內險和幾家油公司，不少在2007年前已抵高峰，但偏偏市值仍是最大，故壟斷指數。在此情形下，你能預期恒指國指會有好表現嗎？
據國家統計局數字，內地人口將在2030年起負增長。中港投資者要取得好回報，一是只專注新經濟行業，要不就放眼全球。
指數組成過程左右回報
現在美股表現最好的是科網股，但科網有一種特性，就是會蠶食其他行業，並且Winner takes all，所以很大機會是幾家大企業跑出，升幅集中在少數企業身上。指數升15%，但某些大企業可能升三至五成（其實和港股遇到的情況一樣）。果如是，整個市場都採用被動投資法，又是不是很好的投資策略呢？
博格爾說，頻繁買入賣出，會影響投資回報，這是對的。投資是通過企業成長（而不是炒賣）來賺錢，這個也是對的。但他意料不到的，是指數組成過程，會影響投資回報；也料不到科網股（互聯網）可以這麼霸道，一個行業顛覆整個經濟，表現長期優於其他行業。
兩星期前說逢「九」必升，大概沒有人相信，股市升了兩個多星期，同意的人也就多了。新經濟股調整的時候幅度較深，其實也是吸納機會，因為未來三至五年，仍以它表現最佳。
hcl.hkej@gmail.com
(編者按：郝承林著作《致富新世代2──科網君臨天下》現已發售)
歡迎訂購：實體書、電子書
APRN stock has nearly tripled over the past month, but further gains seem unlikely By LUKE LANGO, InvestorPlace Contributor http://bit.ly/2SUMazf Is Blue Apron Stock in the Beginning Stages of a Huge Turnaround? Source: Shutterstock For a long time, essentially everyone on Wall Street wrote off Blue Apron (NASDAQ:APRN) stock as a dead duck with zero chance of turning around. APRN stock went public at $10 per share in June 2017. That was about as high as it ever got. Over the next 18 months, it turned into what one of the worst IPOs ever. By Christmas 2018, this was a 65-cent stock.
Then the turnaround started.
Macroeconomic sentiment improved. That helped things. But Blue Apron also announced a big meal-kit partnership with Weight Watchers (NYSE:WTW), which management said would stabilize the customer base without the company having to spend big on marketing. Then, the company updated investors on fourth-quarter trends — and that was a positive read. Management said that a new fulfillment center continues to drive operational efficiencies, while the Weight Watchers deal has seen higher-than-expected demand. It also reiterated that the company would be adjusted EBITDA profitable in Q1 and fiscal 2019.
All those positive developments have created a surge in APRN stock. After bottoming at 65 cents before Christmas, APRN stock has nearly tripled in less than a month. Shares currently trade hands at around $1.50.
Is this turnaround legit? Could APRN stock be in the early stages of a huge turnaround that propels shares back to $10?
I don’t think so. There are reasons to be optimistic, and the recent near tripling in APRN stock does feel somewhat justified. But the long term fundamentals remain uncertain, and the pathway to sustainable profitability remains bleak. So, while APRN stock could be in the early stages of a huge turnaround, the odds of this stock getting back to $10 are very, very low.
Reason for Optimism, but Still Too Many Question Marks There are certainly reasons to be optimistic about the current turnaround in APRN stock.
At its core, the decline in APRN stock over the past 18 months has been driven by three headwinds: customer churn, big expenses and lack of a sustainable moat. To some extent, the recent partnership with Weight Watchers addresses all three of those headwinds.
On the customer churn front, a partnership with Weight Watchers taps into the huge WW customer base and, thereby, gives Blue Apron a pipeline to stabilize customers. Meanwhile, that customer stabilization will come without additional marketing since its through the Weight Watchers pipeline, so the customer base has the potential to stabilize without operating expenses going up. Also, this partnership gives Blue Apron some semblance of a moat, as it establishes the company as a “diet meal kit maker,” which is a unique and differentiated value prop in the largely uniform meal kit space.
