Knowledge shared by our community

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?

The text discusses the challenges and steps to take when transitioning into an engineering management role. It emphasizes the importance of accepting that you are starting anew and need to learn how to lead and manage people. It suggests assessing your abilities, learning through various methods, starting with general material on leadership and management, delving into deeper topics, and building relationships with peers. The key to success in this new role lies in learning quickly, adapting, communicating, and collaborating with other leaders.

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.

Building Up Your Technical Skills in a Fast-Paced Industry

With the constant influx of new technologies in software development, it can be difficult to decide which ones to learn and stay current with. This article outlines five tips for upskilling your technical knowledge, such as evaluating the 'why' before deciding what to learn, upskilling on the fundamentals first, accepting that you can't know everything, delegating tasks, and not neglecting your soft skills. It also emphasizes the importance of having a focus, working on communication skills, and reading outside of the IT area.

How to Navigate Your Manager Role at a New Company

As a new Engineering Manager at Marks & Spencer, the challenge of building trust is compounded by the need to set up a new structure and reshape the architecture to support growth. To build trust, it is important to understand the customer problems, technical strategy, and how the tech teams are aligned to the strategy. Communication and feedback from cross-functional teams is also important. Building trust with reports is necessary to do the job, and requires creating a psychologically safe environment, active listening, and providing sponsorship opportunities. Lastly, staying motivated is key to success in this role.

Team Development Framework for new managers

When transitioning from an Individual Contributor to a Manager, it can feel overwhelming. This post focuses on the mindset shift needed to better utilize the advice available for new Managers. The key difference between the two roles is the core action (Developing code vs. Developing team) and how it is done (high quality vs. high engagement). Managers must have a core set of skills such as building trust, active listening, decision-making, and emotional intelligence. Despite having the development framework and required skills, being a Manager is still hard due to the high cost of being wrong, solutions not always being logical, and non-determinism.

Bootstrapping a Startup While Working Full-Time

This is the story of how the author started their own company, Surfer, while still working full-time. They started small, building a rough prototype and not worrying about monetization. When they decided to find an investor, they ended up bootstrapping instead, cutting their salaries to zero and being mindful of their spending. The author's tips for starting a profitable company include starting slowly, charging customers as soon as possible, and incentivizing customers to pay for annual subscriptions.

Effective Hiring Practices: Asking the Right Questions

Finding the right talent for a job requires asking the right questions and conducting interviews in a way that makes candidates feel comfortable. It is important to look for a technical fit, but also a match in values and learning potential. To gain insight during interviews, it is recommended to take several unorthodox approaches, such as identifying and double-downing on risky matters, prompting candidates with open-ended topics, focusing on fewer topics in detail, asking how they would hire for the role, and encouraging them to come up with a question. Additionally, feedback should be asked for in order to improve the interview process.

How Product Management Chose Me

This article is about the author's journey into product management. After graduating college during the 2008 recession, the author took the first office job they could land and was initially doing technical help desk and quality assurance. After 6 months, they started to give feedback to the engineers and were eventually promoted to a product manager. They then moved to a larger growth-stage startup, but found that the company didn't understand the role of a product manager. The author eventually joined Capital One, where they were surrounded by other product managers and had access to internal learning resources. The author concludes that many people fall into product management in one way or another.

How to Help Employees Find Their Strengths and Passions

Many people don't know their passions and strengths, and often underestimate the value of their strengths. It is essential to identify and leverage unique strengths to be motivated and successful in a role. Through self-reflection and tools such as the 16 personality test and the CliftonStrengths assessment, individuals can discover their passions and strengths and make an impact. Leaders should create an environment where people can explore and build on their strengths, and be mindful that working on something you're passionate about always delivers better results. If you fail, it can mean several things: either you're in the wrong place, doing the wrong thing, or you have a gap in knowledge or skill that you need to address.

How Product Marketing Can (and Should) Help Product Development

Product teams often overlook user adoption when releasing new features, leading to missed opportunities. Product marketing is a critical strategy for ensuring user adoption, and should be included in the product development process from the beginning. Companies should focus on staying goal-oriented and maximizing user adoption when rolling out features.

