Knowledge shared by our community

Taking Over a New Team When Unfamiliar With the Domain

When the engineering lead of an umbrella team was replaced, the new lead had no experience in the ML infrastructure domain. To gain trust and understanding of the team, the new lead identified tech leads and talked to them to learn the vocabulary and context. They also talked to other teams to gain an outside perspective and leaned on trusted team members for help. In the end, the new lead was able to manage the team successfully without specific domain knowledge.

Making of a Bi-Directional, Prioritized Roadmap

A product roadmap was created for an application and platform product line that was overly detailed and caused long meetings. To improve the process, the product leaders created a list of priorities that were discussed and weighted against strategic initiatives. The top 3-4 priorities were chosen and presented to the rest of the team. The roadmap was then circulated to stakeholders and executives and was committed to. The lessons learned from this process were that the roadmap should have high-level themes, it should be both bottom-up and top-down, and all stakeholders should be included and executive buy-in should be secured before committing.

Scaling Processes in a Startup

When the back-end team at a past company grew from two senior developers to five, including the CTO, the team had to standardize their processes. To do this, they introduced weekly one-on-ones, team meetings, coding standards, and fire fighting rotation. Through this process, they learned that the first few people are critical in shaping the team, communication is key, knowledge should not be kept in silos, and gaps will always exist.

Pivoting Your Business During Covid-19

After the introduction of the lockdown, a tool designed to help local economies through flourishing local tourism and gastronomy had to pivot from its original idea. Through iterations and feedback from customers, the team found a burning need for virtual events that had both a learning and socializing aspect. The team learned that understanding the underlying needs of customers and being persistent in finding a solution are key to product development.

Collaborating and Brainstorming New Product Ideas in a Remote World

In order to bring together and align all functions in a remote environment, the author used different tools and processes, such as Zoom meetings, Slack, and Miro. They also implemented a structure that supported the remote environment, such as creating a slide deck to share with team members and having one-on-ones with individuals to better understand their motivations. Additionally, they were mindful of time and took breaks often, as well as added a bit of fun to the environment. These actions helped the team become comfortable with the ambiguity of the remote environment and allowed them to design the product and build a prototype.

Adopting Agile by Piloting Projects

The product director of a new company identified three challenges: inexperienced product management team, lack of true Agile processes, and lack of flexibility from the dev team. To address these issues, the director championed the adoption of a true Agile methodology, trained the team, and implemented a steering committee to ensure progress. Pilot projects were used to prove the effectiveness of the approach, and the results were shared with the rest of the dev organization. The successful rollout of Agile resulted in improved product quality, flexibility, and collaboration.

Advocating for Your Product

The author was working at a large company that was launching its next-generation applications, but their product was not scheduled to be included in the first release. To prevent their product from losing resources, demotivating the team, and losing traction in the marketplace, the author decided to fight for their product and team by presenting a case to the Executive VP. After doing research and building their case, the author was successful in convincing the Executive VP to include their product in the first release. The author learned that it is important to ask for what you want, make a simple and powerful case, and understand the internal strategy and goals of the executives.

Promoting the Same Product in Multiple Markets

In 2012, a team experimented with adding images to an ad on a renowned search results page in two markets, the United States and Taiwan. The experiment failed in the US due to inaccurate matching of images to queries, but was successful in Taiwan. Through customer research, it was found that users in Taiwan preferred an ad with an image, even if it was not relevant to the query. This led to a successful test of the product in the Taiwanese market. The key lessons learned were to research and evaluate markets before launching a product, different cultures have different tastes, and to always dig deeper to make changes to fit the market.

Multiple Scrum Teams Work on the Same Product

The Senior Product Manager was tasked with monetizing the sports and entertainment category of a search engine page, while other teams strived to create the best user experience. To solve this problem, the team redesigned the ad module to blur the boundaries between ads and information, and built a module with a partner to simplify the user experience and generate revenue. They also looked at the different search categories and figured out an algorithm to show ads only when the user had an intent to purchase. The lesson learned was to build a product that is inclusive and suits everyone's needs, and to find the middle ground with other teams.

Manage Default Product Settings for New and Existing Users

When one of the companies experienced a website failure, users resorted to calling the call centers. After analyzing the data, it was discovered that users were downloading a particular driver from the website with the default settings set to 64-bit machines, which caused a spike in call volumes. To solve the problem, the interface was changed so that the device would automatically select the right solution for the user, depending on the device configuration. This experience taught the importance of inclusive design, never assuming that users know or understand what they are doing, and dogfooding the product to anticipate user problems.

Four Common Challenges of a First-Time Manager

When the manager of a team left, the most senior person stepped in during the interim period. This person was surprised to find that technical competencies were not enough to be a successful manager, and had to learn soft skills on the fly. They also had to learn how to collaborate with other teams, deliver negative feedback, and keep track of team progress. In the end, they learned the importance of soft skills, the need for timely feedback, and the importance of tracking team progress.

One-On-Ones Through a Cultural Lens

This article reflects on the importance of one-on-one meetings, which the author did not have access to in Brazil. After joining a US company that valued one-on-ones, the author learned the importance of these meetings for personal growth and connection. The author also reflects on how the pandemic has changed the way one-on-ones are conducted and the lessons they have learned from them.

Acting Quickly To Resolve an Incident

Recently, a customer notified us of a bug on our platform that was preventing them from delivering documents to authorities. Our engineers were stuck for a few hours, so I was called in to help. I organized the team, collected accurate information, and identified the problem. We were able to recover the documents and strengthen our relationship with the customer. This experience was turned into institutional knowledge, and I shared step-by-step what I did. This incident taught us that by acting quickly we can turn a disadvantageous situation into a great opportunity.

Securing Support For a Revamped App

This article discusses the revamping of a cloud desktop app that was helping users download updated software. The revamping project included user research, prototyping, and data collection to showcase what users wanted/needed. The biggest challenge was convincing internal stakeholders, which was done by aligning the initiative to the overall benefit and conducting user research, prototyping, and data collection. The revamping was a success and lessons learned included understanding the product life cycle and how to get key internal stakeholders on board.

The Critical Role of User Research

This article discusses the experience of a product leader who joined an auspicious company in India when the Internet was taking off. To increase customer engagement, the leader created different user onboarding plans based on high-value actions users needed to perform. Through user research, the leader identified user habits and automated a playlist generation feature. With evidence from user feedback, the leader was able to convince top management and the app was ranked first on the Google Play store in India six or seven months after being launched. The article highlights the importance of understanding user behavior and not taking assumptions for granted.

