Knowledge shared by our community

Product Change Management

A product manager working for a multinational electronics company found that the reality of the job was much different than expected. To better understand the user's behavior and the problems they faced, the PM used the 5 Why model to ask questions and figure out the root cause of the problem. Through this process, the PM learned that product management is not just about building features, but understanding the user's needs and solving existing problems.

A Guide to Announcing New Features Effectively

After joining a multinational electronics company, the author was responsible for increasing customer engagement for a new payments product. Through data analysis, the author identified an issue with the expense management system and proposed a solution using Google API. However, the team encountered issues with users not having their location switched on. To solve this, the author proposed using a technology called Triads which would send an SMS to the user based on tower location. After convincing 10 million users to give permission, the feature was launched in South Korea. The author learned to never make assumptions about data, teams, or end-users, and to be patient and empathetic when it comes to end-users.

The Move From Manager to Senior Manager

The author was tasked with developing a product from scratch and was successful in doing so. However, when they were promoted to a senior product manager role, they faced challenges such as time management, switching contexts, and leaving the product they had developed. To overcome these challenges, the author managed their time wisely, held thorough discussions with product people, and held weekly meetings with direct reports. Through this, they learned the importance of communication and increasing pressure taking capacity of team members.

Learn the Skills and Get the Job as a PM

This article tells the story of a BTech Mechanical Engineering graduate who pursued a career in product management. After working in the banking domain for two years, the author pursued higher studies and joined the retail industry to gain practical experience. They then joined a company as a consultant and business analyst before eventually becoming a product manager. The article provides lessons learned, such as the importance of focusing on the “why” part of the product, having a strong base of knowledge and experience, and being passionate about the journey.

Master Transition From Waterfall to Agile

A company transitioning from a waterfall model to an agile model faced challenges due to the change. The company took initiatives to ensure the change was organic and transparent, including training sessions for employees and prioritizing existing customers. Lessons learned included the importance of existing customers and creating a unique selling point to distinguish the company from competitors.

Organic Leadership: Becoming a Manager

This article discusses the concept of organic leadership, which is when a company hires engineers and helps them grow into managers. It outlines the steps taken by the author when they joined a new company and had to take on a team. These steps included establishing authority, addressing team pain points, and setting clear goals. It also discusses the lessons learned from this experience, such as not rushing to exercise power, taking responsibility even without a title, and the benefits of organic leadership.

Getting Ready for a Cold Start

This article describes the process of starting a team from scratch, including the steps taken to secure buy-in from key stakeholders, create a mission statement and technical vision, and hire the right people. It emphasizes the importance of socializing ideas, defining a technical strategy, and aligning with the organization from the start.

Managing Underperformance

This article discusses how managers can support team members who are suffering from mental health challenges, such as depression. It outlines the steps taken to support the team member, including acknowledging the issue with other team members, talking to the teammate without diagnosing, giving them time off, talking to HR, and setting up boundaries and expectations. Ultimately, the team member was let go after five months of chaos, but the experience taught the manager valuable lessons about transparency, red flags, and the need for professional help.

Introducing Modularity and Creating Componentization

Modularity and componentization is the holy grail of software development, but it is difficult to implement in practice. For the past two years, a team has been gradually pursuing modularization by separating front-end code, APIs, and backends into microservices. This has been done by breaking up big initiatives into specific projects, getting a leader and evangelists for each initiative, and asking for teams to pitch in. This has allowed for slower but incremental and gradual progress over time.

Putting a Stake in the Ground

It is difficult to secure buy-in from engineering leadership for a research-heavy team if they are not given concrete promises. To ensure support, it is important to make a list of concrete promises and develop a product-oriented roadmap of research-based deliveries. Taking a risk and making commitments is necessary to fuel the development process, even if it means encountering a lot of uncertainties.

From Innovation Lab to Innovative Engineering

This article discusses the problem of how to ensure that all members of an engineering team, not just a select few, are able to learn new skills and innovate. The author's solution was to collapse the R&D team into the core engineering team and introduce systems and ceremonies such as workshops, hackathons, and experimentation days. The lessons learned from this process are that having all core teams innovate ensures that all team members grow, domain knowledge is used to evolve existing products, and creativity should be encouraged throughout the organization.

Closing a Candidate: How a Customized Narrative Can Help

In a candidate-driven market, the company struggled to hire engineers due to lack of communication of the value of what they do. To improve their chances of closing a candidate, they created a process that would prime the candidate and have them familiarize with the company's narrative prior to the closing call. This process was broken down into steps and topics were tailored to the role and seniority of the candidate. As a result, the closing rate significantly improved.

Helping Product as an Engineering Leader

Engineering leaders often have to step in to help Product Managers when there is a gap in leadership or a PM is unfamiliar with a new area. This can involve pretending to be a PM for a while, evaluating the value of ideas, and providing cover for asking tough questions. It is important to create a safe environment for PMs and to make organizational changes if necessary.

Being a New Engineering Leader on a Team

When a company is doing well, it is rare to bring in a new engineering leader from the outside. This can be a difficult situation to navigate, as the new leader must build trust with the team and not be seen as taking a spot that was meant to be someone else's. The author shares the lessons they learned from two such experiences, such as being humble, rolling up their sleeves, not mentioning previous companies, and not being a ceiling to their team's growth.

Set Realistic Expectations with Upper Management

After taking over a team with well-defined OKRs, the manager realized there was a skill set gap between what the team was capable of and what upper management expected. After mapping out the team's competencies and expertise, the manager communicated the discrepancy to upper management and was able to get approval to hire new people to fill the gap. The manager learned that the needs of a growing startup can change quickly and that relying on past experience may not be the best approach.