Managing Through a Team Reorganization

This article is about the author's experience leading a team through a reorganization. It outlines the importance of being authentic and transparent with the team, building a trusted group of advisors, staying focused on priorities, and having a perspective that change is the only constant. It emphasizes the need for empathy and determination to successfully lead through a reorg.

Dealing with Uncertainties and Adapting as You Go

Organizations are facing a high level of uncertainty due to the changes in the work environment since 2020. Teams need to find the right balance between short- and long-term plans and incorporate flexibility. Managers should have discussions with their teams about the organization’s mission and stakeholders. Teams should have weekly achievements instead of monthly targets and frequent and purposeful communication. To build long-lasting teams, team-building activities should be encouraged and mission-driven, autonomous teams should be fostered.

Having Work-Life Balance: More Than Just A Suggestion

This article discusses the importance of maintaining a healthy work-life balance for ambitious workaholics. It emphasizes the need to take breaks and focus on personal life and hobbies, and suggests breaking career goals into segments to create a more balanced work week. It also highlights the importance of shutting off from work during weekends and the importance of cultivating social connections. In the end, it stresses that actively balancing out your life is valuable.

Deciding if Management Is Right for You

After taking a year to reflect on the decision to move into a management role, the author decided to start small and test their skills in guiding others. They mentored a few engineers and then took on an initiative to unify the architecture of their organization. This was a successful endeavor and gave the author the confidence to decide that they could be a good manager. The author emphasizes the importance of being a good leader in engineering, such as being humble, creating an environment where everyone can thrive, and making the team feel like they can rely on you.

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?

The text discusses the challenges and steps to take when transitioning into an engineering management role. It emphasizes the importance of accepting that you are starting anew and need to learn how to lead and manage people. It suggests assessing your abilities, learning through various methods, starting with general material on leadership and management, delving into deeper topics, and building relationships with peers. The key to success in this new role lies in learning quickly, adapting, communicating, and collaborating with other leaders.

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.

Building Up Your Technical Skills in a Fast-Paced Industry

With the constant influx of new technologies in software development, it can be difficult to decide which ones to learn and stay current with. This article outlines five tips for upskilling your technical knowledge, such as evaluating the 'why' before deciding what to learn, upskilling on the fundamentals first, accepting that you can't know everything, delegating tasks, and not neglecting your soft skills. It also emphasizes the importance of having a focus, working on communication skills, and reading outside of the IT area.

How to Navigate Your Manager Role at a New Company

As a new Engineering Manager at Marks & Spencer, the challenge of building trust is compounded by the need to set up a new structure and reshape the architecture to support growth. To build trust, it is important to understand the customer problems, technical strategy, and how the tech teams are aligned to the strategy. Communication and feedback from cross-functional teams is also important. Building trust with reports is necessary to do the job, and requires creating a psychologically safe environment, active listening, and providing sponsorship opportunities. Lastly, staying motivated is key to success in this role.

Team Development Framework for new managers

When transitioning from an Individual Contributor to a Manager, it can feel overwhelming. This post focuses on the mindset shift needed to better utilize the advice available for new Managers. The key difference between the two roles is the core action (Developing code vs. Developing team) and how it is done (high quality vs. high engagement). Managers must have a core set of skills such as building trust, active listening, decision-making, and emotional intelligence. Despite having the development framework and required skills, being a Manager is still hard due to the high cost of being wrong, solutions not always being logical, and non-determinism.

Bootstrapping a Startup While Working Full-Time

This is the story of how the author started their own company, Surfer, while still working full-time. They started small, building a rough prototype and not worrying about monetization. When they decided to find an investor, they ended up bootstrapping instead, cutting their salaries to zero and being mindful of their spending. The author's tips for starting a profitable company include starting slowly, charging customers as soon as possible, and incentivizing customers to pay for annual subscriptions.

Effective Hiring Practices: Asking the Right Questions

Finding the right talent for a job requires asking the right questions and conducting interviews in a way that makes candidates feel comfortable. It is important to look for a technical fit, but also a match in values and learning potential. To gain insight during interviews, it is recommended to take several unorthodox approaches, such as identifying and double-downing on risky matters, prompting candidates with open-ended topics, focusing on fewer topics in detail, asking how they would hire for the role, and encouraging them to come up with a question. Additionally, feedback should be asked for in order to improve the interview process.

