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Failed Startups and Resume Gaps: The Career Path of a Product Manager

Product managers often fail in their attempts to build their own products, but this experience can be valuable and should be embraced. It is important to learn from experiences, both successful and unsuccessful, in order to gain valuable skills and competencies. This is demonstrated through the example of a person transitioning to product management from industrial engineering, who had built an open-source social network for people interested in boats and sailing. The lesson to be learned is that all experiences can be valuable, and that learning from them requires discipline.

Product Managers: Leaders, Not All-Around Experts

The author, a product manager with no technical background, shares their experience of learning and implementing Agile, building strong relationships with experts, and focusing on their strengths instead of weaknesses. They recommend Product Managers to keep learning, build relationships, and trust themselves.

Establishing Annual OKRs For Your Team

This article outlines the process of setting annual OKRs for a team that lacked a clear direction. The author held a group session to identify key work streams and then established specific objectives and key results. The team felt invested in the goals and the OKRs acted as a self-alignment tool. The author also learned that three is a good number to stick to when establishing annual OKRs and that it gives the team clarity on priorities.

Instilling a Culture of Reliability

When the leader of a transitioning team joined their current company, they noticed a lack of clarity on the team's goals and alert and on-call procedures. To address this, they painted the big picture of success, wrote an on-call responsibilities document, implemented an ongoing on-call summary journal, and put post-mortems into effect. As a result, the team's operational health and reliability improved significantly, and the leader learned the importance of breaking down initiatives into manageable steps, sharing the wider narrative, and leading by example.

Building My Very First Team

The author was hired to help build a team and introduce the Agile methodology to a disorganized startup. He recruited people quickly with the help of a contractor and a hiring agency, and structured internal procedures with a mix of Kanban and Scrum. His efforts to make a positive change were praised and he was eventually appointed Director for Software Engineering. He learned that it is important to consult experts and to listen to team members when making decisions.

Staying Afloat During Rapid Growth and Transformation

A new team of five people was struggling to keep up with the demands of a fast-growing startup. To address this, the team identified areas of responsibility, brainstormed solutions, prioritized tasks, and created space for two people to work on long-term projects. Through this process, they learned the importance of quick wins, taking action, and balancing research and development.

Identifying Prospective Managers

When engineers express a desire to become a manager, it can be an indicator of a lack of engagement or motivation. To address this, one-on-one sessions are held to understand the motivations behind the desire, and feedback is gathered from the team. Mentorship from experienced leaders is also used to help identify potential solutions. Ultimately, speaking with the team before making any changes helps to build trust and demonstrate that their opinion matters.

Transitioning to Managing Managers

While working at Airbnb, the author was responsible for a payment risk team and took on another team, requiring them to learn how to support a manager. To do this, they informally watched other managers, stepped away from teams to give the new manager space, and switched gears to focus on more tactical and execution notes. They also had to be flexible and adaptive to different sets of tools, and became more vulnerable with people. Through trial and error, the author learned lessons such as being careful with what they say and setting up trust and feedback by being vulnerable.

Building Strong OKR’s

This article discusses how teams can be empowered to make decisions and measure their success. It suggests distilling OKR's down to the simplest terms, participating in OKR drafts, and defining the business impact of metrics and logs. It also emphasizes the importance of having conversations early in the cycle.

Getting Out of an Operational Rut

A team was bogged down by daily production incidents that were draining their morale. To solve this problem, the team stopped all new product development and worked to fix the root of the problem. After two months, they had a newfound courage and synergy, but lacked ideas for what to do next. They decided to dream big and add a bit of crazy to their ideas, eventually creating a new product with good product-market fit. The takeaway is that you can't innovate when your boat is sinking, so it's important to fix the root of the problem before dreaming big.

Delivering to an Impossible Deadline

A manager was tasked with building a feature for a customer, but the team was limited in scope, schedule, and cost. The complexity of the system made it difficult to meet the customer's needs, and the team was feeling pressured. The manager asked the team what they wanted in return for delivering the project, and they asked for time and space to clean up the technical debt and the ability to move to another team. The manager negotiated a compromise with the business and shielded the team from other distractions. After successfully delivering the customer requirements, the team was happy and eventually shipped features to millions of customers. The manager learned to be honest and make good on promises to the team in order to build trust and respect.

Reorganizing A Multi-National Team to Save A Late Product Launch

A Quebec-based security company had a project that had gone more than a year without customers receiving any stable version of the product, leading to customers threatening legal action. The Paris team was divided and revolting against the product director, so the new manager had to figure out the issues and take action. He identified four categories of problems, re-engaged the team, created a melting pot of culture, reallocated QA responsibility, recruited new positions, and focused on putting humans and their interactions before the process and the tools. The team re-engagement was the biggest indicator of success and the customer engaged more with them.

Growing Leadership With Iterative Company Principles

At Samsara, the rapid growth has forced the author to learn how to quickly build up the team and train second-level managers. To do this, the author has identified and documented company principles and problem-solving frameworks to measure them by. The author has also enforced these principles to the people that report to them, and has found that continual listening and reading are important to gain new perspectives. The author has also learned that it is important to explicitly train on set principles in order to ensure company consistency.

Using OKR Based Leadership to Empower Teams

In the past, teams have felt disempowered due to a confined matrix that limited their ability to make decisions. To combat this, the author implemented OKR-based leadership, which allowed teams to define their objectives as an impact and measure their success. This approach has empowered teams to make decisions and challenge each other in a respectful way. It has also allowed for a better appreciation of each other's skill sets.

Bouncing Back From a Derailed Re-Platform

The author was hired at Docusign to re-platform their major money-making product, the ‘sending experience’, from an old asb.net tech stack to a modern one. However, the project became riddled with roadblocks due to unclear expectations and the need to add new features. The author eventually overcame these roadblocks by bringing clarity to the project, understanding the customer's pain points, and focusing on the 'what' and 'why' of the project.

