Lift and Shift – A story of how a product engineering team defined their own destiny.

Why this story?now?

These are unprecedented times for businesses. The current economic slowdown is having far reaching impacts on the workforce, especially Tech companies and startups. Several companies have been forced to layoff entire teams of their workforce or shutdown many locations.?

I am optimistic that the recovery when it comes, will also be swift. It would be an amazing buyers market for companies that are opportunistic and want to attract the best talent. However, hiring from the ground up is a long and expensive process. It typically takes 6–12 months for a new team to be fully productive and add value to their organization. Professionals looking for jobs are also at a disadvantage because the search to find a company and a team that they want to work with is a long and frustrating process.

What if I told you that there is a way to significantly accelerate this process to the advantage of both the company and the talent. If your team was (or is going to be) downsized, you should read this. If you can bring your team together and search for a new opportunity as a team, you can unleash the power of numbers to your favor. I am hopeful that our experience described below motivates and encourages you to try this approach before trying to make it on your own. If you are a leader in a company looking to rapidly build a new team (or location) to get an early mover advantage on new opportunities uncovered by the recession, you too should read this.

Context

Rapid growth of Digital Technology has been the defining characteristic of the 21st century. Software development teams in the Internet age have evolved into Product-Engineering (PE) teams, become more agile and value driven. These high performing teams are lean and can help solve business problems with technology rapidly, iteratively and incrementally. This is the de-facto standard for born-of-the-internet companies like Google, Facebook & Amazon. Transforming their technology divisions to work like this is a much sought after transformation goal for traditional brick and mortar companies.

?There is a tremendous demand for Software Engineers, Product Managers, Program Managers, Data Scientists, User Experience Designers & Leaders who can work successfully in a PE environment.?Many startups are acquired/bought as much for the value of their product as the capabilities of the PE teams that built them. Attracting talent and retaining them has become a challenge especially in technology hubs like the Bay area, Seattle, New York & Austin.

?In such a climate, there are sometimes unique opportunities to build talent and grow rapidly where organizations can absorb an entire team without acquiring the parent companies. This is a story of how we converted one such opportunity into reality. The intent of documenting our journey is to share a viable idea for organizations to quickly grow talent & build capability. More importantly, it is a creative option for teams that are facing the prospect of downsizing to stay together as a team and work on challenging assignments.

The Setup

We were a product engineering team that supported a fast-growing business unit of one of the fastest growing pre-IPO startups in the world. The company was considered a unicorn stock for investors on the lines of companies like Uber, Tesla, Airbnb etc. Our team was tasked with building scalable software products that supported several thousand business associates in seven global regions. In August 2019, our PE team was 200 strong, operating out of New York, Seattle and San Francisco.

The leadership team for this group was primarily based in Seattle. Tasked with rapid expansion, the team grew quickly by hiring the best talent from several tech companies and startups in the region. The Bar Raiser methodology that was perfected by Amazon for attracting top talent was the foundation for all hiring. Within the first six months of its existence this team demonstrated value by building 4 successful software (and machine learning) products with nearly 100% global user adoption. The team also integrated several 3rd party software products into its eco-system and created a platform that would allow service-oriented architecture that would scale solutions as the business became more complex.

The Seattle team had 50 people, comprised of leadership (The division leader (VP), a Distinguished Engineer, Directors of Engineering, Product Management, Program Management, Business Operations, User Experience and Chief Data Scientist) & 4 full stack Product Engineering (PE) teams (Product managers, engineering managers, software engineers, principal engineer, UX designers)

The Opportunity

In September 2019, the company ran into funding issues for various reasons and it was not able to sustain its grow at all costs (Blitz scaling) strategy any longer. This was followed by a highly publicized failed bid to an IPO which created a cash flow crisis. The company was bailed out by their primary investors, but this brought about a change in leadership as well as an overhaul of its strategy. The new strategy was to cut costs and find the quickest path to profitability with more of a focus on its core business product and less on technology.

There were two outcomes of this strategy that impacted our team.

