Knowledge shared by our community

A Framework For Your Team’s Career Growth

At Atlassian, the team was not used to having conversations about growth due to their previous manager. To help them progress, the manager implemented growth profiles and had one-on-ones to assess their capabilities and skills. They then chose goals to work on for six months, using the Golden Circle framework to understand why they wanted to do something. The manager also did monthly check-ins to track progress. This framework was successful in motivating the team.

Dealing With Complainers

When managing a team of four people, I encountered an engineer who was in his probation period and was complaining a lot. I gave him regular feedback and asked him to come up with solutions for himself. I also gave him ownership over problems and encouraged him to use innovation weeks and hackathons to find solutions. Unfortunately, he didn't make it through his probation period, but I learned that when dealing with complainers, it is important to give them more accountability and allow them to change what they are complaining about.

How To Be A Successful Mentee

This article outlines the importance of valuing time in a mentoring relationship and provides tips on how to prepare for a mentoring session. It suggests providing a quick introduction about yourself and your background, preparing for the session for at least half an hour, and sending a follow-up email after the meeting. The author also shares the lessons they learned from their first mentor, which was to discuss the challenges faced and the learnings had.

Getting Team Buy-in To Improve

When starting as a new manager of an existing team, it is important to take a step back and observe the team from both the inside and outside. After collecting feedback, involve the team in decision making and brainstorming solutions. This approach was successful for the new manager at Atlassian, who was able to reorganize the team's planning process and create a healthy team environment.

Delve Into Issues To Find Solutions

The staff engineer at Betterment identified that the DevOps team was overworked and unable to keep up with the engineering organization's growth. After talking with the team, the engineer realized that the team was not set up for success and needed to be restructured. The engineer then spent the last year reinventing the team and building software to enable the rest of the engineering team to do their own building, testing, and deploying. Through this process, the engineer learned that having empathetic conversations with the team and exploring the issue was the best way to solve the problem.

When Pure People Management Isn’t The Right Fit

The author was asked to take on a managerial role at Betterment, but eventually realized that it was not the right fit for them. After engaging with their manager and other managers in the organization, they created a new role that balanced individual contribution and people management. This experience taught them that organizations should provide mixed career paths for those wishing to learn and grow.

The Search For True Motivations

A direct report wanted to switch teams due to a lack of ownership and mastery in their current job. After discussing their motivations, a plan was created to give them more ownership and mastery in their job. This showed that what appears to be a lack of motivation can often be attributed to a lack of ownership or purpose.

How I Used Email Updates For Team Transparency

In order to bridge the gap between the work of his team and the mission of the company, the manager of a recently expanded team of sixteen direct reports began sending out weekly emails. The emails included project updates, appreciation for work done, and musings on topics such as trust and code reviews. The emails have been well-received and have led to conversations about the team's culture and values.

Managing The Unexpected Doubling Of Your Team’s Size

The author was faced with the challenge of taking on double the amount of direct reports in a day when their peer manager decided to transition from a manager to an individual contributor. The author took a few approaches to ensure their team's well-being and success, such as structuring their week around "themes" of the ways they spend their time, scheduling one-on-ones with their team, and enabling the ICs in the team to take more of a leadership role. The author learned that it is important to take a step back and allow other people to stretch themselves, and that management is all about people and relationships.

How I Moved Away From A Flat Organizational Structure

When the CTO of Narrative Science took over, the company was flat-structured with 14 engineers and 40 employees in total. To prepare for growth, the CTO implemented a QA and DevOps team, created a career ladder with five levels, and set up a program to hire recent graduates. He also had to explain the reasoning behind the changes to the existing organization and train people in having difficult conversations. He learned that it is important to make sure the requirements for each level are clear and that he should deliver on any promises made to employees.

Providing Vision To Keep Projects On Track

This company had a mission to make data accessible for human beings through natural language generation. To do this, they needed to develop a software package. However, due to a lack of clarity on what the product was going to do, they were continually missing the mark. To fix this, the executive team had to take a step back and define a vision for the product in three to five years time. They then determined the five steps needed to push towards that goal and communicated it to the product owners and engineers. This helped reduce conflict and improve their prioritization. Going forward, they need to communicate their vision and steps more often to ensure everyone is on the same page.

Firing A Popular But Underperforming Manager

A manager had been working at an organization for four years and was well-liked, but had received feedback that he avoided delivering bad news and having tough conversations. When a more senior person applied for a job, it became clear that the manager was underperforming. The CTO had to make the difficult decision to let him go, and had to explain the decision to the rest of the organization. It turned out to be the right decision, and the CTO learned the importance of having trust and accountability among peers.

Why I Made My Company’s Compensation More Structured

Pilot has implemented a new compensation process that eliminates negotiation components and rewards employees based on their skills. The company has also taken steps to ensure that employees are not discriminated against based on their location, by benchmarking salaries to the most expensive country they are comfortable hiring in. The key lesson learned is to focus on creating a fair compensation scheme that does not rely on negotiation skills.

A New Process To Improve Shipping Output

This article discusses two approaches to solving the problem of teams struggling to ship products and features. The first approach involves creating a structured process with multiple steps, where points are only awarded for a sprint when something is shipped. The second approach involves making the team accountable for features and stopping tracking engineering tasks, with everyone working on the feature jointly responsible for getting the product out of the door. Incentives matter, so it's important to understand what employees are driven by and how they are being rewarded for doing their job.

Letting Go Of Half My Employees

The CEO of a company with around sixty to seventy people had to let go of half of their staff. To ensure everyone was in the loop, they set up a Google Hangout and presented the changes. They also spoke one-on-one with each individual affected by the changes. The CEO learned that clear communication is key in difficult situations, and was proud of how they handled the situation and communicated it to their employees.