Hiring Rapidly and Time Efficiently

This article outlines the steps taken to rapidly hire engineers while maintaining quality. The author front-loaded the design, coordination, and preparation of the hiring funnel, set up hiring teams, and treated the hiring process as a product. Three metrics were used to measure success: percentage of hires from referrals, time taken to make a decision, and face-to-face interviews to hire ratio. The author also reduced the interviewing process to four hours and in one session. Lessons learned include the importance of treating the hiring process as a product, not letting quality fall to the wayside, and understanding that every hiring process is unique.

The "Management Hat" That Suits Me

This article discusses the 15-year learning path of a tech leader who has grown from a software engineer to a tech leader and then a manager. It outlines key principles for managers, such as defining and spreading the vision, giving trust, autonomy, and ownership, hiring the right people, helping teams manage priorities, and increasing the level of requirement. It also emphasizes the importance of communication in order to perform these principles.

Reviving Our Company's Culture

A company's culture is an essential element of its performance, and the management team of this company identified a need to develop people's engagement, create an attractive environment, and focus on team efficiency. To do this, they created a culture analysis framework to align everyone on the same language, put the lever in their context, and define the improvement area. They also created a prioritization framework and feedback system to measure the evolution of their action plan.

Does The Work Have To Make Sense?

This article discusses the two concepts of "sense of accomplishment" and "sense of purpose" in the workplace. It suggests that the sense of accomplishment is related to the day-to-day work and the sense of purpose is related to the company's mission and values. The article also poses the question of whether one would be proud of their achievements when they are 70 years old. It suggests that it is important to understand what matters to employees to make them feel engaged and connected to the purpose of their work.

Company Culture That Strives for Diversity and Inclusion

The narrator had worked for a company for many years, during which time the company had gone through several leadership changes. The changes had initially been beneficial, but in the last couple of years had become increasingly negative, resulting in a toxic “bro” culture and people, especially women and people of color, leaving the company. The narrator decided to leave and found a startup with a culture of inclusion and diversity. They have been able to contribute to the company culture by increasing the number of women, especially women of color, and making sure that those who work for the company are happy and getting the opportunities they deserve. The narrator has learned that company culture is more important than the product, and that being an ally requires taking action when something feels wrong or oppressive.

Failed Startups and Resume Gaps: The Career Path of a Product Manager

Product managers often fail in their attempts to build their own products, but this experience can be valuable and should be embraced. It is important to learn from experiences, both successful and unsuccessful, in order to gain valuable skills and competencies. This is demonstrated through the example of a person transitioning to product management from industrial engineering, who had built an open-source social network for people interested in boats and sailing. The lesson to be learned is that all experiences can be valuable, and that learning from them requires discipline.

Product Managers: Leaders, Not All-Around Experts

The author, a product manager with no technical background, shares their experience of learning and implementing Agile, building strong relationships with experts, and focusing on their strengths instead of weaknesses. They recommend Product Managers to keep learning, build relationships, and trust themselves.

Establishing Annual OKRs For Your Team

This article outlines the process of setting annual OKRs for a team that lacked a clear direction. The author held a group session to identify key work streams and then established specific objectives and key results. The team felt invested in the goals and the OKRs acted as a self-alignment tool. The author also learned that three is a good number to stick to when establishing annual OKRs and that it gives the team clarity on priorities.

Instilling a Culture of Reliability

When the leader of a transitioning team joined their current company, they noticed a lack of clarity on the team's goals and alert and on-call procedures. To address this, they painted the big picture of success, wrote an on-call responsibilities document, implemented an ongoing on-call summary journal, and put post-mortems into effect. As a result, the team's operational health and reliability improved significantly, and the leader learned the importance of breaking down initiatives into manageable steps, sharing the wider narrative, and leading by example.

Building My Very First Team

The author was hired to help build a team and introduce the Agile methodology to a disorganized startup. He recruited people quickly with the help of a contractor and a hiring agency, and structured internal procedures with a mix of Kanban and Scrum. His efforts to make a positive change were praised and he was eventually appointed Director for Software Engineering. He learned that it is important to consult experts and to listen to team members when making decisions.

Staying Afloat During Rapid Growth and Transformation

A new team of five people was struggling to keep up with the demands of a fast-growing startup. To address this, the team identified areas of responsibility, brainstormed solutions, prioritized tasks, and created space for two people to work on long-term projects. Through this process, they learned the importance of quick wins, taking action, and balancing research and development.

Identifying Prospective Managers

When engineers express a desire to become a manager, it can be an indicator of a lack of engagement or motivation. To address this, one-on-one sessions are held to understand the motivations behind the desire, and feedback is gathered from the team. Mentorship from experienced leaders is also used to help identify potential solutions. Ultimately, speaking with the team before making any changes helps to build trust and demonstrate that their opinion matters.

Transitioning to Managing Managers

While working at Airbnb, the author was responsible for a payment risk team and took on another team, requiring them to learn how to support a manager. To do this, they informally watched other managers, stepped away from teams to give the new manager space, and switched gears to focus on more tactical and execution notes. They also had to be flexible and adaptive to different sets of tools, and became more vulnerable with people. Through trial and error, the author learned lessons such as being careful with what they say and setting up trust and feedback by being vulnerable.

Building Strong OKR’s

This article discusses how teams can be empowered to make decisions and measure their success. It suggests distilling OKR's down to the simplest terms, participating in OKR drafts, and defining the business impact of metrics and logs. It also emphasizes the importance of having conversations early in the cycle.

Getting Out of an Operational Rut

A team was bogged down by daily production incidents that were draining their morale. To solve this problem, the team stopped all new product development and worked to fix the root of the problem. After two months, they had a newfound courage and synergy, but lacked ideas for what to do next. They decided to dream big and add a bit of crazy to their ideas, eventually creating a new product with good product-market fit. The takeaway is that you can't innovate when your boat is sinking, so it's important to fix the root of the problem before dreaming big.

Delivering to an Impossible Deadline

A manager was tasked with building a feature for a customer, but the team was limited in scope, schedule, and cost. The complexity of the system made it difficult to meet the customer's needs, and the team was feeling pressured. The manager asked the team what they wanted in return for delivering the project, and they asked for time and space to clean up the technical debt and the ability to move to another team. The manager negotiated a compromise with the business and shielded the team from other distractions. After successfully delivering the customer requirements, the team was happy and eventually shipped features to millions of customers. The manager learned to be honest and make good on promises to the team in order to build trust and respect.

