Knowledge shared by our community

There Is No Commitment Without Disagreement

This article discusses a situation in which a team of eight engineers had to deal with a top performer who was not performing up to their usual standards. The team tried various methods to re-engage the individual, but nothing worked. Eventually, the team leader realized that the individual had to be allowed to express their disagreement with the project direction in front of the team. This allowed them to feel comfortable advocating for their point of view and ultimately led to a successful outcome. The article highlights the importance of allowing team members to express their disagreement and creating an environment where everyone feels safe to do so.

Cultivating Accountability

Leaders need to create an environment where people feel safe to do their work, while still holding them accountable. The goal is to allow people to learn from their mistakes and grow, rather than punishing them for failure. Leaders should foster an environment of honesty and constructive criticism, and be aware of their own emotions and how they impact others. Mutual feedback is key to helping everyone improve.

Easing the Fear of Failure with Guidance

Poor management and a lack of creativity can lead to a company's failure. Leaders should provide context to their teams, share data, and empower their employees to make adult decisions. It is important to have a strategy and vision for the product organization, and to focus on how to make customers' lives better. Developing a sense of ownership and understanding the impact of work is essential for success.

Playing the Father Figure

This article discusses the challenges of managing people and the lessons learned from the experience. It is important to be aware of how you communicate with others and to be clear in what you are asking of your team. It is also important to frame goals in a way that relates to the broader goals of the organization. Good leadership keeps everybody and their work in focus.

Embracing Feedback as an Organization

Feedback is an important part of growth and development, and it is important to establish a culture of trust and open communication within a company. At Expedia, feedback was part of the company's DNA and was expected from peers, team members, and those in leadership positions. It is important to take feedback seriously and use it to improve, even if it is not what you want to hear. Self-reflection and taking time to consider how you could have done something differently is a great practice for improvement. Mentors can also provide a neutral perspective and help you see things more clearly. Asking for feedback from leadership and team members is a great way to build a culture of inquiry and help everyone grow.

Taking a Product from Inception to Market

This is a story of a successful product launch from idea to market in three months. The product was an advertising technology company, a demand-side platform, that allowed customers to buy ad space in real-time bidding exchanges. The team needed to prove to advertisers that the investment was worth it from an ROI perspective, so they studied foot traffic measurements and built a proof-of-concept of their own foot traffic measurement product. After validating the findings, they created training and pitch materials to present to potential clients. They imposed budget constraints to get the ideal volume of use and traffic for their study. Ultimately, they were able to get the product to market before they ran out of resources.

Pleading With Your Executive Team

This story is about a company that specialized in mobile app downloads and wanted to get into programmatic ad-buying. The author was recruited to manage the product and business development, and worked closely with the engineering team to increase the throughput of the system. Despite the author's efforts to optimize the system and acquire users for as little as a dollar, the CEO chose to ignore the data and shut the product down a few months later. The author learned that leaders can make ego-driven decisions, and it can be difficult to disagree with them.

Seeing What’s Out There

A consultant has been working with a fintech company in New York for six months, helping them solve problems and develop strategies. They have been gathering data and researching other companies to come up with their own solutions. The consultant has learned that gathering data is the best way to form an opinion, communication and evangelism are key, and being dynamic and hypothesis-driven is vital to success.

Establishing Yourself in a Market

In 2017, a technologist was inspired to find a way to help with the refugee crisis in Europe. After researching existing apps and services, he realized there was a gap in the market for a Yelp-like service for refugees in need of shelter. He created a deck of material to pitch the idea and reached out to humanitarian groups, entrepreneurs, and hackathon groups. He learned that while many apps had been created, none had acquired any refugee users. He ultimately decided to repurpose his background in adtech/martech to build a humanitarian ad network to connect the supply of apps with the demand of refugees. After 4 years of networking and seeking out funding, he was unable to unlock funds and the project was not pursued.

How to Stay Technical as an Engineer Manager

This article discusses how a manager can stay hands-on and still move up the career ladder. The author shares their experience transitioning from an engineer to a senior engineering manager, and how they managed to stay hands-on while leading a team. They suggest being a generalist rather than a specialist, exploring Dev production tools, bringing new things to the table, and making sure to have time to learn while growing.

Managing a Product Team

As the manager of an engineering group, the author faced the challenge of catering to the development tasks from the formal product management team and the solution architects. To address this, the author connected with the product management team and suggested that requests should go through them for better judgement. The author also implemented a process of allocating a weightage to specific problems and solving them gradually. This process was successful and the stakeholders received positive feedback during the annual review. The author learned that it is important to have a clear and concise problem statement with proposed solutions and to focus on product innovation and streamlining processes.

Scaling Teams Through an Unconventional Approach

The team faced difficulty setting up their front-end development due to a narrow talent pool and lack of experience. To address this, they used unconventional channels to recruit talent, changed the percentages of their existing staff to dedicate more time to front-end development, and leveraged online sources and internship programs. Through these steps, they were able to successfully recruit the right talent and upskill their existing staff. The team learned to anticipate faster and have a mix of specialists and generalists, as well as to facilitate and grow talents with good training.

Know Your Customers Needs

This article discusses the challenges of product positioning and messaging in the early stages of a startup. It outlines the actions taken by the author, who worked as an outsourced consultant, to help the company uncover what they wanted from their product. The article also highlights the lessons learned from this experience, such as the importance of collaboration, knowing one's strengths and interests, and being able to accept failure and learn from mistakes.

How to Manage Managers

This article is about the challenges of being one of the first few employees of a travel-based company and how to overcome them. The author emphasizes the importance of clear expectations, 1:1s, and good people skills. They also learned to take criticism and challenges, as well as to look for improvements and personal development opportunities.

Reinvent a Product From Scratch

This article discusses the challenges of reinventing a product and the actions taken to overcome them. It emphasizes the importance of good market research, working with a team of intelligent people, and putting yourself in the shoes of your juniors. It also highlights the importance of enjoying the process and being confident to move forward with your vision.