Thus, management coming forth and saying that the Weight Watchers deal is progressing with high demand, and concurrently doubling down on profitability projections for 2019, is pretty important. The implication is that this company could be gradually turning into a small, profitable shell of its former self.
But there’s sill too many question marks to say that this transformation is actually what is happening.
Top-line trends at Blue Apron hardly signal a turnaround in sight. Revenue declines have only deteriorated year-to-date — from down 20% in Q1, to down 25% in Q2, to down 28% in Q3. Same is true for customer churn trends. As the company has stopped spending an arm and a leg on marketing, the customer base has consistently dropped by 20% or more each quarter this year. Plus, competition is only getting stiffer and, if the WW partnership doesn’t pan out, the company could continue to lose customers at a rapid pace.
Overall, while there’s reason for optimism regarding APRN stock, there’s also reason to question the legitimacy of recent strength in the stock. Until those questions have tangible answers, it’s probably best to avoid APRN stock.
Profitability Lacks Visibility The biggest problem with APRN stock is that the company’s pathway to profitability lacks visibility.
Gross margins have been steadily improving all year long. Still, they are largely below 35%. Best case scenario, the company continues to drive operational efficiencies through the Linden fulfillment center, and gross margins rise to 40%.
That still isn’t high enough to drive profitability. Year to date, the company’s opex rate is above 50%. Although the company is cutting back on marketing expenses, that is adversely impacting customer growth — and revenues are dropping too. Thus, there hasn’t been any room for opex leverage, nor will there be so long as the customer base continues to retreat.
In order for Blue Apron to reach true profitability, a lot of things have to happen. First, the customer base has to stabilize and/or grow. Second, that has to lead to revenue stabilization and/or growth. Third, gross margins have to move towards 40% or higher. Fourth, the company has to keep gutting its marketing expenses, potentially to levels that aren’t even possible given current revenues.
In other words, Blue Apron is still a lot of speculative twists and turns away from being truly profitable. Until that pathway attains visibility, APRN stock will likely remain depressed.
Bottom Line on APRN Stock Recent strength in APRN stock is impressive and should not be ignored. Blue Apron’s fundamentals are improving, and those improvements do breathe life into what was a dying company.
But Blue Apron still has significant operational risks which threaten the long-term sustainability of the company, while the pathway to profitability remains unclear. All together, that means APRN stock won’t head back towards $10 any time soon.
As of this writing, Luke Lango was long WTW.
PUBLISHED 6 HOURS AGO UPDATED 6 HOURS AGO Michael Sheetz @THESHEETZTWEETZ KEY POINTS
“Trees don’t grow to the sky, and I see clouds on the horizon,” Jack Bogle said in an interview with Barron’s published in December.
Bogle, the founder of index fund giant Vanguard Group, died at age 89 on Wednesday.
“If I had a big liability in a year, I’d get prepared for it right now,” Bogle told Barron’s.
Vanguard Founder Jack Bogle dies at 89 Jack Bogle, founder of index fund giant Vanguard Group, warned investors about the bull market in his last major interview.
The creator of the world’s first index mutual fund died Wednesday at the age of 89.
In a Barron’s interview published in December, Bogle said investors should prepare for 2019 by decreasing exposure to stocks and increasing investment in defensive strategies, such as fixed income securities like bonds.
If you hold the stock market, you will grow with America, says Jack Bogle “Trees don’t grow to the sky, and I see clouds on the horizon. I don’t know if and when they’ll arrive. A little extra caution should be the watchword,” Bogle told Barron’s. “If you were comfortable at a 70 percent to 30 percent [allocation to stocks and fixed income], under these circumstances you’d like to go back to 60 percent to 40 percent, or something like that.”
Bogle did not believe investors for the long term should try to pull completely out and time the market, which he said is “a really dumb strategy.” Instead, he said it’s time “to really be thinking how much risk you want to have” and make some defensive moves.
“If I had a big liability in a year, I’d get prepared for it right now,” Bogle added.