Reorganizing A Multi-National Team to Save A Late Product Launch

A Quebec-based security company had a project that had gone more than a year without customers receiving any stable version of the product, leading to customers threatening legal action. The Paris team was divided and revolting against the product director, so the new manager had to figure out the issues and take action. He identified four categories of problems, re-engaged the team, created a melting pot of culture, reallocated QA responsibility, recruited new positions, and focused on putting humans and their interactions before the process and the tools. The team re-engagement was the biggest indicator of success and the customer engaged more with them.

Growing Leadership With Iterative Company Principles

At Samsara, the rapid growth has forced the author to learn how to quickly build up the team and train second-level managers. To do this, the author has identified and documented company principles and problem-solving frameworks to measure them by. The author has also enforced these principles to the people that report to them, and has found that continual listening and reading are important to gain new perspectives. The author has also learned that it is important to explicitly train on set principles in order to ensure company consistency.

Using OKR Based Leadership to Empower Teams

In the past, teams have felt disempowered due to a confined matrix that limited their ability to make decisions. To combat this, the author implemented OKR-based leadership, which allowed teams to define their objectives as an impact and measure their success. This approach has empowered teams to make decisions and challenge each other in a respectful way. It has also allowed for a better appreciation of each other's skill sets.

Bouncing Back From a Derailed Re-Platform

The author was hired at Docusign to re-platform their major money-making product, the ‘sending experience’, from an old asb.net tech stack to a modern one. However, the project became riddled with roadblocks due to unclear expectations and the need to add new features. The author eventually overcame these roadblocks by bringing clarity to the project, understanding the customer's pain points, and focusing on the 'what' and 'why' of the project.

Hiring Rapidly and Time Efficiently

This article outlines the steps taken to rapidly hire engineers while maintaining quality. The author front-loaded the design, coordination, and preparation of the hiring funnel, set up hiring teams, and treated the hiring process as a product. Three metrics were used to measure success: percentage of hires from referrals, time taken to make a decision, and face-to-face interviews to hire ratio. The author also reduced the interviewing process to four hours and in one session. Lessons learned include the importance of treating the hiring process as a product, not letting quality fall to the wayside, and understanding that every hiring process is unique.

The "Management Hat" That Suits Me

This article discusses the 15-year learning path of a tech leader who has grown from a software engineer to a tech leader and then a manager. It outlines key principles for managers, such as defining and spreading the vision, giving trust, autonomy, and ownership, hiring the right people, helping teams manage priorities, and increasing the level of requirement. It also emphasizes the importance of communication in order to perform these principles.

Reviving Our Company's Culture

A company's culture is an essential element of its performance, and the management team of this company identified a need to develop people's engagement, create an attractive environment, and focus on team efficiency. To do this, they created a culture analysis framework to align everyone on the same language, put the lever in their context, and define the improvement area. They also created a prioritization framework and feedback system to measure the evolution of their action plan.

Does The Work Have To Make Sense?

This article discusses the two concepts of "sense of accomplishment" and "sense of purpose" in the workplace. It suggests that the sense of accomplishment is related to the day-to-day work and the sense of purpose is related to the company's mission and values. The article also poses the question of whether one would be proud of their achievements when they are 70 years old. It suggests that it is important to understand what matters to employees to make them feel engaged and connected to the purpose of their work.

Company Culture That Strives for Diversity and Inclusion

The narrator had worked for a company for many years, during which time the company had gone through several leadership changes. The changes had initially been beneficial, but in the last couple of years had become increasingly negative, resulting in a toxic “bro” culture and people, especially women and people of color, leaving the company. The narrator decided to leave and found a startup with a culture of inclusion and diversity. They have been able to contribute to the company culture by increasing the number of women, especially women of color, and making sure that those who work for the company are happy and getting the opportunities they deserve. The narrator has learned that company culture is more important than the product, and that being an ally requires taking action when something feels wrong or oppressive.

Failed Startups and Resume Gaps: The Career Path of a Product Manager

Product managers often fail in their attempts to build their own products, but this experience can be valuable and should be embraced. It is important to learn from experiences, both successful and unsuccessful, in order to gain valuable skills and competencies. This is demonstrated through the example of a person transitioning to product management from industrial engineering, who had built an open-source social network for people interested in boats and sailing. The lesson to be learned is that all experiences can be valuable, and that learning from them requires discipline.

Product Managers: Leaders, Not All-Around Experts

The author, a product manager with no technical background, shares their experience of learning and implementing Agile, building strong relationships with experts, and focusing on their strengths instead of weaknesses. They recommend Product Managers to keep learning, build relationships, and trust themselves.

Establishing Annual OKRs For Your Team

This article outlines the process of setting annual OKRs for a team that lacked a clear direction. The author held a group session to identify key work streams and then established specific objectives and key results. The team felt invested in the goals and the OKRs acted as a self-alignment tool. The author also learned that three is a good number to stick to when establishing annual OKRs and that it gives the team clarity on priorities.

Instilling a Culture of Reliability

When the leader of a transitioning team joined their current company, they noticed a lack of clarity on the team's goals and alert and on-call procedures. To address this, they painted the big picture of success, wrote an on-call responsibilities document, implemented an ongoing on-call summary journal, and put post-mortems into effect. As a result, the team's operational health and reliability improved significantly, and the leader learned the importance of breaking down initiatives into manageable steps, sharing the wider narrative, and leading by example.

Building My Very First Team

The author was hired to help build a team and introduce the Agile methodology to a disorganized startup. He recruited people quickly with the help of a contractor and a hiring agency, and structured internal procedures with a mix of Kanban and Scrum. His efforts to make a positive change were praised and he was eventually appointed Director for Software Engineering. He learned that it is important to consult experts and to listen to team members when making decisions.

