Knowledge shared by our community

Budgeting Troubles and Headcount Costs

This article discusses the problem of insufficient resources for an engineering team and the actions taken to address it. The author proposed a 100% increase in the size of the team, but the proposal was not approved by the Board and CEO. The author learned lessons about prioritizing with the budget given, making the most of decisions made by others, and understanding the motivations of the CEO.

A Founder’s Dilemma: Choosing Between Technology and Customers

This article discusses the importance of understanding customer needs and not getting too caught up in the technical details of building a product. It emphasizes the need for founders to become emotionally detached from their products and to talk to other founders and get an advisor to help them prioritize their priorities. Ultimately, the goal is to build something that customers are looking for and to focus on customer needs rather than the latest technology.

Building Trust or Doing a Reorg

A senior engineering leader was assigned a team that was deeply demoralized and barely functional. Instead of taking a shortcut and firing people, the leader decided to create a psychologically safe environment by talking openly about their own failures and struggles. This helped the team open up and share their concerns. The leader then reshuffled the team cross-functionally, redefined responsibilities, and opened up communication channels. The leader learned that it is important to make the right choice, gain the trust of the team, and show empathy in order to be successful.

Two Key Elements of a New Manager’s Mindset

A new manager must break away from an IC mindset and develop a go-ahead approach, while also taking the time to reflect and prioritize. Keeping a brag document and delegating tasks to team members can help a manager become successful in their new role. Additionally, it is important to identify the most important problems and make them a priority.

Introducing Engineering Design

The team was struggling to meet goals due to feedback coming too late in the development cycle. To address this, the manager introduced a new step in the process - engineering design - to provide feedback before any code was written. This was met with skepticism, but ultimately resulted in increased velocity, better code quality, improved morale, and better collaboration. The manager learned to be attentive to the team's complaints and to approach problems creatively.

When Words Bear More Weight

As a manager, the author found it difficult to provide technical input or opinion in meetings without it being taken as a directive. To combat this, the author decided to be the last to speak in meetings, take notes, and prompt engineers to share their opinions. The author also tried to bring it up in one-on-ones and encourage the team to push back on their proposals. The author learned that as a leader, it is important to provide context and encourage collaboration, and to be aware of how much weight their words carry.

The Pursuit of Impact: My First Year at Netflix

When joining Netflix as an Engineer Director for API Systems, the author was overwhelmed by the competing priorities of ramping up on the team, immersing in the hiring process, defining the team's vision, and conducting 1x1s with team members. To be effective, the author realized that all of these activities were part of the same team building life cycle of design, hire, learn, and grow. To achieve true clarity, the author recommends creating safety for issues to be debated openly, being intellectually curious, creating margin for yourself, and sourcing with intention. To make a stunning hire, the author suggests viewing each interview as a piece to a puzzle, having a set process, and addressing areas of bias. To create a learning environment, the author recommends creating margin for the team to learn and grow, pairing program, and normalizing trying new things. To grow individuals, the author suggests learning the strengths and areas of improvement for each team member, building a feedback culture, and fostering diversity of thought. Finally, the author emphasizes the importance of flexibility as each phase will inform the other.

Securing Buy-In for New Metrics

After introducing metrics to measure the times from pull requests being open and interacted with to being completed and merged, the team cohesion strengthened and the team started to operate more like a team. Initially, the team was skeptical of the metrics, but they soon realized that the metrics provided them with more ammunition when it came to performance assessment and salary reviews. Communication was key to securing buy-in and enforcing a data-driven culture. Metrics around reviews, pull requests, bug meantime to resolution, and the amount of time spent on a story combined with its estimate were all found to be successful.

Why Hiring Juniors

Hiring juniors has many benefits, such as creating a community of support, loyalty, and cost-effectiveness. However, there are also drawbacks, such as slower execution and unpredictable output. Lessons learned from hiring juniors include the long-term payoffs, the enthusiasm and passion they bring to the company, and the opportunity for senior engineers to mentor and teach.

Hiring a CTO… and Letting Them Go

When hiring a new CTO, it is important to find a candidate that can align with the company culture while still pushing it forward. After the new CTO was hired, they started introducing changes that caused discontent and communication issues. This led to a realization that the company should have critically evaluated the changes and paid more attention to communication styles. It was also important to listen to the grumbling of longer-employed staff members and investigate their complaints. In the future, the hiring process should put more emphasis on communication styles and critically evaluate the areas where the company wants to grow.

How to Unlock the Potential of Your Average Engineer

A manager had an engineer on their team who was not reaching their full potential. After some investigation, it was found that the engineer had a distorted understanding of proactivity and needed more confidence. Through one-on-ones and including them in product sync meetings, the engineer was able to gain more confidence and become a key contributor on the team. The manager learned that different companies have different mechanisms to steer up the performance discussion and that they should provide their engineers with both complexity and comfort in order to empower them to grow. They should also give feedback in real-time and be careful how they deliver it as average-performing engineers tend to underestimate their performance.

Managing Career Growth of Your Reports

Managers have the important and rewarding responsibility of taking care of and supporting the career growth of their reports. This should be done in a planned manner, with monthly career growth conversations to discuss goals and aspirations. Examples are given of how to help a report transition to a more technical role and to help them get a promotion. It is important to be proactive and to put the right mechanisms in place to help reports grow, as it is too late to talk about career growth when they have already decided to leave.

How to Drive a Team Vision as a First-Time Manager

A first-time manager took over a team that lacked vision and a roadmap. To set up the team vision, the manager had to understand the business goals, identify how the team could contribute, and learn from customers. By prioritizing heavily and getting buy-in from stakeholders, the team was able to create a roadmap document and increase job satisfaction. The manager also established an informal feedback mechanism with customers and was able to reduce the bi-weekly planning time from 90 minutes to 30 minutes.

How to Be Acquired

After a company was acquired, the VP of Software Development was demoted and had their salary reduced. They initially reacted with anger, but eventually learned to take ownership of the acquisition and the success of the transition. They embraced the new company's values, built relationships, and shielded their team from the disruptions. The lesson learned is to accept the acquisition and be a servant leader, focusing on helping the team through the transition and implementing the acquiring company's must-have changes immediately.

In-House Mentorship Program: Creating Learning Opportunities for Engineers

The manager of a small office at a large company wanted to provide their engineers with new challenges and growth opportunities. To do this, they created an open-source based, in-house mentorship program run company-wide. This allowed engineers to connect with top tech experts and work on open source projects, expanding their knowledge and skills. Through this program, lasting mentorship relationships were established and the company as a whole benefited. The manager learned that building relationships across different offices is important and managers should look beyond local experience to find learning opportunities for their engineers.

