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Software Development as a Martial Art

Web technologies are constantly changing and evolving, making it difficult to stay up-to-date. Self-taught learning can lead to roadblocks and burnout, so it is important to develop a growth mindset and learn from mentors and mentees. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is a great example of how to learn from others and develop a growth mindset. The key is to be open to knowledge and to realize that no one knows everything.

The Not-So-Easy Guide on How to grow and develop an Amazing A-Team

This article provides advice on how to create an effective team environment, including assessing the team and goals, introducing new team members to the company culture, and providing feedback and coaching. It also discusses the importance of communication and psychological safety, as well as how to motivate a team and encourage debate and disagreement. Finally, it suggests taking a course on leadership and provides a short-cast/blinkist on the topic.

DevSecOps: Why, Benefits and Culture Shift

DevSecOps is a combination of development, security, and operations that enables organizations to quickly and securely deliver applications. It is characterized by speed, scale, safety, simplicity, and stewardship. Business benefits include early identification of risks, faster time to market, faster feedback loop, lower cost of change/delivery, and evidence of compliance. Principles for building a DevSecOps culture include short and frequent development cycles, incorporating and automating security, leveraging technologies, wider collaboration, frequent communication, lesser hand-offs, influencing culture shift, and practicing what is preached.

The Growth Mindset in Modern Product Engineering

In today's world, people and organizations need to be agile and able to pivot quickly. This requires a higher degree of personal ownership and accountability for the quality and success of the outcome. Trust is essential for healthy relationships, and communication is key to understanding the audience and reaching an agreement. Ownership and accountability make people "match ready" as proactive leaders, and continuous learning and improvement are necessary to ensure success.

How to measure Engineering Productivity?

Engineering productivity is the measure of how efficient and effective an engineering team is in delivering value. It is important to measure engineering productivity in order to prevent technical debt buildup and to experiment with various approaches to improve throughput and efficiency. Metrics such as cycle time, release frequency, number of bugs, and review to merge time can be used to measure engineering productivity. Additionally, context switching should be avoided as it is a major productivity killer.

How to improve engagement and retention in remote engineering teams?

Employee retention is an important focus area for managers and people leaders. To retain employees, it is important to understand their sources of motivation, which can be intrinsic or extrinsic. Gathering employee feedback through surveys, 1-on-1s, and team meetings can help identify pain points and provide insight into how to improve motivation. Taking action on two or three focus areas such as compensation, meaningful work, and recognition can help engage and retain employees. Additionally, breaking down silos and providing opportunities for team bonding can help foster teamwork and collaboration.

Mindsets of High Performance team

High performing teams prioritize team interest over self interest, hold each other accountable for behaviors and delivery commitments, and acquire and use the right set of skills. They are open to different viewpoints, accountable for results and behaviors, and don't triangulate or accuse. They depersonalize feedback, structure decision making, and are on time. These eleven behavioral attributes create a culture of accountability and team first mentality that leads to success.

How I failed at my startup

Eguruvu was a company founded with the goal of helping students better prepare for college preparatory tests. The founders ran into several missteps in execution due to personal bias and lack of market research. They attempted to sell the product to private boards & institutions and government agencies, but ran into operational challenges and lack of commitment to adopt the new system from administrative staff. The lack of experience in selling and go-to-market cost them the company. The two main takeaways from this experience were to never do it alone and to roll out and develop products incrementally.

High Performance Team in Action

A high performance team is composed of goal-focused individuals with specialized expertise and complementary skills who collaborate, innovate and produce superior results. The team shares the same mindset, is aware of their roles, has agreed upon rules of engagement, and has open lines of communication and trust. They have a clear strategy, follow great processes, and have a sense of ownership and accountability. They also have a clear decision making leadership mechanism, conduct monthly retrospections, and hold themselves and others accountable.

Developing an Early Career Program in Technology Organizations

Companies should invest in early career programs for a variety of reasons, such as building diversity, low cost of acquisition, and access to new ideas. When building the program, companies should have a timeline of schedule, hire a consultant or train existing recruiting staff, and adjust the meet/greet protocol in the interviews. The assessment rubric should be reworked and the offer process should be quick and engaging.

Strategies for Hiring

This article discusses the various steps involved in the hiring process, from sourcing to on-boarding, and strategies to tackle each step. It emphasizes the importance of having a diverse pipeline, investing time in sourcing, having a healthy pipeline of candidates, preparing the candidate for the interview, presenting the offer with respect to growth opportunities, and having an active engagement with the candidate after the offer signing and start date. It also suggests having a designated on-boarding mentor and a check list of items with daily and weekly breakdown.

Assessing the Performance of Your Team

The French National Football Team won the 2018 FIFA World Cup, led by exceptional players such as Paul Pogba and Kylian Mbappé. The team was coached by Didier Deschamps, who was also a player on the 1998 championship team. This post discusses the importance of a coach in any team sport, and how an Engineering Manager is similar to a football coach. It also provides a list of metrics to measure the performance of individual team members, such as pull requests merged, bugs or support tickets touched, and open source contributions. Finally, it emphasizes the importance of assessing the “soft” skills of collaboration, motivation, and culture fit in a dynamic business context.

Leaving Room to Say Things Suck — Leadership Lessons from “Ted Lasso”

In Season 2 Episode 2 of Ted Lasso, Coach Lasso is confronted by a disgruntled team after pictures of him and Jamie Tartt at a bar surface. Lasso takes a non-punitive approach and encourages Sam to speak his mind. He then explains the situation and encourages trust and vulnerability within the team. He also suggests creating forums for voicing concerns and lenscrafting to reframe the team's perspective. Finally, he encourages accountability and teaching the team to solve their own problems.

How to Maintain Happiness: The Underrated Aspect of Creating Team Dynamic

As a manager, it is important to prioritize mental wellness in the workplace in order to create a safe, pleasant environment for employees. This can be done by creating a safe space for open communication, conducting check-ins with compassion, and reframing workloads when necessary. The impact of a happy work environment is immense, as it creates a sense of family and selfless motivation. Valuing employees' time and effort is key to creating a healthy and happy work environment.