Staying Afloat During Rapid Growth and Transformation

A new team of five people was struggling to keep up with the demands of a fast-growing startup. To address this, the team identified areas of responsibility, brainstormed solutions, prioritized tasks, and created space for two people to work on long-term projects. Through this process, they learned the importance of quick wins, taking action, and balancing research and development.

Identifying Prospective Managers

When engineers express a desire to become a manager, it can be an indicator of a lack of engagement or motivation. To address this, one-on-one sessions are held to understand the motivations behind the desire, and feedback is gathered from the team. Mentorship from experienced leaders is also used to help identify potential solutions. Ultimately, speaking with the team before making any changes helps to build trust and demonstrate that their opinion matters.

Transitioning to Managing Managers

While working at Airbnb, the author was responsible for a payment risk team and took on another team, requiring them to learn how to support a manager. To do this, they informally watched other managers, stepped away from teams to give the new manager space, and switched gears to focus on more tactical and execution notes. They also had to be flexible and adaptive to different sets of tools, and became more vulnerable with people. Through trial and error, the author learned lessons such as being careful with what they say and setting up trust and feedback by being vulnerable.

Building Strong OKR’s

This article discusses how teams can be empowered to make decisions and measure their success. It suggests distilling OKR's down to the simplest terms, participating in OKR drafts, and defining the business impact of metrics and logs. It also emphasizes the importance of having conversations early in the cycle.

Getting Out of an Operational Rut

A team was bogged down by daily production incidents that were draining their morale. To solve this problem, the team stopped all new product development and worked to fix the root of the problem. After two months, they had a newfound courage and synergy, but lacked ideas for what to do next. They decided to dream big and add a bit of crazy to their ideas, eventually creating a new product with good product-market fit. The takeaway is that you can't innovate when your boat is sinking, so it's important to fix the root of the problem before dreaming big.

Delivering to an Impossible Deadline

A manager was tasked with building a feature for a customer, but the team was limited in scope, schedule, and cost. The complexity of the system made it difficult to meet the customer's needs, and the team was feeling pressured. The manager asked the team what they wanted in return for delivering the project, and they asked for time and space to clean up the technical debt and the ability to move to another team. The manager negotiated a compromise with the business and shielded the team from other distractions. After successfully delivering the customer requirements, the team was happy and eventually shipped features to millions of customers. The manager learned to be honest and make good on promises to the team in order to build trust and respect.

Reorganizing A Multi-National Team to Save A Late Product Launch

A Quebec-based security company had a project that had gone more than a year without customers receiving any stable version of the product, leading to customers threatening legal action. The Paris team was divided and revolting against the product director, so the new manager had to figure out the issues and take action. He identified four categories of problems, re-engaged the team, created a melting pot of culture, reallocated QA responsibility, recruited new positions, and focused on putting humans and their interactions before the process and the tools. The team re-engagement was the biggest indicator of success and the customer engaged more with them.

Growing Leadership With Iterative Company Principles

At Samsara, the rapid growth has forced the author to learn how to quickly build up the team and train second-level managers. To do this, the author has identified and documented company principles and problem-solving frameworks to measure them by. The author has also enforced these principles to the people that report to them, and has found that continual listening and reading are important to gain new perspectives. The author has also learned that it is important to explicitly train on set principles in order to ensure company consistency.

Using OKR Based Leadership to Empower Teams

In the past, teams have felt disempowered due to a confined matrix that limited their ability to make decisions. To combat this, the author implemented OKR-based leadership, which allowed teams to define their objectives as an impact and measure their success. This approach has empowered teams to make decisions and challenge each other in a respectful way. It has also allowed for a better appreciation of each other's skill sets.

Bouncing Back From a Derailed Re-Platform

The author was hired at Docusign to re-platform their major money-making product, the ‘sending experience’, from an old asb.net tech stack to a modern one. However, the project became riddled with roadblocks due to unclear expectations and the need to add new features. The author eventually overcame these roadblocks by bringing clarity to the project, understanding the customer's pain points, and focusing on the 'what' and 'why' of the project.

Hiring Rapidly and Time Efficiently

This article outlines the steps taken to rapidly hire engineers while maintaining quality. The author front-loaded the design, coordination, and preparation of the hiring funnel, set up hiring teams, and treated the hiring process as a product. Three metrics were used to measure success: percentage of hires from referrals, time taken to make a decision, and face-to-face interviews to hire ratio. The author also reduced the interviewing process to four hours and in one session. Lessons learned include the importance of treating the hiring process as a product, not letting quality fall to the wayside, and understanding that every hiring process is unique.

The "Management Hat" That Suits Me

This article discusses the 15-year learning path of a tech leader who has grown from a software engineer to a tech leader and then a manager. It outlines key principles for managers, such as defining and spreading the vision, giving trust, autonomy, and ownership, hiring the right people, helping teams manage priorities, and increasing the level of requirement. It also emphasizes the importance of communication in order to perform these principles.

Reviving Our Company's Culture

A company's culture is an essential element of its performance, and the management team of this company identified a need to develop people's engagement, create an attractive environment, and focus on team efficiency. To do this, they created a culture analysis framework to align everyone on the same language, put the lever in their context, and define the improvement area. They also created a prioritization framework and feedback system to measure the evolution of their action plan.

Does The Work Have To Make Sense?

This article discusses the two concepts of "sense of accomplishment" and "sense of purpose" in the workplace. It suggests that the sense of accomplishment is related to the day-to-day work and the sense of purpose is related to the company's mission and values. The article also poses the question of whether one would be proud of their achievements when they are 70 years old. It suggests that it is important to understand what matters to employees to make them feel engaged and connected to the purpose of their work.

Company Culture That Strives for Diversity and Inclusion

The narrator had worked for a company for many years, during which time the company had gone through several leadership changes. The changes had initially been beneficial, but in the last couple of years had become increasingly negative, resulting in a toxic “bro” culture and people, especially women and people of color, leaving the company. The narrator decided to leave and found a startup with a culture of inclusion and diversity. They have been able to contribute to the company culture by increasing the number of women, especially women of color, and making sure that those who work for the company are happy and getting the opportunities they deserve. The narrator has learned that company culture is more important than the product, and that being an ally requires taking action when something feels wrong or oppressive.

