Knowledge shared by our community

Helping Your Boss Reconsider Lowering Technical Standards When Hiring

When hiring someone for a project, it is important to be in alignment with your boss about the success levels you expect. It is better to not lose the client in pursuit of an exemplary candidate, and to lower the technical standards if there are no client complaints. Creating a defined process and bringing factual elements to the table during discussions with your superior will help make the hiring process easier and more successful.

Guiding Engineers to Create Valuable Software

This article discusses the need for managers to provide support and scaffolding for engineers to be successful in creating software that adds value to the company. It suggests that managers should be honest about the need to produce things of value, set milestones and goals, and demonstrate their own approach to work. It also emphasizes the importance of repetition in building skill and the need to deliver things through technology in order to get better at it.

Generating Good Feedback as a Manager

This article discusses how managers can create a stronger working relationship with their reports by changing the type of questions they ask from closed to open, and by creating a space of psychological safety and vulnerability by sharing their own frustrations and challenges. This exercise helps to build a deeper understanding of each person and can lead to productive conversations around feedback.

Improving Operational Readiness

After an unexpected departure of a key engineer, a team of 12 engineers with multiple products to support needed to become more operationally aware. To do this, they created a team improvement plan, studied how other teams handled the issue, adopted dashboards and metrics, asked for help from other teams, and created information radiators. Over time, they improved their process and were better prepared to help drive an engineering-wide initiative. Lessons learned included getting engineers to buy into the problem, being able to trace bugs to rare user errors, and learning more about the systems and their potential failure modes.

Experimenting with One Week Sprints

This article discusses the challenge of quickly growing a product team from 5 to 12 teammates within three months. To maintain good practices and efficiency, the team decided to move from three week Sprints to one week Sprints. This allowed them to speed up the learning process and workflow experience, better figure out issues, and take smaller actions to remove obstacles. After four months, the team changed to two week Sprints and learned that setting constraints can help the team and organization improve, and that the learning rhythm is a powerful lever when dealing with a lot of changes.

Dealing with an Unhappy Team Member

A team member was constantly criticizing the company, creating a negative environment. The manager tried to resolve the situation but it was not enough. With help from HR, the manager was able to get the team member to resign and leave the team feeling better. The manager learned that it is important to address negativity immediately, be specific when giving feedback, and phrase it as a challenge instead of a threat.

Recovering From the Abilene Paradox

A team made a collective decision that was counter to the thoughts and feelings of its individual members, a phenomenon known as the 'Abilene Paradox'. To remedy the situation, the manager conducted one-on-ones with each team member and had a meeting with the whole team to explain the findings. After rethinking the team's decision, the design was republished successfully. The manager learned the importance of creating an environment where team members feel safe to voice their differing views and of making sure the team is focused on the vision when making major decisions.

Hiring and Building a Data Science Team

When building a data science team, it is important to identify the bottleneck and hire the appropriate people. Consider hiring a generalist with coding skills and business skills, or a data engineer instead of a data scientist. Passion is more important than education/experience. Additionally, pairing a good engineer with a data engineer or analytics person can be beneficial. Lastly, be mindful of the broad term "data science" when hiring.

The ‘30-60-90 Day Plan’ for New Managers

This article outlines a strategy for onboarding a new engineering manager to an existing team. The strategy involves having the new manager create a 30-60-90 day plan that outlines what they will do in each of those time frames. This plan should include getting to know the team, understanding the architecture, and making small and large changes. This strategy helps to ensure that the new manager has done their research and is coming up with their own solutions to the problems. It also allows for feedback from the hiring manager. For more junior-level hires, more coaching and guidance may be necessary.

Helping Your Reports Grow in Their Careers

This article discusses a management philosophy that focuses on building upon people's strengths and helping them become the best version of themselves. It also emphasizes the importance of understanding what the individual wants and what the company needs in order to create the best path for them. The article also provides lessons learned, such as not having a template to follow for guiding someone on their career path and getting comfortable with the fact that neither the manager nor the direct report knows the definitive answer on the best way to develop and grow.