1.????The company had to reduce workforce significantly since the plan was not to grow rapidly anymore. It needed fewer people to keep things running and staff reductions became a prudent way to cut costs. There was a decision to consolidate all Technology teams into one location by closing out other locations

2.????The company had to make a choice between innovating on its core business (real estate) or innovating on technology that would disrupt the industry of its core business. The company decided to focus near-term on making its real estate assets profitable. Therefore, it didn’t make sense to invest in building more technology products. This meant that there wouldn’t be as many challenging/motivating opportunities for several high performing PE teams.

These resulted in the decision that our team would be downsized and consolidated into one location. It was a hard decision for the CTO and acting CEO of the company, who regarded our team and its contributions very highly. They were willing to work with our team leader, the VP of engineering to make this transition as less impactful to the team as possible.

?While the company’s turmoil was playing out, one of our team members had jokingly said that it was a shame that such a productive team was not given the opportunity to deliver value, due to factors outside its control. He hypothesized that we could just ‘lift and shift’ our team to another company and add value almost instantly. Little did we know that this very idea was going to materialize when all senior leaders of our team were invited to a staff meeting the next day.

?Our team leader shared that our location was going to close down. He candidly shared that this is no longer a place where we can add value. He asked us if we wanted to stay together and explore opportunities as a full team elsewhere. Rather than sit around and wait for layoffs to happen, we could control our own destiny and make something happen. It was simultaneously the most disheartening and energizing moment I have felt in my career. Disheartening because the journey was coming to an end with so much unrealized potential, energized at the prospect of trying something unprecedented. Everyone in the room agreed to pursue the plan. I am sure there was healthy skepticism that the plan would work. But there’s no harm in trying, is there?

The Process

Objectives - Our team leader clarified the goals for our effort.

• We want to shop ourselves as a full stack product engineering team to companies that were interested in hiring the entire team.
• We need them to move quickly so that we could time our hiring with the layoffs, and the upcoming holiday season so that people can go into the holidays knowing that they have an opportunity in hand. We had 8 weeks to make this happen.
• We want to stay together as a team rather than get hired individually (augmented) into many teams
• We want to work on a meaningful mission, solving a business challenge for a company that will motivate our talented team.

Approach

We iterated on the process as we went along since there wasn’t any precedent for something like this. Here is a broad outline of an approach that finally emerged.

• ?Build a marketing document - an executive summary of the team including profiles of senior leaders and outlining team accomplishments. See screenshot example

• Identify target companies - Research job sites and company career sites to pick organizations that had a sizeable talent need. We looked at all companies that had greater than 50 open Technology positions for our first pass.
• Curate target list - We then narrowed the list to rapidly growing companies that were doing innovative technology work and would potentially have the ability to add on a team of our size either to their existing facilities in Seattle or be open to building a Seattle presence that allowed our team to stay together.
• Identify connections – The senior leaders on the team were experienced, had diverse skillsets and were well networked. We scanned our network and LinkedIn to identify contacts in our target companies. We looked for individuals who were in Talent acquisition or those that could connect us to CTOs, CEOs or Business division leaders.
• Gauge Interest – We messaged our contacts along with the marketing document to understand if they were interested in such an offer. We were surprised at the number of positive responses we received expressing interest in learning further. See screenshot example.

