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How I Convinced My Employee To Set Tangible Goals

During a period of transition, the author inherited an employee who refused to set quarterly goals. After taking the time to learn about the employee's communication style and concerns, the author was able to get the employee to set goals and give him a bonus. This conversation also led to the company switching from individual goals to OKRs, ensuring everyone's goals were in alignment. The lesson learned was to reach out to employees early, survey their mindsets, and work out what they want to accomplish.

From IC To Tech Lead - Transitioning Schedules

After transitioning into a tech-lead role, the author struggled to manage their team's problems while also completing their own work. After reading an article, they realized that they needed to separate their day into two distinct schedules - one for individual tasks and one for collaboration with their team. After initially struggling, the author eventually got into a flow and this approach worked well. The lesson learned is that different roles have different requirements for attention span, collaboration, and focus, and it is important to identify and set up expectations with your team.

Using A Demo To Solve A Dispute

Two engineers faced resistance when exploring a technology to use in development, so they created a demo to prove its usefulness and gain buy-in from their manager and team. The demo was successful, and the technology was implemented across the team. This experience taught them that data and demos can be effective tools for resolving conflicts about technology decisions.

From Individual Contributor To New Manager

This article discusses the challenges faced by an individual who moved from an individual contributor role to a manager role. It outlines the actions taken to learn the necessary soft skills, such as time management, delegation, and working with people. It also highlights the importance of networking and taking courses to increase knowledge. The article concludes with the lessons learned, such as the need to re-calibrate and the importance of delegating and networking.

How to handle the Performance Management of a Senior Team Member

A senior front-end engineer at Adobe was feeling demotivated and started to be rude to others. The manager had to manage him strategically, not tactically, by having conversations to explain his value to the team and to explain that his harsh remarks were not acceptable. After two weeks, the engineer expressed interest in remaining in his role and wanted help to change and grow in the organization. The manager coached him and he started delegating more and learning to trust junior engineers. The engineer is still working in the group, designing robust FE architectures.

Leveraging Relationships To Meet A Huge Challenge

The VP of Engineering at a small business lending company was tasked with building an online lead generating tool. After six to eight weeks of working on the project with just their own team, they realized they needed to build a bridge between them and the team that had built the legacy technology. They also needed to find outside parties to help with automated know-your-customer functions and push back against the CEO's requests. Ultimately, they were able to launch the platform in the timeframe they were asked to and it became the largest single source of leads and loan applications. The lesson learned was to ask the question "Does anyone here already have this expertise?" earlier on.

How I Approached Fixing An Underperforming Team

The Chief Technology Officer of a company with a 50-person technology team was tasked with transforming the organization to meet user demands. To do this, the CTO gathered data from each team member, organized the team into logical departments, installed communication protocols, and created an environment where ideas were welcomed and bad ideas were seen as learning opportunities. This resulted in the team being able to release multiple times a day with a success rate of over 90%, and the company becoming a thought leader in advanced technology.

An Alternative To Code Reviews

This article discusses the issue of code reviews and how to effectively integrate them into the delivery process. It suggests using DevOps tools such as Slack integrations and thumbnails to keep people accountable and to automate as much of the code review process as possible. Automation can help to ensure that code is delivered to a high level of quality and that the team can start building with the code they are writing.

Defining What A Project Is and Is Not

When working on a project, it is important to understand what it is and what it is not in order to prevent scope creep and wasted time and energy. Recently, a presentation was given to a bank to explain the scope of a fintech project and what it did and did not cover. This helped to engage people's curiosity and prevent frustration due to limited creativity.

Why You Should Encourage Criticism

In 2004, the company I worked for wanted to rewrite their UI using Struts, but the existing XSL-based UI wouldn't work with the framework. I was open and honest about the preconditions that needed to be met, and the company was open to hearing my feedback regardless of my position. I learned that it's important to build trust and rapport with colleagues so that they feel comfortable speaking their mind and providing constructive criticism.

Taking Away Hostility By Making Tasks Fun

This case study follows a Principal Engineer who was tasked with travelling to Belarus to gather knowledge and bring it back to India. After 13 days of asking endless questions, the engineer and their team decided to break down the code into 52 sub-projects, which was successful in reducing feelings of hostility and anxiety. The lesson learned was to focus on tasks that everyone can do together and have fun with, rather than tasks that make one person the hero.

When Your Team Member Sees You As A Threat

A new project manager was brought into a company and faced passive aggressive behavior from one of his direct reports. He was able to gain the teammate's trust by taking on strategic back-end projects, remaining calm during conversations, and having regular one-on-one meetings. He learned to listen to the teammate until they felt heard, which allowed them to be more open to discussing ideas and answering questions.

Hiring For A Lot Of Roles Rapidly Without A Recruiter

This article describes the process of hiring 8 people for an Indian office in a month, without using a recruitment company. A temporary structure was formed within the company to reach the goal, with hiring managers, observers, and coordinators. The hiring process was incentivized with free food and rewards, and by the end of the month, all 8 roles were filled. The lesson learned was to manage risks when hiring in a time-bound manner, and to have observers for each role to ensure any issues can be raised and fixed.

Moving From Research To Production

This case study outlines the steps taken to help a company with advanced research to get the learnings from the research group embedded into real products. The consultant evaluated the situation and determined that the research had no real direction. The consultant then gave the researchers a limited scope with obvious value to the customers and clients of the company and worked with the executives to develop a product roadmap with specific dates. This drove people to work towards the end goal of shipping and was used to drive the research into products and get value from the investment. The lesson learned was that time-boxing projects creates value and forcing to have something shipped tends to align people, give people's roles meaning and delivers value to customers.

Fixing Conflict Through Communication

A professional services company was having difficulty with their VP of Engineering, who was struggling to support hundreds of people and build software to support 600 people. The COO was considering firing the VP of Engineering, but with early intervention, aggressive changes, and the skill and willingness of all parties, the situation was saved. The VP of Engineering was coached on how to speak the language of the business and demonstrate small successes to gain the confidence of the COO, and the COO had to suspend disbelief for a while. Ultimately, the best situation was achieved with the personnel in place.

