Knowledge shared by our community

Continuous Career Development: Where To Start

This article discusses the importance of career development and how managers can help their reports reach their long-term goals. It emphasizes the need to have regular conversations with reports to identify their values, motivations, and aspirations, and to break down their goals into achievable steps. It also highlights the importance of providing opportunities for growth and the need to recognize that not everyone is looking for promotions or titles, but rather for the development of specific skills.

Solving Conflicts With a Win-Win Mindset

In order to resolve conflicts in the workplace, I suggest adopting a win-win mindset. This approach focuses on finding a solution rather than dwelling on differences, and encourages collaboration and camaraderie. I have personally used this approach in different work-related settings and have seen positive results.

Why Feedback Should Be Spot On

This article discusses the importance of providing feedback to employees in order to help them with their long-term career goals. It suggests that feedback should be given frequently and in a timely manner, and should be framed in a positive way that emphasizes development opportunities. It also suggests that feedback should be bidirectional and should be used to create a healthy working environment. Finally, it emphasizes the importance of mindset alignment when providing feedback.

Being a Manager Who Can Retain People

Many managers think they are great leaders, but people on their teams are leaving and those who stay are unhappy and unproductive. A good manager should create a working environment that encourages their team members to contribute and thrive. This can be done by recognizing that every engineer is an individual with different needs, establishing a personal and caring approach, being transparent, building trust, leading by example, understanding people's limitations, and having a vision. Retention should be taken as seriously as hiring, and proactive action should be taken at the slightest notion of churn.

Regrettable Hires: How Many Are Too Many

In order to scale rapidly, a company must optimize its hiring process to make decisions quickly and reduce the number of interviews. This can lead to regrettable hires, but the company can mitigate this risk by establishing an acceptable failure rate and having a probation period to identify any unsuitable hires. The team culture can be protected by interviewing every candidate and following gut instincts.

How to Grow a Planning Mindset

A manager introduced weekly planning sessions to encourage teams to plan consistently throughout a quarter, rather than intensifying the planning towards the end. This allowed the team to step back and look at the broader picture, improved alignment between long-term business objectives and priorities, and helped with focus. Planning is also a path to continual improvement.

How to Make Your One-on-Ones More Effective

One-on-ones are an important opportunity for managers to get to know their employees better, help them grow, and become better leaders. Structuring the one-on-ones with topics such as getting to know the employee, announcements, recent developments, receiving feedback, delivering feedback, and employee growth can help create a trustful relationship and provide valuable insight. Managers should also learn to listen carefully, prepare for one-on-ones, and be open to showing their vulnerability.

How to Onboard Remotely

In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, a manager had to ensure that the onboarding of new employees went as smoothly as possible. To do this, they arranged for the team to meet the new hire, set up one-on-one video calls, and hosted virtual hours for people to connect on a more personal level. They also had a 30/60/90 day plan and encouraged the new hire to meet as many people as possible. The manager also had to be conscious of the informal parts of office networking and learning that could not be replicated in a remote setting. Lessons learned included being prepared for remote work, setting expectations, and having a growth mindset.

Building a Team of Mixed Seniorities

This article discusses the mistakes a small startup made when initially building their processes and culture to fit the needs of junior engineers. It outlines the actions taken to set up expectations, identify heavy-handed processes, increase ownership, and grow senior people in their roles. The lessons learned from this experience include being prepared to listen to senior people, tailoring onboarding and processes to fit different individuals, and not ending with seniority when crafting a development plan.

When Transparency Means Exercising More Influence

A small startup was having difficulty communicating effectively across departments, particularly between Engineering and Sales/Marketing. After talking to stakeholders, it was discovered that they were not looking for transparency, but rather a seat at the table to have their opinions heard. To address the issue, Engineering listened more to different stakeholders, drew clear boundaries, and pushed back on other teams. It was also important to have a shared language and agree upon interpretation to avoid misunderstandings.

Managing Managers: A Matter of Style

Managing managers requires a different approach than managing individual contributors. Managers should be given a blank slate to make decisions and be held accountable for the consequences. They should be encouraged to take ownership, think creatively, and measure their own success. Localized decision-making should be enabled by providing sufficient context to the ground level. This approach is more effective than top-down decision-making.

Motivational Public Speaking for Non-Tech Audience

After transitioning from an EM role to a director and VP of Engineering, the author had to adjust to speaking to a non-technical audience in a brief, laser-focused format. To improve their public speaking skills, the author worked with an executive coach, studied different communication styles, and practiced with a partner. Through this process, the author learned to enjoy public speaking, experimented with the style and messaging that worked best, and had a positive impact on the business. The author's team also appreciated that they were well represented.

Using Opportunity Mapping to Create Amazing Products From a Wall Of Wild Ideas

Product managers should continuously talk to customers to identify needs and pain points, and gather ideas from brainstorming sessions, research, and surveys. They should then create a wall of ideas and group them by themes, and select the most impactful ideas to bring to life with user testing, paper prototypes, and visuals like a photo comic book or video. This process of visualization helps product leaders make the best decisions within the opportunity space.

How to Build a Product Strategy That Centers on Customer Value

At a previous job, the author needed to create a new product strategy to focus on customer value. To do this, they chose a workshop format to encourage collaboration and exchange of ideas. They collected evidence from customers through surveys and interviews, and used two questions to measure value and track features. The author also had to ensure visibility throughout the process and balance the need to move fast with the need to secure buy-in. They would have liked to commission a more formal study of user needs, but time and money were constraints.

How to Transition Your Employee Into a Better Role

A manager hired an employee who had difficulty adjusting, but eventually was able to unlock their potential and become a successful and high-performing employee. This was achieved by changing the type of work they were doing and gradually increasing the complexity of the tasks. The manager learned that it is important to separate different areas of performance when onboarding someone and to add gradually a more specific type of work.

Why Standardizing the Interview Process

This article outlines the steps taken to improve the interview process for a company. The company reevaluated their sourcing and messaging, tailored job descriptions to the specific skill sets they were looking for, and standardized their interview questions. They also introduced a technical interview earlier on in the process to reduce costs and get a better signal on problem-solving ability. Finally, they experimented with different difficulty levels and encouraged people to shadow first before conducting interviews.