Even before the year-end extreme stock market volat
I'm leaving GitLab to help everyone work remotely 287 snow_mac 20 hrs 198 https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/im-leaving-gitlab-help-everyone-work-remotely-job-van-der-voort/ news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18900072 TL;DR: I’m leaving GitLab to help organizations and people work remotely, ultimately better. I’ll do that as CEO of Remote.com.
July last year, my wife Carla was hospitalized. She was pregnant with our daughter, but began an early labor at 32 weeks. A week later, June was born. Healthy, but she would have to stay another three weeks in the hospital before she could come home with us.
The first day in the hospital, I left a message to my colleagues in Slack and didn’t worry about work for another two months. When I did check in with my co-workers, there were no frantic demands for my time - in fact, there was nothing but support and people telling me to take it easy. I was able to prepare for the early arrival of our daughter, while regularly visiting the hospital.
Remote companies
I have been working for GitLab for the last five years and helped it grow from 5 to 450 people. We have a grand total of zero offices: everyone works remotely, in over 45 different countries. This time has shown me that remote organizations have a unique advantage: working remotely or distributed forces an organization to do a few things different.
You can’t expect people to work at a particular time, given they’re likely to be in a different timezone. Working asynchronously is necessary to function. Information can’t only exist in the heads of people: the person you need might be asleep! You have to write everything down. These constraints have a powerful effect on the behavior of an organization. First, it becomes easier to focus on merit, actual work, rather than on how long people stay in the office. In other words: you don’t need to count hours to see whether someone is being productive*. You can now allow people to work whenever they want.
Second, as everything is written down, overhead in communication and lack of documentation is significantly reduced. In fact, I’d argue that for this reason alone, remote companies are more efficient** than traditional companies. Everyone can always continue with their work.
Third, you can now hire the best people on the planet in any particular function. Most people don’t live in the Bay Area (nor want to), meaning that you can pay people a great salary, and they get to live wherever they want. Many people joining GitLab immediately moved to live near family and friends.
Remote work has massive advantages, but the emergent benefits arguably have an even more significant impact. Zero time to commute. Forced transparency through massive amounts of information available and limited resources to manage that. Shorter, more focused meetings*.
The bottom line
We’ve lived our lives by the schedule that our employer sets. We’ve lived in cities where employers have us. And the rest, friends, family, loved ones, hobbies, dreams, come second.
That isn’t necessary. If you work remotely, you can live wherever you want. Work on whatever schedule you want. It allows you to organize your life around the way you want to live, not around what your employer wants. It allows you to live in the middle of the city, or the middle of nowhere.
The future of work means that we can work from wherever we want, whenever we want. It doesn’t mean we all work from home - I know many don’t want to or can’t. It means we gain significant freedom in making decisions, and having a great ability to prioritize what is most important to us.
This is what I’ve learned working remotely, and what allowed me to take care of my loved ones when they needed it. Just before I wrote this, I was playing with my daughter and put her to bed. In a bit, I’ll have lunch with my wife. Today’s just another workday.
What I’m doing next
Everyone should have this freedom, and I believe I can help. Tomorrow is my last day at GitLab. In two weeks time, I’ll be starting as the new CEO at Remote.com. Together with some awesome people, we will make it easier for organizations and people to work remotely.
We’re starting with making it easy to find remote jobs and discover great companies. Once we do that, we’ll focus on building tools for companies that make remote work easier.
If you want to work together, send me an email at job@remote.com.
If you want to get a message when we’re starting and hear what we’re doing, sign up to our occasional newsletter here.
Thanks Bruno, Brendan, Carla, Jeremy and Marcelo for proofreading.