Traffic Light Performance Management

An Engineering Manager at InVision used a performance management model to communicate with an underperforming engineer. After a discussion and follow-up email, the engineer identified the steps he needed to take to improve and was able to successfully execute on his plan. The manager learned that clear, compassionate feedback is important, and that people need to own their own success for the best results.

How I Approached Managing Up

A Senior Software Architect at a startup experienced a co-founder who was overstepping his bounds and not being held accountable by the CEO. The Architect invested in building trust and had informal chats with people across the company to get a better feel for the problem. They then addressed the problem with the co-founder directly and gave feedback to other people and the CEO. The lesson learned was that building trust and strong relationships with people across the organization is important, but ultimately people have to want to change and grow.

Getting Buy-in From Teams When Restructuring

Haptik faced a difficult business situation and needed to reorganize. To do this, the CEO and VP's held management meetings and discussed a plan of action. However, this time they decided to talk to each team and get their buy-in and feedback. This allowed them to come up with solutions together and when the reorganization was announced, everyone was ready and welcoming of the changes. This taught the lesson that when faced with a difficult business situation, it is important to get buy-in from the people affected and to come up with solutions together.

A Gap In Communication Between Sales And Engineering

When a client asked the company to build a voice chat bot in six to eight weeks, the engineering team had to strike a balance between simplicity and quality. The project was broken down into four phases and ultimately completed in nine weeks. The lesson learned was that there needs to be clear communication between sales and engineering, and between what the salespeople think is achievable and what is actually achievable.

The Importance Of Aligning Expectations

iQMetrix was working on a custom enhancement to their product for an enterprise client, but the project went sideways due to incorrect steps in the requirements document and unrealistic deadlines. The project was eventually pulled by the client due to the cost. The lesson learned was to align expectations from the beginning and be aware of the risk of not having enough experience.

A Framework For Your Team’s Career Growth

At Atlassian, the team was not used to having conversations about growth due to their previous manager. To help them progress, the manager implemented growth profiles and had one-on-ones to assess their capabilities and skills. They then chose goals to work on for six months, using the Golden Circle framework to understand why they wanted to do something. The manager also did monthly check-ins to track progress. This framework was successful in motivating the team.

Dealing With Complainers

When managing a team of four people, I encountered an engineer who was in his probation period and was complaining a lot. I gave him regular feedback and asked him to come up with solutions for himself. I also gave him ownership over problems and encouraged him to use innovation weeks and hackathons to find solutions. Unfortunately, he didn't make it through his probation period, but I learned that when dealing with complainers, it is important to give them more accountability and allow them to change what they are complaining about.

How To Be A Successful Mentee

This article outlines the importance of valuing time in a mentoring relationship and provides tips on how to prepare for a mentoring session. It suggests providing a quick introduction about yourself and your background, preparing for the session for at least half an hour, and sending a follow-up email after the meeting. The author also shares the lessons they learned from their first mentor, which was to discuss the challenges faced and the learnings had.

Getting Team Buy-in To Improve

When starting as a new manager of an existing team, it is important to take a step back and observe the team from both the inside and outside. After collecting feedback, involve the team in decision making and brainstorming solutions. This approach was successful for the new manager at Atlassian, who was able to reorganize the team's planning process and create a healthy team environment.

Delve Into Issues To Find Solutions

The staff engineer at Betterment identified that the DevOps team was overworked and unable to keep up with the engineering organization's growth. After talking with the team, the engineer realized that the team was not set up for success and needed to be restructured. The engineer then spent the last year reinventing the team and building software to enable the rest of the engineering team to do their own building, testing, and deploying. Through this process, the engineer learned that having empathetic conversations with the team and exploring the issue was the best way to solve the problem.

When Pure People Management Isn’t The Right Fit

The author was asked to take on a managerial role at Betterment, but eventually realized that it was not the right fit for them. After engaging with their manager and other managers in the organization, they created a new role that balanced individual contribution and people management. This experience taught them that organizations should provide mixed career paths for those wishing to learn and grow.

The Search For True Motivations

A direct report wanted to switch teams due to a lack of ownership and mastery in their current job. After discussing their motivations, a plan was created to give them more ownership and mastery in their job. This showed that what appears to be a lack of motivation can often be attributed to a lack of ownership or purpose.

How I Used Email Updates For Team Transparency

In order to bridge the gap between the work of his team and the mission of the company, the manager of a recently expanded team of sixteen direct reports began sending out weekly emails. The emails included project updates, appreciation for work done, and musings on topics such as trust and code reviews. The emails have been well-received and have led to conversations about the team's culture and values.

Managing The Unexpected Doubling Of Your Team’s Size

The author was faced with the challenge of taking on double the amount of direct reports in a day when their peer manager decided to transition from a manager to an individual contributor. The author took a few approaches to ensure their team's well-being and success, such as structuring their week around "themes" of the ways they spend their time, scheduling one-on-ones with their team, and enabling the ICs in the team to take more of a leadership role. The author learned that it is important to take a step back and allow other people to stretch themselves, and that management is all about people and relationships.

How I Moved Away From A Flat Organizational Structure

When the CTO of Narrative Science took over, the company was flat-structured with 14 engineers and 40 employees in total. To prepare for growth, the CTO implemented a QA and DevOps team, created a career ladder with five levels, and set up a program to hire recent graduates. He also had to explain the reasoning behind the changes to the existing organization and train people in having difficult conversations. He learned that it is important to make sure the requirements for each level are clear and that he should deliver on any promises made to employees.