Migrating a Legacy Service: A Lesson in Eng/Ops Collaboration

A team at LinkedIn was managing a set of legacy Python services that needed to be migrated to a new Java microservices stack. The existing services were causing regular production outages, so the team had to reprioritize and change how engineering and operations were working together. To do this, the team flew to California to do a handoff with the existing development team, and facilitated meetings between SRE leads to gain a full understanding of the existing system. They also introduced a process called code yellow, which paused active feature development until the operations were stabilized. Lastly, they revised the migration plan and held daily standups to balance addressing short-term stability issues and investing in the migration. Through this process, they were able to provide better service to customers and members, and learned a lot about how to design their system to scale effectively.

When Systems Thinking Unlocks a Way Forward

The author's team was responsible for the data migration aspect of a company's transition from a monolith to microservices. To better communicate the migration process to stakeholders, the author created a Google spreadsheet model that revealed key variables and exposed bottlenecks. The model also helped the author's manager communicate the team's strategy to the rest of the organization, resulting in more support from other teams. This experience taught the author the value of thinking about problems as a whole system and the importance of having a thorough understanding of the technical aspects of a project.

How to Be a Better Manager

After founding a startup and struggling to motivate the developers, the author studied business administration to become a better manager and leader. He learned that a great manager should be able to clearly and succinctly convey the company’s vision and goals to their employees, and that being a good manager requires experience and soft skills. He also learned that ego can be a manager's downfall, and that managing different stakeholders and restoring trust between departments is also important.

An Egalitarian Approach to a Disportionate Workload

The author was tasked with managing a large team of developers with only two senior engineers. To create a sense of equality, the author implemented a rotation system where two developers would be assigned to help the support team each week. This approach helped spread knowledge across the team, relieved the senior engineers, and built camaraderie. The author learned that simple solutions work best, people won't object to things that are fair, and collaboration between senior and junior engineers is important.

Continuous Career Development: Where To Start

This article discusses the importance of career development and how managers can help their reports reach their long-term goals. It emphasizes the need to have regular conversations with reports to identify their values, motivations, and aspirations, and to break down their goals into achievable steps. It also highlights the importance of providing opportunities for growth and the need to recognize that not everyone is looking for promotions or titles, but rather for the development of specific skills.

Solving Conflicts With a Win-Win Mindset

In order to resolve conflicts in the workplace, I suggest adopting a win-win mindset. This approach focuses on finding a solution rather than dwelling on differences, and encourages collaboration and camaraderie. I have personally used this approach in different work-related settings and have seen positive results.

Why Feedback Should Be Spot On

This article discusses the importance of providing feedback to employees in order to help them with their long-term career goals. It suggests that feedback should be given frequently and in a timely manner, and should be framed in a positive way that emphasizes development opportunities. It also suggests that feedback should be bidirectional and should be used to create a healthy working environment. Finally, it emphasizes the importance of mindset alignment when providing feedback.

Being a Manager Who Can Retain People

Many managers think they are great leaders, but people on their teams are leaving and those who stay are unhappy and unproductive. A good manager should create a working environment that encourages their team members to contribute and thrive. This can be done by recognizing that every engineer is an individual with different needs, establishing a personal and caring approach, being transparent, building trust, leading by example, understanding people's limitations, and having a vision. Retention should be taken as seriously as hiring, and proactive action should be taken at the slightest notion of churn.

Regrettable Hires: How Many Are Too Many

In order to scale rapidly, a company must optimize its hiring process to make decisions quickly and reduce the number of interviews. This can lead to regrettable hires, but the company can mitigate this risk by establishing an acceptable failure rate and having a probation period to identify any unsuitable hires. The team culture can be protected by interviewing every candidate and following gut instincts.

How to Grow a Planning Mindset

A manager introduced weekly planning sessions to encourage teams to plan consistently throughout a quarter, rather than intensifying the planning towards the end. This allowed the team to step back and look at the broader picture, improved alignment between long-term business objectives and priorities, and helped with focus. Planning is also a path to continual improvement.

How to Make Your One-on-Ones More Effective

One-on-ones are an important opportunity for managers to get to know their employees better, help them grow, and become better leaders. Structuring the one-on-ones with topics such as getting to know the employee, announcements, recent developments, receiving feedback, delivering feedback, and employee growth can help create a trustful relationship and provide valuable insight. Managers should also learn to listen carefully, prepare for one-on-ones, and be open to showing their vulnerability.

How to Onboard Remotely

In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, a manager had to ensure that the onboarding of new employees went as smoothly as possible. To do this, they arranged for the team to meet the new hire, set up one-on-one video calls, and hosted virtual hours for people to connect on a more personal level. They also had a 30/60/90 day plan and encouraged the new hire to meet as many people as possible. The manager also had to be conscious of the informal parts of office networking and learning that could not be replicated in a remote setting. Lessons learned included being prepared for remote work, setting expectations, and having a growth mindset.

Building a Team of Mixed Seniorities

This article discusses the mistakes a small startup made when initially building their processes and culture to fit the needs of junior engineers. It outlines the actions taken to set up expectations, identify heavy-handed processes, increase ownership, and grow senior people in their roles. The lessons learned from this experience include being prepared to listen to senior people, tailoring onboarding and processes to fit different individuals, and not ending with seniority when crafting a development plan.

When Transparency Means Exercising More Influence

A small startup was having difficulty communicating effectively across departments, particularly between Engineering and Sales/Marketing. After talking to stakeholders, it was discovered that they were not looking for transparency, but rather a seat at the table to have their opinions heard. To address the issue, Engineering listened more to different stakeholders, drew clear boundaries, and pushed back on other teams. It was also important to have a shared language and agree upon interpretation to avoid misunderstandings.

Managing Managers: A Matter of Style

Managing managers requires a different approach than managing individual contributors. Managers should be given a blank slate to make decisions and be held accountable for the consequences. They should be encouraged to take ownership, think creatively, and measure their own success. Localized decision-making should be enabled by providing sufficient context to the ground level. This approach is more effective than top-down decision-making.