*** If you have a lot of information to manage, managing access and rights to view and edit that information becomes a task in itself. Defaulting to being more open, transparent, is the path of least resistance here. [return]
**** Meetings at GitLab start exactly at the planned time, and end at the scheduled time. Most meetings last no more than 25 minutes. It’s hard to show up late to a meeting that just requires you to click on a link. Will write about this separately in the future.[return]
Comments or questions? Reach out on Twitter @Jobvo or by email at hi@jobvo.co
A crash course in managing remote teams 3 feross 1 hr 0 http://klinger.io/post/180989912140/managing-remote-teams-a-crash-course news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18906185 Hey folks,
I haven’t been blogging for quite some time, so everything is a bit rusty for me, but i thought this article might be useful for a few more people, because about 1-4 times per week i get approached with a question like:
“Should we do remote?” “How did you remote work for your team?” “Our team struggles with engineers who are remote…” The post got a bit longer than i planned to, because i tried to cover the outline of all aspects that might be useful for you when you approach this topic. In this article, i will go over the different kind of setups of remote teams, why and how remote teams work differently, when you want to work remotely and when it’s better not to and lastly a few tricks that worked for the teams i was involved. Thanks for reading and thanks for sharing. 🙏
For those who don’t know me and just stumbled into this post by accident: I am @andreasklinger -among other things - I helped to build up Product Hunt as a fully distributed team. Btw… yes, they are awesome, yes, they hire internationally, and yes, you should consider applying.
So here without further ado… here… we… go.
Remote teams - a crash course
Different setups of remote teams
There is a bunch of different setups people call “remote teams”.
Satellite teams 2 or more teams are in different offices. Remote employees most of the team is in an office, but a few single employees are remote Fully distributed teams Remote first teams which are “basically” fully distributed but have a non-critical-mass office they focus on remote-friendly communication When i speak of remote teams, i mean fully distributed teams and, if done right, remote-first teams. I consider all the other one’s hybrid setups.
Why does the distinction matter?
They are actually something entirely different and need different solutions.
Process needs
As a remote team, you have roughly 5x the process needs as you would in a co-located team.
Example: Meetings
Everybody loves meetings… right? But especially for remote teams, they are expensive, take effort and are – frankly – exhausting.
If you are 5 people, remote team:
You need to announce meetings upfront You need to take notes b/c not everyone needs to join Be on time Have a meeting agenda Make sure it’s not overtime Communicate further related information in slack etc In contrast, if you are 5 people co-located you just stand up and say: “everyone over there - we talk now”. Once a co-located team reaches 20-25 people they definitely need to do the same steps. But before…
You can’t just “get up and talk with everyone all the time” in a remote team… you simply can’t. People might be offline, might be sleeping, might be deep focused on other work.
And this is not only about meetings. Meetings are just a straightforward example here. It’s true for any aspect of communication or teamwork. Remote teams need 5x the process.
You need to systemize communication and expectations
When i say processes, i don’t necessarily mean heavy-handed workflows, piles of paper and someone using a giant stamp confirming every action. I mean “systemized communication and expectations made explicit”.
This can be as simple as: “We do check-ins every morning…” “Please before you do X always do Y…” These simple explicit agreements allow other people to expect those actions to happen and avoid unnecessary communication loops.
But… i am sorry to say… this is work… you need to act like a larger company than you actually are… you need to be stricter about best practices, and you will run into communication problems… a lot of them.
These communication problems are often what people complain about when they discuss if they should switch to remote teams or hire remote engineers. So they consider hybrid setups…
Hybrid setups are hard to do
Imagine you are the only person remote in a small team. You have entirely different process needs. You will suffer.
Being the one poor soul remote in a co-located team is hard… you have “5x” the process needs… People will continuously forget to involve you in discussions or decisions, you will be the person not knowing what is happening why - you will suffer.
Similarly problematic are satellite offices. The bridge between the offices has 5x communication needs, but people in each office act like co-located teams. Unless the offices can work mostly autonomously, this communication bridge between them will suffer.
Establish processes for communication needs for these kinds of setups are hard. Because they are against human nature… I will just discuss things with you while getting water in the kitchen… I won’t repeat what we discussed in slack because i am… well… as all humans… damn lazy!.
Default remote or default non-remote?
I have tried all the models described. Personally, I’d recommend you avoid hybrid approaches and act as distributed as possible - or just don’t do remote at all and be co-located. Both are fine.