Managing Relationships For Product Managers

This article discusses the process of managing a team of nine project managers. The author has taken various approaches to build relationships between engineers and product managers, such as pairing them together. The author has also learned the importance of communicating clearly and hiring PMs when needed in order to prevent people from stepping on each other's toes and build better relationships.

Market Segmentation For A Product Launch

This case study outlines the process of taking on Product Management for Youtube Live Streaming. The author segmented the market, identified four different types of users, and created a list of features for each segment. They also had to manage costs and develop a revenue model. Through this process, the author learned how to maintain a team's momentum, segment customers, create launch momentum, prioritize based on users, revenue, constraints, and goals. If faced with this situation again, the author would broadcast their long-term vision more regularly.

Evolving As A Product Manager.

This article discusses the importance of growth for Product Managers and how to use previous experiences and backgrounds to become more successful. It highlights the need to find the right gear to switch to in order to become a successful Product Manager, as well as the importance of amplifying experiences, interests, and background to make a difference in the role.

Planning Product Development

The VP of Engineering for Ernit was the first technical person to join the company and faced the challenge of creating a protocol for the device to communicate back to the servers. After questioning the founders and creating a blueprint of the communication flow, they were able to come up with a solution that allowed them to ship the product in the Kickstarter phase. The lesson learned was that even if people aren't technical, they should be able to provide blueprints with communication flows to ensure information is flowing in both directions.

The Importance Of A Proof Of Concept

Huawei was trying to build a 4G network casting tool, but realized that none of the available technologies could handle the 30,000 requests per second needed. They identified Adaline as a potential solution, but had to build their own competencies and knowledge from scratch. After seven months, a team of 11 people delivered code consisting of 20,000 lines. This experience taught them the importance of having an early proof of concept and technical validation strategies to prevent working off of assumptions.

How I Convinced My Employee To Set Tangible Goals

During a period of transition, the author inherited an employee who refused to set quarterly goals. After taking the time to learn about the employee's communication style and concerns, the author was able to get the employee to set goals and give him a bonus. This conversation also led to the company switching from individual goals to OKRs, ensuring everyone's goals were in alignment. The lesson learned was to reach out to employees early, survey their mindsets, and work out what they want to accomplish.

From IC To Tech Lead - Transitioning Schedules

After transitioning into a tech-lead role, the author struggled to manage their team's problems while also completing their own work. After reading an article, they realized that they needed to separate their day into two distinct schedules - one for individual tasks and one for collaboration with their team. After initially struggling, the author eventually got into a flow and this approach worked well. The lesson learned is that different roles have different requirements for attention span, collaboration, and focus, and it is important to identify and set up expectations with your team.

Using A Demo To Solve A Dispute

Two engineers faced resistance when exploring a technology to use in development, so they created a demo to prove its usefulness and gain buy-in from their manager and team. The demo was successful, and the technology was implemented across the team. This experience taught them that data and demos can be effective tools for resolving conflicts about technology decisions.

From Individual Contributor To New Manager

This article discusses the challenges faced by an individual who moved from an individual contributor role to a manager role. It outlines the actions taken to learn the necessary soft skills, such as time management, delegation, and working with people. It also highlights the importance of networking and taking courses to increase knowledge. The article concludes with the lessons learned, such as the need to re-calibrate and the importance of delegating and networking.

How to handle the Performance Management of a Senior Team Member

A senior front-end engineer at Adobe was feeling demotivated and started to be rude to others. The manager had to manage him strategically, not tactically, by having conversations to explain his value to the team and to explain that his harsh remarks were not acceptable. After two weeks, the engineer expressed interest in remaining in his role and wanted help to change and grow in the organization. The manager coached him and he started delegating more and learning to trust junior engineers. The engineer is still working in the group, designing robust FE architectures.

Leveraging Relationships To Meet A Huge Challenge

The VP of Engineering at a small business lending company was tasked with building an online lead generating tool. After six to eight weeks of working on the project with just their own team, they realized they needed to build a bridge between them and the team that had built the legacy technology. They also needed to find outside parties to help with automated know-your-customer functions and push back against the CEO's requests. Ultimately, they were able to launch the platform in the timeframe they were asked to and it became the largest single source of leads and loan applications. The lesson learned was to ask the question "Does anyone here already have this expertise?" earlier on.

How I Approached Fixing An Underperforming Team

The Chief Technology Officer of a company with a 50-person technology team was tasked with transforming the organization to meet user demands. To do this, the CTO gathered data from each team member, organized the team into logical departments, installed communication protocols, and created an environment where ideas were welcomed and bad ideas were seen as learning opportunities. This resulted in the team being able to release multiple times a day with a success rate of over 90%, and the company becoming a thought leader in advanced technology.

An Alternative To Code Reviews

This article discusses the issue of code reviews and how to effectively integrate them into the delivery process. It suggests using DevOps tools such as Slack integrations and thumbnails to keep people accountable and to automate as much of the code review process as possible. Automation can help to ensure that code is delivered to a high level of quality and that the team can start building with the code they are writing.

Defining What A Project Is and Is Not

When working on a project, it is important to understand what it is and what it is not in order to prevent scope creep and wasted time and energy. Recently, a presentation was given to a bank to explain the scope of a fintech project and what it did and did not cover. This helped to engage people's curiosity and prevent frustration due to limited creativity.

Why You Should Encourage Criticism

In 2004, the company I worked for wanted to rewrite their UI using Struts, but the existing XSL-based UI wouldn't work with the framework. I was open and honest about the preconditions that needed to be met, and the company was open to hearing my feedback regardless of my position. I learned that it's important to build trust and rapport with colleagues so that they feel comfortable speaking their mind and providing constructive criticism.

