How Ele.me Built a ‘Big Front‑End’ Team: Structure, Culture, and Tech Choices

1. Preface

Lin "Sofish" Jianfeng, the head of Ele.me’s big front‑end department, shares his personal journey from law student to front‑end developer and how his team strives to become an industry‑leading group.

2. Positioning of Ele.me’s Big Front‑End Team

Why the name “big front‑end”? The term originated at Alibaba, where developers wrote both front‑end code and Java Velocity templates. Ele.me’s team initially handled not only front‑end but also CDN and Nginx layers, thus the “big” qualifier. Today the scope includes front‑end, Node, Hybrid/Weex/React‑Native, and even native app development.

What does “big front‑end” mean? It is a fluid set of responsibilities that extends traditional front‑end work, reflecting an evolutionary shift in how teams are organized to improve efficiency.

Team responsibilities cover all non‑iOS/Android app development, the company’s HTTP API layer, and some self‑operated systems. The team is split into an Architecture & Mobility group (frameworks, standards, tools) and a Node development group (Node infrastructure and business support). Each business front‑end team receives at least one dedicated architect for deep, ongoing collaboration.

Virtual project teams are also formed as needed, such as a “Game Center System” combining Node engineers and architects, a mini‑program team, recruitment squads, editorial groups, and internal sharing sessions. All internal projects are treated as open‑source, encouraging pull requests and code reviews.

3. How the Team Evaluates and Implements New Technologies

When interviewing front‑end leaders, Lin asks about technical debt and ways to avoid it, emphasizing that today’s new tech will become tomorrow’s debt. The team adopts an aggressive stance: any new business may use any framework; legacy projects are upgraded when the responsible team has capacity.

Since 2014, the team migrated from Bootstrap/jQuery to Angular.js for the mobile site, then to a fully decoupled architecture for both PC and mobile. Over time, Angular.js was replaced by Vue.js and React.js as the team pursued more modern stacks.

The team has been early adopters of PWA (in collaboration with Google), contributed to Vue.js rankings, and launched large‑scale Weex projects, all driven by a culture that encourages experimenting with new tools.

Technology selection criteria focus on whether a technology improves Ele.me’s operational efficiency or the team’s development speed, its stability, and ownership.

4. Team Characteristics: “Scatter‑Raised” Management

The team’s style is described as “scatter‑raised”. Key practices include:

Hiring the best people : Not necessarily industry stars, but individuals who can elevate the team through strong self‑drive and impact.

Prioritizing results over hours : Goals are measured by outcomes (e.g., page load < 800 ms) rather than time spent.

Creating an empowering environment : Encouraging autonomy, innovation, and a sense of ownership, while fostering a culture of fun and collaboration.

This approach allows most issues to be solved internally, giving leaders more time for strategic thinking and promoting sustainable growth.

5. Pros and Cons of the Big Front‑End Model

The model extends front‑end capabilities to include mobile web, native‑like, and native apps. Its benefits depend on business scale and the team’s ability to deliver higher value than smaller, isolated teams. Drawbacks arise when the large team cannot provide efficient infrastructure, culture, or personal growth opportunities.

Key considerations:

Large teams must create shared infrastructure and a culture that adds more value than fragmented small teams.

Assuming that co‑locating front‑end, back‑end, and product automatically solves problems is often overstated.

Balancing framework/architecture groups with business‑focused teams can maximize reuse while preserving focus.

6. Industry Landscape

Ele.me regularly invites front‑end experts for internal talks and maintains active communication with other teams. Many companies are moving toward a big front‑end approach, though some large firms (e.g., Ctrip, Tencent) keep a more traditional pure‑front‑end structure.

7. How to Implement a Big Front‑End Team

Form both a framework team and business teams that intersect, ensuring they do not become isolated. Prefer organizing teams by business needs rather than pure function, and vice‑versa, to maintain alignment and flexibility.