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How Managers Can Spot Burnout in Their Employees

Managers should take responsibility for spotting warning signs of burnout in employees and take steps to prevent it. Three leading causes of burnout are not making an impact, disrupted work-life balance, and lack of focus. Managers should take different approaches for each of these root causes, such as regular check-ins and career-focused one-on-ones, understanding what employees care about, and ensuring that employees are focused on one thing at a time. Stress and frustration can be reduced by understanding why employees are not getting enough return on their investment, carving time for personal life, and ensuring that employees are engaged and able to bring their full selves to work.

When to Hire Senior Engineers and Tech Leads

The author experienced first-hand the consequences of hiring too many junior engineers when starting an engineering function in New York. They learned that it is important to disregard the pressure to start delivering quickly and instead focus on building the team structure, bringing in tech leads first and then adding mid and junior engineers. They also learned that opportunities should be modeled to attract the right candidates and that both sides should be adaptable.

Shaping the Culture of a New Team

The company culture is a major factor in how a new team's culture develops, but the team's focus and dynamics can also have an impact. To create a team culture, the team leader initiated a discussion with team members about their preferred working modalities and how to communicate with external stakeholders. The team then created a charter and guidelines to reflect their approach to work and ensure that the company's key principles were upheld. It is important to understand the goals behind the company culture and engage team members in developing the team culture.

Building New Remote Teams

Building a new team remotely presents challenges, but also opportunities to rethink how to build trusting relationships. To build trust and team rapport, the author focused on three activities: icebreaker sessions, learning about people's workspaces, and weekly check-ins without a work agenda. The author learned that it takes more time to build relationships in a remote setting, and that it is important to be mindful of individual needs when planning team-building activities.

How to Build a Successful New Team

When starting a new team, first-time managers should create a team charter to understand what the team needs to deliver to be successful. They should then draft profiles of the people who will help them deliver on that charter, optimize the hiring process, and constantly course-correct based on progress. This will ensure that the team develops sustainable processes and starts delivering reliably.

Team Building Activities for Remote Teams

In response to the lack of informal interpersonal communication due to Covid-19, a team leader took action to replicate the rapport and camaraderie of team lunches and happy hours through virtual team building activities. These activities included Zoom happy hours with themes and games, a Halloween-themed virtual happy hour, and Wednesday non-meeting days. Additionally, pair programming was used to build connections and enhance collaboration. It was found that people are quickly adapting to the new reality and that trust is built through work and informal human interaction, both of which are hard to replicate virtually.

Remote Hiring in the “Corona Times”

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused a shift to online hiring, which has its own benefits and challenges. Companies have had to adjust their hiring strategies to accommodate remote work, including expanding their talent pool, creating a candidate pipeline, evaluating candidates remotely, and scheduling interviews. Companies should be flexible with their hiring strategies and consider the long-term implications of remote work, such as the need for work visas for relocations.

How to Help an Underperforming Employee

Recently, a manager faced the challenge of dealing with an underperforming employee. To help, they set up regular meetings to better understand the challenges the person was facing, aligned expectations, tracked performance, and ran a review process. The manager also learned lessons such as setting expectations clearly, nurturing empathy, and taking a constructive approach to performance conversations.

How to Setup Behavioral Interviews Based on Company Values

This article discusses the need to improve the hiring process in startups, particularly the behavioral part of interviewing. The author introduces the STARR method and suggests using company values to assess candidates. They also suggest training interviewers, creating a cheat sheet of questions, and having an in-person debrief at the end of the process. The article also provides lessons learned, such as knowing what you are looking for in a candidate and keeping everything well documented.

How to Establish and Manage Expectations with the Business

This article discusses how to manage the pressure of unrealistic requests from the business while maintaining Engineering's own pace and priorities. It suggests reframing requests to suit Engineering's interests, using visual project management tools to give the business visibility, being careful with time-commitments, having planning reviews with different stakeholders, and connecting tech debt with a concrete value that is brought to customers.

Helping Engineers to Become Successful Managers

When deciding to promote an engineer internally to a manager role, it is important to pay close attention to the dynamics within the team and initiate formal conversations with the prospective manager. The new manager should receive formal training and be given guidance and support, while also being given the opportunity to practice key skills such as running one-on-ones, delegating, delivering feedback, and having tough conversations. The transition should not take longer than a couple of months, and the benefits of promoting internally are that it shows the team that their hard work and improved skills will be rewarded, and the new manager can ramp-up quickly with the right support.

Making Onboarding Part of the Interviewing Process

This article outlines a structured approach to interviewing and onboarding that involves real-life exercises and team involvement to reduce the risk of a poor fit. It includes an introductory call, algorithmic and language-based exercises, and a platform exercise. This approach helps to assess both hard and soft skills, and makes onboarding smoother. The article also emphasizes the importance of dedicating enough time to the process, and the benefits of raising the bar for candidates.

Team Leads as a Mini-CTOs

In order to reduce bottlenecks and preserve agility, a team was split into multiple smaller teams with each team having its own mini-CTO. This allowed team members to take ownership and be more involved in product development, but also led to some misunderstandings. To address this, team leads sessions were established to facilitate discussion and solve alignment issues between different teams. As a result, team members became more motivated and experienced engineers were able to develop their leadership skills.

Leading as an Introvert

An introverted engineer found himself in a new role as CTO, having to talk more often to people outside his team. He focused on one-on-one conversations to build relationships and channeled his energy by taking breaks between meetings. He learned that awkward conversations will be awkward until they are not anymore and that his main strength as an introvert is his thinking. As a leader, he should acknowledge that everyone can have something to say and provide them with the encouragement and opportunity to speak up.

When Letting It Go Is a Matter of Identity

The author, a CTO, faced the challenge of transitioning from coding to higher-impact activities such as scaling the team, growing leaders, and building strategy. This transition was difficult as coding had been a part of the author's identity and they felt like a novice in the new activities. Through learning to trust their team and accepting different approaches to problem-solving, the author was able to let go of coding and focus on their new responsibilities.