Taking Away Hostility By Making Tasks Fun

This case study follows a Principal Engineer who was tasked with travelling to Belarus to gather knowledge and bring it back to India. After 13 days of asking endless questions, the engineer and their team decided to break down the code into 52 sub-projects, which was successful in reducing feelings of hostility and anxiety. The lesson learned was to focus on tasks that everyone can do together and have fun with, rather than tasks that make one person the hero.

When Your Team Member Sees You As A Threat

A new project manager was brought into a company and faced passive aggressive behavior from one of his direct reports. He was able to gain the teammate's trust by taking on strategic back-end projects, remaining calm during conversations, and having regular one-on-one meetings. He learned to listen to the teammate until they felt heard, which allowed them to be more open to discussing ideas and answering questions.

Hiring For A Lot Of Roles Rapidly Without A Recruiter

This article describes the process of hiring 8 people for an Indian office in a month, without using a recruitment company. A temporary structure was formed within the company to reach the goal, with hiring managers, observers, and coordinators. The hiring process was incentivized with free food and rewards, and by the end of the month, all 8 roles were filled. The lesson learned was to manage risks when hiring in a time-bound manner, and to have observers for each role to ensure any issues can be raised and fixed.

Moving From Research To Production

This case study outlines the steps taken to help a company with advanced research to get the learnings from the research group embedded into real products. The consultant evaluated the situation and determined that the research had no real direction. The consultant then gave the researchers a limited scope with obvious value to the customers and clients of the company and worked with the executives to develop a product roadmap with specific dates. This drove people to work towards the end goal of shipping and was used to drive the research into products and get value from the investment. The lesson learned was that time-boxing projects creates value and forcing to have something shipped tends to align people, give people's roles meaning and delivers value to customers.

Fixing Conflict Through Communication

A professional services company was having difficulty with their VP of Engineering, who was struggling to support hundreds of people and build software to support 600 people. The COO was considering firing the VP of Engineering, but with early intervention, aggressive changes, and the skill and willingness of all parties, the situation was saved. The VP of Engineering was coached on how to speak the language of the business and demonstrate small successes to gain the confidence of the COO, and the COO had to suspend disbelief for a while. Ultimately, the best situation was achieved with the personnel in place.

Managing Relationships For Product Managers

This article discusses the process of managing a team of nine project managers. The author has taken various approaches to build relationships between engineers and product managers, such as pairing them together. The author has also learned the importance of communicating clearly and hiring PMs when needed in order to prevent people from stepping on each other's toes and build better relationships.

Market Segmentation For A Product Launch

This case study outlines the process of taking on Product Management for Youtube Live Streaming. The author segmented the market, identified four different types of users, and created a list of features for each segment. They also had to manage costs and develop a revenue model. Through this process, the author learned how to maintain a team's momentum, segment customers, create launch momentum, prioritize based on users, revenue, constraints, and goals. If faced with this situation again, the author would broadcast their long-term vision more regularly.

Evolving As A Product Manager.

This article discusses the importance of growth for Product Managers and how to use previous experiences and backgrounds to become more successful. It highlights the need to find the right gear to switch to in order to become a successful Product Manager, as well as the importance of amplifying experiences, interests, and background to make a difference in the role.

Planning Product Development

The VP of Engineering for Ernit was the first technical person to join the company and faced the challenge of creating a protocol for the device to communicate back to the servers. After questioning the founders and creating a blueprint of the communication flow, they were able to come up with a solution that allowed them to ship the product in the Kickstarter phase. The lesson learned was that even if people aren't technical, they should be able to provide blueprints with communication flows to ensure information is flowing in both directions.

The Importance Of A Proof Of Concept

Huawei was trying to build a 4G network casting tool, but realized that none of the available technologies could handle the 30,000 requests per second needed. They identified Adaline as a potential solution, but had to build their own competencies and knowledge from scratch. After seven months, a team of 11 people delivered code consisting of 20,000 lines. This experience taught them the importance of having an early proof of concept and technical validation strategies to prevent working off of assumptions.

How I Convinced My Employee To Set Tangible Goals

During a period of transition, the author inherited an employee who refused to set quarterly goals. After taking the time to learn about the employee's communication style and concerns, the author was able to get the employee to set goals and give him a bonus. This conversation also led to the company switching from individual goals to OKRs, ensuring everyone's goals were in alignment. The lesson learned was to reach out to employees early, survey their mindsets, and work out what they want to accomplish.

From IC To Tech Lead - Transitioning Schedules

After transitioning into a tech-lead role, the author struggled to manage their team's problems while also completing their own work. After reading an article, they realized that they needed to separate their day into two distinct schedules - one for individual tasks and one for collaboration with their team. After initially struggling, the author eventually got into a flow and this approach worked well. The lesson learned is that different roles have different requirements for attention span, collaboration, and focus, and it is important to identify and set up expectations with your team.

Using A Demo To Solve A Dispute

Two engineers faced resistance when exploring a technology to use in development, so they created a demo to prove its usefulness and gain buy-in from their manager and team. The demo was successful, and the technology was implemented across the team. This experience taught them that data and demos can be effective tools for resolving conflicts about technology decisions.

From Individual Contributor To New Manager

This article discusses the challenges faced by an individual who moved from an individual contributor role to a manager role. It outlines the actions taken to learn the necessary soft skills, such as time management, delegation, and working with people. It also highlights the importance of networking and taking courses to increase knowledge. The article concludes with the lessons learned, such as the need to re-calibrate and the importance of delegating and networking.

How to handle the Performance Management of a Senior Team Member

A senior front-end engineer at Adobe was feeling demotivated and started to be rude to others. The manager had to manage him strategically, not tactically, by having conversations to explain his value to the team and to explain that his harsh remarks were not acceptable. After two weeks, the engineer expressed interest in remaining in his role and wanted help to change and grow in the organization. The manager coached him and he started delegating more and learning to trust junior engineers. The engineer is still working in the group, designing robust FE architectures.