Motivational Public Speaking for Non-Tech Audience

After transitioning from an EM role to a director and VP of Engineering, the author had to adjust to speaking to a non-technical audience in a brief, laser-focused format. To improve their public speaking skills, the author worked with an executive coach, studied different communication styles, and practiced with a partner. Through this process, the author learned to enjoy public speaking, experimented with the style and messaging that worked best, and had a positive impact on the business. The author's team also appreciated that they were well represented.

Using Opportunity Mapping to Create Amazing Products From a Wall Of Wild Ideas

Product managers should continuously talk to customers to identify needs and pain points, and gather ideas from brainstorming sessions, research, and surveys. They should then create a wall of ideas and group them by themes, and select the most impactful ideas to bring to life with user testing, paper prototypes, and visuals like a photo comic book or video. This process of visualization helps product leaders make the best decisions within the opportunity space.

How to Build a Product Strategy That Centers on Customer Value

At a previous job, the author needed to create a new product strategy to focus on customer value. To do this, they chose a workshop format to encourage collaboration and exchange of ideas. They collected evidence from customers through surveys and interviews, and used two questions to measure value and track features. The author also had to ensure visibility throughout the process and balance the need to move fast with the need to secure buy-in. They would have liked to commission a more formal study of user needs, but time and money were constraints.

How to Transition Your Employee Into a Better Role

A manager hired an employee who had difficulty adjusting, but eventually was able to unlock their potential and become a successful and high-performing employee. This was achieved by changing the type of work they were doing and gradually increasing the complexity of the tasks. The manager learned that it is important to separate different areas of performance when onboarding someone and to add gradually a more specific type of work.

Why Standardizing the Interview Process

This article outlines the steps taken to improve the interview process for a company. The company reevaluated their sourcing and messaging, tailored job descriptions to the specific skill sets they were looking for, and standardized their interview questions. They also introduced a technical interview earlier on in the process to reduce costs and get a better signal on problem-solving ability. Finally, they experimented with different difficulty levels and encouraged people to shadow first before conducting interviews.

Migrating a Legacy Service: A Lesson in Eng/Ops Collaboration

A team at LinkedIn was managing a set of legacy Python services that needed to be migrated to a new Java microservices stack. The existing services were causing regular production outages, so the team had to reprioritize and change how engineering and operations were working together. To do this, the team flew to California to do a handoff with the existing development team, and facilitated meetings between SRE leads to gain a full understanding of the existing system. They also introduced a process called code yellow, which paused active feature development until the operations were stabilized. Lastly, they revised the migration plan and held daily standups to balance addressing short-term stability issues and investing in the migration. Through this process, they were able to provide better service to customers and members, and learned a lot about how to design their system to scale effectively.

When Systems Thinking Unlocks a Way Forward

The author's team was responsible for the data migration aspect of a company's transition from a monolith to microservices. To better communicate the migration process to stakeholders, the author created a Google spreadsheet model that revealed key variables and exposed bottlenecks. The model also helped the author's manager communicate the team's strategy to the rest of the organization, resulting in more support from other teams. This experience taught the author the value of thinking about problems as a whole system and the importance of having a thorough understanding of the technical aspects of a project.

How to Be a Better Manager

After founding a startup and struggling to motivate the developers, the author studied business administration to become a better manager and leader. He learned that a great manager should be able to clearly and succinctly convey the company’s vision and goals to their employees, and that being a good manager requires experience and soft skills. He also learned that ego can be a manager's downfall, and that managing different stakeholders and restoring trust between departments is also important.

An Egalitarian Approach to a Disportionate Workload

The author was tasked with managing a large team of developers with only two senior engineers. To create a sense of equality, the author implemented a rotation system where two developers would be assigned to help the support team each week. This approach helped spread knowledge across the team, relieved the senior engineers, and built camaraderie. The author learned that simple solutions work best, people won't object to things that are fair, and collaboration between senior and junior engineers is important.

Continuous Career Development: Where To Start

This article discusses the importance of career development and how managers can help their reports reach their long-term goals. It emphasizes the need to have regular conversations with reports to identify their values, motivations, and aspirations, and to break down their goals into achievable steps. It also highlights the importance of providing opportunities for growth and the need to recognize that not everyone is looking for promotions or titles, but rather for the development of specific skills.

Solving Conflicts With a Win-Win Mindset

In order to resolve conflicts in the workplace, I suggest adopting a win-win mindset. This approach focuses on finding a solution rather than dwelling on differences, and encourages collaboration and camaraderie. I have personally used this approach in different work-related settings and have seen positive results.

Why Feedback Should Be Spot On

This article discusses the importance of providing feedback to employees in order to help them with their long-term career goals. It suggests that feedback should be given frequently and in a timely manner, and should be framed in a positive way that emphasizes development opportunities. It also suggests that feedback should be bidirectional and should be used to create a healthy working environment. Finally, it emphasizes the importance of mindset alignment when providing feedback.

Being a Manager Who Can Retain People

Many managers think they are great leaders, but people on their teams are leaving and those who stay are unhappy and unproductive. A good manager should create a working environment that encourages their team members to contribute and thrive. This can be done by recognizing that every engineer is an individual with different needs, establishing a personal and caring approach, being transparent, building trust, leading by example, understanding people's limitations, and having a vision. Retention should be taken as seriously as hiring, and proactive action should be taken at the slightest notion of churn.

Regrettable Hires: How Many Are Too Many

In order to scale rapidly, a company must optimize its hiring process to make decisions quickly and reduce the number of interviews. This can lead to regrettable hires, but the company can mitigate this risk by establishing an acceptable failure rate and having a probation period to identify any unsuitable hires. The team culture can be protected by interviewing every candidate and following gut instincts.

How to Grow a Planning Mindset

A manager introduced weekly planning sessions to encourage teams to plan consistently throughout a quarter, rather than intensifying the planning towards the end. This allowed the team to step back and look at the broader picture, improved alignment between long-term business objectives and priorities, and helped with focus. Planning is also a path to continual improvement.

