Building a world-class engineering environment

We know we’ve got to be quick to build all the tools in one. So we better have a world-class engineering environment that lets us build everything. How do we do that?

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No product management by default

Engineers decide what to build.

If an engineer at MorFi Technologies believes they should work on X, they can build X. We’d prefer you ship ten things quickly (and make a couple of mistakes) than plan too much. You will tend to gather more information by doing rather than planning.

There are some exceptions - for example, where we need to work on architecture (in which case the platform team with provide guidance), but we leave it down to you to decide when you should plan more or just get started.

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Transparency is fuel for autonomy

By being transparent, everyone is aware of what’s happening within the company.

For this reason, engineers can effectively make informed decisions about what to build.

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It starts with hiring

We hire people we think will flourish in an autonomous environment.

We look to hire people with broader rather than narrower skill sets, who are more flexible.

They’re low ego and flexible. They’re builders at heart who love innovating and working like this.

Our founder, Matthew, knows that the strongest software engineers benefit from autonomy the most.

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A high percentage of our employees are engineers

If we want to ship a lot, we need to figure out how we can have most of capital go into engineering.

We have limited outbound sales, and a hyperefficient go-to-market, largely driven by self-serve.

Nearly everyone at the company is shipping product.

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Deep work

When you’re doing engineering, you’re in the business of building up large, abstracted models in your head of how the code works.

That takes time and requires focus.

Doing a ton of meetings is a great way to screw this up.

We therefore have limited and infrequent meetings.