Knowledge shared by our community

Clear Structure For Remote Teams

When working remotely, it is important to provide a clear structure for communication and collaboration. This includes scheduling social and work-focussed time, and having two stand up meetings and two longer working sessions a week. Doing this can result in a cohesive team that is able to hit the ground running and work effectively.

Managing Mediocrity

Managing mediocrity is one of the most difficult challenges a manager can face. To tackle this, managers need to challenge top performers, train low performers, and ensure that everyone is in the right role. To help with this, managers should provide their team with productivity tools and the right work habits. This will help them to move from mediocrity to high performance.

Redefining And Restructuring A Team

The author inherited a team of two Data Scientists and two Data Engineers, and faced a lot of tech debt and confusion between Data Engineering and Backend Engineering. After discussions with stakeholders and the team, the author wrote a list of systems and responsibilities and got agreement from partners. However, there was not much follow through, so the author had to hire Data Engineers and release the Backend engineers into the Backend organization. The author learned that the culture supported easy agreement but shallow follow-thru, and that it is a continual task to retrain and evangelize at all levels and across all departments.

The Important Role Of Team Diversity

The director of Omaze's engineering team took charge of growing the team and gradually added more diverse members. This led to a team composed of a variety of people with different backgrounds, experiences, and skills. As the team's diversity increased, the team members began to bond in new ways and were more open to new ideas and perspectives. The director also implemented a rule that the word "stupid" was not allowed, which helped create a more comfortable environment. The director learned that diversity of thought is more important than just race or gender, and that a diverse team can bring a larger pool of ideas and help to solve issues faster.

Value Propositions For Employees Seeking A Raise

An engineer who had been working with the company for 18 months asked for a raise. After questioning him, it became clear that he had not achieved the criteria for success and was not meeting his goals. The employer explained that in order to receive a raise, the engineer needed to prove that the investment would have a good return. After this discussion, the engineer quadrupled his output and was given the raise. The employer learned that it is important to be honest with employees and to make sure to verify with HR before promising money.

Delivering Brutal Feedback

A security consultant was hired despite having been fired from a top security program. He was difficult to manage due to poor interpersonal communication, time management, and hygiene. After giving him direct, honest feedback and explaining the importance of client relationships, he was able to avoid making mistakes and eventually became a successful security consultant. The lesson learned is that each employee is an individual and can be redeemed if the right approach is taken.

Responding To Customer Issues Without Heroics

The Director of Quality Engineering at a medium-sized startup with an enterprise data analytics offering took it upon themselves to lead by example and take on customer issues, resulting in a faster response time and better customer trust. However, they soon became overloaded and had to establish an on-call rotation with developer buy-in and participation to take care of the escalations. This allowed the QE team to focus on strategic quality issues, testing, and building frameworks. The lesson learned is to show people how to fix issues and then step back to let them take control.

The Importance Of Questioning

A woman in tech, working in a startup with a technical product and technical audience, experienced imposter syndrome due to the lack of documentation and the expectation that everyone should be able to figure out the complex codebase. She changed the culture of the organization by creating an open and welcoming Slack channel, encouraging questions, and praising those who asked them. This led to greater technical understanding, improved quality of decision making, and a happier workplace. She was able to take this attitude to her next company and instill it from the start.

Separating People And Technical Management

Endouble initially had one leader per team responsible for both people management and technical management, but this caused a decrease in technical capacity and unhappiness among technical people. To solve this, they split people management and technical management, creating a VP of Engineering and three team leads who report to him, and three tech leads who report to the engineering managers. This approach has been successful, as it allows people to focus on what they are best at and passionate about, resulting in faster work.

Hiring For Soft Skills

This article outlines the experience of a person who had to rapidly hire a team of 25-30 people in one year. The author learned that it is important to focus on both technical and soft skills when hiring, and to have a clear onboarding process to ensure new hires feel comfortable and can hit the ground running. The author also learned that it is difficult to change people's soft skills, and it is easier to grow people's technical skills.

Clear Email Communication

This article discusses how to write effective emails by starting with the main idea and avoiding lengthy sentences, passive voice, and unnecessary adverbs. It also provides an example of a CEO at Datadog who writes effective emails in this way.

Compelling Conference Talks

This article discusses how to give an engaging presentation by telling a story with visuals that change every 15-20 seconds. It emphasizes the importance of preparation and suggests that the speaker should practice until the material is second-nature. Finally, it suggests avoiding coffee before the talk to slow down the pace.

How To Start Using OKRs

This article discusses the implementation of Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) in an engineering team of 125 people. Initially, a pilot was attempted but was unsuccessful due to lack of training and context. To ensure success, the team invested in education and set up times for teams to discuss why the business wanted to do things versus why the teams wanted to do them. The article concludes that OKRs are very helpful for giving teams a focus, but it is important to invest in education and ensure that teams are working on the right stuff.

When Growth Frustrates An Employee

The author joined Datadog in 2015 as the first designated security person and had to build a Security team from scratch. After hiring the first person for the security team, the team grew to 25 people and the first person became unhappy due to their title and mandate. The author attempted to address the individual's concerns, but the situation deteriorated and the individual was unable to meet the expectations of the role. The author learned that they should have shared their vision of the team earlier so the individual could have voiced their concerns and been provided with training opportunities.

Scaling Via APIs

Trustpilot had a monolith codebase that was difficult to scale and onboard new engineers. To solve this, they implemented microservices and APIs to encapsulate the monolith. This allowed them to separate the codebase into smaller, more manageable services and enabled engineers to become productive faster. The lesson learned is to look for opportunities to solve organizational issues with architecture.

