Lessons Learned from Scaling Up Octopus
summary
Company head count grows from 39 to 95 headcount between January and August 2021 and the team ships measurable changes: a funded People & Culture team (director Britannia, talent acquisition manager, people ops hires), a public handbook documenting values and career tracks, explicit team ownership using RACI and named career-track owners, principal engineers as architectural bar‑raisers, headcount planning spreadsheets for forecasted velocity, a weekly and eight‑week cadence for change, and a focus on regrettable attrition as the key people metric.
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chapters (9)
- 0:00Introduction
- 1:30Scaling the company
- 7:29Company culture before scaling
- 10:18Scaling misconceptions
- 14:08Practical scaling lessons
- 23:16Managing headcount
- 27:25Communication cadence
- 28:49Summary
- 29:51Q&A
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