The Scoop: Open bar, open bar, appetizers… Oh! And did we mention OPEN BAR!

Vegas Baby: Can you code at a bar? If yes, then you can code at Zappos! 

We will be having 2 coding challenges – 30 minutes each – 25 people max in each challenge. You can only do one of the challenges. If you need headphones, bring ‘em. Oh, and a laptop - that’s kinda important!

1st coding challenge at 6:30pm 
2nd coding challenge at 7:30pm

The coding challenge is the first screening step in our interview process for hiring software engineers at Zappos. The person who gets the correct answer first from each round will be fast-tracked to VEGAS BABY! Yep, the second step in our screening process is an in-person interview in Las Vegas at our offices. And as always when we fly folks in to spend the night in Vegas, tour our offices, and interview - expenses are on us! Sorry, any gambling is on you. ;)

You don’t have to do a coding challenge or be a software engineer to hang with us!! We love all you tech peeps indiscriminately. Come on down and have a drink already! And our CEO, Tony Hsieh, will be at the event! If you participate in the challenge and would like one, he’s happy to sign a copy of his book, “Delivering Happiness” for you. 

If you are a helper and know super awesome tech folks, tweet this link!
http://on.fb.me/ZapposSeattleTechTweetUp

And in closing, check out what Zappos developers do when they aren't coding:

Hi Team,

As we embark on another ambitious year for Zappos Technology, let's remember to play our part in moving forward one of the company's most powerful assets and competitive differentiators - OUR CULTURE. Moving our culture forward entails engaging with departments outside technology as much as engaging with teams inside the technology department. Our culture provides the platform for friendships across teams and departments which then enables seamless communication without the bureaucracy found in larger companies. I'm happy to share how Zappos Tech will be owning and driving various cultural events and projects in 2011 – your participation and engagement in these events would be welcomed!

1. The 8000M challenge – I made the mistake of telling Brent that I would actually do the 8000M challenge if he agreed to lead it – well, he's leading it and I will be doing the 8000M challenge. Hope to see many of you participate!

2. The Rube Goldberg Machine – Dave Fong will lead getting the company involved in the creation of a very fun Rube Goldberg machine!

3. The Pinewood Derby – Frank Zaffino and team are leading this and we expect this to be a fun event in March!

This is in addition to various cultural events like Hackathons, Tech Lunch n Learns, Minute to Win-its, the donut eating contests, the breakfast club for Finance, and more…

Additionally, tech will be enabling and/or driving various cultural projects including the evolution of the face game, the next versions of Wishez and moving the zepic hackathon project forward. 

Let's continue to solidify technology's reputation as an incredible innovation, execution and operational team by leveraging our technical skills and our cultural platform to WOW and deliver happiness to everyone around us!!

arun

Hurdling buildings and halting speeding locomotives is an average day in the life of SYS… the team is always “on point” when needed to handle incidents that arise through the normal course of business. 

One such event developed on a normal, wintry day in Kentucky… slight breeze, chill in the air, and all systems were “go.” Out of nowhere, Verizon went down and the company was unable to produce shipping labels for cartons.  Verizon, you see, provides the internet connection between Zappos and GTS (Amazon’s shipping solution).  Bert Hooper, caped-crusader extraordinaire sprang into action, suggesting the team switch to the backup internet connection for SiteManager (Windstream). In an amazing feat that would have only been described by an ex-president as “Thwartin’ the evildoer’s doin’,” SYS worked simultaneously with Verizon to resolve the problem, and with Amazon, to setup a tunnel through Windstream to connect to GTS - in the event that Verizon couldn’t come back online. As was the case, Verizon didn’t come back up, and SYS moved forward with the Windstream workaround once the tunnel had been established. 

Kudos and props go out to Sys and KYFC Ops for their collaboration in bringing a thoughtful and rapid solution to this dastardly situation. Not only was the team able to re-establish peace to the Kentucky quadrant, they saved the system from sure ruin. Though manual shipping stations and automated shipping lanes were affected, the efforts of all involved resulted in no missed paid or VIP orders - quite amazing given the outage. Additionally, the team has already established a redundant solution to avoid an extended outage should this sort of thing happen again.