If you need a small office, make sure people in it don’t have a critical mass in projects and communicate remote-friendly.
In these situations, the question is often “Are we default-remote” or “default non-remote” if it’s the first, having a small office might work out for you.
Questions to ask yourself:
Why do you consider doing a remote team? Are those advantages worth the effort for you? If yes what would need to change if you would commit to it? How often do you want to meet in person? If you need a small office how can you communicate more remote friendly? Example: Would it be weird if all people in the office would join team calls with their own laptop? Why would a team want to work remotely?
A lot of people mention costs. “It’s cheaper to hire people remotely”. This might be sometimes true – and it’s definitely true if you are used to San Francisco salaries – but… international talent usually expects international salaries… so you’d be surprised how much many people expect. If you want cheap outsourcing, this “remote thing” won’t work for you.
Overall hiring remote is about four things - being able to hire, the best possible people independent of where they (or you) are - optimizing for the quality of life - tuning your personal performance - having long-term team retention
“Our startup is amazing, people will want to move to X"… Some will… some won’t. All the "won’t” are a lot of people you are missing out.
On the other hand with a good remote-team pitch, you can even (often, not always) approach Silicon Valley top talent: “Hey considering leaving the Bay Area? Google might have an issue with it, we don’t - work with global talent on a project that matters – wherever you are. Shall we talk?”
But (imho) what most people are missing… is not the costs… not the untapped talent… nor the ability to optimize your quality of life and own performance. It’s a simple fact: talent retention. Ask remote teams how long their people stayed with them. It’s years longer than in co-located companies.
Iteration vs. innovation
One thing you will quickly realize is that a lot of human nuance gets lost when discussing things via Hangout or Slack. This nuance is important. Especially if you work on critical, creative work.
Imagine you need to pivot your product. You make a long passionate speech about what the team needs to do to win the market, just to be followed up with a “Sorry Sarah, your internet connection dropped for a second, what did you say?”
“Innovation” is more natural in person. It’s better when even the quiet person in the back can pick up a marker and explain something.
But once you agree on something it’s about individual performance… This is usually easier remote.
Iteration easier remote Innovation easier in person So even if you work remotely, you will need to define how often you want to meet. I recommend once per quarter or twice per year as a team and whenever required by the individual project teams.
Loneliness
A lot of people mention loneliness as a problem in remote teams. Personally, i never had this an issue be for me, but i saw it with friends and fully understand why people are worried about this.
As company-lead it will be your responsibility to make sure people are happy and healthy. Here is what helped in our team:
Don’t work from home but a shared office (coworking spaces tend to be too distracting) Make sure you meet non-work friends Meet regularly in person Optimize for iteration - Optimize for single player
In remote teams, you need to set up in a way people can be as autonomously as they need. Autonomously doesn’t mean “left alone” it means “be able to run alone” (when needed).
Think of people as “fast decision maker units” and team communication as “slow input/output”. Both are needed to function efficiently, but you want to avoid the slow part when it’s not essential.
Questions to ask yourself:
How can you…
… define strategy clear enough that people can formulate their own decisions without going off-track? … set goals clear enough that people can benchmark themselves or their decisions? … setup decisions hierarchies in a way that only non-reverse-able important decisions even bubble up to you? … create confidence? (speed comes through confidence) When is it enough that you hear about it and when do you need to involve? How can you make sure that you are only involved in every 10th decision and only “manager-override” every 100th? … set up your environment/processes that they can act even in emergencies on their own? If you hired smart, talented people, why can’t you just “let them do their job”? What’s missing? Did you hire the wrong people? Did you not communicate clearly? Are you (yourself) uncertain about strategic elements? Solve that instead of micromanaging them.
Apart from these company-wide questions, you will want to ask similar questions also for each specific vertical.