Avoiding Hiring Under Pressure

The author learned to trust their instincts and develop a well-thought-out and repeatable hiring process when looking to hire a project manager. They found that if they weren't fully convinced from the start, it wouldn't work out and they should feel brave enough to say no, even if under pressure to hire.

A Rapid Recruitment Process

Wonga needed to hire 100 engineers quickly and were able to do so by setting up a multi-step process. This included a screening phone call, an online test, a one to two-hour online coding session, and a final interview. The team was involved in the interview process and the engineers were asked to hire people better than themselves. The process was checked every six months to ensure it was valid and giving the necessary information.

How Meeting Face-to-face Improved A Remote Team’s Output

In order to increase the productivity of an offsite team of 80 engineers, who were equally skilled as the onsite team, a series of actions were taken. These included sending senior engineers to visit the offsite team, changing team leaders, sending whole teams across, increasing communication through Skype, and blending teams. Ultimately, it was found that sending whole teams across and having them co-locate in each location for a week or two worked best. It was also found that people enjoyed traveling and that trust was built when people saw each other face-to-face.

An Onboarding How-To

When the VP of Engineering at Operam started, there were no onboarding materials. To solve this, they created a simple onboarding checklist and handbook, and assigned onboarding buddies to new engineers. It was important to choose the right projects for new engineers and to focus on onboarding, as it makes a huge difference to the company's productivity.

Integrating Remote Teams Post-Acquisition

After Plixi was acquired by Lockerz, the two software teams had to integrate, but were in two different cities. Conflict and jealousy grew between the teams, so the company invested in travel and rented a beach house for the teams to get to know each other. This improved communication and collaboration, and the teams were able to work together more effectively. The lesson learned is that when remote workers are involved, it is important to budget for travel so that teams can collaborate effectively.

Clear Structure For Remote Teams

When working remotely, it is important to provide a clear structure for communication and collaboration. This includes scheduling social and work-focussed time, and having two stand up meetings and two longer working sessions a week. Doing this can result in a cohesive team that is able to hit the ground running and work effectively.

Managing Mediocrity

Managing mediocrity is one of the most difficult challenges a manager can face. To tackle this, managers need to challenge top performers, train low performers, and ensure that everyone is in the right role. To help with this, managers should provide their team with productivity tools and the right work habits. This will help them to move from mediocrity to high performance.

Redefining And Restructuring A Team

The author inherited a team of two Data Scientists and two Data Engineers, and faced a lot of tech debt and confusion between Data Engineering and Backend Engineering. After discussions with stakeholders and the team, the author wrote a list of systems and responsibilities and got agreement from partners. However, there was not much follow through, so the author had to hire Data Engineers and release the Backend engineers into the Backend organization. The author learned that the culture supported easy agreement but shallow follow-thru, and that it is a continual task to retrain and evangelize at all levels and across all departments.

The Important Role Of Team Diversity

The director of Omaze's engineering team took charge of growing the team and gradually added more diverse members. This led to a team composed of a variety of people with different backgrounds, experiences, and skills. As the team's diversity increased, the team members began to bond in new ways and were more open to new ideas and perspectives. The director also implemented a rule that the word "stupid" was not allowed, which helped create a more comfortable environment. The director learned that diversity of thought is more important than just race or gender, and that a diverse team can bring a larger pool of ideas and help to solve issues faster.

Value Propositions For Employees Seeking A Raise

An engineer who had been working with the company for 18 months asked for a raise. After questioning him, it became clear that he had not achieved the criteria for success and was not meeting his goals. The employer explained that in order to receive a raise, the engineer needed to prove that the investment would have a good return. After this discussion, the engineer quadrupled his output and was given the raise. The employer learned that it is important to be honest with employees and to make sure to verify with HR before promising money.

Delivering Brutal Feedback

A security consultant was hired despite having been fired from a top security program. He was difficult to manage due to poor interpersonal communication, time management, and hygiene. After giving him direct, honest feedback and explaining the importance of client relationships, he was able to avoid making mistakes and eventually became a successful security consultant. The lesson learned is that each employee is an individual and can be redeemed if the right approach is taken.

Responding To Customer Issues Without Heroics

The Director of Quality Engineering at a medium-sized startup with an enterprise data analytics offering took it upon themselves to lead by example and take on customer issues, resulting in a faster response time and better customer trust. However, they soon became overloaded and had to establish an on-call rotation with developer buy-in and participation to take care of the escalations. This allowed the QE team to focus on strategic quality issues, testing, and building frameworks. The lesson learned is to show people how to fix issues and then step back to let them take control.

The Importance Of Questioning

A woman in tech, working in a startup with a technical product and technical audience, experienced imposter syndrome due to the lack of documentation and the expectation that everyone should be able to figure out the complex codebase. She changed the culture of the organization by creating an open and welcoming Slack channel, encouraging questions, and praising those who asked them. This led to greater technical understanding, improved quality of decision making, and a happier workplace. She was able to take this attitude to her next company and instill it from the start.

Separating People And Technical Management

Endouble initially had one leader per team responsible for both people management and technical management, but this caused a decrease in technical capacity and unhappiness among technical people. To solve this, they split people management and technical management, creating a VP of Engineering and three team leads who report to him, and three tech leads who report to the engineering managers. This approach has been successful, as it allows people to focus on what they are best at and passionate about, resulting in faster work.

