Knowledge shared by our community

Resiliency — the Ability to Bounce Back

This article discusses the challenges faced by a leader in a team-based environment. The leader was eager to prove themselves, but neglected relationship-building and instead focused on career and project management. This caused the team to feel neglected, and when a tight deadline was missed due to a forgotten feature, the team blamed the leader. The leader took responsibility and apologized, and then created a roadmap and delegated tasks to improve the situation. The leader learned to prioritize important tasks, build relationships, and never make the team feel neglected.

Essential Tips for Meeting a Deadline

When the author joined a new company and was given a brownfield project, they quickly realized they were going to miss the deadline and not meet the client's expectations. The author took action by notifying the leadership and the client, and worked with the team to prioritize what was finished. They also brought in additional personnel and reduced the scope to meet the deadline. In the end, the client was impressed with the team's dedication and the project was successful. The author learned lessons about project management, reaching out for help, and never giving up.

What to Do When Joining a Non-Structured Team

When joining a team in an outsourcing company, the engineering manager found that there was a lack of consistent workflow and structure. To address this, the manager proposed an agile approach to the team and the client, which would involve working in two-week increments rather than quarterly. This allowed for more transparency and consistency in the team's workflow, and ultimately resulted in a successful switch from waterfall to agile.

Managing Two Teams With Different Needs

This article discusses the challenges of managing two teams led by junior-level product managers. The author outlines the steps taken to build up and manage the teams, including assessing pros and cons, focusing on building the teams, and hiring for the team. The author also shares lessons learned, such as the importance of building trust and collaboration, and the need to utilize all channels of communication.

Delivering the Best Solution Starts with Listening to Users

The United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) was tasked with creating a platform and accompanying processes to enable disparate teams to build together under a single design and development ecosystem. My role was to create documentation and support processes that would allow those development teams to work together. Through interviews with developers, designers, and product owners, we compiled data, design, and product documentation to guide teams through the product life cycle. Ultimately, the new platform was providing value for veterans who could now manage their benefits under one login and with all of their applications and statuses in one place. Lessons learned included understanding who the users are, conducting research early on, and being an advocate of the users.

Crossing the Chasm Between Value and ROI

In the early days of his career, the author identified an opportunity to create brief previews of videos to inform and entice users. He started to build a web app to pull videos and create previews, but he had a hard time transitioning from building something that would offer users value while ensuring ROI. He eventually gave up due to legal and compliance issues, but the experience was life-changing and helped him identify the role he wanted to play in building tech products. It also led him to become a senior product manager at the Washington Post.

Moving From Cowboy to Agile Delivery

This article discusses the problems encountered when joining a team, such as lack of career development plans, an outdated organizational structure, and no metrics for team success or team health. The author then outlines the actions taken to address these issues, such as introducing Agile, allocating time to understand career goals, reorganizing the team structure, introducing metrics, and introducing a team engagement platform. Finally, the author provides lessons learned, such as the importance of career development, embracing the growth mindset, encouraging rather than imposing, and understanding the impact of metrics.

Aligning Towards Product Discovery

When joining a new organisation, the author faced many challenges, such as working with a complex microservices architecture and OKRs. The biggest challenge was taking ownership of the delivery backlog for a team working with product discovery. To overcome these challenges, the author read "The First 90 Days" by Michael Watkins and took several actions, such as building knowledge around the product, understanding and shaping the technical landscape, visualising everything that matters, adopting and promoting OKRs, and reviewing the ways of working. The author learned how to align engineering processes within an organisation that shifts towards product discovery and the importance of agreeing to build something that might be thrown away.

Don’t Promote Best Engineers to Managers

This article discusses the challenges faced by a company when it comes to product quality and regressions. It explains how the company overcame these challenges by hiring people from outside and encouraging existing engineers to become product architects instead of managers and directors. The article also highlights the importance of giving more advantage to the technical teams and motivating them to be more involved in the technical side.

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

This case study outlines the challenges faced by a product owner in managing a product, and the actions taken to address them. The team hired product managers and UX designers, and the CEO took on some product responsibilities. The product was re-invented from the user's perspective, and engineering aspects were brought in. The team learned that they should have gotten periodic feedback from a more extensive team, and that they should have evaluated UI engineers in the process. They also learned to articulate ideas from different teams' perspectives and to balance between writing and not writing ideas and notes.

How to Prioritize Engineering Work When Everything Is Important

This article discusses the challenge of prioritizing work for managers, especially when dealing with an influx of strategic initiatives. It outlines the steps taken by the author to create a request funnel and a weighted matrix for prioritization, which helped the team to better understand the importance of each task and prioritize accordingly. The article also provides lessons learned, such as the need for appropriate tooling to manage requests, the importance of understanding the problem that the business needs to solve, and the need to assign at least one product owner persona to manage each product backlog.

Developing a Strategic Plan

In order to ensure teams are aligned in their work and strategic goals, a director designed a workshop to help teams define their values, purpose, mission statement, and Vision goals. Teams then devised strategies to achieve their goals, and the director trusted them to find the best path. The workshops were successful, as teams felt valued and empowered, and the director was reassured that they were aligned.

Prioritizing the Well-Being of Your Team

This article discusses the mental health issues that many people in the industry have faced due to the uncertainty of the last 18 months. Companies should be aware of these issues and take action to help employees find balance in their work and personal lives. The author's company responded by giving employees a wellness day each month, holding virtual meditation sessions, and providing accommodation for extenuating medical circumstances. The message was that their health matters more than the bottom line and employees should prioritize themselves and be proactive in communicating any issues.

Hiring Externally vs. Promoting Internally

When deciding whether to promote internally or hire from outside of the company, managers must consider the needs of the business, the time and resources needed to train a new employee, and the potential rewards of taking a risk on an internal promotion. It is important to look within the organization first, but if the need for expertise is dire, outside talent may be necessary. Ultimately, the decision should be based on the future consequences of the decision.