How I Improved Test Automation

In order to move faster and release faster, the quality team had to improve test automation. To do this, the team reached out to a program manager to understand the release cycle, identified the main problem of relying on an offshore third-party testing company, and proposed a strategy of working with core service owners to have test coverage. After 6 months, the team was able to move from a monthly to a weekly release cycle. The team learned that it is possible to influence without authority, data points are as compelling as having a C-suite title, and starting small is key to success.

Why and How to Advocate for Your Employees

A manager is responsible for the growth of their team and must advocate for them. To build trust between the team and other managers, the author highlighted the most incredible people in their team and sent them to work on specific aspects of the project. They also implemented team meetings and 1:1s to create a common goal and minimize issues. In the end, the team was able to ace many projects and build trust with the American team. The author learned that trust and a clear vision are key to success, and setting goals for the team helps to create a powerful team dynamic.

Moving From a Team Member to Manager

A transitioning manager was worried about how their team would perceive them and if their team would drift away from them. To address this, they implemented 1:1 meetings to build relationships and trust, and scheduled weekly meetings to ensure everyone was on the same page. They also reached out to their manager for advice and mentorship. Through this, they learned to trust their team, handle individuals differently, and communicate openly.

Motivating the Team Spirit

When transitioning from an engineering role to a leadership role, it is important to have a significant change in attitude. Instead of providing solutions, ask questions and let the team come up with their own solutions. This will help them grow and build trust in the leader. Allow the team to discuss any issues they have without fear of judgement and create an environment where they can try new ideas. Focus on solutions rather than pointing fingers and make sure the team feels safe to tell the leader about any issues.

Dealing With Manager Who Is in a Different Country

This article discusses the challenges of managing up and understanding one's boss and team members. It describes how the author's team was able to make changes to their processes and introduce new ways of thinking in order to better motivate their team. The article also provides lessons learned, such as not assuming that the manager knows everything, not being scared to challenge the way things are being done, and being open to learning new technologies.

Product Change Management

A product manager working for a multinational electronics company found that the reality of the job was much different than expected. To better understand the user's behavior and the problems they faced, the PM used the 5 Why model to ask questions and figure out the root cause of the problem. Through this process, the PM learned that product management is not just about building features, but understanding the user's needs and solving existing problems.

A Guide to Announcing New Features Effectively

After joining a multinational electronics company, the author was responsible for increasing customer engagement for a new payments product. Through data analysis, the author identified an issue with the expense management system and proposed a solution using Google API. However, the team encountered issues with users not having their location switched on. To solve this, the author proposed using a technology called Triads which would send an SMS to the user based on tower location. After convincing 10 million users to give permission, the feature was launched in South Korea. The author learned to never make assumptions about data, teams, or end-users, and to be patient and empathetic when it comes to end-users.

The Move From Manager to Senior Manager

The author was tasked with developing a product from scratch and was successful in doing so. However, when they were promoted to a senior product manager role, they faced challenges such as time management, switching contexts, and leaving the product they had developed. To overcome these challenges, the author managed their time wisely, held thorough discussions with product people, and held weekly meetings with direct reports. Through this, they learned the importance of communication and increasing pressure taking capacity of team members.

Learn the Skills and Get the Job as a PM

This article tells the story of a BTech Mechanical Engineering graduate who pursued a career in product management. After working in the banking domain for two years, the author pursued higher studies and joined the retail industry to gain practical experience. They then joined a company as a consultant and business analyst before eventually becoming a product manager. The article provides lessons learned, such as the importance of focusing on the “why” part of the product, having a strong base of knowledge and experience, and being passionate about the journey.

Master Transition From Waterfall to Agile

A company transitioning from a waterfall model to an agile model faced challenges due to the change. The company took initiatives to ensure the change was organic and transparent, including training sessions for employees and prioritizing existing customers. Lessons learned included the importance of existing customers and creating a unique selling point to distinguish the company from competitors.

Organic Leadership: Becoming a Manager

This article discusses the concept of organic leadership, which is when a company hires engineers and helps them grow into managers. It outlines the steps taken by the author when they joined a new company and had to take on a team. These steps included establishing authority, addressing team pain points, and setting clear goals. It also discusses the lessons learned from this experience, such as not rushing to exercise power, taking responsibility even without a title, and the benefits of organic leadership.

Getting Ready for a Cold Start

This article describes the process of starting a team from scratch, including the steps taken to secure buy-in from key stakeholders, create a mission statement and technical vision, and hire the right people. It emphasizes the importance of socializing ideas, defining a technical strategy, and aligning with the organization from the start.

Managing Underperformance

This article discusses how managers can support team members who are suffering from mental health challenges, such as depression. It outlines the steps taken to support the team member, including acknowledging the issue with other team members, talking to the teammate without diagnosing, giving them time off, talking to HR, and setting up boundaries and expectations. Ultimately, the team member was let go after five months of chaos, but the experience taught the manager valuable lessons about transparency, red flags, and the need for professional help.

Introducing Modularity and Creating Componentization

Modularity and componentization is the holy grail of software development, but it is difficult to implement in practice. For the past two years, a team has been gradually pursuing modularization by separating front-end code, APIs, and backends into microservices. This has been done by breaking up big initiatives into specific projects, getting a leader and evangelists for each initiative, and asking for teams to pitch in. This has allowed for slower but incremental and gradual progress over time.

Putting a Stake in the Ground

It is difficult to secure buy-in from engineering leadership for a research-heavy team if they are not given concrete promises. To ensure support, it is important to make a list of concrete promises and develop a product-oriented roadmap of research-based deliveries. Taking a risk and making commitments is necessary to fuel the development process, even if it means encountering a lot of uncertainties.