Hiring For Soft Skills

This article outlines the experience of a person who had to rapidly hire a team of 25-30 people in one year. The author learned that it is important to focus on both technical and soft skills when hiring, and to have a clear onboarding process to ensure new hires feel comfortable and can hit the ground running. The author also learned that it is difficult to change people's soft skills, and it is easier to grow people's technical skills.

Clear Email Communication

This article discusses how to write effective emails by starting with the main idea and avoiding lengthy sentences, passive voice, and unnecessary adverbs. It also provides an example of a CEO at Datadog who writes effective emails in this way.

Compelling Conference Talks

This article discusses how to give an engaging presentation by telling a story with visuals that change every 15-20 seconds. It emphasizes the importance of preparation and suggests that the speaker should practice until the material is second-nature. Finally, it suggests avoiding coffee before the talk to slow down the pace.

How To Start Using OKRs

This article discusses the implementation of Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) in an engineering team of 125 people. Initially, a pilot was attempted but was unsuccessful due to lack of training and context. To ensure success, the team invested in education and set up times for teams to discuss why the business wanted to do things versus why the teams wanted to do them. The article concludes that OKRs are very helpful for giving teams a focus, but it is important to invest in education and ensure that teams are working on the right stuff.

When Growth Frustrates An Employee

The author joined Datadog in 2015 as the first designated security person and had to build a Security team from scratch. After hiring the first person for the security team, the team grew to 25 people and the first person became unhappy due to their title and mandate. The author attempted to address the individual's concerns, but the situation deteriorated and the individual was unable to meet the expectations of the role. The author learned that they should have shared their vision of the team earlier so the individual could have voiced their concerns and been provided with training opportunities.

Scaling Via APIs

Trustpilot had a monolith codebase that was difficult to scale and onboard new engineers. To solve this, they implemented microservices and APIs to encapsulate the monolith. This allowed them to separate the codebase into smaller, more manageable services and enabled engineers to become productive faster. The lesson learned is to look for opportunities to solve organizational issues with architecture.

Avoiding Hiring Under Pressure

The author learned to trust their instincts and develop a well-thought-out and repeatable hiring process when looking to hire a project manager. They found that if they weren't fully convinced from the start, it wouldn't work out and they should feel brave enough to say no, even if under pressure to hire.

A Rapid Recruitment Process

Wonga needed to hire 100 engineers quickly and were able to do so by setting up a multi-step process. This included a screening phone call, an online test, a one to two-hour online coding session, and a final interview. The team was involved in the interview process and the engineers were asked to hire people better than themselves. The process was checked every six months to ensure it was valid and giving the necessary information.

How Meeting Face-to-face Improved A Remote Team’s Output

In order to increase the productivity of an offsite team of 80 engineers, who were equally skilled as the onsite team, a series of actions were taken. These included sending senior engineers to visit the offsite team, changing team leaders, sending whole teams across, increasing communication through Skype, and blending teams. Ultimately, it was found that sending whole teams across and having them co-locate in each location for a week or two worked best. It was also found that people enjoyed traveling and that trust was built when people saw each other face-to-face.

An Onboarding How-To

When the VP of Engineering at Operam started, there were no onboarding materials. To solve this, they created a simple onboarding checklist and handbook, and assigned onboarding buddies to new engineers. It was important to choose the right projects for new engineers and to focus on onboarding, as it makes a huge difference to the company's productivity.

Integrating Remote Teams Post-Acquisition

After Plixi was acquired by Lockerz, the two software teams had to integrate, but were in two different cities. Conflict and jealousy grew between the teams, so the company invested in travel and rented a beach house for the teams to get to know each other. This improved communication and collaboration, and the teams were able to work together more effectively. The lesson learned is that when remote workers are involved, it is important to budget for travel so that teams can collaborate effectively.

Clear Structure For Remote Teams

When working remotely, it is important to provide a clear structure for communication and collaboration. This includes scheduling social and work-focussed time, and having two stand up meetings and two longer working sessions a week. Doing this can result in a cohesive team that is able to hit the ground running and work effectively.

Managing Mediocrity

Managing mediocrity is one of the most difficult challenges a manager can face. To tackle this, managers need to challenge top performers, train low performers, and ensure that everyone is in the right role. To help with this, managers should provide their team with productivity tools and the right work habits. This will help them to move from mediocrity to high performance.

Redefining And Restructuring A Team

The author inherited a team of two Data Scientists and two Data Engineers, and faced a lot of tech debt and confusion between Data Engineering and Backend Engineering. After discussions with stakeholders and the team, the author wrote a list of systems and responsibilities and got agreement from partners. However, there was not much follow through, so the author had to hire Data Engineers and release the Backend engineers into the Backend organization. The author learned that the culture supported easy agreement but shallow follow-thru, and that it is a continual task to retrain and evangelize at all levels and across all departments.

The Important Role Of Team Diversity

The director of Omaze's engineering team took charge of growing the team and gradually added more diverse members. This led to a team composed of a variety of people with different backgrounds, experiences, and skills. As the team's diversity increased, the team members began to bond in new ways and were more open to new ideas and perspectives. The director also implemented a rule that the word "stupid" was not allowed, which helped create a more comfortable environment. The director learned that diversity of thought is more important than just race or gender, and that a diverse team can bring a larger pool of ideas and help to solve issues faster.

Value Propositions For Employees Seeking A Raise

An engineer who had been working with the company for 18 months asked for a raise. After questioning him, it became clear that he had not achieved the criteria for success and was not meeting his goals. The employer explained that in order to receive a raise, the engineer needed to prove that the investment would have a good return. After this discussion, the engineer quadrupled his output and was given the raise. The employer learned that it is important to be honest with employees and to make sure to verify with HR before promising money.