Leveraging Relationships To Meet A Huge Challenge

The VP of Engineering at a small business lending company was tasked with building an online lead generating tool. After six to eight weeks of working on the project with just their own team, they realized they needed to build a bridge between them and the team that had built the legacy technology. They also needed to find outside parties to help with automated know-your-customer functions and push back against the CEO's requests. Ultimately, they were able to launch the platform in the timeframe they were asked to and it became the largest single source of leads and loan applications. The lesson learned was to ask the question "Does anyone here already have this expertise?" earlier on.

How I Approached Fixing An Underperforming Team

The Chief Technology Officer of a company with a 50-person technology team was tasked with transforming the organization to meet user demands. To do this, the CTO gathered data from each team member, organized the team into logical departments, installed communication protocols, and created an environment where ideas were welcomed and bad ideas were seen as learning opportunities. This resulted in the team being able to release multiple times a day with a success rate of over 90%, and the company becoming a thought leader in advanced technology.

An Alternative To Code Reviews

This article discusses the issue of code reviews and how to effectively integrate them into the delivery process. It suggests using DevOps tools such as Slack integrations and thumbnails to keep people accountable and to automate as much of the code review process as possible. Automation can help to ensure that code is delivered to a high level of quality and that the team can start building with the code they are writing.

Defining What A Project Is and Is Not

When working on a project, it is important to understand what it is and what it is not in order to prevent scope creep and wasted time and energy. Recently, a presentation was given to a bank to explain the scope of a fintech project and what it did and did not cover. This helped to engage people's curiosity and prevent frustration due to limited creativity.

Why You Should Encourage Criticism

In 2004, the company I worked for wanted to rewrite their UI using Struts, but the existing XSL-based UI wouldn't work with the framework. I was open and honest about the preconditions that needed to be met, and the company was open to hearing my feedback regardless of my position. I learned that it's important to build trust and rapport with colleagues so that they feel comfortable speaking their mind and providing constructive criticism.

Taking Away Hostility By Making Tasks Fun

This case study follows a Principal Engineer who was tasked with travelling to Belarus to gather knowledge and bring it back to India. After 13 days of asking endless questions, the engineer and their team decided to break down the code into 52 sub-projects, which was successful in reducing feelings of hostility and anxiety. The lesson learned was to focus on tasks that everyone can do together and have fun with, rather than tasks that make one person the hero.

When Your Team Member Sees You As A Threat

A new project manager was brought into a company and faced passive aggressive behavior from one of his direct reports. He was able to gain the teammate's trust by taking on strategic back-end projects, remaining calm during conversations, and having regular one-on-one meetings. He learned to listen to the teammate until they felt heard, which allowed them to be more open to discussing ideas and answering questions.

Hiring For A Lot Of Roles Rapidly Without A Recruiter

This article describes the process of hiring 8 people for an Indian office in a month, without using a recruitment company. A temporary structure was formed within the company to reach the goal, with hiring managers, observers, and coordinators. The hiring process was incentivized with free food and rewards, and by the end of the month, all 8 roles were filled. The lesson learned was to manage risks when hiring in a time-bound manner, and to have observers for each role to ensure any issues can be raised and fixed.

Moving From Research To Production

This case study outlines the steps taken to help a company with advanced research to get the learnings from the research group embedded into real products. The consultant evaluated the situation and determined that the research had no real direction. The consultant then gave the researchers a limited scope with obvious value to the customers and clients of the company and worked with the executives to develop a product roadmap with specific dates. This drove people to work towards the end goal of shipping and was used to drive the research into products and get value from the investment. The lesson learned was that time-boxing projects creates value and forcing to have something shipped tends to align people, give people's roles meaning and delivers value to customers.

Fixing Conflict Through Communication

A professional services company was having difficulty with their VP of Engineering, who was struggling to support hundreds of people and build software to support 600 people. The COO was considering firing the VP of Engineering, but with early intervention, aggressive changes, and the skill and willingness of all parties, the situation was saved. The VP of Engineering was coached on how to speak the language of the business and demonstrate small successes to gain the confidence of the COO, and the COO had to suspend disbelief for a while. Ultimately, the best situation was achieved with the personnel in place.

Managing Relationships For Product Managers

This article discusses the process of managing a team of nine project managers. The author has taken various approaches to build relationships between engineers and product managers, such as pairing them together. The author has also learned the importance of communicating clearly and hiring PMs when needed in order to prevent people from stepping on each other's toes and build better relationships.

Market Segmentation For A Product Launch

This case study outlines the process of taking on Product Management for Youtube Live Streaming. The author segmented the market, identified four different types of users, and created a list of features for each segment. They also had to manage costs and develop a revenue model. Through this process, the author learned how to maintain a team's momentum, segment customers, create launch momentum, prioritize based on users, revenue, constraints, and goals. If faced with this situation again, the author would broadcast their long-term vision more regularly.

Evolving As A Product Manager.

This article discusses the importance of growth for Product Managers and how to use previous experiences and backgrounds to become more successful. It highlights the need to find the right gear to switch to in order to become a successful Product Manager, as well as the importance of amplifying experiences, interests, and background to make a difference in the role.

Planning Product Development

The VP of Engineering for Ernit was the first technical person to join the company and faced the challenge of creating a protocol for the device to communicate back to the servers. After questioning the founders and creating a blueprint of the communication flow, they were able to come up with a solution that allowed them to ship the product in the Kickstarter phase. The lesson learned was that even if people aren't technical, they should be able to provide blueprints with communication flows to ensure information is flowing in both directions.

The Importance Of A Proof Of Concept

Huawei was trying to build a 4G network casting tool, but realized that none of the available technologies could handle the 30,000 requests per second needed. They identified Adaline as a potential solution, but had to build their own competencies and knowledge from scratch. After seven months, a team of 11 people delivered code consisting of 20,000 lines. This experience taught them the importance of having an early proof of concept and technical validation strategies to prevent working off of assumptions.