Being a Remote Product Manager

This article discusses the challenges of working remotely as a product manager. It outlines the steps taken to build relationships with colleagues, such as scheduling Zoom meetings and using online tools like Slack and Mirror. It also emphasizes the importance of being flexible with time zones and building a culture that embraces remote work.

How to Handle Customer Escalation

Customer escalation is a result of misalignment between Sales, the business, and the customer. To prevent escalation, it is important to understand the risk-reward associated with selling the product to the customer, set expectations during the pre-sale process, and assess the risk early on. If the customer is a poor fit for the product, it is important to be transparent with the leadership and make a strategic decision to either pivot from what was planned or potentially take the revenue loss. Listening to the customer and understanding their needs is key to preventing customer escalation.

Aligning Product Strategy With B2B Customer Requirements

When making product strategy decisions in B2B, it is important to consider multiple facets. To engage external stakeholders, Customer Advisory Boards should be set up and run, and for internal stakeholders, a cross-functional team should be established. These teams should meet regularly to provide feedback and discuss ideas. By including both external and internal stakeholders, a more holistic view of the problem can be achieved and decisions can be made with confidence.

Setting Up a Self-Sustainable Organizational Structure: A Co-Founder’s Perspective

The founder of a quickly growing engineering team found himself with 16 direct reports and no management structure or process. He realized he needed to delegate more of his responsibilities and enable the team to be more autonomous. He split his reviewing and monitoring into two buckets: those areas where mistakes could be made and those areas where mistakes could not be made. He also learned the importance of clear expectations and accountability, and that delegation is about shedding responsibility, not hoarding it.

When Remote Work Leads to Isolation

This article discusses the challenges of remote work during the Covid-19 pandemic and how to address the issue of isolation. The author suggests introducing socializing activities into project planning and resource allocation, as well as budgeting for team activities. The article also highlights the importance of intentional effort to break down isolation and foster collaboration.

How Managers Can Spot Burnout in Their Employees

Managers should take responsibility for spotting warning signs of burnout in employees and take steps to prevent it. Three leading causes of burnout are not making an impact, disrupted work-life balance, and lack of focus. Managers should take different approaches for each of these root causes, such as regular check-ins and career-focused one-on-ones, understanding what employees care about, and ensuring that employees are focused on one thing at a time. Stress and frustration can be reduced by understanding why employees are not getting enough return on their investment, carving time for personal life, and ensuring that employees are engaged and able to bring their full selves to work.

When to Hire Senior Engineers and Tech Leads

The author experienced first-hand the consequences of hiring too many junior engineers when starting an engineering function in New York. They learned that it is important to disregard the pressure to start delivering quickly and instead focus on building the team structure, bringing in tech leads first and then adding mid and junior engineers. They also learned that opportunities should be modeled to attract the right candidates and that both sides should be adaptable.

Shaping the Culture of a New Team

The company culture is a major factor in how a new team's culture develops, but the team's focus and dynamics can also have an impact. To create a team culture, the team leader initiated a discussion with team members about their preferred working modalities and how to communicate with external stakeholders. The team then created a charter and guidelines to reflect their approach to work and ensure that the company's key principles were upheld. It is important to understand the goals behind the company culture and engage team members in developing the team culture.

Building New Remote Teams

Building a new team remotely presents challenges, but also opportunities to rethink how to build trusting relationships. To build trust and team rapport, the author focused on three activities: icebreaker sessions, learning about people's workspaces, and weekly check-ins without a work agenda. The author learned that it takes more time to build relationships in a remote setting, and that it is important to be mindful of individual needs when planning team-building activities.

How to Build a Successful New Team

When starting a new team, first-time managers should create a team charter to understand what the team needs to deliver to be successful. They should then draft profiles of the people who will help them deliver on that charter, optimize the hiring process, and constantly course-correct based on progress. This will ensure that the team develops sustainable processes and starts delivering reliably.

Team Building Activities for Remote Teams

In response to the lack of informal interpersonal communication due to Covid-19, a team leader took action to replicate the rapport and camaraderie of team lunches and happy hours through virtual team building activities. These activities included Zoom happy hours with themes and games, a Halloween-themed virtual happy hour, and Wednesday non-meeting days. Additionally, pair programming was used to build connections and enhance collaboration. It was found that people are quickly adapting to the new reality and that trust is built through work and informal human interaction, both of which are hard to replicate virtually.

Remote Hiring in the “Corona Times”

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused a shift to online hiring, which has its own benefits and challenges. Companies have had to adjust their hiring strategies to accommodate remote work, including expanding their talent pool, creating a candidate pipeline, evaluating candidates remotely, and scheduling interviews. Companies should be flexible with their hiring strategies and consider the long-term implications of remote work, such as the need for work visas for relocations.

How to Help an Underperforming Employee

Recently, a manager faced the challenge of dealing with an underperforming employee. To help, they set up regular meetings to better understand the challenges the person was facing, aligned expectations, tracked performance, and ran a review process. The manager also learned lessons such as setting expectations clearly, nurturing empathy, and taking a constructive approach to performance conversations.

How to Setup Behavioral Interviews Based on Company Values

This article discusses the need to improve the hiring process in startups, particularly the behavioral part of interviewing. The author introduces the STARR method and suggests using company values to assess candidates. They also suggest training interviewers, creating a cheat sheet of questions, and having an in-person debrief at the end of the process. The article also provides lessons learned, such as knowing what you are looking for in a candidate and keeping everything well documented.

How to Establish and Manage Expectations with the Business

This article discusses how to manage the pressure of unrealistic requests from the business while maintaining Engineering's own pace and priorities. It suggests reframing requests to suit Engineering's interests, using visual project management tools to give the business visibility, being careful with time-commitments, having planning reviews with different stakeholders, and connecting tech debt with a concrete value that is brought to customers.