How Product Management Chose Me

This article is about the author's journey into product management. After graduating college during the 2008 recession, the author took the first office job they could land and was initially doing technical help desk and quality assurance. After 6 months, they started to give feedback to the engineers and were eventually promoted to a product manager. They then moved to a larger growth-stage startup, but found that the company didn't understand the role of a product manager. The author eventually joined Capital One, where they were surrounded by other product managers and had access to internal learning resources. The author concludes that many people fall into product management in one way or another.

How to Help Employees Find Their Strengths and Passions

Many people don't know their passions and strengths, and often underestimate the value of their strengths. It is essential to identify and leverage unique strengths to be motivated and successful in a role. Through self-reflection and tools such as the 16 personality test and the CliftonStrengths assessment, individuals can discover their passions and strengths and make an impact. Leaders should create an environment where people can explore and build on their strengths, and be mindful that working on something you're passionate about always delivers better results. If you fail, it can mean several things: either you're in the wrong place, doing the wrong thing, or you have a gap in knowledge or skill that you need to address.

How Product Marketing Can (and Should) Help Product Development

Product teams often overlook user adoption when releasing new features, leading to missed opportunities. Product marketing is a critical strategy for ensuring user adoption, and should be included in the product development process from the beginning. Companies should focus on staying goal-oriented and maximizing user adoption when rolling out features.

Managing Through a Team Reorganization

This article is about the author's experience leading a team through a reorganization. It outlines the importance of being authentic and transparent with the team, building a trusted group of advisors, staying focused on priorities, and having a perspective that change is the only constant. It emphasizes the need for empathy and determination to successfully lead through a reorg.

Dealing with Uncertainties and Adapting as You Go

Organizations are facing a high level of uncertainty due to the changes in the work environment since 2020. Teams need to find the right balance between short- and long-term plans and incorporate flexibility. Managers should have discussions with their teams about the organization’s mission and stakeholders. Teams should have weekly achievements instead of monthly targets and frequent and purposeful communication. To build long-lasting teams, team-building activities should be encouraged and mission-driven, autonomous teams should be fostered.

Having Work-Life Balance: More Than Just A Suggestion

This article discusses the importance of maintaining a healthy work-life balance for ambitious workaholics. It emphasizes the need to take breaks and focus on personal life and hobbies, and suggests breaking career goals into segments to create a more balanced work week. It also highlights the importance of shutting off from work during weekends and the importance of cultivating social connections. In the end, it stresses that actively balancing out your life is valuable.

Deciding if Management Is Right for You

After taking a year to reflect on the decision to move into a management role, the author decided to start small and test their skills in guiding others. They mentored a few engineers and then took on an initiative to unify the architecture of their organization. This was a successful endeavor and gave the author the confidence to decide that they could be a good manager. The author emphasizes the importance of being a good leader in engineering, such as being humble, creating an environment where everyone can thrive, and making the team feel like they can rely on you.

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?

The text discusses the challenges and steps to take when transitioning into an engineering management role. It emphasizes the importance of accepting that you are starting anew and need to learn how to lead and manage people. It suggests assessing your abilities, learning through various methods, starting with general material on leadership and management, delving into deeper topics, and building relationships with peers. The key to success in this new role lies in learning quickly, adapting, communicating, and collaborating with other leaders.

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.

Building Up Your Technical Skills in a Fast-Paced Industry

With the constant influx of new technologies in software development, it can be difficult to decide which ones to learn and stay current with. This article outlines five tips for upskilling your technical knowledge, such as evaluating the 'why' before deciding what to learn, upskilling on the fundamentals first, accepting that you can't know everything, delegating tasks, and not neglecting your soft skills. It also emphasizes the importance of having a focus, working on communication skills, and reading outside of the IT area.

How to Navigate Your Manager Role at a New Company

As a new Engineering Manager at Marks & Spencer, the challenge of building trust is compounded by the need to set up a new structure and reshape the architecture to support growth. To build trust, it is important to understand the customer problems, technical strategy, and how the tech teams are aligned to the strategy. Communication and feedback from cross-functional teams is also important. Building trust with reports is necessary to do the job, and requires creating a psychologically safe environment, active listening, and providing sponsorship opportunities. Lastly, staying motivated is key to success in this role.