Dealing With Two Different Extremes

A team of 7 people had two juniors with opposite personalities: one was a technical athlete with poor soft skills, and the other was a pro with soft skills but not technical. Conflict arose between them, and the manager had to take responsibility for the objectives of the team. He separated them into different projects and worked with the underperformer to improve their skills. Through weekly meetings, trust was established, and the team eventually performed above and beyond. The manager learned that everyone in a team is a gem with different skills, expectations and values, and that motivation and reformulation are key to success.

Finding Unity Through a Common Mission

This article discusses the importance of having a mission-oriented company culture in the healthcare technology industry. It explains how the pandemic has made telehealth products more accessible and how the mission of the company is to improve the user experience of millions of people. It also emphasizes the importance of having a global scope and the need to achieve economic stability before being able to serve. Finally, it highlights the exciting opportunities for engineers to make a positive impact on the world during this time of transition to virtual solutions.

Building Teams Remotely

When transitioning to a remote team, it is important to establish a culture of trust and visibility. This can be done through video conferencing, setting boundaries, and recognizing accomplishments. Tools such as Jira and Clockwise can help manage asynchronous tasks and communication. Additionally, team celebrations should be encouraged to bring people together virtually.

Plotting Out a Career Map for Your Employees

When starting a business, it is important to consider how to scale the team effectively and keep it balanced. This includes investing in the team's career paths, setting clear expectations for each role, and providing mentorship opportunities. It is also important to provide a career map that outlines the path from junior to senior roles, and to provide a gateway role for employees to test out different positions. Finally, it is important to have leadership that can guide employees and show them that these higher goals are achievable.

The IC vs. Managerial Mindset

When transitioning from an individual contributor to a manager, it is important to balance the tendency to micromanage while still maintaining a channel of communication between the two roles. To build trust, managers should communicate the business value of the work to their team in terms they can understand. Additionally, managers should set clear goals and objectives, and communicate the "why" behind them. Doing so will help the team understand the business value of their work and provide an effective "how" to solve the problem.

The Importance of One-on-Ones

Regular one-on-one meetings with employees can help to identify and address potential problems before they become insurmountable. When conducting these meetings, it is important to focus on career development and personal feelings rather than technical matters. Additionally, providing a competency framework and opportunities for employees to explore and experiment can help to create a productive and happy team.

Resiliency — the Ability to Bounce Back

This article discusses the challenges faced by a leader in a team-based environment. The leader was eager to prove themselves, but neglected relationship-building and instead focused on career and project management. This caused the team to feel neglected, and when a tight deadline was missed due to a forgotten feature, the team blamed the leader. The leader took responsibility and apologized, and then created a roadmap and delegated tasks to improve the situation. The leader learned to prioritize important tasks, build relationships, and never make the team feel neglected.

Essential Tips for Meeting a Deadline

When the author joined a new company and was given a brownfield project, they quickly realized they were going to miss the deadline and not meet the client's expectations. The author took action by notifying the leadership and the client, and worked with the team to prioritize what was finished. They also brought in additional personnel and reduced the scope to meet the deadline. In the end, the client was impressed with the team's dedication and the project was successful. The author learned lessons about project management, reaching out for help, and never giving up.

What to Do When Joining a Non-Structured Team

When joining a team in an outsourcing company, the engineering manager found that there was a lack of consistent workflow and structure. To address this, the manager proposed an agile approach to the team and the client, which would involve working in two-week increments rather than quarterly. This allowed for more transparency and consistency in the team's workflow, and ultimately resulted in a successful switch from waterfall to agile.

Managing Two Teams With Different Needs

This article discusses the challenges of managing two teams led by junior-level product managers. The author outlines the steps taken to build up and manage the teams, including assessing pros and cons, focusing on building the teams, and hiring for the team. The author also shares lessons learned, such as the importance of building trust and collaboration, and the need to utilize all channels of communication.

Delivering the Best Solution Starts with Listening to Users

The United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) was tasked with creating a platform and accompanying processes to enable disparate teams to build together under a single design and development ecosystem. My role was to create documentation and support processes that would allow those development teams to work together. Through interviews with developers, designers, and product owners, we compiled data, design, and product documentation to guide teams through the product life cycle. Ultimately, the new platform was providing value for veterans who could now manage their benefits under one login and with all of their applications and statuses in one place. Lessons learned included understanding who the users are, conducting research early on, and being an advocate of the users.

Crossing the Chasm Between Value and ROI

In the early days of his career, the author identified an opportunity to create brief previews of videos to inform and entice users. He started to build a web app to pull videos and create previews, but he had a hard time transitioning from building something that would offer users value while ensuring ROI. He eventually gave up due to legal and compliance issues, but the experience was life-changing and helped him identify the role he wanted to play in building tech products. It also led him to become a senior product manager at the Washington Post.

Moving From Cowboy to Agile Delivery

This article discusses the problems encountered when joining a team, such as lack of career development plans, an outdated organizational structure, and no metrics for team success or team health. The author then outlines the actions taken to address these issues, such as introducing Agile, allocating time to understand career goals, reorganizing the team structure, introducing metrics, and introducing a team engagement platform. Finally, the author provides lessons learned, such as the importance of career development, embracing the growth mindset, encouraging rather than imposing, and understanding the impact of metrics.

Aligning Towards Product Discovery

When joining a new organisation, the author faced many challenges, such as working with a complex microservices architecture and OKRs. The biggest challenge was taking ownership of the delivery backlog for a team working with product discovery. To overcome these challenges, the author read "The First 90 Days" by Michael Watkins and took several actions, such as building knowledge around the product, understanding and shaping the technical landscape, visualising everything that matters, adopting and promoting OKRs, and reviewing the ways of working. The author learned how to align engineering processes within an organisation that shifts towards product discovery and the importance of agreeing to build something that might be thrown away.

Don’t Promote Best Engineers to Managers

This article discusses the challenges faced by a company when it comes to product quality and regressions. It explains how the company overcame these challenges by hiring people from outside and encouraging existing engineers to become product architects instead of managers and directors. The article also highlights the importance of giving more advantage to the technical teams and motivating them to be more involved in the technical side.

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

This case study outlines the challenges faced by a product owner in managing a product, and the actions taken to address them. The team hired product managers and UX designers, and the CEO took on some product responsibilities. The product was re-invented from the user's perspective, and engineering aspects were brought in. The team learned that they should have gotten periodic feedback from a more extensive team, and that they should have evaluated UI engineers in the process. They also learned to articulate ideas from different teams' perspectives and to balance between writing and not writing ideas and notes.