Developing a Career Development Plan

This article discusses the need for a career development plan and the steps taken to create one. The author created a framework that combines different available resources and approaches, such as performance reviews, Insights Discovery, and the Intent Matrix. The framework consists of three parts: core values, strengths and areas for improvement, and a vision. The author also emphasizes the importance of having supporters to help with the journey. The article also highlights the importance of having a simple, comprehensive plan that connects different levels and provides clear benefits.

Being Explicit About a Work-Life Balance

In this case study, the author was working on a project with a tight deadline and put in extra time in the evenings and weekends to unblock things. However, the team saw this and felt they had to do the same, leading to burnout. After realizing the problem, the author had to apologize and reset expectations with the team, emphasizing that the schedule was not the most important thing. The author also had to be careful about when they did extra work and be explicit with the team if they needed to make an exception. In the end, the team was able to maintain a more sustainable level of effort and avoid burnout. The author learned that people tend to observe behavior closely and to be careful about how work-life balance is perceived.

When Being Helpful Backfires

A team needed to launch an experiment early and needed to be able to sell their product. The tech lead proposed forking the code into a sandbox, but the team had a lot of work to do and it would be disruptive. After realizing the tech lead had a misunderstanding of the schedule, the team convinced the tech lead that forking the code was a bad idea. The other team decided to fork the code anyway, and the tech lead learned lessons about being more aware of the broader dynamics before making a recommendation and making sure to know what they are talking about.

Delivering a New Beta Product on a Tight Deadline

The technical lead engineer had to decide between two design options for a new product with a tight deadline. They chose to build it on a new stack, even though it was not mature yet, as it would be better situated for the long run. After convincing other teams to support them, they released the demo by the deadline, but it was cut from the demo. However, they were able to develop it into a product for an open beta. The lesson learned was that it was worth the extra care and pain to build it the right way upfront so that they could get feedback and iterate on it.

Improving Peer Review Practice

This case study looks at how two teams with different approaches to building a training system for a piece of military equipment were able to successfully collaborate. The team with more product experience focused on building with high quality for the long run, while the other team was focused on rapid prototyping. To bridge the gap between the two cultures, the team with more experience embedded their engineers with the other team, publicly demonstrated good peer review practices, and emphasized the value of good reviews. Through this process, the team was able to successfully collaborate and deliver a high-quality product.

Budgeting Troubles and Headcount Costs

This article discusses the problem of insufficient resources for an engineering team and the actions taken to address it. The author proposed a 100% increase in the size of the team, but the proposal was not approved by the Board and CEO. The author learned lessons about prioritizing with the budget given, making the most of decisions made by others, and understanding the motivations of the CEO.

A Founder’s Dilemma: Choosing Between Technology and Customers

This article discusses the importance of understanding customer needs and not getting too caught up in the technical details of building a product. It emphasizes the need for founders to become emotionally detached from their products and to talk to other founders and get an advisor to help them prioritize their priorities. Ultimately, the goal is to build something that customers are looking for and to focus on customer needs rather than the latest technology.

Building Trust or Doing a Reorg

A senior engineering leader was assigned a team that was deeply demoralized and barely functional. Instead of taking a shortcut and firing people, the leader decided to create a psychologically safe environment by talking openly about their own failures and struggles. This helped the team open up and share their concerns. The leader then reshuffled the team cross-functionally, redefined responsibilities, and opened up communication channels. The leader learned that it is important to make the right choice, gain the trust of the team, and show empathy in order to be successful.

Two Key Elements of a New Manager’s Mindset

A new manager must break away from an IC mindset and develop a go-ahead approach, while also taking the time to reflect and prioritize. Keeping a brag document and delegating tasks to team members can help a manager become successful in their new role. Additionally, it is important to identify the most important problems and make them a priority.

Introducing Engineering Design

The team was struggling to meet goals due to feedback coming too late in the development cycle. To address this, the manager introduced a new step in the process - engineering design - to provide feedback before any code was written. This was met with skepticism, but ultimately resulted in increased velocity, better code quality, improved morale, and better collaboration. The manager learned to be attentive to the team's complaints and to approach problems creatively.

When Words Bear More Weight

As a manager, the author found it difficult to provide technical input or opinion in meetings without it being taken as a directive. To combat this, the author decided to be the last to speak in meetings, take notes, and prompt engineers to share their opinions. The author also tried to bring it up in one-on-ones and encourage the team to push back on their proposals. The author learned that as a leader, it is important to provide context and encourage collaboration, and to be aware of how much weight their words carry.

The Pursuit of Impact: My First Year at Netflix

When joining Netflix as an Engineer Director for API Systems, the author was overwhelmed by the competing priorities of ramping up on the team, immersing in the hiring process, defining the team's vision, and conducting 1x1s with team members. To be effective, the author realized that all of these activities were part of the same team building life cycle of design, hire, learn, and grow. To achieve true clarity, the author recommends creating safety for issues to be debated openly, being intellectually curious, creating margin for yourself, and sourcing with intention. To make a stunning hire, the author suggests viewing each interview as a piece to a puzzle, having a set process, and addressing areas of bias. To create a learning environment, the author recommends creating margin for the team to learn and grow, pairing program, and normalizing trying new things. To grow individuals, the author suggests learning the strengths and areas of improvement for each team member, building a feedback culture, and fostering diversity of thought. Finally, the author emphasizes the importance of flexibility as each phase will inform the other.

Securing Buy-In for New Metrics

After introducing metrics to measure the times from pull requests being open and interacted with to being completed and merged, the team cohesion strengthened and the team started to operate more like a team. Initially, the team was skeptical of the metrics, but they soon realized that the metrics provided them with more ammunition when it came to performance assessment and salary reviews. Communication was key to securing buy-in and enforcing a data-driven culture. Metrics around reviews, pull requests, bug meantime to resolution, and the amount of time spent on a story combined with its estimate were all found to be successful.

Why Hiring Juniors

Hiring juniors has many benefits, such as creating a community of support, loyalty, and cost-effectiveness. However, there are also drawbacks, such as slower execution and unpredictable output. Lessons learned from hiring juniors include the long-term payoffs, the enthusiasm and passion they bring to the company, and the opportunity for senior engineers to mentor and teach.

Hiring a CTO… and Letting Them Go

When hiring a new CTO, it is important to find a candidate that can align with the company culture while still pushing it forward. After the new CTO was hired, they started introducing changes that caused discontent and communication issues. This led to a realization that the company should have critically evaluated the changes and paid more attention to communication styles. It was also important to listen to the grumbling of longer-employed staff members and investigate their complaints. In the future, the hiring process should put more emphasis on communication styles and critically evaluate the areas where the company wants to grow.

