Developing a \u201cstreet view\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n
So a few months later, Mozilla\u2019s leadership team launched Project Street View, a series of small-group conversations designed to help employees understand the new strategy, and to help execs connect with\u2014and get input from\u2014people with a \u201cstreet-level\u201d view of Mozilla. Over the course of 10 weeks, Chris and the rest of the execs led more than three dozen talks, each with no more than 10 team members, from a variety of levels and locations (nearly half of Mozilla\u2019s workforce is remote.) For Chief Legal Officer Amy Keating, who had joined the company the previous year but was brand new to the exec team, it was a chance to close a gap she\u2019d experienced firsthand.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was in a leadership role before, but there was still a lot I didn\u2019t know until I became one of Chris\u2019s direct reports. \u2018How do you make decisions? What other ideas did you consider?\u2019 So I wanted to share the kind of information I\u2019d been hungry for myself,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
It was also a chance to listen. \u201cIf the seven of us on the exec team are just sitting in a conference room with each other all day, we\u2019re not talking to the people who are actually connecting with the users or writing the code.\u201d<\/p>\n
Listening and learning<\/b><\/p>\n
To make sure those voices were heard, Amy encouraged people in her Street View sessions to speak up. \u201cI really wanted a diversity of viewpoints, not just a conversation between me and one or two people,\u201d she explains. \u201cAnd I know I\u2019m personally more comfortable sharing my opinion when I\u2019m specifically invited to.\u201d So after offering her thoughts on the strategy for a few minutes, she went around the room asking each participant if they wanted to chime in.<\/p>\n
That approach also shed light on aspects of Mozilla Amy wanted to learn more about. \u201cWe had several participants who work on Pocket, our content platform, and I realized I didn\u2019t know enough about how that part of the business ran.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/careers\/files\/2019\/09\/iStock-955148220-600x331.jpg\")
For Berlin-based Senior UX Designer Nicole Weber, Project Street View was an opportunity to not only hear and be heard, but a rare chance to meet in person with a member of Mozilla\u2019s leadership team. Her session with Michael DeAngelo, the company\u2019s Chief People Officer, took place during an exec team visit to Berlin.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe explained how they\u2019d decided on the new strategy, and it was reassuring to hear how they\u2019re thinking about it,\u201d she says. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t like, \u2018We have to march in this direction for the next three years even if everything explodes.\u2019 It was, \u2018Here\u2019s the plan, and let\u2019s all work together to figure out how to get there.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Like Amy\u2019s sessions, most of Nicole\u2019s hour with Michael was reserved for questions and discussion. She asked about Mozilla\u2019s hiring plan for Berlin and the rest of Europe, and one colleague raised a concern about a conflict between the implementation plan and their individual goals. \u201cMichael was very open\u2014he acknowledged the issue and gave good, practical advice about how to work with their manager to solve it.\u201d The discussion, Nicole says, helped her and her colleagues translate the high-level strategy to their individual roles. \u201cWe needed to understand, \u2018Okay, what can I do to help?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
That was a common question for Amy, as well\u2014and one that changed her own thinking. \u201cPeople just wanted to understand the vision that was driving these changes. I went in thinking Mozilla was hesitant about change, but every single person I talked to was actually cool with it. They just wanted to know more about why we\u2019d chosen this strategy and how it tied to our values.\u201d<\/p>\n
In his Street View session, Taipei-based Android Developer Nevin Chen says Firefox SVP Dave Camp was similarly transparent. Nevin\u2019s colleagues who work on performance and networking tools admitted they wondered if their jobs were in danger since they aren\u2019t closely tied to revenue. \u201cDave was very direct and honest,\u201d Nevin says. \u201cHe didn\u2019t make promises he couldn\u2019t keep, but he was clear that leadership thinks that part of the business is important. \u201d<\/p>\n
Moving forward\u2014together<\/b><\/p>\n
For Nevin, hearing his colleagues\u2019 concerns was part of what made Street View so valuable. \u201cWe don\u2019t usually talk about our worries,\u201d he said. \u201cHearing them made me feel less alone.\u201d Plus, meeting people he wouldn\u2019t otherwise interact with has helped him see Mozilla as one big team. \u201cI feel connected to the company again, but this time it\u2019s not the brand itself. It\u2019s a group of enthusiastic people I\u2019ve talked with face-to-face. It\u2019s one of the best experiences I\u2019ve had.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nicole agrees. \u201cTaking so much time to sit down with us showed that leadership cares. It was a confirmation for me of why I came to Mozilla in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for the executive team itself, Amy says, \u201cI think there\u2019s been a mindset shift since Street View\u2014it was a reminder that our constituents include not just our customers, but our employees. It\u2019s definitely coming up a lot more in meetings now: \u2018How will people feel about this? How can we make it more clear?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Street View is also helping drive the conversation around specific topics, like how the team can better support international offices like Nevin\u2019s and Nicole\u2019s. \u201cI\u2019m definitely thinking more about the experience of teams located in other offices or remotely,\u00a0 and how the decisions we make impact people around the world,\u201d Amy says. \u201cWe regularly reference things we learned during Street View.\u201d<\/p>\n
And, Amy says, the sessions have helped the exec team build another important muscle\u2014what she calls \u201cauthentic transparency.\u201d \u201cWe\u2019re used to connecting with the team in these formal ways, through prepared answers and well-vetted emails,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s harder to answer questions on the fly, but I think it\u2019s so important.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for a Street View, Part 2? \u201cI think we should absolutely do it again,\u201d Amy says. \u201cThere\u2019s so much knowledge and perspective we miss if we don\u2019t talk to each other\u2014especially at Mozilla, because this is an opinionated team. People come to work here because they care about what we\u2019re doing. Conversations like these are part of who we are.\u201d<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
Interested in working with the Mozilla team? Learn more about working at Mozilla <\/b>here<\/b><\/a>.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Project Street View: Connecting Team Members with Mozilla\u2019s Leadership When the results of Mozilla\u2019s biannual engagement survey came back in late 2018, CEO Chris Beard and the rest of the … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":144,"featured_media":246,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30710],"tags":[],"coauthors":[306191],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/144"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}