How to Prioritize Engineering Work When Everything Is Important

This article discusses the challenge of prioritizing work for managers, especially when dealing with an influx of strategic initiatives. It outlines the steps taken by the author to create a request funnel and a weighted matrix for prioritization, which helped the team to better understand the importance of each task and prioritize accordingly. The article also provides lessons learned, such as the need for appropriate tooling to manage requests, the importance of understanding the problem that the business needs to solve, and the need to assign at least one product owner persona to manage each product backlog.

Developing a Strategic Plan

In order to ensure teams are aligned in their work and strategic goals, a director designed a workshop to help teams define their values, purpose, mission statement, and Vision goals. Teams then devised strategies to achieve their goals, and the director trusted them to find the best path. The workshops were successful, as teams felt valued and empowered, and the director was reassured that they were aligned.

Prioritizing the Well-Being of Your Team

This article discusses the mental health issues that many people in the industry have faced due to the uncertainty of the last 18 months. Companies should be aware of these issues and take action to help employees find balance in their work and personal lives. The author's company responded by giving employees a wellness day each month, holding virtual meditation sessions, and providing accommodation for extenuating medical circumstances. The message was that their health matters more than the bottom line and employees should prioritize themselves and be proactive in communicating any issues.

Hiring Externally vs. Promoting Internally

When deciding whether to promote internally or hire from outside of the company, managers must consider the needs of the business, the time and resources needed to train a new employee, and the potential rewards of taking a risk on an internal promotion. It is important to look within the organization first, but if the need for expertise is dire, outside talent may be necessary. Ultimately, the decision should be based on the future consequences of the decision.

Dealing With Two Different Extremes

A team of 7 people had two juniors with opposite personalities: one was a technical athlete with poor soft skills, and the other was a pro with soft skills but not technical. Conflict arose between them, and the manager had to take responsibility for the objectives of the team. He separated them into different projects and worked with the underperformer to improve their skills. Through weekly meetings, trust was established, and the team eventually performed above and beyond. The manager learned that everyone in a team is a gem with different skills, expectations and values, and that motivation and reformulation are key to success.

Finding Unity Through a Common Mission

This article discusses the importance of having a mission-oriented company culture in the healthcare technology industry. It explains how the pandemic has made telehealth products more accessible and how the mission of the company is to improve the user experience of millions of people. It also emphasizes the importance of having a global scope and the need to achieve economic stability before being able to serve. Finally, it highlights the exciting opportunities for engineers to make a positive impact on the world during this time of transition to virtual solutions.

Building Teams Remotely

When transitioning to a remote team, it is important to establish a culture of trust and visibility. This can be done through video conferencing, setting boundaries, and recognizing accomplishments. Tools such as Jira and Clockwise can help manage asynchronous tasks and communication. Additionally, team celebrations should be encouraged to bring people together virtually.

Plotting Out a Career Map for Your Employees

When starting a business, it is important to consider how to scale the team effectively and keep it balanced. This includes investing in the team's career paths, setting clear expectations for each role, and providing mentorship opportunities. It is also important to provide a career map that outlines the path from junior to senior roles, and to provide a gateway role for employees to test out different positions. Finally, it is important to have leadership that can guide employees and show them that these higher goals are achievable.

The IC vs. Managerial Mindset

When transitioning from an individual contributor to a manager, it is important to balance the tendency to micromanage while still maintaining a channel of communication between the two roles. To build trust, managers should communicate the business value of the work to their team in terms they can understand. Additionally, managers should set clear goals and objectives, and communicate the "why" behind them. Doing so will help the team understand the business value of their work and provide an effective "how" to solve the problem.

The Importance of One-on-Ones

Regular one-on-one meetings with employees can help to identify and address potential problems before they become insurmountable. When conducting these meetings, it is important to focus on career development and personal feelings rather than technical matters. Additionally, providing a competency framework and opportunities for employees to explore and experiment can help to create a productive and happy team.

Resiliency — the Ability to Bounce Back

This article discusses the challenges faced by a leader in a team-based environment. The leader was eager to prove themselves, but neglected relationship-building and instead focused on career and project management. This caused the team to feel neglected, and when a tight deadline was missed due to a forgotten feature, the team blamed the leader. The leader took responsibility and apologized, and then created a roadmap and delegated tasks to improve the situation. The leader learned to prioritize important tasks, build relationships, and never make the team feel neglected.

Essential Tips for Meeting a Deadline

When the author joined a new company and was given a brownfield project, they quickly realized they were going to miss the deadline and not meet the client's expectations. The author took action by notifying the leadership and the client, and worked with the team to prioritize what was finished. They also brought in additional personnel and reduced the scope to meet the deadline. In the end, the client was impressed with the team's dedication and the project was successful. The author learned lessons about project management, reaching out for help, and never giving up.

What to Do When Joining a Non-Structured Team

When joining a team in an outsourcing company, the engineering manager found that there was a lack of consistent workflow and structure. To address this, the manager proposed an agile approach to the team and the client, which would involve working in two-week increments rather than quarterly. This allowed for more transparency and consistency in the team's workflow, and ultimately resulted in a successful switch from waterfall to agile.

Managing Two Teams With Different Needs

This article discusses the challenges of managing two teams led by junior-level product managers. The author outlines the steps taken to build up and manage the teams, including assessing pros and cons, focusing on building the teams, and hiring for the team. The author also shares lessons learned, such as the importance of building trust and collaboration, and the need to utilize all channels of communication.

Delivering the Best Solution Starts with Listening to Users

The United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) was tasked with creating a platform and accompanying processes to enable disparate teams to build together under a single design and development ecosystem. My role was to create documentation and support processes that would allow those development teams to work together. Through interviews with developers, designers, and product owners, we compiled data, design, and product documentation to guide teams through the product life cycle. Ultimately, the new platform was providing value for veterans who could now manage their benefits under one login and with all of their applications and statuses in one place. Lessons learned included understanding who the users are, conducting research early on, and being an advocate of the users.