Team Development Framework for new managers

When transitioning from an Individual Contributor to a Manager, it can feel overwhelming. This post focuses on the mindset shift needed to better utilize the advice available for new Managers. The key difference between the two roles is the core action (Developing code vs. Developing team) and how it is done (high quality vs. high engagement). Managers must have a core set of skills such as building trust, active listening, decision-making, and emotional intelligence. Despite having the development framework and required skills, being a Manager is still hard due to the high cost of being wrong, solutions not always being logical, and non-determinism.

Bootstrapping a Startup While Working Full-Time

This is the story of how the author started their own company, Surfer, while still working full-time. They started small, building a rough prototype and not worrying about monetization. When they decided to find an investor, they ended up bootstrapping instead, cutting their salaries to zero and being mindful of their spending. The author's tips for starting a profitable company include starting slowly, charging customers as soon as possible, and incentivizing customers to pay for annual subscriptions.

Effective Hiring Practices: Asking the Right Questions

Finding the right talent for a job requires asking the right questions and conducting interviews in a way that makes candidates feel comfortable. It is important to look for a technical fit, but also a match in values and learning potential. To gain insight during interviews, it is recommended to take several unorthodox approaches, such as identifying and double-downing on risky matters, prompting candidates with open-ended topics, focusing on fewer topics in detail, asking how they would hire for the role, and encouraging them to come up with a question. Additionally, feedback should be asked for in order to improve the interview process.

How Product Management Chose Me

This article is about the author's journey into product management. After graduating college during the 2008 recession, the author took the first office job they could land and was initially doing technical help desk and quality assurance. After 6 months, they started to give feedback to the engineers and were eventually promoted to a product manager. They then moved to a larger growth-stage startup, but found that the company didn't understand the role of a product manager. The author eventually joined Capital One, where they were surrounded by other product managers and had access to internal learning resources. The author concludes that many people fall into product management in one way or another.

How to Help Employees Find Their Strengths and Passions

Many people don't know their passions and strengths, and often underestimate the value of their strengths. It is essential to identify and leverage unique strengths to be motivated and successful in a role. Through self-reflection and tools such as the 16 personality test and the CliftonStrengths assessment, individuals can discover their passions and strengths and make an impact. Leaders should create an environment where people can explore and build on their strengths, and be mindful that working on something you're passionate about always delivers better results. If you fail, it can mean several things: either you're in the wrong place, doing the wrong thing, or you have a gap in knowledge or skill that you need to address.

How Product Marketing Can (and Should) Help Product Development

Product teams often overlook user adoption when releasing new features, leading to missed opportunities. Product marketing is a critical strategy for ensuring user adoption, and should be included in the product development process from the beginning. Companies should focus on staying goal-oriented and maximizing user adoption when rolling out features.

Managing Through a Team Reorganization

This article is about the author's experience leading a team through a reorganization. It outlines the importance of being authentic and transparent with the team, building a trusted group of advisors, staying focused on priorities, and having a perspective that change is the only constant. It emphasizes the need for empathy and determination to successfully lead through a reorg.

Dealing with Uncertainties and Adapting as You Go

Organizations are facing a high level of uncertainty due to the changes in the work environment since 2020. Teams need to find the right balance between short- and long-term plans and incorporate flexibility. Managers should have discussions with their teams about the organization’s mission and stakeholders. Teams should have weekly achievements instead of monthly targets and frequent and purposeful communication. To build long-lasting teams, team-building activities should be encouraged and mission-driven, autonomous teams should be fostered.

Having Work-Life Balance: More Than Just A Suggestion

This article discusses the importance of maintaining a healthy work-life balance for ambitious workaholics. It emphasizes the need to take breaks and focus on personal life and hobbies, and suggests breaking career goals into segments to create a more balanced work week. It also highlights the importance of shutting off from work during weekends and the importance of cultivating social connections. In the end, it stresses that actively balancing out your life is valuable.

Deciding if Management Is Right for You

After taking a year to reflect on the decision to move into a management role, the author decided to start small and test their skills in guiding others. They mentored a few engineers and then took on an initiative to unify the architecture of their organization. This was a successful endeavor and gave the author the confidence to decide that they could be a good manager. The author emphasizes the importance of being a good leader in engineering, such as being humble, creating an environment where everyone can thrive, and making the team feel like they can rely on you.