Providing Vision To Keep Projects On Track

This company had a mission to make data accessible for human beings through natural language generation. To do this, they needed to develop a software package. However, due to a lack of clarity on what the product was going to do, they were continually missing the mark. To fix this, the executive team had to take a step back and define a vision for the product in three to five years time. They then determined the five steps needed to push towards that goal and communicated it to the product owners and engineers. This helped reduce conflict and improve their prioritization. Going forward, they need to communicate their vision and steps more often to ensure everyone is on the same page.

Firing A Popular But Underperforming Manager

A manager had been working at an organization for four years and was well-liked, but had received feedback that he avoided delivering bad news and having tough conversations. When a more senior person applied for a job, it became clear that the manager was underperforming. The CTO had to make the difficult decision to let him go, and had to explain the decision to the rest of the organization. It turned out to be the right decision, and the CTO learned the importance of having trust and accountability among peers.

Why I Made My Company’s Compensation More Structured

Pilot has implemented a new compensation process that eliminates negotiation components and rewards employees based on their skills. The company has also taken steps to ensure that employees are not discriminated against based on their location, by benchmarking salaries to the most expensive country they are comfortable hiring in. The key lesson learned is to focus on creating a fair compensation scheme that does not rely on negotiation skills.

A New Process To Improve Shipping Output

This article discusses two approaches to solving the problem of teams struggling to ship products and features. The first approach involves creating a structured process with multiple steps, where points are only awarded for a sprint when something is shipped. The second approach involves making the team accountable for features and stopping tracking engineering tasks, with everyone working on the feature jointly responsible for getting the product out of the door. Incentives matter, so it's important to understand what employees are driven by and how they are being rewarded for doing their job.

Letting Go Of Half My Employees

The CEO of a company with around sixty to seventy people had to let go of half of their staff. To ensure everyone was in the loop, they set up a Google Hangout and presented the changes. They also spoke one-on-one with each individual affected by the changes. The CEO learned that clear communication is key in difficult situations, and was proud of how they handled the situation and communicated it to their employees.

Traffic Light Performance Management

An Engineering Manager at InVision used a performance management model to communicate with an underperforming engineer. After a discussion and follow-up email, the engineer identified the steps he needed to take to improve and was able to successfully execute on his plan. The manager learned that clear, compassionate feedback is important, and that people need to own their own success for the best results.

How I Approached Managing Up

A Senior Software Architect at a startup experienced a co-founder who was overstepping his bounds and not being held accountable by the CEO. The Architect invested in building trust and had informal chats with people across the company to get a better feel for the problem. They then addressed the problem with the co-founder directly and gave feedback to other people and the CEO. The lesson learned was that building trust and strong relationships with people across the organization is important, but ultimately people have to want to change and grow.

Getting Buy-in From Teams When Restructuring

Haptik faced a difficult business situation and needed to reorganize. To do this, the CEO and VP's held management meetings and discussed a plan of action. However, this time they decided to talk to each team and get their buy-in and feedback. This allowed them to come up with solutions together and when the reorganization was announced, everyone was ready and welcoming of the changes. This taught the lesson that when faced with a difficult business situation, it is important to get buy-in from the people affected and to come up with solutions together.

A Gap In Communication Between Sales And Engineering

When a client asked the company to build a voice chat bot in six to eight weeks, the engineering team had to strike a balance between simplicity and quality. The project was broken down into four phases and ultimately completed in nine weeks. The lesson learned was that there needs to be clear communication between sales and engineering, and between what the salespeople think is achievable and what is actually achievable.

The Importance Of Aligning Expectations

iQMetrix was working on a custom enhancement to their product for an enterprise client, but the project went sideways due to incorrect steps in the requirements document and unrealistic deadlines. The project was eventually pulled by the client due to the cost. The lesson learned was to align expectations from the beginning and be aware of the risk of not having enough experience.

A Framework For Your Team’s Career Growth

At Atlassian, the team was not used to having conversations about growth due to their previous manager. To help them progress, the manager implemented growth profiles and had one-on-ones to assess their capabilities and skills. They then chose goals to work on for six months, using the Golden Circle framework to understand why they wanted to do something. The manager also did monthly check-ins to track progress. This framework was successful in motivating the team.

Dealing With Complainers

When managing a team of four people, I encountered an engineer who was in his probation period and was complaining a lot. I gave him regular feedback and asked him to come up with solutions for himself. I also gave him ownership over problems and encouraged him to use innovation weeks and hackathons to find solutions. Unfortunately, he didn't make it through his probation period, but I learned that when dealing with complainers, it is important to give them more accountability and allow them to change what they are complaining about.

How To Be A Successful Mentee

This article outlines the importance of valuing time in a mentoring relationship and provides tips on how to prepare for a mentoring session. It suggests providing a quick introduction about yourself and your background, preparing for the session for at least half an hour, and sending a follow-up email after the meeting. The author also shares the lessons they learned from their first mentor, which was to discuss the challenges faced and the learnings had.

Getting Team Buy-in To Improve

When starting as a new manager of an existing team, it is important to take a step back and observe the team from both the inside and outside. After collecting feedback, involve the team in decision making and brainstorming solutions. This approach was successful for the new manager at Atlassian, who was able to reorganize the team's planning process and create a healthy team environment.

Delve Into Issues To Find Solutions

The staff engineer at Betterment identified that the DevOps team was overworked and unable to keep up with the engineering organization's growth. After talking with the team, the engineer realized that the team was not set up for success and needed to be restructured. The engineer then spent the last year reinventing the team and building software to enable the rest of the engineering team to do their own building, testing, and deploying. Through this process, the engineer learned that having empathetic conversations with the team and exploring the issue was the best way to solve the problem.