Crossing the Chasm Between Value and ROI

In the early days of his career, the author identified an opportunity to create brief previews of videos to inform and entice users. He started to build a web app to pull videos and create previews, but he had a hard time transitioning from building something that would offer users value while ensuring ROI. He eventually gave up due to legal and compliance issues, but the experience was life-changing and helped him identify the role he wanted to play in building tech products. It also led him to become a senior product manager at the Washington Post.

Moving From Cowboy to Agile Delivery

This article discusses the problems encountered when joining a team, such as lack of career development plans, an outdated organizational structure, and no metrics for team success or team health. The author then outlines the actions taken to address these issues, such as introducing Agile, allocating time to understand career goals, reorganizing the team structure, introducing metrics, and introducing a team engagement platform. Finally, the author provides lessons learned, such as the importance of career development, embracing the growth mindset, encouraging rather than imposing, and understanding the impact of metrics.

Aligning Towards Product Discovery

When joining a new organisation, the author faced many challenges, such as working with a complex microservices architecture and OKRs. The biggest challenge was taking ownership of the delivery backlog for a team working with product discovery. To overcome these challenges, the author read "The First 90 Days" by Michael Watkins and took several actions, such as building knowledge around the product, understanding and shaping the technical landscape, visualising everything that matters, adopting and promoting OKRs, and reviewing the ways of working. The author learned how to align engineering processes within an organisation that shifts towards product discovery and the importance of agreeing to build something that might be thrown away.

Don’t Promote Best Engineers to Managers

This article discusses the challenges faced by a company when it comes to product quality and regressions. It explains how the company overcame these challenges by hiring people from outside and encouraging existing engineers to become product architects instead of managers and directors. The article also highlights the importance of giving more advantage to the technical teams and motivating them to be more involved in the technical side.

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

This case study outlines the challenges faced by a product owner in managing a product, and the actions taken to address them. The team hired product managers and UX designers, and the CEO took on some product responsibilities. The product was re-invented from the user's perspective, and engineering aspects were brought in. The team learned that they should have gotten periodic feedback from a more extensive team, and that they should have evaluated UI engineers in the process. They also learned to articulate ideas from different teams' perspectives and to balance between writing and not writing ideas and notes.

How to Prioritize Engineering Work When Everything Is Important

This article discusses the challenge of prioritizing work for managers, especially when dealing with an influx of strategic initiatives. It outlines the steps taken by the author to create a request funnel and a weighted matrix for prioritization, which helped the team to better understand the importance of each task and prioritize accordingly. The article also provides lessons learned, such as the need for appropriate tooling to manage requests, the importance of understanding the problem that the business needs to solve, and the need to assign at least one product owner persona to manage each product backlog.

Developing a Strategic Plan

In order to ensure teams are aligned in their work and strategic goals, a director designed a workshop to help teams define their values, purpose, mission statement, and Vision goals. Teams then devised strategies to achieve their goals, and the director trusted them to find the best path. The workshops were successful, as teams felt valued and empowered, and the director was reassured that they were aligned.

Prioritizing the Well-Being of Your Team

This article discusses the mental health issues that many people in the industry have faced due to the uncertainty of the last 18 months. Companies should be aware of these issues and take action to help employees find balance in their work and personal lives. The author's company responded by giving employees a wellness day each month, holding virtual meditation sessions, and providing accommodation for extenuating medical circumstances. The message was that their health matters more than the bottom line and employees should prioritize themselves and be proactive in communicating any issues.

Hiring Externally vs. Promoting Internally

When deciding whether to promote internally or hire from outside of the company, managers must consider the needs of the business, the time and resources needed to train a new employee, and the potential rewards of taking a risk on an internal promotion. It is important to look within the organization first, but if the need for expertise is dire, outside talent may be necessary. Ultimately, the decision should be based on the future consequences of the decision.

Dealing With Two Different Extremes

A team of 7 people had two juniors with opposite personalities: one was a technical athlete with poor soft skills, and the other was a pro with soft skills but not technical. Conflict arose between them, and the manager had to take responsibility for the objectives of the team. He separated them into different projects and worked with the underperformer to improve their skills. Through weekly meetings, trust was established, and the team eventually performed above and beyond. The manager learned that everyone in a team is a gem with different skills, expectations and values, and that motivation and reformulation are key to success.

Finding Unity Through a Common Mission

This article discusses the importance of having a mission-oriented company culture in the healthcare technology industry. It explains how the pandemic has made telehealth products more accessible and how the mission of the company is to improve the user experience of millions of people. It also emphasizes the importance of having a global scope and the need to achieve economic stability before being able to serve. Finally, it highlights the exciting opportunities for engineers to make a positive impact on the world during this time of transition to virtual solutions.

Building Teams Remotely

When transitioning to a remote team, it is important to establish a culture of trust and visibility. This can be done through video conferencing, setting boundaries, and recognizing accomplishments. Tools such as Jira and Clockwise can help manage asynchronous tasks and communication. Additionally, team celebrations should be encouraged to bring people together virtually.

Plotting Out a Career Map for Your Employees

When starting a business, it is important to consider how to scale the team effectively and keep it balanced. This includes investing in the team's career paths, setting clear expectations for each role, and providing mentorship opportunities. It is also important to provide a career map that outlines the path from junior to senior roles, and to provide a gateway role for employees to test out different positions. Finally, it is important to have leadership that can guide employees and show them that these higher goals are achievable.

The IC vs. Managerial Mindset

When transitioning from an individual contributor to a manager, it is important to balance the tendency to micromanage while still maintaining a channel of communication between the two roles. To build trust, managers should communicate the business value of the work to their team in terms they can understand. Additionally, managers should set clear goals and objectives, and communicate the "why" behind them. Doing so will help the team understand the business value of their work and provide an effective "how" to solve the problem.

The Importance of One-on-Ones

Regular one-on-one meetings with employees can help to identify and address potential problems before they become insurmountable. When conducting these meetings, it is important to focus on career development and personal feelings rather than technical matters. Additionally, providing a competency framework and opportunities for employees to explore and experiment can help to create a productive and happy team.