Helping Engineers to Become Successful Managers

When deciding to promote an engineer internally to a manager role, it is important to pay close attention to the dynamics within the team and initiate formal conversations with the prospective manager. The new manager should receive formal training and be given guidance and support, while also being given the opportunity to practice key skills such as running one-on-ones, delegating, delivering feedback, and having tough conversations. The transition should not take longer than a couple of months, and the benefits of promoting internally are that it shows the team that their hard work and improved skills will be rewarded, and the new manager can ramp-up quickly with the right support.

Making Onboarding Part of the Interviewing Process

This article outlines a structured approach to interviewing and onboarding that involves real-life exercises and team involvement to reduce the risk of a poor fit. It includes an introductory call, algorithmic and language-based exercises, and a platform exercise. This approach helps to assess both hard and soft skills, and makes onboarding smoother. The article also emphasizes the importance of dedicating enough time to the process, and the benefits of raising the bar for candidates.

Team Leads as a Mini-CTOs

In order to reduce bottlenecks and preserve agility, a team was split into multiple smaller teams with each team having its own mini-CTO. This allowed team members to take ownership and be more involved in product development, but also led to some misunderstandings. To address this, team leads sessions were established to facilitate discussion and solve alignment issues between different teams. As a result, team members became more motivated and experienced engineers were able to develop their leadership skills.

Leading as an Introvert

An introverted engineer found himself in a new role as CTO, having to talk more often to people outside his team. He focused on one-on-one conversations to build relationships and channeled his energy by taking breaks between meetings. He learned that awkward conversations will be awkward until they are not anymore and that his main strength as an introvert is his thinking. As a leader, he should acknowledge that everyone can have something to say and provide them with the encouragement and opportunity to speak up.

When Letting It Go Is a Matter of Identity

The author, a CTO, faced the challenge of transitioning from coding to higher-impact activities such as scaling the team, growing leaders, and building strategy. This transition was difficult as coding had been a part of the author's identity and they felt like a novice in the new activities. Through learning to trust their team and accepting different approaches to problem-solving, the author was able to let go of coding and focus on their new responsibilities.

Being a Remote Product Manager

This article discusses the challenges of working remotely as a product manager. It outlines the steps taken to build relationships with colleagues, such as scheduling Zoom meetings and using online tools like Slack and Mirror. It also emphasizes the importance of being flexible with time zones and building a culture that embraces remote work.

How to Handle Customer Escalation

Customer escalation is a result of misalignment between Sales, the business, and the customer. To prevent escalation, it is important to understand the risk-reward associated with selling the product to the customer, set expectations during the pre-sale process, and assess the risk early on. If the customer is a poor fit for the product, it is important to be transparent with the leadership and make a strategic decision to either pivot from what was planned or potentially take the revenue loss. Listening to the customer and understanding their needs is key to preventing customer escalation.

Aligning Product Strategy With B2B Customer Requirements

When making product strategy decisions in B2B, it is important to consider multiple facets. To engage external stakeholders, Customer Advisory Boards should be set up and run, and for internal stakeholders, a cross-functional team should be established. These teams should meet regularly to provide feedback and discuss ideas. By including both external and internal stakeholders, a more holistic view of the problem can be achieved and decisions can be made with confidence.

Setting Up a Self-Sustainable Organizational Structure: A Co-Founder’s Perspective

The founder of a quickly growing engineering team found himself with 16 direct reports and no management structure or process. He realized he needed to delegate more of his responsibilities and enable the team to be more autonomous. He split his reviewing and monitoring into two buckets: those areas where mistakes could be made and those areas where mistakes could not be made. He also learned the importance of clear expectations and accountability, and that delegation is about shedding responsibility, not hoarding it.

When Remote Work Leads to Isolation

This article discusses the challenges of remote work during the Covid-19 pandemic and how to address the issue of isolation. The author suggests introducing socializing activities into project planning and resource allocation, as well as budgeting for team activities. The article also highlights the importance of intentional effort to break down isolation and foster collaboration.

How Managers Can Spot Burnout in Their Employees

Managers should take responsibility for spotting warning signs of burnout in employees and take steps to prevent it. Three leading causes of burnout are not making an impact, disrupted work-life balance, and lack of focus. Managers should take different approaches for each of these root causes, such as regular check-ins and career-focused one-on-ones, understanding what employees care about, and ensuring that employees are focused on one thing at a time. Stress and frustration can be reduced by understanding why employees are not getting enough return on their investment, carving time for personal life, and ensuring that employees are engaged and able to bring their full selves to work.

When to Hire Senior Engineers and Tech Leads

The author experienced first-hand the consequences of hiring too many junior engineers when starting an engineering function in New York. They learned that it is important to disregard the pressure to start delivering quickly and instead focus on building the team structure, bringing in tech leads first and then adding mid and junior engineers. They also learned that opportunities should be modeled to attract the right candidates and that both sides should be adaptable.

Shaping the Culture of a New Team

The company culture is a major factor in how a new team's culture develops, but the team's focus and dynamics can also have an impact. To create a team culture, the team leader initiated a discussion with team members about their preferred working modalities and how to communicate with external stakeholders. The team then created a charter and guidelines to reflect their approach to work and ensure that the company's key principles were upheld. It is important to understand the goals behind the company culture and engage team members in developing the team culture.

Building New Remote Teams

Building a new team remotely presents challenges, but also opportunities to rethink how to build trusting relationships. To build trust and team rapport, the author focused on three activities: icebreaker sessions, learning about people's workspaces, and weekly check-ins without a work agenda. The author learned that it takes more time to build relationships in a remote setting, and that it is important to be mindful of individual needs when planning team-building activities.

How to Build a Successful New Team

When starting a new team, first-time managers should create a team charter to understand what the team needs to deliver to be successful. They should then draft profiles of the people who will help them deliver on that charter, optimize the hiring process, and constantly course-correct based on progress. This will ensure that the team develops sustainable processes and starts delivering reliably.