Failed Startups and Resume Gaps: The Career Path of a Product Manager

Product managers often fail in their attempts to build their own products, but this experience can be valuable and should be embraced. It is important to learn from experiences, both successful and unsuccessful, in order to gain valuable skills and competencies. This is demonstrated through the example of a person transitioning to product management from industrial engineering, who had built an open-source social network for people interested in boats and sailing. The lesson to be learned is that all experiences can be valuable, and that learning from them requires discipline.

Product Managers: Leaders, Not All-Around Experts

The author, a product manager with no technical background, shares their experience of learning and implementing Agile, building strong relationships with experts, and focusing on their strengths instead of weaknesses. They recommend Product Managers to keep learning, build relationships, and trust themselves.

Establishing Annual OKRs For Your Team

This article outlines the process of setting annual OKRs for a team that lacked a clear direction. The author held a group session to identify key work streams and then established specific objectives and key results. The team felt invested in the goals and the OKRs acted as a self-alignment tool. The author also learned that three is a good number to stick to when establishing annual OKRs and that it gives the team clarity on priorities.

Instilling a Culture of Reliability

When the leader of a transitioning team joined their current company, they noticed a lack of clarity on the team's goals and alert and on-call procedures. To address this, they painted the big picture of success, wrote an on-call responsibilities document, implemented an ongoing on-call summary journal, and put post-mortems into effect. As a result, the team's operational health and reliability improved significantly, and the leader learned the importance of breaking down initiatives into manageable steps, sharing the wider narrative, and leading by example.

Building My Very First Team

The author was hired to help build a team and introduce the Agile methodology to a disorganized startup. He recruited people quickly with the help of a contractor and a hiring agency, and structured internal procedures with a mix of Kanban and Scrum. His efforts to make a positive change were praised and he was eventually appointed Director for Software Engineering. He learned that it is important to consult experts and to listen to team members when making decisions.

Staying Afloat During Rapid Growth and Transformation

A new team of five people was struggling to keep up with the demands of a fast-growing startup. To address this, the team identified areas of responsibility, brainstormed solutions, prioritized tasks, and created space for two people to work on long-term projects. Through this process, they learned the importance of quick wins, taking action, and balancing research and development.

Identifying Prospective Managers

When engineers express a desire to become a manager, it can be an indicator of a lack of engagement or motivation. To address this, one-on-one sessions are held to understand the motivations behind the desire, and feedback is gathered from the team. Mentorship from experienced leaders is also used to help identify potential solutions. Ultimately, speaking with the team before making any changes helps to build trust and demonstrate that their opinion matters.

Transitioning to Managing Managers

While working at Airbnb, the author was responsible for a payment risk team and took on another team, requiring them to learn how to support a manager. To do this, they informally watched other managers, stepped away from teams to give the new manager space, and switched gears to focus on more tactical and execution notes. They also had to be flexible and adaptive to different sets of tools, and became more vulnerable with people. Through trial and error, the author learned lessons such as being careful with what they say and setting up trust and feedback by being vulnerable.

Building Strong OKR’s

This article discusses how teams can be empowered to make decisions and measure their success. It suggests distilling OKR's down to the simplest terms, participating in OKR drafts, and defining the business impact of metrics and logs. It also emphasizes the importance of having conversations early in the cycle.

Getting Out of an Operational Rut

A team was bogged down by daily production incidents that were draining their morale. To solve this problem, the team stopped all new product development and worked to fix the root of the problem. After two months, they had a newfound courage and synergy, but lacked ideas for what to do next. They decided to dream big and add a bit of crazy to their ideas, eventually creating a new product with good product-market fit. The takeaway is that you can't innovate when your boat is sinking, so it's important to fix the root of the problem before dreaming big.

Delivering to an Impossible Deadline

A manager was tasked with building a feature for a customer, but the team was limited in scope, schedule, and cost. The complexity of the system made it difficult to meet the customer's needs, and the team was feeling pressured. The manager asked the team what they wanted in return for delivering the project, and they asked for time and space to clean up the technical debt and the ability to move to another team. The manager negotiated a compromise with the business and shielded the team from other distractions. After successfully delivering the customer requirements, the team was happy and eventually shipped features to millions of customers. The manager learned to be honest and make good on promises to the team in order to build trust and respect.

Reorganizing A Multi-National Team to Save A Late Product Launch

A Quebec-based security company had a project that had gone more than a year without customers receiving any stable version of the product, leading to customers threatening legal action. The Paris team was divided and revolting against the product director, so the new manager had to figure out the issues and take action. He identified four categories of problems, re-engaged the team, created a melting pot of culture, reallocated QA responsibility, recruited new positions, and focused on putting humans and their interactions before the process and the tools. The team re-engagement was the biggest indicator of success and the customer engaged more with them.

Growing Leadership With Iterative Company Principles

At Samsara, the rapid growth has forced the author to learn how to quickly build up the team and train second-level managers. To do this, the author has identified and documented company principles and problem-solving frameworks to measure them by. The author has also enforced these principles to the people that report to them, and has found that continual listening and reading are important to gain new perspectives. The author has also learned that it is important to explicitly train on set principles in order to ensure company consistency.

Using OKR Based Leadership to Empower Teams

In the past, teams have felt disempowered due to a confined matrix that limited their ability to make decisions. To combat this, the author implemented OKR-based leadership, which allowed teams to define their objectives as an impact and measure their success. This approach has empowered teams to make decisions and challenge each other in a respectful way. It has also allowed for a better appreciation of each other's skill sets.

Bouncing Back From a Derailed Re-Platform

The author was hired at Docusign to re-platform their major money-making product, the ‘sending experience’, from an old asb.net tech stack to a modern one. However, the project became riddled with roadblocks due to unclear expectations and the need to add new features. The author eventually overcame these roadblocks by bringing clarity to the project, understanding the customer's pain points, and focusing on the 'what' and 'why' of the project.

