Knowledge shared by our community

Hackathons Are Life

This article is about the author's experience in a hackathon, where they competed against another team to build a Chrome Extension that would inform users if they were purchasing an item with illegally sourced or environmentally harmful ingredients. The author's team was able to ship to the Chrome Web Store and win the hackathon, while the other team was still architecting. The author learned that hackathons can be a great way to emulate real life, as they force teams to focus on fast release cycles and produce the simplest solutions that gain the most benefit. The author also suggests that when evaluating a new tool, framework, language, etc., it is best to do a hackathon with it to test it out.

Why Would Anyone Mob Program? (an intro)

Mob Programming is a concept where a team of ~3-5 works together on a single feature, with only one person typing at a time. It is a difficult process to go from troll-coding to mobbing, but it is an incredibly valuable and efficient experience. It is slow, but the quality of work produced is multiple times better than what a single developer can create. It also allows for full domain knowledge of the system developed, and one member of the mob can represent the team in meetings.

Unlocking the Power of Product Management for Startup CTOs

This article explores the art of product management and how CTOs can use it to drive innovation and success. It covers core components, the importance of a strong CTO-product manager alliance, strategies for aligning engineering and product strategies with business objectives, and tips for implementing product management within an organisation. Agile methodologies and building high-trust empowered product teams are also discussed. By mastering these concepts, CTOs can unlock the power of product management to drive innovation and success.

Navigating the Maze of Technical Debt: A Startup's Survival Guide

In this blog post, the author discusses the concept of technical debt and its impact on startups. They explain that technical debt is the accumulated cost of quick fixes and workarounds in software development, which can slow down product development, reduce agility, lower quality, and compromise resilience. The author provides strategies to manage and mitigate technical debt, such as prioritizing debt reduction, maintaining a technical debt register, establishing coding standards, investing in continuous learning, and balancing short and long-term goals. They also discuss how to identify and prioritize technical debt for maximum value, including using code metrics, analyzing code churn and bug density, and leveraging team feedback. The author concludes by emphasizing the importance of understanding technical debt and adopting effective management strategies to maintain agility and successfully adapt to market changes.

How to balance the technical and business aspects of running an AI startup, as a technical person.

Success in AI startups requires a balance between technical and business aspects. This can be achieved by looking at things from a return on investment perspective, focusing on solving real business problems, being pragmatic in technical decisions, and surrounding yourself with business-minded people. Additionally, it is important to visit customers to gain a better understanding of their needs and develop technology that truly addresses their problems. Ultimately, the key to success is to stay focused on creating value for customers.

Tackling Technical Debt: A Crucial Step Towards Enhanced Productivity

Technical debt can be a major issue for companies, as it can decrease productivity and derail focus from delivering new features. To manage this, it is important to quantify, monitor, and highlight technical debt, and to allocate a proportion of team velocity to refactoring and technical debt elimination. It is also important to uphold consistent and high standards, and to use metrics to persuade management to allocate resources to tackle technical debt.

Working Effectively In a Remote Environment

This article outlines the best practices that were adopted to ensure business continuity during the Covid-19 pandemic. These practices included fostering a self-service mindset, promoting asynchronous communication, and providing clear communication guidelines. These measures allowed for streamlined onboarding, improved meeting efficiency, and reduced distractions. As we continue to adapt to the remote-first era, these best practices will be essential in charting our path forward.

Navigating Strategy, Innovation, and Change in the Technology Landscape

This article outlines strategies for CTOs to create an effective and agile strategy-making process. It encourages leveraging customer feedback, market validation, and competitor analysis to make data-driven decisions. It also suggests forming cross-functional teams, incorporating diversity and inclusion, and leveraging renowned strategy frameworks. Additionally, it outlines the importance of continuous learning and adaptation, and provides resources and advice on conducting market research.

On Hiring: A Guide for Startup CTOs

This article provides CTOs of startups with strategies to create a transparent recruitment process that leads to trust-based technical teams. It covers topics such as crafting a concise and engaging job ad, collaborating with recruiters, and keeping job listings up-to-date. Additionally, it outlines two different approaches to recruiting for a startup, and suggests a hybrid model of recruiting that combines the benefits of working with a recruiter and being hands-on in the hiring process. It also emphasizes the importance of being transparent about salary expectations and involving the team in the recruitment process. Finally, it suggests regular communication with potential candidates and providing constructive feedback if they are not selected for a role. These strategies will help CTOs connect with diverse, talented candidates and build a cohesive team ready to drive their startup’s success.

Peacetime and Wartime Leadership in the Technology Industry: A CTO's Perspective

This article explores the concept of Peacetime and Wartime CTOs, drawing inspiration from the teachings of Ben Horowitz and Andrew S. Grove. It defines the role of the CTO as an engineering leader and innovator, and outlines the characteristics and responsibilities of Peacetime and Wartime CTOs. It also discusses the challenges CTOs face during wartime and strategies for addressing them. By understanding these distinct roles and their responsibilities, technology leaders can better navigate their organisations through periods of growth and stability, as well as times of crisis and intense competition.

Small vs complex pull requests

Small pull requests can lead to faster review cycles, improved collaboration, reduced merge conflicts, better code maintainability, easier troubleshooting, and incremental progress. Uplevel metrics can help measure the usage of small pull requests and assess their effectiveness. This approach can enhance collaboration, accelerate the development cycle, and foster a culture of agility and efficiency within engineering teams.

Deep work, the connection to increased productivity and reducing the risk of burnout...

Deep work can lead to increased productivity, higher-quality output, and more innovative solutions, as well as reduced employee burnout. To promote deep work, stakeholders should be made aware of its value and policies should be implemented to support it. Uplevel can be used to measure deep work in an organization.

Creating and fostering a safe environment

Fostering a safe and empowering work environment for developers is essential for encouraging experimentation, increasing productivity, and retaining top talent. Engineering leaders can create such an environment by encouraging open communication, fostering a learning culture, and providing autonomy. To measure the success of creating a safe environment, metrics such as productivity, value delivered, employee turnover rate, and employee engagement surveys can be used.

The Power of influence inside software engineering

This post discusses the importance of influence in a software engineering career. It is not to undervalue the technical perspective, but to emphasize the need for visibility inside and outside the organization. It outlines several ways to increase visibility, such as company posts, personal posts, conferences, and open-source. The post emphasizes that investing time in being visible is essential for career growth.

Should You Quit Your Job to Pursue Your Business Idea?

Quitting your job to pursue a business idea is a big decision and should not be taken lightly. Before making the leap, consider your financial situation, the demand for your product or service, the skills and resources you need, and the risks involved. Seek advice from experts and make sure you are passionate and committed to your idea. With the right preparation and mindset, you can turn your passion into a successful business.

