Project-Based Management for R&D Efficiency and Organizational Evolution at Youzan

Author: Feijie (费解). Department: Efficiency Improvement (效能改进).

From a system dynamics perspective, organizations oscillate between chaos and order; no single management system can maintain balance permanently. Continuous adjustment of management methods is needed to achieve dynamic equilibrium and evolution. R&D management, especially project-based approaches, can bring order to chaos, allowing both defensive and offensive capabilities, and enabling transition toward agile.

The Efficiency Improvement team at Youzan has been responsible for organizational optimization, using project-based methods on the product‑research side to alleviate symptoms, resolve conflicts, and achieve a dynamic balance between current state and development demands.

Background

At the time, Youzan had about 400 employees, with 200 in product R&D, developing the core "Micro‑Mall SaaS". As the company grew, the software system became large. To cope with foreseeable complexity, the organization was divided into component teams (marketing, goods, shop, member, transaction, etc.) that are technically cohesive but remain business‑coupled.

The design aimed not only for a small, beautiful scale but also to strengthen technical capabilities for horizontal and vertical expansion, later reflected in the business‑mid‑platform and Youzan Cloud.

Component‑team structure brings benefits (technical cohesion) but also drawbacks (department walls, coordination blind spots, information black holes, management vacuum).

Initial Exploration

After joining, the author found that although the product‑research team had never formally used projects, project management ideas were already present:

Scope management: Youzan’s B‑end SaaS product has comprehensive scenario design, leading to relatively large requirement granularity and development cycles of about one month.

Time management: An informal workflow exists—product manager defines requirements, developers discuss solutions, then develop, integrate, test, and release—providing milestones for scheduling.

Human resource management: Component teams increase cross‑team collaboration, raising the complexity of personnel coordination and necessitating team building and management.

The goal is to find high‑leverage points to advance organizational maturity, blending “project” and “agile” methods.

Practice

Iteration 1: Enhancing Organizational Transparency

Project‑based management offers visible milestones, reducing anxiety. Milestones are publicly announced (test dates, release dates) and reviewed in regular stand‑ups, with progress reports and risk updates.

A Project Manager (PM) role emerges to fill management gaps, establishing role responsibilities, requirement reviews, acceptance criteria, front‑back interface definitions, and multi‑system release mechanisms.

Project management accommodates any size of demand; larger, clearer demands benefit most from project control, stabilizing the situation.

Iteration 2: Awakening Self‑Organization

Ultimate aim of project management is organizational success. While many large internet firms assign PMOs to each business line, the author argues that fully embedding PMs in teams can suppress their broader perspective and hinder self‑growth.

After stabilizing transparency, the team cultivated part‑time PMs within component teams, empowering core members and fostering self‑organization.

The Efficiency Improvement team also collected process metrics (personnel efficiency, flow efficiency) and acted as Scrum‑like coaches to guide teams.

Iteration 3: Evolving Toward Agile

As Youzan expanded into multiple business lines (retail, beauty, education) built on a mid‑platform, resource contention among business units increased.

The team applied Large‑Scale Scrum (LeSS) principles, forming virtual Feature Teams across component boundaries, establishing company‑level monthly business planning and demand planning, and prioritizing based on value to alleviate conflicts.

Engineering practices such as CI/CD were promoted to support rapid delivery.

Conclusion

Organizations must adapt methods to context, solving immediate problems while preparing for the future. Project‑based management stabilizes the situation; dynamic adjustments later introduce agile practices, driving evolution.

天下 PM 出我辈，一入 IT 岁月催。 井深销得人憔悴，理念朴素莫伤悲。 过程管理待栽培，自我意识在沉睡。 透明欠佳愿未遂，不见未来夜无寐。 标本兼治蛹渐蜕，远虑近忧分寸微。 项目敏捷共荟萃，组织成功是回归。

Readers interested in efficiency improvement are invited to comment and discuss.