Hiring Rapidly and Time Efficiently

This article outlines the steps taken to rapidly hire engineers while maintaining quality. The author front-loaded the design, coordination, and preparation of the hiring funnel, set up hiring teams, and treated the hiring process as a product. Three metrics were used to measure success: percentage of hires from referrals, time taken to make a decision, and face-to-face interviews to hire ratio. The author also reduced the interviewing process to four hours and in one session. Lessons learned include the importance of treating the hiring process as a product, not letting quality fall to the wayside, and understanding that every hiring process is unique.

The "Management Hat" That Suits Me

This article discusses the 15-year learning path of a tech leader who has grown from a software engineer to a tech leader and then a manager. It outlines key principles for managers, such as defining and spreading the vision, giving trust, autonomy, and ownership, hiring the right people, helping teams manage priorities, and increasing the level of requirement. It also emphasizes the importance of communication in order to perform these principles.

Reviving Our Company's Culture

A company's culture is an essential element of its performance, and the management team of this company identified a need to develop people's engagement, create an attractive environment, and focus on team efficiency. To do this, they created a culture analysis framework to align everyone on the same language, put the lever in their context, and define the improvement area. They also created a prioritization framework and feedback system to measure the evolution of their action plan.

Does The Work Have To Make Sense?

This article discusses the two concepts of "sense of accomplishment" and "sense of purpose" in the workplace. It suggests that the sense of accomplishment is related to the day-to-day work and the sense of purpose is related to the company's mission and values. The article also poses the question of whether one would be proud of their achievements when they are 70 years old. It suggests that it is important to understand what matters to employees to make them feel engaged and connected to the purpose of their work.

Company Culture That Strives for Diversity and Inclusion

The narrator had worked for a company for many years, during which time the company had gone through several leadership changes. The changes had initially been beneficial, but in the last couple of years had become increasingly negative, resulting in a toxic “bro” culture and people, especially women and people of color, leaving the company. The narrator decided to leave and found a startup with a culture of inclusion and diversity. They have been able to contribute to the company culture by increasing the number of women, especially women of color, and making sure that those who work for the company are happy and getting the opportunities they deserve. The narrator has learned that company culture is more important than the product, and that being an ally requires taking action when something feels wrong or oppressive.

Failed Startups and Resume Gaps: The Career Path of a Product Manager

Product managers often fail in their attempts to build their own products, but this experience can be valuable and should be embraced. It is important to learn from experiences, both successful and unsuccessful, in order to gain valuable skills and competencies. This is demonstrated through the example of a person transitioning to product management from industrial engineering, who had built an open-source social network for people interested in boats and sailing. The lesson to be learned is that all experiences can be valuable, and that learning from them requires discipline.

Product Managers: Leaders, Not All-Around Experts

The author, a product manager with no technical background, shares their experience of learning and implementing Agile, building strong relationships with experts, and focusing on their strengths instead of weaknesses. They recommend Product Managers to keep learning, build relationships, and trust themselves.

Establishing Annual OKRs For Your Team

This article outlines the process of setting annual OKRs for a team that lacked a clear direction. The author held a group session to identify key work streams and then established specific objectives and key results. The team felt invested in the goals and the OKRs acted as a self-alignment tool. The author also learned that three is a good number to stick to when establishing annual OKRs and that it gives the team clarity on priorities.

Instilling a Culture of Reliability

When the leader of a transitioning team joined their current company, they noticed a lack of clarity on the team's goals and alert and on-call procedures. To address this, they painted the big picture of success, wrote an on-call responsibilities document, implemented an ongoing on-call summary journal, and put post-mortems into effect. As a result, the team's operational health and reliability improved significantly, and the leader learned the importance of breaking down initiatives into manageable steps, sharing the wider narrative, and leading by example.

Building My Very First Team

The author was hired to help build a team and introduce the Agile methodology to a disorganized startup. He recruited people quickly with the help of a contractor and a hiring agency, and structured internal procedures with a mix of Kanban and Scrum. His efforts to make a positive change were praised and he was eventually appointed Director for Software Engineering. He learned that it is important to consult experts and to listen to team members when making decisions.

Staying Afloat During Rapid Growth and Transformation

A new team of five people was struggling to keep up with the demands of a fast-growing startup. To address this, the team identified areas of responsibility, brainstormed solutions, prioritized tasks, and created space for two people to work on long-term projects. Through this process, they learned the importance of quick wins, taking action, and balancing research and development.

Identifying Prospective Managers

When engineers express a desire to become a manager, it can be an indicator of a lack of engagement or motivation. To address this, one-on-one sessions are held to understand the motivations behind the desire, and feedback is gathered from the team. Mentorship from experienced leaders is also used to help identify potential solutions. Ultimately, speaking with the team before making any changes helps to build trust and demonstrate that their opinion matters.

Transitioning to Managing Managers

While working at Airbnb, the author was responsible for a payment risk team and took on another team, requiring them to learn how to support a manager. To do this, they informally watched other managers, stepped away from teams to give the new manager space, and switched gears to focus on more tactical and execution notes. They also had to be flexible and adaptive to different sets of tools, and became more vulnerable with people. Through trial and error, the author learned lessons such as being careful with what they say and setting up trust and feedback by being vulnerable.

Building Strong OKR’s

This article discusses how teams can be empowered to make decisions and measure their success. It suggests distilling OKR's down to the simplest terms, participating in OKR drafts, and defining the business impact of metrics and logs. It also emphasizes the importance of having conversations early in the cycle.

Getting Out of an Operational Rut

A team was bogged down by daily production incidents that were draining their morale. To solve this problem, the team stopped all new product development and worked to fix the root of the problem. After two months, they had a newfound courage and synergy, but lacked ideas for what to do next. They decided to dream big and add a bit of crazy to their ideas, eventually creating a new product with good product-market fit. The takeaway is that you can't innovate when your boat is sinking, so it's important to fix the root of the problem before dreaming big.

Delivering to an Impossible Deadline

A manager was tasked with building a feature for a customer, but the team was limited in scope, schedule, and cost. The complexity of the system made it difficult to meet the customer's needs, and the team was feeling pressured. The manager asked the team what they wanted in return for delivering the project, and they asked for time and space to clean up the technical debt and the ability to move to another team. The manager negotiated a compromise with the business and shielded the team from other distractions. After successfully delivering the customer requirements, the team was happy and eventually shipped features to millions of customers. The manager learned to be honest and make good on promises to the team in order to build trust and respect.