Resiliency — the Ability to Bounce Back

This article discusses the challenges faced by a leader in a team-based environment. The leader was eager to prove themselves, but neglected relationship-building and instead focused on career and project management. This caused the team to feel neglected, and when a tight deadline was missed due to a forgotten feature, the team blamed the leader. The leader took responsibility and apologized, and then created a roadmap and delegated tasks to improve the situation. The leader learned to prioritize important tasks, build relationships, and never make the team feel neglected.

Essential Tips for Meeting a Deadline

When the author joined a new company and was given a brownfield project, they quickly realized they were going to miss the deadline and not meet the client's expectations. The author took action by notifying the leadership and the client, and worked with the team to prioritize what was finished. They also brought in additional personnel and reduced the scope to meet the deadline. In the end, the client was impressed with the team's dedication and the project was successful. The author learned lessons about project management, reaching out for help, and never giving up.

What to Do When Joining a Non-Structured Team

When joining a team in an outsourcing company, the engineering manager found that there was a lack of consistent workflow and structure. To address this, the manager proposed an agile approach to the team and the client, which would involve working in two-week increments rather than quarterly. This allowed for more transparency and consistency in the team's workflow, and ultimately resulted in a successful switch from waterfall to agile.

Managing Two Teams With Different Needs

This article discusses the challenges of managing two teams led by junior-level product managers. The author outlines the steps taken to build up and manage the teams, including assessing pros and cons, focusing on building the teams, and hiring for the team. The author also shares lessons learned, such as the importance of building trust and collaboration, and the need to utilize all channels of communication.

Delivering the Best Solution Starts with Listening to Users

The United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) was tasked with creating a platform and accompanying processes to enable disparate teams to build together under a single design and development ecosystem. My role was to create documentation and support processes that would allow those development teams to work together. Through interviews with developers, designers, and product owners, we compiled data, design, and product documentation to guide teams through the product life cycle. Ultimately, the new platform was providing value for veterans who could now manage their benefits under one login and with all of their applications and statuses in one place. Lessons learned included understanding who the users are, conducting research early on, and being an advocate of the users.

Crossing the Chasm Between Value and ROI

In the early days of his career, the author identified an opportunity to create brief previews of videos to inform and entice users. He started to build a web app to pull videos and create previews, but he had a hard time transitioning from building something that would offer users value while ensuring ROI. He eventually gave up due to legal and compliance issues, but the experience was life-changing and helped him identify the role he wanted to play in building tech products. It also led him to become a senior product manager at the Washington Post.

Moving From Cowboy to Agile Delivery

This article discusses the problems encountered when joining a team, such as lack of career development plans, an outdated organizational structure, and no metrics for team success or team health. The author then outlines the actions taken to address these issues, such as introducing Agile, allocating time to understand career goals, reorganizing the team structure, introducing metrics, and introducing a team engagement platform. Finally, the author provides lessons learned, such as the importance of career development, embracing the growth mindset, encouraging rather than imposing, and understanding the impact of metrics.

Aligning Towards Product Discovery

When joining a new organisation, the author faced many challenges, such as working with a complex microservices architecture and OKRs. The biggest challenge was taking ownership of the delivery backlog for a team working with product discovery. To overcome these challenges, the author read "The First 90 Days" by Michael Watkins and took several actions, such as building knowledge around the product, understanding and shaping the technical landscape, visualising everything that matters, adopting and promoting OKRs, and reviewing the ways of working. The author learned how to align engineering processes within an organisation that shifts towards product discovery and the importance of agreeing to build something that might be thrown away.

Don’t Promote Best Engineers to Managers

This article discusses the challenges faced by a company when it comes to product quality and regressions. It explains how the company overcame these challenges by hiring people from outside and encouraging existing engineers to become product architects instead of managers and directors. The article also highlights the importance of giving more advantage to the technical teams and motivating them to be more involved in the technical side.

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

This case study outlines the challenges faced by a product owner in managing a product, and the actions taken to address them. The team hired product managers and UX designers, and the CEO took on some product responsibilities. The product was re-invented from the user's perspective, and engineering aspects were brought in. The team learned that they should have gotten periodic feedback from a more extensive team, and that they should have evaluated UI engineers in the process. They also learned to articulate ideas from different teams' perspectives and to balance between writing and not writing ideas and notes.

How to Prioritize Engineering Work When Everything Is Important

This article discusses the challenge of prioritizing work for managers, especially when dealing with an influx of strategic initiatives. It outlines the steps taken by the author to create a request funnel and a weighted matrix for prioritization, which helped the team to better understand the importance of each task and prioritize accordingly. The article also provides lessons learned, such as the need for appropriate tooling to manage requests, the importance of understanding the problem that the business needs to solve, and the need to assign at least one product owner persona to manage each product backlog.

Developing a Strategic Plan

In order to ensure teams are aligned in their work and strategic goals, a director designed a workshop to help teams define their values, purpose, mission statement, and Vision goals. Teams then devised strategies to achieve their goals, and the director trusted them to find the best path. The workshops were successful, as teams felt valued and empowered, and the director was reassured that they were aligned.

Prioritizing the Well-Being of Your Team

This article discusses the mental health issues that many people in the industry have faced due to the uncertainty of the last 18 months. Companies should be aware of these issues and take action to help employees find balance in their work and personal lives. The author's company responded by giving employees a wellness day each month, holding virtual meditation sessions, and providing accommodation for extenuating medical circumstances. The message was that their health matters more than the bottom line and employees should prioritize themselves and be proactive in communicating any issues.

Hiring Externally vs. Promoting Internally

When deciding whether to promote internally or hire from outside of the company, managers must consider the needs of the business, the time and resources needed to train a new employee, and the potential rewards of taking a risk on an internal promotion. It is important to look within the organization first, but if the need for expertise is dire, outside talent may be necessary. Ultimately, the decision should be based on the future consequences of the decision.