When Your Manager Leaves

When the manager of one of the author's previous jobs left, an interim manager was appointed who had other priorities and couldn't help the author with their responsibilities. To overcome this, the author reached out to an experienced manager within the company to be their mentor, read books, articles, and blog posts, and subscribed to online courses to expand their knowledge. They also talked to their peers and received feedback from their reports and peers to help assess their performance. The author learned to be transparent, open-minded about feedback, and not hesitate to ask for peer review and mentorship.

Transitioning From a Large Company to a Startup

This article discusses the transition from a large, well-established company to a small startup. It outlines the challenges faced in an ambiguous environment with yet-to-mature processes, and the actions taken to find a balance between developing a structure for rapid scaling and allowing for some ambiguity. It also provides lessons learned, such as being clear about objectives, navigating across different domains, adapting to the context, and being open-minded to fluid processes.

Building a New Domain Team

This article discusses the process of reorganizing a startup's engineering teams from components to domains. The author explains the steps taken to build the new domain team from scratch, including providing a solid explanation of the change, formulating a team charter, and hiring engineers both internally and externally. The author also reflects on the lessons learned, such as aiming for different profiles more suitable for the mission, building rapport with the team early on, and starting small.

Strategic Thinking for Engineers

In a situation where a team was suffering from low velocity and technical debt, the individual contributor took it upon themselves to ask the existential questions of why the team exists and what it does, and proposed solutions to the leadership. These included contributing to the external team's code base, aligning organizational goals, and transitioning ownership of features to the platform team. The idea was well-received and the individual was given the opportunity to lead the initiative. This experience taught the individual the importance of taking a holistic look at how things are working and the opportunity to become more involved in organizational challenges.

Conscious Career Growth

This article discusses the journey of a software engineer who found themselves in a flat hierarchy and had to forge their own path for growth. Through self-awareness and introspection, they identified areas to improve, such as engineering processes, tech debt, and testing. They also took on advocacy roles, leading cross-functional projects and teams, and increasing their interpersonal skills. The article emphasizes the importance of understanding what matters to you and setting goals to achieve it.

Taking Over a New Team When Unfamiliar With the Domain

When the engineering lead of an umbrella team was replaced, the new lead had no experience in the ML infrastructure domain. To gain trust and understanding of the team, the new lead identified tech leads and talked to them to learn the vocabulary and context. They also talked to other teams to gain an outside perspective and leaned on trusted team members for help. In the end, the new lead was able to manage the team successfully without specific domain knowledge.

Making of a Bi-Directional, Prioritized Roadmap

A product roadmap was created for an application and platform product line that was overly detailed and caused long meetings. To improve the process, the product leaders created a list of priorities that were discussed and weighted against strategic initiatives. The top 3-4 priorities were chosen and presented to the rest of the team. The roadmap was then circulated to stakeholders and executives and was committed to. The lessons learned from this process were that the roadmap should have high-level themes, it should be both bottom-up and top-down, and all stakeholders should be included and executive buy-in should be secured before committing.

Scaling Processes in a Startup

When the back-end team at a past company grew from two senior developers to five, including the CTO, the team had to standardize their processes. To do this, they introduced weekly one-on-ones, team meetings, coding standards, and fire fighting rotation. Through this process, they learned that the first few people are critical in shaping the team, communication is key, knowledge should not be kept in silos, and gaps will always exist.

Pivoting Your Business During Covid-19

After the introduction of the lockdown, a tool designed to help local economies through flourishing local tourism and gastronomy had to pivot from its original idea. Through iterations and feedback from customers, the team found a burning need for virtual events that had both a learning and socializing aspect. The team learned that understanding the underlying needs of customers and being persistent in finding a solution are key to product development.

Collaborating and Brainstorming New Product Ideas in a Remote World

In order to bring together and align all functions in a remote environment, the author used different tools and processes, such as Zoom meetings, Slack, and Miro. They also implemented a structure that supported the remote environment, such as creating a slide deck to share with team members and having one-on-ones with individuals to better understand their motivations. Additionally, they were mindful of time and took breaks often, as well as added a bit of fun to the environment. These actions helped the team become comfortable with the ambiguity of the remote environment and allowed them to design the product and build a prototype.

Adopting Agile by Piloting Projects

The product director of a new company identified three challenges: inexperienced product management team, lack of true Agile processes, and lack of flexibility from the dev team. To address these issues, the director championed the adoption of a true Agile methodology, trained the team, and implemented a steering committee to ensure progress. Pilot projects were used to prove the effectiveness of the approach, and the results were shared with the rest of the dev organization. The successful rollout of Agile resulted in improved product quality, flexibility, and collaboration.

Advocating for Your Product

The author was working at a large company that was launching its next-generation applications, but their product was not scheduled to be included in the first release. To prevent their product from losing resources, demotivating the team, and losing traction in the marketplace, the author decided to fight for their product and team by presenting a case to the Executive VP. After doing research and building their case, the author was successful in convincing the Executive VP to include their product in the first release. The author learned that it is important to ask for what you want, make a simple and powerful case, and understand the internal strategy and goals of the executives.

Promoting the Same Product in Multiple Markets

In 2012, a team experimented with adding images to an ad on a renowned search results page in two markets, the United States and Taiwan. The experiment failed in the US due to inaccurate matching of images to queries, but was successful in Taiwan. Through customer research, it was found that users in Taiwan preferred an ad with an image, even if it was not relevant to the query. This led to a successful test of the product in the Taiwanese market. The key lessons learned were to research and evaluate markets before launching a product, different cultures have different tastes, and to always dig deeper to make changes to fit the market.

Multiple Scrum Teams Work on the Same Product

The Senior Product Manager was tasked with monetizing the sports and entertainment category of a search engine page, while other teams strived to create the best user experience. To solve this problem, the team redesigned the ad module to blur the boundaries between ads and information, and built a module with a partner to simplify the user experience and generate revenue. They also looked at the different search categories and figured out an algorithm to show ads only when the user had an intent to purchase. The lesson learned was to build a product that is inclusive and suits everyone's needs, and to find the middle ground with other teams.

Manage Default Product Settings for New and Existing Users

When one of the companies experienced a website failure, users resorted to calling the call centers. After analyzing the data, it was discovered that users were downloading a particular driver from the website with the default settings set to 64-bit machines, which caused a spike in call volumes. To solve the problem, the interface was changed so that the device would automatically select the right solution for the user, depending on the device configuration. This experience taught the importance of inclusive design, never assuming that users know or understand what they are doing, and dogfooding the product to anticipate user problems.