4 E's of Leadership

Jack Welch developed a leadership assessment for GE that is easily transferable to other industries. The assessment is based on the 4Es of leadership - energy, energize, edge, and execution - and involves assessing a leader's energy, ability to energize others, edge in dealing with conflict and making tough decisions, and ability to execute strategies and achieve strategic plans. By assessing leaders based on the 4Es and working on an effective development plan, organizations can reach higher levels of success.

Performing Focused Work in a Distracted World

Deep Work is a state of distraction-free concentration for extended periods of time, allowing for enhanced productivity and unique output. To implement Deep Work, one must integrate it into their schedule, embrace boredom, quit social media, and limit shallow work. Deep Work will help manage time, increase productivity, and provide a sense of fulfillment.

Beware the Empathy Trap

Empathy in leadership is gaining attention due to its connection to employee engagement and well-being. However, it can be ineffective and even harmful if used incorrectly. It is important to understand the potential downside of empathy and find the right balance of support for team members. Pity, sympathy, and compassion are other emotions that can help empower team members without draining the leader's energy.

Applying The Rules of IKIGAI for a more fulfilled life!

The book "IKIGAI: The Japanese Secret To a Long and Happy Life" by Héctor García and Francesc Miralles distills 10 rules from the wisdom of the long-living residents of Ogimi, a small village in Okinawa, Japan. These rules, which could be interpreted as lifestyle habits that enable the senior residents of Ogami to live long and enjoy their ikigai, include staying active, taking it slow, not filling your stomach, surrounding yourself with good friends, getting in shape for your next birthday, smiling, reconnecting with nature, giving thanks to your ancestors and nature, living in the moment, and following your ikigai. These rules can be adopted to improve health and well-being and discover and live one's ikigai.

Relationships, like products, need to be designed.

Relationships are essential to great design work, and as SVP of Platform User Experience at Salesforce, the author has learned that design leaders are the designers of the relationships on their teams, with executives, and across their organization. To cultivate relationships to design better products, the author suggests prioritizing differences when building teams, extending the hand of collaboration across the organization, and advocating for the value of design with executives. These steps involve looking for hires with “less” experience, creating space for healthy discord, and telling stories that unlock the value of design for non-designers.

Hackathons Are Life

This article is about the author's experience in a hackathon, where they competed against another team to build a Chrome Extension that would inform users if they were purchasing an item with illegally sourced or environmentally harmful ingredients. The author's team was able to ship to the Chrome Web Store and win the hackathon, while the other team was still architecting. The author learned that hackathons can be a great way to emulate real life, as they force teams to focus on fast release cycles and produce the simplest solutions that gain the most benefit. The author also suggests that when evaluating a new tool, framework, language, etc., it is best to do a hackathon with it to test it out.

Why Would Anyone Mob Program? (an intro)

Mob Programming is a concept where a team of ~3-5 works together on a single feature, with only one person typing at a time. It is a difficult process to go from troll-coding to mobbing, but it is an incredibly valuable and efficient experience. It is slow, but the quality of work produced is multiple times better than what a single developer can create. It also allows for full domain knowledge of the system developed, and one member of the mob can represent the team in meetings.

Unlocking the Power of Product Management for Startup CTOs

This article explores the art of product management and how CTOs can use it to drive innovation and success. It covers core components, the importance of a strong CTO-product manager alliance, strategies for aligning engineering and product strategies with business objectives, and tips for implementing product management within an organisation. Agile methodologies and building high-trust empowered product teams are also discussed. By mastering these concepts, CTOs can unlock the power of product management to drive innovation and success.

Navigating the Maze of Technical Debt: A Startup's Survival Guide

In this blog post, the author discusses the concept of technical debt and its impact on startups. They explain that technical debt is the accumulated cost of quick fixes and workarounds in software development, which can slow down product development, reduce agility, lower quality, and compromise resilience. The author provides strategies to manage and mitigate technical debt, such as prioritizing debt reduction, maintaining a technical debt register, establishing coding standards, investing in continuous learning, and balancing short and long-term goals. They also discuss how to identify and prioritize technical debt for maximum value, including using code metrics, analyzing code churn and bug density, and leveraging team feedback. The author concludes by emphasizing the importance of understanding technical debt and adopting effective management strategies to maintain agility and successfully adapt to market changes.

How to balance the technical and business aspects of running an AI startup, as a technical person.

Success in AI startups requires a balance between technical and business aspects. This can be achieved by looking at things from a return on investment perspective, focusing on solving real business problems, being pragmatic in technical decisions, and surrounding yourself with business-minded people. Additionally, it is important to visit customers to gain a better understanding of their needs and develop technology that truly addresses their problems. Ultimately, the key to success is to stay focused on creating value for customers.

Tackling Technical Debt: A Crucial Step Towards Enhanced Productivity

Technical debt can be a major issue for companies, as it can decrease productivity and derail focus from delivering new features. To manage this, it is important to quantify, monitor, and highlight technical debt, and to allocate a proportion of team velocity to refactoring and technical debt elimination. It is also important to uphold consistent and high standards, and to use metrics to persuade management to allocate resources to tackle technical debt.

Working Effectively In a Remote Environment

This article outlines the best practices that were adopted to ensure business continuity during the Covid-19 pandemic. These practices included fostering a self-service mindset, promoting asynchronous communication, and providing clear communication guidelines. These measures allowed for streamlined onboarding, improved meeting efficiency, and reduced distractions. As we continue to adapt to the remote-first era, these best practices will be essential in charting our path forward.

Navigating Strategy, Innovation, and Change in the Technology Landscape

This article outlines strategies for CTOs to create an effective and agile strategy-making process. It encourages leveraging customer feedback, market validation, and competitor analysis to make data-driven decisions. It also suggests forming cross-functional teams, incorporating diversity and inclusion, and leveraging renowned strategy frameworks. Additionally, it outlines the importance of continuous learning and adaptation, and provides resources and advice on conducting market research.

On Hiring: A Guide for Startup CTOs

This article provides CTOs of startups with strategies to create a transparent recruitment process that leads to trust-based technical teams. It covers topics such as crafting a concise and engaging job ad, collaborating with recruiters, and keeping job listings up-to-date. Additionally, it outlines two different approaches to recruiting for a startup, and suggests a hybrid model of recruiting that combines the benefits of working with a recruiter and being hands-on in the hiring process. It also emphasizes the importance of being transparent about salary expectations and involving the team in the recruitment process. Finally, it suggests regular communication with potential candidates and providing constructive feedback if they are not selected for a role. These strategies will help CTOs connect with diverse, talented candidates and build a cohesive team ready to drive their startup’s success.