Digging deeper: managing remote engineering teams
Here a few example questions for engineering teams (but you will know similar ones for any kind of function):
How can you or someone in your team…
… troubleshoot alone when it’s in the middle of the night for everyone else? … enable new developers to be able to learn by themselves? … guide coding best practices? … avoid making pull requests a slow process? … prevent meetings that don’t create value? … enable developers to make product decisions on their own? … avoid worst case scenarios? And again: How can you increase confidence? (speed comes through confidence!) At Product Hunt we thought a lot about this! Here a few answers that helped us:
Have a clear strategy and high-level goals Let engineers take ownership over teams and projects Let them take ownership over the product they build, but also the goals they commit to (strategy goes top-down, execution bubbles bottom-up) Making it clear what scenarios require multiple eyes or other people’s feedback (e.g., stack changes, security concerns, etc.) Have strong onboarding documents and employee handbooks Have new employees improve those onboarding documents Be explicit in communication Be explicit which are expected rules and which are not. Wait for problems before you introduce solutions (esp. processes or infrastructure) Friday’s employees can work on what they think creates value (unless their project is on 🔥) - fixing tech debt, improving UX, trying out new libraries, refactoring infrastructure,… Share recorded videos instead of live-demos to explain something (e.g., UX prototypes) Have a strong (but not too big) test suite (focusing on integration for features, unit tests for risky parts) Focus on reuse of standard components instead of pixel-perfect layouts Enforce linters for any language you use (even, e.g., HTML/CSS) Enable autoformatting (to avoid code style discussions) Enforce complexity scoring in linters (⬅️ biggest win) No production console access unless for (logged+alerted) emergencies Make it easy to recreate a production-like state in development (sanitized) Have one-step-to-reinstall development environments Have defined times for pull request reviews (first thing every morning) Make Pull-request +1’s a “polite thing to do” but not a “required step” Enforce pull request +1’s for parts that are security risks (via danger.js) Write comments about why not what etc. etc.… Let me know if you think it would be useful for you if i’d wrote a larger blog-post going into detail here. For now, there is a lot more detail about we worked at Product Hunt in this first presentation of mine: https://www.slideshare.net/andreasklinger/engineering-management-for-early-stage-startups-97402850
TL;DR: The ultimate goal of this setup is that an engineer can figure out, on their own, if they are doing things right or wrong. Have low-level feedback coming from automation and that it’s clear when high-level feedback is needed from team members. And most importantly you treat them like capable adults.
But… these are not problems of remote teams
The problems i mentioned are not unique to remote teams, and the solutions are the same thing good co-located teams do. But they don’t need to be as strict about them because they face them later of can just monkey-patch around them. Their engineers might not like the typical “let’s all get over there and talk…” But i tends to work… so people do it anyway.
co-located teams monkey-patch their process problems with more meetings and micro-managing people.
As a remote team - because of the higher process needs - you just end up facing these knowledge worker management problems earlier and more intentionally.
Because meetings are expensive for you, you need to think about systemizing processes actively.
Because you cannot watch over your employees’ shoulders, you have to find ways and boundaries you can fully trust them.
Because you cannot micromanage them, you need to define strategy and goals and treat them as competent adults who make decisions for you.
Aren’t you already working in some way?
We can discuss the pros and cons of remote work, but let’s be honest…
We are all already working remote… You might be checking your emails on your weekend, you might be reading papers on your way to work, you might finish some project in the evening at home. You already work remote, the question is only how often and how much enabled you are to do so.
The question is no longer if you work remote but how much.
Remote work is the logical evolution of digital work. And the best-practices of remote teams are often learnings for all digital knowledge work teams.
The end
Let me know if this is useful… And if you have experience with remote teams, tell me how i could improve this article! Also last but not least: Please share this article if you think it’s of value!
PS: I haven’t been blogging for years… I was very nervous about starting to write again and asked for early feedback. Over 100 people offered their help, more than i can mention here, i am still at awe about the fantastic feedback i got. The offer to help means a lot to me. Thanks to everyone.
If you want to help me by feedbacking early drafts of my blog-posts please subscribe here. Thanks in advance
🙏 @andreasklinger