How to Manage an Employee With Depression

A team member was on a "return to work" programme after an ongoing depression. The team was small and timelines were short, creating pressure. The person needed to take time off on short notice, and the manager had to balance the person's wellbeing with client priorities. The manager was supportive and understanding, signposted the person to relevant support services, and communicated with the team about the person's condition. The team member was allowed to work part-time, and the manager encouraged them to join a mental health programme. The manager also learned to do research, not make assumptions, and be vocal about support for various diversity segments.

How to Address Challenges in Geographically Distributed Team

As a lead architect at a multinational retailer, I had to ensure the software could scale when demand increased. There was a challenge in delivery due to the offshore team expecting more details in the solution designs than the onshore team could provide. I brought both teams together to discuss their challenges and agreed on a middle-ground solution. Cultural differences were addressed with training and a design template was implemented to monitor improvement. Lessons learned included bringing people together to understand the root cause, being mindful of cultural differences, and monitoring specific metrics.

Why Engineers Need to Understand Business Perspectives

In a previous organization, the author's role was to create a value proposition to present to the client and create work for the company. Through collaboration with internal leads and senior leaders, the author was able to create a 4 million GBP sales pipeline and a million GBP sales opportunity for the product. The author learned the importance of understanding business problems, collaboration, and engaging with stakeholders early on.

Cultivating Self-Discipline

This article discusses the importance of self-discipline and how to cultivate it. It suggests setting achievable goals, creating an action plan, allowing for failure, visualizing the end goal, and seeking support from others. It also emphasizes that failure is a friend and that it takes 21-30 days to form a habit.

How to Make an Impact

Making an impact in one's career is not easy, but it can be learned. To make an impact, one should identify a SMART goal, engage stakeholders, communicate with peers and team members, and stay positive. Communication is key, and it is important to stay motivated and celebrate small wins. Difficulties should be seen as learning opportunities.

There Is No Commitment Without Disagreement

This article discusses a situation in which a team of eight engineers had to deal with a top performer who was not performing up to their usual standards. The team tried various methods to re-engage the individual, but nothing worked. Eventually, the team leader realized that the individual had to be allowed to express their disagreement with the project direction in front of the team. This allowed them to feel comfortable advocating for their point of view and ultimately led to a successful outcome. The article highlights the importance of allowing team members to express their disagreement and creating an environment where everyone feels safe to do so.

Cultivating Accountability

Leaders need to create an environment where people feel safe to do their work, while still holding them accountable. The goal is to allow people to learn from their mistakes and grow, rather than punishing them for failure. Leaders should foster an environment of honesty and constructive criticism, and be aware of their own emotions and how they impact others. Mutual feedback is key to helping everyone improve.

Easing the Fear of Failure with Guidance

Poor management and a lack of creativity can lead to a company's failure. Leaders should provide context to their teams, share data, and empower their employees to make adult decisions. It is important to have a strategy and vision for the product organization, and to focus on how to make customers' lives better. Developing a sense of ownership and understanding the impact of work is essential for success.

Playing the Father Figure

This article discusses the challenges of managing people and the lessons learned from the experience. It is important to be aware of how you communicate with others and to be clear in what you are asking of your team. It is also important to frame goals in a way that relates to the broader goals of the organization. Good leadership keeps everybody and their work in focus.

Embracing Feedback as an Organization

Feedback is an important part of growth and development, and it is important to establish a culture of trust and open communication within a company. At Expedia, feedback was part of the company's DNA and was expected from peers, team members, and those in leadership positions. It is important to take feedback seriously and use it to improve, even if it is not what you want to hear. Self-reflection and taking time to consider how you could have done something differently is a great practice for improvement. Mentors can also provide a neutral perspective and help you see things more clearly. Asking for feedback from leadership and team members is a great way to build a culture of inquiry and help everyone grow.

Taking a Product from Inception to Market

This is a story of a successful product launch from idea to market in three months. The product was an advertising technology company, a demand-side platform, that allowed customers to buy ad space in real-time bidding exchanges. The team needed to prove to advertisers that the investment was worth it from an ROI perspective, so they studied foot traffic measurements and built a proof-of-concept of their own foot traffic measurement product. After validating the findings, they created training and pitch materials to present to potential clients. They imposed budget constraints to get the ideal volume of use and traffic for their study. Ultimately, they were able to get the product to market before they ran out of resources.

Pleading With Your Executive Team

This story is about a company that specialized in mobile app downloads and wanted to get into programmatic ad-buying. The author was recruited to manage the product and business development, and worked closely with the engineering team to increase the throughput of the system. Despite the author's efforts to optimize the system and acquire users for as little as a dollar, the CEO chose to ignore the data and shut the product down a few months later. The author learned that leaders can make ego-driven decisions, and it can be difficult to disagree with them.

Seeing What’s Out There

A consultant has been working with a fintech company in New York for six months, helping them solve problems and develop strategies. They have been gathering data and researching other companies to come up with their own solutions. The consultant has learned that gathering data is the best way to form an opinion, communication and evangelism are key, and being dynamic and hypothesis-driven is vital to success.

Establishing Yourself in a Market

In 2017, a technologist was inspired to find a way to help with the refugee crisis in Europe. After researching existing apps and services, he realized there was a gap in the market for a Yelp-like service for refugees in need of shelter. He created a deck of material to pitch the idea and reached out to humanitarian groups, entrepreneurs, and hackathon groups. He learned that while many apps had been created, none had acquired any refugee users. He ultimately decided to repurpose his background in adtech/martech to build a humanitarian ad network to connect the supply of apps with the demand of refugees. After 4 years of networking and seeking out funding, he was unable to unlock funds and the project was not pursued.