Four Common Challenges of a First-Time Manager

When the manager of a team left, the most senior person stepped in during the interim period. This person was surprised to find that technical competencies were not enough to be a successful manager, and had to learn soft skills on the fly. They also had to learn how to collaborate with other teams, deliver negative feedback, and keep track of team progress. In the end, they learned the importance of soft skills, the need for timely feedback, and the importance of tracking team progress.

One-On-Ones Through a Cultural Lens

This article reflects on the importance of one-on-one meetings, which the author did not have access to in Brazil. After joining a US company that valued one-on-ones, the author learned the importance of these meetings for personal growth and connection. The author also reflects on how the pandemic has changed the way one-on-ones are conducted and the lessons they have learned from them.

Acting Quickly To Resolve an Incident

Recently, a customer notified us of a bug on our platform that was preventing them from delivering documents to authorities. Our engineers were stuck for a few hours, so I was called in to help. I organized the team, collected accurate information, and identified the problem. We were able to recover the documents and strengthen our relationship with the customer. This experience was turned into institutional knowledge, and I shared step-by-step what I did. This incident taught us that by acting quickly we can turn a disadvantageous situation into a great opportunity.

Securing Support For a Revamped App

This article discusses the revamping of a cloud desktop app that was helping users download updated software. The revamping project included user research, prototyping, and data collection to showcase what users wanted/needed. The biggest challenge was convincing internal stakeholders, which was done by aligning the initiative to the overall benefit and conducting user research, prototyping, and data collection. The revamping was a success and lessons learned included understanding the product life cycle and how to get key internal stakeholders on board.

The Critical Role of User Research

This article discusses the experience of a product leader who joined an auspicious company in India when the Internet was taking off. To increase customer engagement, the leader created different user onboarding plans based on high-value actions users needed to perform. Through user research, the leader identified user habits and automated a playlist generation feature. With evidence from user feedback, the leader was able to convince top management and the app was ranked first on the Google Play store in India six or seven months after being launched. The article highlights the importance of understanding user behavior and not taking assumptions for granted.

When Your Manager Leaves

When the manager of one of the author's previous jobs left, an interim manager was appointed who had other priorities and couldn't help the author with their responsibilities. To overcome this, the author reached out to an experienced manager within the company to be their mentor, read books, articles, and blog posts, and subscribed to online courses to expand their knowledge. They also talked to their peers and received feedback from their reports and peers to help assess their performance. The author learned to be transparent, open-minded about feedback, and not hesitate to ask for peer review and mentorship.

Transitioning From a Large Company to a Startup

This article discusses the transition from a large, well-established company to a small startup. It outlines the challenges faced in an ambiguous environment with yet-to-mature processes, and the actions taken to find a balance between developing a structure for rapid scaling and allowing for some ambiguity. It also provides lessons learned, such as being clear about objectives, navigating across different domains, adapting to the context, and being open-minded to fluid processes.

Building a New Domain Team

This article discusses the process of reorganizing a startup's engineering teams from components to domains. The author explains the steps taken to build the new domain team from scratch, including providing a solid explanation of the change, formulating a team charter, and hiring engineers both internally and externally. The author also reflects on the lessons learned, such as aiming for different profiles more suitable for the mission, building rapport with the team early on, and starting small.

Strategic Thinking for Engineers

In a situation where a team was suffering from low velocity and technical debt, the individual contributor took it upon themselves to ask the existential questions of why the team exists and what it does, and proposed solutions to the leadership. These included contributing to the external team's code base, aligning organizational goals, and transitioning ownership of features to the platform team. The idea was well-received and the individual was given the opportunity to lead the initiative. This experience taught the individual the importance of taking a holistic look at how things are working and the opportunity to become more involved in organizational challenges.

Conscious Career Growth

This article discusses the journey of a software engineer who found themselves in a flat hierarchy and had to forge their own path for growth. Through self-awareness and introspection, they identified areas to improve, such as engineering processes, tech debt, and testing. They also took on advocacy roles, leading cross-functional projects and teams, and increasing their interpersonal skills. The article emphasizes the importance of understanding what matters to you and setting goals to achieve it.

Taking Over a New Team When Unfamiliar With the Domain

When the engineering lead of an umbrella team was replaced, the new lead had no experience in the ML infrastructure domain. To gain trust and understanding of the team, the new lead identified tech leads and talked to them to learn the vocabulary and context. They also talked to other teams to gain an outside perspective and leaned on trusted team members for help. In the end, the new lead was able to manage the team successfully without specific domain knowledge.

Making of a Bi-Directional, Prioritized Roadmap

A product roadmap was created for an application and platform product line that was overly detailed and caused long meetings. To improve the process, the product leaders created a list of priorities that were discussed and weighted against strategic initiatives. The top 3-4 priorities were chosen and presented to the rest of the team. The roadmap was then circulated to stakeholders and executives and was committed to. The lessons learned from this process were that the roadmap should have high-level themes, it should be both bottom-up and top-down, and all stakeholders should be included and executive buy-in should be secured before committing.

Scaling Processes in a Startup

When the back-end team at a past company grew from two senior developers to five, including the CTO, the team had to standardize their processes. To do this, they introduced weekly one-on-ones, team meetings, coding standards, and fire fighting rotation. Through this process, they learned that the first few people are critical in shaping the team, communication is key, knowledge should not be kept in silos, and gaps will always exist.

Pivoting Your Business During Covid-19

After the introduction of the lockdown, a tool designed to help local economies through flourishing local tourism and gastronomy had to pivot from its original idea. Through iterations and feedback from customers, the team found a burning need for virtual events that had both a learning and socializing aspect. The team learned that understanding the underlying needs of customers and being persistent in finding a solution are key to product development.

Collaborating and Brainstorming New Product Ideas in a Remote World

In order to bring together and align all functions in a remote environment, the author used different tools and processes, such as Zoom meetings, Slack, and Miro. They also implemented a structure that supported the remote environment, such as creating a slide deck to share with team members and having one-on-ones with individuals to better understand their motivations. Additionally, they were mindful of time and took breaks often, as well as added a bit of fun to the environment. These actions helped the team become comfortable with the ambiguity of the remote environment and allowed them to design the product and build a prototype.