How I Convinced My Employee To Set Tangible Goals

During a period of transition, the author inherited an employee who refused to set quarterly goals. After taking the time to learn about the employee's communication style and concerns, the author was able to get the employee to set goals and give him a bonus. This conversation also led to the company switching from individual goals to OKRs, ensuring everyone's goals were in alignment. The lesson learned was to reach out to employees early, survey their mindsets, and work out what they want to accomplish.

From IC To Tech Lead - Transitioning Schedules

After transitioning into a tech-lead role, the author struggled to manage their team's problems while also completing their own work. After reading an article, they realized that they needed to separate their day into two distinct schedules - one for individual tasks and one for collaboration with their team. After initially struggling, the author eventually got into a flow and this approach worked well. The lesson learned is that different roles have different requirements for attention span, collaboration, and focus, and it is important to identify and set up expectations with your team.

Using A Demo To Solve A Dispute

Two engineers faced resistance when exploring a technology to use in development, so they created a demo to prove its usefulness and gain buy-in from their manager and team. The demo was successful, and the technology was implemented across the team. This experience taught them that data and demos can be effective tools for resolving conflicts about technology decisions.

From Individual Contributor To New Manager

This article discusses the challenges faced by an individual who moved from an individual contributor role to a manager role. It outlines the actions taken to learn the necessary soft skills, such as time management, delegation, and working with people. It also highlights the importance of networking and taking courses to increase knowledge. The article concludes with the lessons learned, such as the need to re-calibrate and the importance of delegating and networking.

How to handle the Performance Management of a Senior Team Member

A senior front-end engineer at Adobe was feeling demotivated and started to be rude to others. The manager had to manage him strategically, not tactically, by having conversations to explain his value to the team and to explain that his harsh remarks were not acceptable. After two weeks, the engineer expressed interest in remaining in his role and wanted help to change and grow in the organization. The manager coached him and he started delegating more and learning to trust junior engineers. The engineer is still working in the group, designing robust FE architectures.

Leveraging Relationships To Meet A Huge Challenge

The VP of Engineering at a small business lending company was tasked with building an online lead generating tool. After six to eight weeks of working on the project with just their own team, they realized they needed to build a bridge between them and the team that had built the legacy technology. They also needed to find outside parties to help with automated know-your-customer functions and push back against the CEO's requests. Ultimately, they were able to launch the platform in the timeframe they were asked to and it became the largest single source of leads and loan applications. The lesson learned was to ask the question "Does anyone here already have this expertise?" earlier on.

How I Approached Fixing An Underperforming Team

The Chief Technology Officer of a company with a 50-person technology team was tasked with transforming the organization to meet user demands. To do this, the CTO gathered data from each team member, organized the team into logical departments, installed communication protocols, and created an environment where ideas were welcomed and bad ideas were seen as learning opportunities. This resulted in the team being able to release multiple times a day with a success rate of over 90%, and the company becoming a thought leader in advanced technology.

An Alternative To Code Reviews

This article discusses the issue of code reviews and how to effectively integrate them into the delivery process. It suggests using DevOps tools such as Slack integrations and thumbnails to keep people accountable and to automate as much of the code review process as possible. Automation can help to ensure that code is delivered to a high level of quality and that the team can start building with the code they are writing.

Defining What A Project Is and Is Not

When working on a project, it is important to understand what it is and what it is not in order to prevent scope creep and wasted time and energy. Recently, a presentation was given to a bank to explain the scope of a fintech project and what it did and did not cover. This helped to engage people's curiosity and prevent frustration due to limited creativity.

Why You Should Encourage Criticism

In 2004, the company I worked for wanted to rewrite their UI using Struts, but the existing XSL-based UI wouldn't work with the framework. I was open and honest about the preconditions that needed to be met, and the company was open to hearing my feedback regardless of my position. I learned that it's important to build trust and rapport with colleagues so that they feel comfortable speaking their mind and providing constructive criticism.

Taking Away Hostility By Making Tasks Fun

This case study follows a Principal Engineer who was tasked with travelling to Belarus to gather knowledge and bring it back to India. After 13 days of asking endless questions, the engineer and their team decided to break down the code into 52 sub-projects, which was successful in reducing feelings of hostility and anxiety. The lesson learned was to focus on tasks that everyone can do together and have fun with, rather than tasks that make one person the hero.

When Your Team Member Sees You As A Threat

A new project manager was brought into a company and faced passive aggressive behavior from one of his direct reports. He was able to gain the teammate's trust by taking on strategic back-end projects, remaining calm during conversations, and having regular one-on-one meetings. He learned to listen to the teammate until they felt heard, which allowed them to be more open to discussing ideas and answering questions.

Hiring For A Lot Of Roles Rapidly Without A Recruiter

This article describes the process of hiring 8 people for an Indian office in a month, without using a recruitment company. A temporary structure was formed within the company to reach the goal, with hiring managers, observers, and coordinators. The hiring process was incentivized with free food and rewards, and by the end of the month, all 8 roles were filled. The lesson learned was to manage risks when hiring in a time-bound manner, and to have observers for each role to ensure any issues can be raised and fixed.

Moving From Research To Production

This case study outlines the steps taken to help a company with advanced research to get the learnings from the research group embedded into real products. The consultant evaluated the situation and determined that the research had no real direction. The consultant then gave the researchers a limited scope with obvious value to the customers and clients of the company and worked with the executives to develop a product roadmap with specific dates. This drove people to work towards the end goal of shipping and was used to drive the research into products and get value from the investment. The lesson learned was that time-boxing projects creates value and forcing to have something shipped tends to align people, give people's roles meaning and delivers value to customers.

Fixing Conflict Through Communication

A professional services company was having difficulty with their VP of Engineering, who was struggling to support hundreds of people and build software to support 600 people. The COO was considering firing the VP of Engineering, but with early intervention, aggressive changes, and the skill and willingness of all parties, the situation was saved. The VP of Engineering was coached on how to speak the language of the business and demonstrate small successes to gain the confidence of the COO, and the COO had to suspend disbelief for a while. Ultimately, the best situation was achieved with the personnel in place.