How to Make Your One-on-Ones More Effective

One-on-ones are an important opportunity for managers to get to know their employees better, help them grow, and become better leaders. Structuring the one-on-ones with topics such as getting to know the employee, announcements, recent developments, receiving feedback, delivering feedback, and employee growth can help create a trustful relationship and provide valuable insight. Managers should also learn to listen carefully, prepare for one-on-ones, and be open to showing their vulnerability.

How to Onboard Remotely

In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, a manager had to ensure that the onboarding of new employees went as smoothly as possible. To do this, they arranged for the team to meet the new hire, set up one-on-one video calls, and hosted virtual hours for people to connect on a more personal level. They also had a 30/60/90 day plan and encouraged the new hire to meet as many people as possible. The manager also had to be conscious of the informal parts of office networking and learning that could not be replicated in a remote setting. Lessons learned included being prepared for remote work, setting expectations, and having a growth mindset.

Building a Team of Mixed Seniorities

This article discusses the mistakes a small startup made when initially building their processes and culture to fit the needs of junior engineers. It outlines the actions taken to set up expectations, identify heavy-handed processes, increase ownership, and grow senior people in their roles. The lessons learned from this experience include being prepared to listen to senior people, tailoring onboarding and processes to fit different individuals, and not ending with seniority when crafting a development plan.

When Transparency Means Exercising More Influence

A small startup was having difficulty communicating effectively across departments, particularly between Engineering and Sales/Marketing. After talking to stakeholders, it was discovered that they were not looking for transparency, but rather a seat at the table to have their opinions heard. To address the issue, Engineering listened more to different stakeholders, drew clear boundaries, and pushed back on other teams. It was also important to have a shared language and agree upon interpretation to avoid misunderstandings.

Managing Managers: A Matter of Style

Managing managers requires a different approach than managing individual contributors. Managers should be given a blank slate to make decisions and be held accountable for the consequences. They should be encouraged to take ownership, think creatively, and measure their own success. Localized decision-making should be enabled by providing sufficient context to the ground level. This approach is more effective than top-down decision-making.

Motivational Public Speaking for Non-Tech Audience

After transitioning from an EM role to a director and VP of Engineering, the author had to adjust to speaking to a non-technical audience in a brief, laser-focused format. To improve their public speaking skills, the author worked with an executive coach, studied different communication styles, and practiced with a partner. Through this process, the author learned to enjoy public speaking, experimented with the style and messaging that worked best, and had a positive impact on the business. The author's team also appreciated that they were well represented.

Using Opportunity Mapping to Create Amazing Products From a Wall Of Wild Ideas

Product managers should continuously talk to customers to identify needs and pain points, and gather ideas from brainstorming sessions, research, and surveys. They should then create a wall of ideas and group them by themes, and select the most impactful ideas to bring to life with user testing, paper prototypes, and visuals like a photo comic book or video. This process of visualization helps product leaders make the best decisions within the opportunity space.

How to Build a Product Strategy That Centers on Customer Value

At a previous job, the author needed to create a new product strategy to focus on customer value. To do this, they chose a workshop format to encourage collaboration and exchange of ideas. They collected evidence from customers through surveys and interviews, and used two questions to measure value and track features. The author also had to ensure visibility throughout the process and balance the need to move fast with the need to secure buy-in. They would have liked to commission a more formal study of user needs, but time and money were constraints.

How to Transition Your Employee Into a Better Role

A manager hired an employee who had difficulty adjusting, but eventually was able to unlock their potential and become a successful and high-performing employee. This was achieved by changing the type of work they were doing and gradually increasing the complexity of the tasks. The manager learned that it is important to separate different areas of performance when onboarding someone and to add gradually a more specific type of work.

Why Standardizing the Interview Process

This article outlines the steps taken to improve the interview process for a company. The company reevaluated their sourcing and messaging, tailored job descriptions to the specific skill sets they were looking for, and standardized their interview questions. They also introduced a technical interview earlier on in the process to reduce costs and get a better signal on problem-solving ability. Finally, they experimented with different difficulty levels and encouraged people to shadow first before conducting interviews.

Migrating a Legacy Service: A Lesson in Eng/Ops Collaboration

A team at LinkedIn was managing a set of legacy Python services that needed to be migrated to a new Java microservices stack. The existing services were causing regular production outages, so the team had to reprioritize and change how engineering and operations were working together. To do this, the team flew to California to do a handoff with the existing development team, and facilitated meetings between SRE leads to gain a full understanding of the existing system. They also introduced a process called code yellow, which paused active feature development until the operations were stabilized. Lastly, they revised the migration plan and held daily standups to balance addressing short-term stability issues and investing in the migration. Through this process, they were able to provide better service to customers and members, and learned a lot about how to design their system to scale effectively.

When Systems Thinking Unlocks a Way Forward

The author's team was responsible for the data migration aspect of a company's transition from a monolith to microservices. To better communicate the migration process to stakeholders, the author created a Google spreadsheet model that revealed key variables and exposed bottlenecks. The model also helped the author's manager communicate the team's strategy to the rest of the organization, resulting in more support from other teams. This experience taught the author the value of thinking about problems as a whole system and the importance of having a thorough understanding of the technical aspects of a project.

How to Be a Better Manager

After founding a startup and struggling to motivate the developers, the author studied business administration to become a better manager and leader. He learned that a great manager should be able to clearly and succinctly convey the company’s vision and goals to their employees, and that being a good manager requires experience and soft skills. He also learned that ego can be a manager's downfall, and that managing different stakeholders and restoring trust between departments is also important.

An Egalitarian Approach to a Disportionate Workload

The author was tasked with managing a large team of developers with only two senior engineers. To create a sense of equality, the author implemented a rotation system where two developers would be assigned to help the support team each week. This approach helped spread knowledge across the team, relieved the senior engineers, and built camaraderie. The author learned that simple solutions work best, people won't object to things that are fair, and collaboration between senior and junior engineers is important.