How to Stay Technical as an Engineer Manager

This article discusses how a manager can stay hands-on and still move up the career ladder. The author shares their experience transitioning from an engineer to a senior engineering manager, and how they managed to stay hands-on while leading a team. They suggest being a generalist rather than a specialist, exploring Dev production tools, bringing new things to the table, and making sure to have time to learn while growing.

Managing a Product Team

As the manager of an engineering group, the author faced the challenge of catering to the development tasks from the formal product management team and the solution architects. To address this, the author connected with the product management team and suggested that requests should go through them for better judgement. The author also implemented a process of allocating a weightage to specific problems and solving them gradually. This process was successful and the stakeholders received positive feedback during the annual review. The author learned that it is important to have a clear and concise problem statement with proposed solutions and to focus on product innovation and streamlining processes.

Scaling Teams Through an Unconventional Approach

The team faced difficulty setting up their front-end development due to a narrow talent pool and lack of experience. To address this, they used unconventional channels to recruit talent, changed the percentages of their existing staff to dedicate more time to front-end development, and leveraged online sources and internship programs. Through these steps, they were able to successfully recruit the right talent and upskill their existing staff. The team learned to anticipate faster and have a mix of specialists and generalists, as well as to facilitate and grow talents with good training.

Know Your Customers Needs

This article discusses the challenges of product positioning and messaging in the early stages of a startup. It outlines the actions taken by the author, who worked as an outsourced consultant, to help the company uncover what they wanted from their product. The article also highlights the lessons learned from this experience, such as the importance of collaboration, knowing one's strengths and interests, and being able to accept failure and learn from mistakes.

How to Manage Managers

This article is about the challenges of being one of the first few employees of a travel-based company and how to overcome them. The author emphasizes the importance of clear expectations, 1:1s, and good people skills. They also learned to take criticism and challenges, as well as to look for improvements and personal development opportunities.

Reinvent a Product From Scratch

This article discusses the challenges of reinventing a product and the actions taken to overcome them. It emphasizes the importance of good market research, working with a team of intelligent people, and putting yourself in the shoes of your juniors. It also highlights the importance of enjoying the process and being confident to move forward with your vision.

How to Manage an Employee With Depression

A team member was on a "return to work" programme after an ongoing depression. The team was small and timelines were short, creating pressure. The person needed to take time off on short notice, and the manager had to balance the person's wellbeing with client priorities. The manager was supportive and understanding, signposted the person to relevant support services, and communicated with the team about the person's condition. The team member was allowed to work part-time, and the manager encouraged them to join a mental health programme. The manager also learned to do research, not make assumptions, and be vocal about support for various diversity segments.

How to Address Challenges in Geographically Distributed Team

As a lead architect at a multinational retailer, I had to ensure the software could scale when demand increased. There was a challenge in delivery due to the offshore team expecting more details in the solution designs than the onshore team could provide. I brought both teams together to discuss their challenges and agreed on a middle-ground solution. Cultural differences were addressed with training and a design template was implemented to monitor improvement. Lessons learned included bringing people together to understand the root cause, being mindful of cultural differences, and monitoring specific metrics.

Why Engineers Need to Understand Business Perspectives

In a previous organization, the author's role was to create a value proposition to present to the client and create work for the company. Through collaboration with internal leads and senior leaders, the author was able to create a 4 million GBP sales pipeline and a million GBP sales opportunity for the product. The author learned the importance of understanding business problems, collaboration, and engaging with stakeholders early on.

Cultivating Self-Discipline

This article discusses the importance of self-discipline and how to cultivate it. It suggests setting achievable goals, creating an action plan, allowing for failure, visualizing the end goal, and seeking support from others. It also emphasizes that failure is a friend and that it takes 21-30 days to form a habit.

How to Make an Impact

Making an impact in one's career is not easy, but it can be learned. To make an impact, one should identify a SMART goal, engage stakeholders, communicate with peers and team members, and stay positive. Communication is key, and it is important to stay motivated and celebrate small wins. Difficulties should be seen as learning opportunities.

There Is No Commitment Without Disagreement

This article discusses a situation in which a team of eight engineers had to deal with a top performer who was not performing up to their usual standards. The team tried various methods to re-engage the individual, but nothing worked. Eventually, the team leader realized that the individual had to be allowed to express their disagreement with the project direction in front of the team. This allowed them to feel comfortable advocating for their point of view and ultimately led to a successful outcome. The article highlights the importance of allowing team members to express their disagreement and creating an environment where everyone feels safe to do so.

Cultivating Accountability

Leaders need to create an environment where people feel safe to do their work, while still holding them accountable. The goal is to allow people to learn from their mistakes and grow, rather than punishing them for failure. Leaders should foster an environment of honesty and constructive criticism, and be aware of their own emotions and how they impact others. Mutual feedback is key to helping everyone improve.

Easing the Fear of Failure with Guidance

Poor management and a lack of creativity can lead to a company's failure. Leaders should provide context to their teams, share data, and empower their employees to make adult decisions. It is important to have a strategy and vision for the product organization, and to focus on how to make customers' lives better. Developing a sense of ownership and understanding the impact of work is essential for success.

Playing the Father Figure

This article discusses the challenges of managing people and the lessons learned from the experience. It is important to be aware of how you communicate with others and to be clear in what you are asking of your team. It is also important to frame goals in a way that relates to the broader goals of the organization. Good leadership keeps everybody and their work in focus.

Embracing Feedback as an Organization

Feedback is an important part of growth and development, and it is important to establish a culture of trust and open communication within a company. At Expedia, feedback was part of the company's DNA and was expected from peers, team members, and those in leadership positions. It is important to take feedback seriously and use it to improve, even if it is not what you want to hear. Self-reflection and taking time to consider how you could have done something differently is a great practice for improvement. Mentors can also provide a neutral perspective and help you see things more clearly. Asking for feedback from leadership and team members is a great way to build a culture of inquiry and help everyone grow.

