Scaling a Platform Amid Crisis: A Journey as CTO at Delivery Hero

As a CTO who's navigated chaos and hypergrowth at Delivery Hero, leading engineering teams globally, I believe that building great products requires laser focus on customer experience, overcommunication, and embracing technical debt.

1. Being comfortable with chaos is a valuable skill for a CTO.
2. Ben leads engineering for Delivery Hero, a leading food delivery and e-commerce platform serving billions of orders annually in 72 countries.
3. He ensures the right things are built for customers two to three years in advance.
4. Ben has always been curious and stubborn; he enjoys solving hard problems and doesn't take no for an answer.
5. As a kid, his fascination with video games led him to write cheat codes, sparking his love for building things.
6. He studied computer science but dropped out after realizing he was bored with the beginner courses.
7. Ben started working as a programmer and later moved to Singapore to help build the engineering team for Global Blue.
8. Trust is crucial in a team environment; people follow their leader's behavior and actions.
9. A successful leader should focus on self-improvement, as the team will mirror their actions and culture.
10. Tiny changes can have significant effects in food delivery, making it challenging to deliver orders quickly and accurately.
11. Delivery Hero owns Foodpanda, and Ben became CTO of Delivery Hero after a series of promotions and company transitions.
12. A failed software deployment incident taught him the importance of clear communication within hypergrowth environments.
13. New team members may not have context about past decisions, requiring leaders to frequently repeat history and goals.
14. Overcommunicating is essential for large-scale organizations to ensure alignment and understanding among employees.
15. The engineering mindset should shift towards shorter incident times, higher stability numbers, and better mobile app quality in large-scale environments.
16. During the Covid-19 pandemic, user demand spiked, governments imposed new requirements, and platforms needed adjustments to handle growth.
17. Balancing reliability and accepting rapid growth was essential for Delivery Hero during this time.
18. Ben approaches technical debt by understanding when it will negatively impact the business, facilitating discussions with stakeholders about the best time to address it.
19. Customer experience is paramount; successful businesses must provide outstanding experiences first and foremost.
20. Engineers can get lost in troubleshooting mode, so leaders should emphasize understanding customer problems before proposing solutions.
21. Being open-minded and trying various approaches are important for success in any industry or country.
22. Imposter syndrome is common among engineers expanding their careers internationally, but they can succeed with determination.
23. Ben has 20 years of experience managing people in diverse settings.
24. Based on his personal experience, he believes that anyone can succeed outside their home country if they stay positive and open-minded.

Source: EO via YouTube

❓ What do you think? What are your thoughts on the ideas shared in this video? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments!