Inside Operation InVersion, the Code Freeze That Saved LinkedIn

businessweek.com

9 pointsvasusen3 comments

Unfortunately the article doesn't provide any evidence that the code freeze actually saved LinkedIn from anything worse than its engineers grumbling about what a mess their systems were, which is what every engineer in every company has done with every system since the dawn of time. The only real data point provided is that "so far this year, [LinkedIn's] share price is up more than 50 percent," but correlation/causation/etc.

You miss the point, it is a brand building piece for Kevin Scott. The three messages that piece wants you to come away with are : Kevin Scott saw a huge problem, Kevin Scott 'did what it took' to get the Company aligned on a solution, and Kevin Scott is the reason LinkedIn's corporate value doubled.

I'm not being snarky here, go back and re-read this piece and dissect it. As to why this piece is out there? Speculating there is fun (not really productive, but fun). The other thing I just read was the piece about engineers having their own agents [1]. If I were Kevin's agent this is the kind of press piece I would try to get published so I could walk into my next negotiation with "Hey, look at what we're talking about here, this isn't your average developer this guy moves mountains!"

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5527610

Not a code freeze, a feature freeze.

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