Delivering Brutal Feedback

A security consultant was hired despite having been fired from a top security program. He was difficult to manage due to poor interpersonal communication, time management, and hygiene. After giving him direct, honest feedback and explaining the importance of client relationships, he was able to avoid making mistakes and eventually became a successful security consultant. The lesson learned is that each employee is an individual and can be redeemed if the right approach is taken.

Responding To Customer Issues Without Heroics

The Director of Quality Engineering at a medium-sized startup with an enterprise data analytics offering took it upon themselves to lead by example and take on customer issues, resulting in a faster response time and better customer trust. However, they soon became overloaded and had to establish an on-call rotation with developer buy-in and participation to take care of the escalations. This allowed the QE team to focus on strategic quality issues, testing, and building frameworks. The lesson learned is to show people how to fix issues and then step back to let them take control.

The Importance Of Questioning

A woman in tech, working in a startup with a technical product and technical audience, experienced imposter syndrome due to the lack of documentation and the expectation that everyone should be able to figure out the complex codebase. She changed the culture of the organization by creating an open and welcoming Slack channel, encouraging questions, and praising those who asked them. This led to greater technical understanding, improved quality of decision making, and a happier workplace. She was able to take this attitude to her next company and instill it from the start.

Separating People And Technical Management

Endouble initially had one leader per team responsible for both people management and technical management, but this caused a decrease in technical capacity and unhappiness among technical people. To solve this, they split people management and technical management, creating a VP of Engineering and three team leads who report to him, and three tech leads who report to the engineering managers. This approach has been successful, as it allows people to focus on what they are best at and passionate about, resulting in faster work.

Hiring For Soft Skills

This article outlines the experience of a person who had to rapidly hire a team of 25-30 people in one year. The author learned that it is important to focus on both technical and soft skills when hiring, and to have a clear onboarding process to ensure new hires feel comfortable and can hit the ground running. The author also learned that it is difficult to change people's soft skills, and it is easier to grow people's technical skills.

Clear Email Communication

This article discusses how to write effective emails by starting with the main idea and avoiding lengthy sentences, passive voice, and unnecessary adverbs. It also provides an example of a CEO at Datadog who writes effective emails in this way.

Compelling Conference Talks

This article discusses how to give an engaging presentation by telling a story with visuals that change every 15-20 seconds. It emphasizes the importance of preparation and suggests that the speaker should practice until the material is second-nature. Finally, it suggests avoiding coffee before the talk to slow down the pace.

How To Start Using OKRs

This article discusses the implementation of Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) in an engineering team of 125 people. Initially, a pilot was attempted but was unsuccessful due to lack of training and context. To ensure success, the team invested in education and set up times for teams to discuss why the business wanted to do things versus why the teams wanted to do them. The article concludes that OKRs are very helpful for giving teams a focus, but it is important to invest in education and ensure that teams are working on the right stuff.

When Growth Frustrates An Employee

The author joined Datadog in 2015 as the first designated security person and had to build a Security team from scratch. After hiring the first person for the security team, the team grew to 25 people and the first person became unhappy due to their title and mandate. The author attempted to address the individual's concerns, but the situation deteriorated and the individual was unable to meet the expectations of the role. The author learned that they should have shared their vision of the team earlier so the individual could have voiced their concerns and been provided with training opportunities.

Scaling Via APIs

Trustpilot had a monolith codebase that was difficult to scale and onboard new engineers. To solve this, they implemented microservices and APIs to encapsulate the monolith. This allowed them to separate the codebase into smaller, more manageable services and enabled engineers to become productive faster. The lesson learned is to look for opportunities to solve organizational issues with architecture.

Avoiding Hiring Under Pressure

The author learned to trust their instincts and develop a well-thought-out and repeatable hiring process when looking to hire a project manager. They found that if they weren't fully convinced from the start, it wouldn't work out and they should feel brave enough to say no, even if under pressure to hire.

A Rapid Recruitment Process

Wonga needed to hire 100 engineers quickly and were able to do so by setting up a multi-step process. This included a screening phone call, an online test, a one to two-hour online coding session, and a final interview. The team was involved in the interview process and the engineers were asked to hire people better than themselves. The process was checked every six months to ensure it was valid and giving the necessary information.

How Meeting Face-to-face Improved A Remote Team’s Output

In order to increase the productivity of an offsite team of 80 engineers, who were equally skilled as the onsite team, a series of actions were taken. These included sending senior engineers to visit the offsite team, changing team leaders, sending whole teams across, increasing communication through Skype, and blending teams. Ultimately, it was found that sending whole teams across and having them co-locate in each location for a week or two worked best. It was also found that people enjoyed traveling and that trust was built when people saw each other face-to-face.

An Onboarding How-To

When the VP of Engineering at Operam started, there were no onboarding materials. To solve this, they created a simple onboarding checklist and handbook, and assigned onboarding buddies to new engineers. It was important to choose the right projects for new engineers and to focus on onboarding, as it makes a huge difference to the company's productivity.

Integrating Remote Teams Post-Acquisition

After Plixi was acquired by Lockerz, the two software teams had to integrate, but were in two different cities. Conflict and jealousy grew between the teams, so the company invested in travel and rented a beach house for the teams to get to know each other. This improved communication and collaboration, and the teams were able to work together more effectively. The lesson learned is that when remote workers are involved, it is important to budget for travel so that teams can collaborate effectively.