How to Unlock the Potential of Your Average Engineer

A manager had an engineer on their team who was not reaching their full potential. After some investigation, it was found that the engineer had a distorted understanding of proactivity and needed more confidence. Through one-on-ones and including them in product sync meetings, the engineer was able to gain more confidence and become a key contributor on the team. The manager learned that different companies have different mechanisms to steer up the performance discussion and that they should provide their engineers with both complexity and comfort in order to empower them to grow. They should also give feedback in real-time and be careful how they deliver it as average-performing engineers tend to underestimate their performance.

Managing Career Growth of Your Reports

Managers have the important and rewarding responsibility of taking care of and supporting the career growth of their reports. This should be done in a planned manner, with monthly career growth conversations to discuss goals and aspirations. Examples are given of how to help a report transition to a more technical role and to help them get a promotion. It is important to be proactive and to put the right mechanisms in place to help reports grow, as it is too late to talk about career growth when they have already decided to leave.

How to Drive a Team Vision as a First-Time Manager

A first-time manager took over a team that lacked vision and a roadmap. To set up the team vision, the manager had to understand the business goals, identify how the team could contribute, and learn from customers. By prioritizing heavily and getting buy-in from stakeholders, the team was able to create a roadmap document and increase job satisfaction. The manager also established an informal feedback mechanism with customers and was able to reduce the bi-weekly planning time from 90 minutes to 30 minutes.

How to Be Acquired

After a company was acquired, the VP of Software Development was demoted and had their salary reduced. They initially reacted with anger, but eventually learned to take ownership of the acquisition and the success of the transition. They embraced the new company's values, built relationships, and shielded their team from the disruptions. The lesson learned is to accept the acquisition and be a servant leader, focusing on helping the team through the transition and implementing the acquiring company's must-have changes immediately.

In-House Mentorship Program: Creating Learning Opportunities for Engineers

The manager of a small office at a large company wanted to provide their engineers with new challenges and growth opportunities. To do this, they created an open-source based, in-house mentorship program run company-wide. This allowed engineers to connect with top tech experts and work on open source projects, expanding their knowledge and skills. Through this program, lasting mentorship relationships were established and the company as a whole benefited. The manager learned that building relationships across different offices is important and managers should look beyond local experience to find learning opportunities for their engineers.

Developing a Career Development Plan

This article discusses the need for a career development plan and the steps taken to create one. The author created a framework that combines different available resources and approaches, such as performance reviews, Insights Discovery, and the Intent Matrix. The framework consists of three parts: core values, strengths and areas for improvement, and a vision. The author also emphasizes the importance of having supporters to help with the journey. The article also highlights the importance of having a simple, comprehensive plan that connects different levels and provides clear benefits.

Being Explicit About a Work-Life Balance

In this case study, the author was working on a project with a tight deadline and put in extra time in the evenings and weekends to unblock things. However, the team saw this and felt they had to do the same, leading to burnout. After realizing the problem, the author had to apologize and reset expectations with the team, emphasizing that the schedule was not the most important thing. The author also had to be careful about when they did extra work and be explicit with the team if they needed to make an exception. In the end, the team was able to maintain a more sustainable level of effort and avoid burnout. The author learned that people tend to observe behavior closely and to be careful about how work-life balance is perceived.

When Being Helpful Backfires

A team needed to launch an experiment early and needed to be able to sell their product. The tech lead proposed forking the code into a sandbox, but the team had a lot of work to do and it would be disruptive. After realizing the tech lead had a misunderstanding of the schedule, the team convinced the tech lead that forking the code was a bad idea. The other team decided to fork the code anyway, and the tech lead learned lessons about being more aware of the broader dynamics before making a recommendation and making sure to know what they are talking about.

Delivering a New Beta Product on a Tight Deadline

The technical lead engineer had to decide between two design options for a new product with a tight deadline. They chose to build it on a new stack, even though it was not mature yet, as it would be better situated for the long run. After convincing other teams to support them, they released the demo by the deadline, but it was cut from the demo. However, they were able to develop it into a product for an open beta. The lesson learned was that it was worth the extra care and pain to build it the right way upfront so that they could get feedback and iterate on it.

Improving Peer Review Practice

This case study looks at how two teams with different approaches to building a training system for a piece of military equipment were able to successfully collaborate. The team with more product experience focused on building with high quality for the long run, while the other team was focused on rapid prototyping. To bridge the gap between the two cultures, the team with more experience embedded their engineers with the other team, publicly demonstrated good peer review practices, and emphasized the value of good reviews. Through this process, the team was able to successfully collaborate and deliver a high-quality product.

Budgeting Troubles and Headcount Costs

This article discusses the problem of insufficient resources for an engineering team and the actions taken to address it. The author proposed a 100% increase in the size of the team, but the proposal was not approved by the Board and CEO. The author learned lessons about prioritizing with the budget given, making the most of decisions made by others, and understanding the motivations of the CEO.

A Founder’s Dilemma: Choosing Between Technology and Customers

This article discusses the importance of understanding customer needs and not getting too caught up in the technical details of building a product. It emphasizes the need for founders to become emotionally detached from their products and to talk to other founders and get an advisor to help them prioritize their priorities. Ultimately, the goal is to build something that customers are looking for and to focus on customer needs rather than the latest technology.

Building Trust or Doing a Reorg

A senior engineering leader was assigned a team that was deeply demoralized and barely functional. Instead of taking a shortcut and firing people, the leader decided to create a psychologically safe environment by talking openly about their own failures and struggles. This helped the team open up and share their concerns. The leader then reshuffled the team cross-functionally, redefined responsibilities, and opened up communication channels. The leader learned that it is important to make the right choice, gain the trust of the team, and show empathy in order to be successful.

Two Key Elements of a New Manager’s Mindset

A new manager must break away from an IC mindset and develop a go-ahead approach, while also taking the time to reflect and prioritize. Keeping a brag document and delegating tasks to team members can help a manager become successful in their new role. Additionally, it is important to identify the most important problems and make them a priority.

Introducing Engineering Design

The team was struggling to meet goals due to feedback coming too late in the development cycle. To address this, the manager introduced a new step in the process - engineering design - to provide feedback before any code was written. This was met with skepticism, but ultimately resulted in increased velocity, better code quality, improved morale, and better collaboration. The manager learned to be attentive to the team's complaints and to approach problems creatively.

When Words Bear More Weight

As a manager, the author found it difficult to provide technical input or opinion in meetings without it being taken as a directive. To combat this, the author decided to be the last to speak in meetings, take notes, and prompt engineers to share their opinions. The author also tried to bring it up in one-on-ones and encourage the team to push back on their proposals. The author learned that as a leader, it is important to provide context and encourage collaboration, and to be aware of how much weight their words carry.

