Marissa Mayer sent 18 Yahoo employees on a free trip to Hawaii as a reward for finishing a project early

Yahoo has made some progress since Marissa Mayer joined as CEO in July of 2012.

According to a new profile by Fast Company's Harry McCracken, Mayer has set a new tone at the company by encouraging team members to get things done quickly and with limited oversight.

In 2013, a group of 18 engineers was tasked with bringing Yahoo's native ad system up to speed. The group, which called itself Moneyball, had only 45 days to complete the project.

They finished work on the native ad system - now dubbed Yahoo Gemini - in just 43 days.

Mayer then rewarded each of the 18 team members with a free vacation to Hawaii.

"It was challenging, but it really made a difference that the entire company aligned around making this happen in so many different ways," VP of product Enrique Munoz Torres told Fast Company.