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Balena 2.0

Under Construction​

Whilst we begin to restructure the way we work and how the company operates, this section of the handbook will aim to document the changes as they occur. This is a work in progress but a reference tool for the latest updates.

info

For the latest updates, please refer to the People-ops 'PSA' and Company 'Leadership updates' sections of the most recent all hands call doc (this can be found in the calendar invite for the All Hands each week) and the _annoucements stream in Zulip.

Replace Loops with Aspect groups​

"Loops" have unintentionally created silos and added confusion to knowing who owns what and where to go to for advice. The concept of working in a loop to iterate on work and incorporate feedback is well understood and remains - but no longer do we need to create organisational departments called "loops". Instead we can use the concept of aspect groups to better communicate the intention: grouping together people who have context and experience around a particular aspect of work.

Aspect groups provide focused advice to people making decisions. They do not own the decisions or the work being done.

The aspect groups are as follows:

  • Leadership > formerly maintainer group, mission team Lead the vision of balena

  • Strategy Form and communicate the company strategy

  • Engineering > formerly architecture Form and lead the vision and strategy of our engineering

  • Product Form and lead the vision and strategy of the Product

  • Finance and Legal > formerly companyOS Provide context and expertise fpr balena's finances and legal requirements

  • Customer success Form and lead the vision and strategy of balena's relationships with it's customers

  • Analytics > formerly data Provide context and expertise on balena's analytics and data

  • Marketing > combining the communications group and labs "sub-loop" Form and lead the vision and strategy of how balena markets and presents itself

  • People Operations (people-ops) > formerly team-os, people-os Provide context, support and expertise on all things balena team

This change will impact on the renaming of Zulip streams, All Hands sections and at some point repos too.

Products, Processes and Components​

The concept of Products remains, but it's recognised that not everything is a product. That concept added more confusion. Instead we will work on Products (e.g. Etcher, balenaMachine), Components (e.g. API, builder) and Processes (e.g. hiring, ordering). All of these will also have owners and contributors, captured in the team directory. The intention is to ensure these have owners seeking advice, making decisions and taking action.

Patterns and Improvements​

Patterns and Improvements will remain, as the way we sense problems and architect solutions. Improvements will also have owners and contributors.