Why does HiBob need a Frontend guild?
In recent years HiBob has gone through massive growth, from 100 employees to nearly 1,200, with new development centers around the world. That rapid expansion brought challenges: inconsistent ways of working, teams rebuilding solutions that already existed, and difficulty passing on knowledge. The Frontend infrastructure team was too small to handle all of the organization's needs, which led to significant bottlenecks.
How was the guild established?
Before the guild became what it is today, HiBob tried different formats, including monthly meetings called "Clubs" that didn't manage to drive real change. After COVID, once the company had grown significantly, it was clear there was a need for a framework that would enable knowledge sharing and better processes. Management backed the move, and the decision was to give the guild real work time, not just occasional meetings.
How is the Frontend guild structured?
The guild was built like this:
- Guild leadership: leads the strategy and the rollout processes.
- Guild Core Members: representatives from every development group who act as ambassadors and promote the guild inside their teams.
- All the other Frontend developers: knowledge consumers at first, who later take on tasks and influence the processes.
When did you know the guild was working?
Today we have 2 Backend developers for every Frontend developer. It used to be the other way around.
Success was measured through meaningful projects, like the move to a new testing infrastructure, which was managed entirely through the guild and sped up processes. Beyond that, the guild contributed to a measurable improvement in developer efficiency, reduced dependence on the infrastructure team, and enabled closer collaboration between teams.
What's the win-win of the guild?
- For the organization: better workflows, less friction between teams, knowledge retention, and higher productivity.
- For the employees: professional development, a chance to make an impact, a sense of accomplishment, and a better work experience.
What challenges did you face?
- Convincing management to dedicate time and resources to the guild.
- Employee engagement: how do you get people to go from passive participants to active ones?
- Creating consistency across teams without undermining their autonomy.
Tips for a successful guild
- Build a meaningful backlog. Developers love to get hands-on and build, and beyond that, there's a lot of value in seeing progress on tasks, big and small.
- Communicate the guild's success to the organization. Keep showing that the guild is working, succeeding, and making a difference.
- Read the organization and move slowly. Stay tuned in to what's happening, like busy periods or important goals, and give the organization time to adjust.
Don't try to build the perfect guild in a day. It's a process that develops over time.