Peacetime and Wartime Leadership in the Technology Industry: A CTO's Perspective

This article explores the concept of Peacetime and Wartime CTOs, drawing inspiration from the teachings of Ben Horowitz and Andrew S. Grove. It defines the role of the CTO as an engineering leader and innovator, and outlines the characteristics and responsibilities of Peacetime and Wartime CTOs. It also discusses the challenges CTOs face during wartime and strategies for addressing them. By understanding these distinct roles and their responsibilities, technology leaders can better navigate their organisations through periods of growth and stability, as well as times of crisis and intense competition.

Small vs complex pull requests

Small pull requests can lead to faster review cycles, improved collaboration, reduced merge conflicts, better code maintainability, easier troubleshooting, and incremental progress. Uplevel metrics can help measure the usage of small pull requests and assess their effectiveness. This approach can enhance collaboration, accelerate the development cycle, and foster a culture of agility and efficiency within engineering teams.

Deep work, the connection to increased productivity and reducing the risk of burnout...

Deep work can lead to increased productivity, higher-quality output, and more innovative solutions, as well as reduced employee burnout. To promote deep work, stakeholders should be made aware of its value and policies should be implemented to support it. Uplevel can be used to measure deep work in an organization.

Creating and fostering a safe environment

Fostering a safe and empowering work environment for developers is essential for encouraging experimentation, increasing productivity, and retaining top talent. Engineering leaders can create such an environment by encouraging open communication, fostering a learning culture, and providing autonomy. To measure the success of creating a safe environment, metrics such as productivity, value delivered, employee turnover rate, and employee engagement surveys can be used.

The Power of influence inside software engineering

This post discusses the importance of influence in a software engineering career. It is not to undervalue the technical perspective, but to emphasize the need for visibility inside and outside the organization. It outlines several ways to increase visibility, such as company posts, personal posts, conferences, and open-source. The post emphasizes that investing time in being visible is essential for career growth.

Should You Quit Your Job to Pursue Your Business Idea?

Quitting your job to pursue a business idea is a big decision and should not be taken lightly. Before making the leap, consider your financial situation, the demand for your product or service, the skills and resources you need, and the risks involved. Seek advice from experts and make sure you are passionate and committed to your idea. With the right preparation and mindset, you can turn your passion into a successful business.

4 E's of Leadership

Jack Welch developed a leadership assessment for GE that is easily transferable to other industries. The assessment is based on the 4Es of leadership - energy, energize, edge, and execution - and involves assessing a leader's energy, ability to energize others, edge in dealing with conflict and making tough decisions, and ability to execute strategies and achieve strategic plans. By assessing leaders based on the 4Es and working on an effective development plan, organizations can reach higher levels of success.

Performing Focused Work in a Distracted World

Deep Work is a state of distraction-free concentration for extended periods of time, allowing for enhanced productivity and unique output. To implement Deep Work, one must integrate it into their schedule, embrace boredom, quit social media, and limit shallow work. Deep Work will help manage time, increase productivity, and provide a sense of fulfillment.

Beware the Empathy Trap

Empathy in leadership is gaining attention due to its connection to employee engagement and well-being. However, it can be ineffective and even harmful if used incorrectly. It is important to understand the potential downside of empathy and find the right balance of support for team members. Pity, sympathy, and compassion are other emotions that can help empower team members without draining the leader's energy.

Applying The Rules of IKIGAI for a more fulfilled life!

The book "IKIGAI: The Japanese Secret To a Long and Happy Life" by Héctor García and Francesc Miralles distills 10 rules from the wisdom of the long-living residents of Ogimi, a small village in Okinawa, Japan. These rules, which could be interpreted as lifestyle habits that enable the senior residents of Ogami to live long and enjoy their ikigai, include staying active, taking it slow, not filling your stomach, surrounding yourself with good friends, getting in shape for your next birthday, smiling, reconnecting with nature, giving thanks to your ancestors and nature, living in the moment, and following your ikigai. These rules can be adopted to improve health and well-being and discover and live one's ikigai.

Relationships, like products, need to be designed.

Relationships are essential to great design work, and as SVP of Platform User Experience at Salesforce, the author has learned that design leaders are the designers of the relationships on their teams, with executives, and across their organization. To cultivate relationships to design better products, the author suggests prioritizing differences when building teams, extending the hand of collaboration across the organization, and advocating for the value of design with executives. These steps involve looking for hires with “less” experience, creating space for healthy discord, and telling stories that unlock the value of design for non-designers.

Hackathons Are Life

This article is about the author's experience in a hackathon, where they competed against another team to build a Chrome Extension that would inform users if they were purchasing an item with illegally sourced or environmentally harmful ingredients. The author's team was able to ship to the Chrome Web Store and win the hackathon, while the other team was still architecting. The author learned that hackathons can be a great way to emulate real life, as they force teams to focus on fast release cycles and produce the simplest solutions that gain the most benefit. The author also suggests that when evaluating a new tool, framework, language, etc., it is best to do a hackathon with it to test it out.

Why Would Anyone Mob Program? (an intro)

Mob Programming is a concept where a team of ~3-5 works together on a single feature, with only one person typing at a time. It is a difficult process to go from troll-coding to mobbing, but it is an incredibly valuable and efficient experience. It is slow, but the quality of work produced is multiple times better than what a single developer can create. It also allows for full domain knowledge of the system developed, and one member of the mob can represent the team in meetings.

Unlocking the Power of Product Management for Startup CTOs

This article explores the art of product management and how CTOs can use it to drive innovation and success. It covers core components, the importance of a strong CTO-product manager alliance, strategies for aligning engineering and product strategies with business objectives, and tips for implementing product management within an organisation. Agile methodologies and building high-trust empowered product teams are also discussed. By mastering these concepts, CTOs can unlock the power of product management to drive innovation and success.

Navigating the Maze of Technical Debt: A Startup's Survival Guide

In this blog post, the author discusses the concept of technical debt and its impact on startups. They explain that technical debt is the accumulated cost of quick fixes and workarounds in software development, which can slow down product development, reduce agility, lower quality, and compromise resilience. The author provides strategies to manage and mitigate technical debt, such as prioritizing debt reduction, maintaining a technical debt register, establishing coding standards, investing in continuous learning, and balancing short and long-term goals. They also discuss how to identify and prioritize technical debt for maximum value, including using code metrics, analyzing code churn and bug density, and leveraging team feedback. The author concludes by emphasizing the importance of understanding technical debt and adopting effective management strategies to maintain agility and successfully adapt to market changes.

How to balance the technical and business aspects of running an AI startup, as a technical person.