Managing Relationships For Product Managers

This article discusses the process of managing a team of nine project managers. The author has taken various approaches to build relationships between engineers and product managers, such as pairing them together. The author has also learned the importance of communicating clearly and hiring PMs when needed in order to prevent people from stepping on each other's toes and build better relationships.

Market Segmentation For A Product Launch

This case study outlines the process of taking on Product Management for Youtube Live Streaming. The author segmented the market, identified four different types of users, and created a list of features for each segment. They also had to manage costs and develop a revenue model. Through this process, the author learned how to maintain a team's momentum, segment customers, create launch momentum, prioritize based on users, revenue, constraints, and goals. If faced with this situation again, the author would broadcast their long-term vision more regularly.

Evolving As A Product Manager.

This article discusses the importance of growth for Product Managers and how to use previous experiences and backgrounds to become more successful. It highlights the need to find the right gear to switch to in order to become a successful Product Manager, as well as the importance of amplifying experiences, interests, and background to make a difference in the role.

Planning Product Development

The VP of Engineering for Ernit was the first technical person to join the company and faced the challenge of creating a protocol for the device to communicate back to the servers. After questioning the founders and creating a blueprint of the communication flow, they were able to come up with a solution that allowed them to ship the product in the Kickstarter phase. The lesson learned was that even if people aren't technical, they should be able to provide blueprints with communication flows to ensure information is flowing in both directions.

The Importance Of A Proof Of Concept

Huawei was trying to build a 4G network casting tool, but realized that none of the available technologies could handle the 30,000 requests per second needed. They identified Adaline as a potential solution, but had to build their own competencies and knowledge from scratch. After seven months, a team of 11 people delivered code consisting of 20,000 lines. This experience taught them the importance of having an early proof of concept and technical validation strategies to prevent working off of assumptions.

How I Convinced My Employee To Set Tangible Goals

During a period of transition, the author inherited an employee who refused to set quarterly goals. After taking the time to learn about the employee's communication style and concerns, the author was able to get the employee to set goals and give him a bonus. This conversation also led to the company switching from individual goals to OKRs, ensuring everyone's goals were in alignment. The lesson learned was to reach out to employees early, survey their mindsets, and work out what they want to accomplish.

From IC To Tech Lead - Transitioning Schedules

After transitioning into a tech-lead role, the author struggled to manage their team's problems while also completing their own work. After reading an article, they realized that they needed to separate their day into two distinct schedules - one for individual tasks and one for collaboration with their team. After initially struggling, the author eventually got into a flow and this approach worked well. The lesson learned is that different roles have different requirements for attention span, collaboration, and focus, and it is important to identify and set up expectations with your team.

Using A Demo To Solve A Dispute

Two engineers faced resistance when exploring a technology to use in development, so they created a demo to prove its usefulness and gain buy-in from their manager and team. The demo was successful, and the technology was implemented across the team. This experience taught them that data and demos can be effective tools for resolving conflicts about technology decisions.

From Individual Contributor To New Manager

This article discusses the challenges faced by an individual who moved from an individual contributor role to a manager role. It outlines the actions taken to learn the necessary soft skills, such as time management, delegation, and working with people. It also highlights the importance of networking and taking courses to increase knowledge. The article concludes with the lessons learned, such as the need to re-calibrate and the importance of delegating and networking.

How to handle the Performance Management of a Senior Team Member

A senior front-end engineer at Adobe was feeling demotivated and started to be rude to others. The manager had to manage him strategically, not tactically, by having conversations to explain his value to the team and to explain that his harsh remarks were not acceptable. After two weeks, the engineer expressed interest in remaining in his role and wanted help to change and grow in the organization. The manager coached him and he started delegating more and learning to trust junior engineers. The engineer is still working in the group, designing robust FE architectures.

Leveraging Relationships To Meet A Huge Challenge

The VP of Engineering at a small business lending company was tasked with building an online lead generating tool. After six to eight weeks of working on the project with just their own team, they realized they needed to build a bridge between them and the team that had built the legacy technology. They also needed to find outside parties to help with automated know-your-customer functions and push back against the CEO's requests. Ultimately, they were able to launch the platform in the timeframe they were asked to and it became the largest single source of leads and loan applications. The lesson learned was to ask the question "Does anyone here already have this expertise?" earlier on.

How I Approached Fixing An Underperforming Team

The Chief Technology Officer of a company with a 50-person technology team was tasked with transforming the organization to meet user demands. To do this, the CTO gathered data from each team member, organized the team into logical departments, installed communication protocols, and created an environment where ideas were welcomed and bad ideas were seen as learning opportunities. This resulted in the team being able to release multiple times a day with a success rate of over 90%, and the company becoming a thought leader in advanced technology.

An Alternative To Code Reviews

This article discusses the issue of code reviews and how to effectively integrate them into the delivery process. It suggests using DevOps tools such as Slack integrations and thumbnails to keep people accountable and to automate as much of the code review process as possible. Automation can help to ensure that code is delivered to a high level of quality and that the team can start building with the code they are writing.

Defining What A Project Is and Is Not

When working on a project, it is important to understand what it is and what it is not in order to prevent scope creep and wasted time and energy. Recently, a presentation was given to a bank to explain the scope of a fintech project and what it did and did not cover. This helped to engage people's curiosity and prevent frustration due to limited creativity.

Why You Should Encourage Criticism

In 2004, the company I worked for wanted to rewrite their UI using Struts, but the existing XSL-based UI wouldn't work with the framework. I was open and honest about the preconditions that needed to be met, and the company was open to hearing my feedback regardless of my position. I learned that it's important to build trust and rapport with colleagues so that they feel comfortable speaking their mind and providing constructive criticism.