Adopting Agile by Piloting Projects

The product director of a new company identified three challenges: inexperienced product management team, lack of true Agile processes, and lack of flexibility from the dev team. To address these issues, the director championed the adoption of a true Agile methodology, trained the team, and implemented a steering committee to ensure progress. Pilot projects were used to prove the effectiveness of the approach, and the results were shared with the rest of the dev organization. The successful rollout of Agile resulted in improved product quality, flexibility, and collaboration.

Advocating for Your Product

The author was working at a large company that was launching its next-generation applications, but their product was not scheduled to be included in the first release. To prevent their product from losing resources, demotivating the team, and losing traction in the marketplace, the author decided to fight for their product and team by presenting a case to the Executive VP. After doing research and building their case, the author was successful in convincing the Executive VP to include their product in the first release. The author learned that it is important to ask for what you want, make a simple and powerful case, and understand the internal strategy and goals of the executives.

Promoting the Same Product in Multiple Markets

In 2012, a team experimented with adding images to an ad on a renowned search results page in two markets, the United States and Taiwan. The experiment failed in the US due to inaccurate matching of images to queries, but was successful in Taiwan. Through customer research, it was found that users in Taiwan preferred an ad with an image, even if it was not relevant to the query. This led to a successful test of the product in the Taiwanese market. The key lessons learned were to research and evaluate markets before launching a product, different cultures have different tastes, and to always dig deeper to make changes to fit the market.

Multiple Scrum Teams Work on the Same Product

The Senior Product Manager was tasked with monetizing the sports and entertainment category of a search engine page, while other teams strived to create the best user experience. To solve this problem, the team redesigned the ad module to blur the boundaries between ads and information, and built a module with a partner to simplify the user experience and generate revenue. They also looked at the different search categories and figured out an algorithm to show ads only when the user had an intent to purchase. The lesson learned was to build a product that is inclusive and suits everyone's needs, and to find the middle ground with other teams.

Manage Default Product Settings for New and Existing Users

When one of the companies experienced a website failure, users resorted to calling the call centers. After analyzing the data, it was discovered that users were downloading a particular driver from the website with the default settings set to 64-bit machines, which caused a spike in call volumes. To solve the problem, the interface was changed so that the device would automatically select the right solution for the user, depending on the device configuration. This experience taught the importance of inclusive design, never assuming that users know or understand what they are doing, and dogfooding the product to anticipate user problems.

Four Common Challenges of a First-Time Manager

When the manager of a team left, the most senior person stepped in during the interim period. This person was surprised to find that technical competencies were not enough to be a successful manager, and had to learn soft skills on the fly. They also had to learn how to collaborate with other teams, deliver negative feedback, and keep track of team progress. In the end, they learned the importance of soft skills, the need for timely feedback, and the importance of tracking team progress.

One-On-Ones Through a Cultural Lens

This article reflects on the importance of one-on-one meetings, which the author did not have access to in Brazil. After joining a US company that valued one-on-ones, the author learned the importance of these meetings for personal growth and connection. The author also reflects on how the pandemic has changed the way one-on-ones are conducted and the lessons they have learned from them.

Acting Quickly To Resolve an Incident

Recently, a customer notified us of a bug on our platform that was preventing them from delivering documents to authorities. Our engineers were stuck for a few hours, so I was called in to help. I organized the team, collected accurate information, and identified the problem. We were able to recover the documents and strengthen our relationship with the customer. This experience was turned into institutional knowledge, and I shared step-by-step what I did. This incident taught us that by acting quickly we can turn a disadvantageous situation into a great opportunity.

Securing Support For a Revamped App

This article discusses the revamping of a cloud desktop app that was helping users download updated software. The revamping project included user research, prototyping, and data collection to showcase what users wanted/needed. The biggest challenge was convincing internal stakeholders, which was done by aligning the initiative to the overall benefit and conducting user research, prototyping, and data collection. The revamping was a success and lessons learned included understanding the product life cycle and how to get key internal stakeholders on board.

The Critical Role of User Research

This article discusses the experience of a product leader who joined an auspicious company in India when the Internet was taking off. To increase customer engagement, the leader created different user onboarding plans based on high-value actions users needed to perform. Through user research, the leader identified user habits and automated a playlist generation feature. With evidence from user feedback, the leader was able to convince top management and the app was ranked first on the Google Play store in India six or seven months after being launched. The article highlights the importance of understanding user behavior and not taking assumptions for granted.

When Your Manager Leaves

When the manager of one of the author's previous jobs left, an interim manager was appointed who had other priorities and couldn't help the author with their responsibilities. To overcome this, the author reached out to an experienced manager within the company to be their mentor, read books, articles, and blog posts, and subscribed to online courses to expand their knowledge. They also talked to their peers and received feedback from their reports and peers to help assess their performance. The author learned to be transparent, open-minded about feedback, and not hesitate to ask for peer review and mentorship.

Transitioning From a Large Company to a Startup

This article discusses the transition from a large, well-established company to a small startup. It outlines the challenges faced in an ambiguous environment with yet-to-mature processes, and the actions taken to find a balance between developing a structure for rapid scaling and allowing for some ambiguity. It also provides lessons learned, such as being clear about objectives, navigating across different domains, adapting to the context, and being open-minded to fluid processes.

Building a New Domain Team

This article discusses the process of reorganizing a startup's engineering teams from components to domains. The author explains the steps taken to build the new domain team from scratch, including providing a solid explanation of the change, formulating a team charter, and hiring engineers both internally and externally. The author also reflects on the lessons learned, such as aiming for different profiles more suitable for the mission, building rapport with the team early on, and starting small.

Strategic Thinking for Engineers

In a situation where a team was suffering from low velocity and technical debt, the individual contributor took it upon themselves to ask the existential questions of why the team exists and what it does, and proposed solutions to the leadership. These included contributing to the external team's code base, aligning organizational goals, and transitioning ownership of features to the platform team. The idea was well-received and the individual was given the opportunity to lead the initiative. This experience taught the individual the importance of taking a holistic look at how things are working and the opportunity to become more involved in organizational challenges.

Conscious Career Growth

This article discusses the journey of a software engineer who found themselves in a flat hierarchy and had to forge their own path for growth. Through self-awareness and introspection, they identified areas to improve, such as engineering processes, tech debt, and testing. They also took on advocacy roles, leading cross-functional projects and teams, and increasing their interpersonal skills. The article emphasizes the importance of understanding what matters to you and setting goals to achieve it.