From Innovation Lab to Innovative Engineering

This article discusses the problem of how to ensure that all members of an engineering team, not just a select few, are able to learn new skills and innovate. The author's solution was to collapse the R&D team into the core engineering team and introduce systems and ceremonies such as workshops, hackathons, and experimentation days. The lessons learned from this process are that having all core teams innovate ensures that all team members grow, domain knowledge is used to evolve existing products, and creativity should be encouraged throughout the organization.

Closing a Candidate: How a Customized Narrative Can Help

In a candidate-driven market, the company struggled to hire engineers due to lack of communication of the value of what they do. To improve their chances of closing a candidate, they created a process that would prime the candidate and have them familiarize with the company's narrative prior to the closing call. This process was broken down into steps and topics were tailored to the role and seniority of the candidate. As a result, the closing rate significantly improved.

Helping Product as an Engineering Leader

Engineering leaders often have to step in to help Product Managers when there is a gap in leadership or a PM is unfamiliar with a new area. This can involve pretending to be a PM for a while, evaluating the value of ideas, and providing cover for asking tough questions. It is important to create a safe environment for PMs and to make organizational changes if necessary.

Being a New Engineering Leader on a Team

When a company is doing well, it is rare to bring in a new engineering leader from the outside. This can be a difficult situation to navigate, as the new leader must build trust with the team and not be seen as taking a spot that was meant to be someone else's. The author shares the lessons they learned from two such experiences, such as being humble, rolling up their sleeves, not mentioning previous companies, and not being a ceiling to their team's growth.

Set Realistic Expectations with Upper Management

After taking over a team with well-defined OKRs, the manager realized there was a skill set gap between what the team was capable of and what upper management expected. After mapping out the team's competencies and expertise, the manager communicated the discrepancy to upper management and was able to get approval to hire new people to fill the gap. The manager learned that the needs of a growing startup can change quickly and that relying on past experience may not be the best approach.

How I Improved Test Automation

In order to move faster and release faster, the quality team had to improve test automation. To do this, the team reached out to a program manager to understand the release cycle, identified the main problem of relying on an offshore third-party testing company, and proposed a strategy of working with core service owners to have test coverage. After 6 months, the team was able to move from a monthly to a weekly release cycle. The team learned that it is possible to influence without authority, data points are as compelling as having a C-suite title, and starting small is key to success.

Why and How to Advocate for Your Employees

A manager is responsible for the growth of their team and must advocate for them. To build trust between the team and other managers, the author highlighted the most incredible people in their team and sent them to work on specific aspects of the project. They also implemented team meetings and 1:1s to create a common goal and minimize issues. In the end, the team was able to ace many projects and build trust with the American team. The author learned that trust and a clear vision are key to success, and setting goals for the team helps to create a powerful team dynamic.

Moving From a Team Member to Manager

A transitioning manager was worried about how their team would perceive them and if their team would drift away from them. To address this, they implemented 1:1 meetings to build relationships and trust, and scheduled weekly meetings to ensure everyone was on the same page. They also reached out to their manager for advice and mentorship. Through this, they learned to trust their team, handle individuals differently, and communicate openly.

Motivating the Team Spirit

When transitioning from an engineering role to a leadership role, it is important to have a significant change in attitude. Instead of providing solutions, ask questions and let the team come up with their own solutions. This will help them grow and build trust in the leader. Allow the team to discuss any issues they have without fear of judgement and create an environment where they can try new ideas. Focus on solutions rather than pointing fingers and make sure the team feels safe to tell the leader about any issues.

Dealing With Manager Who Is in a Different Country

This article discusses the challenges of managing up and understanding one's boss and team members. It describes how the author's team was able to make changes to their processes and introduce new ways of thinking in order to better motivate their team. The article also provides lessons learned, such as not assuming that the manager knows everything, not being scared to challenge the way things are being done, and being open to learning new technologies.

Product Change Management

A product manager working for a multinational electronics company found that the reality of the job was much different than expected. To better understand the user's behavior and the problems they faced, the PM used the 5 Why model to ask questions and figure out the root cause of the problem. Through this process, the PM learned that product management is not just about building features, but understanding the user's needs and solving existing problems.

A Guide to Announcing New Features Effectively

After joining a multinational electronics company, the author was responsible for increasing customer engagement for a new payments product. Through data analysis, the author identified an issue with the expense management system and proposed a solution using Google API. However, the team encountered issues with users not having their location switched on. To solve this, the author proposed using a technology called Triads which would send an SMS to the user based on tower location. After convincing 10 million users to give permission, the feature was launched in South Korea. The author learned to never make assumptions about data, teams, or end-users, and to be patient and empathetic when it comes to end-users.

The Move From Manager to Senior Manager

The author was tasked with developing a product from scratch and was successful in doing so. However, when they were promoted to a senior product manager role, they faced challenges such as time management, switching contexts, and leaving the product they had developed. To overcome these challenges, the author managed their time wisely, held thorough discussions with product people, and held weekly meetings with direct reports. Through this, they learned the importance of communication and increasing pressure taking capacity of team members.

Learn the Skills and Get the Job as a PM

This article tells the story of a BTech Mechanical Engineering graduate who pursued a career in product management. After working in the banking domain for two years, the author pursued higher studies and joined the retail industry to gain practical experience. They then joined a company as a consultant and business analyst before eventually becoming a product manager. The article provides lessons learned, such as the importance of focusing on the “why” part of the product, having a strong base of knowledge and experience, and being passionate about the journey.

Master Transition From Waterfall to Agile

A company transitioning from a waterfall model to an agile model faced challenges due to the change. The company took initiatives to ensure the change was organic and transparent, including training sessions for employees and prioritizing existing customers. Lessons learned included the importance of existing customers and creating a unique selling point to distinguish the company from competitors.