Creating an Environment for Learning and Growth

Engineering managers have a lot of pressure coming from different angles, but their main focus is their team's well-being. To create an environment where individuals on the team are learning, growing, and thriving, the engineering manager should implement methods such as Lunch-and-Learns, Group Code Reviews, and Pair Programming. These methods should be layered on top of one another, and should be low barrier and low entry. Additionally, the engineering manager should ask the team for feedback to ensure that the sessions are useful and valuable.

Learning to Say No Using Collected Data

This article discusses the experience of working with a CEO on a second startup that was not as successful as the first. The CEO was making bad decisions and piling on features, leading to a toll on the team and the business. Fortunately, the organization replaced the CEO with a new one who implemented changes that saved them. The team learned to collect data and say no to feature requests, and the lesson learned was that it is important to learn how to say no and defend the bandwidth of the team.

Prioritizing Urgent Tasks in Scrum

This article discusses how to manage a project with an external task that needs immediate attention. It suggests introducing a "Prod first" policy to prioritize urgent tasks, and to refine the backlog each day to prioritize new tasks. It also highlights the importance of leaving bandwidth for urgent tasks, but also the difficulty of committing to long-term goals when urgent tasks take precedence.

Understanding Your Role as a CTO When Scaling

Technology leaders need to relinquish control, hire and train smart people to make decisions, create boundaries with guiding principles, and embrace their role as a leader in order to move into a CTO role or continue to run the technology organization at a fast scaling company.

Establishing Habits to Combat Stress and Uncertainty

This article discusses how to become more productive in daily work by implementing a manager schedule/maker schedule philosophy, review meetings, and a 'Do/Try/Consider' model for giving feedback. Establishing rituals and habits can provide structure and a sense of calmness when external things are moving quickly and unexpectedly.

Recalibrating Peer Relationships When Transitioning to Management

Transitioning from IC to manager can be tricky, especially when managing a friend. To build trust and set the right expectations, it is important to plan out how the change will be communicated and to deliver value in the first 30 days. Additionally, it is important to be confident and clear with expectations, and to ask for feedback to grow as a new manager.

Formalizing Career Conversations

New Relic implemented a process to increase the time managers spent engaging with engineers on career plans. This included having engineers write a one-page description of their 5-10 year career timeline and having the engineering leadership team review the career plans of engineers across all functions. This improved survey scores and created visibility for new career opportunities.

Building Career Ladders with the Help of a Diverse Team

New Relic needed to create a formal career ladder to align with their pay levels. To do this, they sent out an email to the entire organization asking for names of people to be part of a 20-person working group. This group then held an off-site session to brainstorm and develop criteria and behaviors for each level. The career ladder was then sent out to a wider group for feedback, and finally published. The process was successful, and the lessons learned were that it was important to have a diverse group of people work on the ladder, and to have the group also be responsible for training the managers.

Pay Equity Improves Your Company’s Performance

This company implemented a pay equity policy to address discrepancies in salary setting due to unconscious bias. After a year of implementation, all engineers and managers at the same level were paid identically. The policy was well-received internally and externally, and helped to attract more people to the company due to its commitment to equity and inclusion.

Managing a Problematic Peer Relationship

This article discusses the problem of working with peers who are not aligned on direction, combative or aggressive. It outlines the actions taken to address this problem, such as getting alignment on decision-making frameworks, understanding the root assumptions and emotions that led to disagreements, discouraging triangulation, and adopting non-violent communication. It also outlines the lessons learned, such as understanding the root causes of disagreements, prioritizing alignment to get needs met, and managing up to drive alignment and get the team executing.

Helping Your Boss Reconsider Lowering Technical Standards When Hiring

When hiring someone for a project, it is important to be in alignment with your boss about the success levels you expect. It is better to not lose the client in pursuit of an exemplary candidate, and to lower the technical standards if there are no client complaints. Creating a defined process and bringing factual elements to the table during discussions with your superior will help make the hiring process easier and more successful.

