From programmers to CTO

Diane worked in double click, an online advertising giant, to break through the professional glass ceiling of "Asian + female" and become a senior technical manager of DoubleClick. After Google acquired DoubleClick, Diane decided to leave, and jointly founded freewheel with several former colleagues/friends, committed to the profit value chain platform for online video content. Diane's professional experience deserves the learning and reference of people in the technical circle.

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I have been working in the United States for ten years. I have grown from an ordinary programmer to a CTO of freewheel. During this period, I had many things and met many friends who offered selfless assistance during my growth. It can be said that without them, there will be no me today. I 'd like to share with you some of the things that I 've been most touched and impressed with over the past decade. I also hope to take this opportunity to meet more friends.

My career started with DoubleClick. Entering DoubleClick started with a coincidence. Nine years later, when I left DoubleClick, I said in a farewell letter: "…… Destiny landed me at DoubleClick ......", This is a coincidence.
 
The story of a fortune cookie

I received a call ten years ago when I was about to go to New York for spring vacation. The phone number was called by a headhunter named John bongiorno from DoubleClick. I still remember this name because "bongiorno" means "good morning" in Italian. He saw my resume online and hoped that I could go to DoubleClick for an interview. Frankly speaking, I was not looking for a job at the time. I promised him that he was only in New York because of the headquarters of DoubleClick, and I was about to go to New York.

On the day of arriving in New York, my friends in New York invited me to dinner. You must have heard that a Chinese restaurant outside China has a habit we have never met in China: "fortune cookie" is a gift for the guests after the meal ". The note in my fortune cookie says, "You are offered a dream of your life time, say yes !" The first time I saw such a good message, I was very happy to put the paper in my wallet.

I went to the interview the next afternoon and met many people. Two of them impressed me. One was Vince Li, who later became my best friend and focused on technological development, he was the best architect of DoubleClick, and John Heider, vice president of engineering at that time. John and I had a very pleasant conversation. He unexpectedly told me at the end of the conversation: "I have such a great feeling that I am going to offer you a job, right at this moment. what do you say?" I was shocked. I remembered the small note in the lucky pie and showed it to him. John smiled and told me that I would receive a notice soon. I was notified very quickly. In particular, John also sent a card with a letter. He wrote on the card with his own title: "Diane, I wish your next fortune cookie says DoubleClick, yes!" I was very touched. I did not expect him to remember a trivial episode in our conversation. I did not expect him to write a card for it. I rolled up the double click card on the day of my graduation.

John gave me the first lesson on how to hire people with care. After many years, on the csdn CTO forum, I once talked about the importance of "connecting people with your own heart, hiring people with your own heart, and cultivating people with your own heart". My first teacher was John Heider.
 
Two weeks later, DoubleClick signed Lycos -- "the queen of showavail" became my nickname

I was first assigned to a report group (Reporting) and soon was transferred to a prediction group (showavail), maybe because I found my reasoning skills strong. The prediction group's applications have the most complex business logic and are hard to figure out, so no one is willing to stick to this hard nut to crack, but I find that this just gives play to my strengths. I understand programming and have deep training in statistics and data analysis, which is suitable for predictive analysis focusing on statistics. The key to emerging in a department where excellent programmers gather is to find a direction that best suits your own development.

In the prediction group, I tried to understand every problem, regardless of its size. Soon I found out that I was the youngest member in the group when I encountered the showavail issue. Here, I met my first chance at work: helping DoubleClick sign Lycos.

Lycos was the top three search engines in the world at the time. DoubleClick hoped Lycos would use dart as its advertising platform. However, Lycos regards search keyword prediction as the first condition for signing the contract, and requires DoubleClick to provide proof within two weeks. Otherwise, it will be free of discussion. Dart did not support keyword prediction for search at the time, mainly because the logic was too complex and difficult to develop. Everyone thinks that the conditions are too harsh and there is no hope at all. Mehdi, the sales manager of this Contract, find us and ask for a try. Although there is no hope, it is a pity that the Lycos contract can generate an annual income of more than one million US dollars. I volunteered to undertake this task. I thought at the time: I am not afraid to work hard. If I try it and don't lose anything, it is an opportunity to challenge my ability. In two weeks, I wrote 14 days of programs, and my QA followed me for 14 days and nights. So far, I still clearly remember that at three o'clock in the morning, I took a taxi home and crossed the Queensboro Bridge. I often encountered the congestion caused by people who were drunk at the bar. Two weeks later, dart was successfully upgraded to a version that supports keyword prediction ......

Soon, DoubleClick signed Lycos. At the celebration, Mehdi came in front of all the employees of the company and gave me a warm hug. He called me "the queen of showavail ". My nickname has been popular in the company for a long time. After I left the prediction group for a long time, someone even came up and said to me, "to me, you are always the queen of showavail ".

In the second lesson of DoubleClick, I believe in my own abilities and have the courage to challenge the limits. As long as I work hard, someone will agree.

Mehdi was later Vice President of operation quality of DoubleClick, known as "the famous Mehdi". Since then, my friendship with me has been maintained.
 