Continuous Career Development: Where To Start

This article discusses the importance of career development and how managers can help their reports reach their long-term goals. It emphasizes the need to have regular conversations with reports to identify their values, motivations, and aspirations, and to break down their goals into achievable steps. It also highlights the importance of providing opportunities for growth and the need to recognize that not everyone is looking for promotions or titles, but rather for the development of specific skills.

Solving Conflicts With a Win-Win Mindset

In order to resolve conflicts in the workplace, I suggest adopting a win-win mindset. This approach focuses on finding a solution rather than dwelling on differences, and encourages collaboration and camaraderie. I have personally used this approach in different work-related settings and have seen positive results.

Why Feedback Should Be Spot On

This article discusses the importance of providing feedback to employees in order to help them with their long-term career goals. It suggests that feedback should be given frequently and in a timely manner, and should be framed in a positive way that emphasizes development opportunities. It also suggests that feedback should be bidirectional and should be used to create a healthy working environment. Finally, it emphasizes the importance of mindset alignment when providing feedback.

Being a Manager Who Can Retain People

Many managers think they are great leaders, but people on their teams are leaving and those who stay are unhappy and unproductive. A good manager should create a working environment that encourages their team members to contribute and thrive. This can be done by recognizing that every engineer is an individual with different needs, establishing a personal and caring approach, being transparent, building trust, leading by example, understanding people's limitations, and having a vision. Retention should be taken as seriously as hiring, and proactive action should be taken at the slightest notion of churn.

Regrettable Hires: How Many Are Too Many

In order to scale rapidly, a company must optimize its hiring process to make decisions quickly and reduce the number of interviews. This can lead to regrettable hires, but the company can mitigate this risk by establishing an acceptable failure rate and having a probation period to identify any unsuitable hires. The team culture can be protected by interviewing every candidate and following gut instincts.

How to Grow a Planning Mindset

A manager introduced weekly planning sessions to encourage teams to plan consistently throughout a quarter, rather than intensifying the planning towards the end. This allowed the team to step back and look at the broader picture, improved alignment between long-term business objectives and priorities, and helped with focus. Planning is also a path to continual improvement.

How to Make Your One-on-Ones More Effective

One-on-ones are an important opportunity for managers to get to know their employees better, help them grow, and become better leaders. Structuring the one-on-ones with topics such as getting to know the employee, announcements, recent developments, receiving feedback, delivering feedback, and employee growth can help create a trustful relationship and provide valuable insight. Managers should also learn to listen carefully, prepare for one-on-ones, and be open to showing their vulnerability.

How to Onboard Remotely

In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, a manager had to ensure that the onboarding of new employees went as smoothly as possible. To do this, they arranged for the team to meet the new hire, set up one-on-one video calls, and hosted virtual hours for people to connect on a more personal level. They also had a 30/60/90 day plan and encouraged the new hire to meet as many people as possible. The manager also had to be conscious of the informal parts of office networking and learning that could not be replicated in a remote setting. Lessons learned included being prepared for remote work, setting expectations, and having a growth mindset.

Building a Team of Mixed Seniorities

This article discusses the mistakes a small startup made when initially building their processes and culture to fit the needs of junior engineers. It outlines the actions taken to set up expectations, identify heavy-handed processes, increase ownership, and grow senior people in their roles. The lessons learned from this experience include being prepared to listen to senior people, tailoring onboarding and processes to fit different individuals, and not ending with seniority when crafting a development plan.

When Transparency Means Exercising More Influence

A small startup was having difficulty communicating effectively across departments, particularly between Engineering and Sales/Marketing. After talking to stakeholders, it was discovered that they were not looking for transparency, but rather a seat at the table to have their opinions heard. To address the issue, Engineering listened more to different stakeholders, drew clear boundaries, and pushed back on other teams. It was also important to have a shared language and agree upon interpretation to avoid misunderstandings.

Managing Managers: A Matter of Style

Managing managers requires a different approach than managing individual contributors. Managers should be given a blank slate to make decisions and be held accountable for the consequences. They should be encouraged to take ownership, think creatively, and measure their own success. Localized decision-making should be enabled by providing sufficient context to the ground level. This approach is more effective than top-down decision-making.

Motivational Public Speaking for Non-Tech Audience

After transitioning from an EM role to a director and VP of Engineering, the author had to adjust to speaking to a non-technical audience in a brief, laser-focused format. To improve their public speaking skills, the author worked with an executive coach, studied different communication styles, and practiced with a partner. Through this process, the author learned to enjoy public speaking, experimented with the style and messaging that worked best, and had a positive impact on the business. The author's team also appreciated that they were well represented.

Using Opportunity Mapping to Create Amazing Products From a Wall Of Wild Ideas

Product managers should continuously talk to customers to identify needs and pain points, and gather ideas from brainstorming sessions, research, and surveys. They should then create a wall of ideas and group them by themes, and select the most impactful ideas to bring to life with user testing, paper prototypes, and visuals like a photo comic book or video. This process of visualization helps product leaders make the best decisions within the opportunity space.

How to Build a Product Strategy That Centers on Customer Value

At a previous job, the author needed to create a new product strategy to focus on customer value. To do this, they chose a workshop format to encourage collaboration and exchange of ideas. They collected evidence from customers through surveys and interviews, and used two questions to measure value and track features. The author also had to ensure visibility throughout the process and balance the need to move fast with the need to secure buy-in. They would have liked to commission a more formal study of user needs, but time and money were constraints.

How to Transition Your Employee Into a Better Role

A manager hired an employee who had difficulty adjusting, but eventually was able to unlock their potential and become a successful and high-performing employee. This was achieved by changing the type of work they were doing and gradually increasing the complexity of the tasks. The manager learned that it is important to separate different areas of performance when onboarding someone and to add gradually a more specific type of work.

Why Standardizing the Interview Process

This article outlines the steps taken to improve the interview process for a company. The company reevaluated their sourcing and messaging, tailored job descriptions to the specific skill sets they were looking for, and standardized their interview questions. They also introduced a technical interview earlier on in the process to reduce costs and get a better signal on problem-solving ability. Finally, they experimented with different difficulty levels and encouraged people to shadow first before conducting interviews.