When Pure People Management Isn’t The Right Fit

The author was asked to take on a managerial role at Betterment, but eventually realized that it was not the right fit for them. After engaging with their manager and other managers in the organization, they created a new role that balanced individual contribution and people management. This experience taught them that organizations should provide mixed career paths for those wishing to learn and grow.

The Search For True Motivations

A direct report wanted to switch teams due to a lack of ownership and mastery in their current job. After discussing their motivations, a plan was created to give them more ownership and mastery in their job. This showed that what appears to be a lack of motivation can often be attributed to a lack of ownership or purpose.

How I Used Email Updates For Team Transparency

In order to bridge the gap between the work of his team and the mission of the company, the manager of a recently expanded team of sixteen direct reports began sending out weekly emails. The emails included project updates, appreciation for work done, and musings on topics such as trust and code reviews. The emails have been well-received and have led to conversations about the team's culture and values.

Managing The Unexpected Doubling Of Your Team’s Size

The author was faced with the challenge of taking on double the amount of direct reports in a day when their peer manager decided to transition from a manager to an individual contributor. The author took a few approaches to ensure their team's well-being and success, such as structuring their week around "themes" of the ways they spend their time, scheduling one-on-ones with their team, and enabling the ICs in the team to take more of a leadership role. The author learned that it is important to take a step back and allow other people to stretch themselves, and that management is all about people and relationships.

How I Moved Away From A Flat Organizational Structure

When the CTO of Narrative Science took over, the company was flat-structured with 14 engineers and 40 employees in total. To prepare for growth, the CTO implemented a QA and DevOps team, created a career ladder with five levels, and set up a program to hire recent graduates. He also had to explain the reasoning behind the changes to the existing organization and train people in having difficult conversations. He learned that it is important to make sure the requirements for each level are clear and that he should deliver on any promises made to employees.

Providing Vision To Keep Projects On Track

This company had a mission to make data accessible for human beings through natural language generation. To do this, they needed to develop a software package. However, due to a lack of clarity on what the product was going to do, they were continually missing the mark. To fix this, the executive team had to take a step back and define a vision for the product in three to five years time. They then determined the five steps needed to push towards that goal and communicated it to the product owners and engineers. This helped reduce conflict and improve their prioritization. Going forward, they need to communicate their vision and steps more often to ensure everyone is on the same page.

Firing A Popular But Underperforming Manager

A manager had been working at an organization for four years and was well-liked, but had received feedback that he avoided delivering bad news and having tough conversations. When a more senior person applied for a job, it became clear that the manager was underperforming. The CTO had to make the difficult decision to let him go, and had to explain the decision to the rest of the organization. It turned out to be the right decision, and the CTO learned the importance of having trust and accountability among peers.

Why I Made My Company’s Compensation More Structured

Pilot has implemented a new compensation process that eliminates negotiation components and rewards employees based on their skills. The company has also taken steps to ensure that employees are not discriminated against based on their location, by benchmarking salaries to the most expensive country they are comfortable hiring in. The key lesson learned is to focus on creating a fair compensation scheme that does not rely on negotiation skills.

A New Process To Improve Shipping Output

This article discusses two approaches to solving the problem of teams struggling to ship products and features. The first approach involves creating a structured process with multiple steps, where points are only awarded for a sprint when something is shipped. The second approach involves making the team accountable for features and stopping tracking engineering tasks, with everyone working on the feature jointly responsible for getting the product out of the door. Incentives matter, so it's important to understand what employees are driven by and how they are being rewarded for doing their job.

Letting Go Of Half My Employees

The CEO of a company with around sixty to seventy people had to let go of half of their staff. To ensure everyone was in the loop, they set up a Google Hangout and presented the changes. They also spoke one-on-one with each individual affected by the changes. The CEO learned that clear communication is key in difficult situations, and was proud of how they handled the situation and communicated it to their employees.

Traffic Light Performance Management

An Engineering Manager at InVision used a performance management model to communicate with an underperforming engineer. After a discussion and follow-up email, the engineer identified the steps he needed to take to improve and was able to successfully execute on his plan. The manager learned that clear, compassionate feedback is important, and that people need to own their own success for the best results.

How I Approached Managing Up

A Senior Software Architect at a startup experienced a co-founder who was overstepping his bounds and not being held accountable by the CEO. The Architect invested in building trust and had informal chats with people across the company to get a better feel for the problem. They then addressed the problem with the co-founder directly and gave feedback to other people and the CEO. The lesson learned was that building trust and strong relationships with people across the organization is important, but ultimately people have to want to change and grow.

Getting Buy-in From Teams When Restructuring

Haptik faced a difficult business situation and needed to reorganize. To do this, the CEO and VP's held management meetings and discussed a plan of action. However, this time they decided to talk to each team and get their buy-in and feedback. This allowed them to come up with solutions together and when the reorganization was announced, everyone was ready and welcoming of the changes. This taught the lesson that when faced with a difficult business situation, it is important to get buy-in from the people affected and to come up with solutions together.

A Gap In Communication Between Sales And Engineering

When a client asked the company to build a voice chat bot in six to eight weeks, the engineering team had to strike a balance between simplicity and quality. The project was broken down into four phases and ultimately completed in nine weeks. The lesson learned was that there needs to be clear communication between sales and engineering, and between what the salespeople think is achievable and what is actually achievable.

The Importance Of Aligning Expectations

iQMetrix was working on a custom enhancement to their product for an enterprise client, but the project went sideways due to incorrect steps in the requirements document and unrealistic deadlines. The project was eventually pulled by the client due to the cost. The lesson learned was to align expectations from the beginning and be aware of the risk of not having enough experience.

