Why having a strong Culture is a treasure: our V2MOM approach

As previously stated in the first part of the series, the second tool that we started using to build our culture is the V2MOM framework. For those that are new to the term it is an acronym for Vision, Values, Methods, Obstacles and Measures. Thanks to these the team can have a framework to know if everyone is on the same page and it also helps answering some questions when there is doubt.

Start questioning what vision you want to achieve, because if you are not clear about where you want to go you will not get far sadly.

Vision. We define our vision as “become a reference development team while delivering a reliable and financially scalable e-commerce solution”. This doesn’t mean that we are already there, but it can be seen as our lighthouse to keep working towards reaching that goal.

One of our values always present in our offices in Valencia

Values. It is what allows us to have teams that make decisions by their own and that those decisions are aligned with the rest of the teams, rather than grouping up everyone in a room resulting in more autonomous and independent teams.

• Engineering excellence is not negotiable. Maybe we can do something faster to deliver more orders, but if the quality is not good enough we should not release it because sooner than later we will have problems with that. We have to have our own speed and be at peace with that, deadlines are a big problem here.
• Risk and dependencies are our enemies, we assume the overhead to reduce them. The key is to keep going, rather than stopping and starting again. Imagine a big train, once it stops it is very hard to start it again. The goal is to reduce those “blocks” that make us stop the train. We believe that it is better to assume that overhead so that our development can keep going, rather than waiting for another team to finish something that is blocking us.
• Blame is useless and continuous improvement necessary. Focus on the solution and the accountability for the next time, since wasting resources on what has already been done won’t change it, rather than improving it for the next time. In the end we will fail, the difference is how fast we can recover and minimise the impact to our users.
• We are a Product Engineering team. All we do is selling lettuces, that is how we deliver value. Doesn’t matter if we have the best API, the best micro-services or the best infrastructure if that doesn’t bring the value we need.

Methods. These are the tools that allow us to reach that vision.

• We are an XP team: all we do are feedback loops. Every time we make a test, every time we do pair programming, every PR submitted, every 1:1 with our manager or every retrospective with our team are examples of feedback loops.
• Maximise feedback loops and minimise its size and cost. Basically we want to have as many as possible since that will allow us to know if we are on the right path, and if its size is the smallest possible we will have even more.
• Self-managed and self-organised teams: we make the decisions we take responsibility. There are high objectives given by the C level, but it is the responsibility of everyone in the verticals teams to decide exactly what they will be working on.
• Blameless post-mortem with forward accountability. As previously stated, we focus on the solution. We don’t really care who’s fault it was but we do care on how to not have it again.

Obstacles. Things that make us go slower and make us expend more time to solve them.

• Business confidence. Having all these feedback loops, continuous delivery, changing the software many times per week might result in lowering that trust if we start introducing bugs or inconsistencies which could lead to the moment where they say, you can only deploy once per week.
• Feedback loop in logistics. One big part of our ecosystem is handled in our warehouses that work during the night meaning that every deployment we make will be used a few hours later than released. This is different from the API used in the e-commerce part, where in five minutes you will have many users already using the new release. This is a big problem because the feedback loop we are receiving is much slower than desired.
• Bias as a tech company. We are working to fulfil our vision but Mercadona is not seen from the outside as a techy, which sometimes is a big handicap. We have been working on it and we are sure that sooner than later we will be able to show the opposite.

Our raw DORA metrics for the whole 2022 so far

Metrics. Having some numbers and scores allow us to know whether we are improving or hurting them. It is very desired to have them monitored and always present.

• DORA / Accelerate metrics. Metrics to measure our performance and find out whether we have “low performers” to “elite performers”. The four metrics used are Deployment Frequency, Lead Time, Mean Time To Recover and Change Failure Rate. Basically we try to always have them monitored to not lower our standard, reviewing them every month in our meetings by the whole engineering team.
• OfficeVibe. It is a software that we use heavily to know more about how people are feeling within the company, what they would change, what topics should be addressed, etc. It gives you a score called eNPS that states how proud you are to be here and how likely you would recommend working int Mercadona Tech.

Final thoughts

We are starting to work as a distributed company with a single team located in Madrid, while the rest of the teams are in Valencia while also becoming remote friendly. This might be seen as a scary thing and it actually is because one key point about the culture in our case has been earned thanks to everyone coming to the same office and that’s why having a strong culture is something that allows us to be aligned even when we don’t share the same space. It is crucial that it comes from the team, which evolves as the team evolves. It is also very important to have a starting point, but that doesn’t mean that it is the one that we have to follow, rather to have a base framework which the team can use to evolve and feel part of it.

Don’t forget that even with a strong culture you cannot convince anyone about it, people have to feel proud about it, that it is part of them and that they will act as a new lighthouse to newcomers. It is not an easy task since it is something that takes a lot of time and needs many iterations which never stops, but as you can see I truly believe that in Mercadona Tech we have a strong culture and according to our metrics and feedback the team is also proud about it. Have always in mind that the culture stays within the team, no matter who joins or leaves the team, at the end if someone fails we fail together as a team, if someone does something great we celebrate as one.

This is what is working for us, it doesn’t mean that it should work for every company out there, every team should have its own culture because every team is different and the people inside will be the ones that believe in it.

If you like what you just read and want to be part of it don’t hesitate and check out our open positions, we would like to keep growing our team with people like you!