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?

The text discusses the challenges and steps to take when transitioning into an engineering management role. It emphasizes the importance of accepting that you are starting anew and need to learn how to lead and manage people. It suggests assessing your abilities, learning through various methods, starting with general material on leadership and management, delving into deeper topics, and building relationships with peers. The key to success in this new role lies in learning quickly, adapting, communicating, and collaborating with other leaders.

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.

Building Up Your Technical Skills in a Fast-Paced Industry

With the constant influx of new technologies in software development, it can be difficult to decide which ones to learn and stay current with. This article outlines five tips for upskilling your technical knowledge, such as evaluating the 'why' before deciding what to learn, upskilling on the fundamentals first, accepting that you can't know everything, delegating tasks, and not neglecting your soft skills. It also emphasizes the importance of having a focus, working on communication skills, and reading outside of the IT area.

How to Navigate Your Manager Role at a New Company

As a new Engineering Manager at Marks & Spencer, the challenge of building trust is compounded by the need to set up a new structure and reshape the architecture to support growth. To build trust, it is important to understand the customer problems, technical strategy, and how the tech teams are aligned to the strategy. Communication and feedback from cross-functional teams is also important. Building trust with reports is necessary to do the job, and requires creating a psychologically safe environment, active listening, and providing sponsorship opportunities. Lastly, staying motivated is key to success in this role.

Team Development Framework for new managers

When transitioning from an Individual Contributor to a Manager, it can feel overwhelming. This post focuses on the mindset shift needed to better utilize the advice available for new Managers. The key difference between the two roles is the core action (Developing code vs. Developing team) and how it is done (high quality vs. high engagement). Managers must have a core set of skills such as building trust, active listening, decision-making, and emotional intelligence. Despite having the development framework and required skills, being a Manager is still hard due to the high cost of being wrong, solutions not always being logical, and non-determinism.

Bootstrapping a Startup While Working Full-Time

This is the story of how the author started their own company, Surfer, while still working full-time. They started small, building a rough prototype and not worrying about monetization. When they decided to find an investor, they ended up bootstrapping instead, cutting their salaries to zero and being mindful of their spending. The author's tips for starting a profitable company include starting slowly, charging customers as soon as possible, and incentivizing customers to pay for annual subscriptions.

Effective Hiring Practices: Asking the Right Questions

Finding the right talent for a job requires asking the right questions and conducting interviews in a way that makes candidates feel comfortable. It is important to look for a technical fit, but also a match in values and learning potential. To gain insight during interviews, it is recommended to take several unorthodox approaches, such as identifying and double-downing on risky matters, prompting candidates with open-ended topics, focusing on fewer topics in detail, asking how they would hire for the role, and encouraging them to come up with a question. Additionally, feedback should be asked for in order to improve the interview process.

How Product Management Chose Me

This article is about the author's journey into product management. After graduating college during the 2008 recession, the author took the first office job they could land and was initially doing technical help desk and quality assurance. After 6 months, they started to give feedback to the engineers and were eventually promoted to a product manager. They then moved to a larger growth-stage startup, but found that the company didn't understand the role of a product manager. The author eventually joined Capital One, where they were surrounded by other product managers and had access to internal learning resources. The author concludes that many people fall into product management in one way or another.

How to Help Employees Find Their Strengths and Passions

Many people don't know their passions and strengths, and often underestimate the value of their strengths. It is essential to identify and leverage unique strengths to be motivated and successful in a role. Through self-reflection and tools such as the 16 personality test and the CliftonStrengths assessment, individuals can discover their passions and strengths and make an impact. Leaders should create an environment where people can explore and build on their strengths, and be mindful that working on something you're passionate about always delivers better results. If you fail, it can mean several things: either you're in the wrong place, doing the wrong thing, or you have a gap in knowledge or skill that you need to address.

How Product Marketing Can (and Should) Help Product Development

Product teams often overlook user adoption when releasing new features, leading to missed opportunities. Product marketing is a critical strategy for ensuring user adoption, and should be included in the product development process from the beginning. Companies should focus on staying goal-oriented and maximizing user adoption when rolling out features.

