MeetAndy AI

The product is a good reflection of its founders. Before I started at Airbnb, I had used HomeAway a few times to book vacation homes. At that time, HomeAway didn’t handle payments. It was a low-touch, high-margin business model—likely the approach to take if you wanted to attract VC investment. However, I was always hesitant to leave negative reviews on any of the mediocre properties because I worried about not getting my deposit back. It got the job done, but it wasn’t enjoyable. Airbnb solved both the payment and review problems early on, transforming the user experience significantly. A problem that HomeAway ignored for over a decade, Airbnb tackled quickly. But why? From the outside, traditional business school explanations like the innovator’s dilemma might suffice. Yet, after joining Airbnb, it became clear to me: it was the founders. Brian, Joe, and Nate form a perfect trio, embodying execution, empathy, and intelligence. They viewed the product in a fundamentally different way from HomeAway. People who interact with them probably aren’t surprised by Airbnb’s approach. While Airbnb is in the business of providing a stay and connecting people, HomeAway wasn’t. Despite both being marketplaces, HomeAway saw itself as an advertiser. Founders make those critical early decisions about what to build and how to build it. They also create the culture that sustains momentum. Recently, as I made product decisions for MeetAndy, this resonated with me again. There are many ways to build a product to manage software projects, but the path I’m pursuing emphasizes “helpfulness.” There’s no shortage of tools aiming to monitor everything and boost productivity. But MeetAndy’s approach is to use that information to assist everyone involved. No one wants a project assistant whose sole purpose is to track performance scores for others, but everyone appreciates a helpful, hard-working colleague. I think that reflects my philosophy at work, and it’s what I aim to replicate in MeetAndy.ai too. :)

500 Global Demo Day!

Engineering productivity metrics can be tricky because better numbers don’t always mean better outcomes. A few years ago, I was overseeing a group of engineering interns at Airbnb. These were some of the brightest folks, having gone through tough interviews to join us for the summer. While reviewing the performance of over 100 interns, one intern’s code changes really stood out. He had made more than 100,000 lines of code changes in just 10 weeks, which definitely got my attention. When I dug deeper, I realized most of these changes were to test cases, many with small or even useless data. Outside of the test cases, his code changes were pretty average. It seemed like he was trying to inflate the numbers to stand out. When smart people focus on the wrong metrics, they can get really creative in gaming the system. That’s why it’s so important not to rely on numbers alone without understanding the story behind them when you’re leading a team. Have you ever come across something similar when leading your team? How do you balance the hard metrics with the more qualitative traits of a good engineer?

"It will be done when it's done" If you ask your software team often enough about project timelines, you might eventually get this answer. But let's be honest - all the cross-functional teams depending on the outcome of your software project won't be thrilled with such an open-ended response. One of the biggest challenges any software team faces is accurately answering this question. There are tons of ways to approach it, and experienced leaders will tell you that if you want a definite answer, you must either adjust your scope or have additional resources at your disposal. With that said, a great team also simply executes better. How? By ensuring precious resources are spent on the right things, catching issues early on, and maintaining excellent communication within the team. This is challenging, as it often requires engineering leaders (both managers and tech leads) to spend significant time overseeing their teams. That's why I am creating a project assistant that acts as a silent partner for your team, gently guiding them towards efficient execution and clear communication.By reducing the cognitive load on your engineering leaders and empowering every team member, MeetAndy helps turn the dreaded "when will it be done" question from a source of stress into something that teams can answer confidently. https://meetandy.ai