Dealing With Two Different Extremes

A team of 7 people had two juniors with opposite personalities: one was a technical athlete with poor soft skills, and the other was a pro with soft skills but not technical. Conflict arose between them, and the manager had to take responsibility for the objectives of the team. He separated them into different projects and worked with the underperformer to improve their skills. Through weekly meetings, trust was established, and the team eventually performed above and beyond. The manager learned that everyone in a team is a gem with different skills, expectations and values, and that motivation and reformulation are key to success.

Finding Unity Through a Common Mission

This article discusses the importance of having a mission-oriented company culture in the healthcare technology industry. It explains how the pandemic has made telehealth products more accessible and how the mission of the company is to improve the user experience of millions of people. It also emphasizes the importance of having a global scope and the need to achieve economic stability before being able to serve. Finally, it highlights the exciting opportunities for engineers to make a positive impact on the world during this time of transition to virtual solutions.

Building Teams Remotely

When transitioning to a remote team, it is important to establish a culture of trust and visibility. This can be done through video conferencing, setting boundaries, and recognizing accomplishments. Tools such as Jira and Clockwise can help manage asynchronous tasks and communication. Additionally, team celebrations should be encouraged to bring people together virtually.

Plotting Out a Career Map for Your Employees

When starting a business, it is important to consider how to scale the team effectively and keep it balanced. This includes investing in the team's career paths, setting clear expectations for each role, and providing mentorship opportunities. It is also important to provide a career map that outlines the path from junior to senior roles, and to provide a gateway role for employees to test out different positions. Finally, it is important to have leadership that can guide employees and show them that these higher goals are achievable.

The IC vs. Managerial Mindset

When transitioning from an individual contributor to a manager, it is important to balance the tendency to micromanage while still maintaining a channel of communication between the two roles. To build trust, managers should communicate the business value of the work to their team in terms they can understand. Additionally, managers should set clear goals and objectives, and communicate the "why" behind them. Doing so will help the team understand the business value of their work and provide an effective "how" to solve the problem.

The Importance of One-on-Ones

Regular one-on-one meetings with employees can help to identify and address potential problems before they become insurmountable. When conducting these meetings, it is important to focus on career development and personal feelings rather than technical matters. Additionally, providing a competency framework and opportunities for employees to explore and experiment can help to create a productive and happy team.

Resiliency — the Ability to Bounce Back

This article discusses the challenges faced by a leader in a team-based environment. The leader was eager to prove themselves, but neglected relationship-building and instead focused on career and project management. This caused the team to feel neglected, and when a tight deadline was missed due to a forgotten feature, the team blamed the leader. The leader took responsibility and apologized, and then created a roadmap and delegated tasks to improve the situation. The leader learned to prioritize important tasks, build relationships, and never make the team feel neglected.

Essential Tips for Meeting a Deadline

When the author joined a new company and was given a brownfield project, they quickly realized they were going to miss the deadline and not meet the client's expectations. The author took action by notifying the leadership and the client, and worked with the team to prioritize what was finished. They also brought in additional personnel and reduced the scope to meet the deadline. In the end, the client was impressed with the team's dedication and the project was successful. The author learned lessons about project management, reaching out for help, and never giving up.

What to Do When Joining a Non-Structured Team

When joining a team in an outsourcing company, the engineering manager found that there was a lack of consistent workflow and structure. To address this, the manager proposed an agile approach to the team and the client, which would involve working in two-week increments rather than quarterly. This allowed for more transparency and consistency in the team's workflow, and ultimately resulted in a successful switch from waterfall to agile.

Managing Two Teams With Different Needs

This article discusses the challenges of managing two teams led by junior-level product managers. The author outlines the steps taken to build up and manage the teams, including assessing pros and cons, focusing on building the teams, and hiring for the team. The author also shares lessons learned, such as the importance of building trust and collaboration, and the need to utilize all channels of communication.

Delivering the Best Solution Starts with Listening to Users

The United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) was tasked with creating a platform and accompanying processes to enable disparate teams to build together under a single design and development ecosystem. My role was to create documentation and support processes that would allow those development teams to work together. Through interviews with developers, designers, and product owners, we compiled data, design, and product documentation to guide teams through the product life cycle. Ultimately, the new platform was providing value for veterans who could now manage their benefits under one login and with all of their applications and statuses in one place. Lessons learned included understanding who the users are, conducting research early on, and being an advocate of the users.

Crossing the Chasm Between Value and ROI

In the early days of his career, the author identified an opportunity to create brief previews of videos to inform and entice users. He started to build a web app to pull videos and create previews, but he had a hard time transitioning from building something that would offer users value while ensuring ROI. He eventually gave up due to legal and compliance issues, but the experience was life-changing and helped him identify the role he wanted to play in building tech products. It also led him to become a senior product manager at the Washington Post.

Moving From Cowboy to Agile Delivery

This article discusses the problems encountered when joining a team, such as lack of career development plans, an outdated organizational structure, and no metrics for team success or team health. The author then outlines the actions taken to address these issues, such as introducing Agile, allocating time to understand career goals, reorganizing the team structure, introducing metrics, and introducing a team engagement platform. Finally, the author provides lessons learned, such as the importance of career development, embracing the growth mindset, encouraging rather than imposing, and understanding the impact of metrics.

Aligning Towards Product Discovery

When joining a new organisation, the author faced many challenges, such as working with a complex microservices architecture and OKRs. The biggest challenge was taking ownership of the delivery backlog for a team working with product discovery. To overcome these challenges, the author read "The First 90 Days" by Michael Watkins and took several actions, such as building knowledge around the product, understanding and shaping the technical landscape, visualising everything that matters, adopting and promoting OKRs, and reviewing the ways of working. The author learned how to align engineering processes within an organisation that shifts towards product discovery and the importance of agreeing to build something that might be thrown away.

Don’t Promote Best Engineers to Managers

This article discusses the challenges faced by a company when it comes to product quality and regressions. It explains how the company overcame these challenges by hiring people from outside and encouraging existing engineers to become product architects instead of managers and directors. The article also highlights the importance of giving more advantage to the technical teams and motivating them to be more involved in the technical side.

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

This case study outlines the challenges faced by a product owner in managing a product, and the actions taken to address them. The team hired product managers and UX designers, and the CEO took on some product responsibilities. The product was re-invented from the user's perspective, and engineering aspects were brought in. The team learned that they should have gotten periodic feedback from a more extensive team, and that they should have evaluated UI engineers in the process. They also learned to articulate ideas from different teams' perspectives and to balance between writing and not writing ideas and notes.