Managing Through a Team Reorganization

This article is about the author's experience leading a team through a reorganization. It outlines the importance of being authentic and transparent with the team, building a trusted group of advisors, staying focused on priorities, and having a perspective that change is the only constant. It emphasizes the need for empathy and determination to successfully lead through a reorg.

Dealing with Uncertainties and Adapting as You Go

Organizations are facing a high level of uncertainty due to the changes in the work environment since 2020. Teams need to find the right balance between short- and long-term plans and incorporate flexibility. Managers should have discussions with their teams about the organization’s mission and stakeholders. Teams should have weekly achievements instead of monthly targets and frequent and purposeful communication. To build long-lasting teams, team-building activities should be encouraged and mission-driven, autonomous teams should be fostered.

Having Work-Life Balance: More Than Just A Suggestion

This article discusses the importance of maintaining a healthy work-life balance for ambitious workaholics. It emphasizes the need to take breaks and focus on personal life and hobbies, and suggests breaking career goals into segments to create a more balanced work week. It also highlights the importance of shutting off from work during weekends and the importance of cultivating social connections. In the end, it stresses that actively balancing out your life is valuable.

Deciding if Management Is Right for You

After taking a year to reflect on the decision to move into a management role, the author decided to start small and test their skills in guiding others. They mentored a few engineers and then took on an initiative to unify the architecture of their organization. This was a successful endeavor and gave the author the confidence to decide that they could be a good manager. The author emphasizes the importance of being a good leader in engineering, such as being humble, creating an environment where everyone can thrive, and making the team feel like they can rely on you.

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?

The text discusses the challenges and steps to take when transitioning into an engineering management role. It emphasizes the importance of accepting that you are starting anew and need to learn how to lead and manage people. It suggests assessing your abilities, learning through various methods, starting with general material on leadership and management, delving into deeper topics, and building relationships with peers. The key to success in this new role lies in learning quickly, adapting, communicating, and collaborating with other leaders.

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.

Building Up Your Technical Skills in a Fast-Paced Industry

With the constant influx of new technologies in software development, it can be difficult to decide which ones to learn and stay current with. This article outlines five tips for upskilling your technical knowledge, such as evaluating the 'why' before deciding what to learn, upskilling on the fundamentals first, accepting that you can't know everything, delegating tasks, and not neglecting your soft skills. It also emphasizes the importance of having a focus, working on communication skills, and reading outside of the IT area.

How to Navigate Your Manager Role at a New Company

As a new Engineering Manager at Marks & Spencer, the challenge of building trust is compounded by the need to set up a new structure and reshape the architecture to support growth. To build trust, it is important to understand the customer problems, technical strategy, and how the tech teams are aligned to the strategy. Communication and feedback from cross-functional teams is also important. Building trust with reports is necessary to do the job, and requires creating a psychologically safe environment, active listening, and providing sponsorship opportunities. Lastly, staying motivated is key to success in this role.

Team Development Framework for new managers

When transitioning from an Individual Contributor to a Manager, it can feel overwhelming. This post focuses on the mindset shift needed to better utilize the advice available for new Managers. The key difference between the two roles is the core action (Developing code vs. Developing team) and how it is done (high quality vs. high engagement). Managers must have a core set of skills such as building trust, active listening, decision-making, and emotional intelligence. Despite having the development framework and required skills, being a Manager is still hard due to the high cost of being wrong, solutions not always being logical, and non-determinism.

Bootstrapping a Startup While Working Full-Time

This is the story of how the author started their own company, Surfer, while still working full-time. They started small, building a rough prototype and not worrying about monetization. When they decided to find an investor, they ended up bootstrapping instead, cutting their salaries to zero and being mindful of their spending. The author's tips for starting a profitable company include starting slowly, charging customers as soon as possible, and incentivizing customers to pay for annual subscriptions.

Effective Hiring Practices: Asking the Right Questions

Finding the right talent for a job requires asking the right questions and conducting interviews in a way that makes candidates feel comfortable. It is important to look for a technical fit, but also a match in values and learning potential. To gain insight during interviews, it is recommended to take several unorthodox approaches, such as identifying and double-downing on risky matters, prompting candidates with open-ended topics, focusing on fewer topics in detail, asking how they would hire for the role, and encouraging them to come up with a question. Additionally, feedback should be asked for in order to improve the interview process.