Taking Over a New Team When Unfamiliar With the Domain

When the engineering lead of an umbrella team was replaced, the new lead had no experience in the ML infrastructure domain. To gain trust and understanding of the team, the new lead identified tech leads and talked to them to learn the vocabulary and context. They also talked to other teams to gain an outside perspective and leaned on trusted team members for help. In the end, the new lead was able to manage the team successfully without specific domain knowledge.

Making of a Bi-Directional, Prioritized Roadmap

A product roadmap was created for an application and platform product line that was overly detailed and caused long meetings. To improve the process, the product leaders created a list of priorities that were discussed and weighted against strategic initiatives. The top 3-4 priorities were chosen and presented to the rest of the team. The roadmap was then circulated to stakeholders and executives and was committed to. The lessons learned from this process were that the roadmap should have high-level themes, it should be both bottom-up and top-down, and all stakeholders should be included and executive buy-in should be secured before committing.

Scaling Processes in a Startup

When the back-end team at a past company grew from two senior developers to five, including the CTO, the team had to standardize their processes. To do this, they introduced weekly one-on-ones, team meetings, coding standards, and fire fighting rotation. Through this process, they learned that the first few people are critical in shaping the team, communication is key, knowledge should not be kept in silos, and gaps will always exist.

Pivoting Your Business During Covid-19

After the introduction of the lockdown, a tool designed to help local economies through flourishing local tourism and gastronomy had to pivot from its original idea. Through iterations and feedback from customers, the team found a burning need for virtual events that had both a learning and socializing aspect. The team learned that understanding the underlying needs of customers and being persistent in finding a solution are key to product development.

Collaborating and Brainstorming New Product Ideas in a Remote World

In order to bring together and align all functions in a remote environment, the author used different tools and processes, such as Zoom meetings, Slack, and Miro. They also implemented a structure that supported the remote environment, such as creating a slide deck to share with team members and having one-on-ones with individuals to better understand their motivations. Additionally, they were mindful of time and took breaks often, as well as added a bit of fun to the environment. These actions helped the team become comfortable with the ambiguity of the remote environment and allowed them to design the product and build a prototype.

Adopting Agile by Piloting Projects

The product director of a new company identified three challenges: inexperienced product management team, lack of true Agile processes, and lack of flexibility from the dev team. To address these issues, the director championed the adoption of a true Agile methodology, trained the team, and implemented a steering committee to ensure progress. Pilot projects were used to prove the effectiveness of the approach, and the results were shared with the rest of the dev organization. The successful rollout of Agile resulted in improved product quality, flexibility, and collaboration.

Advocating for Your Product

The author was working at a large company that was launching its next-generation applications, but their product was not scheduled to be included in the first release. To prevent their product from losing resources, demotivating the team, and losing traction in the marketplace, the author decided to fight for their product and team by presenting a case to the Executive VP. After doing research and building their case, the author was successful in convincing the Executive VP to include their product in the first release. The author learned that it is important to ask for what you want, make a simple and powerful case, and understand the internal strategy and goals of the executives.

Promoting the Same Product in Multiple Markets

In 2012, a team experimented with adding images to an ad on a renowned search results page in two markets, the United States and Taiwan. The experiment failed in the US due to inaccurate matching of images to queries, but was successful in Taiwan. Through customer research, it was found that users in Taiwan preferred an ad with an image, even if it was not relevant to the query. This led to a successful test of the product in the Taiwanese market. The key lessons learned were to research and evaluate markets before launching a product, different cultures have different tastes, and to always dig deeper to make changes to fit the market.

Multiple Scrum Teams Work on the Same Product

The Senior Product Manager was tasked with monetizing the sports and entertainment category of a search engine page, while other teams strived to create the best user experience. To solve this problem, the team redesigned the ad module to blur the boundaries between ads and information, and built a module with a partner to simplify the user experience and generate revenue. They also looked at the different search categories and figured out an algorithm to show ads only when the user had an intent to purchase. The lesson learned was to build a product that is inclusive and suits everyone's needs, and to find the middle ground with other teams.

Manage Default Product Settings for New and Existing Users

When one of the companies experienced a website failure, users resorted to calling the call centers. After analyzing the data, it was discovered that users were downloading a particular driver from the website with the default settings set to 64-bit machines, which caused a spike in call volumes. To solve the problem, the interface was changed so that the device would automatically select the right solution for the user, depending on the device configuration. This experience taught the importance of inclusive design, never assuming that users know or understand what they are doing, and dogfooding the product to anticipate user problems.

Four Common Challenges of a First-Time Manager

When the manager of a team left, the most senior person stepped in during the interim period. This person was surprised to find that technical competencies were not enough to be a successful manager, and had to learn soft skills on the fly. They also had to learn how to collaborate with other teams, deliver negative feedback, and keep track of team progress. In the end, they learned the importance of soft skills, the need for timely feedback, and the importance of tracking team progress.

One-On-Ones Through a Cultural Lens

This article reflects on the importance of one-on-one meetings, which the author did not have access to in Brazil. After joining a US company that valued one-on-ones, the author learned the importance of these meetings for personal growth and connection. The author also reflects on how the pandemic has changed the way one-on-ones are conducted and the lessons they have learned from them.

Acting Quickly To Resolve an Incident

Recently, a customer notified us of a bug on our platform that was preventing them from delivering documents to authorities. Our engineers were stuck for a few hours, so I was called in to help. I organized the team, collected accurate information, and identified the problem. We were able to recover the documents and strengthen our relationship with the customer. This experience was turned into institutional knowledge, and I shared step-by-step what I did. This incident taught us that by acting quickly we can turn a disadvantageous situation into a great opportunity.

Securing Support For a Revamped App

This article discusses the revamping of a cloud desktop app that was helping users download updated software. The revamping project included user research, prototyping, and data collection to showcase what users wanted/needed. The biggest challenge was convincing internal stakeholders, which was done by aligning the initiative to the overall benefit and conducting user research, prototyping, and data collection. The revamping was a success and lessons learned included understanding the product life cycle and how to get key internal stakeholders on board.

The Critical Role of User Research

This article discusses the experience of a product leader who joined an auspicious company in India when the Internet was taking off. To increase customer engagement, the leader created different user onboarding plans based on high-value actions users needed to perform. Through user research, the leader identified user habits and automated a playlist generation feature. With evidence from user feedback, the leader was able to convince top management and the app was ranked first on the Google Play store in India six or seven months after being launched. The article highlights the importance of understanding user behavior and not taking assumptions for granted.