Team Building Activities for Remote Teams

In response to the lack of informal interpersonal communication due to Covid-19, a team leader took action to replicate the rapport and camaraderie of team lunches and happy hours through virtual team building activities. These activities included Zoom happy hours with themes and games, a Halloween-themed virtual happy hour, and Wednesday non-meeting days. Additionally, pair programming was used to build connections and enhance collaboration. It was found that people are quickly adapting to the new reality and that trust is built through work and informal human interaction, both of which are hard to replicate virtually.

Remote Hiring in the “Corona Times”

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused a shift to online hiring, which has its own benefits and challenges. Companies have had to adjust their hiring strategies to accommodate remote work, including expanding their talent pool, creating a candidate pipeline, evaluating candidates remotely, and scheduling interviews. Companies should be flexible with their hiring strategies and consider the long-term implications of remote work, such as the need for work visas for relocations.

How to Help an Underperforming Employee

Recently, a manager faced the challenge of dealing with an underperforming employee. To help, they set up regular meetings to better understand the challenges the person was facing, aligned expectations, tracked performance, and ran a review process. The manager also learned lessons such as setting expectations clearly, nurturing empathy, and taking a constructive approach to performance conversations.

How to Setup Behavioral Interviews Based on Company Values

This article discusses the need to improve the hiring process in startups, particularly the behavioral part of interviewing. The author introduces the STARR method and suggests using company values to assess candidates. They also suggest training interviewers, creating a cheat sheet of questions, and having an in-person debrief at the end of the process. The article also provides lessons learned, such as knowing what you are looking for in a candidate and keeping everything well documented.

How to Establish and Manage Expectations with the Business

This article discusses how to manage the pressure of unrealistic requests from the business while maintaining Engineering's own pace and priorities. It suggests reframing requests to suit Engineering's interests, using visual project management tools to give the business visibility, being careful with time-commitments, having planning reviews with different stakeholders, and connecting tech debt with a concrete value that is brought to customers.

Helping Engineers to Become Successful Managers

When deciding to promote an engineer internally to a manager role, it is important to pay close attention to the dynamics within the team and initiate formal conversations with the prospective manager. The new manager should receive formal training and be given guidance and support, while also being given the opportunity to practice key skills such as running one-on-ones, delegating, delivering feedback, and having tough conversations. The transition should not take longer than a couple of months, and the benefits of promoting internally are that it shows the team that their hard work and improved skills will be rewarded, and the new manager can ramp-up quickly with the right support.

Making Onboarding Part of the Interviewing Process

This article outlines a structured approach to interviewing and onboarding that involves real-life exercises and team involvement to reduce the risk of a poor fit. It includes an introductory call, algorithmic and language-based exercises, and a platform exercise. This approach helps to assess both hard and soft skills, and makes onboarding smoother. The article also emphasizes the importance of dedicating enough time to the process, and the benefits of raising the bar for candidates.

Team Leads as a Mini-CTOs

In order to reduce bottlenecks and preserve agility, a team was split into multiple smaller teams with each team having its own mini-CTO. This allowed team members to take ownership and be more involved in product development, but also led to some misunderstandings. To address this, team leads sessions were established to facilitate discussion and solve alignment issues between different teams. As a result, team members became more motivated and experienced engineers were able to develop their leadership skills.

Leading as an Introvert

An introverted engineer found himself in a new role as CTO, having to talk more often to people outside his team. He focused on one-on-one conversations to build relationships and channeled his energy by taking breaks between meetings. He learned that awkward conversations will be awkward until they are not anymore and that his main strength as an introvert is his thinking. As a leader, he should acknowledge that everyone can have something to say and provide them with the encouragement and opportunity to speak up.

When Letting It Go Is a Matter of Identity

The author, a CTO, faced the challenge of transitioning from coding to higher-impact activities such as scaling the team, growing leaders, and building strategy. This transition was difficult as coding had been a part of the author's identity and they felt like a novice in the new activities. Through learning to trust their team and accepting different approaches to problem-solving, the author was able to let go of coding and focus on their new responsibilities.

Being a Remote Product Manager

This article discusses the challenges of working remotely as a product manager. It outlines the steps taken to build relationships with colleagues, such as scheduling Zoom meetings and using online tools like Slack and Mirror. It also emphasizes the importance of being flexible with time zones and building a culture that embraces remote work.

How to Handle Customer Escalation

Customer escalation is a result of misalignment between Sales, the business, and the customer. To prevent escalation, it is important to understand the risk-reward associated with selling the product to the customer, set expectations during the pre-sale process, and assess the risk early on. If the customer is a poor fit for the product, it is important to be transparent with the leadership and make a strategic decision to either pivot from what was planned or potentially take the revenue loss. Listening to the customer and understanding their needs is key to preventing customer escalation.

Aligning Product Strategy With B2B Customer Requirements

When making product strategy decisions in B2B, it is important to consider multiple facets. To engage external stakeholders, Customer Advisory Boards should be set up and run, and for internal stakeholders, a cross-functional team should be established. These teams should meet regularly to provide feedback and discuss ideas. By including both external and internal stakeholders, a more holistic view of the problem can be achieved and decisions can be made with confidence.

Setting Up a Self-Sustainable Organizational Structure: A Co-Founder’s Perspective

The founder of a quickly growing engineering team found himself with 16 direct reports and no management structure or process. He realized he needed to delegate more of his responsibilities and enable the team to be more autonomous. He split his reviewing and monitoring into two buckets: those areas where mistakes could be made and those areas where mistakes could not be made. He also learned the importance of clear expectations and accountability, and that delegation is about shedding responsibility, not hoarding it.

When Remote Work Leads to Isolation

This article discusses the challenges of remote work during the Covid-19 pandemic and how to address the issue of isolation. The author suggests introducing socializing activities into project planning and resource allocation, as well as budgeting for team activities. The article also highlights the importance of intentional effort to break down isolation and foster collaboration.