How Product Management Chose Me

This article is about the author's journey into product management. After graduating college during the 2008 recession, the author took the first office job they could land and was initially doing technical help desk and quality assurance. After 6 months, they started to give feedback to the engineers and were eventually promoted to a product manager. They then moved to a larger growth-stage startup, but found that the company didn't understand the role of a product manager. The author eventually joined Capital One, where they were surrounded by other product managers and had access to internal learning resources. The author concludes that many people fall into product management in one way or another.

How to Help Employees Find Their Strengths and Passions

Many people don't know their passions and strengths, and often underestimate the value of their strengths. It is essential to identify and leverage unique strengths to be motivated and successful in a role. Through self-reflection and tools such as the 16 personality test and the CliftonStrengths assessment, individuals can discover their passions and strengths and make an impact. Leaders should create an environment where people can explore and build on their strengths, and be mindful that working on something you're passionate about always delivers better results. If you fail, it can mean several things: either you're in the wrong place, doing the wrong thing, or you have a gap in knowledge or skill that you need to address.

How Product Marketing Can (and Should) Help Product Development

Product teams often overlook user adoption when releasing new features, leading to missed opportunities. Product marketing is a critical strategy for ensuring user adoption, and should be included in the product development process from the beginning. Companies should focus on staying goal-oriented and maximizing user adoption when rolling out features.

Managing Through a Team Reorganization

This article is about the author's experience leading a team through a reorganization. It outlines the importance of being authentic and transparent with the team, building a trusted group of advisors, staying focused on priorities, and having a perspective that change is the only constant. It emphasizes the need for empathy and determination to successfully lead through a reorg.

Dealing with Uncertainties and Adapting as You Go

Organizations are facing a high level of uncertainty due to the changes in the work environment since 2020. Teams need to find the right balance between short- and long-term plans and incorporate flexibility. Managers should have discussions with their teams about the organization’s mission and stakeholders. Teams should have weekly achievements instead of monthly targets and frequent and purposeful communication. To build long-lasting teams, team-building activities should be encouraged and mission-driven, autonomous teams should be fostered.

Having Work-Life Balance: More Than Just A Suggestion

This article discusses the importance of maintaining a healthy work-life balance for ambitious workaholics. It emphasizes the need to take breaks and focus on personal life and hobbies, and suggests breaking career goals into segments to create a more balanced work week. It also highlights the importance of shutting off from work during weekends and the importance of cultivating social connections. In the end, it stresses that actively balancing out your life is valuable.

Deciding if Management Is Right for You

After taking a year to reflect on the decision to move into a management role, the author decided to start small and test their skills in guiding others. They mentored a few engineers and then took on an initiative to unify the architecture of their organization. This was a successful endeavor and gave the author the confidence to decide that they could be a good manager. The author emphasizes the importance of being a good leader in engineering, such as being humble, creating an environment where everyone can thrive, and making the team feel like they can rely on you.

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?

The text discusses the challenges and steps to take when transitioning into an engineering management role. It emphasizes the importance of accepting that you are starting anew and need to learn how to lead and manage people. It suggests assessing your abilities, learning through various methods, starting with general material on leadership and management, delving into deeper topics, and building relationships with peers. The key to success in this new role lies in learning quickly, adapting, communicating, and collaborating with other leaders.

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.

Building Up Your Technical Skills in a Fast-Paced Industry

With the constant influx of new technologies in software development, it can be difficult to decide which ones to learn and stay current with. This article outlines five tips for upskilling your technical knowledge, such as evaluating the 'why' before deciding what to learn, upskilling on the fundamentals first, accepting that you can't know everything, delegating tasks, and not neglecting your soft skills. It also emphasizes the importance of having a focus, working on communication skills, and reading outside of the IT area.

How to Navigate Your Manager Role at a New Company

As a new Engineering Manager at Marks & Spencer, the challenge of building trust is compounded by the need to set up a new structure and reshape the architecture to support growth. To build trust, it is important to understand the customer problems, technical strategy, and how the tech teams are aligned to the strategy. Communication and feedback from cross-functional teams is also important. Building trust with reports is necessary to do the job, and requires creating a psychologically safe environment, active listening, and providing sponsorship opportunities. Lastly, staying motivated is key to success in this role.