A Framework For Your Team’s Career Growth

At Atlassian, the team was not used to having conversations about growth due to their previous manager. To help them progress, the manager implemented growth profiles and had one-on-ones to assess their capabilities and skills. They then chose goals to work on for six months, using the Golden Circle framework to understand why they wanted to do something. The manager also did monthly check-ins to track progress. This framework was successful in motivating the team.

Dealing With Complainers

When managing a team of four people, I encountered an engineer who was in his probation period and was complaining a lot. I gave him regular feedback and asked him to come up with solutions for himself. I also gave him ownership over problems and encouraged him to use innovation weeks and hackathons to find solutions. Unfortunately, he didn't make it through his probation period, but I learned that when dealing with complainers, it is important to give them more accountability and allow them to change what they are complaining about.

How To Be A Successful Mentee

This article outlines the importance of valuing time in a mentoring relationship and provides tips on how to prepare for a mentoring session. It suggests providing a quick introduction about yourself and your background, preparing for the session for at least half an hour, and sending a follow-up email after the meeting. The author also shares the lessons they learned from their first mentor, which was to discuss the challenges faced and the learnings had.

Getting Team Buy-in To Improve

When starting as a new manager of an existing team, it is important to take a step back and observe the team from both the inside and outside. After collecting feedback, involve the team in decision making and brainstorming solutions. This approach was successful for the new manager at Atlassian, who was able to reorganize the team's planning process and create a healthy team environment.

Delve Into Issues To Find Solutions

The staff engineer at Betterment identified that the DevOps team was overworked and unable to keep up with the engineering organization's growth. After talking with the team, the engineer realized that the team was not set up for success and needed to be restructured. The engineer then spent the last year reinventing the team and building software to enable the rest of the engineering team to do their own building, testing, and deploying. Through this process, the engineer learned that having empathetic conversations with the team and exploring the issue was the best way to solve the problem.

When Pure People Management Isn’t The Right Fit

The author was asked to take on a managerial role at Betterment, but eventually realized that it was not the right fit for them. After engaging with their manager and other managers in the organization, they created a new role that balanced individual contribution and people management. This experience taught them that organizations should provide mixed career paths for those wishing to learn and grow.

The Search For True Motivations

A direct report wanted to switch teams due to a lack of ownership and mastery in their current job. After discussing their motivations, a plan was created to give them more ownership and mastery in their job. This showed that what appears to be a lack of motivation can often be attributed to a lack of ownership or purpose.

How I Used Email Updates For Team Transparency

In order to bridge the gap between the work of his team and the mission of the company, the manager of a recently expanded team of sixteen direct reports began sending out weekly emails. The emails included project updates, appreciation for work done, and musings on topics such as trust and code reviews. The emails have been well-received and have led to conversations about the team's culture and values.

Managing The Unexpected Doubling Of Your Team’s Size

The author was faced with the challenge of taking on double the amount of direct reports in a day when their peer manager decided to transition from a manager to an individual contributor. The author took a few approaches to ensure their team's well-being and success, such as structuring their week around "themes" of the ways they spend their time, scheduling one-on-ones with their team, and enabling the ICs in the team to take more of a leadership role. The author learned that it is important to take a step back and allow other people to stretch themselves, and that management is all about people and relationships.

How I Moved Away From A Flat Organizational Structure

When the CTO of Narrative Science took over, the company was flat-structured with 14 engineers and 40 employees in total. To prepare for growth, the CTO implemented a QA and DevOps team, created a career ladder with five levels, and set up a program to hire recent graduates. He also had to explain the reasoning behind the changes to the existing organization and train people in having difficult conversations. He learned that it is important to make sure the requirements for each level are clear and that he should deliver on any promises made to employees.

Providing Vision To Keep Projects On Track

This company had a mission to make data accessible for human beings through natural language generation. To do this, they needed to develop a software package. However, due to a lack of clarity on what the product was going to do, they were continually missing the mark. To fix this, the executive team had to take a step back and define a vision for the product in three to five years time. They then determined the five steps needed to push towards that goal and communicated it to the product owners and engineers. This helped reduce conflict and improve their prioritization. Going forward, they need to communicate their vision and steps more often to ensure everyone is on the same page.

Firing A Popular But Underperforming Manager

A manager had been working at an organization for four years and was well-liked, but had received feedback that he avoided delivering bad news and having tough conversations. When a more senior person applied for a job, it became clear that the manager was underperforming. The CTO had to make the difficult decision to let him go, and had to explain the decision to the rest of the organization. It turned out to be the right decision, and the CTO learned the importance of having trust and accountability among peers.

Why I Made My Company’s Compensation More Structured

Pilot has implemented a new compensation process that eliminates negotiation components and rewards employees based on their skills. The company has also taken steps to ensure that employees are not discriminated against based on their location, by benchmarking salaries to the most expensive country they are comfortable hiring in. The key lesson learned is to focus on creating a fair compensation scheme that does not rely on negotiation skills.

A New Process To Improve Shipping Output

This article discusses two approaches to solving the problem of teams struggling to ship products and features. The first approach involves creating a structured process with multiple steps, where points are only awarded for a sprint when something is shipped. The second approach involves making the team accountable for features and stopping tracking engineering tasks, with everyone working on the feature jointly responsible for getting the product out of the door. Incentives matter, so it's important to understand what employees are driven by and how they are being rewarded for doing their job.

Letting Go Of Half My Employees

The CEO of a company with around sixty to seventy people had to let go of half of their staff. To ensure everyone was in the loop, they set up a Google Hangout and presented the changes. They also spoke one-on-one with each individual affected by the changes. The CEO learned that clear communication is key in difficult situations, and was proud of how they handled the situation and communicated it to their employees.