Guiding Engineers to Create Valuable Software

This article discusses the need for managers to provide support and scaffolding for engineers to be successful in creating software that adds value to the company. It suggests that managers should be honest about the need to produce things of value, set milestones and goals, and demonstrate their own approach to work. It also emphasizes the importance of repetition in building skill and the need to deliver things through technology in order to get better at it.

Generating Good Feedback as a Manager

This article discusses how managers can create a stronger working relationship with their reports by changing the type of questions they ask from closed to open, and by creating a space of psychological safety and vulnerability by sharing their own frustrations and challenges. This exercise helps to build a deeper understanding of each person and can lead to productive conversations around feedback.

Improving Operational Readiness

After an unexpected departure of a key engineer, a team of 12 engineers with multiple products to support needed to become more operationally aware. To do this, they created a team improvement plan, studied how other teams handled the issue, adopted dashboards and metrics, asked for help from other teams, and created information radiators. Over time, they improved their process and were better prepared to help drive an engineering-wide initiative. Lessons learned included getting engineers to buy into the problem, being able to trace bugs to rare user errors, and learning more about the systems and their potential failure modes.

Experimenting with One Week Sprints

This article discusses the challenge of quickly growing a product team from 5 to 12 teammates within three months. To maintain good practices and efficiency, the team decided to move from three week Sprints to one week Sprints. This allowed them to speed up the learning process and workflow experience, better figure out issues, and take smaller actions to remove obstacles. After four months, the team changed to two week Sprints and learned that setting constraints can help the team and organization improve, and that the learning rhythm is a powerful lever when dealing with a lot of changes.

Dealing with an Unhappy Team Member

A team member was constantly criticizing the company, creating a negative environment. The manager tried to resolve the situation but it was not enough. With help from HR, the manager was able to get the team member to resign and leave the team feeling better. The manager learned that it is important to address negativity immediately, be specific when giving feedback, and phrase it as a challenge instead of a threat.

Recovering From the Abilene Paradox

A team made a collective decision that was counter to the thoughts and feelings of its individual members, a phenomenon known as the 'Abilene Paradox'. To remedy the situation, the manager conducted one-on-ones with each team member and had a meeting with the whole team to explain the findings. After rethinking the team's decision, the design was republished successfully. The manager learned the importance of creating an environment where team members feel safe to voice their differing views and of making sure the team is focused on the vision when making major decisions.

Hiring and Building a Data Science Team

When building a data science team, it is important to identify the bottleneck and hire the appropriate people. Consider hiring a generalist with coding skills and business skills, or a data engineer instead of a data scientist. Passion is more important than education/experience. Additionally, pairing a good engineer with a data engineer or analytics person can be beneficial. Lastly, be mindful of the broad term "data science" when hiring.

The ‘30-60-90 Day Plan’ for New Managers

This article outlines a strategy for onboarding a new engineering manager to an existing team. The strategy involves having the new manager create a 30-60-90 day plan that outlines what they will do in each of those time frames. This plan should include getting to know the team, understanding the architecture, and making small and large changes. This strategy helps to ensure that the new manager has done their research and is coming up with their own solutions to the problems. It also allows for feedback from the hiring manager. For more junior-level hires, more coaching and guidance may be necessary.

Helping Your Reports Grow in Their Careers

This article discusses a management philosophy that focuses on building upon people's strengths and helping them become the best version of themselves. It also emphasizes the importance of understanding what the individual wants and what the company needs in order to create the best path for them. The article also provides lessons learned, such as not having a template to follow for guiding someone on their career path and getting comfortable with the fact that neither the manager nor the direct report knows the definitive answer on the best way to develop and grow.

Creating an Environment for Learning and Growth

Engineering managers have a lot of pressure coming from different angles, but their main focus is their team's well-being. To create an environment where individuals on the team are learning, growing, and thriving, the engineering manager should implement methods such as Lunch-and-Learns, Group Code Reviews, and Pair Programming. These methods should be layered on top of one another, and should be low barrier and low entry. Additionally, the engineering manager should ask the team for feedback to ensure that the sessions are useful and valuable.