Scaling a Team in Two Parts: The Product and Manager

This article discusses the process of scaling a product and organization, as well as the challenges of scaling oneself as a manager. It outlines the steps taken to scale the product, such as standardizing offerings and making it config and content driven, as well as the steps taken to scale the organization, such as introducing new processes and separating the platform/tooling team from the product team. It also discusses the importance of information sharing, delegating tasks, and blocking dedicated time to review work.

How to Enter QA With a Non-Technical Degree

This article details the journey of a non-technical degree holder in psychology who entered the tech world and eventually became a QA Lead. It outlines the different roles they took on, the challenges they faced, and the lessons they learned along the way. Key takeaways include the importance of putting in the time and effort to achieve the desired level, understanding the theory behind the tools used, and looking at problems from different perspectives.

Congratulations you're an Engineering Manager! Now What?

This article provides advice for those who have recently been promoted to an engineering management role. It suggests starting with acceptance of the new role, assessing one's abilities, learning as much as possible, starting with an overview of leadership and management, digging into deeper topics, and collaborating with peers. With the right mindset and tools, success in this new role is achievable.

How to Organize, Manage, and Grow Your Team

As a manager, it is important to structure an engineering team for optimal growth and success of people and products. This includes delegating tasks, creating roadmaps for individuals and projects, and understanding team chemistry and fit. Clarity is key for successful management and it is important to have a personal connection with team members to understand their goals and objectives.

(Re)Organizing Your Teams Using Domain-Driven Design

Leaders must organize their teams effectively to get the best team performance. Melvin Conway's Law states that the structure of a system will reflect the organization's communication structure. Domain-Driven Design (DDD) and Event Storming can be used to identify the major boundaries of scope and create an organizational structure that maps teams to the domain models they are responsible for. This reduces the amount and complexity of communication and coordination required between teams, improving development velocity.

Leading A (Distributed) Team? Foster "Above the Line" Behaviors.

Poor cohesion in distributed and co-located teams can be addressed by fostering a team culture of Above the Line behaviors, which involve taking ownership, accountability, and responsibility for their situation. Below the Line behaviors, which involve pushing blame, making excuses, and denying issues, should be avoided. Resources such as videos and mentors can help teams learn how to practice Above the Line behaviors.

Software Development as a Martial Art

Web technologies are constantly changing and evolving, making it difficult to stay up-to-date. Self-taught learning can lead to roadblocks and burnout, so it is important to develop a growth mindset and learn from mentors and mentees. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is a great example of how to learn from others and develop a growth mindset. The key is to be open to knowledge and to realize that no one knows everything.

The Not-So-Easy Guide on How to grow and develop an Amazing A-Team

This article provides advice on how to create an effective team environment, including assessing the team and goals, introducing new team members to the company culture, and providing feedback and coaching. It also discusses the importance of communication and psychological safety, as well as how to motivate a team and encourage debate and disagreement. Finally, it suggests taking a course on leadership and provides a short-cast/blinkist on the topic.

DevSecOps: Why, Benefits and Culture Shift

DevSecOps is a combination of development, security, and operations that enables organizations to quickly and securely deliver applications. It is characterized by speed, scale, safety, simplicity, and stewardship. Business benefits include early identification of risks, faster time to market, faster feedback loop, lower cost of change/delivery, and evidence of compliance. Principles for building a DevSecOps culture include short and frequent development cycles, incorporating and automating security, leveraging technologies, wider collaboration, frequent communication, lesser hand-offs, influencing culture shift, and practicing what is preached.

The Growth Mindset in Modern Product Engineering

In today's world, people and organizations need to be agile and able to pivot quickly. This requires a higher degree of personal ownership and accountability for the quality and success of the outcome. Trust is essential for healthy relationships, and communication is key to understanding the audience and reaching an agreement. Ownership and accountability make people "match ready" as proactive leaders, and continuous learning and improvement are necessary to ensure success.

How to measure Engineering Productivity?

Engineering productivity is the measure of how efficient and effective an engineering team is in delivering value. It is important to measure engineering productivity in order to prevent technical debt buildup and to experiment with various approaches to improve throughput and efficiency. Metrics such as cycle time, release frequency, number of bugs, and review to merge time can be used to measure engineering productivity. Additionally, context switching should be avoided as it is a major productivity killer.

How to improve engagement and retention in remote engineering teams?

Employee retention is an important focus area for managers and people leaders. To retain employees, it is important to understand their sources of motivation, which can be intrinsic or extrinsic. Gathering employee feedback through surveys, 1-on-1s, and team meetings can help identify pain points and provide insight into how to improve motivation. Taking action on two or three focus areas such as compensation, meaningful work, and recognition can help engage and retain employees. Additionally, breaking down silos and providing opportunities for team bonding can help foster teamwork and collaboration.

Mindsets of High Performance team

High performing teams prioritize team interest over self interest, hold each other accountable for behaviors and delivery commitments, and acquire and use the right set of skills. They are open to different viewpoints, accountable for results and behaviors, and don't triangulate or accuse. They depersonalize feedback, structure decision making, and are on time. These eleven behavioral attributes create a culture of accountability and team first mentality that leads to success.

How I failed at my startup

Eguruvu was a company founded with the goal of helping students better prepare for college preparatory tests. The founders ran into several missteps in execution due to personal bias and lack of market research. They attempted to sell the product to private boards & institutions and government agencies, but ran into operational challenges and lack of commitment to adopt the new system from administrative staff. The lack of experience in selling and go-to-market cost them the company. The two main takeaways from this experience were to never do it alone and to roll out and develop products incrementally.

High Performance Team in Action

A high performance team is composed of goal-focused individuals with specialized expertise and complementary skills who collaborate, innovate and produce superior results. The team shares the same mindset, is aware of their roles, has agreed upon rules of engagement, and has open lines of communication and trust. They have a clear strategy, follow great processes, and have a sense of ownership and accountability. They also have a clear decision making leadership mechanism, conduct monthly retrospections, and hold themselves and others accountable.

Developing an Early Career Program in Technology Organizations

Companies should invest in early career programs for a variety of reasons, such as building diversity, low cost of acquisition, and access to new ideas. When building the program, companies should have a timeline of schedule, hire a consultant or train existing recruiting staff, and adjust the meet/greet protocol in the interviews. The assessment rubric should be reworked and the offer process should be quick and engaging.