Migrating a Legacy Service: A Lesson in Eng/Ops Collaboration

A team at LinkedIn was managing a set of legacy Python services that needed to be migrated to a new Java microservices stack. The existing services were causing regular production outages, so the team had to reprioritize and change how engineering and operations were working together. To do this, the team flew to California to do a handoff with the existing development team, and facilitated meetings between SRE leads to gain a full understanding of the existing system. They also introduced a process called code yellow, which paused active feature development until the operations were stabilized. Lastly, they revised the migration plan and held daily standups to balance addressing short-term stability issues and investing in the migration. Through this process, they were able to provide better service to customers and members, and learned a lot about how to design their system to scale effectively.

When Systems Thinking Unlocks a Way Forward

The author's team was responsible for the data migration aspect of a company's transition from a monolith to microservices. To better communicate the migration process to stakeholders, the author created a Google spreadsheet model that revealed key variables and exposed bottlenecks. The model also helped the author's manager communicate the team's strategy to the rest of the organization, resulting in more support from other teams. This experience taught the author the value of thinking about problems as a whole system and the importance of having a thorough understanding of the technical aspects of a project.

How to Be a Better Manager

After founding a startup and struggling to motivate the developers, the author studied business administration to become a better manager and leader. He learned that a great manager should be able to clearly and succinctly convey the company’s vision and goals to their employees, and that being a good manager requires experience and soft skills. He also learned that ego can be a manager's downfall, and that managing different stakeholders and restoring trust between departments is also important.

An Egalitarian Approach to a Disportionate Workload

The author was tasked with managing a large team of developers with only two senior engineers. To create a sense of equality, the author implemented a rotation system where two developers would be assigned to help the support team each week. This approach helped spread knowledge across the team, relieved the senior engineers, and built camaraderie. The author learned that simple solutions work best, people won't object to things that are fair, and collaboration between senior and junior engineers is important.

Continuous Career Development: Where To Start

This article discusses the importance of career development and how managers can help their reports reach their long-term goals. It emphasizes the need to have regular conversations with reports to identify their values, motivations, and aspirations, and to break down their goals into achievable steps. It also highlights the importance of providing opportunities for growth and the need to recognize that not everyone is looking for promotions or titles, but rather for the development of specific skills.

Solving Conflicts With a Win-Win Mindset

In order to resolve conflicts in the workplace, I suggest adopting a win-win mindset. This approach focuses on finding a solution rather than dwelling on differences, and encourages collaboration and camaraderie. I have personally used this approach in different work-related settings and have seen positive results.

Why Feedback Should Be Spot On

This article discusses the importance of providing feedback to employees in order to help them with their long-term career goals. It suggests that feedback should be given frequently and in a timely manner, and should be framed in a positive way that emphasizes development opportunities. It also suggests that feedback should be bidirectional and should be used to create a healthy working environment. Finally, it emphasizes the importance of mindset alignment when providing feedback.

Being a Manager Who Can Retain People

Many managers think they are great leaders, but people on their teams are leaving and those who stay are unhappy and unproductive. A good manager should create a working environment that encourages their team members to contribute and thrive. This can be done by recognizing that every engineer is an individual with different needs, establishing a personal and caring approach, being transparent, building trust, leading by example, understanding people's limitations, and having a vision. Retention should be taken as seriously as hiring, and proactive action should be taken at the slightest notion of churn.

Regrettable Hires: How Many Are Too Many

In order to scale rapidly, a company must optimize its hiring process to make decisions quickly and reduce the number of interviews. This can lead to regrettable hires, but the company can mitigate this risk by establishing an acceptable failure rate and having a probation period to identify any unsuitable hires. The team culture can be protected by interviewing every candidate and following gut instincts.

How to Grow a Planning Mindset

A manager introduced weekly planning sessions to encourage teams to plan consistently throughout a quarter, rather than intensifying the planning towards the end. This allowed the team to step back and look at the broader picture, improved alignment between long-term business objectives and priorities, and helped with focus. Planning is also a path to continual improvement.

How to Make Your One-on-Ones More Effective

One-on-ones are an important opportunity for managers to get to know their employees better, help them grow, and become better leaders. Structuring the one-on-ones with topics such as getting to know the employee, announcements, recent developments, receiving feedback, delivering feedback, and employee growth can help create a trustful relationship and provide valuable insight. Managers should also learn to listen carefully, prepare for one-on-ones, and be open to showing their vulnerability.

How to Onboard Remotely

In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, a manager had to ensure that the onboarding of new employees went as smoothly as possible. To do this, they arranged for the team to meet the new hire, set up one-on-one video calls, and hosted virtual hours for people to connect on a more personal level. They also had a 30/60/90 day plan and encouraged the new hire to meet as many people as possible. The manager also had to be conscious of the informal parts of office networking and learning that could not be replicated in a remote setting. Lessons learned included being prepared for remote work, setting expectations, and having a growth mindset.

Building a Team of Mixed Seniorities

This article discusses the mistakes a small startup made when initially building their processes and culture to fit the needs of junior engineers. It outlines the actions taken to set up expectations, identify heavy-handed processes, increase ownership, and grow senior people in their roles. The lessons learned from this experience include being prepared to listen to senior people, tailoring onboarding and processes to fit different individuals, and not ending with seniority when crafting a development plan.

When Transparency Means Exercising More Influence

A small startup was having difficulty communicating effectively across departments, particularly between Engineering and Sales/Marketing. After talking to stakeholders, it was discovered that they were not looking for transparency, but rather a seat at the table to have their opinions heard. To address the issue, Engineering listened more to different stakeholders, drew clear boundaries, and pushed back on other teams. It was also important to have a shared language and agree upon interpretation to avoid misunderstandings.

Managing Managers: A Matter of Style

Managing managers requires a different approach than managing individual contributors. Managers should be given a blank slate to make decisions and be held accountable for the consequences. They should be encouraged to take ownership, think creatively, and measure their own success. Localized decision-making should be enabled by providing sufficient context to the ground level. This approach is more effective than top-down decision-making.