Clear Structure For Remote Teams

When working remotely, it is important to provide a clear structure for communication and collaboration. This includes scheduling social and work-focussed time, and having two stand up meetings and two longer working sessions a week. Doing this can result in a cohesive team that is able to hit the ground running and work effectively.

Managing Mediocrity

Managing mediocrity is one of the most difficult challenges a manager can face. To tackle this, managers need to challenge top performers, train low performers, and ensure that everyone is in the right role. To help with this, managers should provide their team with productivity tools and the right work habits. This will help them to move from mediocrity to high performance.

Redefining And Restructuring A Team

The author inherited a team of two Data Scientists and two Data Engineers, and faced a lot of tech debt and confusion between Data Engineering and Backend Engineering. After discussions with stakeholders and the team, the author wrote a list of systems and responsibilities and got agreement from partners. However, there was not much follow through, so the author had to hire Data Engineers and release the Backend engineers into the Backend organization. The author learned that the culture supported easy agreement but shallow follow-thru, and that it is a continual task to retrain and evangelize at all levels and across all departments.

The Important Role Of Team Diversity

The director of Omaze's engineering team took charge of growing the team and gradually added more diverse members. This led to a team composed of a variety of people with different backgrounds, experiences, and skills. As the team's diversity increased, the team members began to bond in new ways and were more open to new ideas and perspectives. The director also implemented a rule that the word "stupid" was not allowed, which helped create a more comfortable environment. The director learned that diversity of thought is more important than just race or gender, and that a diverse team can bring a larger pool of ideas and help to solve issues faster.

Value Propositions For Employees Seeking A Raise

An engineer who had been working with the company for 18 months asked for a raise. After questioning him, it became clear that he had not achieved the criteria for success and was not meeting his goals. The employer explained that in order to receive a raise, the engineer needed to prove that the investment would have a good return. After this discussion, the engineer quadrupled his output and was given the raise. The employer learned that it is important to be honest with employees and to make sure to verify with HR before promising money.

Delivering Brutal Feedback

A security consultant was hired despite having been fired from a top security program. He was difficult to manage due to poor interpersonal communication, time management, and hygiene. After giving him direct, honest feedback and explaining the importance of client relationships, he was able to avoid making mistakes and eventually became a successful security consultant. The lesson learned is that each employee is an individual and can be redeemed if the right approach is taken.

Responding To Customer Issues Without Heroics

The Director of Quality Engineering at a medium-sized startup with an enterprise data analytics offering took it upon themselves to lead by example and take on customer issues, resulting in a faster response time and better customer trust. However, they soon became overloaded and had to establish an on-call rotation with developer buy-in and participation to take care of the escalations. This allowed the QE team to focus on strategic quality issues, testing, and building frameworks. The lesson learned is to show people how to fix issues and then step back to let them take control.

The Importance Of Questioning

A woman in tech, working in a startup with a technical product and technical audience, experienced imposter syndrome due to the lack of documentation and the expectation that everyone should be able to figure out the complex codebase. She changed the culture of the organization by creating an open and welcoming Slack channel, encouraging questions, and praising those who asked them. This led to greater technical understanding, improved quality of decision making, and a happier workplace. She was able to take this attitude to her next company and instill it from the start.

Separating People And Technical Management

Endouble initially had one leader per team responsible for both people management and technical management, but this caused a decrease in technical capacity and unhappiness among technical people. To solve this, they split people management and technical management, creating a VP of Engineering and three team leads who report to him, and three tech leads who report to the engineering managers. This approach has been successful, as it allows people to focus on what they are best at and passionate about, resulting in faster work.

Hiring For Soft Skills

This article outlines the experience of a person who had to rapidly hire a team of 25-30 people in one year. The author learned that it is important to focus on both technical and soft skills when hiring, and to have a clear onboarding process to ensure new hires feel comfortable and can hit the ground running. The author also learned that it is difficult to change people's soft skills, and it is easier to grow people's technical skills.

Clear Email Communication

This article discusses how to write effective emails by starting with the main idea and avoiding lengthy sentences, passive voice, and unnecessary adverbs. It also provides an example of a CEO at Datadog who writes effective emails in this way.

Compelling Conference Talks

This article discusses how to give an engaging presentation by telling a story with visuals that change every 15-20 seconds. It emphasizes the importance of preparation and suggests that the speaker should practice until the material is second-nature. Finally, it suggests avoiding coffee before the talk to slow down the pace.

How To Start Using OKRs

This article discusses the implementation of Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) in an engineering team of 125 people. Initially, a pilot was attempted but was unsuccessful due to lack of training and context. To ensure success, the team invested in education and set up times for teams to discuss why the business wanted to do things versus why the teams wanted to do them. The article concludes that OKRs are very helpful for giving teams a focus, but it is important to invest in education and ensure that teams are working on the right stuff.

When Growth Frustrates An Employee

The author joined Datadog in 2015 as the first designated security person and had to build a Security team from scratch. After hiring the first person for the security team, the team grew to 25 people and the first person became unhappy due to their title and mandate. The author attempted to address the individual's concerns, but the situation deteriorated and the individual was unable to meet the expectations of the role. The author learned that they should have shared their vision of the team earlier so the individual could have voiced their concerns and been provided with training opportunities.

Scaling Via APIs

Trustpilot had a monolith codebase that was difficult to scale and onboard new engineers. To solve this, they implemented microservices and APIs to encapsulate the monolith. This allowed them to separate the codebase into smaller, more manageable services and enabled engineers to become productive faster. The lesson learned is to look for opportunities to solve organizational issues with architecture.