Taking a Product from Inception to Market

This is a story of a successful product launch from idea to market in three months. The product was an advertising technology company, a demand-side platform, that allowed customers to buy ad space in real-time bidding exchanges. The team needed to prove to advertisers that the investment was worth it from an ROI perspective, so they studied foot traffic measurements and built a proof-of-concept of their own foot traffic measurement product. After validating the findings, they created training and pitch materials to present to potential clients. They imposed budget constraints to get the ideal volume of use and traffic for their study. Ultimately, they were able to get the product to market before they ran out of resources.

Pleading With Your Executive Team

This story is about a company that specialized in mobile app downloads and wanted to get into programmatic ad-buying. The author was recruited to manage the product and business development, and worked closely with the engineering team to increase the throughput of the system. Despite the author's efforts to optimize the system and acquire users for as little as a dollar, the CEO chose to ignore the data and shut the product down a few months later. The author learned that leaders can make ego-driven decisions, and it can be difficult to disagree with them.

Seeing What’s Out There

A consultant has been working with a fintech company in New York for six months, helping them solve problems and develop strategies. They have been gathering data and researching other companies to come up with their own solutions. The consultant has learned that gathering data is the best way to form an opinion, communication and evangelism are key, and being dynamic and hypothesis-driven is vital to success.

Establishing Yourself in a Market

In 2017, a technologist was inspired to find a way to help with the refugee crisis in Europe. After researching existing apps and services, he realized there was a gap in the market for a Yelp-like service for refugees in need of shelter. He created a deck of material to pitch the idea and reached out to humanitarian groups, entrepreneurs, and hackathon groups. He learned that while many apps had been created, none had acquired any refugee users. He ultimately decided to repurpose his background in adtech/martech to build a humanitarian ad network to connect the supply of apps with the demand of refugees. After 4 years of networking and seeking out funding, he was unable to unlock funds and the project was not pursued.

How to Stay Technical as an Engineer Manager

This article discusses how a manager can stay hands-on and still move up the career ladder. The author shares their experience transitioning from an engineer to a senior engineering manager, and how they managed to stay hands-on while leading a team. They suggest being a generalist rather than a specialist, exploring Dev production tools, bringing new things to the table, and making sure to have time to learn while growing.

Managing a Product Team

As the manager of an engineering group, the author faced the challenge of catering to the development tasks from the formal product management team and the solution architects. To address this, the author connected with the product management team and suggested that requests should go through them for better judgement. The author also implemented a process of allocating a weightage to specific problems and solving them gradually. This process was successful and the stakeholders received positive feedback during the annual review. The author learned that it is important to have a clear and concise problem statement with proposed solutions and to focus on product innovation and streamlining processes.

Scaling Teams Through an Unconventional Approach

The team faced difficulty setting up their front-end development due to a narrow talent pool and lack of experience. To address this, they used unconventional channels to recruit talent, changed the percentages of their existing staff to dedicate more time to front-end development, and leveraged online sources and internship programs. Through these steps, they were able to successfully recruit the right talent and upskill their existing staff. The team learned to anticipate faster and have a mix of specialists and generalists, as well as to facilitate and grow talents with good training.

Know Your Customers Needs

This article discusses the challenges of product positioning and messaging in the early stages of a startup. It outlines the actions taken by the author, who worked as an outsourced consultant, to help the company uncover what they wanted from their product. The article also highlights the lessons learned from this experience, such as the importance of collaboration, knowing one's strengths and interests, and being able to accept failure and learn from mistakes.

How to Manage Managers

This article is about the challenges of being one of the first few employees of a travel-based company and how to overcome them. The author emphasizes the importance of clear expectations, 1:1s, and good people skills. They also learned to take criticism and challenges, as well as to look for improvements and personal development opportunities.

Reinvent a Product From Scratch

This article discusses the challenges of reinventing a product and the actions taken to overcome them. It emphasizes the importance of good market research, working with a team of intelligent people, and putting yourself in the shoes of your juniors. It also highlights the importance of enjoying the process and being confident to move forward with your vision.

How to Manage an Employee With Depression

A team member was on a "return to work" programme after an ongoing depression. The team was small and timelines were short, creating pressure. The person needed to take time off on short notice, and the manager had to balance the person's wellbeing with client priorities. The manager was supportive and understanding, signposted the person to relevant support services, and communicated with the team about the person's condition. The team member was allowed to work part-time, and the manager encouraged them to join a mental health programme. The manager also learned to do research, not make assumptions, and be vocal about support for various diversity segments.

How to Address Challenges in Geographically Distributed Team

As a lead architect at a multinational retailer, I had to ensure the software could scale when demand increased. There was a challenge in delivery due to the offshore team expecting more details in the solution designs than the onshore team could provide. I brought both teams together to discuss their challenges and agreed on a middle-ground solution. Cultural differences were addressed with training and a design template was implemented to monitor improvement. Lessons learned included bringing people together to understand the root cause, being mindful of cultural differences, and monitoring specific metrics.

Why Engineers Need to Understand Business Perspectives

In a previous organization, the author's role was to create a value proposition to present to the client and create work for the company. Through collaboration with internal leads and senior leaders, the author was able to create a 4 million GBP sales pipeline and a million GBP sales opportunity for the product. The author learned the importance of understanding business problems, collaboration, and engaging with stakeholders early on.

Cultivating Self-Discipline

This article discusses the importance of self-discipline and how to cultivate it. It suggests setting achievable goals, creating an action plan, allowing for failure, visualizing the end goal, and seeking support from others. It also emphasizes that failure is a friend and that it takes 21-30 days to form a habit.

How to Make an Impact

Making an impact in one's career is not easy, but it can be learned. To make an impact, one should identify a SMART goal, engage stakeholders, communicate with peers and team members, and stay positive. Communication is key, and it is important to stay motivated and celebrate small wins. Difficulties should be seen as learning opportunities.