Success in AI startups requires a balance between technical and business aspects. This can be achieved by looking at things from a return on investment perspective, focusing on solving real business problems, being pragmatic in technical decisions, and surrounding yourself with business-minded people. Additionally, it is important to visit customers to gain a better understanding of their needs and develop technology that truly addresses their problems. Ultimately, the key to success is to stay focused on creating value for customers.

Tackling Technical Debt: A Crucial Step Towards Enhanced Productivity

Technical debt can be a major issue for companies, as it can decrease productivity and derail focus from delivering new features. To manage this, it is important to quantify, monitor, and highlight technical debt, and to allocate a proportion of team velocity to refactoring and technical debt elimination. It is also important to uphold consistent and high standards, and to use metrics to persuade management to allocate resources to tackle technical debt.

Working Effectively In a Remote Environment

This article outlines the best practices that were adopted to ensure business continuity during the Covid-19 pandemic. These practices included fostering a self-service mindset, promoting asynchronous communication, and providing clear communication guidelines. These measures allowed for streamlined onboarding, improved meeting efficiency, and reduced distractions. As we continue to adapt to the remote-first era, these best practices will be essential in charting our path forward.

Navigating Strategy, Innovation, and Change in the Technology Landscape

This article outlines strategies for CTOs to create an effective and agile strategy-making process. It encourages leveraging customer feedback, market validation, and competitor analysis to make data-driven decisions. It also suggests forming cross-functional teams, incorporating diversity and inclusion, and leveraging renowned strategy frameworks. Additionally, it outlines the importance of continuous learning and adaptation, and provides resources and advice on conducting market research.

On Hiring: A Guide for Startup CTOs

This article provides CTOs of startups with strategies to create a transparent recruitment process that leads to trust-based technical teams. It covers topics such as crafting a concise and engaging job ad, collaborating with recruiters, and keeping job listings up-to-date. Additionally, it outlines two different approaches to recruiting for a startup, and suggests a hybrid model of recruiting that combines the benefits of working with a recruiter and being hands-on in the hiring process. It also emphasizes the importance of being transparent about salary expectations and involving the team in the recruitment process. Finally, it suggests regular communication with potential candidates and providing constructive feedback if they are not selected for a role. These strategies will help CTOs connect with diverse, talented candidates and build a cohesive team ready to drive their startup’s success.

Peacetime and Wartime Leadership in the Technology Industry: A CTO's Perspective

This article explores the concept of Peacetime and Wartime CTOs, drawing inspiration from the teachings of Ben Horowitz and Andrew S. Grove. It defines the role of the CTO as an engineering leader and innovator, and outlines the characteristics and responsibilities of Peacetime and Wartime CTOs. It also discusses the challenges CTOs face during wartime and strategies for addressing them. By understanding these distinct roles and their responsibilities, technology leaders can better navigate their organisations through periods of growth and stability, as well as times of crisis and intense competition.

Small vs complex pull requests

Small pull requests can lead to faster review cycles, improved collaboration, reduced merge conflicts, better code maintainability, easier troubleshooting, and incremental progress. Uplevel metrics can help measure the usage of small pull requests and assess their effectiveness. This approach can enhance collaboration, accelerate the development cycle, and foster a culture of agility and efficiency within engineering teams.

Deep work, the connection to increased productivity and reducing the risk of burnout...

Deep work can lead to increased productivity, higher-quality output, and more innovative solutions, as well as reduced employee burnout. To promote deep work, stakeholders should be made aware of its value and policies should be implemented to support it. Uplevel can be used to measure deep work in an organization.

Creating and fostering a safe environment

Fostering a safe and empowering work environment for developers is essential for encouraging experimentation, increasing productivity, and retaining top talent. Engineering leaders can create such an environment by encouraging open communication, fostering a learning culture, and providing autonomy. To measure the success of creating a safe environment, metrics such as productivity, value delivered, employee turnover rate, and employee engagement surveys can be used.

The Power of influence inside software engineering

This post discusses the importance of influence in a software engineering career. It is not to undervalue the technical perspective, but to emphasize the need for visibility inside and outside the organization. It outlines several ways to increase visibility, such as company posts, personal posts, conferences, and open-source. The post emphasizes that investing time in being visible is essential for career growth.

Should You Quit Your Job to Pursue Your Business Idea?

Quitting your job to pursue a business idea is a big decision and should not be taken lightly. Before making the leap, consider your financial situation, the demand for your product or service, the skills and resources you need, and the risks involved. Seek advice from experts and make sure you are passionate and committed to your idea. With the right preparation and mindset, you can turn your passion into a successful business.

4 E's of Leadership

Jack Welch developed a leadership assessment for GE that is easily transferable to other industries. The assessment is based on the 4Es of leadership - energy, energize, edge, and execution - and involves assessing a leader's energy, ability to energize others, edge in dealing with conflict and making tough decisions, and ability to execute strategies and achieve strategic plans. By assessing leaders based on the 4Es and working on an effective development plan, organizations can reach higher levels of success.

Performing Focused Work in a Distracted World

Deep Work is a state of distraction-free concentration for extended periods of time, allowing for enhanced productivity and unique output. To implement Deep Work, one must integrate it into their schedule, embrace boredom, quit social media, and limit shallow work. Deep Work will help manage time, increase productivity, and provide a sense of fulfillment.

Beware the Empathy Trap

Empathy in leadership is gaining attention due to its connection to employee engagement and well-being. However, it can be ineffective and even harmful if used incorrectly. It is important to understand the potential downside of empathy and find the right balance of support for team members. Pity, sympathy, and compassion are other emotions that can help empower team members without draining the leader's energy.

Applying The Rules of IKIGAI for a more fulfilled life!

The book "IKIGAI: The Japanese Secret To a Long and Happy Life" by Héctor García and Francesc Miralles distills 10 rules from the wisdom of the long-living residents of Ogimi, a small village in Okinawa, Japan. These rules, which could be interpreted as lifestyle habits that enable the senior residents of Ogami to live long and enjoy their ikigai, include staying active, taking it slow, not filling your stomach, surrounding yourself with good friends, getting in shape for your next birthday, smiling, reconnecting with nature, giving thanks to your ancestors and nature, living in the moment, and following your ikigai. These rules can be adopted to improve health and well-being and discover and live one's ikigai.

Relationships, like products, need to be designed.

Relationships are essential to great design work, and as SVP of Platform User Experience at Salesforce, the author has learned that design leaders are the designers of the relationships on their teams, with executives, and across their organization. To cultivate relationships to design better products, the author suggests prioritizing differences when building teams, extending the hand of collaboration across the organization, and advocating for the value of design with executives. These steps involve looking for hires with “less” experience, creating space for healthy discord, and telling stories that unlock the value of design for non-designers.