Reorganizing A Multi-National Team to Save A Late Product Launch

A Quebec-based security company had a project that had gone more than a year without customers receiving any stable version of the product, leading to customers threatening legal action. The Paris team was divided and revolting against the product director, so the new manager had to figure out the issues and take action. He identified four categories of problems, re-engaged the team, created a melting pot of culture, reallocated QA responsibility, recruited new positions, and focused on putting humans and their interactions before the process and the tools. The team re-engagement was the biggest indicator of success and the customer engaged more with them.

Growing Leadership With Iterative Company Principles

At Samsara, the rapid growth has forced the author to learn how to quickly build up the team and train second-level managers. To do this, the author has identified and documented company principles and problem-solving frameworks to measure them by. The author has also enforced these principles to the people that report to them, and has found that continual listening and reading are important to gain new perspectives. The author has also learned that it is important to explicitly train on set principles in order to ensure company consistency.

Using OKR Based Leadership to Empower Teams

In the past, teams have felt disempowered due to a confined matrix that limited their ability to make decisions. To combat this, the author implemented OKR-based leadership, which allowed teams to define their objectives as an impact and measure their success. This approach has empowered teams to make decisions and challenge each other in a respectful way. It has also allowed for a better appreciation of each other's skill sets.

Bouncing Back From a Derailed Re-Platform

The author was hired at Docusign to re-platform their major money-making product, the ‘sending experience’, from an old asb.net tech stack to a modern one. However, the project became riddled with roadblocks due to unclear expectations and the need to add new features. The author eventually overcame these roadblocks by bringing clarity to the project, understanding the customer's pain points, and focusing on the 'what' and 'why' of the project.

Hiring Rapidly and Time Efficiently

This article outlines the steps taken to rapidly hire engineers while maintaining quality. The author front-loaded the design, coordination, and preparation of the hiring funnel, set up hiring teams, and treated the hiring process as a product. Three metrics were used to measure success: percentage of hires from referrals, time taken to make a decision, and face-to-face interviews to hire ratio. The author also reduced the interviewing process to four hours and in one session. Lessons learned include the importance of treating the hiring process as a product, not letting quality fall to the wayside, and understanding that every hiring process is unique.

The "Management Hat" That Suits Me

This article discusses the 15-year learning path of a tech leader who has grown from a software engineer to a tech leader and then a manager. It outlines key principles for managers, such as defining and spreading the vision, giving trust, autonomy, and ownership, hiring the right people, helping teams manage priorities, and increasing the level of requirement. It also emphasizes the importance of communication in order to perform these principles.

Reviving Our Company's Culture

A company's culture is an essential element of its performance, and the management team of this company identified a need to develop people's engagement, create an attractive environment, and focus on team efficiency. To do this, they created a culture analysis framework to align everyone on the same language, put the lever in their context, and define the improvement area. They also created a prioritization framework and feedback system to measure the evolution of their action plan.

Does The Work Have To Make Sense?

This article discusses the two concepts of "sense of accomplishment" and "sense of purpose" in the workplace. It suggests that the sense of accomplishment is related to the day-to-day work and the sense of purpose is related to the company's mission and values. The article also poses the question of whether one would be proud of their achievements when they are 70 years old. It suggests that it is important to understand what matters to employees to make them feel engaged and connected to the purpose of their work.

Company Culture That Strives for Diversity and Inclusion

The narrator had worked for a company for many years, during which time the company had gone through several leadership changes. The changes had initially been beneficial, but in the last couple of years had become increasingly negative, resulting in a toxic “bro” culture and people, especially women and people of color, leaving the company. The narrator decided to leave and found a startup with a culture of inclusion and diversity. They have been able to contribute to the company culture by increasing the number of women, especially women of color, and making sure that those who work for the company are happy and getting the opportunities they deserve. The narrator has learned that company culture is more important than the product, and that being an ally requires taking action when something feels wrong or oppressive.

Failed Startups and Resume Gaps: The Career Path of a Product Manager

Product managers often fail in their attempts to build their own products, but this experience can be valuable and should be embraced. It is important to learn from experiences, both successful and unsuccessful, in order to gain valuable skills and competencies. This is demonstrated through the example of a person transitioning to product management from industrial engineering, who had built an open-source social network for people interested in boats and sailing. The lesson to be learned is that all experiences can be valuable, and that learning from them requires discipline.

Product Managers: Leaders, Not All-Around Experts

The author, a product manager with no technical background, shares their experience of learning and implementing Agile, building strong relationships with experts, and focusing on their strengths instead of weaknesses. They recommend Product Managers to keep learning, build relationships, and trust themselves.

Establishing Annual OKRs For Your Team

This article outlines the process of setting annual OKRs for a team that lacked a clear direction. The author held a group session to identify key work streams and then established specific objectives and key results. The team felt invested in the goals and the OKRs acted as a self-alignment tool. The author also learned that three is a good number to stick to when establishing annual OKRs and that it gives the team clarity on priorities.

Instilling a Culture of Reliability

When the leader of a transitioning team joined their current company, they noticed a lack of clarity on the team's goals and alert and on-call procedures. To address this, they painted the big picture of success, wrote an on-call responsibilities document, implemented an ongoing on-call summary journal, and put post-mortems into effect. As a result, the team's operational health and reliability improved significantly, and the leader learned the importance of breaking down initiatives into manageable steps, sharing the wider narrative, and leading by example.

Building My Very First Team

The author was hired to help build a team and introduce the Agile methodology to a disorganized startup. He recruited people quickly with the help of a contractor and a hiring agency, and structured internal procedures with a mix of Kanban and Scrum. His efforts to make a positive change were praised and he was eventually appointed Director for Software Engineering. He learned that it is important to consult experts and to listen to team members when making decisions.

