Decoding Baidu's IM Special Forces - Wulin Blog Network

Have the ten days of "fresh experience" impressed you? However, perhaps you do not know that behind the product, the engineers of the IM project team have experienced passion, hardship, and even the darkest days. We interviewed dozens of engineers from RD, QA, PM, and UE of the IM project team to uncover the secrets of this "special forces" unit.

"After completing Baidu Hi, I am no longer afraid of anything."

This is what Xiao Yu from RD said. He is an old employee of Baidu. He said working on IM allowed him to truly experience danger and hard work, as well as double the joy and glory. Now, when facing any difficulties, that courage and confidence is no longer like a fearless calf but rather "as long as there is a firm belief and support from the team, there are no problems that cannot be solved."

"Baidu's ability to create an IM product in such a short time is already quite remarkable. The difficulty level of this product can be said to be higher than many of our other products, and Baidu has no prior experience. In the same amount of time, others left behind failed cases, but Baidu managed to succeed!" Before officially interviewing the IM engineer team, an insider told *Simple Weekly*.

The leader of this team, Minghai, told us, "At first, there were very few people in the department, and besides IM, we had other R&D projects. We took on this task, and at that time, we were fearless. Everyone only felt excitement."

However, as the research and development progressed, when the MRDs came pouring down, everyone realized that this would be an extremely arduous project. But looking back now, it seems that at that time, everyone still underestimated the difficulties they would encounter.

Due to the initial lack of system consideration, everyone found that the patches were increasing more and more, making it harder and harder, planting landmines for future maintenance that made people fear just thinking about it. If following the original plan, this point could have been acceptable, but ultimately, everyone agreed - under the enormous pressure of restructuring, they decided to modify the system, aiming to achieve the best possible result within their capabilities, and absolutely not wanting to disappoint hundreds of millions of users in the future.

The engineers silently swallowed the increased workload, finally bringing Hi through mountains and valleys, out of the dark tunnel, into the light.

"Others strive, I strive more; others rest, I still strive"

"Baidu developed IM from scratch, so it can only be 'others strive, I strive more; others rest, I still strive'." Indeed, the engineers seem a bit tired, but the fatigue seems to be only on their faces. Their spirit and enthusiasm when talking about IM remain full of passion.

Recalling the time he first joined the IM team, Engineer Xiao Hong said he was completely "fearless like a newborn calf" - "there was nothing I dared not do, only thinking about how to do it better." Xiao Hong remembers that when he first joined Baidu, he usually left the company at 9 p.m., soon realizing that this was considered "early departure" because all his colleagues worked until after 11 p.m.

Xiao Hong's experience is quite typical among the engineers. Many were excited to participate in such a brand-new and important project as IM and worked day and night for it. "Now I find that over the past six months, I've improved and grown every day, accumulating a lot of experience. It's been so worth it," Engineer Xiao Wang said.

It's said that PM Xiao Ding has a classic "sleeping posture photo" on his phone, taken by colleague Xiao Liu. That day, Xiao Liu arrived at the company early in the morning and saw Xiao Ding sound asleep with his head on the table, so he took a picture. Later, he learned that Xiao Ding had been busy all night revising the MRD.

"Why don't you tell RD to split the MRD and give it to them gradually? Baidu doesn't encourage employees to stay up all night at work, why torture yourself like this?"

"If I don't give the MRD to my RD colleagues tonight, their progress will be affected, and the entire project will be affected. So, it's fine if I endure a little hardship." This statement from Xiao Ding sounded completely sincere.

"Staying up all night now is much better than the first two months when I was writing MRDs every day," recalled Xiao Ding from PM. Back then, "I would go into the meeting room at 9 a.m. and come out at 8 p.m., writing MRDs every day, trying to make the user experience of the product as perfect as possible. Sometimes, discussions on one feature could last three days, and senior management would also join the discussions, constantly brainstorming..." He narrated rapidly, "At that time, the IM team was still in the Yinkai workspace, and the feeling was that the sun never rose in Yinkai."

Throughout the entire development process, everyone had many insights, with teamwork being mentioned most frequently. Xiao Hong personally told us that if you don't help others get things done, it will eventually affect your own progress.

Yongjie said that when he first arrived, he interrupted others every half hour to ask a question, but no one ever refused him. Xiaopeng told us that during the toughest period, he had to solve many bugs reported by QA daily, and everyone was almost overwhelmed. But every night, he could see yuzuo steadfastly handling each issue without letting any fall through the cracks, which renewed his confidence and strength.

"It's less my job and more my career"

DUMP Lu is the team leader of RD, but his other nickname is "capitalist." Originally, every time there was a new task, DUMP Lu would keep asking and urging, reminding everyone "to ensure progress." When IM entered the final testing phase, RD engineer Xiao Guo's life could be summarized as "a sea of code, a sea of bugs." He would run to QA every half hour to discuss solutions for the bugs.

Engineer Xiao Hou used to work on IM at another company. After coming to Baidu, he found the work tiring, but everyone was full of passion every day, deeply infecting him. "The biggest motivation is being able to start from scratch and participate in creating something. Baidu IM is less my job and more my career."

Xiaojin also said: "At Baidu, I feel like I'm proving that I can do something, not just working for a company."

It is precisely this work enthusiasm that drives the engineers to remain optimistic and tenacious under both physical and work pressures.

Talking about these "past events," looking at the gazes of his "brothers," Minghai revealed a hint of apology on his face, "This period was indeed quite harsh, thank you all!" Minghai revealed the secret: the total amount of code for the entire project was more than twice the original estimate, making it one of the products with the largest amount of code in Baidu's history. Although it was delayed a bit compared to the original schedule, the product is functionally richer by three or four times compared to what was required in the KPIs at the time.

Other colleagues "complained" that Minghai squeezed himself the most. Every noon, he seemed to be in the office, rarely seen eating. Everyone affectionately called his office the "little black room." If someone like Xiaopeng or Xiao Hong disappeared during lunchtime, they were definitely locked in the "little black room" discussing issues with Minghai.

"Most of you are participating in Baidu's special forces for the first time. Special forces must work hard and bear considerable pressure to catch up with competitors," Minghai looked at everyone seriously and meaningfully said, "Looking back now, every engineer has become invincible."

"Confidence is built by overcoming difficulties. Previously, a product was made by 2-3 people, and as an engineer, one could share about 20% of the glory. But IM is too important, and I feel that sharing even one-twentieth of its glory is rewarding enough." Xiao Yu's words represent the heart of every IM engineer.