How Managers Can Spot Burnout in Their Employees

Managers should take responsibility for spotting warning signs of burnout in employees and take steps to prevent it. Three leading causes of burnout are not making an impact, disrupted work-life balance, and lack of focus. Managers should take different approaches for each of these root causes, such as regular check-ins and career-focused one-on-ones, understanding what employees care about, and ensuring that employees are focused on one thing at a time. Stress and frustration can be reduced by understanding why employees are not getting enough return on their investment, carving time for personal life, and ensuring that employees are engaged and able to bring their full selves to work.

When to Hire Senior Engineers and Tech Leads

The author experienced first-hand the consequences of hiring too many junior engineers when starting an engineering function in New York. They learned that it is important to disregard the pressure to start delivering quickly and instead focus on building the team structure, bringing in tech leads first and then adding mid and junior engineers. They also learned that opportunities should be modeled to attract the right candidates and that both sides should be adaptable.

Shaping the Culture of a New Team

The company culture is a major factor in how a new team's culture develops, but the team's focus and dynamics can also have an impact. To create a team culture, the team leader initiated a discussion with team members about their preferred working modalities and how to communicate with external stakeholders. The team then created a charter and guidelines to reflect their approach to work and ensure that the company's key principles were upheld. It is important to understand the goals behind the company culture and engage team members in developing the team culture.

Building New Remote Teams

Building a new team remotely presents challenges, but also opportunities to rethink how to build trusting relationships. To build trust and team rapport, the author focused on three activities: icebreaker sessions, learning about people's workspaces, and weekly check-ins without a work agenda. The author learned that it takes more time to build relationships in a remote setting, and that it is important to be mindful of individual needs when planning team-building activities.

How to Build a Successful New Team

When starting a new team, first-time managers should create a team charter to understand what the team needs to deliver to be successful. They should then draft profiles of the people who will help them deliver on that charter, optimize the hiring process, and constantly course-correct based on progress. This will ensure that the team develops sustainable processes and starts delivering reliably.

Team Building Activities for Remote Teams

In response to the lack of informal interpersonal communication due to Covid-19, a team leader took action to replicate the rapport and camaraderie of team lunches and happy hours through virtual team building activities. These activities included Zoom happy hours with themes and games, a Halloween-themed virtual happy hour, and Wednesday non-meeting days. Additionally, pair programming was used to build connections and enhance collaboration. It was found that people are quickly adapting to the new reality and that trust is built through work and informal human interaction, both of which are hard to replicate virtually.

Remote Hiring in the “Corona Times”

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused a shift to online hiring, which has its own benefits and challenges. Companies have had to adjust their hiring strategies to accommodate remote work, including expanding their talent pool, creating a candidate pipeline, evaluating candidates remotely, and scheduling interviews. Companies should be flexible with their hiring strategies and consider the long-term implications of remote work, such as the need for work visas for relocations.

How to Help an Underperforming Employee

Recently, a manager faced the challenge of dealing with an underperforming employee. To help, they set up regular meetings to better understand the challenges the person was facing, aligned expectations, tracked performance, and ran a review process. The manager also learned lessons such as setting expectations clearly, nurturing empathy, and taking a constructive approach to performance conversations.

How to Setup Behavioral Interviews Based on Company Values

This article discusses the need to improve the hiring process in startups, particularly the behavioral part of interviewing. The author introduces the STARR method and suggests using company values to assess candidates. They also suggest training interviewers, creating a cheat sheet of questions, and having an in-person debrief at the end of the process. The article also provides lessons learned, such as knowing what you are looking for in a candidate and keeping everything well documented.

How to Establish and Manage Expectations with the Business

This article discusses how to manage the pressure of unrealistic requests from the business while maintaining Engineering's own pace and priorities. It suggests reframing requests to suit Engineering's interests, using visual project management tools to give the business visibility, being careful with time-commitments, having planning reviews with different stakeholders, and connecting tech debt with a concrete value that is brought to customers.

Helping Engineers to Become Successful Managers

When deciding to promote an engineer internally to a manager role, it is important to pay close attention to the dynamics within the team and initiate formal conversations with the prospective manager. The new manager should receive formal training and be given guidance and support, while also being given the opportunity to practice key skills such as running one-on-ones, delegating, delivering feedback, and having tough conversations. The transition should not take longer than a couple of months, and the benefits of promoting internally are that it shows the team that their hard work and improved skills will be rewarded, and the new manager can ramp-up quickly with the right support.

Making Onboarding Part of the Interviewing Process

This article outlines a structured approach to interviewing and onboarding that involves real-life exercises and team involvement to reduce the risk of a poor fit. It includes an introductory call, algorithmic and language-based exercises, and a platform exercise. This approach helps to assess both hard and soft skills, and makes onboarding smoother. The article also emphasizes the importance of dedicating enough time to the process, and the benefits of raising the bar for candidates.

Team Leads as a Mini-CTOs

In order to reduce bottlenecks and preserve agility, a team was split into multiple smaller teams with each team having its own mini-CTO. This allowed team members to take ownership and be more involved in product development, but also led to some misunderstandings. To address this, team leads sessions were established to facilitate discussion and solve alignment issues between different teams. As a result, team members became more motivated and experienced engineers were able to develop their leadership skills.

Leading as an Introvert

An introverted engineer found himself in a new role as CTO, having to talk more often to people outside his team. He focused on one-on-one conversations to build relationships and channeled his energy by taking breaks between meetings. He learned that awkward conversations will be awkward until they are not anymore and that his main strength as an introvert is his thinking. As a leader, he should acknowledge that everyone can have something to say and provide them with the encouragement and opportunity to speak up.

When Letting It Go Is a Matter of Identity

The author, a CTO, faced the challenge of transitioning from coding to higher-impact activities such as scaling the team, growing leaders, and building strategy. This transition was difficult as coding had been a part of the author's identity and they felt like a novice in the new activities. Through learning to trust their team and accepting different approaches to problem-solving, the author was able to let go of coding and focus on their new responsibilities.