Traffic Light Performance Management

An Engineering Manager at InVision used a performance management model to communicate with an underperforming engineer. After a discussion and follow-up email, the engineer identified the steps he needed to take to improve and was able to successfully execute on his plan. The manager learned that clear, compassionate feedback is important, and that people need to own their own success for the best results.

How I Approached Managing Up

A Senior Software Architect at a startup experienced a co-founder who was overstepping his bounds and not being held accountable by the CEO. The Architect invested in building trust and had informal chats with people across the company to get a better feel for the problem. They then addressed the problem with the co-founder directly and gave feedback to other people and the CEO. The lesson learned was that building trust and strong relationships with people across the organization is important, but ultimately people have to want to change and grow.

Getting Buy-in From Teams When Restructuring

Haptik faced a difficult business situation and needed to reorganize. To do this, the CEO and VP's held management meetings and discussed a plan of action. However, this time they decided to talk to each team and get their buy-in and feedback. This allowed them to come up with solutions together and when the reorganization was announced, everyone was ready and welcoming of the changes. This taught the lesson that when faced with a difficult business situation, it is important to get buy-in from the people affected and to come up with solutions together.

A Gap In Communication Between Sales And Engineering

When a client asked the company to build a voice chat bot in six to eight weeks, the engineering team had to strike a balance between simplicity and quality. The project was broken down into four phases and ultimately completed in nine weeks. The lesson learned was that there needs to be clear communication between sales and engineering, and between what the salespeople think is achievable and what is actually achievable.

The Importance Of Aligning Expectations

iQMetrix was working on a custom enhancement to their product for an enterprise client, but the project went sideways due to incorrect steps in the requirements document and unrealistic deadlines. The project was eventually pulled by the client due to the cost. The lesson learned was to align expectations from the beginning and be aware of the risk of not having enough experience.

A Framework For Your Team’s Career Growth

At Atlassian, the team was not used to having conversations about growth due to their previous manager. To help them progress, the manager implemented growth profiles and had one-on-ones to assess their capabilities and skills. They then chose goals to work on for six months, using the Golden Circle framework to understand why they wanted to do something. The manager also did monthly check-ins to track progress. This framework was successful in motivating the team.

Dealing With Complainers

When managing a team of four people, I encountered an engineer who was in his probation period and was complaining a lot. I gave him regular feedback and asked him to come up with solutions for himself. I also gave him ownership over problems and encouraged him to use innovation weeks and hackathons to find solutions. Unfortunately, he didn't make it through his probation period, but I learned that when dealing with complainers, it is important to give them more accountability and allow them to change what they are complaining about.

How To Be A Successful Mentee

This article outlines the importance of valuing time in a mentoring relationship and provides tips on how to prepare for a mentoring session. It suggests providing a quick introduction about yourself and your background, preparing for the session for at least half an hour, and sending a follow-up email after the meeting. The author also shares the lessons they learned from their first mentor, which was to discuss the challenges faced and the learnings had.

Getting Team Buy-in To Improve

When starting as a new manager of an existing team, it is important to take a step back and observe the team from both the inside and outside. After collecting feedback, involve the team in decision making and brainstorming solutions. This approach was successful for the new manager at Atlassian, who was able to reorganize the team's planning process and create a healthy team environment.

Delve Into Issues To Find Solutions

The staff engineer at Betterment identified that the DevOps team was overworked and unable to keep up with the engineering organization's growth. After talking with the team, the engineer realized that the team was not set up for success and needed to be restructured. The engineer then spent the last year reinventing the team and building software to enable the rest of the engineering team to do their own building, testing, and deploying. Through this process, the engineer learned that having empathetic conversations with the team and exploring the issue was the best way to solve the problem.

When Pure People Management Isn’t The Right Fit

The author was asked to take on a managerial role at Betterment, but eventually realized that it was not the right fit for them. After engaging with their manager and other managers in the organization, they created a new role that balanced individual contribution and people management. This experience taught them that organizations should provide mixed career paths for those wishing to learn and grow.

The Search For True Motivations

A direct report wanted to switch teams due to a lack of ownership and mastery in their current job. After discussing their motivations, a plan was created to give them more ownership and mastery in their job. This showed that what appears to be a lack of motivation can often be attributed to a lack of ownership or purpose.

How I Used Email Updates For Team Transparency

In order to bridge the gap between the work of his team and the mission of the company, the manager of a recently expanded team of sixteen direct reports began sending out weekly emails. The emails included project updates, appreciation for work done, and musings on topics such as trust and code reviews. The emails have been well-received and have led to conversations about the team's culture and values.

Managing The Unexpected Doubling Of Your Team’s Size

The author was faced with the challenge of taking on double the amount of direct reports in a day when their peer manager decided to transition from a manager to an individual contributor. The author took a few approaches to ensure their team's well-being and success, such as structuring their week around "themes" of the ways they spend their time, scheduling one-on-ones with their team, and enabling the ICs in the team to take more of a leadership role. The author learned that it is important to take a step back and allow other people to stretch themselves, and that management is all about people and relationships.

How I Moved Away From A Flat Organizational Structure

When the CTO of Narrative Science took over, the company was flat-structured with 14 engineers and 40 employees in total. To prepare for growth, the CTO implemented a QA and DevOps team, created a career ladder with five levels, and set up a program to hire recent graduates. He also had to explain the reasoning behind the changes to the existing organization and train people in having difficult conversations. He learned that it is important to make sure the requirements for each level are clear and that he should deliver on any promises made to employees.