Taking Away Hostility By Making Tasks Fun

This case study follows a Principal Engineer who was tasked with travelling to Belarus to gather knowledge and bring it back to India. After 13 days of asking endless questions, the engineer and their team decided to break down the code into 52 sub-projects, which was successful in reducing feelings of hostility and anxiety. The lesson learned was to focus on tasks that everyone can do together and have fun with, rather than tasks that make one person the hero.

When Your Team Member Sees You As A Threat

A new project manager was brought into a company and faced passive aggressive behavior from one of his direct reports. He was able to gain the teammate's trust by taking on strategic back-end projects, remaining calm during conversations, and having regular one-on-one meetings. He learned to listen to the teammate until they felt heard, which allowed them to be more open to discussing ideas and answering questions.

Hiring For A Lot Of Roles Rapidly Without A Recruiter

This article describes the process of hiring 8 people for an Indian office in a month, without using a recruitment company. A temporary structure was formed within the company to reach the goal, with hiring managers, observers, and coordinators. The hiring process was incentivized with free food and rewards, and by the end of the month, all 8 roles were filled. The lesson learned was to manage risks when hiring in a time-bound manner, and to have observers for each role to ensure any issues can be raised and fixed.

Moving From Research To Production

This case study outlines the steps taken to help a company with advanced research to get the learnings from the research group embedded into real products. The consultant evaluated the situation and determined that the research had no real direction. The consultant then gave the researchers a limited scope with obvious value to the customers and clients of the company and worked with the executives to develop a product roadmap with specific dates. This drove people to work towards the end goal of shipping and was used to drive the research into products and get value from the investment. The lesson learned was that time-boxing projects creates value and forcing to have something shipped tends to align people, give people's roles meaning and delivers value to customers.

Fixing Conflict Through Communication

A professional services company was having difficulty with their VP of Engineering, who was struggling to support hundreds of people and build software to support 600 people. The COO was considering firing the VP of Engineering, but with early intervention, aggressive changes, and the skill and willingness of all parties, the situation was saved. The VP of Engineering was coached on how to speak the language of the business and demonstrate small successes to gain the confidence of the COO, and the COO had to suspend disbelief for a while. Ultimately, the best situation was achieved with the personnel in place.

Managing Relationships For Product Managers

This article discusses the process of managing a team of nine project managers. The author has taken various approaches to build relationships between engineers and product managers, such as pairing them together. The author has also learned the importance of communicating clearly and hiring PMs when needed in order to prevent people from stepping on each other's toes and build better relationships.

Market Segmentation For A Product Launch

This case study outlines the process of taking on Product Management for Youtube Live Streaming. The author segmented the market, identified four different types of users, and created a list of features for each segment. They also had to manage costs and develop a revenue model. Through this process, the author learned how to maintain a team's momentum, segment customers, create launch momentum, prioritize based on users, revenue, constraints, and goals. If faced with this situation again, the author would broadcast their long-term vision more regularly.

Evolving As A Product Manager.

This article discusses the importance of growth for Product Managers and how to use previous experiences and backgrounds to become more successful. It highlights the need to find the right gear to switch to in order to become a successful Product Manager, as well as the importance of amplifying experiences, interests, and background to make a difference in the role.

Planning Product Development

The VP of Engineering for Ernit was the first technical person to join the company and faced the challenge of creating a protocol for the device to communicate back to the servers. After questioning the founders and creating a blueprint of the communication flow, they were able to come up with a solution that allowed them to ship the product in the Kickstarter phase. The lesson learned was that even if people aren't technical, they should be able to provide blueprints with communication flows to ensure information is flowing in both directions.

The Importance Of A Proof Of Concept

Huawei was trying to build a 4G network casting tool, but realized that none of the available technologies could handle the 30,000 requests per second needed. They identified Adaline as a potential solution, but had to build their own competencies and knowledge from scratch. After seven months, a team of 11 people delivered code consisting of 20,000 lines. This experience taught them the importance of having an early proof of concept and technical validation strategies to prevent working off of assumptions.

How I Convinced My Employee To Set Tangible Goals

During a period of transition, the author inherited an employee who refused to set quarterly goals. After taking the time to learn about the employee's communication style and concerns, the author was able to get the employee to set goals and give him a bonus. This conversation also led to the company switching from individual goals to OKRs, ensuring everyone's goals were in alignment. The lesson learned was to reach out to employees early, survey their mindsets, and work out what they want to accomplish.

From IC To Tech Lead - Transitioning Schedules

After transitioning into a tech-lead role, the author struggled to manage their team's problems while also completing their own work. After reading an article, they realized that they needed to separate their day into two distinct schedules - one for individual tasks and one for collaboration with their team. After initially struggling, the author eventually got into a flow and this approach worked well. The lesson learned is that different roles have different requirements for attention span, collaboration, and focus, and it is important to identify and set up expectations with your team.

Using A Demo To Solve A Dispute

Two engineers faced resistance when exploring a technology to use in development, so they created a demo to prove its usefulness and gain buy-in from their manager and team. The demo was successful, and the technology was implemented across the team. This experience taught them that data and demos can be effective tools for resolving conflicts about technology decisions.

From Individual Contributor To New Manager

This article discusses the challenges faced by an individual who moved from an individual contributor role to a manager role. It outlines the actions taken to learn the necessary soft skills, such as time management, delegation, and working with people. It also highlights the importance of networking and taking courses to increase knowledge. The article concludes with the lessons learned, such as the need to re-calibrate and the importance of delegating and networking.

How to handle the Performance Management of a Senior Team Member

A senior front-end engineer at Adobe was feeling demotivated and started to be rude to others. The manager had to manage him strategically, not tactically, by having conversations to explain his value to the team and to explain that his harsh remarks were not acceptable. After two weeks, the engineer expressed interest in remaining in his role and wanted help to change and grow in the organization. The manager coached him and he started delegating more and learning to trust junior engineers. The engineer is still working in the group, designing robust FE architectures.