Strategies for Hiring

This article discusses the various steps involved in the hiring process, from sourcing to on-boarding, and strategies to tackle each step. It emphasizes the importance of having a diverse pipeline, investing time in sourcing, having a healthy pipeline of candidates, preparing the candidate for the interview, presenting the offer with respect to growth opportunities, and having an active engagement with the candidate after the offer signing and start date. It also suggests having a designated on-boarding mentor and a check list of items with daily and weekly breakdown.

Assessing the Performance of Your Team

The French National Football Team won the 2018 FIFA World Cup, led by exceptional players such as Paul Pogba and Kylian Mbappé. The team was coached by Didier Deschamps, who was also a player on the 1998 championship team. This post discusses the importance of a coach in any team sport, and how an Engineering Manager is similar to a football coach. It also provides a list of metrics to measure the performance of individual team members, such as pull requests merged, bugs or support tickets touched, and open source contributions. Finally, it emphasizes the importance of assessing the “soft” skills of collaboration, motivation, and culture fit in a dynamic business context.

Leaving Room to Say Things Suck — Leadership Lessons from “Ted Lasso”

In Season 2 Episode 2 of Ted Lasso, Coach Lasso is confronted by a disgruntled team after pictures of him and Jamie Tartt at a bar surface. Lasso takes a non-punitive approach and encourages Sam to speak his mind. He then explains the situation and encourages trust and vulnerability within the team. He also suggests creating forums for voicing concerns and lenscrafting to reframe the team's perspective. Finally, he encourages accountability and teaching the team to solve their own problems.

How to Maintain Happiness: The Underrated Aspect of Creating Team Dynamic

As a manager, it is important to prioritize mental wellness in the workplace in order to create a safe, pleasant environment for employees. This can be done by creating a safe space for open communication, conducting check-ins with compassion, and reframing workloads when necessary. The impact of a happy work environment is immense, as it creates a sense of family and selfless motivation. Valuing employees' time and effort is key to creating a healthy and happy work environment.

Scaling a Team in Two Parts: The Product and Manager

This article discusses the process of scaling a product and organization, as well as the challenges of scaling oneself as a manager. It outlines the steps taken to scale the product, such as standardizing offerings and making it config and content driven, as well as the steps taken to scale the organization, such as introducing new processes and separating the platform/tooling team from the product team. It also discusses the importance of information sharing, delegating tasks, and blocking dedicated time to review work.

How to Enter QA With a Non-Technical Degree

This article details the journey of a non-technical degree holder in psychology who entered the tech world and eventually became a QA Lead. It outlines the different roles they took on, the challenges they faced, and the lessons they learned along the way. Key takeaways include the importance of putting in the time and effort to achieve the desired level, understanding the theory behind the tools used, and looking at problems from different perspectives.

Congratulations you're an Engineering Manager! Now What?

This article provides advice for those who have recently been promoted to an engineering management role. It suggests starting with acceptance of the new role, assessing one's abilities, learning as much as possible, starting with an overview of leadership and management, digging into deeper topics, and collaborating with peers. With the right mindset and tools, success in this new role is achievable.

How to Organize, Manage, and Grow Your Team

As a manager, it is important to structure an engineering team for optimal growth and success of people and products. This includes delegating tasks, creating roadmaps for individuals and projects, and understanding team chemistry and fit. Clarity is key for successful management and it is important to have a personal connection with team members to understand their goals and objectives.

(Re)Organizing Your Teams Using Domain-Driven Design

Leaders must organize their teams effectively to get the best team performance. Melvin Conway's Law states that the structure of a system will reflect the organization's communication structure. Domain-Driven Design (DDD) and Event Storming can be used to identify the major boundaries of scope and create an organizational structure that maps teams to the domain models they are responsible for. This reduces the amount and complexity of communication and coordination required between teams, improving development velocity.

Leading A (Distributed) Team? Foster "Above the Line" Behaviors.

Poor cohesion in distributed and co-located teams can be addressed by fostering a team culture of Above the Line behaviors, which involve taking ownership, accountability, and responsibility for their situation. Below the Line behaviors, which involve pushing blame, making excuses, and denying issues, should be avoided. Resources such as videos and mentors can help teams learn how to practice Above the Line behaviors.

Software Development as a Martial Art

Web technologies are constantly changing and evolving, making it difficult to stay up-to-date. Self-taught learning can lead to roadblocks and burnout, so it is important to develop a growth mindset and learn from mentors and mentees. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is a great example of how to learn from others and develop a growth mindset. The key is to be open to knowledge and to realize that no one knows everything.

The Not-So-Easy Guide on How to grow and develop an Amazing A-Team

This article provides advice on how to create an effective team environment, including assessing the team and goals, introducing new team members to the company culture, and providing feedback and coaching. It also discusses the importance of communication and psychological safety, as well as how to motivate a team and encourage debate and disagreement. Finally, it suggests taking a course on leadership and provides a short-cast/blinkist on the topic.

DevSecOps: Why, Benefits and Culture Shift

DevSecOps is a combination of development, security, and operations that enables organizations to quickly and securely deliver applications. It is characterized by speed, scale, safety, simplicity, and stewardship. Business benefits include early identification of risks, faster time to market, faster feedback loop, lower cost of change/delivery, and evidence of compliance. Principles for building a DevSecOps culture include short and frequent development cycles, incorporating and automating security, leveraging technologies, wider collaboration, frequent communication, lesser hand-offs, influencing culture shift, and practicing what is preached.

The Growth Mindset in Modern Product Engineering

In today's world, people and organizations need to be agile and able to pivot quickly. This requires a higher degree of personal ownership and accountability for the quality and success of the outcome. Trust is essential for healthy relationships, and communication is key to understanding the audience and reaching an agreement. Ownership and accountability make people "match ready" as proactive leaders, and continuous learning and improvement are necessary to ensure success.

How to measure Engineering Productivity?

Engineering productivity is the measure of how efficient and effective an engineering team is in delivering value. It is important to measure engineering productivity in order to prevent technical debt buildup and to experiment with various approaches to improve throughput and efficiency. Metrics such as cycle time, release frequency, number of bugs, and review to merge time can be used to measure engineering productivity. Additionally, context switching should be avoided as it is a major productivity killer.

How to improve engagement and retention in remote engineering teams?