Organic Leadership: Becoming a Manager

This article discusses the concept of organic leadership, which is when a company hires engineers and helps them grow into managers. It outlines the steps taken by the author when they joined a new company and had to take on a team. These steps included establishing authority, addressing team pain points, and setting clear goals. It also discusses the lessons learned from this experience, such as not rushing to exercise power, taking responsibility even without a title, and the benefits of organic leadership.

Getting Ready for a Cold Start

This article describes the process of starting a team from scratch, including the steps taken to secure buy-in from key stakeholders, create a mission statement and technical vision, and hire the right people. It emphasizes the importance of socializing ideas, defining a technical strategy, and aligning with the organization from the start.

Managing Underperformance

This article discusses how managers can support team members who are suffering from mental health challenges, such as depression. It outlines the steps taken to support the team member, including acknowledging the issue with other team members, talking to the teammate without diagnosing, giving them time off, talking to HR, and setting up boundaries and expectations. Ultimately, the team member was let go after five months of chaos, but the experience taught the manager valuable lessons about transparency, red flags, and the need for professional help.

Introducing Modularity and Creating Componentization

Modularity and componentization is the holy grail of software development, but it is difficult to implement in practice. For the past two years, a team has been gradually pursuing modularization by separating front-end code, APIs, and backends into microservices. This has been done by breaking up big initiatives into specific projects, getting a leader and evangelists for each initiative, and asking for teams to pitch in. This has allowed for slower but incremental and gradual progress over time.

Putting a Stake in the Ground

It is difficult to secure buy-in from engineering leadership for a research-heavy team if they are not given concrete promises. To ensure support, it is important to make a list of concrete promises and develop a product-oriented roadmap of research-based deliveries. Taking a risk and making commitments is necessary to fuel the development process, even if it means encountering a lot of uncertainties.

From Innovation Lab to Innovative Engineering

This article discusses the problem of how to ensure that all members of an engineering team, not just a select few, are able to learn new skills and innovate. The author's solution was to collapse the R&D team into the core engineering team and introduce systems and ceremonies such as workshops, hackathons, and experimentation days. The lessons learned from this process are that having all core teams innovate ensures that all team members grow, domain knowledge is used to evolve existing products, and creativity should be encouraged throughout the organization.

Closing a Candidate: How a Customized Narrative Can Help

In a candidate-driven market, the company struggled to hire engineers due to lack of communication of the value of what they do. To improve their chances of closing a candidate, they created a process that would prime the candidate and have them familiarize with the company's narrative prior to the closing call. This process was broken down into steps and topics were tailored to the role and seniority of the candidate. As a result, the closing rate significantly improved.

Helping Product as an Engineering Leader

Engineering leaders often have to step in to help Product Managers when there is a gap in leadership or a PM is unfamiliar with a new area. This can involve pretending to be a PM for a while, evaluating the value of ideas, and providing cover for asking tough questions. It is important to create a safe environment for PMs and to make organizational changes if necessary.

Being a New Engineering Leader on a Team

When a company is doing well, it is rare to bring in a new engineering leader from the outside. This can be a difficult situation to navigate, as the new leader must build trust with the team and not be seen as taking a spot that was meant to be someone else's. The author shares the lessons they learned from two such experiences, such as being humble, rolling up their sleeves, not mentioning previous companies, and not being a ceiling to their team's growth.

Set Realistic Expectations with Upper Management

After taking over a team with well-defined OKRs, the manager realized there was a skill set gap between what the team was capable of and what upper management expected. After mapping out the team's competencies and expertise, the manager communicated the discrepancy to upper management and was able to get approval to hire new people to fill the gap. The manager learned that the needs of a growing startup can change quickly and that relying on past experience may not be the best approach.

How I Improved Test Automation

In order to move faster and release faster, the quality team had to improve test automation. To do this, the team reached out to a program manager to understand the release cycle, identified the main problem of relying on an offshore third-party testing company, and proposed a strategy of working with core service owners to have test coverage. After 6 months, the team was able to move from a monthly to a weekly release cycle. The team learned that it is possible to influence without authority, data points are as compelling as having a C-suite title, and starting small is key to success.

Why and How to Advocate for Your Employees

A manager is responsible for the growth of their team and must advocate for them. To build trust between the team and other managers, the author highlighted the most incredible people in their team and sent them to work on specific aspects of the project. They also implemented team meetings and 1:1s to create a common goal and minimize issues. In the end, the team was able to ace many projects and build trust with the American team. The author learned that trust and a clear vision are key to success, and setting goals for the team helps to create a powerful team dynamic.

Moving From a Team Member to Manager

A transitioning manager was worried about how their team would perceive them and if their team would drift away from them. To address this, they implemented 1:1 meetings to build relationships and trust, and scheduled weekly meetings to ensure everyone was on the same page. They also reached out to their manager for advice and mentorship. Through this, they learned to trust their team, handle individuals differently, and communicate openly.

Motivating the Team Spirit

When transitioning from an engineering role to a leadership role, it is important to have a significant change in attitude. Instead of providing solutions, ask questions and let the team come up with their own solutions. This will help them grow and build trust in the leader. Allow the team to discuss any issues they have without fear of judgement and create an environment where they can try new ideas. Focus on solutions rather than pointing fingers and make sure the team feels safe to tell the leader about any issues.

Dealing With Manager Who Is in a Different Country

This article discusses the challenges of managing up and understanding one's boss and team members. It describes how the author's team was able to make changes to their processes and introduce new ways of thinking in order to better motivate their team. The article also provides lessons learned, such as not assuming that the manager knows everything, not being scared to challenge the way things are being done, and being open to learning new technologies.