When Your Manager Leaves

When the manager of one of the author's previous jobs left, an interim manager was appointed who had other priorities and couldn't help the author with their responsibilities. To overcome this, the author reached out to an experienced manager within the company to be their mentor, read books, articles, and blog posts, and subscribed to online courses to expand their knowledge. They also talked to their peers and received feedback from their reports and peers to help assess their performance. The author learned to be transparent, open-minded about feedback, and not hesitate to ask for peer review and mentorship.

Transitioning From a Large Company to a Startup

This article discusses the transition from a large, well-established company to a small startup. It outlines the challenges faced in an ambiguous environment with yet-to-mature processes, and the actions taken to find a balance between developing a structure for rapid scaling and allowing for some ambiguity. It also provides lessons learned, such as being clear about objectives, navigating across different domains, adapting to the context, and being open-minded to fluid processes.

Building a New Domain Team

This article discusses the process of reorganizing a startup's engineering teams from components to domains. The author explains the steps taken to build the new domain team from scratch, including providing a solid explanation of the change, formulating a team charter, and hiring engineers both internally and externally. The author also reflects on the lessons learned, such as aiming for different profiles more suitable for the mission, building rapport with the team early on, and starting small.

Strategic Thinking for Engineers

In a situation where a team was suffering from low velocity and technical debt, the individual contributor took it upon themselves to ask the existential questions of why the team exists and what it does, and proposed solutions to the leadership. These included contributing to the external team's code base, aligning organizational goals, and transitioning ownership of features to the platform team. The idea was well-received and the individual was given the opportunity to lead the initiative. This experience taught the individual the importance of taking a holistic look at how things are working and the opportunity to become more involved in organizational challenges.

Conscious Career Growth

This article discusses the journey of a software engineer who found themselves in a flat hierarchy and had to forge their own path for growth. Through self-awareness and introspection, they identified areas to improve, such as engineering processes, tech debt, and testing. They also took on advocacy roles, leading cross-functional projects and teams, and increasing their interpersonal skills. The article emphasizes the importance of understanding what matters to you and setting goals to achieve it.

Taking Over a New Team When Unfamiliar With the Domain

When the engineering lead of an umbrella team was replaced, the new lead had no experience in the ML infrastructure domain. To gain trust and understanding of the team, the new lead identified tech leads and talked to them to learn the vocabulary and context. They also talked to other teams to gain an outside perspective and leaned on trusted team members for help. In the end, the new lead was able to manage the team successfully without specific domain knowledge.

Making of a Bi-Directional, Prioritized Roadmap

A product roadmap was created for an application and platform product line that was overly detailed and caused long meetings. To improve the process, the product leaders created a list of priorities that were discussed and weighted against strategic initiatives. The top 3-4 priorities were chosen and presented to the rest of the team. The roadmap was then circulated to stakeholders and executives and was committed to. The lessons learned from this process were that the roadmap should have high-level themes, it should be both bottom-up and top-down, and all stakeholders should be included and executive buy-in should be secured before committing.

Scaling Processes in a Startup

When the back-end team at a past company grew from two senior developers to five, including the CTO, the team had to standardize their processes. To do this, they introduced weekly one-on-ones, team meetings, coding standards, and fire fighting rotation. Through this process, they learned that the first few people are critical in shaping the team, communication is key, knowledge should not be kept in silos, and gaps will always exist.

Pivoting Your Business During Covid-19

After the introduction of the lockdown, a tool designed to help local economies through flourishing local tourism and gastronomy had to pivot from its original idea. Through iterations and feedback from customers, the team found a burning need for virtual events that had both a learning and socializing aspect. The team learned that understanding the underlying needs of customers and being persistent in finding a solution are key to product development.

Collaborating and Brainstorming New Product Ideas in a Remote World

In order to bring together and align all functions in a remote environment, the author used different tools and processes, such as Zoom meetings, Slack, and Miro. They also implemented a structure that supported the remote environment, such as creating a slide deck to share with team members and having one-on-ones with individuals to better understand their motivations. Additionally, they were mindful of time and took breaks often, as well as added a bit of fun to the environment. These actions helped the team become comfortable with the ambiguity of the remote environment and allowed them to design the product and build a prototype.

Adopting Agile by Piloting Projects

The product director of a new company identified three challenges: inexperienced product management team, lack of true Agile processes, and lack of flexibility from the dev team. To address these issues, the director championed the adoption of a true Agile methodology, trained the team, and implemented a steering committee to ensure progress. Pilot projects were used to prove the effectiveness of the approach, and the results were shared with the rest of the dev organization. The successful rollout of Agile resulted in improved product quality, flexibility, and collaboration.

Advocating for Your Product

The author was working at a large company that was launching its next-generation applications, but their product was not scheduled to be included in the first release. To prevent their product from losing resources, demotivating the team, and losing traction in the marketplace, the author decided to fight for their product and team by presenting a case to the Executive VP. After doing research and building their case, the author was successful in convincing the Executive VP to include their product in the first release. The author learned that it is important to ask for what you want, make a simple and powerful case, and understand the internal strategy and goals of the executives.

Promoting the Same Product in Multiple Markets

In 2012, a team experimented with adding images to an ad on a renowned search results page in two markets, the United States and Taiwan. The experiment failed in the US due to inaccurate matching of images to queries, but was successful in Taiwan. Through customer research, it was found that users in Taiwan preferred an ad with an image, even if it was not relevant to the query. This led to a successful test of the product in the Taiwanese market. The key lessons learned were to research and evaluate markets before launching a product, different cultures have different tastes, and to always dig deeper to make changes to fit the market.

Multiple Scrum Teams Work on the Same Product

The Senior Product Manager was tasked with monetizing the sports and entertainment category of a search engine page, while other teams strived to create the best user experience. To solve this problem, the team redesigned the ad module to blur the boundaries between ads and information, and built a module with a partner to simplify the user experience and generate revenue. They also looked at the different search categories and figured out an algorithm to show ads only when the user had an intent to purchase. The lesson learned was to build a product that is inclusive and suits everyone's needs, and to find the middle ground with other teams.

Manage Default Product Settings for New and Existing Users

When one of the companies experienced a website failure, users resorted to calling the call centers. After analyzing the data, it was discovered that users were downloading a particular driver from the website with the default settings set to 64-bit machines, which caused a spike in call volumes. To solve the problem, the interface was changed so that the device would automatically select the right solution for the user, depending on the device configuration. This experience taught the importance of inclusive design, never assuming that users know or understand what they are doing, and dogfooding the product to anticipate user problems.