Employee retention is an important focus area for managers and people leaders. To retain employees, it is important to understand their sources of motivation, which can be intrinsic or extrinsic. Gathering employee feedback through surveys, 1-on-1s, and team meetings can help identify pain points and provide insight into how to improve motivation. Taking action on two or three focus areas such as compensation, meaningful work, and recognition can help engage and retain employees. Additionally, breaking down silos and providing opportunities for team bonding can help foster teamwork and collaboration.

Mindsets of High Performance team

High performing teams prioritize team interest over self interest, hold each other accountable for behaviors and delivery commitments, and acquire and use the right set of skills. They are open to different viewpoints, accountable for results and behaviors, and don't triangulate or accuse. They depersonalize feedback, structure decision making, and are on time. These eleven behavioral attributes create a culture of accountability and team first mentality that leads to success.

How I failed at my startup

Eguruvu was a company founded with the goal of helping students better prepare for college preparatory tests. The founders ran into several missteps in execution due to personal bias and lack of market research. They attempted to sell the product to private boards & institutions and government agencies, but ran into operational challenges and lack of commitment to adopt the new system from administrative staff. The lack of experience in selling and go-to-market cost them the company. The two main takeaways from this experience were to never do it alone and to roll out and develop products incrementally.

High Performance Team in Action

A high performance team is composed of goal-focused individuals with specialized expertise and complementary skills who collaborate, innovate and produce superior results. The team shares the same mindset, is aware of their roles, has agreed upon rules of engagement, and has open lines of communication and trust. They have a clear strategy, follow great processes, and have a sense of ownership and accountability. They also have a clear decision making leadership mechanism, conduct monthly retrospections, and hold themselves and others accountable.

Developing an Early Career Program in Technology Organizations

Companies should invest in early career programs for a variety of reasons, such as building diversity, low cost of acquisition, and access to new ideas. When building the program, companies should have a timeline of schedule, hire a consultant or train existing recruiting staff, and adjust the meet/greet protocol in the interviews. The assessment rubric should be reworked and the offer process should be quick and engaging.

Strategies for Hiring

This article discusses the various steps involved in the hiring process, from sourcing to on-boarding, and strategies to tackle each step. It emphasizes the importance of having a diverse pipeline, investing time in sourcing, having a healthy pipeline of candidates, preparing the candidate for the interview, presenting the offer with respect to growth opportunities, and having an active engagement with the candidate after the offer signing and start date. It also suggests having a designated on-boarding mentor and a check list of items with daily and weekly breakdown.

Assessing the Performance of Your Team

The French National Football Team won the 2018 FIFA World Cup, led by exceptional players such as Paul Pogba and Kylian Mbappé. The team was coached by Didier Deschamps, who was also a player on the 1998 championship team. This post discusses the importance of a coach in any team sport, and how an Engineering Manager is similar to a football coach. It also provides a list of metrics to measure the performance of individual team members, such as pull requests merged, bugs or support tickets touched, and open source contributions. Finally, it emphasizes the importance of assessing the “soft” skills of collaboration, motivation, and culture fit in a dynamic business context.

Leaving Room to Say Things Suck — Leadership Lessons from “Ted Lasso”

In Season 2 Episode 2 of Ted Lasso, Coach Lasso is confronted by a disgruntled team after pictures of him and Jamie Tartt at a bar surface. Lasso takes a non-punitive approach and encourages Sam to speak his mind. He then explains the situation and encourages trust and vulnerability within the team. He also suggests creating forums for voicing concerns and lenscrafting to reframe the team's perspective. Finally, he encourages accountability and teaching the team to solve their own problems.

How to Maintain Happiness: The Underrated Aspect of Creating Team Dynamic

As a manager, it is important to prioritize mental wellness in the workplace in order to create a safe, pleasant environment for employees. This can be done by creating a safe space for open communication, conducting check-ins with compassion, and reframing workloads when necessary. The impact of a happy work environment is immense, as it creates a sense of family and selfless motivation. Valuing employees' time and effort is key to creating a healthy and happy work environment.

Scaling a Team in Two Parts: The Product and Manager

This article discusses the process of scaling a product and organization, as well as the challenges of scaling oneself as a manager. It outlines the steps taken to scale the product, such as standardizing offerings and making it config and content driven, as well as the steps taken to scale the organization, such as introducing new processes and separating the platform/tooling team from the product team. It also discusses the importance of information sharing, delegating tasks, and blocking dedicated time to review work.

How to Enter QA With a Non-Technical Degree

This article details the journey of a non-technical degree holder in psychology who entered the tech world and eventually became a QA Lead. It outlines the different roles they took on, the challenges they faced, and the lessons they learned along the way. Key takeaways include the importance of putting in the time and effort to achieve the desired level, understanding the theory behind the tools used, and looking at problems from different perspectives.

Congratulations you're an Engineering Manager! Now What?

This article provides advice for those who have recently been promoted to an engineering management role. It suggests starting with acceptance of the new role, assessing one's abilities, learning as much as possible, starting with an overview of leadership and management, digging into deeper topics, and collaborating with peers. With the right mindset and tools, success in this new role is achievable.

How to Organize, Manage, and Grow Your Team

As a manager, it is important to structure an engineering team for optimal growth and success of people and products. This includes delegating tasks, creating roadmaps for individuals and projects, and understanding team chemistry and fit. Clarity is key for successful management and it is important to have a personal connection with team members to understand their goals and objectives.

(Re)Organizing Your Teams Using Domain-Driven Design

Leaders must organize their teams effectively to get the best team performance. Melvin Conway's Law states that the structure of a system will reflect the organization's communication structure. Domain-Driven Design (DDD) and Event Storming can be used to identify the major boundaries of scope and create an organizational structure that maps teams to the domain models they are responsible for. This reduces the amount and complexity of communication and coordination required between teams, improving development velocity.

Leading A (Distributed) Team? Foster "Above the Line" Behaviors.

Poor cohesion in distributed and co-located teams can be addressed by fostering a team culture of Above the Line behaviors, which involve taking ownership, accountability, and responsibility for their situation. Below the Line behaviors, which involve pushing blame, making excuses, and denying issues, should be avoided. Resources such as videos and mentors can help teams learn how to practice Above the Line behaviors.

