Re:Shopify to lay off 10% of workers in broad shake-up
by wollsmoth on Tuesday July 26, 2022 @10:32AM
(#32238808)
Hard to say without knowing what they're working on. Maybe there's a lot to do with integrating other software/services. Maybe they've got a good devops org to help smooth the process for everyone. Sometimes having a few more people than you need on many levels makes the org a lot more resilient to individuals leaving so the org can keep on rolling without a hitch.
[ Parent
| on HN ]
Re:Shopify to lay off 10% of workers in broad shake-up
by kill_nate_kill on Tuesday July 26, 2022 @10:43AM
(#32238976)
If your system doesn't have any slack in it, how can it respond to change? Having a slightly underloaded system is definitely the way to go, it leaves you with some gas to change direction if you see that you're barreling towards a cliff.
Re:Shopify to lay off 10% of workers in broad shake-up
by marcosdumay on Tuesday July 26, 2022 @12:31PM
(#32240457)
Well, the transition from 2k to 10k people isn't something done to add slack to create a flexible system. For that you at most double the number of people, you don't multiply it by 5.
They must have changed something either on their product or on their procedures on those 5 years.
Re:Shopify to lay off 10% of workers in broad shake-up
by wollsmoth on Tuesday July 26, 2022 @01:23PM
(#32241136)
My guess is they decided to start writing more tools internally instead of relying on external vendors to respond to their needs. Again, hard to say. How much did eng grow vs sales/support.