Hackathons Are Life

This article is about the author's experience in a hackathon, where they competed against another team to build a Chrome Extension that would inform users if they were purchasing an item with illegally sourced or environmentally harmful ingredients. The author's team was able to ship to the Chrome Web Store and win the hackathon, while the other team was still architecting. The author learned that hackathons can be a great way to emulate real life, as they force teams to focus on fast release cycles and produce the simplest solutions that gain the most benefit. The author also suggests that when evaluating a new tool, framework, language, etc., it is best to do a hackathon with it to test it out.

Why Would Anyone Mob Program? (an intro)

Mob Programming is a concept where a team of ~3-5 works together on a single feature, with only one person typing at a time. It is a difficult process to go from troll-coding to mobbing, but it is an incredibly valuable and efficient experience. It is slow, but the quality of work produced is multiple times better than what a single developer can create. It also allows for full domain knowledge of the system developed, and one member of the mob can represent the team in meetings.

Unlocking the Power of Product Management for Startup CTOs

This article explores the art of product management and how CTOs can use it to drive innovation and success. It covers core components, the importance of a strong CTO-product manager alliance, strategies for aligning engineering and product strategies with business objectives, and tips for implementing product management within an organisation. Agile methodologies and building high-trust empowered product teams are also discussed. By mastering these concepts, CTOs can unlock the power of product management to drive innovation and success.

Navigating the Maze of Technical Debt: A Startup's Survival Guide

In this blog post, the author discusses the concept of technical debt and its impact on startups. They explain that technical debt is the accumulated cost of quick fixes and workarounds in software development, which can slow down product development, reduce agility, lower quality, and compromise resilience. The author provides strategies to manage and mitigate technical debt, such as prioritizing debt reduction, maintaining a technical debt register, establishing coding standards, investing in continuous learning, and balancing short and long-term goals. They also discuss how to identify and prioritize technical debt for maximum value, including using code metrics, analyzing code churn and bug density, and leveraging team feedback. The author concludes by emphasizing the importance of understanding technical debt and adopting effective management strategies to maintain agility and successfully adapt to market changes.

How to balance the technical and business aspects of running an AI startup, as a technical person.

Success in AI startups requires a balance between technical and business aspects. This can be achieved by looking at things from a return on investment perspective, focusing on solving real business problems, being pragmatic in technical decisions, and surrounding yourself with business-minded people. Additionally, it is important to visit customers to gain a better understanding of their needs and develop technology that truly addresses their problems. Ultimately, the key to success is to stay focused on creating value for customers.

Tackling Technical Debt: A Crucial Step Towards Enhanced Productivity

Technical debt can be a major issue for companies, as it can decrease productivity and derail focus from delivering new features. To manage this, it is important to quantify, monitor, and highlight technical debt, and to allocate a proportion of team velocity to refactoring and technical debt elimination. It is also important to uphold consistent and high standards, and to use metrics to persuade management to allocate resources to tackle technical debt.

Working Effectively In a Remote Environment

This article outlines the best practices that were adopted to ensure business continuity during the Covid-19 pandemic. These practices included fostering a self-service mindset, promoting asynchronous communication, and providing clear communication guidelines. These measures allowed for streamlined onboarding, improved meeting efficiency, and reduced distractions. As we continue to adapt to the remote-first era, these best practices will be essential in charting our path forward.

Navigating Strategy, Innovation, and Change in the Technology Landscape

This article outlines strategies for CTOs to create an effective and agile strategy-making process. It encourages leveraging customer feedback, market validation, and competitor analysis to make data-driven decisions. It also suggests forming cross-functional teams, incorporating diversity and inclusion, and leveraging renowned strategy frameworks. Additionally, it outlines the importance of continuous learning and adaptation, and provides resources and advice on conducting market research.

On Hiring: A Guide for Startup CTOs

This article provides CTOs of startups with strategies to create a transparent recruitment process that leads to trust-based technical teams. It covers topics such as crafting a concise and engaging job ad, collaborating with recruiters, and keeping job listings up-to-date. Additionally, it outlines two different approaches to recruiting for a startup, and suggests a hybrid model of recruiting that combines the benefits of working with a recruiter and being hands-on in the hiring process. It also emphasizes the importance of being transparent about salary expectations and involving the team in the recruitment process. Finally, it suggests regular communication with potential candidates and providing constructive feedback if they are not selected for a role. These strategies will help CTOs connect with diverse, talented candidates and build a cohesive team ready to drive their startup’s success.

Peacetime and Wartime Leadership in the Technology Industry: A CTO's Perspective

This article explores the concept of Peacetime and Wartime CTOs, drawing inspiration from the teachings of Ben Horowitz and Andrew S. Grove. It defines the role of the CTO as an engineering leader and innovator, and outlines the characteristics and responsibilities of Peacetime and Wartime CTOs. It also discusses the challenges CTOs face during wartime and strategies for addressing them. By understanding these distinct roles and their responsibilities, technology leaders can better navigate their organisations through periods of growth and stability, as well as times of crisis and intense competition.

Small vs complex pull requests

Small pull requests can lead to faster review cycles, improved collaboration, reduced merge conflicts, better code maintainability, easier troubleshooting, and incremental progress. Uplevel metrics can help measure the usage of small pull requests and assess their effectiveness. This approach can enhance collaboration, accelerate the development cycle, and foster a culture of agility and efficiency within engineering teams.

Deep work, the connection to increased productivity and reducing the risk of burnout...

Deep work can lead to increased productivity, higher-quality output, and more innovative solutions, as well as reduced employee burnout. To promote deep work, stakeholders should be made aware of its value and policies should be implemented to support it. Uplevel can be used to measure deep work in an organization.

Creating and fostering a safe environment

Fostering a safe and empowering work environment for developers is essential for encouraging experimentation, increasing productivity, and retaining top talent. Engineering leaders can create such an environment by encouraging open communication, fostering a learning culture, and providing autonomy. To measure the success of creating a safe environment, metrics such as productivity, value delivered, employee turnover rate, and employee engagement surveys can be used.

The Power of influence inside software engineering

This post discusses the importance of influence in a software engineering career. It is not to undervalue the technical perspective, but to emphasize the need for visibility inside and outside the organization. It outlines several ways to increase visibility, such as company posts, personal posts, conferences, and open-source. The post emphasizes that investing time in being visible is essential for career growth.

Should You Quit Your Job to Pursue Your Business Idea?

Quitting your job to pursue a business idea is a big decision and should not be taken lightly. Before making the leap, consider your financial situation, the demand for your product or service, the skills and resources you need, and the risks involved. Seek advice from experts and make sure you are passionate and committed to your idea. With the right preparation and mindset, you can turn your passion into a successful business.