Software Development as a Martial Art

Web technologies are constantly changing and evolving, making it difficult to stay up-to-date. Self-taught learning can lead to roadblocks and burnout, so it is important to develop a growth mindset and learn from mentors and mentees. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is a great example of how to learn from others and develop a growth mindset. The key is to be open to knowledge and to realize that no one knows everything.

The Not-So-Easy Guide on How to grow and develop an Amazing A-Team

This article provides advice on how to create an effective team environment, including assessing the team and goals, introducing new team members to the company culture, and providing feedback and coaching. It also discusses the importance of communication and psychological safety, as well as how to motivate a team and encourage debate and disagreement. Finally, it suggests taking a course on leadership and provides a short-cast/blinkist on the topic.

DevSecOps: Why, Benefits and Culture Shift

DevSecOps is a combination of development, security, and operations that enables organizations to quickly and securely deliver applications. It is characterized by speed, scale, safety, simplicity, and stewardship. Business benefits include early identification of risks, faster time to market, faster feedback loop, lower cost of change/delivery, and evidence of compliance. Principles for building a DevSecOps culture include short and frequent development cycles, incorporating and automating security, leveraging technologies, wider collaboration, frequent communication, lesser hand-offs, influencing culture shift, and practicing what is preached.

The Growth Mindset in Modern Product Engineering

In today's world, people and organizations need to be agile and able to pivot quickly. This requires a higher degree of personal ownership and accountability for the quality and success of the outcome. Trust is essential for healthy relationships, and communication is key to understanding the audience and reaching an agreement. Ownership and accountability make people "match ready" as proactive leaders, and continuous learning and improvement are necessary to ensure success.

How to measure Engineering Productivity?

Engineering productivity is the measure of how efficient and effective an engineering team is in delivering value. It is important to measure engineering productivity in order to prevent technical debt buildup and to experiment with various approaches to improve throughput and efficiency. Metrics such as cycle time, release frequency, number of bugs, and review to merge time can be used to measure engineering productivity. Additionally, context switching should be avoided as it is a major productivity killer.

How to improve engagement and retention in remote engineering teams?

Employee retention is an important focus area for managers and people leaders. To retain employees, it is important to understand their sources of motivation, which can be intrinsic or extrinsic. Gathering employee feedback through surveys, 1-on-1s, and team meetings can help identify pain points and provide insight into how to improve motivation. Taking action on two or three focus areas such as compensation, meaningful work, and recognition can help engage and retain employees. Additionally, breaking down silos and providing opportunities for team bonding can help foster teamwork and collaboration.

Mindsets of High Performance team

High performing teams prioritize team interest over self interest, hold each other accountable for behaviors and delivery commitments, and acquire and use the right set of skills. They are open to different viewpoints, accountable for results and behaviors, and don't triangulate or accuse. They depersonalize feedback, structure decision making, and are on time. These eleven behavioral attributes create a culture of accountability and team first mentality that leads to success.

How I failed at my startup

Eguruvu was a company founded with the goal of helping students better prepare for college preparatory tests. The founders ran into several missteps in execution due to personal bias and lack of market research. They attempted to sell the product to private boards & institutions and government agencies, but ran into operational challenges and lack of commitment to adopt the new system from administrative staff. The lack of experience in selling and go-to-market cost them the company. The two main takeaways from this experience were to never do it alone and to roll out and develop products incrementally.

High Performance Team in Action

A high performance team is composed of goal-focused individuals with specialized expertise and complementary skills who collaborate, innovate and produce superior results. The team shares the same mindset, is aware of their roles, has agreed upon rules of engagement, and has open lines of communication and trust. They have a clear strategy, follow great processes, and have a sense of ownership and accountability. They also have a clear decision making leadership mechanism, conduct monthly retrospections, and hold themselves and others accountable.

Developing an Early Career Program in Technology Organizations

Companies should invest in early career programs for a variety of reasons, such as building diversity, low cost of acquisition, and access to new ideas. When building the program, companies should have a timeline of schedule, hire a consultant or train existing recruiting staff, and adjust the meet/greet protocol in the interviews. The assessment rubric should be reworked and the offer process should be quick and engaging.

Strategies for Hiring

This article discusses the various steps involved in the hiring process, from sourcing to on-boarding, and strategies to tackle each step. It emphasizes the importance of having a diverse pipeline, investing time in sourcing, having a healthy pipeline of candidates, preparing the candidate for the interview, presenting the offer with respect to growth opportunities, and having an active engagement with the candidate after the offer signing and start date. It also suggests having a designated on-boarding mentor and a check list of items with daily and weekly breakdown.

Assessing the Performance of Your Team

The French National Football Team won the 2018 FIFA World Cup, led by exceptional players such as Paul Pogba and Kylian Mbappé. The team was coached by Didier Deschamps, who was also a player on the 1998 championship team. This post discusses the importance of a coach in any team sport, and how an Engineering Manager is similar to a football coach. It also provides a list of metrics to measure the performance of individual team members, such as pull requests merged, bugs or support tickets touched, and open source contributions. Finally, it emphasizes the importance of assessing the “soft” skills of collaboration, motivation, and culture fit in a dynamic business context.

Leaving Room to Say Things Suck — Leadership Lessons from “Ted Lasso”

In Season 2 Episode 2 of Ted Lasso, Coach Lasso is confronted by a disgruntled team after pictures of him and Jamie Tartt at a bar surface. Lasso takes a non-punitive approach and encourages Sam to speak his mind. He then explains the situation and encourages trust and vulnerability within the team. He also suggests creating forums for voicing concerns and lenscrafting to reframe the team's perspective. Finally, he encourages accountability and teaching the team to solve their own problems.

How to Maintain Happiness: The Underrated Aspect of Creating Team Dynamic

As a manager, it is important to prioritize mental wellness in the workplace in order to create a safe, pleasant environment for employees. This can be done by creating a safe space for open communication, conducting check-ins with compassion, and reframing workloads when necessary. The impact of a happy work environment is immense, as it creates a sense of family and selfless motivation. Valuing employees' time and effort is key to creating a healthy and happy work environment.