So the next time you see SYS wandering the halls, give ‘em a high-five, thumbs-up, or blow up the rock… ‘cuz there are superheroes among us.

New Classification tool streamlines the merchandising experience...

Before a product goes live on our site, the merchandising team must classify it. Previously, this process was excruciatingly slow and inefficient. This made it difficult for merchandisers to get products to our customers…and we certainly don’t want that.

Now, thanks to Dean Curtis and the catalog department, the classification process is 90x faster overall than the original. In cases where products had many styles, it could take an hour or more to classify. But with the new tool, this same task can be accomplished in minutes.

The project started out initially to simply improve the 1.0 version of the tool. The team decided instead to go with a complete re-write.  The project took 3 months and the combined talent of all 5 members of the catalog team.  The development process was complicated further by almost constant attacks from the neighboring dev horde. It was only through teamwork, stamina, and high-castle walls that they were able to deliver this project to the waiting public.

The Catagorians, as they like to be called, border the UX team territory in the 2290 building. Come by the castle and say “Hi!” anytime!

In an effort to "Create Fun and A Little Weirdness" and "Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit" the Tech teams in Las Vegas and Kentucky held their Fourth Annual Tech Donut Eating Contest.  The donut eating contest was open to anyone in the tech team whether contractor/employee, manager/non-manager, male/female or pro/amateur. This year, we were even able to include the folks KY "real-time" thanks to our SKYPE-enabled video conferencing system.

Once ground rules were communicated and donuts placed strategically, the participants prepared themselves for the challenge ahead. And they’re off! The atmosphere was electric with spectators packed 4 to 6 deep in the specially designed arena. Many fans were holding signs for their favorite participant and chanting well-rehearsed cheers. The most zealous of fans were even standing on desks and chairs/couches to see their favored participants, much to chagrin of our risk team. Spectators strained to hear the designated "counters" as the donuts were consumed. The throng became even more frenzied as the contestants blew past last year's record (Brent Cromley) of 15 without a hint of slowing down.  Finally, the crowd gave a collective gasp as Bryan Merrill's counter yelled "24!", and the final second ticked off. Wow! 24 donuts! Bryan Merrill buried the last year's record. Much like Zappos doing 12.4 million on Cyber Monday and burying the 7.8 million from 2009!). Brent graciously handed the gold-encased trophy to Bryan. And now it's time to train for next year!

Do you ever wonder what customers visiting Zappos.com think of the site and how they use it? Thankfully, we have a User Experience Research Team dedicated to answering those exact questions and more!

This team analyzes the site and its users from two different but complementary perspectives: Quantitatively and Qualitatively. The quantitative perspective tends to be data driven. They ask these types of questions: where do the website visitors come from; how many people visit the site; what do the customers do on the site; which pages are the most popular; and how many people leave the site without buying anything? Meanwhile, the qualitative perspective observes the quality of a customer’s experience by asking these questions: how are the buttons and links perceived and is it easy to use?

The team uses web analytics software, site A/B tests, surveys and user observation to obtain this information. We, then, use this information to help us decide what updates and improvements we need to make to the site.

For example, data told us that viewing larger and additional images was the most popular activity on the product page. On this version of the Product Detail Page, the customer would have to click on the product to access the multiview in a different window. However, the update embedded the multiview on the page to make viewing easier and more accessible.

To make sure customers like this update, we are currently doing a site test. Some customers get the original pop-out multiview, and other customers get the updated, embedded version of the multiview. If we find that customers viewing the new version of this page buy more products than those customers viewing the current page, then we know the new page is a success! And we’ll make the new Product Detail Page a standard feature for everyone.

Beside site tests, the Research Team also reviews 500 surveys every month. These surveys are where customers share their opinion on what works well on the site and what is confusing. The team also observes customers using the site to understand how they use the site and asks them questions regarding their experience.  The motto of the Research Team is “we are not the customers”, in other words, they don’t assume, they ask.