Four Common Challenges of a First-Time Manager

When the manager of a team left, the most senior person stepped in during the interim period. This person was surprised to find that technical competencies were not enough to be a successful manager, and had to learn soft skills on the fly. They also had to learn how to collaborate with other teams, deliver negative feedback, and keep track of team progress. In the end, they learned the importance of soft skills, the need for timely feedback, and the importance of tracking team progress.

One-On-Ones Through a Cultural Lens

This article reflects on the importance of one-on-one meetings, which the author did not have access to in Brazil. After joining a US company that valued one-on-ones, the author learned the importance of these meetings for personal growth and connection. The author also reflects on how the pandemic has changed the way one-on-ones are conducted and the lessons they have learned from them.

Acting Quickly To Resolve an Incident

Recently, a customer notified us of a bug on our platform that was preventing them from delivering documents to authorities. Our engineers were stuck for a few hours, so I was called in to help. I organized the team, collected accurate information, and identified the problem. We were able to recover the documents and strengthen our relationship with the customer. This experience was turned into institutional knowledge, and I shared step-by-step what I did. This incident taught us that by acting quickly we can turn a disadvantageous situation into a great opportunity.

Securing Support For a Revamped App

This article discusses the revamping of a cloud desktop app that was helping users download updated software. The revamping project included user research, prototyping, and data collection to showcase what users wanted/needed. The biggest challenge was convincing internal stakeholders, which was done by aligning the initiative to the overall benefit and conducting user research, prototyping, and data collection. The revamping was a success and lessons learned included understanding the product life cycle and how to get key internal stakeholders on board.

The Critical Role of User Research

This article discusses the experience of a product leader who joined an auspicious company in India when the Internet was taking off. To increase customer engagement, the leader created different user onboarding plans based on high-value actions users needed to perform. Through user research, the leader identified user habits and automated a playlist generation feature. With evidence from user feedback, the leader was able to convince top management and the app was ranked first on the Google Play store in India six or seven months after being launched. The article highlights the importance of understanding user behavior and not taking assumptions for granted.

When Your Manager Leaves

When the manager of one of the author's previous jobs left, an interim manager was appointed who had other priorities and couldn't help the author with their responsibilities. To overcome this, the author reached out to an experienced manager within the company to be their mentor, read books, articles, and blog posts, and subscribed to online courses to expand their knowledge. They also talked to their peers and received feedback from their reports and peers to help assess their performance. The author learned to be transparent, open-minded about feedback, and not hesitate to ask for peer review and mentorship.

Transitioning From a Large Company to a Startup

This article discusses the transition from a large, well-established company to a small startup. It outlines the challenges faced in an ambiguous environment with yet-to-mature processes, and the actions taken to find a balance between developing a structure for rapid scaling and allowing for some ambiguity. It also provides lessons learned, such as being clear about objectives, navigating across different domains, adapting to the context, and being open-minded to fluid processes.

Building a New Domain Team

This article discusses the process of reorganizing a startup's engineering teams from components to domains. The author explains the steps taken to build the new domain team from scratch, including providing a solid explanation of the change, formulating a team charter, and hiring engineers both internally and externally. The author also reflects on the lessons learned, such as aiming for different profiles more suitable for the mission, building rapport with the team early on, and starting small.

Strategic Thinking for Engineers

In a situation where a team was suffering from low velocity and technical debt, the individual contributor took it upon themselves to ask the existential questions of why the team exists and what it does, and proposed solutions to the leadership. These included contributing to the external team's code base, aligning organizational goals, and transitioning ownership of features to the platform team. The idea was well-received and the individual was given the opportunity to lead the initiative. This experience taught the individual the importance of taking a holistic look at how things are working and the opportunity to become more involved in organizational challenges.

Conscious Career Growth

This article discusses the journey of a software engineer who found themselves in a flat hierarchy and had to forge their own path for growth. Through self-awareness and introspection, they identified areas to improve, such as engineering processes, tech debt, and testing. They also took on advocacy roles, leading cross-functional projects and teams, and increasing their interpersonal skills. The article emphasizes the importance of understanding what matters to you and setting goals to achieve it.

Taking Over a New Team When Unfamiliar With the Domain

When the engineering lead of an umbrella team was replaced, the new lead had no experience in the ML infrastructure domain. To gain trust and understanding of the team, the new lead identified tech leads and talked to them to learn the vocabulary and context. They also talked to other teams to gain an outside perspective and leaned on trusted team members for help. In the end, the new lead was able to manage the team successfully without specific domain knowledge.

Making of a Bi-Directional, Prioritized Roadmap

A product roadmap was created for an application and platform product line that was overly detailed and caused long meetings. To improve the process, the product leaders created a list of priorities that were discussed and weighted against strategic initiatives. The top 3-4 priorities were chosen and presented to the rest of the team. The roadmap was then circulated to stakeholders and executives and was committed to. The lessons learned from this process were that the roadmap should have high-level themes, it should be both bottom-up and top-down, and all stakeholders should be included and executive buy-in should be secured before committing.

Scaling Processes in a Startup

When the back-end team at a past company grew from two senior developers to five, including the CTO, the team had to standardize their processes. To do this, they introduced weekly one-on-ones, team meetings, coding standards, and fire fighting rotation. Through this process, they learned that the first few people are critical in shaping the team, communication is key, knowledge should not be kept in silos, and gaps will always exist.

Pivoting Your Business During Covid-19

After the introduction of the lockdown, a tool designed to help local economies through flourishing local tourism and gastronomy had to pivot from its original idea. Through iterations and feedback from customers, the team found a burning need for virtual events that had both a learning and socializing aspect. The team learned that understanding the underlying needs of customers and being persistent in finding a solution are key to product development.

Collaborating and Brainstorming New Product Ideas in a Remote World

In order to bring together and align all functions in a remote environment, the author used different tools and processes, such as Zoom meetings, Slack, and Miro. They also implemented a structure that supported the remote environment, such as creating a slide deck to share with team members and having one-on-ones with individuals to better understand their motivations. Additionally, they were mindful of time and took breaks often, as well as added a bit of fun to the environment. These actions helped the team become comfortable with the ambiguity of the remote environment and allowed them to design the product and build a prototype.