Motivational Public Speaking for Non-Tech Audience

After transitioning from an EM role to a director and VP of Engineering, the author had to adjust to speaking to a non-technical audience in a brief, laser-focused format. To improve their public speaking skills, the author worked with an executive coach, studied different communication styles, and practiced with a partner. Through this process, the author learned to enjoy public speaking, experimented with the style and messaging that worked best, and had a positive impact on the business. The author's team also appreciated that they were well represented.

Using Opportunity Mapping to Create Amazing Products From a Wall Of Wild Ideas

Product managers should continuously talk to customers to identify needs and pain points, and gather ideas from brainstorming sessions, research, and surveys. They should then create a wall of ideas and group them by themes, and select the most impactful ideas to bring to life with user testing, paper prototypes, and visuals like a photo comic book or video. This process of visualization helps product leaders make the best decisions within the opportunity space.

How to Build a Product Strategy That Centers on Customer Value

At a previous job, the author needed to create a new product strategy to focus on customer value. To do this, they chose a workshop format to encourage collaboration and exchange of ideas. They collected evidence from customers through surveys and interviews, and used two questions to measure value and track features. The author also had to ensure visibility throughout the process and balance the need to move fast with the need to secure buy-in. They would have liked to commission a more formal study of user needs, but time and money were constraints.

How to Transition Your Employee Into a Better Role

A manager hired an employee who had difficulty adjusting, but eventually was able to unlock their potential and become a successful and high-performing employee. This was achieved by changing the type of work they were doing and gradually increasing the complexity of the tasks. The manager learned that it is important to separate different areas of performance when onboarding someone and to add gradually a more specific type of work.

Why Standardizing the Interview Process

This article outlines the steps taken to improve the interview process for a company. The company reevaluated their sourcing and messaging, tailored job descriptions to the specific skill sets they were looking for, and standardized their interview questions. They also introduced a technical interview earlier on in the process to reduce costs and get a better signal on problem-solving ability. Finally, they experimented with different difficulty levels and encouraged people to shadow first before conducting interviews.

Migrating a Legacy Service: A Lesson in Eng/Ops Collaboration

A team at LinkedIn was managing a set of legacy Python services that needed to be migrated to a new Java microservices stack. The existing services were causing regular production outages, so the team had to reprioritize and change how engineering and operations were working together. To do this, the team flew to California to do a handoff with the existing development team, and facilitated meetings between SRE leads to gain a full understanding of the existing system. They also introduced a process called code yellow, which paused active feature development until the operations were stabilized. Lastly, they revised the migration plan and held daily standups to balance addressing short-term stability issues and investing in the migration. Through this process, they were able to provide better service to customers and members, and learned a lot about how to design their system to scale effectively.

When Systems Thinking Unlocks a Way Forward

The author's team was responsible for the data migration aspect of a company's transition from a monolith to microservices. To better communicate the migration process to stakeholders, the author created a Google spreadsheet model that revealed key variables and exposed bottlenecks. The model also helped the author's manager communicate the team's strategy to the rest of the organization, resulting in more support from other teams. This experience taught the author the value of thinking about problems as a whole system and the importance of having a thorough understanding of the technical aspects of a project.

How to Be a Better Manager

After founding a startup and struggling to motivate the developers, the author studied business administration to become a better manager and leader. He learned that a great manager should be able to clearly and succinctly convey the company’s vision and goals to their employees, and that being a good manager requires experience and soft skills. He also learned that ego can be a manager's downfall, and that managing different stakeholders and restoring trust between departments is also important.

An Egalitarian Approach to a Disportionate Workload

The author was tasked with managing a large team of developers with only two senior engineers. To create a sense of equality, the author implemented a rotation system where two developers would be assigned to help the support team each week. This approach helped spread knowledge across the team, relieved the senior engineers, and built camaraderie. The author learned that simple solutions work best, people won't object to things that are fair, and collaboration between senior and junior engineers is important.

Continuous Career Development: Where To Start

This article discusses the importance of career development and how managers can help their reports reach their long-term goals. It emphasizes the need to have regular conversations with reports to identify their values, motivations, and aspirations, and to break down their goals into achievable steps. It also highlights the importance of providing opportunities for growth and the need to recognize that not everyone is looking for promotions or titles, but rather for the development of specific skills.

Solving Conflicts With a Win-Win Mindset

In order to resolve conflicts in the workplace, I suggest adopting a win-win mindset. This approach focuses on finding a solution rather than dwelling on differences, and encourages collaboration and camaraderie. I have personally used this approach in different work-related settings and have seen positive results.

Why Feedback Should Be Spot On

This article discusses the importance of providing feedback to employees in order to help them with their long-term career goals. It suggests that feedback should be given frequently and in a timely manner, and should be framed in a positive way that emphasizes development opportunities. It also suggests that feedback should be bidirectional and should be used to create a healthy working environment. Finally, it emphasizes the importance of mindset alignment when providing feedback.

Being a Manager Who Can Retain People

Many managers think they are great leaders, but people on their teams are leaving and those who stay are unhappy and unproductive. A good manager should create a working environment that encourages their team members to contribute and thrive. This can be done by recognizing that every engineer is an individual with different needs, establishing a personal and caring approach, being transparent, building trust, leading by example, understanding people's limitations, and having a vision. Retention should be taken as seriously as hiring, and proactive action should be taken at the slightest notion of churn.

Regrettable Hires: How Many Are Too Many

In order to scale rapidly, a company must optimize its hiring process to make decisions quickly and reduce the number of interviews. This can lead to regrettable hires, but the company can mitigate this risk by establishing an acceptable failure rate and having a probation period to identify any unsuitable hires. The team culture can be protected by interviewing every candidate and following gut instincts.

How to Grow a Planning Mindset

A manager introduced weekly planning sessions to encourage teams to plan consistently throughout a quarter, rather than intensifying the planning towards the end. This allowed the team to step back and look at the broader picture, improved alignment between long-term business objectives and priorities, and helped with focus. Planning is also a path to continual improvement.

