trivago

Just a few years ago we were a start-up. Since then we have grown very fast, approximately doubling the number of talents every year. As we grow, the working environment around us changes rapidly every day, and maintaining that start-up mentality becomes more and more difficult. How do we ensure we don’t lose the values we were built on when scaling at such speed? Here are a few of the ways we stay adaptable and innovative. 

By continuously trying to improve

We know that failing fast accelerates improvement. On their very first day at trivago, people are told that it’s ok to fail. In fact, failure is celebrated. As long as you fail fast, you will learn fast, and succeed sooner. We believe innovation is built on trial and error, and that is why entrepreneurial passion is one of our core values.

By promoting empowerment

Talking openly about our failures is one way we reduce the feeling of hierarchy in the company.  We also abandoned titles, to encourage people to leave their ego at the door. Whaaat? You might be asking yourself. How do you know who’s in charge of what? Well, we prefer to identify ourselves with what we do, rather than what it says on our business cards. A “Senior Executive Manager” shouldn’t get to decide everything just because they are the most senior. The best idea should always win, regardless of who they came from. This attitude reduces internal politics, and generally keeps us more humble and respectful towards each other. From the Leadership Team to students, we all sit together and we all party together as equals.

So how does an intern get an idea through the door? Well, by valuing the power of proof over seniority we give everyone the chance to get their ideas implemented. We love testing, so if you have an idea of how to do things better, no one will stop you making a business case. We continuously test new initiatives & analyse our results, persuading people to follow our lead based on power of proof. This way, we get to innovate, learn and share knowledge, rather than give or follow orders.

We also support innovation on an organizational level by organizing hackathons and pitching days, where anyone can turn an idea into a Minimal Viable Product, and if it performs well, get the resources to scale it. These ideas can range anywhere from getting rid of our legacy code, to shortening our meetings  to 50 mins instead of an hour to allow time for people to move between meetings.

By breaking down boundaries

As mentioned before, we got rid of job titles, so that all trivago talents see eye to eye. We’re very much a people-focused company. We know that even the best ideas won’t work if our talents don’t like coming to the office. We therefore put a lot of emphasis on breaking down walls, whether that’s between leads, teams or departments. We work in cross-functional teams, in different mixed project groups, and encourage our talents to move positions in the company, to keep them motivated and curious. We take every measure to enable direct conversation. Sometimes a short chat at someone’s desk will avoid the hassle of calling each other, aligning calendars and scheduling a meeting in a month’s time. That’s why we all sit together in a big open space. We also have a wide variety of events, sports, our trivago Academies, guest presentations and many more opportunities to get to know your colleagues outside of work. Our experience is, the more you get to know someone as a person, the easier it is for you to approach them to collaborate, openly disagree with them on work topics, and give them honest feedback. This creates a transparency that builds trust.

By decentralizing our org structure

Decentralizing the traditional organizational structure is another way of reducing boundaries between teams and talents. As we grow as a company, we aim to make our teams smaller and more liquid. It is no secret smaller teams work faster, leaving more time to align with one another on the big picture. Our goal is to split teams into smaller groups, with all the resources they need to achieve the initiatives that support trivago’s mission. Imagine a company made up of lots of mini start-ups, representing the same brand, but moving independently, quickly and innovatively.

Our cross-functional teams consist of developers, product owners, design, QA and a scrum master. This way, they have all the resources they need to ideate, develop, optimize and reach their shared goals. Working like this means that if a small team tries something risky, and fails, it doesn’t break the whole company. If it succeeds? Well, then the team gets even more resources! In this particular team, we’re also trying out a pitching model, where anyone can pitch an idea, e.g. a feature to be built on our website. If he or she convinces others to build it, then they get the go to form a team for two weeks. After two weeks, an MVP should be ready, and if they want to continue working on it, the idea needs to be pitched again for the next cycle.

Now, this is just a basic snapshot of one of our teams. You’ll find many different set-ups at trivago. teams that work with Scrum or Kanban frameworks, teams that work so quickly and reactively they still use paper to-do lists, and some teams work purely on a mix of caffeine and magic. There are no set rules, just whatever works best for that person or team. This diverse approach is a by-product of our scepticism towards rules & standardizations. We don’t get too involved in how people work, but should they need support in finding their ideal way, we have a dedicated Organizational Agility department to support them in achieving their goals faster. We generally believe the best ideas will get the most buy-in, and then become best practices. Adaptability, entrepreneurial passion and fanatic learning are standout traits that we look for in talents during recruiting. We also encourage those already working with us to change their perspectives regularly by switching roles and taking on new challenges throughout their trivago journey.

Because we’re always ready for change, we’re also able to adjust to big shifts within our organization. For example, we’ve just gone through a huge change to our leadership model, as we strive to give teams and individuals even more autonomy and growth opportunity. We decided to split the traditional “lead structure” three ways to match key strengths. We now have:

• A Responsibility Lead, who is responsible for the business success of an area.
• A Knowledge Lead, who is an expert in a certain field and is happy to remain there to excel in their chosen vocation.
• A Talent Lead, who is in charge of a talents’ personal development.

As everyone has at least two people leading them, it’s not enough just to impress your “manager”. In fact, your performance is evaluated by ALL your stakeholders in the form of 360-degree feedback. We gather input from a talent’s peers. By doing this, we avoid people “kissing up and kicking down.” Your peers could be your team, your stakeholders, your leads or people you worked with on a project. If you manage to convince everyone you’re doing a great job, no one cares how many hours you spent at work. In fact, we often really don’t even know. We trust people to take as much time as they need to do a great job and we trust them to take as much time off as they need to be productive. That is why we have self-determined working hours and holidays, so our talents can get more out of life.

Conclusion

In conclusion, there is no right way or wrong way of doing things at trivago, but there are usually always better ways. We only find those better ways by trial and error, and so we exist in a liquid, adaptable environment, because we believe if you stand still, you get left behind. We value diversity and authenticity over consistency, so there is never just one truth. There are many different opinions at trivago, there will probably even be some who challenge this video, and that’s okay. The more perspectives we gather on a topic, the cleverer we become. It is kind of like machine learning, done by humans. It helps us improve every single day.