Product Change Management

A product manager working for a multinational electronics company found that the reality of the job was much different than expected. To better understand the user's behavior and the problems they faced, the PM used the 5 Why model to ask questions and figure out the root cause of the problem. Through this process, the PM learned that product management is not just about building features, but understanding the user's needs and solving existing problems.

A Guide to Announcing New Features Effectively

After joining a multinational electronics company, the author was responsible for increasing customer engagement for a new payments product. Through data analysis, the author identified an issue with the expense management system and proposed a solution using Google API. However, the team encountered issues with users not having their location switched on. To solve this, the author proposed using a technology called Triads which would send an SMS to the user based on tower location. After convincing 10 million users to give permission, the feature was launched in South Korea. The author learned to never make assumptions about data, teams, or end-users, and to be patient and empathetic when it comes to end-users.

The Move From Manager to Senior Manager

The author was tasked with developing a product from scratch and was successful in doing so. However, when they were promoted to a senior product manager role, they faced challenges such as time management, switching contexts, and leaving the product they had developed. To overcome these challenges, the author managed their time wisely, held thorough discussions with product people, and held weekly meetings with direct reports. Through this, they learned the importance of communication and increasing pressure taking capacity of team members.

Learn the Skills and Get the Job as a PM

This article tells the story of a BTech Mechanical Engineering graduate who pursued a career in product management. After working in the banking domain for two years, the author pursued higher studies and joined the retail industry to gain practical experience. They then joined a company as a consultant and business analyst before eventually becoming a product manager. The article provides lessons learned, such as the importance of focusing on the “why” part of the product, having a strong base of knowledge and experience, and being passionate about the journey.

Master Transition From Waterfall to Agile

A company transitioning from a waterfall model to an agile model faced challenges due to the change. The company took initiatives to ensure the change was organic and transparent, including training sessions for employees and prioritizing existing customers. Lessons learned included the importance of existing customers and creating a unique selling point to distinguish the company from competitors.

Organic Leadership: Becoming a Manager

This article discusses the concept of organic leadership, which is when a company hires engineers and helps them grow into managers. It outlines the steps taken by the author when they joined a new company and had to take on a team. These steps included establishing authority, addressing team pain points, and setting clear goals. It also discusses the lessons learned from this experience, such as not rushing to exercise power, taking responsibility even without a title, and the benefits of organic leadership.

Getting Ready for a Cold Start

This article describes the process of starting a team from scratch, including the steps taken to secure buy-in from key stakeholders, create a mission statement and technical vision, and hire the right people. It emphasizes the importance of socializing ideas, defining a technical strategy, and aligning with the organization from the start.

Managing Underperformance

This article discusses how managers can support team members who are suffering from mental health challenges, such as depression. It outlines the steps taken to support the team member, including acknowledging the issue with other team members, talking to the teammate without diagnosing, giving them time off, talking to HR, and setting up boundaries and expectations. Ultimately, the team member was let go after five months of chaos, but the experience taught the manager valuable lessons about transparency, red flags, and the need for professional help.

Introducing Modularity and Creating Componentization

Modularity and componentization is the holy grail of software development, but it is difficult to implement in practice. For the past two years, a team has been gradually pursuing modularization by separating front-end code, APIs, and backends into microservices. This has been done by breaking up big initiatives into specific projects, getting a leader and evangelists for each initiative, and asking for teams to pitch in. This has allowed for slower but incremental and gradual progress over time.

Putting a Stake in the Ground

It is difficult to secure buy-in from engineering leadership for a research-heavy team if they are not given concrete promises. To ensure support, it is important to make a list of concrete promises and develop a product-oriented roadmap of research-based deliveries. Taking a risk and making commitments is necessary to fuel the development process, even if it means encountering a lot of uncertainties.

From Innovation Lab to Innovative Engineering

This article discusses the problem of how to ensure that all members of an engineering team, not just a select few, are able to learn new skills and innovate. The author's solution was to collapse the R&D team into the core engineering team and introduce systems and ceremonies such as workshops, hackathons, and experimentation days. The lessons learned from this process are that having all core teams innovate ensures that all team members grow, domain knowledge is used to evolve existing products, and creativity should be encouraged throughout the organization.

Closing a Candidate: How a Customized Narrative Can Help

In a candidate-driven market, the company struggled to hire engineers due to lack of communication of the value of what they do. To improve their chances of closing a candidate, they created a process that would prime the candidate and have them familiarize with the company's narrative prior to the closing call. This process was broken down into steps and topics were tailored to the role and seniority of the candidate. As a result, the closing rate significantly improved.

Helping Product as an Engineering Leader

Engineering leaders often have to step in to help Product Managers when there is a gap in leadership or a PM is unfamiliar with a new area. This can involve pretending to be a PM for a while, evaluating the value of ideas, and providing cover for asking tough questions. It is important to create a safe environment for PMs and to make organizational changes if necessary.

Being a New Engineering Leader on a Team

When a company is doing well, it is rare to bring in a new engineering leader from the outside. This can be a difficult situation to navigate, as the new leader must build trust with the team and not be seen as taking a spot that was meant to be someone else's. The author shares the lessons they learned from two such experiences, such as being humble, rolling up their sleeves, not mentioning previous companies, and not being a ceiling to their team's growth.

Set Realistic Expectations with Upper Management

After taking over a team with well-defined OKRs, the manager realized there was a skill set gap between what the team was capable of and what upper management expected. After mapping out the team's competencies and expertise, the manager communicated the discrepancy to upper management and was able to get approval to hire new people to fill the gap. The manager learned that the needs of a growing startup can change quickly and that relying on past experience may not be the best approach.