The Pursuit of Impact: My First Year at Netflix

When joining Netflix as an Engineer Director for API Systems, the author was overwhelmed by the competing priorities of ramping up on the team, immersing in the hiring process, defining the team's vision, and conducting 1x1s with team members. To be effective, the author realized that all of these activities were part of the same team building life cycle of design, hire, learn, and grow. To achieve true clarity, the author recommends creating safety for issues to be debated openly, being intellectually curious, creating margin for yourself, and sourcing with intention. To make a stunning hire, the author suggests viewing each interview as a piece to a puzzle, having a set process, and addressing areas of bias. To create a learning environment, the author recommends creating margin for the team to learn and grow, pairing program, and normalizing trying new things. To grow individuals, the author suggests learning the strengths and areas of improvement for each team member, building a feedback culture, and fostering diversity of thought. Finally, the author emphasizes the importance of flexibility as each phase will inform the other.

Securing Buy-In for New Metrics

After introducing metrics to measure the times from pull requests being open and interacted with to being completed and merged, the team cohesion strengthened and the team started to operate more like a team. Initially, the team was skeptical of the metrics, but they soon realized that the metrics provided them with more ammunition when it came to performance assessment and salary reviews. Communication was key to securing buy-in and enforcing a data-driven culture. Metrics around reviews, pull requests, bug meantime to resolution, and the amount of time spent on a story combined with its estimate were all found to be successful.

Why Hiring Juniors

Hiring juniors has many benefits, such as creating a community of support, loyalty, and cost-effectiveness. However, there are also drawbacks, such as slower execution and unpredictable output. Lessons learned from hiring juniors include the long-term payoffs, the enthusiasm and passion they bring to the company, and the opportunity for senior engineers to mentor and teach.

Hiring a CTO… and Letting Them Go

When hiring a new CTO, it is important to find a candidate that can align with the company culture while still pushing it forward. After the new CTO was hired, they started introducing changes that caused discontent and communication issues. This led to a realization that the company should have critically evaluated the changes and paid more attention to communication styles. It was also important to listen to the grumbling of longer-employed staff members and investigate their complaints. In the future, the hiring process should put more emphasis on communication styles and critically evaluate the areas where the company wants to grow.

How to Unlock the Potential of Your Average Engineer

A manager had an engineer on their team who was not reaching their full potential. After some investigation, it was found that the engineer had a distorted understanding of proactivity and needed more confidence. Through one-on-ones and including them in product sync meetings, the engineer was able to gain more confidence and become a key contributor on the team. The manager learned that different companies have different mechanisms to steer up the performance discussion and that they should provide their engineers with both complexity and comfort in order to empower them to grow. They should also give feedback in real-time and be careful how they deliver it as average-performing engineers tend to underestimate their performance.

Managing Career Growth of Your Reports

Managers have the important and rewarding responsibility of taking care of and supporting the career growth of their reports. This should be done in a planned manner, with monthly career growth conversations to discuss goals and aspirations. Examples are given of how to help a report transition to a more technical role and to help them get a promotion. It is important to be proactive and to put the right mechanisms in place to help reports grow, as it is too late to talk about career growth when they have already decided to leave.

How to Drive a Team Vision as a First-Time Manager

A first-time manager took over a team that lacked vision and a roadmap. To set up the team vision, the manager had to understand the business goals, identify how the team could contribute, and learn from customers. By prioritizing heavily and getting buy-in from stakeholders, the team was able to create a roadmap document and increase job satisfaction. The manager also established an informal feedback mechanism with customers and was able to reduce the bi-weekly planning time from 90 minutes to 30 minutes.

How to Be Acquired

After a company was acquired, the VP of Software Development was demoted and had their salary reduced. They initially reacted with anger, but eventually learned to take ownership of the acquisition and the success of the transition. They embraced the new company's values, built relationships, and shielded their team from the disruptions. The lesson learned is to accept the acquisition and be a servant leader, focusing on helping the team through the transition and implementing the acquiring company's must-have changes immediately.

In-House Mentorship Program: Creating Learning Opportunities for Engineers

The manager of a small office at a large company wanted to provide their engineers with new challenges and growth opportunities. To do this, they created an open-source based, in-house mentorship program run company-wide. This allowed engineers to connect with top tech experts and work on open source projects, expanding their knowledge and skills. Through this program, lasting mentorship relationships were established and the company as a whole benefited. The manager learned that building relationships across different offices is important and managers should look beyond local experience to find learning opportunities for their engineers.

Developing a Career Development Plan

This article discusses the need for a career development plan and the steps taken to create one. The author created a framework that combines different available resources and approaches, such as performance reviews, Insights Discovery, and the Intent Matrix. The framework consists of three parts: core values, strengths and areas for improvement, and a vision. The author also emphasizes the importance of having supporters to help with the journey. The article also highlights the importance of having a simple, comprehensive plan that connects different levels and provides clear benefits.

Being Explicit About a Work-Life Balance

In this case study, the author was working on a project with a tight deadline and put in extra time in the evenings and weekends to unblock things. However, the team saw this and felt they had to do the same, leading to burnout. After realizing the problem, the author had to apologize and reset expectations with the team, emphasizing that the schedule was not the most important thing. The author also had to be careful about when they did extra work and be explicit with the team if they needed to make an exception. In the end, the team was able to maintain a more sustainable level of effort and avoid burnout. The author learned that people tend to observe behavior closely and to be careful about how work-life balance is perceived.

When Being Helpful Backfires

A team needed to launch an experiment early and needed to be able to sell their product. The tech lead proposed forking the code into a sandbox, but the team had a lot of work to do and it would be disruptive. After realizing the tech lead had a misunderstanding of the schedule, the team convinced the tech lead that forking the code was a bad idea. The other team decided to fork the code anyway, and the tech lead learned lessons about being more aware of the broader dynamics before making a recommendation and making sure to know what they are talking about.

Delivering a New Beta Product on a Tight Deadline

The technical lead engineer had to decide between two design options for a new product with a tight deadline. They chose to build it on a new stack, even though it was not mature yet, as it would be better situated for the long run. After convincing other teams to support them, they released the demo by the deadline, but it was cut from the demo. However, they were able to develop it into a product for an open beta. The lesson learned was that it was worth the extra care and pain to build it the right way upfront so that they could get feedback and iterate on it.

Improving Peer Review Practice

This case study looks at how two teams with different approaches to building a training system for a piece of military equipment were able to successfully collaborate. The team with more product experience focused on building with high quality for the long run, while the other team was focused on rapid prototyping. To bridge the gap between the two cultures, the team with more experience embedded their engineers with the other team, publicly demonstrated good peer review practices, and emphasized the value of good reviews. Through this process, the team was able to successfully collaborate and deliver a high-quality product.