Learning to Say No Using Collected Data

This article discusses the experience of working with a CEO on a second startup that was not as successful as the first. The CEO was making bad decisions and piling on features, leading to a toll on the team and the business. Fortunately, the organization replaced the CEO with a new one who implemented changes that saved them. The team learned to collect data and say no to feature requests, and the lesson learned was that it is important to learn how to say no and defend the bandwidth of the team.

Prioritizing Urgent Tasks in Scrum

This article discusses how to manage a project with an external task that needs immediate attention. It suggests introducing a "Prod first" policy to prioritize urgent tasks, and to refine the backlog each day to prioritize new tasks. It also highlights the importance of leaving bandwidth for urgent tasks, but also the difficulty of committing to long-term goals when urgent tasks take precedence.

Understanding Your Role as a CTO When Scaling

Technology leaders need to relinquish control, hire and train smart people to make decisions, create boundaries with guiding principles, and embrace their role as a leader in order to move into a CTO role or continue to run the technology organization at a fast scaling company.

Establishing Habits to Combat Stress and Uncertainty

This article discusses how to become more productive in daily work by implementing a manager schedule/maker schedule philosophy, review meetings, and a 'Do/Try/Consider' model for giving feedback. Establishing rituals and habits can provide structure and a sense of calmness when external things are moving quickly and unexpectedly.

Recalibrating Peer Relationships When Transitioning to Management

Transitioning from IC to manager can be tricky, especially when managing a friend. To build trust and set the right expectations, it is important to plan out how the change will be communicated and to deliver value in the first 30 days. Additionally, it is important to be confident and clear with expectations, and to ask for feedback to grow as a new manager.

Formalizing Career Conversations

New Relic implemented a process to increase the time managers spent engaging with engineers on career plans. This included having engineers write a one-page description of their 5-10 year career timeline and having the engineering leadership team review the career plans of engineers across all functions. This improved survey scores and created visibility for new career opportunities.

Building Career Ladders with the Help of a Diverse Team

New Relic needed to create a formal career ladder to align with their pay levels. To do this, they sent out an email to the entire organization asking for names of people to be part of a 20-person working group. This group then held an off-site session to brainstorm and develop criteria and behaviors for each level. The career ladder was then sent out to a wider group for feedback, and finally published. The process was successful, and the lessons learned were that it was important to have a diverse group of people work on the ladder, and to have the group also be responsible for training the managers.

Pay Equity Improves Your Company’s Performance

This company implemented a pay equity policy to address discrepancies in salary setting due to unconscious bias. After a year of implementation, all engineers and managers at the same level were paid identically. The policy was well-received internally and externally, and helped to attract more people to the company due to its commitment to equity and inclusion.

Managing a Problematic Peer Relationship

This article discusses the problem of working with peers who are not aligned on direction, combative or aggressive. It outlines the actions taken to address this problem, such as getting alignment on decision-making frameworks, understanding the root assumptions and emotions that led to disagreements, discouraging triangulation, and adopting non-violent communication. It also outlines the lessons learned, such as understanding the root causes of disagreements, prioritizing alignment to get needs met, and managing up to drive alignment and get the team executing.

Helping Your Boss Reconsider Lowering Technical Standards When Hiring

When hiring someone for a project, it is important to be in alignment with your boss about the success levels you expect. It is better to not lose the client in pursuit of an exemplary candidate, and to lower the technical standards if there are no client complaints. Creating a defined process and bringing factual elements to the table during discussions with your superior will help make the hiring process easier and more successful.

Guiding Engineers to Create Valuable Software

This article discusses the need for managers to provide support and scaffolding for engineers to be successful in creating software that adds value to the company. It suggests that managers should be honest about the need to produce things of value, set milestones and goals, and demonstrate their own approach to work. It also emphasizes the importance of repetition in building skill and the need to deliver things through technology in order to get better at it.

Generating Good Feedback as a Manager

This article discusses how managers can create a stronger working relationship with their reports by changing the type of questions they ask from closed to open, and by creating a space of psychological safety and vulnerability by sharing their own frustrations and challenges. This exercise helps to build a deeper understanding of each person and can lead to productive conversations around feedback.