Being a Remote Product Manager

This article discusses the challenges of working remotely as a product manager. It outlines the steps taken to build relationships with colleagues, such as scheduling Zoom meetings and using online tools like Slack and Mirror. It also emphasizes the importance of being flexible with time zones and building a culture that embraces remote work.

How to Handle Customer Escalation

Customer escalation is a result of misalignment between Sales, the business, and the customer. To prevent escalation, it is important to understand the risk-reward associated with selling the product to the customer, set expectations during the pre-sale process, and assess the risk early on. If the customer is a poor fit for the product, it is important to be transparent with the leadership and make a strategic decision to either pivot from what was planned or potentially take the revenue loss. Listening to the customer and understanding their needs is key to preventing customer escalation.

Aligning Product Strategy With B2B Customer Requirements

When making product strategy decisions in B2B, it is important to consider multiple facets. To engage external stakeholders, Customer Advisory Boards should be set up and run, and for internal stakeholders, a cross-functional team should be established. These teams should meet regularly to provide feedback and discuss ideas. By including both external and internal stakeholders, a more holistic view of the problem can be achieved and decisions can be made with confidence.

Setting Up a Self-Sustainable Organizational Structure: A Co-Founder’s Perspective

The founder of a quickly growing engineering team found himself with 16 direct reports and no management structure or process. He realized he needed to delegate more of his responsibilities and enable the team to be more autonomous. He split his reviewing and monitoring into two buckets: those areas where mistakes could be made and those areas where mistakes could not be made. He also learned the importance of clear expectations and accountability, and that delegation is about shedding responsibility, not hoarding it.

When Remote Work Leads to Isolation

This article discusses the challenges of remote work during the Covid-19 pandemic and how to address the issue of isolation. The author suggests introducing socializing activities into project planning and resource allocation, as well as budgeting for team activities. The article also highlights the importance of intentional effort to break down isolation and foster collaboration.

How Managers Can Spot Burnout in Their Employees

Managers should take responsibility for spotting warning signs of burnout in employees and take steps to prevent it. Three leading causes of burnout are not making an impact, disrupted work-life balance, and lack of focus. Managers should take different approaches for each of these root causes, such as regular check-ins and career-focused one-on-ones, understanding what employees care about, and ensuring that employees are focused on one thing at a time. Stress and frustration can be reduced by understanding why employees are not getting enough return on their investment, carving time for personal life, and ensuring that employees are engaged and able to bring their full selves to work.

When to Hire Senior Engineers and Tech Leads

The author experienced first-hand the consequences of hiring too many junior engineers when starting an engineering function in New York. They learned that it is important to disregard the pressure to start delivering quickly and instead focus on building the team structure, bringing in tech leads first and then adding mid and junior engineers. They also learned that opportunities should be modeled to attract the right candidates and that both sides should be adaptable.

Shaping the Culture of a New Team

The company culture is a major factor in how a new team's culture develops, but the team's focus and dynamics can also have an impact. To create a team culture, the team leader initiated a discussion with team members about their preferred working modalities and how to communicate with external stakeholders. The team then created a charter and guidelines to reflect their approach to work and ensure that the company's key principles were upheld. It is important to understand the goals behind the company culture and engage team members in developing the team culture.

Building New Remote Teams

Building a new team remotely presents challenges, but also opportunities to rethink how to build trusting relationships. To build trust and team rapport, the author focused on three activities: icebreaker sessions, learning about people's workspaces, and weekly check-ins without a work agenda. The author learned that it takes more time to build relationships in a remote setting, and that it is important to be mindful of individual needs when planning team-building activities.

How to Build a Successful New Team

When starting a new team, first-time managers should create a team charter to understand what the team needs to deliver to be successful. They should then draft profiles of the people who will help them deliver on that charter, optimize the hiring process, and constantly course-correct based on progress. This will ensure that the team develops sustainable processes and starts delivering reliably.

Team Building Activities for Remote Teams

In response to the lack of informal interpersonal communication due to Covid-19, a team leader took action to replicate the rapport and camaraderie of team lunches and happy hours through virtual team building activities. These activities included Zoom happy hours with themes and games, a Halloween-themed virtual happy hour, and Wednesday non-meeting days. Additionally, pair programming was used to build connections and enhance collaboration. It was found that people are quickly adapting to the new reality and that trust is built through work and informal human interaction, both of which are hard to replicate virtually.

Remote Hiring in the “Corona Times”

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused a shift to online hiring, which has its own benefits and challenges. Companies have had to adjust their hiring strategies to accommodate remote work, including expanding their talent pool, creating a candidate pipeline, evaluating candidates remotely, and scheduling interviews. Companies should be flexible with their hiring strategies and consider the long-term implications of remote work, such as the need for work visas for relocations.

How to Help an Underperforming Employee

Recently, a manager faced the challenge of dealing with an underperforming employee. To help, they set up regular meetings to better understand the challenges the person was facing, aligned expectations, tracked performance, and ran a review process. The manager also learned lessons such as setting expectations clearly, nurturing empathy, and taking a constructive approach to performance conversations.

How to Setup Behavioral Interviews Based on Company Values

This article discusses the need to improve the hiring process in startups, particularly the behavioral part of interviewing. The author introduces the STARR method and suggests using company values to assess candidates. They also suggest training interviewers, creating a cheat sheet of questions, and having an in-person debrief at the end of the process. The article also provides lessons learned, such as knowing what you are looking for in a candidate and keeping everything well documented.

How to Establish and Manage Expectations with the Business

This article discusses how to manage the pressure of unrealistic requests from the business while maintaining Engineering's own pace and priorities. It suggests reframing requests to suit Engineering's interests, using visual project management tools to give the business visibility, being careful with time-commitments, having planning reviews with different stakeholders, and connecting tech debt with a concrete value that is brought to customers.