Staying Afloat During Rapid Growth and Transformation

A new team of five people was struggling to keep up with the demands of a fast-growing startup. To address this, the team identified areas of responsibility, brainstormed solutions, prioritized tasks, and created space for two people to work on long-term projects. Through this process, they learned the importance of quick wins, taking action, and balancing research and development.

Identifying Prospective Managers

When engineers express a desire to become a manager, it can be an indicator of a lack of engagement or motivation. To address this, one-on-one sessions are held to understand the motivations behind the desire, and feedback is gathered from the team. Mentorship from experienced leaders is also used to help identify potential solutions. Ultimately, speaking with the team before making any changes helps to build trust and demonstrate that their opinion matters.

Transitioning to Managing Managers

While working at Airbnb, the author was responsible for a payment risk team and took on another team, requiring them to learn how to support a manager. To do this, they informally watched other managers, stepped away from teams to give the new manager space, and switched gears to focus on more tactical and execution notes. They also had to be flexible and adaptive to different sets of tools, and became more vulnerable with people. Through trial and error, the author learned lessons such as being careful with what they say and setting up trust and feedback by being vulnerable.

Building Strong OKR’s

This article discusses how teams can be empowered to make decisions and measure their success. It suggests distilling OKR's down to the simplest terms, participating in OKR drafts, and defining the business impact of metrics and logs. It also emphasizes the importance of having conversations early in the cycle.

Getting Out of an Operational Rut

A team was bogged down by daily production incidents that were draining their morale. To solve this problem, the team stopped all new product development and worked to fix the root of the problem. After two months, they had a newfound courage and synergy, but lacked ideas for what to do next. They decided to dream big and add a bit of crazy to their ideas, eventually creating a new product with good product-market fit. The takeaway is that you can't innovate when your boat is sinking, so it's important to fix the root of the problem before dreaming big.

Delivering to an Impossible Deadline

A manager was tasked with building a feature for a customer, but the team was limited in scope, schedule, and cost. The complexity of the system made it difficult to meet the customer's needs, and the team was feeling pressured. The manager asked the team what they wanted in return for delivering the project, and they asked for time and space to clean up the technical debt and the ability to move to another team. The manager negotiated a compromise with the business and shielded the team from other distractions. After successfully delivering the customer requirements, the team was happy and eventually shipped features to millions of customers. The manager learned to be honest and make good on promises to the team in order to build trust and respect.

Reorganizing A Multi-National Team to Save A Late Product Launch

A Quebec-based security company had a project that had gone more than a year without customers receiving any stable version of the product, leading to customers threatening legal action. The Paris team was divided and revolting against the product director, so the new manager had to figure out the issues and take action. He identified four categories of problems, re-engaged the team, created a melting pot of culture, reallocated QA responsibility, recruited new positions, and focused on putting humans and their interactions before the process and the tools. The team re-engagement was the biggest indicator of success and the customer engaged more with them.

Growing Leadership With Iterative Company Principles

At Samsara, the rapid growth has forced the author to learn how to quickly build up the team and train second-level managers. To do this, the author has identified and documented company principles and problem-solving frameworks to measure them by. The author has also enforced these principles to the people that report to them, and has found that continual listening and reading are important to gain new perspectives. The author has also learned that it is important to explicitly train on set principles in order to ensure company consistency.

Using OKR Based Leadership to Empower Teams

In the past, teams have felt disempowered due to a confined matrix that limited their ability to make decisions. To combat this, the author implemented OKR-based leadership, which allowed teams to define their objectives as an impact and measure their success. This approach has empowered teams to make decisions and challenge each other in a respectful way. It has also allowed for a better appreciation of each other's skill sets.

Bouncing Back From a Derailed Re-Platform

The author was hired at Docusign to re-platform their major money-making product, the ‘sending experience’, from an old asb.net tech stack to a modern one. However, the project became riddled with roadblocks due to unclear expectations and the need to add new features. The author eventually overcame these roadblocks by bringing clarity to the project, understanding the customer's pain points, and focusing on the 'what' and 'why' of the project.

Hiring Rapidly and Time Efficiently

This article outlines the steps taken to rapidly hire engineers while maintaining quality. The author front-loaded the design, coordination, and preparation of the hiring funnel, set up hiring teams, and treated the hiring process as a product. Three metrics were used to measure success: percentage of hires from referrals, time taken to make a decision, and face-to-face interviews to hire ratio. The author also reduced the interviewing process to four hours and in one session. Lessons learned include the importance of treating the hiring process as a product, not letting quality fall to the wayside, and understanding that every hiring process is unique.

The "Management Hat" That Suits Me

This article discusses the 15-year learning path of a tech leader who has grown from a software engineer to a tech leader and then a manager. It outlines key principles for managers, such as defining and spreading the vision, giving trust, autonomy, and ownership, hiring the right people, helping teams manage priorities, and increasing the level of requirement. It also emphasizes the importance of communication in order to perform these principles.

Reviving Our Company's Culture

A company's culture is an essential element of its performance, and the management team of this company identified a need to develop people's engagement, create an attractive environment, and focus on team efficiency. To do this, they created a culture analysis framework to align everyone on the same language, put the lever in their context, and define the improvement area. They also created a prioritization framework and feedback system to measure the evolution of their action plan.

Does The Work Have To Make Sense?

This article discusses the two concepts of "sense of accomplishment" and "sense of purpose" in the workplace. It suggests that the sense of accomplishment is related to the day-to-day work and the sense of purpose is related to the company's mission and values. The article also poses the question of whether one would be proud of their achievements when they are 70 years old. It suggests that it is important to understand what matters to employees to make them feel engaged and connected to the purpose of their work.

Company Culture That Strives for Diversity and Inclusion

The narrator had worked for a company for many years, during which time the company had gone through several leadership changes. The changes had initially been beneficial, but in the last couple of years had become increasingly negative, resulting in a toxic “bro” culture and people, especially women and people of color, leaving the company. The narrator decided to leave and found a startup with a culture of inclusion and diversity. They have been able to contribute to the company culture by increasing the number of women, especially women of color, and making sure that those who work for the company are happy and getting the opportunities they deserve. The narrator has learned that company culture is more important than the product, and that being an ally requires taking action when something feels wrong or oppressive.