How to Prioritize Engineering Work When Everything Is Important

This article discusses the challenge of prioritizing work for managers, especially when dealing with an influx of strategic initiatives. It outlines the steps taken by the author to create a request funnel and a weighted matrix for prioritization, which helped the team to better understand the importance of each task and prioritize accordingly. The article also provides lessons learned, such as the need for appropriate tooling to manage requests, the importance of understanding the problem that the business needs to solve, and the need to assign at least one product owner persona to manage each product backlog.

Developing a Strategic Plan

In order to ensure teams are aligned in their work and strategic goals, a director designed a workshop to help teams define their values, purpose, mission statement, and Vision goals. Teams then devised strategies to achieve their goals, and the director trusted them to find the best path. The workshops were successful, as teams felt valued and empowered, and the director was reassured that they were aligned.

Prioritizing the Well-Being of Your Team

This article discusses the mental health issues that many people in the industry have faced due to the uncertainty of the last 18 months. Companies should be aware of these issues and take action to help employees find balance in their work and personal lives. The author's company responded by giving employees a wellness day each month, holding virtual meditation sessions, and providing accommodation for extenuating medical circumstances. The message was that their health matters more than the bottom line and employees should prioritize themselves and be proactive in communicating any issues.

Hiring Externally vs. Promoting Internally

When deciding whether to promote internally or hire from outside of the company, managers must consider the needs of the business, the time and resources needed to train a new employee, and the potential rewards of taking a risk on an internal promotion. It is important to look within the organization first, but if the need for expertise is dire, outside talent may be necessary. Ultimately, the decision should be based on the future consequences of the decision.

Dealing With Two Different Extremes

A team of 7 people had two juniors with opposite personalities: one was a technical athlete with poor soft skills, and the other was a pro with soft skills but not technical. Conflict arose between them, and the manager had to take responsibility for the objectives of the team. He separated them into different projects and worked with the underperformer to improve their skills. Through weekly meetings, trust was established, and the team eventually performed above and beyond. The manager learned that everyone in a team is a gem with different skills, expectations and values, and that motivation and reformulation are key to success.

Finding Unity Through a Common Mission

This article discusses the importance of having a mission-oriented company culture in the healthcare technology industry. It explains how the pandemic has made telehealth products more accessible and how the mission of the company is to improve the user experience of millions of people. It also emphasizes the importance of having a global scope and the need to achieve economic stability before being able to serve. Finally, it highlights the exciting opportunities for engineers to make a positive impact on the world during this time of transition to virtual solutions.

Building Teams Remotely

When transitioning to a remote team, it is important to establish a culture of trust and visibility. This can be done through video conferencing, setting boundaries, and recognizing accomplishments. Tools such as Jira and Clockwise can help manage asynchronous tasks and communication. Additionally, team celebrations should be encouraged to bring people together virtually.

Plotting Out a Career Map for Your Employees

When starting a business, it is important to consider how to scale the team effectively and keep it balanced. This includes investing in the team's career paths, setting clear expectations for each role, and providing mentorship opportunities. It is also important to provide a career map that outlines the path from junior to senior roles, and to provide a gateway role for employees to test out different positions. Finally, it is important to have leadership that can guide employees and show them that these higher goals are achievable.

The IC vs. Managerial Mindset

When transitioning from an individual contributor to a manager, it is important to balance the tendency to micromanage while still maintaining a channel of communication between the two roles. To build trust, managers should communicate the business value of the work to their team in terms they can understand. Additionally, managers should set clear goals and objectives, and communicate the "why" behind them. Doing so will help the team understand the business value of their work and provide an effective "how" to solve the problem.

The Importance of One-on-Ones

Regular one-on-one meetings with employees can help to identify and address potential problems before they become insurmountable. When conducting these meetings, it is important to focus on career development and personal feelings rather than technical matters. Additionally, providing a competency framework and opportunities for employees to explore and experiment can help to create a productive and happy team.

Resiliency — the Ability to Bounce Back

This article discusses the challenges faced by a leader in a team-based environment. The leader was eager to prove themselves, but neglected relationship-building and instead focused on career and project management. This caused the team to feel neglected, and when a tight deadline was missed due to a forgotten feature, the team blamed the leader. The leader took responsibility and apologized, and then created a roadmap and delegated tasks to improve the situation. The leader learned to prioritize important tasks, build relationships, and never make the team feel neglected.

Essential Tips for Meeting a Deadline

When the author joined a new company and was given a brownfield project, they quickly realized they were going to miss the deadline and not meet the client's expectations. The author took action by notifying the leadership and the client, and worked with the team to prioritize what was finished. They also brought in additional personnel and reduced the scope to meet the deadline. In the end, the client was impressed with the team's dedication and the project was successful. The author learned lessons about project management, reaching out for help, and never giving up.

What to Do When Joining a Non-Structured Team

When joining a team in an outsourcing company, the engineering manager found that there was a lack of consistent workflow and structure. To address this, the manager proposed an agile approach to the team and the client, which would involve working in two-week increments rather than quarterly. This allowed for more transparency and consistency in the team's workflow, and ultimately resulted in a successful switch from waterfall to agile.

Managing Two Teams With Different Needs

This article discusses the challenges of managing two teams led by junior-level product managers. The author outlines the steps taken to build up and manage the teams, including assessing pros and cons, focusing on building the teams, and hiring for the team. The author also shares lessons learned, such as the importance of building trust and collaboration, and the need to utilize all channels of communication.

Delivering the Best Solution Starts with Listening to Users

The United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) was tasked with creating a platform and accompanying processes to enable disparate teams to build together under a single design and development ecosystem. My role was to create documentation and support processes that would allow those development teams to work together. Through interviews with developers, designers, and product owners, we compiled data, design, and product documentation to guide teams through the product life cycle. Ultimately, the new platform was providing value for veterans who could now manage their benefits under one login and with all of their applications and statuses in one place. Lessons learned included understanding who the users are, conducting research early on, and being an advocate of the users.