Scaling a Team in Two Parts: The Product and Manager

This article discusses the process of scaling a product and organization, as well as the challenges of scaling oneself as a manager. It outlines the steps taken to scale the product, such as standardizing offerings and making it config and content driven, as well as the steps taken to scale the organization, such as introducing new processes and separating the platform/tooling team from the product team. It also discusses the importance of information sharing, delegating tasks, and blocking dedicated time to review work.

How to Enter QA With a Non-Technical Degree

This article details the journey of a non-technical degree holder in psychology who entered the tech world and eventually became a QA Lead. It outlines the different roles they took on, the challenges they faced, and the lessons they learned along the way. Key takeaways include the importance of putting in the time and effort to achieve the desired level, understanding the theory behind the tools used, and looking at problems from different perspectives.

Congratulations you're an Engineering Manager! Now What?

This article provides advice for those who have recently been promoted to an engineering management role. It suggests starting with acceptance of the new role, assessing one's abilities, learning as much as possible, starting with an overview of leadership and management, digging into deeper topics, and collaborating with peers. With the right mindset and tools, success in this new role is achievable.

How to Organize, Manage, and Grow Your Team

As a manager, it is important to structure an engineering team for optimal growth and success of people and products. This includes delegating tasks, creating roadmaps for individuals and projects, and understanding team chemistry and fit. Clarity is key for successful management and it is important to have a personal connection with team members to understand their goals and objectives.

(Re)Organizing Your Teams Using Domain-Driven Design

Leaders must organize their teams effectively to get the best team performance. Melvin Conway's Law states that the structure of a system will reflect the organization's communication structure. Domain-Driven Design (DDD) and Event Storming can be used to identify the major boundaries of scope and create an organizational structure that maps teams to the domain models they are responsible for. This reduces the amount and complexity of communication and coordination required between teams, improving development velocity.

Leading A (Distributed) Team? Foster "Above the Line" Behaviors.

Poor cohesion in distributed and co-located teams can be addressed by fostering a team culture of Above the Line behaviors, which involve taking ownership, accountability, and responsibility for their situation. Below the Line behaviors, which involve pushing blame, making excuses, and denying issues, should be avoided. Resources such as videos and mentors can help teams learn how to practice Above the Line behaviors.

Software Development as a Martial Art

Web technologies are constantly changing and evolving, making it difficult to stay up-to-date. Self-taught learning can lead to roadblocks and burnout, so it is important to develop a growth mindset and learn from mentors and mentees. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is a great example of how to learn from others and develop a growth mindset. The key is to be open to knowledge and to realize that no one knows everything.

The Not-So-Easy Guide on How to grow and develop an Amazing A-Team

This article provides advice on how to create an effective team environment, including assessing the team and goals, introducing new team members to the company culture, and providing feedback and coaching. It also discusses the importance of communication and psychological safety, as well as how to motivate a team and encourage debate and disagreement. Finally, it suggests taking a course on leadership and provides a short-cast/blinkist on the topic.

DevSecOps: Why, Benefits and Culture Shift

DevSecOps is a combination of development, security, and operations that enables organizations to quickly and securely deliver applications. It is characterized by speed, scale, safety, simplicity, and stewardship. Business benefits include early identification of risks, faster time to market, faster feedback loop, lower cost of change/delivery, and evidence of compliance. Principles for building a DevSecOps culture include short and frequent development cycles, incorporating and automating security, leveraging technologies, wider collaboration, frequent communication, lesser hand-offs, influencing culture shift, and practicing what is preached.

The Growth Mindset in Modern Product Engineering

In today's world, people and organizations need to be agile and able to pivot quickly. This requires a higher degree of personal ownership and accountability for the quality and success of the outcome. Trust is essential for healthy relationships, and communication is key to understanding the audience and reaching an agreement. Ownership and accountability make people "match ready" as proactive leaders, and continuous learning and improvement are necessary to ensure success.

How to measure Engineering Productivity?

Engineering productivity is the measure of how efficient and effective an engineering team is in delivering value. It is important to measure engineering productivity in order to prevent technical debt buildup and to experiment with various approaches to improve throughput and efficiency. Metrics such as cycle time, release frequency, number of bugs, and review to merge time can be used to measure engineering productivity. Additionally, context switching should be avoided as it is a major productivity killer.

How to improve engagement and retention in remote engineering teams?

Employee retention is an important focus area for managers and people leaders. To retain employees, it is important to understand their sources of motivation, which can be intrinsic or extrinsic. Gathering employee feedback through surveys, 1-on-1s, and team meetings can help identify pain points and provide insight into how to improve motivation. Taking action on two or three focus areas such as compensation, meaningful work, and recognition can help engage and retain employees. Additionally, breaking down silos and providing opportunities for team bonding can help foster teamwork and collaboration.

Mindsets of High Performance team

High performing teams prioritize team interest over self interest, hold each other accountable for behaviors and delivery commitments, and acquire and use the right set of skills. They are open to different viewpoints, accountable for results and behaviors, and don't triangulate or accuse. They depersonalize feedback, structure decision making, and are on time. These eleven behavioral attributes create a culture of accountability and team first mentality that leads to success.

How I failed at my startup

Eguruvu was a company founded with the goal of helping students better prepare for college preparatory tests. The founders ran into several missteps in execution due to personal bias and lack of market research. They attempted to sell the product to private boards & institutions and government agencies, but ran into operational challenges and lack of commitment to adopt the new system from administrative staff. The lack of experience in selling and go-to-market cost them the company. The two main takeaways from this experience were to never do it alone and to roll out and develop products incrementally.

High Performance Team in Action

A high performance team is composed of goal-focused individuals with specialized expertise and complementary skills who collaborate, innovate and produce superior results. The team shares the same mindset, is aware of their roles, has agreed upon rules of engagement, and has open lines of communication and trust. They have a clear strategy, follow great processes, and have a sense of ownership and accountability. They also have a clear decision making leadership mechanism, conduct monthly retrospections, and hold themselves and others accountable.

Developing an Early Career Program in Technology Organizations

Companies should invest in early career programs for a variety of reasons, such as building diversity, low cost of acquisition, and access to new ideas. When building the program, companies should have a timeline of schedule, hire a consultant or train existing recruiting staff, and adjust the meet/greet protocol in the interviews. The assessment rubric should be reworked and the offer process should be quick and engaging.