Helping Engineers to Become Successful Managers

When deciding to promote an engineer internally to a manager role, it is important to pay close attention to the dynamics within the team and initiate formal conversations with the prospective manager. The new manager should receive formal training and be given guidance and support, while also being given the opportunity to practice key skills such as running one-on-ones, delegating, delivering feedback, and having tough conversations. The transition should not take longer than a couple of months, and the benefits of promoting internally are that it shows the team that their hard work and improved skills will be rewarded, and the new manager can ramp-up quickly with the right support.

Making Onboarding Part of the Interviewing Process

This article outlines a structured approach to interviewing and onboarding that involves real-life exercises and team involvement to reduce the risk of a poor fit. It includes an introductory call, algorithmic and language-based exercises, and a platform exercise. This approach helps to assess both hard and soft skills, and makes onboarding smoother. The article also emphasizes the importance of dedicating enough time to the process, and the benefits of raising the bar for candidates.

Team Leads as a Mini-CTOs

In order to reduce bottlenecks and preserve agility, a team was split into multiple smaller teams with each team having its own mini-CTO. This allowed team members to take ownership and be more involved in product development, but also led to some misunderstandings. To address this, team leads sessions were established to facilitate discussion and solve alignment issues between different teams. As a result, team members became more motivated and experienced engineers were able to develop their leadership skills.

Leading as an Introvert

An introverted engineer found himself in a new role as CTO, having to talk more often to people outside his team. He focused on one-on-one conversations to build relationships and channeled his energy by taking breaks between meetings. He learned that awkward conversations will be awkward until they are not anymore and that his main strength as an introvert is his thinking. As a leader, he should acknowledge that everyone can have something to say and provide them with the encouragement and opportunity to speak up.

When Letting It Go Is a Matter of Identity

The author, a CTO, faced the challenge of transitioning from coding to higher-impact activities such as scaling the team, growing leaders, and building strategy. This transition was difficult as coding had been a part of the author's identity and they felt like a novice in the new activities. Through learning to trust their team and accepting different approaches to problem-solving, the author was able to let go of coding and focus on their new responsibilities.

Being a Remote Product Manager

This article discusses the challenges of working remotely as a product manager. It outlines the steps taken to build relationships with colleagues, such as scheduling Zoom meetings and using online tools like Slack and Mirror. It also emphasizes the importance of being flexible with time zones and building a culture that embraces remote work.

How to Handle Customer Escalation

Customer escalation is a result of misalignment between Sales, the business, and the customer. To prevent escalation, it is important to understand the risk-reward associated with selling the product to the customer, set expectations during the pre-sale process, and assess the risk early on. If the customer is a poor fit for the product, it is important to be transparent with the leadership and make a strategic decision to either pivot from what was planned or potentially take the revenue loss. Listening to the customer and understanding their needs is key to preventing customer escalation.

Aligning Product Strategy With B2B Customer Requirements

When making product strategy decisions in B2B, it is important to consider multiple facets. To engage external stakeholders, Customer Advisory Boards should be set up and run, and for internal stakeholders, a cross-functional team should be established. These teams should meet regularly to provide feedback and discuss ideas. By including both external and internal stakeholders, a more holistic view of the problem can be achieved and decisions can be made with confidence.

Setting Up a Self-Sustainable Organizational Structure: A Co-Founder’s Perspective

The founder of a quickly growing engineering team found himself with 16 direct reports and no management structure or process. He realized he needed to delegate more of his responsibilities and enable the team to be more autonomous. He split his reviewing and monitoring into two buckets: those areas where mistakes could be made and those areas where mistakes could not be made. He also learned the importance of clear expectations and accountability, and that delegation is about shedding responsibility, not hoarding it.

When Remote Work Leads to Isolation

This article discusses the challenges of remote work during the Covid-19 pandemic and how to address the issue of isolation. The author suggests introducing socializing activities into project planning and resource allocation, as well as budgeting for team activities. The article also highlights the importance of intentional effort to break down isolation and foster collaboration.

How Managers Can Spot Burnout in Their Employees

Managers should take responsibility for spotting warning signs of burnout in employees and take steps to prevent it. Three leading causes of burnout are not making an impact, disrupted work-life balance, and lack of focus. Managers should take different approaches for each of these root causes, such as regular check-ins and career-focused one-on-ones, understanding what employees care about, and ensuring that employees are focused on one thing at a time. Stress and frustration can be reduced by understanding why employees are not getting enough return on their investment, carving time for personal life, and ensuring that employees are engaged and able to bring their full selves to work.

When to Hire Senior Engineers and Tech Leads

The author experienced first-hand the consequences of hiring too many junior engineers when starting an engineering function in New York. They learned that it is important to disregard the pressure to start delivering quickly and instead focus on building the team structure, bringing in tech leads first and then adding mid and junior engineers. They also learned that opportunities should be modeled to attract the right candidates and that both sides should be adaptable.

Shaping the Culture of a New Team

The company culture is a major factor in how a new team's culture develops, but the team's focus and dynamics can also have an impact. To create a team culture, the team leader initiated a discussion with team members about their preferred working modalities and how to communicate with external stakeholders. The team then created a charter and guidelines to reflect their approach to work and ensure that the company's key principles were upheld. It is important to understand the goals behind the company culture and engage team members in developing the team culture.

Building New Remote Teams

Building a new team remotely presents challenges, but also opportunities to rethink how to build trusting relationships. To build trust and team rapport, the author focused on three activities: icebreaker sessions, learning about people's workspaces, and weekly check-ins without a work agenda. The author learned that it takes more time to build relationships in a remote setting, and that it is important to be mindful of individual needs when planning team-building activities.

How to Build a Successful New Team

When starting a new team, first-time managers should create a team charter to understand what the team needs to deliver to be successful. They should then draft profiles of the people who will help them deliver on that charter, optimize the hiring process, and constantly course-correct based on progress. This will ensure that the team develops sustainable processes and starts delivering reliably.