How I Improved Test Automation

In order to move faster and release faster, the quality team had to improve test automation. To do this, the team reached out to a program manager to understand the release cycle, identified the main problem of relying on an offshore third-party testing company, and proposed a strategy of working with core service owners to have test coverage. After 6 months, the team was able to move from a monthly to a weekly release cycle. The team learned that it is possible to influence without authority, data points are as compelling as having a C-suite title, and starting small is key to success.

Why and How to Advocate for Your Employees

A manager is responsible for the growth of their team and must advocate for them. To build trust between the team and other managers, the author highlighted the most incredible people in their team and sent them to work on specific aspects of the project. They also implemented team meetings and 1:1s to create a common goal and minimize issues. In the end, the team was able to ace many projects and build trust with the American team. The author learned that trust and a clear vision are key to success, and setting goals for the team helps to create a powerful team dynamic.

Moving From a Team Member to Manager

A transitioning manager was worried about how their team would perceive them and if their team would drift away from them. To address this, they implemented 1:1 meetings to build relationships and trust, and scheduled weekly meetings to ensure everyone was on the same page. They also reached out to their manager for advice and mentorship. Through this, they learned to trust their team, handle individuals differently, and communicate openly.

Motivating the Team Spirit

When transitioning from an engineering role to a leadership role, it is important to have a significant change in attitude. Instead of providing solutions, ask questions and let the team come up with their own solutions. This will help them grow and build trust in the leader. Allow the team to discuss any issues they have without fear of judgement and create an environment where they can try new ideas. Focus on solutions rather than pointing fingers and make sure the team feels safe to tell the leader about any issues.

Dealing With Manager Who Is in a Different Country

This article discusses the challenges of managing up and understanding one's boss and team members. It describes how the author's team was able to make changes to their processes and introduce new ways of thinking in order to better motivate their team. The article also provides lessons learned, such as not assuming that the manager knows everything, not being scared to challenge the way things are being done, and being open to learning new technologies.

Product Change Management

A product manager working for a multinational electronics company found that the reality of the job was much different than expected. To better understand the user's behavior and the problems they faced, the PM used the 5 Why model to ask questions and figure out the root cause of the problem. Through this process, the PM learned that product management is not just about building features, but understanding the user's needs and solving existing problems.

A Guide to Announcing New Features Effectively

After joining a multinational electronics company, the author was responsible for increasing customer engagement for a new payments product. Through data analysis, the author identified an issue with the expense management system and proposed a solution using Google API. However, the team encountered issues with users not having their location switched on. To solve this, the author proposed using a technology called Triads which would send an SMS to the user based on tower location. After convincing 10 million users to give permission, the feature was launched in South Korea. The author learned to never make assumptions about data, teams, or end-users, and to be patient and empathetic when it comes to end-users.

The Move From Manager to Senior Manager

The author was tasked with developing a product from scratch and was successful in doing so. However, when they were promoted to a senior product manager role, they faced challenges such as time management, switching contexts, and leaving the product they had developed. To overcome these challenges, the author managed their time wisely, held thorough discussions with product people, and held weekly meetings with direct reports. Through this, they learned the importance of communication and increasing pressure taking capacity of team members.

Learn the Skills and Get the Job as a PM

This article tells the story of a BTech Mechanical Engineering graduate who pursued a career in product management. After working in the banking domain for two years, the author pursued higher studies and joined the retail industry to gain practical experience. They then joined a company as a consultant and business analyst before eventually becoming a product manager. The article provides lessons learned, such as the importance of focusing on the “why” part of the product, having a strong base of knowledge and experience, and being passionate about the journey.

Master Transition From Waterfall to Agile

A company transitioning from a waterfall model to an agile model faced challenges due to the change. The company took initiatives to ensure the change was organic and transparent, including training sessions for employees and prioritizing existing customers. Lessons learned included the importance of existing customers and creating a unique selling point to distinguish the company from competitors.

Organic Leadership: Becoming a Manager

This article discusses the concept of organic leadership, which is when a company hires engineers and helps them grow into managers. It outlines the steps taken by the author when they joined a new company and had to take on a team. These steps included establishing authority, addressing team pain points, and setting clear goals. It also discusses the lessons learned from this experience, such as not rushing to exercise power, taking responsibility even without a title, and the benefits of organic leadership.

Getting Ready for a Cold Start

This article describes the process of starting a team from scratch, including the steps taken to secure buy-in from key stakeholders, create a mission statement and technical vision, and hire the right people. It emphasizes the importance of socializing ideas, defining a technical strategy, and aligning with the organization from the start.

Managing Underperformance

This article discusses how managers can support team members who are suffering from mental health challenges, such as depression. It outlines the steps taken to support the team member, including acknowledging the issue with other team members, talking to the teammate without diagnosing, giving them time off, talking to HR, and setting up boundaries and expectations. Ultimately, the team member was let go after five months of chaos, but the experience taught the manager valuable lessons about transparency, red flags, and the need for professional help.

Introducing Modularity and Creating Componentization

Modularity and componentization is the holy grail of software development, but it is difficult to implement in practice. For the past two years, a team has been gradually pursuing modularization by separating front-end code, APIs, and backends into microservices. This has been done by breaking up big initiatives into specific projects, getting a leader and evangelists for each initiative, and asking for teams to pitch in. This has allowed for slower but incremental and gradual progress over time.

Putting a Stake in the Ground

It is difficult to secure buy-in from engineering leadership for a research-heavy team if they are not given concrete promises. To ensure support, it is important to make a list of concrete promises and develop a product-oriented roadmap of research-based deliveries. Taking a risk and making commitments is necessary to fuel the development process, even if it means encountering a lot of uncertainties.