Strategies for Hiring

This article discusses the various steps involved in the hiring process, from sourcing to on-boarding, and strategies to tackle each step. It emphasizes the importance of having a diverse pipeline, investing time in sourcing, having a healthy pipeline of candidates, preparing the candidate for the interview, presenting the offer with respect to growth opportunities, and having an active engagement with the candidate after the offer signing and start date. It also suggests having a designated on-boarding mentor and a check list of items with daily and weekly breakdown.

Assessing the Performance of Your Team

The French National Football Team won the 2018 FIFA World Cup, led by exceptional players such as Paul Pogba and Kylian Mbappé. The team was coached by Didier Deschamps, who was also a player on the 1998 championship team. This post discusses the importance of a coach in any team sport, and how an Engineering Manager is similar to a football coach. It also provides a list of metrics to measure the performance of individual team members, such as pull requests merged, bugs or support tickets touched, and open source contributions. Finally, it emphasizes the importance of assessing the “soft” skills of collaboration, motivation, and culture fit in a dynamic business context.

Leaving Room to Say Things Suck — Leadership Lessons from “Ted Lasso”

In Season 2 Episode 2 of Ted Lasso, Coach Lasso is confronted by a disgruntled team after pictures of him and Jamie Tartt at a bar surface. Lasso takes a non-punitive approach and encourages Sam to speak his mind. He then explains the situation and encourages trust and vulnerability within the team. He also suggests creating forums for voicing concerns and lenscrafting to reframe the team's perspective. Finally, he encourages accountability and teaching the team to solve their own problems.

How to Maintain Happiness: The Underrated Aspect of Creating Team Dynamic

As a manager, it is important to prioritize mental wellness in the workplace in order to create a safe, pleasant environment for employees. This can be done by creating a safe space for open communication, conducting check-ins with compassion, and reframing workloads when necessary. The impact of a happy work environment is immense, as it creates a sense of family and selfless motivation. Valuing employees' time and effort is key to creating a healthy and happy work environment.

Scaling a Team in Two Parts: The Product and Manager

This article discusses the process of scaling a product and organization, as well as the challenges of scaling oneself as a manager. It outlines the steps taken to scale the product, such as standardizing offerings and making it config and content driven, as well as the steps taken to scale the organization, such as introducing new processes and separating the platform/tooling team from the product team. It also discusses the importance of information sharing, delegating tasks, and blocking dedicated time to review work.

How to Enter QA With a Non-Technical Degree

This article details the journey of a non-technical degree holder in psychology who entered the tech world and eventually became a QA Lead. It outlines the different roles they took on, the challenges they faced, and the lessons they learned along the way. Key takeaways include the importance of putting in the time and effort to achieve the desired level, understanding the theory behind the tools used, and looking at problems from different perspectives.

Congratulations you're an Engineering Manager! Now What?

This article provides advice for those who have recently been promoted to an engineering management role. It suggests starting with acceptance of the new role, assessing one's abilities, learning as much as possible, starting with an overview of leadership and management, digging into deeper topics, and collaborating with peers. With the right mindset and tools, success in this new role is achievable.

How to Organize, Manage, and Grow Your Team

As a manager, it is important to structure an engineering team for optimal growth and success of people and products. This includes delegating tasks, creating roadmaps for individuals and projects, and understanding team chemistry and fit. Clarity is key for successful management and it is important to have a personal connection with team members to understand their goals and objectives.

(Re)Organizing Your Teams Using Domain-Driven Design

Leaders must organize their teams effectively to get the best team performance. Melvin Conway's Law states that the structure of a system will reflect the organization's communication structure. Domain-Driven Design (DDD) and Event Storming can be used to identify the major boundaries of scope and create an organizational structure that maps teams to the domain models they are responsible for. This reduces the amount and complexity of communication and coordination required between teams, improving development velocity.

Leading A (Distributed) Team? Foster "Above the Line" Behaviors.

Poor cohesion in distributed and co-located teams can be addressed by fostering a team culture of Above the Line behaviors, which involve taking ownership, accountability, and responsibility for their situation. Below the Line behaviors, which involve pushing blame, making excuses, and denying issues, should be avoided. Resources such as videos and mentors can help teams learn how to practice Above the Line behaviors.

Software Development as a Martial Art

Web technologies are constantly changing and evolving, making it difficult to stay up-to-date. Self-taught learning can lead to roadblocks and burnout, so it is important to develop a growth mindset and learn from mentors and mentees. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is a great example of how to learn from others and develop a growth mindset. The key is to be open to knowledge and to realize that no one knows everything.

The Not-So-Easy Guide on How to grow and develop an Amazing A-Team

This article provides advice on how to create an effective team environment, including assessing the team and goals, introducing new team members to the company culture, and providing feedback and coaching. It also discusses the importance of communication and psychological safety, as well as how to motivate a team and encourage debate and disagreement. Finally, it suggests taking a course on leadership and provides a short-cast/blinkist on the topic.

DevSecOps: Why, Benefits and Culture Shift

DevSecOps is a combination of development, security, and operations that enables organizations to quickly and securely deliver applications. It is characterized by speed, scale, safety, simplicity, and stewardship. Business benefits include early identification of risks, faster time to market, faster feedback loop, lower cost of change/delivery, and evidence of compliance. Principles for building a DevSecOps culture include short and frequent development cycles, incorporating and automating security, leveraging technologies, wider collaboration, frequent communication, lesser hand-offs, influencing culture shift, and practicing what is preached.

The Growth Mindset in Modern Product Engineering

In today's world, people and organizations need to be agile and able to pivot quickly. This requires a higher degree of personal ownership and accountability for the quality and success of the outcome. Trust is essential for healthy relationships, and communication is key to understanding the audience and reaching an agreement. Ownership and accountability make people "match ready" as proactive leaders, and continuous learning and improvement are necessary to ensure success.

How to measure Engineering Productivity?

Engineering productivity is the measure of how efficient and effective an engineering team is in delivering value. It is important to measure engineering productivity in order to prevent technical debt buildup and to experiment with various approaches to improve throughput and efficiency. Metrics such as cycle time, release frequency, number of bugs, and review to merge time can be used to measure engineering productivity. Additionally, context switching should be avoided as it is a major productivity killer.

How to improve engagement and retention in remote engineering teams?