• Build a plan – We created a basic meeting cadence and plan to execute on our idea now that we knew there were people interested in talking to us. We built a spreadsheet-based tracker that listed each company, contacts, primary owner on our side, status, next steps etc.
• Ensure Transparency – The leaders were radically transparent with each other regarding sharing information & developments. We were not bound by hierarchy, just a group of individuals working together to solve an interesting problem keeping the best interest of the team in mind. The team met daily to go through the list, discuss developments and the next day’s plan.
• Involve the team - We had to keep the details of the search confidential with the broader team given the sensitive nature of this initiative and that we were still employed by our previous company. However, we had to also reassure the team that we were working on a solution to keep up team morale. Our team leader held frequent informal all hands meetings with the team. We brought everyone into the loop on our intent and promised to share frequent updates as we made progress.
• Set up Exploratory Meetings – We set up introductory 30-minute meetings between our site leader and the key contacts of the companies that responded. We requested that they pre-read the marketing document for context so that we could use the time to answer questions and explore next steps. We met several CTOs, CEOs, VPs of Business units & heads of HR. The initial reaction was one of amazement by what we were trying to accomplish. There was also unanimous encouragement from everyone we talked to, that we were on the right track. We were lucky to also have the head of technical recruitment work with us on this initiative. She used her experience in executive hiring to manage the conversation especially with the larger companies on our list.
• Categorize companies based on interest – We categorized companies into 4 options based on their responses in the following order of priority. P1. Plan A: Lift and Shift. Interested in hiring us with the intent of keeping us together as a single unit? If yes, what are the kinds of problems you are looking to solve with such a team. If you don’t have a presence in Seattle, are you open to starting an office here so that we do not need to relocate. P2.?Plan B: Augmentation with Accelerated hiring - Able to absorb the entire team and place individuals on different teams through an accelerated hiring process/mass hiring event 3.?Plan C: Job Fair/Hiring Event – Invite multiple companies interested in specific roles. Hire through a job fair/Campus recruitment type of event 4.?Company is not interested at this time
• Shortlist top options - Companies open to Plan A were most desirable, and we prioritized our time working with them first. There were a few desirable companies in Plan B that we kept high on our list as well. We decided not to pursue Plan C for the interim. This would be our last option if A & B did not work out.
• Schedule deep dives – This was the most involved part of the execution plan. We created a pitch presentation that involved a slide deck and live demos (using dummy data) of several products that showcased our capabilities. We had multiple working meetings & dinner meetings with the top 5 companies on our list. The agenda for the working meeting was typically split 50-50 with the company pitching their opportunity to us and our team pitching our capabilities to the company. These were between 3-8 hours long. We would debrief after each meeting and decide what follow ups are required and schedule additional conversations

• Establish Evaluation Criteria – Just like an RFP or Product evaluation, we built a weighted scorecard of our key requirements & desirable attribute and used this to score each top 5 company. See screenshot for details. Each leader provided their score and a justification to help the group come to a common understanding of what was top of mind for each person. While speaking, we also made a distinction between our personal preferences and what was best for the team. Both of these were aligned for most leaders but there were a few exceptions.

• Make the decision – This was the hardest part of the exercise. Until this point it was data gathering and evaluating scenarios, but now it was time to commit (or disagree and commit) and build alignment. It was also difficult since some of our personal preferences didn’t match with what might be best for the group. In the end, our evaluation criteria (tied to our initial objectives) was a big help to drive alignment and pick the top candidate. Few leaders still had outstanding questions and we followed up with the company to get them answered until we got a near unanimous choice. Our chief data scientist even put together a 5 forces analysis to validate that our top option was a good one.

• Rally the troops – It was important to keep the team in the loop to the extent possible, to keep them engaged and excited as things started to move forward. We accomplished through frequent all-hands meetings and Q&A sessions. The credibility that leadership had built with the team was very helpful in keeping the team motivated and trusting of a positive outcome for everyone.
• Negotiate and close - This step involved communicating to the top candidate that they were a front runner and working through the details such as individual compensation, timing of offers, titles, perks etc. This also involved synchronizing the timing of separation from our current employer. One of the other aspects of our top company was that there wouldn’t be any interviews of each team member. The in-depth conversation with the leaders and prior working relationships provided the company with enough confidence of our abilities to be able to skip interviews and speed up the process.
• Orchestrate the finish – Once the company was ready to move, it was time for our team to allow them to introduce them to the broader team and make their pitch. We had communicated beforehand to the team about our choice and hoped everyone would be able to share the excitement we felt after they met with the senior leaders of the company. The senior leaders of the company made an earnest pitch, explained the value proposition and made offers.
• Tie up the loose ends – It is important to remember that the company still needed to make independent offers to each team member and each person had to accept. For the deal to go through, we needed a critical mass (at least 35) of acceptances from the team. Many team members accepted quickly but several of them needed additional time to research and make their decision. The managers on the team spent significant time clarifying questions as well as negotiating better terms for some individuals who were ready for promotions or more responsibilities. Few team members had been exploring other positions and some of them ended up taking those offers. A couple of our senior leaders also ended up going with other companies that were on our list either because they had better clarity on their assignment, or the other offer was compelling. Still that didn’t affect the leader to team member ratios on the team since this leadership team had managed a 200-person team in our current company.