From Innovation Lab to Innovative Engineering

This article discusses the problem of how to ensure that all members of an engineering team, not just a select few, are able to learn new skills and innovate. The author's solution was to collapse the R&D team into the core engineering team and introduce systems and ceremonies such as workshops, hackathons, and experimentation days. The lessons learned from this process are that having all core teams innovate ensures that all team members grow, domain knowledge is used to evolve existing products, and creativity should be encouraged throughout the organization.

Closing a Candidate: How a Customized Narrative Can Help

In a candidate-driven market, the company struggled to hire engineers due to lack of communication of the value of what they do. To improve their chances of closing a candidate, they created a process that would prime the candidate and have them familiarize with the company's narrative prior to the closing call. This process was broken down into steps and topics were tailored to the role and seniority of the candidate. As a result, the closing rate significantly improved.

Helping Product as an Engineering Leader

Engineering leaders often have to step in to help Product Managers when there is a gap in leadership or a PM is unfamiliar with a new area. This can involve pretending to be a PM for a while, evaluating the value of ideas, and providing cover for asking tough questions. It is important to create a safe environment for PMs and to make organizational changes if necessary.

Being a New Engineering Leader on a Team

When a company is doing well, it is rare to bring in a new engineering leader from the outside. This can be a difficult situation to navigate, as the new leader must build trust with the team and not be seen as taking a spot that was meant to be someone else's. The author shares the lessons they learned from two such experiences, such as being humble, rolling up their sleeves, not mentioning previous companies, and not being a ceiling to their team's growth.

Set Realistic Expectations with Upper Management

After taking over a team with well-defined OKRs, the manager realized there was a skill set gap between what the team was capable of and what upper management expected. After mapping out the team's competencies and expertise, the manager communicated the discrepancy to upper management and was able to get approval to hire new people to fill the gap. The manager learned that the needs of a growing startup can change quickly and that relying on past experience may not be the best approach.

How I Improved Test Automation

In order to move faster and release faster, the quality team had to improve test automation. To do this, the team reached out to a program manager to understand the release cycle, identified the main problem of relying on an offshore third-party testing company, and proposed a strategy of working with core service owners to have test coverage. After 6 months, the team was able to move from a monthly to a weekly release cycle. The team learned that it is possible to influence without authority, data points are as compelling as having a C-suite title, and starting small is key to success.

Why and How to Advocate for Your Employees

A manager is responsible for the growth of their team and must advocate for them. To build trust between the team and other managers, the author highlighted the most incredible people in their team and sent them to work on specific aspects of the project. They also implemented team meetings and 1:1s to create a common goal and minimize issues. In the end, the team was able to ace many projects and build trust with the American team. The author learned that trust and a clear vision are key to success, and setting goals for the team helps to create a powerful team dynamic.

Moving From a Team Member to Manager

A transitioning manager was worried about how their team would perceive them and if their team would drift away from them. To address this, they implemented 1:1 meetings to build relationships and trust, and scheduled weekly meetings to ensure everyone was on the same page. They also reached out to their manager for advice and mentorship. Through this, they learned to trust their team, handle individuals differently, and communicate openly.

Motivating the Team Spirit

When transitioning from an engineering role to a leadership role, it is important to have a significant change in attitude. Instead of providing solutions, ask questions and let the team come up with their own solutions. This will help them grow and build trust in the leader. Allow the team to discuss any issues they have without fear of judgement and create an environment where they can try new ideas. Focus on solutions rather than pointing fingers and make sure the team feels safe to tell the leader about any issues.

Dealing With Manager Who Is in a Different Country

This article discusses the challenges of managing up and understanding one's boss and team members. It describes how the author's team was able to make changes to their processes and introduce new ways of thinking in order to better motivate their team. The article also provides lessons learned, such as not assuming that the manager knows everything, not being scared to challenge the way things are being done, and being open to learning new technologies.

Product Change Management

A product manager working for a multinational electronics company found that the reality of the job was much different than expected. To better understand the user's behavior and the problems they faced, the PM used the 5 Why model to ask questions and figure out the root cause of the problem. Through this process, the PM learned that product management is not just about building features, but understanding the user's needs and solving existing problems.

A Guide to Announcing New Features Effectively

After joining a multinational electronics company, the author was responsible for increasing customer engagement for a new payments product. Through data analysis, the author identified an issue with the expense management system and proposed a solution using Google API. However, the team encountered issues with users not having their location switched on. To solve this, the author proposed using a technology called Triads which would send an SMS to the user based on tower location. After convincing 10 million users to give permission, the feature was launched in South Korea. The author learned to never make assumptions about data, teams, or end-users, and to be patient and empathetic when it comes to end-users.

The Move From Manager to Senior Manager

The author was tasked with developing a product from scratch and was successful in doing so. However, when they were promoted to a senior product manager role, they faced challenges such as time management, switching contexts, and leaving the product they had developed. To overcome these challenges, the author managed their time wisely, held thorough discussions with product people, and held weekly meetings with direct reports. Through this, they learned the importance of communication and increasing pressure taking capacity of team members.

Learn the Skills and Get the Job as a PM

This article tells the story of a BTech Mechanical Engineering graduate who pursued a career in product management. After working in the banking domain for two years, the author pursued higher studies and joined the retail industry to gain practical experience. They then joined a company as a consultant and business analyst before eventually becoming a product manager. The article provides lessons learned, such as the importance of focusing on the “why” part of the product, having a strong base of knowledge and experience, and being passionate about the journey.

Master Transition From Waterfall to Agile

A company transitioning from a waterfall model to an agile model faced challenges due to the change. The company took initiatives to ensure the change was organic and transparent, including training sessions for employees and prioritizing existing customers. Lessons learned included the importance of existing customers and creating a unique selling point to distinguish the company from competitors.