Avoiding Hiring Under Pressure

The author learned to trust their instincts and develop a well-thought-out and repeatable hiring process when looking to hire a project manager. They found that if they weren't fully convinced from the start, it wouldn't work out and they should feel brave enough to say no, even if under pressure to hire.

A Rapid Recruitment Process

Wonga needed to hire 100 engineers quickly and were able to do so by setting up a multi-step process. This included a screening phone call, an online test, a one to two-hour online coding session, and a final interview. The team was involved in the interview process and the engineers were asked to hire people better than themselves. The process was checked every six months to ensure it was valid and giving the necessary information.

How Meeting Face-to-face Improved A Remote Team’s Output

In order to increase the productivity of an offsite team of 80 engineers, who were equally skilled as the onsite team, a series of actions were taken. These included sending senior engineers to visit the offsite team, changing team leaders, sending whole teams across, increasing communication through Skype, and blending teams. Ultimately, it was found that sending whole teams across and having them co-locate in each location for a week or two worked best. It was also found that people enjoyed traveling and that trust was built when people saw each other face-to-face.

An Onboarding How-To

When the VP of Engineering at Operam started, there were no onboarding materials. To solve this, they created a simple onboarding checklist and handbook, and assigned onboarding buddies to new engineers. It was important to choose the right projects for new engineers and to focus on onboarding, as it makes a huge difference to the company's productivity.

Integrating Remote Teams Post-Acquisition

After Plixi was acquired by Lockerz, the two software teams had to integrate, but were in two different cities. Conflict and jealousy grew between the teams, so the company invested in travel and rented a beach house for the teams to get to know each other. This improved communication and collaboration, and the teams were able to work together more effectively. The lesson learned is that when remote workers are involved, it is important to budget for travel so that teams can collaborate effectively.

Clear Structure For Remote Teams

When working remotely, it is important to provide a clear structure for communication and collaboration. This includes scheduling social and work-focussed time, and having two stand up meetings and two longer working sessions a week. Doing this can result in a cohesive team that is able to hit the ground running and work effectively.

Managing Mediocrity

Managing mediocrity is one of the most difficult challenges a manager can face. To tackle this, managers need to challenge top performers, train low performers, and ensure that everyone is in the right role. To help with this, managers should provide their team with productivity tools and the right work habits. This will help them to move from mediocrity to high performance.

Redefining And Restructuring A Team

The author inherited a team of two Data Scientists and two Data Engineers, and faced a lot of tech debt and confusion between Data Engineering and Backend Engineering. After discussions with stakeholders and the team, the author wrote a list of systems and responsibilities and got agreement from partners. However, there was not much follow through, so the author had to hire Data Engineers and release the Backend engineers into the Backend organization. The author learned that the culture supported easy agreement but shallow follow-thru, and that it is a continual task to retrain and evangelize at all levels and across all departments.

The Important Role Of Team Diversity

The director of Omaze's engineering team took charge of growing the team and gradually added more diverse members. This led to a team composed of a variety of people with different backgrounds, experiences, and skills. As the team's diversity increased, the team members began to bond in new ways and were more open to new ideas and perspectives. The director also implemented a rule that the word "stupid" was not allowed, which helped create a more comfortable environment. The director learned that diversity of thought is more important than just race or gender, and that a diverse team can bring a larger pool of ideas and help to solve issues faster.

Value Propositions For Employees Seeking A Raise

An engineer who had been working with the company for 18 months asked for a raise. After questioning him, it became clear that he had not achieved the criteria for success and was not meeting his goals. The employer explained that in order to receive a raise, the engineer needed to prove that the investment would have a good return. After this discussion, the engineer quadrupled his output and was given the raise. The employer learned that it is important to be honest with employees and to make sure to verify with HR before promising money.

Delivering Brutal Feedback

A security consultant was hired despite having been fired from a top security program. He was difficult to manage due to poor interpersonal communication, time management, and hygiene. After giving him direct, honest feedback and explaining the importance of client relationships, he was able to avoid making mistakes and eventually became a successful security consultant. The lesson learned is that each employee is an individual and can be redeemed if the right approach is taken.

Responding To Customer Issues Without Heroics

The Director of Quality Engineering at a medium-sized startup with an enterprise data analytics offering took it upon themselves to lead by example and take on customer issues, resulting in a faster response time and better customer trust. However, they soon became overloaded and had to establish an on-call rotation with developer buy-in and participation to take care of the escalations. This allowed the QE team to focus on strategic quality issues, testing, and building frameworks. The lesson learned is to show people how to fix issues and then step back to let them take control.

The Importance Of Questioning

A woman in tech, working in a startup with a technical product and technical audience, experienced imposter syndrome due to the lack of documentation and the expectation that everyone should be able to figure out the complex codebase. She changed the culture of the organization by creating an open and welcoming Slack channel, encouraging questions, and praising those who asked them. This led to greater technical understanding, improved quality of decision making, and a happier workplace. She was able to take this attitude to her next company and instill it from the start.

Separating People And Technical Management

Endouble initially had one leader per team responsible for both people management and technical management, but this caused a decrease in technical capacity and unhappiness among technical people. To solve this, they split people management and technical management, creating a VP of Engineering and three team leads who report to him, and three tech leads who report to the engineering managers. This approach has been successful, as it allows people to focus on what they are best at and passionate about, resulting in faster work.

