Workshop: Blake Commagere
August 25, 2011
Master Software Engineer and Creator of some of the biggest apps ever on Facebook (Zombies and Vampires) Blake Commagere explained to YetiZen how to keep everyone (All of your founders, team members and customers) happy. Blake talked about different ways to establish rapport with your team, and what sort of information you should share with them to ensure that they remain motivated and dedicated to your cause. He described how using respectful language is like free compensation. Giving your team members respect and praise doesn’t cost you anything, but will make your team a whole lot happier. Blake went on to discuss how to motivate people in specific roles, and what types of personalities you will likely find in your engineering team, your sales team and your investors. He was adamant about the power of AB testing as a problem-solving tool. When your team reaches a stalemate in a decision process, turn the dispute into an AB test. That way, you can make an objective decision based on experimental data rather than making a gut-call based on opinions. Blake explained that the same is true with customer feedback. He encouraged us to “Trust the data, not the feedback.” What your customers say they want is not necessarily the type of game they’d actually like to play. Blake’s workshop instilled in us a deeper understanding of how we wanted to be interacting with our communities.