Organic Leadership: Becoming a Manager

This article discusses the concept of organic leadership, which is when a company hires engineers and helps them grow into managers. It outlines the steps taken by the author when they joined a new company and had to take on a team. These steps included establishing authority, addressing team pain points, and setting clear goals. It also discusses the lessons learned from this experience, such as not rushing to exercise power, taking responsibility even without a title, and the benefits of organic leadership.

Getting Ready for a Cold Start

This article describes the process of starting a team from scratch, including the steps taken to secure buy-in from key stakeholders, create a mission statement and technical vision, and hire the right people. It emphasizes the importance of socializing ideas, defining a technical strategy, and aligning with the organization from the start.

Managing Underperformance

This article discusses how managers can support team members who are suffering from mental health challenges, such as depression. It outlines the steps taken to support the team member, including acknowledging the issue with other team members, talking to the teammate without diagnosing, giving them time off, talking to HR, and setting up boundaries and expectations. Ultimately, the team member was let go after five months of chaos, but the experience taught the manager valuable lessons about transparency, red flags, and the need for professional help.

Introducing Modularity and Creating Componentization

Modularity and componentization is the holy grail of software development, but it is difficult to implement in practice. For the past two years, a team has been gradually pursuing modularization by separating front-end code, APIs, and backends into microservices. This has been done by breaking up big initiatives into specific projects, getting a leader and evangelists for each initiative, and asking for teams to pitch in. This has allowed for slower but incremental and gradual progress over time.

Putting a Stake in the Ground

It is difficult to secure buy-in from engineering leadership for a research-heavy team if they are not given concrete promises. To ensure support, it is important to make a list of concrete promises and develop a product-oriented roadmap of research-based deliveries. Taking a risk and making commitments is necessary to fuel the development process, even if it means encountering a lot of uncertainties.

From Innovation Lab to Innovative Engineering

This article discusses the problem of how to ensure that all members of an engineering team, not just a select few, are able to learn new skills and innovate. The author's solution was to collapse the R&D team into the core engineering team and introduce systems and ceremonies such as workshops, hackathons, and experimentation days. The lessons learned from this process are that having all core teams innovate ensures that all team members grow, domain knowledge is used to evolve existing products, and creativity should be encouraged throughout the organization.

Closing a Candidate: How a Customized Narrative Can Help

In a candidate-driven market, the company struggled to hire engineers due to lack of communication of the value of what they do. To improve their chances of closing a candidate, they created a process that would prime the candidate and have them familiarize with the company's narrative prior to the closing call. This process was broken down into steps and topics were tailored to the role and seniority of the candidate. As a result, the closing rate significantly improved.

Helping Product as an Engineering Leader

Engineering leaders often have to step in to help Product Managers when there is a gap in leadership or a PM is unfamiliar with a new area. This can involve pretending to be a PM for a while, evaluating the value of ideas, and providing cover for asking tough questions. It is important to create a safe environment for PMs and to make organizational changes if necessary.

Being a New Engineering Leader on a Team

When a company is doing well, it is rare to bring in a new engineering leader from the outside. This can be a difficult situation to navigate, as the new leader must build trust with the team and not be seen as taking a spot that was meant to be someone else's. The author shares the lessons they learned from two such experiences, such as being humble, rolling up their sleeves, not mentioning previous companies, and not being a ceiling to their team's growth.

Set Realistic Expectations with Upper Management

After taking over a team with well-defined OKRs, the manager realized there was a skill set gap between what the team was capable of and what upper management expected. After mapping out the team's competencies and expertise, the manager communicated the discrepancy to upper management and was able to get approval to hire new people to fill the gap. The manager learned that the needs of a growing startup can change quickly and that relying on past experience may not be the best approach.

How I Improved Test Automation

In order to move faster and release faster, the quality team had to improve test automation. To do this, the team reached out to a program manager to understand the release cycle, identified the main problem of relying on an offshore third-party testing company, and proposed a strategy of working with core service owners to have test coverage. After 6 months, the team was able to move from a monthly to a weekly release cycle. The team learned that it is possible to influence without authority, data points are as compelling as having a C-suite title, and starting small is key to success.

Why and How to Advocate for Your Employees

A manager is responsible for the growth of their team and must advocate for them. To build trust between the team and other managers, the author highlighted the most incredible people in their team and sent them to work on specific aspects of the project. They also implemented team meetings and 1:1s to create a common goal and minimize issues. In the end, the team was able to ace many projects and build trust with the American team. The author learned that trust and a clear vision are key to success, and setting goals for the team helps to create a powerful team dynamic.

Moving From a Team Member to Manager

A transitioning manager was worried about how their team would perceive them and if their team would drift away from them. To address this, they implemented 1:1 meetings to build relationships and trust, and scheduled weekly meetings to ensure everyone was on the same page. They also reached out to their manager for advice and mentorship. Through this, they learned to trust their team, handle individuals differently, and communicate openly.

Motivating the Team Spirit

When transitioning from an engineering role to a leadership role, it is important to have a significant change in attitude. Instead of providing solutions, ask questions and let the team come up with their own solutions. This will help them grow and build trust in the leader. Allow the team to discuss any issues they have without fear of judgement and create an environment where they can try new ideas. Focus on solutions rather than pointing fingers and make sure the team feels safe to tell the leader about any issues.

Dealing With Manager Who Is in a Different Country

This article discusses the challenges of managing up and understanding one's boss and team members. It describes how the author's team was able to make changes to their processes and introduce new ways of thinking in order to better motivate their team. The article also provides lessons learned, such as not assuming that the manager knows everything, not being scared to challenge the way things are being done, and being open to learning new technologies.