There Is No Commitment Without Disagreement

This article discusses a situation in which a team of eight engineers had to deal with a top performer who was not performing up to their usual standards. The team tried various methods to re-engage the individual, but nothing worked. Eventually, the team leader realized that the individual had to be allowed to express their disagreement with the project direction in front of the team. This allowed them to feel comfortable advocating for their point of view and ultimately led to a successful outcome. The article highlights the importance of allowing team members to express their disagreement and creating an environment where everyone feels safe to do so.

Cultivating Accountability

Leaders need to create an environment where people feel safe to do their work, while still holding them accountable. The goal is to allow people to learn from their mistakes and grow, rather than punishing them for failure. Leaders should foster an environment of honesty and constructive criticism, and be aware of their own emotions and how they impact others. Mutual feedback is key to helping everyone improve.

Easing the Fear of Failure with Guidance

Poor management and a lack of creativity can lead to a company's failure. Leaders should provide context to their teams, share data, and empower their employees to make adult decisions. It is important to have a strategy and vision for the product organization, and to focus on how to make customers' lives better. Developing a sense of ownership and understanding the impact of work is essential for success.

Playing the Father Figure

This article discusses the challenges of managing people and the lessons learned from the experience. It is important to be aware of how you communicate with others and to be clear in what you are asking of your team. It is also important to frame goals in a way that relates to the broader goals of the organization. Good leadership keeps everybody and their work in focus.

Embracing Feedback as an Organization

Feedback is an important part of growth and development, and it is important to establish a culture of trust and open communication within a company. At Expedia, feedback was part of the company's DNA and was expected from peers, team members, and those in leadership positions. It is important to take feedback seriously and use it to improve, even if it is not what you want to hear. Self-reflection and taking time to consider how you could have done something differently is a great practice for improvement. Mentors can also provide a neutral perspective and help you see things more clearly. Asking for feedback from leadership and team members is a great way to build a culture of inquiry and help everyone grow.

Taking a Product from Inception to Market

This is a story of a successful product launch from idea to market in three months. The product was an advertising technology company, a demand-side platform, that allowed customers to buy ad space in real-time bidding exchanges. The team needed to prove to advertisers that the investment was worth it from an ROI perspective, so they studied foot traffic measurements and built a proof-of-concept of their own foot traffic measurement product. After validating the findings, they created training and pitch materials to present to potential clients. They imposed budget constraints to get the ideal volume of use and traffic for their study. Ultimately, they were able to get the product to market before they ran out of resources.

Pleading With Your Executive Team

This story is about a company that specialized in mobile app downloads and wanted to get into programmatic ad-buying. The author was recruited to manage the product and business development, and worked closely with the engineering team to increase the throughput of the system. Despite the author's efforts to optimize the system and acquire users for as little as a dollar, the CEO chose to ignore the data and shut the product down a few months later. The author learned that leaders can make ego-driven decisions, and it can be difficult to disagree with them.

Seeing What’s Out There

A consultant has been working with a fintech company in New York for six months, helping them solve problems and develop strategies. They have been gathering data and researching other companies to come up with their own solutions. The consultant has learned that gathering data is the best way to form an opinion, communication and evangelism are key, and being dynamic and hypothesis-driven is vital to success.

Establishing Yourself in a Market

In 2017, a technologist was inspired to find a way to help with the refugee crisis in Europe. After researching existing apps and services, he realized there was a gap in the market for a Yelp-like service for refugees in need of shelter. He created a deck of material to pitch the idea and reached out to humanitarian groups, entrepreneurs, and hackathon groups. He learned that while many apps had been created, none had acquired any refugee users. He ultimately decided to repurpose his background in adtech/martech to build a humanitarian ad network to connect the supply of apps with the demand of refugees. After 4 years of networking and seeking out funding, he was unable to unlock funds and the project was not pursued.

How to Stay Technical as an Engineer Manager

This article discusses how a manager can stay hands-on and still move up the career ladder. The author shares their experience transitioning from an engineer to a senior engineering manager, and how they managed to stay hands-on while leading a team. They suggest being a generalist rather than a specialist, exploring Dev production tools, bringing new things to the table, and making sure to have time to learn while growing.

Managing a Product Team

As the manager of an engineering group, the author faced the challenge of catering to the development tasks from the formal product management team and the solution architects. To address this, the author connected with the product management team and suggested that requests should go through them for better judgement. The author also implemented a process of allocating a weightage to specific problems and solving them gradually. This process was successful and the stakeholders received positive feedback during the annual review. The author learned that it is important to have a clear and concise problem statement with proposed solutions and to focus on product innovation and streamlining processes.

Scaling Teams Through an Unconventional Approach

The team faced difficulty setting up their front-end development due to a narrow talent pool and lack of experience. To address this, they used unconventional channels to recruit talent, changed the percentages of their existing staff to dedicate more time to front-end development, and leveraged online sources and internship programs. Through these steps, they were able to successfully recruit the right talent and upskill their existing staff. The team learned to anticipate faster and have a mix of specialists and generalists, as well as to facilitate and grow talents with good training.

Know Your Customers Needs

This article discusses the challenges of product positioning and messaging in the early stages of a startup. It outlines the actions taken by the author, who worked as an outsourced consultant, to help the company uncover what they wanted from their product. The article also highlights the lessons learned from this experience, such as the importance of collaboration, knowing one's strengths and interests, and being able to accept failure and learn from mistakes.

How to Manage Managers

This article is about the challenges of being one of the first few employees of a travel-based company and how to overcome them. The author emphasizes the importance of clear expectations, 1:1s, and good people skills. They also learned to take criticism and challenges, as well as to look for improvements and personal development opportunities.

Reinvent a Product From Scratch

This article discusses the challenges of reinventing a product and the actions taken to overcome them. It emphasizes the importance of good market research, working with a team of intelligent people, and putting yourself in the shoes of your juniors. It also highlights the importance of enjoying the process and being confident to move forward with your vision.