Hiring For Soft Skills

This article outlines the experience of a person who had to rapidly hire a team of 25-30 people in one year. The author learned that it is important to focus on both technical and soft skills when hiring, and to have a clear onboarding process to ensure new hires feel comfortable and can hit the ground running. The author also learned that it is difficult to change people's soft skills, and it is easier to grow people's technical skills.

Clear Email Communication

This article discusses how to write effective emails by starting with the main idea and avoiding lengthy sentences, passive voice, and unnecessary adverbs. It also provides an example of a CEO at Datadog who writes effective emails in this way.

Compelling Conference Talks

This article discusses how to give an engaging presentation by telling a story with visuals that change every 15-20 seconds. It emphasizes the importance of preparation and suggests that the speaker should practice until the material is second-nature. Finally, it suggests avoiding coffee before the talk to slow down the pace.

How To Start Using OKRs

This article discusses the implementation of Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) in an engineering team of 125 people. Initially, a pilot was attempted but was unsuccessful due to lack of training and context. To ensure success, the team invested in education and set up times for teams to discuss why the business wanted to do things versus why the teams wanted to do them. The article concludes that OKRs are very helpful for giving teams a focus, but it is important to invest in education and ensure that teams are working on the right stuff.

When Growth Frustrates An Employee

The author joined Datadog in 2015 as the first designated security person and had to build a Security team from scratch. After hiring the first person for the security team, the team grew to 25 people and the first person became unhappy due to their title and mandate. The author attempted to address the individual's concerns, but the situation deteriorated and the individual was unable to meet the expectations of the role. The author learned that they should have shared their vision of the team earlier so the individual could have voiced their concerns and been provided with training opportunities.

Scaling Via APIs

Trustpilot had a monolith codebase that was difficult to scale and onboard new engineers. To solve this, they implemented microservices and APIs to encapsulate the monolith. This allowed them to separate the codebase into smaller, more manageable services and enabled engineers to become productive faster. The lesson learned is to look for opportunities to solve organizational issues with architecture.

Avoiding Hiring Under Pressure

The author learned to trust their instincts and develop a well-thought-out and repeatable hiring process when looking to hire a project manager. They found that if they weren't fully convinced from the start, it wouldn't work out and they should feel brave enough to say no, even if under pressure to hire.

A Rapid Recruitment Process

Wonga needed to hire 100 engineers quickly and were able to do so by setting up a multi-step process. This included a screening phone call, an online test, a one to two-hour online coding session, and a final interview. The team was involved in the interview process and the engineers were asked to hire people better than themselves. The process was checked every six months to ensure it was valid and giving the necessary information.

How Meeting Face-to-face Improved A Remote Team’s Output

In order to increase the productivity of an offsite team of 80 engineers, who were equally skilled as the onsite team, a series of actions were taken. These included sending senior engineers to visit the offsite team, changing team leaders, sending whole teams across, increasing communication through Skype, and blending teams. Ultimately, it was found that sending whole teams across and having them co-locate in each location for a week or two worked best. It was also found that people enjoyed traveling and that trust was built when people saw each other face-to-face.

An Onboarding How-To

When the VP of Engineering at Operam started, there were no onboarding materials. To solve this, they created a simple onboarding checklist and handbook, and assigned onboarding buddies to new engineers. It was important to choose the right projects for new engineers and to focus on onboarding, as it makes a huge difference to the company's productivity.

Integrating Remote Teams Post-Acquisition

After Plixi was acquired by Lockerz, the two software teams had to integrate, but were in two different cities. Conflict and jealousy grew between the teams, so the company invested in travel and rented a beach house for the teams to get to know each other. This improved communication and collaboration, and the teams were able to work together more effectively. The lesson learned is that when remote workers are involved, it is important to budget for travel so that teams can collaborate effectively.

Clear Structure For Remote Teams

When working remotely, it is important to provide a clear structure for communication and collaboration. This includes scheduling social and work-focussed time, and having two stand up meetings and two longer working sessions a week. Doing this can result in a cohesive team that is able to hit the ground running and work effectively.

Managing Mediocrity

Managing mediocrity is one of the most difficult challenges a manager can face. To tackle this, managers need to challenge top performers, train low performers, and ensure that everyone is in the right role. To help with this, managers should provide their team with productivity tools and the right work habits. This will help them to move from mediocrity to high performance.

Redefining And Restructuring A Team

The author inherited a team of two Data Scientists and two Data Engineers, and faced a lot of tech debt and confusion between Data Engineering and Backend Engineering. After discussions with stakeholders and the team, the author wrote a list of systems and responsibilities and got agreement from partners. However, there was not much follow through, so the author had to hire Data Engineers and release the Backend engineers into the Backend organization. The author learned that the culture supported easy agreement but shallow follow-thru, and that it is a continual task to retrain and evangelize at all levels and across all departments.

The Important Role Of Team Diversity

The director of Omaze's engineering team took charge of growing the team and gradually added more diverse members. This led to a team composed of a variety of people with different backgrounds, experiences, and skills. As the team's diversity increased, the team members began to bond in new ways and were more open to new ideas and perspectives. The director also implemented a rule that the word "stupid" was not allowed, which helped create a more comfortable environment. The director learned that diversity of thought is more important than just race or gender, and that a diverse team can bring a larger pool of ideas and help to solve issues faster.

Value Propositions For Employees Seeking A Raise

An engineer who had been working with the company for 18 months asked for a raise. After questioning him, it became clear that he had not achieved the criteria for success and was not meeting his goals. The employer explained that in order to receive a raise, the engineer needed to prove that the investment would have a good return. After this discussion, the engineer quadrupled his output and was given the raise. The employer learned that it is important to be honest with employees and to make sure to verify with HR before promising money.