4 E's of Leadership

Jack Welch developed a leadership assessment for GE that is easily transferable to other industries. The assessment is based on the 4Es of leadership - energy, energize, edge, and execution - and involves assessing a leader's energy, ability to energize others, edge in dealing with conflict and making tough decisions, and ability to execute strategies and achieve strategic plans. By assessing leaders based on the 4Es and working on an effective development plan, organizations can reach higher levels of success.

Performing Focused Work in a Distracted World

Deep Work is a state of distraction-free concentration for extended periods of time, allowing for enhanced productivity and unique output. To implement Deep Work, one must integrate it into their schedule, embrace boredom, quit social media, and limit shallow work. Deep Work will help manage time, increase productivity, and provide a sense of fulfillment.

Beware the Empathy Trap

Empathy in leadership is gaining attention due to its connection to employee engagement and well-being. However, it can be ineffective and even harmful if used incorrectly. It is important to understand the potential downside of empathy and find the right balance of support for team members. Pity, sympathy, and compassion are other emotions that can help empower team members without draining the leader's energy.

Applying The Rules of IKIGAI for a more fulfilled life!

The book "IKIGAI: The Japanese Secret To a Long and Happy Life" by Héctor García and Francesc Miralles distills 10 rules from the wisdom of the long-living residents of Ogimi, a small village in Okinawa, Japan. These rules, which could be interpreted as lifestyle habits that enable the senior residents of Ogami to live long and enjoy their ikigai, include staying active, taking it slow, not filling your stomach, surrounding yourself with good friends, getting in shape for your next birthday, smiling, reconnecting with nature, giving thanks to your ancestors and nature, living in the moment, and following your ikigai. These rules can be adopted to improve health and well-being and discover and live one's ikigai.

Relationships, like products, need to be designed.

Relationships are essential to great design work, and as SVP of Platform User Experience at Salesforce, the author has learned that design leaders are the designers of the relationships on their teams, with executives, and across their organization. To cultivate relationships to design better products, the author suggests prioritizing differences when building teams, extending the hand of collaboration across the organization, and advocating for the value of design with executives. These steps involve looking for hires with “less” experience, creating space for healthy discord, and telling stories that unlock the value of design for non-designers.

Hackathons Are Life

This article is about the author's experience in a hackathon, where they competed against another team to build a Chrome Extension that would inform users if they were purchasing an item with illegally sourced or environmentally harmful ingredients. The author's team was able to ship to the Chrome Web Store and win the hackathon, while the other team was still architecting. The author learned that hackathons can be a great way to emulate real life, as they force teams to focus on fast release cycles and produce the simplest solutions that gain the most benefit. The author also suggests that when evaluating a new tool, framework, language, etc., it is best to do a hackathon with it to test it out.

Why Would Anyone Mob Program? (an intro)

Mob Programming is a concept where a team of ~3-5 works together on a single feature, with only one person typing at a time. It is a difficult process to go from troll-coding to mobbing, but it is an incredibly valuable and efficient experience. It is slow, but the quality of work produced is multiple times better than what a single developer can create. It also allows for full domain knowledge of the system developed, and one member of the mob can represent the team in meetings.

Unlocking the Power of Product Management for Startup CTOs

This article explores the art of product management and how CTOs can use it to drive innovation and success. It covers core components, the importance of a strong CTO-product manager alliance, strategies for aligning engineering and product strategies with business objectives, and tips for implementing product management within an organisation. Agile methodologies and building high-trust empowered product teams are also discussed. By mastering these concepts, CTOs can unlock the power of product management to drive innovation and success.

Navigating the Maze of Technical Debt: A Startup's Survival Guide

In this blog post, the author discusses the concept of technical debt and its impact on startups. They explain that technical debt is the accumulated cost of quick fixes and workarounds in software development, which can slow down product development, reduce agility, lower quality, and compromise resilience. The author provides strategies to manage and mitigate technical debt, such as prioritizing debt reduction, maintaining a technical debt register, establishing coding standards, investing in continuous learning, and balancing short and long-term goals. They also discuss how to identify and prioritize technical debt for maximum value, including using code metrics, analyzing code churn and bug density, and leveraging team feedback. The author concludes by emphasizing the importance of understanding technical debt and adopting effective management strategies to maintain agility and successfully adapt to market changes.

How to balance the technical and business aspects of running an AI startup, as a technical person.

Success in AI startups requires a balance between technical and business aspects. This can be achieved by looking at things from a return on investment perspective, focusing on solving real business problems, being pragmatic in technical decisions, and surrounding yourself with business-minded people. Additionally, it is important to visit customers to gain a better understanding of their needs and develop technology that truly addresses their problems. Ultimately, the key to success is to stay focused on creating value for customers.

Tackling Technical Debt: A Crucial Step Towards Enhanced Productivity

Technical debt can be a major issue for companies, as it can decrease productivity and derail focus from delivering new features. To manage this, it is important to quantify, monitor, and highlight technical debt, and to allocate a proportion of team velocity to refactoring and technical debt elimination. It is also important to uphold consistent and high standards, and to use metrics to persuade management to allocate resources to tackle technical debt.

Working Effectively In a Remote Environment

This article outlines the best practices that were adopted to ensure business continuity during the Covid-19 pandemic. These practices included fostering a self-service mindset, promoting asynchronous communication, and providing clear communication guidelines. These measures allowed for streamlined onboarding, improved meeting efficiency, and reduced distractions. As we continue to adapt to the remote-first era, these best practices will be essential in charting our path forward.

Navigating Strategy, Innovation, and Change in the Technology Landscape

This article outlines strategies for CTOs to create an effective and agile strategy-making process. It encourages leveraging customer feedback, market validation, and competitor analysis to make data-driven decisions. It also suggests forming cross-functional teams, incorporating diversity and inclusion, and leveraging renowned strategy frameworks. Additionally, it outlines the importance of continuous learning and adaptation, and provides resources and advice on conducting market research.

On Hiring: A Guide for Startup CTOs

This article provides CTOs of startups with strategies to create a transparent recruitment process that leads to trust-based technical teams. It covers topics such as crafting a concise and engaging job ad, collaborating with recruiters, and keeping job listings up-to-date. Additionally, it outlines two different approaches to recruiting for a startup, and suggests a hybrid model of recruiting that combines the benefits of working with a recruiter and being hands-on in the hiring process. It also emphasizes the importance of being transparent about salary expectations and involving the team in the recruitment process. Finally, it suggests regular communication with potential candidates and providing constructive feedback if they are not selected for a role. These strategies will help CTOs connect with diverse, talented candidates and build a cohesive team ready to drive their startup’s success.