From programmers to IT managers

I learned how to manage and experienced a painful transformation. The transition from programmers to management mostly occurs in the rapid expansion of the company. In the expansion of the company, many managers are often needed, which brings opportunities for technical transformation. However, the first time the Internet bubble burst, I actually learned to manage it. The first bubble economy of the Internet was characterized by its blindness. During that time, what kind of company did render manager, as long as they were tied to the internet, they could burn their money without any extra effort. Many companies do not have any feasible profit models, so they can make an IPO, which can be worth tens of millions or even tens of billions of dollars. When the bubble burst, these companies were also vulnerable and collapsed. More than 90% of DoubleClick's customers collapsed at that time. Without a doubt, this has a fatal impact on itself. Like all companies, DoubleClick's only goal at the time was to survive.

At that time, I took over the prediction group and watched it gradually scale down from a team of more than 20 people to a group with only a few people after a round of layoff. DoubleClick's last round of layoffs was fatal. The company decided to set several products, including predictions, as a maintenance model and no development. As a result, the entire team left me alone. I was deeply aware of the cruelty of my life in my painful experiences. After the final layoff, I spent a week on a small island called nantucket in Massachusetts.

Looking back, DoubleClick made two fatal mistakes at the time, which directly led to the loss of its leading position after the Internet economic recovery. First, the blind expansion before the bubble burst, spending money like water. Because the money is easy to get and there is no budget limit for each department, the company was recruiting people every day, no matter how useful it is. Taking my prediction Group as an example, there is no need for more than 20 people to do their jobs. Many programmers are idle every day. Teams like this are everywhere and are by no means a special case. Second, blind layoffs after the bubble burst have completely lost the company's fighting capacity. DoubleClick's products were originally in a leading position in various aspects. However, at a low economic point, the company gave up its investment in product R & D, blindly tightening the bank root, and only trying to survive. There is only one person in the prediction group, and there is no way to do research and development, but to maintain the status quo. Such examples are also everywhere. Facts have proved that, after the economic recovery, countless competitors have emerged from all directions with more advanced products. DoubleClick is passively hitting the market with us. The result of only graph survival is the loss of the right to survive.

Under such circumstances, I took the road to management. I learned the importance of not blindly expanding because of downsizing, I learned how to maintain the team spirit in adversity, how to objectively evaluate employees, and how to maintain the Team strength at the minimum cost.

My third lesson at DoubleClick is also the most painful one: learning to manage in adversity.

Although painful, this experience has accumulated valuable experience for me and laid a solid foundation for me to lead DoubleClick as a member of the DoubleClick senior executive team in the future.

I once talked about how I got into DoubleClick by chance, became the leader of the prediction group, and how to embark on a management path when the network bubble burst. Here I will talk about a few things that have touched me deeply on the road to management.

Become the only female IT executive

After waiting for a long time in DoubleClick, as the number of responsibilities increases, some people always ask me: "Have you ever met glass ceiling as a female and a foreigner )?" I often smile. When there were too many people to ask, I looked around. I found that only one of the people around me was a female, and only one of me was talking in bad English. Is there a glass top? Of course, but it is another thing if you don't feel it. I think the key thing is "I don't feel it", not "is there ". It sounds a bit difficult. Here is an example. Since watching the Olympics over the past few days, I will share with you some of my experience in watching the Olympic gold medal competition. In general, there is only one point: the more you are afraid of losing, the more you will lose. Many gold runners are expected to lose the gold medal, not because they do not have the strength to compete for gold, but because they are nervous, afraid to lose, and fail to play well. On the contrary, those who do not put pressure on themselves and do not consider whether they can win the gold medal can play an extraordinary level to win the gold medal.

I think the same is true at work. Do not think that you are a female or a minority, but always think that you will be treated differently by others. The more you think like this, the more you dare not let your feet go and do it. The more you can't make full use of your own skills, the more time you get, the more you will be treated differently. If there is no glass ceiling in the IT industry, especially in the IT management industry, it is a false situation, and I often encounter situations where people first see me not taking me seriously. Also, when people look at you, a girl looks very young and has no experience. She speaks English with an Asian accent, which is hard to understand and claims to be engaged in it, it is not normal for people to take you seriously. At this moment, I smile, as if I didn't see it, and continue to do what I did. I should say a lot, say a lot, do a lot. Gradually, my eyes will change. Gradually, people will find that if they don't listen to my "Asian English" carefully, they won't be able to do anything. If they don't take this girl seriously, this will lead to detours. Later, it was hard for people to take you seriously.

Ignoring the existence of glass ceiling is the secret to breaking the glass ceiling and becoming the only IT executive for women.

 
Eleven bosses

I have had eleven bosses in DoubleClick for nine years. Some people say that you have had so many bosses, which will definitely affect your career. I don't think so. The eleven bosses are a valuable learning opportunity. In fact, I have learned a lot from them, especially Greg, who is also my last boss, the CIO of DoubleClick.