Team Building Activities for Remote Teams

In response to the lack of informal interpersonal communication due to Covid-19, a team leader took action to replicate the rapport and camaraderie of team lunches and happy hours through virtual team building activities. These activities included Zoom happy hours with themes and games, a Halloween-themed virtual happy hour, and Wednesday non-meeting days. Additionally, pair programming was used to build connections and enhance collaboration. It was found that people are quickly adapting to the new reality and that trust is built through work and informal human interaction, both of which are hard to replicate virtually.

Remote Hiring in the “Corona Times”

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused a shift to online hiring, which has its own benefits and challenges. Companies have had to adjust their hiring strategies to accommodate remote work, including expanding their talent pool, creating a candidate pipeline, evaluating candidates remotely, and scheduling interviews. Companies should be flexible with their hiring strategies and consider the long-term implications of remote work, such as the need for work visas for relocations.

How to Help an Underperforming Employee

Recently, a manager faced the challenge of dealing with an underperforming employee. To help, they set up regular meetings to better understand the challenges the person was facing, aligned expectations, tracked performance, and ran a review process. The manager also learned lessons such as setting expectations clearly, nurturing empathy, and taking a constructive approach to performance conversations.

How to Setup Behavioral Interviews Based on Company Values

This article discusses the need to improve the hiring process in startups, particularly the behavioral part of interviewing. The author introduces the STARR method and suggests using company values to assess candidates. They also suggest training interviewers, creating a cheat sheet of questions, and having an in-person debrief at the end of the process. The article also provides lessons learned, such as knowing what you are looking for in a candidate and keeping everything well documented.

How to Establish and Manage Expectations with the Business

This article discusses how to manage the pressure of unrealistic requests from the business while maintaining Engineering's own pace and priorities. It suggests reframing requests to suit Engineering's interests, using visual project management tools to give the business visibility, being careful with time-commitments, having planning reviews with different stakeholders, and connecting tech debt with a concrete value that is brought to customers.

Helping Engineers to Become Successful Managers

When deciding to promote an engineer internally to a manager role, it is important to pay close attention to the dynamics within the team and initiate formal conversations with the prospective manager. The new manager should receive formal training and be given guidance and support, while also being given the opportunity to practice key skills such as running one-on-ones, delegating, delivering feedback, and having tough conversations. The transition should not take longer than a couple of months, and the benefits of promoting internally are that it shows the team that their hard work and improved skills will be rewarded, and the new manager can ramp-up quickly with the right support.

Making Onboarding Part of the Interviewing Process

This article outlines a structured approach to interviewing and onboarding that involves real-life exercises and team involvement to reduce the risk of a poor fit. It includes an introductory call, algorithmic and language-based exercises, and a platform exercise. This approach helps to assess both hard and soft skills, and makes onboarding smoother. The article also emphasizes the importance of dedicating enough time to the process, and the benefits of raising the bar for candidates.

Team Leads as a Mini-CTOs

In order to reduce bottlenecks and preserve agility, a team was split into multiple smaller teams with each team having its own mini-CTO. This allowed team members to take ownership and be more involved in product development, but also led to some misunderstandings. To address this, team leads sessions were established to facilitate discussion and solve alignment issues between different teams. As a result, team members became more motivated and experienced engineers were able to develop their leadership skills.

Leading as an Introvert

An introverted engineer found himself in a new role as CTO, having to talk more often to people outside his team. He focused on one-on-one conversations to build relationships and channeled his energy by taking breaks between meetings. He learned that awkward conversations will be awkward until they are not anymore and that his main strength as an introvert is his thinking. As a leader, he should acknowledge that everyone can have something to say and provide them with the encouragement and opportunity to speak up.

When Letting It Go Is a Matter of Identity

The author, a CTO, faced the challenge of transitioning from coding to higher-impact activities such as scaling the team, growing leaders, and building strategy. This transition was difficult as coding had been a part of the author's identity and they felt like a novice in the new activities. Through learning to trust their team and accepting different approaches to problem-solving, the author was able to let go of coding and focus on their new responsibilities.

Being a Remote Product Manager

This article discusses the challenges of working remotely as a product manager. It outlines the steps taken to build relationships with colleagues, such as scheduling Zoom meetings and using online tools like Slack and Mirror. It also emphasizes the importance of being flexible with time zones and building a culture that embraces remote work.

How to Handle Customer Escalation

Customer escalation is a result of misalignment between Sales, the business, and the customer. To prevent escalation, it is important to understand the risk-reward associated with selling the product to the customer, set expectations during the pre-sale process, and assess the risk early on. If the customer is a poor fit for the product, it is important to be transparent with the leadership and make a strategic decision to either pivot from what was planned or potentially take the revenue loss. Listening to the customer and understanding their needs is key to preventing customer escalation.

Aligning Product Strategy With B2B Customer Requirements

When making product strategy decisions in B2B, it is important to consider multiple facets. To engage external stakeholders, Customer Advisory Boards should be set up and run, and for internal stakeholders, a cross-functional team should be established. These teams should meet regularly to provide feedback and discuss ideas. By including both external and internal stakeholders, a more holistic view of the problem can be achieved and decisions can be made with confidence.

Setting Up a Self-Sustainable Organizational Structure: A Co-Founder’s Perspective

The founder of a quickly growing engineering team found himself with 16 direct reports and no management structure or process. He realized he needed to delegate more of his responsibilities and enable the team to be more autonomous. He split his reviewing and monitoring into two buckets: those areas where mistakes could be made and those areas where mistakes could not be made. He also learned the importance of clear expectations and accountability, and that delegation is about shedding responsibility, not hoarding it.

When Remote Work Leads to Isolation

This article discusses the challenges of remote work during the Covid-19 pandemic and how to address the issue of isolation. The author suggests introducing socializing activities into project planning and resource allocation, as well as budgeting for team activities. The article also highlights the importance of intentional effort to break down isolation and foster collaboration.