Improving Operational Readiness

After an unexpected departure of a key engineer, a team of 12 engineers with multiple products to support needed to become more operationally aware. To do this, they created a team improvement plan, studied how other teams handled the issue, adopted dashboards and metrics, asked for help from other teams, and created information radiators. Over time, they improved their process and were better prepared to help drive an engineering-wide initiative. Lessons learned included getting engineers to buy into the problem, being able to trace bugs to rare user errors, and learning more about the systems and their potential failure modes.

Experimenting with One Week Sprints

This article discusses the challenge of quickly growing a product team from 5 to 12 teammates within three months. To maintain good practices and efficiency, the team decided to move from three week Sprints to one week Sprints. This allowed them to speed up the learning process and workflow experience, better figure out issues, and take smaller actions to remove obstacles. After four months, the team changed to two week Sprints and learned that setting constraints can help the team and organization improve, and that the learning rhythm is a powerful lever when dealing with a lot of changes.

Dealing with an Unhappy Team Member

A team member was constantly criticizing the company, creating a negative environment. The manager tried to resolve the situation but it was not enough. With help from HR, the manager was able to get the team member to resign and leave the team feeling better. The manager learned that it is important to address negativity immediately, be specific when giving feedback, and phrase it as a challenge instead of a threat.

Recovering From the Abilene Paradox

A team made a collective decision that was counter to the thoughts and feelings of its individual members, a phenomenon known as the 'Abilene Paradox'. To remedy the situation, the manager conducted one-on-ones with each team member and had a meeting with the whole team to explain the findings. After rethinking the team's decision, the design was republished successfully. The manager learned the importance of creating an environment where team members feel safe to voice their differing views and of making sure the team is focused on the vision when making major decisions.

Hiring and Building a Data Science Team

When building a data science team, it is important to identify the bottleneck and hire the appropriate people. Consider hiring a generalist with coding skills and business skills, or a data engineer instead of a data scientist. Passion is more important than education/experience. Additionally, pairing a good engineer with a data engineer or analytics person can be beneficial. Lastly, be mindful of the broad term "data science" when hiring.

The ‘30-60-90 Day Plan’ for New Managers

This article outlines a strategy for onboarding a new engineering manager to an existing team. The strategy involves having the new manager create a 30-60-90 day plan that outlines what they will do in each of those time frames. This plan should include getting to know the team, understanding the architecture, and making small and large changes. This strategy helps to ensure that the new manager has done their research and is coming up with their own solutions to the problems. It also allows for feedback from the hiring manager. For more junior-level hires, more coaching and guidance may be necessary.

Helping Your Reports Grow in Their Careers

This article discusses a management philosophy that focuses on building upon people's strengths and helping them become the best version of themselves. It also emphasizes the importance of understanding what the individual wants and what the company needs in order to create the best path for them. The article also provides lessons learned, such as not having a template to follow for guiding someone on their career path and getting comfortable with the fact that neither the manager nor the direct report knows the definitive answer on the best way to develop and grow.

Creating an Environment for Learning and Growth

Engineering managers have a lot of pressure coming from different angles, but their main focus is their team's well-being. To create an environment where individuals on the team are learning, growing, and thriving, the engineering manager should implement methods such as Lunch-and-Learns, Group Code Reviews, and Pair Programming. These methods should be layered on top of one another, and should be low barrier and low entry. Additionally, the engineering manager should ask the team for feedback to ensure that the sessions are useful and valuable.

Learning to Say No Using Collected Data

This article discusses the experience of working with a CEO on a second startup that was not as successful as the first. The CEO was making bad decisions and piling on features, leading to a toll on the team and the business. Fortunately, the organization replaced the CEO with a new one who implemented changes that saved them. The team learned to collect data and say no to feature requests, and the lesson learned was that it is important to learn how to say no and defend the bandwidth of the team.

Prioritizing Urgent Tasks in Scrum

This article discusses how to manage a project with an external task that needs immediate attention. It suggests introducing a "Prod first" policy to prioritize urgent tasks, and to refine the backlog each day to prioritize new tasks. It also highlights the importance of leaving bandwidth for urgent tasks, but also the difficulty of committing to long-term goals when urgent tasks take precedence.