Crossing the Chasm Between Value and ROI

In the early days of his career, the author identified an opportunity to create brief previews of videos to inform and entice users. He started to build a web app to pull videos and create previews, but he had a hard time transitioning from building something that would offer users value while ensuring ROI. He eventually gave up due to legal and compliance issues, but the experience was life-changing and helped him identify the role he wanted to play in building tech products. It also led him to become a senior product manager at the Washington Post.

Moving From Cowboy to Agile Delivery

This article discusses the problems encountered when joining a team, such as lack of career development plans, an outdated organizational structure, and no metrics for team success or team health. The author then outlines the actions taken to address these issues, such as introducing Agile, allocating time to understand career goals, reorganizing the team structure, introducing metrics, and introducing a team engagement platform. Finally, the author provides lessons learned, such as the importance of career development, embracing the growth mindset, encouraging rather than imposing, and understanding the impact of metrics.

Aligning Towards Product Discovery

When joining a new organisation, the author faced many challenges, such as working with a complex microservices architecture and OKRs. The biggest challenge was taking ownership of the delivery backlog for a team working with product discovery. To overcome these challenges, the author read "The First 90 Days" by Michael Watkins and took several actions, such as building knowledge around the product, understanding and shaping the technical landscape, visualising everything that matters, adopting and promoting OKRs, and reviewing the ways of working. The author learned how to align engineering processes within an organisation that shifts towards product discovery and the importance of agreeing to build something that might be thrown away.

Don’t Promote Best Engineers to Managers

This article discusses the challenges faced by a company when it comes to product quality and regressions. It explains how the company overcame these challenges by hiring people from outside and encouraging existing engineers to become product architects instead of managers and directors. The article also highlights the importance of giving more advantage to the technical teams and motivating them to be more involved in the technical side.

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

This case study outlines the challenges faced by a product owner in managing a product, and the actions taken to address them. The team hired product managers and UX designers, and the CEO took on some product responsibilities. The product was re-invented from the user's perspective, and engineering aspects were brought in. The team learned that they should have gotten periodic feedback from a more extensive team, and that they should have evaluated UI engineers in the process. They also learned to articulate ideas from different teams' perspectives and to balance between writing and not writing ideas and notes.

How to Prioritize Engineering Work When Everything Is Important

This article discusses the challenge of prioritizing work for managers, especially when dealing with an influx of strategic initiatives. It outlines the steps taken by the author to create a request funnel and a weighted matrix for prioritization, which helped the team to better understand the importance of each task and prioritize accordingly. The article also provides lessons learned, such as the need for appropriate tooling to manage requests, the importance of understanding the problem that the business needs to solve, and the need to assign at least one product owner persona to manage each product backlog.

Developing a Strategic Plan

In order to ensure teams are aligned in their work and strategic goals, a director designed a workshop to help teams define their values, purpose, mission statement, and Vision goals. Teams then devised strategies to achieve their goals, and the director trusted them to find the best path. The workshops were successful, as teams felt valued and empowered, and the director was reassured that they were aligned.

Prioritizing the Well-Being of Your Team

This article discusses the mental health issues that many people in the industry have faced due to the uncertainty of the last 18 months. Companies should be aware of these issues and take action to help employees find balance in their work and personal lives. The author's company responded by giving employees a wellness day each month, holding virtual meditation sessions, and providing accommodation for extenuating medical circumstances. The message was that their health matters more than the bottom line and employees should prioritize themselves and be proactive in communicating any issues.

Hiring Externally vs. Promoting Internally

When deciding whether to promote internally or hire from outside of the company, managers must consider the needs of the business, the time and resources needed to train a new employee, and the potential rewards of taking a risk on an internal promotion. It is important to look within the organization first, but if the need for expertise is dire, outside talent may be necessary. Ultimately, the decision should be based on the future consequences of the decision.

Dealing With Two Different Extremes

A team of 7 people had two juniors with opposite personalities: one was a technical athlete with poor soft skills, and the other was a pro with soft skills but not technical. Conflict arose between them, and the manager had to take responsibility for the objectives of the team. He separated them into different projects and worked with the underperformer to improve their skills. Through weekly meetings, trust was established, and the team eventually performed above and beyond. The manager learned that everyone in a team is a gem with different skills, expectations and values, and that motivation and reformulation are key to success.

Finding Unity Through a Common Mission

This article discusses the importance of having a mission-oriented company culture in the healthcare technology industry. It explains how the pandemic has made telehealth products more accessible and how the mission of the company is to improve the user experience of millions of people. It also emphasizes the importance of having a global scope and the need to achieve economic stability before being able to serve. Finally, it highlights the exciting opportunities for engineers to make a positive impact on the world during this time of transition to virtual solutions.

Building Teams Remotely

When transitioning to a remote team, it is important to establish a culture of trust and visibility. This can be done through video conferencing, setting boundaries, and recognizing accomplishments. Tools such as Jira and Clockwise can help manage asynchronous tasks and communication. Additionally, team celebrations should be encouraged to bring people together virtually.

Plotting Out a Career Map for Your Employees

When starting a business, it is important to consider how to scale the team effectively and keep it balanced. This includes investing in the team's career paths, setting clear expectations for each role, and providing mentorship opportunities. It is also important to provide a career map that outlines the path from junior to senior roles, and to provide a gateway role for employees to test out different positions. Finally, it is important to have leadership that can guide employees and show them that these higher goals are achievable.

The IC vs. Managerial Mindset

When transitioning from an individual contributor to a manager, it is important to balance the tendency to micromanage while still maintaining a channel of communication between the two roles. To build trust, managers should communicate the business value of the work to their team in terms they can understand. Additionally, managers should set clear goals and objectives, and communicate the "why" behind them. Doing so will help the team understand the business value of their work and provide an effective "how" to solve the problem.

The Importance of One-on-Ones

Regular one-on-one meetings with employees can help to identify and address potential problems before they become insurmountable. When conducting these meetings, it is important to focus on career development and personal feelings rather than technical matters. Additionally, providing a competency framework and opportunities for employees to explore and experiment can help to create a productive and happy team.