In April, the company was bought at $1.1 billion by Hellman Friedman, and is no longer a Nasdaq listed company. During the company's comprehensive restructuring, Greg invited me to join his executive team to develop all the application products related to advertisers. I was a bit hesitant at the time, because before that I had been in charge of core technical departments and focused on solving technical problems of large-scale and high-traffic advertising servers and report statistics, there is not much experience dealing with customers directly. Application product development requires dealing with customers directly and participating in product design, which is totally different from core technologies. In his plan, the core Department is transferred to others, but I want to take over this brand new team for me. If I cannot figure it out, I will find him. I hope that I can continue to take charge of the original department. This is both my strengths and a good time. Greg said that it was just because I was familiar with it that I was not allowed to continue to do it. He hoped that I could continue to learn new things and continue to do things that have already done well. I had to continue to accept new challenges and dare to do things that I was not sure about before I could continue to make progress.

Greg's decision caused a lot of repercussions in the company. Some people worried that the handover of core departments would lead to management risks, and some worried that I could not do a new job, someone even suggested that I take care of my original department. Greg withstood the pressure of all parties to stick to his plan and quickly handed over the core departments, allowing me to face all new challenges with no confidence in my ability in various occasions. His work and support have created a good start for me, and in the next two years, he will always help me in time to help me tide over the difficulties. In retrospect, if it wasn't because of his unconditional support, I wouldn't have dared to do things as I thought, nor would I have achieved the subsequent results.

Greg impressed me with his vision and the character he dared to take risks. he dared not to scale down his feet in front of the pressure, insisted on his own opinions, and his unconditional support to his subordinates, convinced me. I hope that I will be able to get the same comments many years later.

 
From hate to love -- they all hated me in the beginning

After I completed the handover and gradually got on the right track for my new job, Greg handed me another bigger challenge: to appoint me as the head of the Chicago R & D center. The Chicago R & D center is responsible for dartsearch and the communications MICS affiliate network and other products. This center is the original team of a company bought by DoubleClick a few years ago. Due to regional and corporate culture reasons, integration has never been successful. At that time, the person in charge was not properly managed, and there were continuous product problems. The marketing department and the R & D center did not trust each other and hated each other. However, all developers in the R & D center have deep feelings for the person in charge, which leads to years of problems that cannot be solved. As the product traffic increases, the problems become more and more serious. When the company finally decided to restructure the Chicago R & D center, Greg gave me this challenge.

Before Christmas, Greg and I flew to Chicago and dismissed the person in charge on the day of their arrival. Then they held a plenary meeting to announce that I was also the person in charge of the center. At the meeting, I can see that everyone is obviously hostile. Someone asked me in public: "You have no idea about the products in the center. Why should you be a good manager? Is the former owner dismissed because of political struggle ?" In the afternoon, it was a Christmas party in the center. They temporarily sent a message to the original person in charge. No one invited me.

Greg left on that day, and I stayed. throughout the winter, it tasted the biting cold wind in Chicago. the nickname of "windycity" was a real secret. The city of Chicago celebrates st with countless conversations, countless overnight battles, countless temporary meetings, and countless emails in the early morning. when Patrick's day turned the river green, I finally ushered in the central spring. After that, with the continuous efforts of both me and everyone, everyone saw the transformation of the R & D center at, and the marketing department and the R & D center gradually established a good relationship of mutual trust and mutual assistance.

My solution is not to replace the center leaders as you think. Throughout the process, except for an architect who leaves the office automatically, others choose to stay, help me recreate the center. Here is an interesting story. The architect handed me an envelope when leaving the company and asked me to sign the envelope, he also said that the envelope was filled with his predictions about the Chicago R & D center. He would come back a year later and open the envelope in front of everyone to prove that he was correct. I did not hesitate to sign the letter in front of all the people, and handed the envelope to him for safekeeping. I decided to meet you one year later. A year later, he did not appear in the R & D center as agreed, but sent me a letter to acknowledge that his predictions were wrong.

The Chicago R & D center team is a team that dares to hate and love, and I have established a deep friendship with them in this process. After hearing the news that I decided to leave the company, they organized a farewell banquet spontaneously. All the people in the center were present to wish me good luck, including those who asked me in public at the meeting, he deliberately suspends his personal vacation and returns to the company to attend my farewell meeting in advance. Some people stopped me in the hallway over those days and said to me, "thankyou for taking over Chicago team! It has been the best thing happened to us ......" Every time I was touched by tears, if I did something for the Chicago R & D center, they paid me more than that.

 

If you pay with sincerity, you will be rewarded with sincerity.

People often ask me: "In ten years, you have changed from an ordinary programmer to a CTO. Where is your secret ?" I said, there is no secret. You can do what you can. I have been persistently sticking to the principle of being a person: treat people with sincerity, and others will treat you with sincerity. If you pay with sincerity, you will have a sincere return.

 

Conclusion -- leave DoubleClick to start a new chapter

In July, I left DoubleClick and became the Founder/CTO of freewheel to pursue my dream. So far, one year and one month. In the past month, I was touched by more things, met more people I admire, and learned something I could not imagine. Many people say that my career at DoubleClick is smooth and Lucky. I said that the past decade has only been a preparation and the real race has just begun.