Adopting Agile by Piloting Projects

The product director of a new company identified three challenges: inexperienced product management team, lack of true Agile processes, and lack of flexibility from the dev team. To address these issues, the director championed the adoption of a true Agile methodology, trained the team, and implemented a steering committee to ensure progress. Pilot projects were used to prove the effectiveness of the approach, and the results were shared with the rest of the dev organization. The successful rollout of Agile resulted in improved product quality, flexibility, and collaboration.

Advocating for Your Product

The author was working at a large company that was launching its next-generation applications, but their product was not scheduled to be included in the first release. To prevent their product from losing resources, demotivating the team, and losing traction in the marketplace, the author decided to fight for their product and team by presenting a case to the Executive VP. After doing research and building their case, the author was successful in convincing the Executive VP to include their product in the first release. The author learned that it is important to ask for what you want, make a simple and powerful case, and understand the internal strategy and goals of the executives.

Promoting the Same Product in Multiple Markets

In 2012, a team experimented with adding images to an ad on a renowned search results page in two markets, the United States and Taiwan. The experiment failed in the US due to inaccurate matching of images to queries, but was successful in Taiwan. Through customer research, it was found that users in Taiwan preferred an ad with an image, even if it was not relevant to the query. This led to a successful test of the product in the Taiwanese market. The key lessons learned were to research and evaluate markets before launching a product, different cultures have different tastes, and to always dig deeper to make changes to fit the market.

Multiple Scrum Teams Work on the Same Product

The Senior Product Manager was tasked with monetizing the sports and entertainment category of a search engine page, while other teams strived to create the best user experience. To solve this problem, the team redesigned the ad module to blur the boundaries between ads and information, and built a module with a partner to simplify the user experience and generate revenue. They also looked at the different search categories and figured out an algorithm to show ads only when the user had an intent to purchase. The lesson learned was to build a product that is inclusive and suits everyone's needs, and to find the middle ground with other teams.

Manage Default Product Settings for New and Existing Users

When one of the companies experienced a website failure, users resorted to calling the call centers. After analyzing the data, it was discovered that users were downloading a particular driver from the website with the default settings set to 64-bit machines, which caused a spike in call volumes. To solve the problem, the interface was changed so that the device would automatically select the right solution for the user, depending on the device configuration. This experience taught the importance of inclusive design, never assuming that users know or understand what they are doing, and dogfooding the product to anticipate user problems.

Four Common Challenges of a First-Time Manager

When the manager of a team left, the most senior person stepped in during the interim period. This person was surprised to find that technical competencies were not enough to be a successful manager, and had to learn soft skills on the fly. They also had to learn how to collaborate with other teams, deliver negative feedback, and keep track of team progress. In the end, they learned the importance of soft skills, the need for timely feedback, and the importance of tracking team progress.

One-On-Ones Through a Cultural Lens

This article reflects on the importance of one-on-one meetings, which the author did not have access to in Brazil. After joining a US company that valued one-on-ones, the author learned the importance of these meetings for personal growth and connection. The author also reflects on how the pandemic has changed the way one-on-ones are conducted and the lessons they have learned from them.

Acting Quickly To Resolve an Incident

Recently, a customer notified us of a bug on our platform that was preventing them from delivering documents to authorities. Our engineers were stuck for a few hours, so I was called in to help. I organized the team, collected accurate information, and identified the problem. We were able to recover the documents and strengthen our relationship with the customer. This experience was turned into institutional knowledge, and I shared step-by-step what I did. This incident taught us that by acting quickly we can turn a disadvantageous situation into a great opportunity.

Securing Support For a Revamped App

This article discusses the revamping of a cloud desktop app that was helping users download updated software. The revamping project included user research, prototyping, and data collection to showcase what users wanted/needed. The biggest challenge was convincing internal stakeholders, which was done by aligning the initiative to the overall benefit and conducting user research, prototyping, and data collection. The revamping was a success and lessons learned included understanding the product life cycle and how to get key internal stakeholders on board.

The Critical Role of User Research

This article discusses the experience of a product leader who joined an auspicious company in India when the Internet was taking off. To increase customer engagement, the leader created different user onboarding plans based on high-value actions users needed to perform. Through user research, the leader identified user habits and automated a playlist generation feature. With evidence from user feedback, the leader was able to convince top management and the app was ranked first on the Google Play store in India six or seven months after being launched. The article highlights the importance of understanding user behavior and not taking assumptions for granted.

When Your Manager Leaves

When the manager of one of the author's previous jobs left, an interim manager was appointed who had other priorities and couldn't help the author with their responsibilities. To overcome this, the author reached out to an experienced manager within the company to be their mentor, read books, articles, and blog posts, and subscribed to online courses to expand their knowledge. They also talked to their peers and received feedback from their reports and peers to help assess their performance. The author learned to be transparent, open-minded about feedback, and not hesitate to ask for peer review and mentorship.

Transitioning From a Large Company to a Startup

This article discusses the transition from a large, well-established company to a small startup. It outlines the challenges faced in an ambiguous environment with yet-to-mature processes, and the actions taken to find a balance between developing a structure for rapid scaling and allowing for some ambiguity. It also provides lessons learned, such as being clear about objectives, navigating across different domains, adapting to the context, and being open-minded to fluid processes.

Building a New Domain Team

This article discusses the process of reorganizing a startup's engineering teams from components to domains. The author explains the steps taken to build the new domain team from scratch, including providing a solid explanation of the change, formulating a team charter, and hiring engineers both internally and externally. The author also reflects on the lessons learned, such as aiming for different profiles more suitable for the mission, building rapport with the team early on, and starting small.

Strategic Thinking for Engineers

In a situation where a team was suffering from low velocity and technical debt, the individual contributor took it upon themselves to ask the existential questions of why the team exists and what it does, and proposed solutions to the leadership. These included contributing to the external team's code base, aligning organizational goals, and transitioning ownership of features to the platform team. The idea was well-received and the individual was given the opportunity to lead the initiative. This experience taught the individual the importance of taking a holistic look at how things are working and the opportunity to become more involved in organizational challenges.

Conscious Career Growth

This article discusses the journey of a software engineer who found themselves in a flat hierarchy and had to forge their own path for growth. Through self-awareness and introspection, they identified areas to improve, such as engineering processes, tech debt, and testing. They also took on advocacy roles, leading cross-functional projects and teams, and increasing their interpersonal skills. The article emphasizes the importance of understanding what matters to you and setting goals to achieve it.