How to Manage an Employee With Depression

A team member was on a "return to work" programme after an ongoing depression. The team was small and timelines were short, creating pressure. The person needed to take time off on short notice, and the manager had to balance the person's wellbeing with client priorities. The manager was supportive and understanding, signposted the person to relevant support services, and communicated with the team about the person's condition. The team member was allowed to work part-time, and the manager encouraged them to join a mental health programme. The manager also learned to do research, not make assumptions, and be vocal about support for various diversity segments.

How to Address Challenges in Geographically Distributed Team

As a lead architect at a multinational retailer, I had to ensure the software could scale when demand increased. There was a challenge in delivery due to the offshore team expecting more details in the solution designs than the onshore team could provide. I brought both teams together to discuss their challenges and agreed on a middle-ground solution. Cultural differences were addressed with training and a design template was implemented to monitor improvement. Lessons learned included bringing people together to understand the root cause, being mindful of cultural differences, and monitoring specific metrics.

Why Engineers Need to Understand Business Perspectives

In a previous organization, the author's role was to create a value proposition to present to the client and create work for the company. Through collaboration with internal leads and senior leaders, the author was able to create a 4 million GBP sales pipeline and a million GBP sales opportunity for the product. The author learned the importance of understanding business problems, collaboration, and engaging with stakeholders early on.

Cultivating Self-Discipline

This article discusses the importance of self-discipline and how to cultivate it. It suggests setting achievable goals, creating an action plan, allowing for failure, visualizing the end goal, and seeking support from others. It also emphasizes that failure is a friend and that it takes 21-30 days to form a habit.

How to Make an Impact

Making an impact in one's career is not easy, but it can be learned. To make an impact, one should identify a SMART goal, engage stakeholders, communicate with peers and team members, and stay positive. Communication is key, and it is important to stay motivated and celebrate small wins. Difficulties should be seen as learning opportunities.

There Is No Commitment Without Disagreement

This article discusses a situation in which a team of eight engineers had to deal with a top performer who was not performing up to their usual standards. The team tried various methods to re-engage the individual, but nothing worked. Eventually, the team leader realized that the individual had to be allowed to express their disagreement with the project direction in front of the team. This allowed them to feel comfortable advocating for their point of view and ultimately led to a successful outcome. The article highlights the importance of allowing team members to express their disagreement and creating an environment where everyone feels safe to do so.

Cultivating Accountability

Leaders need to create an environment where people feel safe to do their work, while still holding them accountable. The goal is to allow people to learn from their mistakes and grow, rather than punishing them for failure. Leaders should foster an environment of honesty and constructive criticism, and be aware of their own emotions and how they impact others. Mutual feedback is key to helping everyone improve.

Easing the Fear of Failure with Guidance

Poor management and a lack of creativity can lead to a company's failure. Leaders should provide context to their teams, share data, and empower their employees to make adult decisions. It is important to have a strategy and vision for the product organization, and to focus on how to make customers' lives better. Developing a sense of ownership and understanding the impact of work is essential for success.

Playing the Father Figure

This article discusses the challenges of managing people and the lessons learned from the experience. It is important to be aware of how you communicate with others and to be clear in what you are asking of your team. It is also important to frame goals in a way that relates to the broader goals of the organization. Good leadership keeps everybody and their work in focus.

Embracing Feedback as an Organization

Feedback is an important part of growth and development, and it is important to establish a culture of trust and open communication within a company. At Expedia, feedback was part of the company's DNA and was expected from peers, team members, and those in leadership positions. It is important to take feedback seriously and use it to improve, even if it is not what you want to hear. Self-reflection and taking time to consider how you could have done something differently is a great practice for improvement. Mentors can also provide a neutral perspective and help you see things more clearly. Asking for feedback from leadership and team members is a great way to build a culture of inquiry and help everyone grow.

Taking a Product from Inception to Market

This is a story of a successful product launch from idea to market in three months. The product was an advertising technology company, a demand-side platform, that allowed customers to buy ad space in real-time bidding exchanges. The team needed to prove to advertisers that the investment was worth it from an ROI perspective, so they studied foot traffic measurements and built a proof-of-concept of their own foot traffic measurement product. After validating the findings, they created training and pitch materials to present to potential clients. They imposed budget constraints to get the ideal volume of use and traffic for their study. Ultimately, they were able to get the product to market before they ran out of resources.

Pleading With Your Executive Team

This story is about a company that specialized in mobile app downloads and wanted to get into programmatic ad-buying. The author was recruited to manage the product and business development, and worked closely with the engineering team to increase the throughput of the system. Despite the author's efforts to optimize the system and acquire users for as little as a dollar, the CEO chose to ignore the data and shut the product down a few months later. The author learned that leaders can make ego-driven decisions, and it can be difficult to disagree with them.

Seeing What’s Out There

A consultant has been working with a fintech company in New York for six months, helping them solve problems and develop strategies. They have been gathering data and researching other companies to come up with their own solutions. The consultant has learned that gathering data is the best way to form an opinion, communication and evangelism are key, and being dynamic and hypothesis-driven is vital to success.

Establishing Yourself in a Market

In 2017, a technologist was inspired to find a way to help with the refugee crisis in Europe. After researching existing apps and services, he realized there was a gap in the market for a Yelp-like service for refugees in need of shelter. He created a deck of material to pitch the idea and reached out to humanitarian groups, entrepreneurs, and hackathon groups. He learned that while many apps had been created, none had acquired any refugee users. He ultimately decided to repurpose his background in adtech/martech to build a humanitarian ad network to connect the supply of apps with the demand of refugees. After 4 years of networking and seeking out funding, he was unable to unlock funds and the project was not pursued.