Leveraging Relationships To Meet A Huge Challenge

The VP of Engineering at a small business lending company was tasked with building an online lead generating tool. After six to eight weeks of working on the project with just their own team, they realized they needed to build a bridge between them and the team that had built the legacy technology. They also needed to find outside parties to help with automated know-your-customer functions and push back against the CEO's requests. Ultimately, they were able to launch the platform in the timeframe they were asked to and it became the largest single source of leads and loan applications. The lesson learned was to ask the question "Does anyone here already have this expertise?" earlier on.

How I Approached Fixing An Underperforming Team

The Chief Technology Officer of a company with a 50-person technology team was tasked with transforming the organization to meet user demands. To do this, the CTO gathered data from each team member, organized the team into logical departments, installed communication protocols, and created an environment where ideas were welcomed and bad ideas were seen as learning opportunities. This resulted in the team being able to release multiple times a day with a success rate of over 90%, and the company becoming a thought leader in advanced technology.

An Alternative To Code Reviews

This article discusses the issue of code reviews and how to effectively integrate them into the delivery process. It suggests using DevOps tools such as Slack integrations and thumbnails to keep people accountable and to automate as much of the code review process as possible. Automation can help to ensure that code is delivered to a high level of quality and that the team can start building with the code they are writing.

Defining What A Project Is and Is Not

When working on a project, it is important to understand what it is and what it is not in order to prevent scope creep and wasted time and energy. Recently, a presentation was given to a bank to explain the scope of a fintech project and what it did and did not cover. This helped to engage people's curiosity and prevent frustration due to limited creativity.

Why You Should Encourage Criticism

In 2004, the company I worked for wanted to rewrite their UI using Struts, but the existing XSL-based UI wouldn't work with the framework. I was open and honest about the preconditions that needed to be met, and the company was open to hearing my feedback regardless of my position. I learned that it's important to build trust and rapport with colleagues so that they feel comfortable speaking their mind and providing constructive criticism.

Taking Away Hostility By Making Tasks Fun

This case study follows a Principal Engineer who was tasked with travelling to Belarus to gather knowledge and bring it back to India. After 13 days of asking endless questions, the engineer and their team decided to break down the code into 52 sub-projects, which was successful in reducing feelings of hostility and anxiety. The lesson learned was to focus on tasks that everyone can do together and have fun with, rather than tasks that make one person the hero.

When Your Team Member Sees You As A Threat

A new project manager was brought into a company and faced passive aggressive behavior from one of his direct reports. He was able to gain the teammate's trust by taking on strategic back-end projects, remaining calm during conversations, and having regular one-on-one meetings. He learned to listen to the teammate until they felt heard, which allowed them to be more open to discussing ideas and answering questions.

Hiring For A Lot Of Roles Rapidly Without A Recruiter

This article describes the process of hiring 8 people for an Indian office in a month, without using a recruitment company. A temporary structure was formed within the company to reach the goal, with hiring managers, observers, and coordinators. The hiring process was incentivized with free food and rewards, and by the end of the month, all 8 roles were filled. The lesson learned was to manage risks when hiring in a time-bound manner, and to have observers for each role to ensure any issues can be raised and fixed.

Moving From Research To Production

This case study outlines the steps taken to help a company with advanced research to get the learnings from the research group embedded into real products. The consultant evaluated the situation and determined that the research had no real direction. The consultant then gave the researchers a limited scope with obvious value to the customers and clients of the company and worked with the executives to develop a product roadmap with specific dates. This drove people to work towards the end goal of shipping and was used to drive the research into products and get value from the investment. The lesson learned was that time-boxing projects creates value and forcing to have something shipped tends to align people, give people's roles meaning and delivers value to customers.

Fixing Conflict Through Communication

A professional services company was having difficulty with their VP of Engineering, who was struggling to support hundreds of people and build software to support 600 people. The COO was considering firing the VP of Engineering, but with early intervention, aggressive changes, and the skill and willingness of all parties, the situation was saved. The VP of Engineering was coached on how to speak the language of the business and demonstrate small successes to gain the confidence of the COO, and the COO had to suspend disbelief for a while. Ultimately, the best situation was achieved with the personnel in place.

Managing Relationships For Product Managers

This article discusses the process of managing a team of nine project managers. The author has taken various approaches to build relationships between engineers and product managers, such as pairing them together. The author has also learned the importance of communicating clearly and hiring PMs when needed in order to prevent people from stepping on each other's toes and build better relationships.

Market Segmentation For A Product Launch

This case study outlines the process of taking on Product Management for Youtube Live Streaming. The author segmented the market, identified four different types of users, and created a list of features for each segment. They also had to manage costs and develop a revenue model. Through this process, the author learned how to maintain a team's momentum, segment customers, create launch momentum, prioritize based on users, revenue, constraints, and goals. If faced with this situation again, the author would broadcast their long-term vision more regularly.

Evolving As A Product Manager.

This article discusses the importance of growth for Product Managers and how to use previous experiences and backgrounds to become more successful. It highlights the need to find the right gear to switch to in order to become a successful Product Manager, as well as the importance of amplifying experiences, interests, and background to make a difference in the role.

Planning Product Development

The VP of Engineering for Ernit was the first technical person to join the company and faced the challenge of creating a protocol for the device to communicate back to the servers. After questioning the founders and creating a blueprint of the communication flow, they were able to come up with a solution that allowed them to ship the product in the Kickstarter phase. The lesson learned was that even if people aren't technical, they should be able to provide blueprints with communication flows to ensure information is flowing in both directions.

The Importance Of A Proof Of Concept

Huawei was trying to build a 4G network casting tool, but realized that none of the available technologies could handle the 30,000 requests per second needed. They identified Adaline as a potential solution, but had to build their own competencies and knowledge from scratch. After seven months, a team of 11 people delivered code consisting of 20,000 lines. This experience taught them the importance of having an early proof of concept and technical validation strategies to prevent working off of assumptions.