Budgeting Troubles and Headcount Costs

This article discusses the problem of insufficient resources for an engineering team and the actions taken to address it. The author proposed a 100% increase in the size of the team, but the proposal was not approved by the Board and CEO. The author learned lessons about prioritizing with the budget given, making the most of decisions made by others, and understanding the motivations of the CEO.

A Founder’s Dilemma: Choosing Between Technology and Customers

This article discusses the importance of understanding customer needs and not getting too caught up in the technical details of building a product. It emphasizes the need for founders to become emotionally detached from their products and to talk to other founders and get an advisor to help them prioritize their priorities. Ultimately, the goal is to build something that customers are looking for and to focus on customer needs rather than the latest technology.

Building Trust or Doing a Reorg

A senior engineering leader was assigned a team that was deeply demoralized and barely functional. Instead of taking a shortcut and firing people, the leader decided to create a psychologically safe environment by talking openly about their own failures and struggles. This helped the team open up and share their concerns. The leader then reshuffled the team cross-functionally, redefined responsibilities, and opened up communication channels. The leader learned that it is important to make the right choice, gain the trust of the team, and show empathy in order to be successful.

Two Key Elements of a New Manager’s Mindset

A new manager must break away from an IC mindset and develop a go-ahead approach, while also taking the time to reflect and prioritize. Keeping a brag document and delegating tasks to team members can help a manager become successful in their new role. Additionally, it is important to identify the most important problems and make them a priority.

Introducing Engineering Design

The team was struggling to meet goals due to feedback coming too late in the development cycle. To address this, the manager introduced a new step in the process - engineering design - to provide feedback before any code was written. This was met with skepticism, but ultimately resulted in increased velocity, better code quality, improved morale, and better collaboration. The manager learned to be attentive to the team's complaints and to approach problems creatively.

When Words Bear More Weight

As a manager, the author found it difficult to provide technical input or opinion in meetings without it being taken as a directive. To combat this, the author decided to be the last to speak in meetings, take notes, and prompt engineers to share their opinions. The author also tried to bring it up in one-on-ones and encourage the team to push back on their proposals. The author learned that as a leader, it is important to provide context and encourage collaboration, and to be aware of how much weight their words carry.

The Pursuit of Impact: My First Year at Netflix

When joining Netflix as an Engineer Director for API Systems, the author was overwhelmed by the competing priorities of ramping up on the team, immersing in the hiring process, defining the team's vision, and conducting 1x1s with team members. To be effective, the author realized that all of these activities were part of the same team building life cycle of design, hire, learn, and grow. To achieve true clarity, the author recommends creating safety for issues to be debated openly, being intellectually curious, creating margin for yourself, and sourcing with intention. To make a stunning hire, the author suggests viewing each interview as a piece to a puzzle, having a set process, and addressing areas of bias. To create a learning environment, the author recommends creating margin for the team to learn and grow, pairing program, and normalizing trying new things. To grow individuals, the author suggests learning the strengths and areas of improvement for each team member, building a feedback culture, and fostering diversity of thought. Finally, the author emphasizes the importance of flexibility as each phase will inform the other.

Securing Buy-In for New Metrics

After introducing metrics to measure the times from pull requests being open and interacted with to being completed and merged, the team cohesion strengthened and the team started to operate more like a team. Initially, the team was skeptical of the metrics, but they soon realized that the metrics provided them with more ammunition when it came to performance assessment and salary reviews. Communication was key to securing buy-in and enforcing a data-driven culture. Metrics around reviews, pull requests, bug meantime to resolution, and the amount of time spent on a story combined with its estimate were all found to be successful.

Why Hiring Juniors

Hiring juniors has many benefits, such as creating a community of support, loyalty, and cost-effectiveness. However, there are also drawbacks, such as slower execution and unpredictable output. Lessons learned from hiring juniors include the long-term payoffs, the enthusiasm and passion they bring to the company, and the opportunity for senior engineers to mentor and teach.

Hiring a CTO… and Letting Them Go

When hiring a new CTO, it is important to find a candidate that can align with the company culture while still pushing it forward. After the new CTO was hired, they started introducing changes that caused discontent and communication issues. This led to a realization that the company should have critically evaluated the changes and paid more attention to communication styles. It was also important to listen to the grumbling of longer-employed staff members and investigate their complaints. In the future, the hiring process should put more emphasis on communication styles and critically evaluate the areas where the company wants to grow.

How to Unlock the Potential of Your Average Engineer

A manager had an engineer on their team who was not reaching their full potential. After some investigation, it was found that the engineer had a distorted understanding of proactivity and needed more confidence. Through one-on-ones and including them in product sync meetings, the engineer was able to gain more confidence and become a key contributor on the team. The manager learned that different companies have different mechanisms to steer up the performance discussion and that they should provide their engineers with both complexity and comfort in order to empower them to grow. They should also give feedback in real-time and be careful how they deliver it as average-performing engineers tend to underestimate their performance.

Managing Career Growth of Your Reports

Managers have the important and rewarding responsibility of taking care of and supporting the career growth of their reports. This should be done in a planned manner, with monthly career growth conversations to discuss goals and aspirations. Examples are given of how to help a report transition to a more technical role and to help them get a promotion. It is important to be proactive and to put the right mechanisms in place to help reports grow, as it is too late to talk about career growth when they have already decided to leave.

How to Drive a Team Vision as a First-Time Manager

A first-time manager took over a team that lacked vision and a roadmap. To set up the team vision, the manager had to understand the business goals, identify how the team could contribute, and learn from customers. By prioritizing heavily and getting buy-in from stakeholders, the team was able to create a roadmap document and increase job satisfaction. The manager also established an informal feedback mechanism with customers and was able to reduce the bi-weekly planning time from 90 minutes to 30 minutes.

How to Be Acquired

After a company was acquired, the VP of Software Development was demoted and had their salary reduced. They initially reacted with anger, but eventually learned to take ownership of the acquisition and the success of the transition. They embraced the new company's values, built relationships, and shielded their team from the disruptions. The lesson learned is to accept the acquisition and be a servant leader, focusing on helping the team through the transition and implementing the acquiring company's must-have changes immediately.

In-House Mentorship Program: Creating Learning Opportunities for Engineers

The manager of a small office at a large company wanted to provide their engineers with new challenges and growth opportunities. To do this, they created an open-source based, in-house mentorship program run company-wide. This allowed engineers to connect with top tech experts and work on open source projects, expanding their knowledge and skills. Through this program, lasting mentorship relationships were established and the company as a whole benefited. The manager learned that building relationships across different offices is important and managers should look beyond local experience to find learning opportunities for their engineers.