Employee retention is an important focus area for managers and people leaders. To retain employees, it is important to understand their sources of motivation, which can be intrinsic or extrinsic. Gathering employee feedback through surveys, 1-on-1s, and team meetings can help identify pain points and provide insight into how to improve motivation. Taking action on two or three focus areas such as compensation, meaningful work, and recognition can help engage and retain employees. Additionally, breaking down silos and providing opportunities for team bonding can help foster teamwork and collaboration.

Mindsets of High Performance team

High performing teams prioritize team interest over self interest, hold each other accountable for behaviors and delivery commitments, and acquire and use the right set of skills. They are open to different viewpoints, accountable for results and behaviors, and don't triangulate or accuse. They depersonalize feedback, structure decision making, and are on time. These eleven behavioral attributes create a culture of accountability and team first mentality that leads to success.

How I failed at my startup

Eguruvu was a company founded with the goal of helping students better prepare for college preparatory tests. The founders ran into several missteps in execution due to personal bias and lack of market research. They attempted to sell the product to private boards & institutions and government agencies, but ran into operational challenges and lack of commitment to adopt the new system from administrative staff. The lack of experience in selling and go-to-market cost them the company. The two main takeaways from this experience were to never do it alone and to roll out and develop products incrementally.

High Performance Team in Action

A high performance team is composed of goal-focused individuals with specialized expertise and complementary skills who collaborate, innovate and produce superior results. The team shares the same mindset, is aware of their roles, has agreed upon rules of engagement, and has open lines of communication and trust. They have a clear strategy, follow great processes, and have a sense of ownership and accountability. They also have a clear decision making leadership mechanism, conduct monthly retrospections, and hold themselves and others accountable.

Developing an Early Career Program in Technology Organizations

Companies should invest in early career programs for a variety of reasons, such as building diversity, low cost of acquisition, and access to new ideas. When building the program, companies should have a timeline of schedule, hire a consultant or train existing recruiting staff, and adjust the meet/greet protocol in the interviews. The assessment rubric should be reworked and the offer process should be quick and engaging.

Strategies for Hiring

This article discusses the various steps involved in the hiring process, from sourcing to on-boarding, and strategies to tackle each step. It emphasizes the importance of having a diverse pipeline, investing time in sourcing, having a healthy pipeline of candidates, preparing the candidate for the interview, presenting the offer with respect to growth opportunities, and having an active engagement with the candidate after the offer signing and start date. It also suggests having a designated on-boarding mentor and a check list of items with daily and weekly breakdown.

Assessing the Performance of Your Team

The French National Football Team won the 2018 FIFA World Cup, led by exceptional players such as Paul Pogba and Kylian Mbappé. The team was coached by Didier Deschamps, who was also a player on the 1998 championship team. This post discusses the importance of a coach in any team sport, and how an Engineering Manager is similar to a football coach. It also provides a list of metrics to measure the performance of individual team members, such as pull requests merged, bugs or support tickets touched, and open source contributions. Finally, it emphasizes the importance of assessing the “soft” skills of collaboration, motivation, and culture fit in a dynamic business context.

Leaving Room to Say Things Suck — Leadership Lessons from “Ted Lasso”

In Season 2 Episode 2 of Ted Lasso, Coach Lasso is confronted by a disgruntled team after pictures of him and Jamie Tartt at a bar surface. Lasso takes a non-punitive approach and encourages Sam to speak his mind. He then explains the situation and encourages trust and vulnerability within the team. He also suggests creating forums for voicing concerns and lenscrafting to reframe the team's perspective. Finally, he encourages accountability and teaching the team to solve their own problems.

How to Maintain Happiness: The Underrated Aspect of Creating Team Dynamic

As a manager, it is important to prioritize mental wellness in the workplace in order to create a safe, pleasant environment for employees. This can be done by creating a safe space for open communication, conducting check-ins with compassion, and reframing workloads when necessary. The impact of a happy work environment is immense, as it creates a sense of family and selfless motivation. Valuing employees' time and effort is key to creating a healthy and happy work environment.

Scaling a Team in Two Parts: The Product and Manager

This article discusses the process of scaling a product and organization, as well as the challenges of scaling oneself as a manager. It outlines the steps taken to scale the product, such as standardizing offerings and making it config and content driven, as well as the steps taken to scale the organization, such as introducing new processes and separating the platform/tooling team from the product team. It also discusses the importance of information sharing, delegating tasks, and blocking dedicated time to review work.

How to Enter QA With a Non-Technical Degree

This article details the journey of a non-technical degree holder in psychology who entered the tech world and eventually became a QA Lead. It outlines the different roles they took on, the challenges they faced, and the lessons they learned along the way. Key takeaways include the importance of putting in the time and effort to achieve the desired level, understanding the theory behind the tools used, and looking at problems from different perspectives.

Congratulations you're an Engineering Manager! Now What?

This article provides advice for those who have recently been promoted to an engineering management role. It suggests starting with acceptance of the new role, assessing one's abilities, learning as much as possible, starting with an overview of leadership and management, digging into deeper topics, and collaborating with peers. With the right mindset and tools, success in this new role is achievable.

How to Organize, Manage, and Grow Your Team

As a manager, it is important to structure an engineering team for optimal growth and success of people and products. This includes delegating tasks, creating roadmaps for individuals and projects, and understanding team chemistry and fit. Clarity is key for successful management and it is important to have a personal connection with team members to understand their goals and objectives.

(Re)Organizing Your Teams Using Domain-Driven Design

Leaders must organize their teams effectively to get the best team performance. Melvin Conway's Law states that the structure of a system will reflect the organization's communication structure. Domain-Driven Design (DDD) and Event Storming can be used to identify the major boundaries of scope and create an organizational structure that maps teams to the domain models they are responsible for. This reduces the amount and complexity of communication and coordination required between teams, improving development velocity.

Leading A (Distributed) Team? Foster "Above the Line" Behaviors.

Poor cohesion in distributed and co-located teams can be addressed by fostering a team culture of Above the Line behaviors, which involve taking ownership, accountability, and responsibility for their situation. Below the Line behaviors, which involve pushing blame, making excuses, and denying issues, should be avoided. Resources such as videos and mentors can help teams learn how to practice Above the Line behaviors.