Team Development Framework for new managers

When transitioning from an Individual Contributor to a Manager, it can feel overwhelming. This post focuses on the mindset shift needed to better utilize the advice available for new Managers. The key difference between the two roles is the core action (Developing code vs. Developing team) and how it is done (high quality vs. high engagement). Managers must have a core set of skills such as building trust, active listening, decision-making, and emotional intelligence. Despite having the development framework and required skills, being a Manager is still hard due to the high cost of being wrong, solutions not always being logical, and non-determinism.

Bootstrapping a Startup While Working Full-Time

This is the story of how the author started their own company, Surfer, while still working full-time. They started small, building a rough prototype and not worrying about monetization. When they decided to find an investor, they ended up bootstrapping instead, cutting their salaries to zero and being mindful of their spending. The author's tips for starting a profitable company include starting slowly, charging customers as soon as possible, and incentivizing customers to pay for annual subscriptions.

Effective Hiring Practices: Asking the Right Questions

Finding the right talent for a job requires asking the right questions and conducting interviews in a way that makes candidates feel comfortable. It is important to look for a technical fit, but also a match in values and learning potential. To gain insight during interviews, it is recommended to take several unorthodox approaches, such as identifying and double-downing on risky matters, prompting candidates with open-ended topics, focusing on fewer topics in detail, asking how they would hire for the role, and encouraging them to come up with a question. Additionally, feedback should be asked for in order to improve the interview process.

How Product Management Chose Me

This article is about the author's journey into product management. After graduating college during the 2008 recession, the author took the first office job they could land and was initially doing technical help desk and quality assurance. After 6 months, they started to give feedback to the engineers and were eventually promoted to a product manager. They then moved to a larger growth-stage startup, but found that the company didn't understand the role of a product manager. The author eventually joined Capital One, where they were surrounded by other product managers and had access to internal learning resources. The author concludes that many people fall into product management in one way or another.

How to Help Employees Find Their Strengths and Passions

Many people don't know their passions and strengths, and often underestimate the value of their strengths. It is essential to identify and leverage unique strengths to be motivated and successful in a role. Through self-reflection and tools such as the 16 personality test and the CliftonStrengths assessment, individuals can discover their passions and strengths and make an impact. Leaders should create an environment where people can explore and build on their strengths, and be mindful that working on something you're passionate about always delivers better results. If you fail, it can mean several things: either you're in the wrong place, doing the wrong thing, or you have a gap in knowledge or skill that you need to address.

How Product Marketing Can (and Should) Help Product Development

Product teams often overlook user adoption when releasing new features, leading to missed opportunities. Product marketing is a critical strategy for ensuring user adoption, and should be included in the product development process from the beginning. Companies should focus on staying goal-oriented and maximizing user adoption when rolling out features.

Managing Through a Team Reorganization

This article is about the author's experience leading a team through a reorganization. It outlines the importance of being authentic and transparent with the team, building a trusted group of advisors, staying focused on priorities, and having a perspective that change is the only constant. It emphasizes the need for empathy and determination to successfully lead through a reorg.

Dealing with Uncertainties and Adapting as You Go

Organizations are facing a high level of uncertainty due to the changes in the work environment since 2020. Teams need to find the right balance between short- and long-term plans and incorporate flexibility. Managers should have discussions with their teams about the organization’s mission and stakeholders. Teams should have weekly achievements instead of monthly targets and frequent and purposeful communication. To build long-lasting teams, team-building activities should be encouraged and mission-driven, autonomous teams should be fostered.

Having Work-Life Balance: More Than Just A Suggestion

This article discusses the importance of maintaining a healthy work-life balance for ambitious workaholics. It emphasizes the need to take breaks and focus on personal life and hobbies, and suggests breaking career goals into segments to create a more balanced work week. It also highlights the importance of shutting off from work during weekends and the importance of cultivating social connections. In the end, it stresses that actively balancing out your life is valuable.

Deciding if Management Is Right for You

After taking a year to reflect on the decision to move into a management role, the author decided to start small and test their skills in guiding others. They mentored a few engineers and then took on an initiative to unify the architecture of their organization. This was a successful endeavor and gave the author the confidence to decide that they could be a good manager. The author emphasizes the importance of being a good leader in engineering, such as being humble, creating an environment where everyone can thrive, and making the team feel like they can rely on you.