How to Make Your One-on-Ones More Effective

One-on-ones are an important opportunity for managers to get to know their employees better, help them grow, and become better leaders. Structuring the one-on-ones with topics such as getting to know the employee, announcements, recent developments, receiving feedback, delivering feedback, and employee growth can help create a trustful relationship and provide valuable insight. Managers should also learn to listen carefully, prepare for one-on-ones, and be open to showing their vulnerability.

How to Onboard Remotely

In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, a manager had to ensure that the onboarding of new employees went as smoothly as possible. To do this, they arranged for the team to meet the new hire, set up one-on-one video calls, and hosted virtual hours for people to connect on a more personal level. They also had a 30/60/90 day plan and encouraged the new hire to meet as many people as possible. The manager also had to be conscious of the informal parts of office networking and learning that could not be replicated in a remote setting. Lessons learned included being prepared for remote work, setting expectations, and having a growth mindset.

Building a Team of Mixed Seniorities

This article discusses the mistakes a small startup made when initially building their processes and culture to fit the needs of junior engineers. It outlines the actions taken to set up expectations, identify heavy-handed processes, increase ownership, and grow senior people in their roles. The lessons learned from this experience include being prepared to listen to senior people, tailoring onboarding and processes to fit different individuals, and not ending with seniority when crafting a development plan.

When Transparency Means Exercising More Influence

A small startup was having difficulty communicating effectively across departments, particularly between Engineering and Sales/Marketing. After talking to stakeholders, it was discovered that they were not looking for transparency, but rather a seat at the table to have their opinions heard. To address the issue, Engineering listened more to different stakeholders, drew clear boundaries, and pushed back on other teams. It was also important to have a shared language and agree upon interpretation to avoid misunderstandings.

Managing Managers: A Matter of Style

Managing managers requires a different approach than managing individual contributors. Managers should be given a blank slate to make decisions and be held accountable for the consequences. They should be encouraged to take ownership, think creatively, and measure their own success. Localized decision-making should be enabled by providing sufficient context to the ground level. This approach is more effective than top-down decision-making.

Motivational Public Speaking for Non-Tech Audience

After transitioning from an EM role to a director and VP of Engineering, the author had to adjust to speaking to a non-technical audience in a brief, laser-focused format. To improve their public speaking skills, the author worked with an executive coach, studied different communication styles, and practiced with a partner. Through this process, the author learned to enjoy public speaking, experimented with the style and messaging that worked best, and had a positive impact on the business. The author's team also appreciated that they were well represented.

Using Opportunity Mapping to Create Amazing Products From a Wall Of Wild Ideas

Product managers should continuously talk to customers to identify needs and pain points, and gather ideas from brainstorming sessions, research, and surveys. They should then create a wall of ideas and group them by themes, and select the most impactful ideas to bring to life with user testing, paper prototypes, and visuals like a photo comic book or video. This process of visualization helps product leaders make the best decisions within the opportunity space.

How to Build a Product Strategy That Centers on Customer Value

At a previous job, the author needed to create a new product strategy to focus on customer value. To do this, they chose a workshop format to encourage collaboration and exchange of ideas. They collected evidence from customers through surveys and interviews, and used two questions to measure value and track features. The author also had to ensure visibility throughout the process and balance the need to move fast with the need to secure buy-in. They would have liked to commission a more formal study of user needs, but time and money were constraints.

How to Transition Your Employee Into a Better Role

A manager hired an employee who had difficulty adjusting, but eventually was able to unlock their potential and become a successful and high-performing employee. This was achieved by changing the type of work they were doing and gradually increasing the complexity of the tasks. The manager learned that it is important to separate different areas of performance when onboarding someone and to add gradually a more specific type of work.

Why Standardizing the Interview Process

This article outlines the steps taken to improve the interview process for a company. The company reevaluated their sourcing and messaging, tailored job descriptions to the specific skill sets they were looking for, and standardized their interview questions. They also introduced a technical interview earlier on in the process to reduce costs and get a better signal on problem-solving ability. Finally, they experimented with different difficulty levels and encouraged people to shadow first before conducting interviews.

Migrating a Legacy Service: A Lesson in Eng/Ops Collaboration

A team at LinkedIn was managing a set of legacy Python services that needed to be migrated to a new Java microservices stack. The existing services were causing regular production outages, so the team had to reprioritize and change how engineering and operations were working together. To do this, the team flew to California to do a handoff with the existing development team, and facilitated meetings between SRE leads to gain a full understanding of the existing system. They also introduced a process called code yellow, which paused active feature development until the operations were stabilized. Lastly, they revised the migration plan and held daily standups to balance addressing short-term stability issues and investing in the migration. Through this process, they were able to provide better service to customers and members, and learned a lot about how to design their system to scale effectively.

When Systems Thinking Unlocks a Way Forward

The author's team was responsible for the data migration aspect of a company's transition from a monolith to microservices. To better communicate the migration process to stakeholders, the author created a Google spreadsheet model that revealed key variables and exposed bottlenecks. The model also helped the author's manager communicate the team's strategy to the rest of the organization, resulting in more support from other teams. This experience taught the author the value of thinking about problems as a whole system and the importance of having a thorough understanding of the technical aspects of a project.

How to Be a Better Manager

After founding a startup and struggling to motivate the developers, the author studied business administration to become a better manager and leader. He learned that a great manager should be able to clearly and succinctly convey the company’s vision and goals to their employees, and that being a good manager requires experience and soft skills. He also learned that ego can be a manager's downfall, and that managing different stakeholders and restoring trust between departments is also important.

An Egalitarian Approach to a Disportionate Workload

The author was tasked with managing a large team of developers with only two senior engineers. To create a sense of equality, the author implemented a rotation system where two developers would be assigned to help the support team each week. This approach helped spread knowledge across the team, relieved the senior engineers, and built camaraderie. The author learned that simple solutions work best, people won't object to things that are fair, and collaboration between senior and junior engineers is important.