How to Stay Technical as an Engineer Manager

This article discusses how a manager can stay hands-on and still move up the career ladder. The author shares their experience transitioning from an engineer to a senior engineering manager, and how they managed to stay hands-on while leading a team. They suggest being a generalist rather than a specialist, exploring Dev production tools, bringing new things to the table, and making sure to have time to learn while growing.

Managing a Product Team

As the manager of an engineering group, the author faced the challenge of catering to the development tasks from the formal product management team and the solution architects. To address this, the author connected with the product management team and suggested that requests should go through them for better judgement. The author also implemented a process of allocating a weightage to specific problems and solving them gradually. This process was successful and the stakeholders received positive feedback during the annual review. The author learned that it is important to have a clear and concise problem statement with proposed solutions and to focus on product innovation and streamlining processes.

Scaling Teams Through an Unconventional Approach

The team faced difficulty setting up their front-end development due to a narrow talent pool and lack of experience. To address this, they used unconventional channels to recruit talent, changed the percentages of their existing staff to dedicate more time to front-end development, and leveraged online sources and internship programs. Through these steps, they were able to successfully recruit the right talent and upskill their existing staff. The team learned to anticipate faster and have a mix of specialists and generalists, as well as to facilitate and grow talents with good training.

Know Your Customers Needs

This article discusses the challenges of product positioning and messaging in the early stages of a startup. It outlines the actions taken by the author, who worked as an outsourced consultant, to help the company uncover what they wanted from their product. The article also highlights the lessons learned from this experience, such as the importance of collaboration, knowing one's strengths and interests, and being able to accept failure and learn from mistakes.

How to Manage Managers

This article is about the challenges of being one of the first few employees of a travel-based company and how to overcome them. The author emphasizes the importance of clear expectations, 1:1s, and good people skills. They also learned to take criticism and challenges, as well as to look for improvements and personal development opportunities.

Reinvent a Product From Scratch

This article discusses the challenges of reinventing a product and the actions taken to overcome them. It emphasizes the importance of good market research, working with a team of intelligent people, and putting yourself in the shoes of your juniors. It also highlights the importance of enjoying the process and being confident to move forward with your vision.

How to Manage an Employee With Depression

A team member was on a "return to work" programme after an ongoing depression. The team was small and timelines were short, creating pressure. The person needed to take time off on short notice, and the manager had to balance the person's wellbeing with client priorities. The manager was supportive and understanding, signposted the person to relevant support services, and communicated with the team about the person's condition. The team member was allowed to work part-time, and the manager encouraged them to join a mental health programme. The manager also learned to do research, not make assumptions, and be vocal about support for various diversity segments.

How to Address Challenges in Geographically Distributed Team

As a lead architect at a multinational retailer, I had to ensure the software could scale when demand increased. There was a challenge in delivery due to the offshore team expecting more details in the solution designs than the onshore team could provide. I brought both teams together to discuss their challenges and agreed on a middle-ground solution. Cultural differences were addressed with training and a design template was implemented to monitor improvement. Lessons learned included bringing people together to understand the root cause, being mindful of cultural differences, and monitoring specific metrics.

Why Engineers Need to Understand Business Perspectives

In a previous organization, the author's role was to create a value proposition to present to the client and create work for the company. Through collaboration with internal leads and senior leaders, the author was able to create a 4 million GBP sales pipeline and a million GBP sales opportunity for the product. The author learned the importance of understanding business problems, collaboration, and engaging with stakeholders early on.

Cultivating Self-Discipline

This article discusses the importance of self-discipline and how to cultivate it. It suggests setting achievable goals, creating an action plan, allowing for failure, visualizing the end goal, and seeking support from others. It also emphasizes that failure is a friend and that it takes 21-30 days to form a habit.

How to Make an Impact

Making an impact in one's career is not easy, but it can be learned. To make an impact, one should identify a SMART goal, engage stakeholders, communicate with peers and team members, and stay positive. Communication is key, and it is important to stay motivated and celebrate small wins. Difficulties should be seen as learning opportunities.

There Is No Commitment Without Disagreement

This article discusses a situation in which a team of eight engineers had to deal with a top performer who was not performing up to their usual standards. The team tried various methods to re-engage the individual, but nothing worked. Eventually, the team leader realized that the individual had to be allowed to express their disagreement with the project direction in front of the team. This allowed them to feel comfortable advocating for their point of view and ultimately led to a successful outcome. The article highlights the importance of allowing team members to express their disagreement and creating an environment where everyone feels safe to do so.

Cultivating Accountability

Leaders need to create an environment where people feel safe to do their work, while still holding them accountable. The goal is to allow people to learn from their mistakes and grow, rather than punishing them for failure. Leaders should foster an environment of honesty and constructive criticism, and be aware of their own emotions and how they impact others. Mutual feedback is key to helping everyone improve.

Easing the Fear of Failure with Guidance

Poor management and a lack of creativity can lead to a company's failure. Leaders should provide context to their teams, share data, and empower their employees to make adult decisions. It is important to have a strategy and vision for the product organization, and to focus on how to make customers' lives better. Developing a sense of ownership and understanding the impact of work is essential for success.

Playing the Father Figure

This article discusses the challenges of managing people and the lessons learned from the experience. It is important to be aware of how you communicate with others and to be clear in what you are asking of your team. It is also important to frame goals in a way that relates to the broader goals of the organization. Good leadership keeps everybody and their work in focus.

Embracing Feedback as an Organization

Feedback is an important part of growth and development, and it is important to establish a culture of trust and open communication within a company. At Expedia, feedback was part of the company's DNA and was expected from peers, team members, and those in leadership positions. It is important to take feedback seriously and use it to improve, even if it is not what you want to hear. Self-reflection and taking time to consider how you could have done something differently is a great practice for improvement. Mentors can also provide a neutral perspective and help you see things more clearly. Asking for feedback from leadership and team members is a great way to build a culture of inquiry and help everyone grow.