Developing a Career Development Plan

This article discusses the need for a career development plan and the steps taken to create one. The author created a framework that combines different available resources and approaches, such as performance reviews, Insights Discovery, and the Intent Matrix. The framework consists of three parts: core values, strengths and areas for improvement, and a vision. The author also emphasizes the importance of having supporters to help with the journey. The article also highlights the importance of having a simple, comprehensive plan that connects different levels and provides clear benefits.

Being Explicit About a Work-Life Balance

In this case study, the author was working on a project with a tight deadline and put in extra time in the evenings and weekends to unblock things. However, the team saw this and felt they had to do the same, leading to burnout. After realizing the problem, the author had to apologize and reset expectations with the team, emphasizing that the schedule was not the most important thing. The author also had to be careful about when they did extra work and be explicit with the team if they needed to make an exception. In the end, the team was able to maintain a more sustainable level of effort and avoid burnout. The author learned that people tend to observe behavior closely and to be careful about how work-life balance is perceived.

When Being Helpful Backfires

A team needed to launch an experiment early and needed to be able to sell their product. The tech lead proposed forking the code into a sandbox, but the team had a lot of work to do and it would be disruptive. After realizing the tech lead had a misunderstanding of the schedule, the team convinced the tech lead that forking the code was a bad idea. The other team decided to fork the code anyway, and the tech lead learned lessons about being more aware of the broader dynamics before making a recommendation and making sure to know what they are talking about.

Delivering a New Beta Product on a Tight Deadline

The technical lead engineer had to decide between two design options for a new product with a tight deadline. They chose to build it on a new stack, even though it was not mature yet, as it would be better situated for the long run. After convincing other teams to support them, they released the demo by the deadline, but it was cut from the demo. However, they were able to develop it into a product for an open beta. The lesson learned was that it was worth the extra care and pain to build it the right way upfront so that they could get feedback and iterate on it.

Improving Peer Review Practice

This case study looks at how two teams with different approaches to building a training system for a piece of military equipment were able to successfully collaborate. The team with more product experience focused on building with high quality for the long run, while the other team was focused on rapid prototyping. To bridge the gap between the two cultures, the team with more experience embedded their engineers with the other team, publicly demonstrated good peer review practices, and emphasized the value of good reviews. Through this process, the team was able to successfully collaborate and deliver a high-quality product.

Budgeting Troubles and Headcount Costs

This article discusses the problem of insufficient resources for an engineering team and the actions taken to address it. The author proposed a 100% increase in the size of the team, but the proposal was not approved by the Board and CEO. The author learned lessons about prioritizing with the budget given, making the most of decisions made by others, and understanding the motivations of the CEO.

A Founder’s Dilemma: Choosing Between Technology and Customers

This article discusses the importance of understanding customer needs and not getting too caught up in the technical details of building a product. It emphasizes the need for founders to become emotionally detached from their products and to talk to other founders and get an advisor to help them prioritize their priorities. Ultimately, the goal is to build something that customers are looking for and to focus on customer needs rather than the latest technology.

Building Trust or Doing a Reorg

A senior engineering leader was assigned a team that was deeply demoralized and barely functional. Instead of taking a shortcut and firing people, the leader decided to create a psychologically safe environment by talking openly about their own failures and struggles. This helped the team open up and share their concerns. The leader then reshuffled the team cross-functionally, redefined responsibilities, and opened up communication channels. The leader learned that it is important to make the right choice, gain the trust of the team, and show empathy in order to be successful.

Two Key Elements of a New Manager’s Mindset

A new manager must break away from an IC mindset and develop a go-ahead approach, while also taking the time to reflect and prioritize. Keeping a brag document and delegating tasks to team members can help a manager become successful in their new role. Additionally, it is important to identify the most important problems and make them a priority.

Introducing Engineering Design

The team was struggling to meet goals due to feedback coming too late in the development cycle. To address this, the manager introduced a new step in the process - engineering design - to provide feedback before any code was written. This was met with skepticism, but ultimately resulted in increased velocity, better code quality, improved morale, and better collaboration. The manager learned to be attentive to the team's complaints and to approach problems creatively.

When Words Bear More Weight

As a manager, the author found it difficult to provide technical input or opinion in meetings without it being taken as a directive. To combat this, the author decided to be the last to speak in meetings, take notes, and prompt engineers to share their opinions. The author also tried to bring it up in one-on-ones and encourage the team to push back on their proposals. The author learned that as a leader, it is important to provide context and encourage collaboration, and to be aware of how much weight their words carry.

The Pursuit of Impact: My First Year at Netflix

When joining Netflix as an Engineer Director for API Systems, the author was overwhelmed by the competing priorities of ramping up on the team, immersing in the hiring process, defining the team's vision, and conducting 1x1s with team members. To be effective, the author realized that all of these activities were part of the same team building life cycle of design, hire, learn, and grow. To achieve true clarity, the author recommends creating safety for issues to be debated openly, being intellectually curious, creating margin for yourself, and sourcing with intention. To make a stunning hire, the author suggests viewing each interview as a piece to a puzzle, having a set process, and addressing areas of bias. To create a learning environment, the author recommends creating margin for the team to learn and grow, pairing program, and normalizing trying new things. To grow individuals, the author suggests learning the strengths and areas of improvement for each team member, building a feedback culture, and fostering diversity of thought. Finally, the author emphasizes the importance of flexibility as each phase will inform the other.

Securing Buy-In for New Metrics

After introducing metrics to measure the times from pull requests being open and interacted with to being completed and merged, the team cohesion strengthened and the team started to operate more like a team. Initially, the team was skeptical of the metrics, but they soon realized that the metrics provided them with more ammunition when it came to performance assessment and salary reviews. Communication was key to securing buy-in and enforcing a data-driven culture. Metrics around reviews, pull requests, bug meantime to resolution, and the amount of time spent on a story combined with its estimate were all found to be successful.

Why Hiring Juniors

Hiring juniors has many benefits, such as creating a community of support, loyalty, and cost-effectiveness. However, there are also drawbacks, such as slower execution and unpredictable output. Lessons learned from hiring juniors include the long-term payoffs, the enthusiasm and passion they bring to the company, and the opportunity for senior engineers to mentor and teach.

Hiring a CTO… and Letting Them Go

When hiring a new CTO, it is important to find a candidate that can align with the company culture while still pushing it forward. After the new CTO was hired, they started introducing changes that caused discontent and communication issues. This led to a realization that the company should have critically evaluated the changes and paid more attention to communication styles. It was also important to listen to the grumbling of longer-employed staff members and investigate their complaints. In the future, the hiring process should put more emphasis on communication styles and critically evaluate the areas where the company wants to grow.

