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Yoav has been an engineering manager on Facebook’s location infrastructure team for almost two years. Before Facebook, he was a serial entrepreneur, helping to build and run product and engineering at a variety of startups, from HubSpot to CarGurus. We sat down with him for a cup of coffee to learn more about his team at Facebook, what it’s like working out of Facebook’s Boston office and what it means to create a culture of autonomy.
Why did you decide to join Facebook?
Before Facebook, I worked at a variety of startups. I helped start a couple of them myself, and with others, I built the teams. I’ve been really lucky with all of my previous jobs, but throughout my career, there’s one thing that kept nagging at me -- I hadn’t yet worked on a product that I personally use every day.
Facebook was an obvious choice. I’m from Israel, and over there, everyone is on the Facebook family of apps. My grandparents use WhatsApp to stay in touch with their children and grandchildren, and my cousins and I use Instagram to share photos with one another. The Facebook family of apps have a huge impact on my family because it’s our main form of communication, and that was a big deciding factor for me.
The other reason I chose Facebook is the scale of the company. I’ve worked with companies that touch hundreds of thousands of people, but that’s nothing compared to Facebook. Knowing the features I build will impact billions of people is an incredible feeling.
You’re based in Boston - tell me more about the office, and what you’re working on there.
The Boston office opened in 2013 and currently has 100+ people. The engineering teams here are working on some of the world’s most complex, technical challenges; from Connectivity Lab, a team of engineers focused on getting people online for the first time, to the various machine learning teams, e.g. one which predicts Facebook's future infrastructure needs.
What’s incredible about the Boston office is that right now, we’re small enough that it still feels like a rapidly growing startup environment. Engineers work with teammates across the globe and often travel to Menlo Park, Seattle, London and New York City to collaborate with colleagues in other offices. In fact, I travel to Menlo Park about once a quarter and to NYC every few weeks, so I never feel as though I don’t have insight into what’s going on in other offices. It’s amazing how connected we all feel even though we’re spread out across the globe.
What does the Location Infrastructure team do, and what’s your role?
The Location Infrastructure team is based mostly in Boston. Among other areas, the team is responsible for building new features that leverage location information to create better experiences for people on our apps and services. This includes features like Find Wi-fi, Safety Check, Instagram’s Location Stories, Nearby Friends, and blood donations. So many of my friends and family have used these features, especially Safety Check, and I love getting their feedback. On the flip side, that also means I become their 24/7 technical support, which can be pretty entertaining!
We also work cross-functionally with other teams, building out features that require location infrastructure; like the Marketplace team, which uses location data to help users find nearby items for sale. In addition to helping build out these features, we also ensure the end result is accurate and relevant, and that the features can scale with Facebook’s growth.
As an engineering manager for the location infrastructure teams, I support both the feature side and the server side, ensuring my teams have the tools they need to move fast and be successful.
Watch Yoav in a Facebook Live where he discusses three Facebook products that help keep communities safe: Crisis Response, Disaster Maps, and Safety Check.
What’s your favorite thing about working at Facebook?
Facebook’s culture of autonomy has always been my favorite part about working here. Facebook has done an incredible job empowering engineers to push themselves, work on passion projects (which often turn into new features for the app), learn from one another and experiment with new tools. We let engineers find their own path and build features in the manner they see fit. As a result, our teams are incredibly motivated and they move fast. It’s amazing to see some of the features our engineers have built with the time and tools they’ve been given.
How does Facebook create a culture of autonomy?
It’s a great question, and something I’ve thought a lot about. What I’ve realized is that it requires a big investment in three key areas.
Hiring: At Facebook, we look for people who aren’t afraid to speak their minds and aren’t afraid of conflict. We hire folks who enjoy healthy debates on everything from current events, to how we should approach projects. We encourage diverse minds and perspectives because they help us grow and make smarter decisions. We also look for self starters - people who thrive in unstructured work environments. The folks I work with at Facebook are the best I’ve ever worked with in my career, and that’s across all fields: design, product, engineering, and more.
Infrastructure tools: Facebook also invests heavily in tools that help team members do their jobs better. In Boston, we have an entire team of engineers dedicated to improving the reliability, efficiency, stability, and ease of use of Facebook’s tools that enable engineers across the company to move fast. These teams have built developer tools including HHVM and GraphQL, which allow for automated code testing and deployment. These technologies enable engineers to ship a new feature to a select group of users and get access to usage analytics that help determine whether it should be deployed to everyone. But this doesn’t just apply to engineers; we also have teams focused on building tools for our designers, recruiters and others to make their jobs easier.
Humility: Finally, and one of the most important areas, is cultivating a mindset of humility, a quality that shines through among all our senior team members. They know they might not have all the answers, but they can hire people who will find the answers -- and this type of mindset and commitment starts from the top. Our executive team truly believe in the team they’ve built, and they are focused on hiring people who can do the job better than they can. Another part of this is providing positive reinforcement. In our “fix of the week,” where a behind-the-scenes engineering fix or accomplishment is highlighted to the company, engineers who have just started at Facebook are often recognized for their great work. It’s empowering and motivating to see the company recognize team members at all stages of their career.
Finally, what’s your favorite coffee drink?
Hands down, a double espresso at Autogrill, the Italian highway-side convenience store chain.
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