Taking a Product from Inception to Market

This is a story of a successful product launch from idea to market in three months. The product was an advertising technology company, a demand-side platform, that allowed customers to buy ad space in real-time bidding exchanges. The team needed to prove to advertisers that the investment was worth it from an ROI perspective, so they studied foot traffic measurements and built a proof-of-concept of their own foot traffic measurement product. After validating the findings, they created training and pitch materials to present to potential clients. They imposed budget constraints to get the ideal volume of use and traffic for their study. Ultimately, they were able to get the product to market before they ran out of resources.

Pleading With Your Executive Team

This story is about a company that specialized in mobile app downloads and wanted to get into programmatic ad-buying. The author was recruited to manage the product and business development, and worked closely with the engineering team to increase the throughput of the system. Despite the author's efforts to optimize the system and acquire users for as little as a dollar, the CEO chose to ignore the data and shut the product down a few months later. The author learned that leaders can make ego-driven decisions, and it can be difficult to disagree with them.

Seeing What’s Out There

A consultant has been working with a fintech company in New York for six months, helping them solve problems and develop strategies. They have been gathering data and researching other companies to come up with their own solutions. The consultant has learned that gathering data is the best way to form an opinion, communication and evangelism are key, and being dynamic and hypothesis-driven is vital to success.

Establishing Yourself in a Market

In 2017, a technologist was inspired to find a way to help with the refugee crisis in Europe. After researching existing apps and services, he realized there was a gap in the market for a Yelp-like service for refugees in need of shelter. He created a deck of material to pitch the idea and reached out to humanitarian groups, entrepreneurs, and hackathon groups. He learned that while many apps had been created, none had acquired any refugee users. He ultimately decided to repurpose his background in adtech/martech to build a humanitarian ad network to connect the supply of apps with the demand of refugees. After 4 years of networking and seeking out funding, he was unable to unlock funds and the project was not pursued.

How to Stay Technical as an Engineer Manager

This article discusses how a manager can stay hands-on and still move up the career ladder. The author shares their experience transitioning from an engineer to a senior engineering manager, and how they managed to stay hands-on while leading a team. They suggest being a generalist rather than a specialist, exploring Dev production tools, bringing new things to the table, and making sure to have time to learn while growing.

Managing a Product Team

As the manager of an engineering group, the author faced the challenge of catering to the development tasks from the formal product management team and the solution architects. To address this, the author connected with the product management team and suggested that requests should go through them for better judgement. The author also implemented a process of allocating a weightage to specific problems and solving them gradually. This process was successful and the stakeholders received positive feedback during the annual review. The author learned that it is important to have a clear and concise problem statement with proposed solutions and to focus on product innovation and streamlining processes.

Scaling Teams Through an Unconventional Approach

The team faced difficulty setting up their front-end development due to a narrow talent pool and lack of experience. To address this, they used unconventional channels to recruit talent, changed the percentages of their existing staff to dedicate more time to front-end development, and leveraged online sources and internship programs. Through these steps, they were able to successfully recruit the right talent and upskill their existing staff. The team learned to anticipate faster and have a mix of specialists and generalists, as well as to facilitate and grow talents with good training.

Know Your Customers Needs

This article discusses the challenges of product positioning and messaging in the early stages of a startup. It outlines the actions taken by the author, who worked as an outsourced consultant, to help the company uncover what they wanted from their product. The article also highlights the lessons learned from this experience, such as the importance of collaboration, knowing one's strengths and interests, and being able to accept failure and learn from mistakes.

How to Manage Managers

This article is about the challenges of being one of the first few employees of a travel-based company and how to overcome them. The author emphasizes the importance of clear expectations, 1:1s, and good people skills. They also learned to take criticism and challenges, as well as to look for improvements and personal development opportunities.

Reinvent a Product From Scratch

This article discusses the challenges of reinventing a product and the actions taken to overcome them. It emphasizes the importance of good market research, working with a team of intelligent people, and putting yourself in the shoes of your juniors. It also highlights the importance of enjoying the process and being confident to move forward with your vision.

How to Manage an Employee With Depression

A team member was on a "return to work" programme after an ongoing depression. The team was small and timelines were short, creating pressure. The person needed to take time off on short notice, and the manager had to balance the person's wellbeing with client priorities. The manager was supportive and understanding, signposted the person to relevant support services, and communicated with the team about the person's condition. The team member was allowed to work part-time, and the manager encouraged them to join a mental health programme. The manager also learned to do research, not make assumptions, and be vocal about support for various diversity segments.

How to Address Challenges in Geographically Distributed Team

As a lead architect at a multinational retailer, I had to ensure the software could scale when demand increased. There was a challenge in delivery due to the offshore team expecting more details in the solution designs than the onshore team could provide. I brought both teams together to discuss their challenges and agreed on a middle-ground solution. Cultural differences were addressed with training and a design template was implemented to monitor improvement. Lessons learned included bringing people together to understand the root cause, being mindful of cultural differences, and monitoring specific metrics.

Why Engineers Need to Understand Business Perspectives

In a previous organization, the author's role was to create a value proposition to present to the client and create work for the company. Through collaboration with internal leads and senior leaders, the author was able to create a 4 million GBP sales pipeline and a million GBP sales opportunity for the product. The author learned the importance of understanding business problems, collaboration, and engaging with stakeholders early on.

Cultivating Self-Discipline

This article discusses the importance of self-discipline and how to cultivate it. It suggests setting achievable goals, creating an action plan, allowing for failure, visualizing the end goal, and seeking support from others. It also emphasizes that failure is a friend and that it takes 21-30 days to form a habit.

How to Make an Impact

Making an impact in one's career is not easy, but it can be learned. To make an impact, one should identify a SMART goal, engage stakeholders, communicate with peers and team members, and stay positive. Communication is key, and it is important to stay motivated and celebrate small wins. Difficulties should be seen as learning opportunities.