How to Unlock the Potential of Your Average Engineer

A manager had an engineer on their team who was not reaching their full potential. After some investigation, it was found that the engineer had a distorted understanding of proactivity and needed more confidence. Through one-on-ones and including them in product sync meetings, the engineer was able to gain more confidence and become a key contributor on the team. The manager learned that different companies have different mechanisms to steer up the performance discussion and that they should provide their engineers with both complexity and comfort in order to empower them to grow. They should also give feedback in real-time and be careful how they deliver it as average-performing engineers tend to underestimate their performance.

Managing Career Growth of Your Reports

Managers have the important and rewarding responsibility of taking care of and supporting the career growth of their reports. This should be done in a planned manner, with monthly career growth conversations to discuss goals and aspirations. Examples are given of how to help a report transition to a more technical role and to help them get a promotion. It is important to be proactive and to put the right mechanisms in place to help reports grow, as it is too late to talk about career growth when they have already decided to leave.

How to Drive a Team Vision as a First-Time Manager

A first-time manager took over a team that lacked vision and a roadmap. To set up the team vision, the manager had to understand the business goals, identify how the team could contribute, and learn from customers. By prioritizing heavily and getting buy-in from stakeholders, the team was able to create a roadmap document and increase job satisfaction. The manager also established an informal feedback mechanism with customers and was able to reduce the bi-weekly planning time from 90 minutes to 30 minutes.

How to Be Acquired

After a company was acquired, the VP of Software Development was demoted and had their salary reduced. They initially reacted with anger, but eventually learned to take ownership of the acquisition and the success of the transition. They embraced the new company's values, built relationships, and shielded their team from the disruptions. The lesson learned is to accept the acquisition and be a servant leader, focusing on helping the team through the transition and implementing the acquiring company's must-have changes immediately.

In-House Mentorship Program: Creating Learning Opportunities for Engineers

The manager of a small office at a large company wanted to provide their engineers with new challenges and growth opportunities. To do this, they created an open-source based, in-house mentorship program run company-wide. This allowed engineers to connect with top tech experts and work on open source projects, expanding their knowledge and skills. Through this program, lasting mentorship relationships were established and the company as a whole benefited. The manager learned that building relationships across different offices is important and managers should look beyond local experience to find learning opportunities for their engineers.

Developing a Career Development Plan

This article discusses the need for a career development plan and the steps taken to create one. The author created a framework that combines different available resources and approaches, such as performance reviews, Insights Discovery, and the Intent Matrix. The framework consists of three parts: core values, strengths and areas for improvement, and a vision. The author also emphasizes the importance of having supporters to help with the journey. The article also highlights the importance of having a simple, comprehensive plan that connects different levels and provides clear benefits.

Being Explicit About a Work-Life Balance

In this case study, the author was working on a project with a tight deadline and put in extra time in the evenings and weekends to unblock things. However, the team saw this and felt they had to do the same, leading to burnout. After realizing the problem, the author had to apologize and reset expectations with the team, emphasizing that the schedule was not the most important thing. The author also had to be careful about when they did extra work and be explicit with the team if they needed to make an exception. In the end, the team was able to maintain a more sustainable level of effort and avoid burnout. The author learned that people tend to observe behavior closely and to be careful about how work-life balance is perceived.

When Being Helpful Backfires

A team needed to launch an experiment early and needed to be able to sell their product. The tech lead proposed forking the code into a sandbox, but the team had a lot of work to do and it would be disruptive. After realizing the tech lead had a misunderstanding of the schedule, the team convinced the tech lead that forking the code was a bad idea. The other team decided to fork the code anyway, and the tech lead learned lessons about being more aware of the broader dynamics before making a recommendation and making sure to know what they are talking about.

Delivering a New Beta Product on a Tight Deadline

The technical lead engineer had to decide between two design options for a new product with a tight deadline. They chose to build it on a new stack, even though it was not mature yet, as it would be better situated for the long run. After convincing other teams to support them, they released the demo by the deadline, but it was cut from the demo. However, they were able to develop it into a product for an open beta. The lesson learned was that it was worth the extra care and pain to build it the right way upfront so that they could get feedback and iterate on it.

Improving Peer Review Practice

This case study looks at how two teams with different approaches to building a training system for a piece of military equipment were able to successfully collaborate. The team with more product experience focused on building with high quality for the long run, while the other team was focused on rapid prototyping. To bridge the gap between the two cultures, the team with more experience embedded their engineers with the other team, publicly demonstrated good peer review practices, and emphasized the value of good reviews. Through this process, the team was able to successfully collaborate and deliver a high-quality product.

Budgeting Troubles and Headcount Costs

This article discusses the problem of insufficient resources for an engineering team and the actions taken to address it. The author proposed a 100% increase in the size of the team, but the proposal was not approved by the Board and CEO. The author learned lessons about prioritizing with the budget given, making the most of decisions made by others, and understanding the motivations of the CEO.

A Founder’s Dilemma: Choosing Between Technology and Customers

This article discusses the importance of understanding customer needs and not getting too caught up in the technical details of building a product. It emphasizes the need for founders to become emotionally detached from their products and to talk to other founders and get an advisor to help them prioritize their priorities. Ultimately, the goal is to build something that customers are looking for and to focus on customer needs rather than the latest technology.

Building Trust or Doing a Reorg

A senior engineering leader was assigned a team that was deeply demoralized and barely functional. Instead of taking a shortcut and firing people, the leader decided to create a psychologically safe environment by talking openly about their own failures and struggles. This helped the team open up and share their concerns. The leader then reshuffled the team cross-functionally, redefined responsibilities, and opened up communication channels. The leader learned that it is important to make the right choice, gain the trust of the team, and show empathy in order to be successful.

Two Key Elements of a New Manager’s Mindset

A new manager must break away from an IC mindset and develop a go-ahead approach, while also taking the time to reflect and prioritize. Keeping a brag document and delegating tasks to team members can help a manager become successful in their new role. Additionally, it is important to identify the most important problems and make them a priority.

Introducing Engineering Design

The team was struggling to meet goals due to feedback coming too late in the development cycle. To address this, the manager introduced a new step in the process - engineering design - to provide feedback before any code was written. This was met with skepticism, but ultimately resulted in increased velocity, better code quality, improved morale, and better collaboration. The manager learned to be attentive to the team's complaints and to approach problems creatively.

When Words Bear More Weight

As a manager, the author found it difficult to provide technical input or opinion in meetings without it being taken as a directive. To combat this, the author decided to be the last to speak in meetings, take notes, and prompt engineers to share their opinions. The author also tried to bring it up in one-on-ones and encourage the team to push back on their proposals. The author learned that as a leader, it is important to provide context and encourage collaboration, and to be aware of how much weight their words carry.