Delivering Brutal Feedback

A security consultant was hired despite having been fired from a top security program. He was difficult to manage due to poor interpersonal communication, time management, and hygiene. After giving him direct, honest feedback and explaining the importance of client relationships, he was able to avoid making mistakes and eventually became a successful security consultant. The lesson learned is that each employee is an individual and can be redeemed if the right approach is taken.

Responding To Customer Issues Without Heroics

The Director of Quality Engineering at a medium-sized startup with an enterprise data analytics offering took it upon themselves to lead by example and take on customer issues, resulting in a faster response time and better customer trust. However, they soon became overloaded and had to establish an on-call rotation with developer buy-in and participation to take care of the escalations. This allowed the QE team to focus on strategic quality issues, testing, and building frameworks. The lesson learned is to show people how to fix issues and then step back to let them take control.

The Importance Of Questioning

A woman in tech, working in a startup with a technical product and technical audience, experienced imposter syndrome due to the lack of documentation and the expectation that everyone should be able to figure out the complex codebase. She changed the culture of the organization by creating an open and welcoming Slack channel, encouraging questions, and praising those who asked them. This led to greater technical understanding, improved quality of decision making, and a happier workplace. She was able to take this attitude to her next company and instill it from the start.

Separating People And Technical Management

Endouble initially had one leader per team responsible for both people management and technical management, but this caused a decrease in technical capacity and unhappiness among technical people. To solve this, they split people management and technical management, creating a VP of Engineering and three team leads who report to him, and three tech leads who report to the engineering managers. This approach has been successful, as it allows people to focus on what they are best at and passionate about, resulting in faster work.

Hiring For Soft Skills

This article outlines the experience of a person who had to rapidly hire a team of 25-30 people in one year. The author learned that it is important to focus on both technical and soft skills when hiring, and to have a clear onboarding process to ensure new hires feel comfortable and can hit the ground running. The author also learned that it is difficult to change people's soft skills, and it is easier to grow people's technical skills.

Clear Email Communication

This article discusses how to write effective emails by starting with the main idea and avoiding lengthy sentences, passive voice, and unnecessary adverbs. It also provides an example of a CEO at Datadog who writes effective emails in this way.

Compelling Conference Talks

This article discusses how to give an engaging presentation by telling a story with visuals that change every 15-20 seconds. It emphasizes the importance of preparation and suggests that the speaker should practice until the material is second-nature. Finally, it suggests avoiding coffee before the talk to slow down the pace.

How To Start Using OKRs

This article discusses the implementation of Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) in an engineering team of 125 people. Initially, a pilot was attempted but was unsuccessful due to lack of training and context. To ensure success, the team invested in education and set up times for teams to discuss why the business wanted to do things versus why the teams wanted to do them. The article concludes that OKRs are very helpful for giving teams a focus, but it is important to invest in education and ensure that teams are working on the right stuff.

When Growth Frustrates An Employee

The author joined Datadog in 2015 as the first designated security person and had to build a Security team from scratch. After hiring the first person for the security team, the team grew to 25 people and the first person became unhappy due to their title and mandate. The author attempted to address the individual's concerns, but the situation deteriorated and the individual was unable to meet the expectations of the role. The author learned that they should have shared their vision of the team earlier so the individual could have voiced their concerns and been provided with training opportunities.

Scaling Via APIs

Trustpilot had a monolith codebase that was difficult to scale and onboard new engineers. To solve this, they implemented microservices and APIs to encapsulate the monolith. This allowed them to separate the codebase into smaller, more manageable services and enabled engineers to become productive faster. The lesson learned is to look for opportunities to solve organizational issues with architecture.

Avoiding Hiring Under Pressure

The author learned to trust their instincts and develop a well-thought-out and repeatable hiring process when looking to hire a project manager. They found that if they weren't fully convinced from the start, it wouldn't work out and they should feel brave enough to say no, even if under pressure to hire.

A Rapid Recruitment Process

Wonga needed to hire 100 engineers quickly and were able to do so by setting up a multi-step process. This included a screening phone call, an online test, a one to two-hour online coding session, and a final interview. The team was involved in the interview process and the engineers were asked to hire people better than themselves. The process was checked every six months to ensure it was valid and giving the necessary information.

How Meeting Face-to-face Improved A Remote Team’s Output

In order to increase the productivity of an offsite team of 80 engineers, who were equally skilled as the onsite team, a series of actions were taken. These included sending senior engineers to visit the offsite team, changing team leaders, sending whole teams across, increasing communication through Skype, and blending teams. Ultimately, it was found that sending whole teams across and having them co-locate in each location for a week or two worked best. It was also found that people enjoyed traveling and that trust was built when people saw each other face-to-face.

An Onboarding How-To

When the VP of Engineering at Operam started, there were no onboarding materials. To solve this, they created a simple onboarding checklist and handbook, and assigned onboarding buddies to new engineers. It was important to choose the right projects for new engineers and to focus on onboarding, as it makes a huge difference to the company's productivity.

Integrating Remote Teams Post-Acquisition

After Plixi was acquired by Lockerz, the two software teams had to integrate, but were in two different cities. Conflict and jealousy grew between the teams, so the company invested in travel and rented a beach house for the teams to get to know each other. This improved communication and collaboration, and the teams were able to work together more effectively. The lesson learned is that when remote workers are involved, it is important to budget for travel so that teams can collaborate effectively.