Peacetime and Wartime Leadership in the Technology Industry: A CTO's Perspective

This article explores the concept of Peacetime and Wartime CTOs, drawing inspiration from the teachings of Ben Horowitz and Andrew S. Grove. It defines the role of the CTO as an engineering leader and innovator, and outlines the characteristics and responsibilities of Peacetime and Wartime CTOs. It also discusses the challenges CTOs face during wartime and strategies for addressing them. By understanding these distinct roles and their responsibilities, technology leaders can better navigate their organisations through periods of growth and stability, as well as times of crisis and intense competition.

Small vs complex pull requests

Small pull requests can lead to faster review cycles, improved collaboration, reduced merge conflicts, better code maintainability, easier troubleshooting, and incremental progress. Uplevel metrics can help measure the usage of small pull requests and assess their effectiveness. This approach can enhance collaboration, accelerate the development cycle, and foster a culture of agility and efficiency within engineering teams.

Deep work, the connection to increased productivity and reducing the risk of burnout...

Deep work can lead to increased productivity, higher-quality output, and more innovative solutions, as well as reduced employee burnout. To promote deep work, stakeholders should be made aware of its value and policies should be implemented to support it. Uplevel can be used to measure deep work in an organization.

Creating and fostering a safe environment

Fostering a safe and empowering work environment for developers is essential for encouraging experimentation, increasing productivity, and retaining top talent. Engineering leaders can create such an environment by encouraging open communication, fostering a learning culture, and providing autonomy. To measure the success of creating a safe environment, metrics such as productivity, value delivered, employee turnover rate, and employee engagement surveys can be used.

The Power of influence inside software engineering

This post discusses the importance of influence in a software engineering career. It is not to undervalue the technical perspective, but to emphasize the need for visibility inside and outside the organization. It outlines several ways to increase visibility, such as company posts, personal posts, conferences, and open-source. The post emphasizes that investing time in being visible is essential for career growth.

Should You Quit Your Job to Pursue Your Business Idea?

Quitting your job to pursue a business idea is a big decision and should not be taken lightly. Before making the leap, consider your financial situation, the demand for your product or service, the skills and resources you need, and the risks involved. Seek advice from experts and make sure you are passionate and committed to your idea. With the right preparation and mindset, you can turn your passion into a successful business.

4 E's of Leadership

Jack Welch developed a leadership assessment for GE that is easily transferable to other industries. The assessment is based on the 4Es of leadership - energy, energize, edge, and execution - and involves assessing a leader's energy, ability to energize others, edge in dealing with conflict and making tough decisions, and ability to execute strategies and achieve strategic plans. By assessing leaders based on the 4Es and working on an effective development plan, organizations can reach higher levels of success.

Performing Focused Work in a Distracted World

Deep Work is a state of distraction-free concentration for extended periods of time, allowing for enhanced productivity and unique output. To implement Deep Work, one must integrate it into their schedule, embrace boredom, quit social media, and limit shallow work. Deep Work will help manage time, increase productivity, and provide a sense of fulfillment.

Beware the Empathy Trap

Empathy in leadership is gaining attention due to its connection to employee engagement and well-being. However, it can be ineffective and even harmful if used incorrectly. It is important to understand the potential downside of empathy and find the right balance of support for team members. Pity, sympathy, and compassion are other emotions that can help empower team members without draining the leader's energy.

Applying The Rules of IKIGAI for a more fulfilled life!

The book "IKIGAI: The Japanese Secret To a Long and Happy Life" by Héctor García and Francesc Miralles distills 10 rules from the wisdom of the long-living residents of Ogimi, a small village in Okinawa, Japan. These rules, which could be interpreted as lifestyle habits that enable the senior residents of Ogami to live long and enjoy their ikigai, include staying active, taking it slow, not filling your stomach, surrounding yourself with good friends, getting in shape for your next birthday, smiling, reconnecting with nature, giving thanks to your ancestors and nature, living in the moment, and following your ikigai. These rules can be adopted to improve health and well-being and discover and live one's ikigai.

Relationships, like products, need to be designed.

Relationships are essential to great design work, and as SVP of Platform User Experience at Salesforce, the author has learned that design leaders are the designers of the relationships on their teams, with executives, and across their organization. To cultivate relationships to design better products, the author suggests prioritizing differences when building teams, extending the hand of collaboration across the organization, and advocating for the value of design with executives. These steps involve looking for hires with “less” experience, creating space for healthy discord, and telling stories that unlock the value of design for non-designers.

Hackathons Are Life

This article is about the author's experience in a hackathon, where they competed against another team to build a Chrome Extension that would inform users if they were purchasing an item with illegally sourced or environmentally harmful ingredients. The author's team was able to ship to the Chrome Web Store and win the hackathon, while the other team was still architecting. The author learned that hackathons can be a great way to emulate real life, as they force teams to focus on fast release cycles and produce the simplest solutions that gain the most benefit. The author also suggests that when evaluating a new tool, framework, language, etc., it is best to do a hackathon with it to test it out.

Why Would Anyone Mob Program? (an intro)

Mob Programming is a concept where a team of ~3-5 works together on a single feature, with only one person typing at a time. It is a difficult process to go from troll-coding to mobbing, but it is an incredibly valuable and efficient experience. It is slow, but the quality of work produced is multiple times better than what a single developer can create. It also allows for full domain knowledge of the system developed, and one member of the mob can represent the team in meetings.

Unlocking the Power of Product Management for Startup CTOs

This article explores the art of product management and how CTOs can use it to drive innovation and success. It covers core components, the importance of a strong CTO-product manager alliance, strategies for aligning engineering and product strategies with business objectives, and tips for implementing product management within an organisation. Agile methodologies and building high-trust empowered product teams are also discussed. By mastering these concepts, CTOs can unlock the power of product management to drive innovation and success.

Navigating the Maze of Technical Debt: A Startup's Survival Guide

In this blog post, the author discusses the concept of technical debt and its impact on startups. They explain that technical debt is the accumulated cost of quick fixes and workarounds in software development, which can slow down product development, reduce agility, lower quality, and compromise resilience. The author provides strategies to manage and mitigate technical debt, such as prioritizing debt reduction, maintaining a technical debt register, establishing coding standards, investing in continuous learning, and balancing short and long-term goals. They also discuss how to identify and prioritize technical debt for maximum value, including using code metrics, analyzing code churn and bug density, and leveraging team feedback. The author concludes by emphasizing the importance of understanding technical debt and adopting effective management strategies to maintain agility and successfully adapt to market changes.

How to balance the technical and business aspects of running an AI startup, as a technical person.