The Pursuit of Impact: My First Year at Netflix

When joining Netflix as an Engineer Director for API Systems, the author was overwhelmed by the competing priorities of ramping up on the team, immersing in the hiring process, defining the team's vision, and conducting 1x1s with team members. To be effective, the author realized that all of these activities were part of the same team building life cycle of design, hire, learn, and grow. To achieve true clarity, the author recommends creating safety for issues to be debated openly, being intellectually curious, creating margin for yourself, and sourcing with intention. To make a stunning hire, the author suggests viewing each interview as a piece to a puzzle, having a set process, and addressing areas of bias. To create a learning environment, the author recommends creating margin for the team to learn and grow, pairing program, and normalizing trying new things. To grow individuals, the author suggests learning the strengths and areas of improvement for each team member, building a feedback culture, and fostering diversity of thought. Finally, the author emphasizes the importance of flexibility as each phase will inform the other.

Securing Buy-In for New Metrics

After introducing metrics to measure the times from pull requests being open and interacted with to being completed and merged, the team cohesion strengthened and the team started to operate more like a team. Initially, the team was skeptical of the metrics, but they soon realized that the metrics provided them with more ammunition when it came to performance assessment and salary reviews. Communication was key to securing buy-in and enforcing a data-driven culture. Metrics around reviews, pull requests, bug meantime to resolution, and the amount of time spent on a story combined with its estimate were all found to be successful.

Why Hiring Juniors

Hiring juniors has many benefits, such as creating a community of support, loyalty, and cost-effectiveness. However, there are also drawbacks, such as slower execution and unpredictable output. Lessons learned from hiring juniors include the long-term payoffs, the enthusiasm and passion they bring to the company, and the opportunity for senior engineers to mentor and teach.

Hiring a CTO… and Letting Them Go

When hiring a new CTO, it is important to find a candidate that can align with the company culture while still pushing it forward. After the new CTO was hired, they started introducing changes that caused discontent and communication issues. This led to a realization that the company should have critically evaluated the changes and paid more attention to communication styles. It was also important to listen to the grumbling of longer-employed staff members and investigate their complaints. In the future, the hiring process should put more emphasis on communication styles and critically evaluate the areas where the company wants to grow.

How to Unlock the Potential of Your Average Engineer

A manager had an engineer on their team who was not reaching their full potential. After some investigation, it was found that the engineer had a distorted understanding of proactivity and needed more confidence. Through one-on-ones and including them in product sync meetings, the engineer was able to gain more confidence and become a key contributor on the team. The manager learned that different companies have different mechanisms to steer up the performance discussion and that they should provide their engineers with both complexity and comfort in order to empower them to grow. They should also give feedback in real-time and be careful how they deliver it as average-performing engineers tend to underestimate their performance.

Managing Career Growth of Your Reports

Managers have the important and rewarding responsibility of taking care of and supporting the career growth of their reports. This should be done in a planned manner, with monthly career growth conversations to discuss goals and aspirations. Examples are given of how to help a report transition to a more technical role and to help them get a promotion. It is important to be proactive and to put the right mechanisms in place to help reports grow, as it is too late to talk about career growth when they have already decided to leave.

How to Drive a Team Vision as a First-Time Manager

A first-time manager took over a team that lacked vision and a roadmap. To set up the team vision, the manager had to understand the business goals, identify how the team could contribute, and learn from customers. By prioritizing heavily and getting buy-in from stakeholders, the team was able to create a roadmap document and increase job satisfaction. The manager also established an informal feedback mechanism with customers and was able to reduce the bi-weekly planning time from 90 minutes to 30 minutes.

How to Be Acquired

After a company was acquired, the VP of Software Development was demoted and had their salary reduced. They initially reacted with anger, but eventually learned to take ownership of the acquisition and the success of the transition. They embraced the new company's values, built relationships, and shielded their team from the disruptions. The lesson learned is to accept the acquisition and be a servant leader, focusing on helping the team through the transition and implementing the acquiring company's must-have changes immediately.

In-House Mentorship Program: Creating Learning Opportunities for Engineers

The manager of a small office at a large company wanted to provide their engineers with new challenges and growth opportunities. To do this, they created an open-source based, in-house mentorship program run company-wide. This allowed engineers to connect with top tech experts and work on open source projects, expanding their knowledge and skills. Through this program, lasting mentorship relationships were established and the company as a whole benefited. The manager learned that building relationships across different offices is important and managers should look beyond local experience to find learning opportunities for their engineers.

Developing a Career Development Plan

This article discusses the need for a career development plan and the steps taken to create one. The author created a framework that combines different available resources and approaches, such as performance reviews, Insights Discovery, and the Intent Matrix. The framework consists of three parts: core values, strengths and areas for improvement, and a vision. The author also emphasizes the importance of having supporters to help with the journey. The article also highlights the importance of having a simple, comprehensive plan that connects different levels and provides clear benefits.

Being Explicit About a Work-Life Balance

In this case study, the author was working on a project with a tight deadline and put in extra time in the evenings and weekends to unblock things. However, the team saw this and felt they had to do the same, leading to burnout. After realizing the problem, the author had to apologize and reset expectations with the team, emphasizing that the schedule was not the most important thing. The author also had to be careful about when they did extra work and be explicit with the team if they needed to make an exception. In the end, the team was able to maintain a more sustainable level of effort and avoid burnout. The author learned that people tend to observe behavior closely and to be careful about how work-life balance is perceived.

When Being Helpful Backfires

A team needed to launch an experiment early and needed to be able to sell their product. The tech lead proposed forking the code into a sandbox, but the team had a lot of work to do and it would be disruptive. After realizing the tech lead had a misunderstanding of the schedule, the team convinced the tech lead that forking the code was a bad idea. The other team decided to fork the code anyway, and the tech lead learned lessons about being more aware of the broader dynamics before making a recommendation and making sure to know what they are talking about.

Delivering a New Beta Product on a Tight Deadline

The technical lead engineer had to decide between two design options for a new product with a tight deadline. They chose to build it on a new stack, even though it was not mature yet, as it would be better situated for the long run. After convincing other teams to support them, they released the demo by the deadline, but it was cut from the demo. However, they were able to develop it into a product for an open beta. The lesson learned was that it was worth the extra care and pain to build it the right way upfront so that they could get feedback and iterate on it.

Improving Peer Review Practice

This case study looks at how two teams with different approaches to building a training system for a piece of military equipment were able to successfully collaborate. The team with more product experience focused on building with high quality for the long run, while the other team was focused on rapid prototyping. To bridge the gap between the two cultures, the team with more experience embedded their engineers with the other team, publicly demonstrated good peer review practices, and emphasized the value of good reviews. Through this process, the team was able to successfully collaborate and deliver a high-quality product.