Providing Vision To Keep Projects On Track

This company had a mission to make data accessible for human beings through natural language generation. To do this, they needed to develop a software package. However, due to a lack of clarity on what the product was going to do, they were continually missing the mark. To fix this, the executive team had to take a step back and define a vision for the product in three to five years time. They then determined the five steps needed to push towards that goal and communicated it to the product owners and engineers. This helped reduce conflict and improve their prioritization. Going forward, they need to communicate their vision and steps more often to ensure everyone is on the same page.

Firing A Popular But Underperforming Manager

A manager had been working at an organization for four years and was well-liked, but had received feedback that he avoided delivering bad news and having tough conversations. When a more senior person applied for a job, it became clear that the manager was underperforming. The CTO had to make the difficult decision to let him go, and had to explain the decision to the rest of the organization. It turned out to be the right decision, and the CTO learned the importance of having trust and accountability among peers.

Why I Made My Company’s Compensation More Structured

Pilot has implemented a new compensation process that eliminates negotiation components and rewards employees based on their skills. The company has also taken steps to ensure that employees are not discriminated against based on their location, by benchmarking salaries to the most expensive country they are comfortable hiring in. The key lesson learned is to focus on creating a fair compensation scheme that does not rely on negotiation skills.

A New Process To Improve Shipping Output

This article discusses two approaches to solving the problem of teams struggling to ship products and features. The first approach involves creating a structured process with multiple steps, where points are only awarded for a sprint when something is shipped. The second approach involves making the team accountable for features and stopping tracking engineering tasks, with everyone working on the feature jointly responsible for getting the product out of the door. Incentives matter, so it's important to understand what employees are driven by and how they are being rewarded for doing their job.

Letting Go Of Half My Employees

The CEO of a company with around sixty to seventy people had to let go of half of their staff. To ensure everyone was in the loop, they set up a Google Hangout and presented the changes. They also spoke one-on-one with each individual affected by the changes. The CEO learned that clear communication is key in difficult situations, and was proud of how they handled the situation and communicated it to their employees.

Traffic Light Performance Management

An Engineering Manager at InVision used a performance management model to communicate with an underperforming engineer. After a discussion and follow-up email, the engineer identified the steps he needed to take to improve and was able to successfully execute on his plan. The manager learned that clear, compassionate feedback is important, and that people need to own their own success for the best results.

How I Approached Managing Up

A Senior Software Architect at a startup experienced a co-founder who was overstepping his bounds and not being held accountable by the CEO. The Architect invested in building trust and had informal chats with people across the company to get a better feel for the problem. They then addressed the problem with the co-founder directly and gave feedback to other people and the CEO. The lesson learned was that building trust and strong relationships with people across the organization is important, but ultimately people have to want to change and grow.

Getting Buy-in From Teams When Restructuring

Haptik faced a difficult business situation and needed to reorganize. To do this, the CEO and VP's held management meetings and discussed a plan of action. However, this time they decided to talk to each team and get their buy-in and feedback. This allowed them to come up with solutions together and when the reorganization was announced, everyone was ready and welcoming of the changes. This taught the lesson that when faced with a difficult business situation, it is important to get buy-in from the people affected and to come up with solutions together.

A Gap In Communication Between Sales And Engineering

When a client asked the company to build a voice chat bot in six to eight weeks, the engineering team had to strike a balance between simplicity and quality. The project was broken down into four phases and ultimately completed in nine weeks. The lesson learned was that there needs to be clear communication between sales and engineering, and between what the salespeople think is achievable and what is actually achievable.

The Importance Of Aligning Expectations

iQMetrix was working on a custom enhancement to their product for an enterprise client, but the project went sideways due to incorrect steps in the requirements document and unrealistic deadlines. The project was eventually pulled by the client due to the cost. The lesson learned was to align expectations from the beginning and be aware of the risk of not having enough experience.

A Framework For Your Team’s Career Growth

At Atlassian, the team was not used to having conversations about growth due to their previous manager. To help them progress, the manager implemented growth profiles and had one-on-ones to assess their capabilities and skills. They then chose goals to work on for six months, using the Golden Circle framework to understand why they wanted to do something. The manager also did monthly check-ins to track progress. This framework was successful in motivating the team.

Dealing With Complainers

When managing a team of four people, I encountered an engineer who was in his probation period and was complaining a lot. I gave him regular feedback and asked him to come up with solutions for himself. I also gave him ownership over problems and encouraged him to use innovation weeks and hackathons to find solutions. Unfortunately, he didn't make it through his probation period, but I learned that when dealing with complainers, it is important to give them more accountability and allow them to change what they are complaining about.

How To Be A Successful Mentee

This article outlines the importance of valuing time in a mentoring relationship and provides tips on how to prepare for a mentoring session. It suggests providing a quick introduction about yourself and your background, preparing for the session for at least half an hour, and sending a follow-up email after the meeting. The author also shares the lessons they learned from their first mentor, which was to discuss the challenges faced and the learnings had.

Getting Team Buy-in To Improve

When starting as a new manager of an existing team, it is important to take a step back and observe the team from both the inside and outside. After collecting feedback, involve the team in decision making and brainstorming solutions. This approach was successful for the new manager at Atlassian, who was able to reorganize the team's planning process and create a healthy team environment.

Delve Into Issues To Find Solutions

The staff engineer at Betterment identified that the DevOps team was overworked and unable to keep up with the engineering organization's growth. After talking with the team, the engineer realized that the team was not set up for success and needed to be restructured. The engineer then spent the last year reinventing the team and building software to enable the rest of the engineering team to do their own building, testing, and deploying. Through this process, the engineer learned that having empathetic conversations with the team and exploring the issue was the best way to solve the problem.