Success in AI startups requires a balance between technical and business aspects. This can be achieved by looking at things from a return on investment perspective, focusing on solving real business problems, being pragmatic in technical decisions, and surrounding yourself with business-minded people. Additionally, it is important to visit customers to gain a better understanding of their needs and develop technology that truly addresses their problems. Ultimately, the key to success is to stay focused on creating value for customers.

Tackling Technical Debt: A Crucial Step Towards Enhanced Productivity

Technical debt can be a major issue for companies, as it can decrease productivity and derail focus from delivering new features. To manage this, it is important to quantify, monitor, and highlight technical debt, and to allocate a proportion of team velocity to refactoring and technical debt elimination. It is also important to uphold consistent and high standards, and to use metrics to persuade management to allocate resources to tackle technical debt.

Working Effectively In a Remote Environment

This article outlines the best practices that were adopted to ensure business continuity during the Covid-19 pandemic. These practices included fostering a self-service mindset, promoting asynchronous communication, and providing clear communication guidelines. These measures allowed for streamlined onboarding, improved meeting efficiency, and reduced distractions. As we continue to adapt to the remote-first era, these best practices will be essential in charting our path forward.

Navigating Strategy, Innovation, and Change in the Technology Landscape

This article outlines strategies for CTOs to create an effective and agile strategy-making process. It encourages leveraging customer feedback, market validation, and competitor analysis to make data-driven decisions. It also suggests forming cross-functional teams, incorporating diversity and inclusion, and leveraging renowned strategy frameworks. Additionally, it outlines the importance of continuous learning and adaptation, and provides resources and advice on conducting market research.

On Hiring: A Guide for Startup CTOs

This article provides CTOs of startups with strategies to create a transparent recruitment process that leads to trust-based technical teams. It covers topics such as crafting a concise and engaging job ad, collaborating with recruiters, and keeping job listings up-to-date. Additionally, it outlines two different approaches to recruiting for a startup, and suggests a hybrid model of recruiting that combines the benefits of working with a recruiter and being hands-on in the hiring process. It also emphasizes the importance of being transparent about salary expectations and involving the team in the recruitment process. Finally, it suggests regular communication with potential candidates and providing constructive feedback if they are not selected for a role. These strategies will help CTOs connect with diverse, talented candidates and build a cohesive team ready to drive their startup’s success.

Peacetime and Wartime Leadership in the Technology Industry: A CTO's Perspective

This article explores the concept of Peacetime and Wartime CTOs, drawing inspiration from the teachings of Ben Horowitz and Andrew S. Grove. It defines the role of the CTO as an engineering leader and innovator, and outlines the characteristics and responsibilities of Peacetime and Wartime CTOs. It also discusses the challenges CTOs face during wartime and strategies for addressing them. By understanding these distinct roles and their responsibilities, technology leaders can better navigate their organisations through periods of growth and stability, as well as times of crisis and intense competition.

Small vs complex pull requests

Small pull requests can lead to faster review cycles, improved collaboration, reduced merge conflicts, better code maintainability, easier troubleshooting, and incremental progress. Uplevel metrics can help measure the usage of small pull requests and assess their effectiveness. This approach can enhance collaboration, accelerate the development cycle, and foster a culture of agility and efficiency within engineering teams.

Deep work, the connection to increased productivity and reducing the risk of burnout...

Deep work can lead to increased productivity, higher-quality output, and more innovative solutions, as well as reduced employee burnout. To promote deep work, stakeholders should be made aware of its value and policies should be implemented to support it. Uplevel can be used to measure deep work in an organization.

Creating and fostering a safe environment

Fostering a safe and empowering work environment for developers is essential for encouraging experimentation, increasing productivity, and retaining top talent. Engineering leaders can create such an environment by encouraging open communication, fostering a learning culture, and providing autonomy. To measure the success of creating a safe environment, metrics such as productivity, value delivered, employee turnover rate, and employee engagement surveys can be used.

The Power of influence inside software engineering

This post discusses the importance of influence in a software engineering career. It is not to undervalue the technical perspective, but to emphasize the need for visibility inside and outside the organization. It outlines several ways to increase visibility, such as company posts, personal posts, conferences, and open-source. The post emphasizes that investing time in being visible is essential for career growth.

Should You Quit Your Job to Pursue Your Business Idea?

Quitting your job to pursue a business idea is a big decision and should not be taken lightly. Before making the leap, consider your financial situation, the demand for your product or service, the skills and resources you need, and the risks involved. Seek advice from experts and make sure you are passionate and committed to your idea. With the right preparation and mindset, you can turn your passion into a successful business.

4 E's of Leadership

Jack Welch developed a leadership assessment for GE that is easily transferable to other industries. The assessment is based on the 4Es of leadership - energy, energize, edge, and execution - and involves assessing a leader's energy, ability to energize others, edge in dealing with conflict and making tough decisions, and ability to execute strategies and achieve strategic plans. By assessing leaders based on the 4Es and working on an effective development plan, organizations can reach higher levels of success.

Performing Focused Work in a Distracted World

Deep Work is a state of distraction-free concentration for extended periods of time, allowing for enhanced productivity and unique output. To implement Deep Work, one must integrate it into their schedule, embrace boredom, quit social media, and limit shallow work. Deep Work will help manage time, increase productivity, and provide a sense of fulfillment.

Beware the Empathy Trap

Empathy in leadership is gaining attention due to its connection to employee engagement and well-being. However, it can be ineffective and even harmful if used incorrectly. It is important to understand the potential downside of empathy and find the right balance of support for team members. Pity, sympathy, and compassion are other emotions that can help empower team members without draining the leader's energy.

Applying The Rules of IKIGAI for a more fulfilled life!

The book "IKIGAI: The Japanese Secret To a Long and Happy Life" by Héctor García and Francesc Miralles distills 10 rules from the wisdom of the long-living residents of Ogimi, a small village in Okinawa, Japan. These rules, which could be interpreted as lifestyle habits that enable the senior residents of Ogami to live long and enjoy their ikigai, include staying active, taking it slow, not filling your stomach, surrounding yourself with good friends, getting in shape for your next birthday, smiling, reconnecting with nature, giving thanks to your ancestors and nature, living in the moment, and following your ikigai. These rules can be adopted to improve health and well-being and discover and live one's ikigai.

Relationships, like products, need to be designed.

Relationships are essential to great design work, and as SVP of Platform User Experience at Salesforce, the author has learned that design leaders are the designers of the relationships on their teams, with executives, and across their organization. To cultivate relationships to design better products, the author suggests prioritizing differences when building teams, extending the hand of collaboration across the organization, and advocating for the value of design with executives. These steps involve looking for hires with “less” experience, creating space for healthy discord, and telling stories that unlock the value of design for non-designers.