Outcome

In the end 43 of 51 people accepted their offers making the deal valid. The company we picked was a well-funded startup which considered technology as a key differentiator. They were looking to build a presence in Seattle and our team was a great choice since it accelerated their plans by almost a year, and they got a fully functioning PE team in record time. They also acquired significant leadership capacity for future expansion.

The Facts

We identified about 60 companies in our first pass. We were able to connect with leaders of 28 companies that expressed interest. Nine companies wanted to continue exploring of which five organizations were the most viable based on the timing, speed at which they were able to move and the ability to absorb everyone. Among the top five, two companies were startups and three were large established companies looking to expand rapidly. The two finalists were a startup and an established company, both willing to move fast. We picked the startup as our top company. One of the tie breakers was that the startup was able to keep us all together on one team (one of our top priorities) and give us a challenging mission, while the large company wanted to absorb everyone into critical roles needed throughout the organization. Two of our leaders ended up accepting offers from the large company and another with one of the other large companies in our top five.

Timeline

Here’s a quick view of our timeline

Conclusion

No one could have predicted this outcome when we started the process 8 weeks ago. Timing had to be perfect and many things had to come together for us to pull off this feat. We had our offers heading into the holidays and could look forward to starting on a new challenge in the New Year with great energy.

Now that we have established that it is possible, I believe our experience & approach creates a blueprint for teams in similar situations exploring opportunities.?Would it work for any team? I think there are some factors to consider that are critical for success

?Critical factors

1. Timing – Timing is the most important criteria and it has to work for all parties. The timeline of the company looking to expand needs to match with that of the team looking to move. A healthy economy and a hot market for talent are essential. We met at least 2 companies that had the need 6-12 months before we approached them.
2. Speed – The ability of an organization to move fast and get approvals needed to hire a large team in one shot. Many companies have hiring regulations that are often an impediment to these types of events. Startups are able to typically move fast and companies with already approved budgets for rapid growth are ideal candidates. For example - the large company in our top two had plans to add 2000 people in two years.
3. Network – Almost all of our final list of companies materialized because of the strong network our leadership team had and the credibility they had established with their peer groups. The willingness of each individual to advocate for the team and pitch to their contacts was the game changer in our case.
4. Leadership alignment – the senior leadership team managing this on behalf of the team needs to operate with full trust and respect for each other. It is not easy to put your own interests aside and work together for an outcome that works for the broader team.
5. Team engagement – The broader team needs to be able to trust their leaders that the effort would be successful. It is easy for the team to trust their own ability to land a job rather than believe that the whole team can be hired. The team also needs to appreciate the value of staying together vs. starting as a newbie on another team.
6. Transparency and communication - It is still a delicate balance between sharing timely information with the team enough to keep them engaged while protecting confidential information. Being optimistic yet realistic about the chances of the effort working out so that the team members had time to fend for themselves if it didn’t. We also committed to the team that we would refer them with all the contacts we had made during this process if they did not want to take the deal so that everyone had a fair chance to move to a better opportunity.
7. High Performing team – The team needs to have a proven track record of success and the hiring bar should be very high, for companies to be able to make the leap of faith of making a mass hire without interviews.
8. Motivation/Will power to close the sale – Having the patience and perseverance to get everyone’s questions answered repeatedly. Renegotiate offers as required. Expecting that not everyone will come along but having enough people to make the deal worthwhile. Both parties need to be sufficiently convinced that this is a great outcome and motivated enough to pull all the stops to make it happen.

?With so many things needing to fall in place, I might have given the impression that what happened is almost a miracle. It felt like that to almost all of us when it finally happened.

?I wouldn’t deny that it took a long time for it to sink in. However, if it can be done once, it can be done again. I am convinced that our approach can be made into a repeatable process and can benefit several other teams that are looking to find the right match in these times when the war for technology product engineering talent continues to heat up.

p.s. This write-up is dedicated to the incredible group of people that came together to make it happen. You know who you are. Thank you for your drive, ingenuity and collaborative spirit. I am grateful to have shared this journey with you!

11/18/22: Note about this article. This story took place in 2019 just before the pandemic. Some of you have probably read the article I had originally shared on Medium in 2020, to help people impacted by the downturn triggered by Covid -19. I am publishing it here again, since it seems just as relevant in 2022 as we see a spate of tech layoffs across the world.