When Pure People Management Isn’t The Right Fit

The author was asked to take on a managerial role at Betterment, but eventually realized that it was not the right fit for them. After engaging with their manager and other managers in the organization, they created a new role that balanced individual contribution and people management. This experience taught them that organizations should provide mixed career paths for those wishing to learn and grow.

The Search For True Motivations

A direct report wanted to switch teams due to a lack of ownership and mastery in their current job. After discussing their motivations, a plan was created to give them more ownership and mastery in their job. This showed that what appears to be a lack of motivation can often be attributed to a lack of ownership or purpose.

How I Used Email Updates For Team Transparency

In order to bridge the gap between the work of his team and the mission of the company, the manager of a recently expanded team of sixteen direct reports began sending out weekly emails. The emails included project updates, appreciation for work done, and musings on topics such as trust and code reviews. The emails have been well-received and have led to conversations about the team's culture and values.

Managing The Unexpected Doubling Of Your Team’s Size

The author was faced with the challenge of taking on double the amount of direct reports in a day when their peer manager decided to transition from a manager to an individual contributor. The author took a few approaches to ensure their team's well-being and success, such as structuring their week around "themes" of the ways they spend their time, scheduling one-on-ones with their team, and enabling the ICs in the team to take more of a leadership role. The author learned that it is important to take a step back and allow other people to stretch themselves, and that management is all about people and relationships.

How I Moved Away From A Flat Organizational Structure

When the CTO of Narrative Science took over, the company was flat-structured with 14 engineers and 40 employees in total. To prepare for growth, the CTO implemented a QA and DevOps team, created a career ladder with five levels, and set up a program to hire recent graduates. He also had to explain the reasoning behind the changes to the existing organization and train people in having difficult conversations. He learned that it is important to make sure the requirements for each level are clear and that he should deliver on any promises made to employees.

Providing Vision To Keep Projects On Track

This company had a mission to make data accessible for human beings through natural language generation. To do this, they needed to develop a software package. However, due to a lack of clarity on what the product was going to do, they were continually missing the mark. To fix this, the executive team had to take a step back and define a vision for the product in three to five years time. They then determined the five steps needed to push towards that goal and communicated it to the product owners and engineers. This helped reduce conflict and improve their prioritization. Going forward, they need to communicate their vision and steps more often to ensure everyone is on the same page.

Firing A Popular But Underperforming Manager

A manager had been working at an organization for four years and was well-liked, but had received feedback that he avoided delivering bad news and having tough conversations. When a more senior person applied for a job, it became clear that the manager was underperforming. The CTO had to make the difficult decision to let him go, and had to explain the decision to the rest of the organization. It turned out to be the right decision, and the CTO learned the importance of having trust and accountability among peers.

Why I Made My Company’s Compensation More Structured

Pilot has implemented a new compensation process that eliminates negotiation components and rewards employees based on their skills. The company has also taken steps to ensure that employees are not discriminated against based on their location, by benchmarking salaries to the most expensive country they are comfortable hiring in. The key lesson learned is to focus on creating a fair compensation scheme that does not rely on negotiation skills.

A New Process To Improve Shipping Output

This article discusses two approaches to solving the problem of teams struggling to ship products and features. The first approach involves creating a structured process with multiple steps, where points are only awarded for a sprint when something is shipped. The second approach involves making the team accountable for features and stopping tracking engineering tasks, with everyone working on the feature jointly responsible for getting the product out of the door. Incentives matter, so it's important to understand what employees are driven by and how they are being rewarded for doing their job.

Letting Go Of Half My Employees

The CEO of a company with around sixty to seventy people had to let go of half of their staff. To ensure everyone was in the loop, they set up a Google Hangout and presented the changes. They also spoke one-on-one with each individual affected by the changes. The CEO learned that clear communication is key in difficult situations, and was proud of how they handled the situation and communicated it to their employees.

Traffic Light Performance Management

An Engineering Manager at InVision used a performance management model to communicate with an underperforming engineer. After a discussion and follow-up email, the engineer identified the steps he needed to take to improve and was able to successfully execute on his plan. The manager learned that clear, compassionate feedback is important, and that people need to own their own success for the best results.

How I Approached Managing Up

A Senior Software Architect at a startup experienced a co-founder who was overstepping his bounds and not being held accountable by the CEO. The Architect invested in building trust and had informal chats with people across the company to get a better feel for the problem. They then addressed the problem with the co-founder directly and gave feedback to other people and the CEO. The lesson learned was that building trust and strong relationships with people across the organization is important, but ultimately people have to want to change and grow.

Getting Buy-in From Teams When Restructuring

Haptik faced a difficult business situation and needed to reorganize. To do this, the CEO and VP's held management meetings and discussed a plan of action. However, this time they decided to talk to each team and get their buy-in and feedback. This allowed them to come up with solutions together and when the reorganization was announced, everyone was ready and welcoming of the changes. This taught the lesson that when faced with a difficult business situation, it is important to get buy-in from the people affected and to come up with solutions together.

A Gap In Communication Between Sales And Engineering

When a client asked the company to build a voice chat bot in six to eight weeks, the engineering team had to strike a balance between simplicity and quality. The project was broken down into four phases and ultimately completed in nine weeks. The lesson learned was that there needs to be clear communication between sales and engineering, and between what the salespeople think is achievable and what is actually achievable.

The Importance Of Aligning Expectations

iQMetrix was working on a custom enhancement to their product for an enterprise client, but the project went sideways due to incorrect steps in the requirements document and unrealistic deadlines. The project was eventually pulled by the client due to the cost. The lesson learned was to align expectations from the beginning and be aware of the risk of not having enough experience.