Understanding Your Role as a CTO When Scaling

Technology leaders need to relinquish control, hire and train smart people to make decisions, create boundaries with guiding principles, and embrace their role as a leader in order to move into a CTO role or continue to run the technology organization at a fast scaling company.

Establishing Habits to Combat Stress and Uncertainty

This article discusses how to become more productive in daily work by implementing a manager schedule/maker schedule philosophy, review meetings, and a 'Do/Try/Consider' model for giving feedback. Establishing rituals and habits can provide structure and a sense of calmness when external things are moving quickly and unexpectedly.

Recalibrating Peer Relationships When Transitioning to Management

Transitioning from IC to manager can be tricky, especially when managing a friend. To build trust and set the right expectations, it is important to plan out how the change will be communicated and to deliver value in the first 30 days. Additionally, it is important to be confident and clear with expectations, and to ask for feedback to grow as a new manager.

Formalizing Career Conversations

New Relic implemented a process to increase the time managers spent engaging with engineers on career plans. This included having engineers write a one-page description of their 5-10 year career timeline and having the engineering leadership team review the career plans of engineers across all functions. This improved survey scores and created visibility for new career opportunities.

Building Career Ladders with the Help of a Diverse Team

New Relic needed to create a formal career ladder to align with their pay levels. To do this, they sent out an email to the entire organization asking for names of people to be part of a 20-person working group. This group then held an off-site session to brainstorm and develop criteria and behaviors for each level. The career ladder was then sent out to a wider group for feedback, and finally published. The process was successful, and the lessons learned were that it was important to have a diverse group of people work on the ladder, and to have the group also be responsible for training the managers.

Pay Equity Improves Your Company’s Performance

This company implemented a pay equity policy to address discrepancies in salary setting due to unconscious bias. After a year of implementation, all engineers and managers at the same level were paid identically. The policy was well-received internally and externally, and helped to attract more people to the company due to its commitment to equity and inclusion.

Managing a Problematic Peer Relationship

This article discusses the problem of working with peers who are not aligned on direction, combative or aggressive. It outlines the actions taken to address this problem, such as getting alignment on decision-making frameworks, understanding the root assumptions and emotions that led to disagreements, discouraging triangulation, and adopting non-violent communication. It also outlines the lessons learned, such as understanding the root causes of disagreements, prioritizing alignment to get needs met, and managing up to drive alignment and get the team executing.

Helping Your Boss Reconsider Lowering Technical Standards When Hiring

When hiring someone for a project, it is important to be in alignment with your boss about the success levels you expect. It is better to not lose the client in pursuit of an exemplary candidate, and to lower the technical standards if there are no client complaints. Creating a defined process and bringing factual elements to the table during discussions with your superior will help make the hiring process easier and more successful.

Guiding Engineers to Create Valuable Software

This article discusses the need for managers to provide support and scaffolding for engineers to be successful in creating software that adds value to the company. It suggests that managers should be honest about the need to produce things of value, set milestones and goals, and demonstrate their own approach to work. It also emphasizes the importance of repetition in building skill and the need to deliver things through technology in order to get better at it.

Generating Good Feedback as a Manager

This article discusses how managers can create a stronger working relationship with their reports by changing the type of questions they ask from closed to open, and by creating a space of psychological safety and vulnerability by sharing their own frustrations and challenges. This exercise helps to build a deeper understanding of each person and can lead to productive conversations around feedback.

Improving Operational Readiness

After an unexpected departure of a key engineer, a team of 12 engineers with multiple products to support needed to become more operationally aware. To do this, they created a team improvement plan, studied how other teams handled the issue, adopted dashboards and metrics, asked for help from other teams, and created information radiators. Over time, they improved their process and were better prepared to help drive an engineering-wide initiative. Lessons learned included getting engineers to buy into the problem, being able to trace bugs to rare user errors, and learning more about the systems and their potential failure modes.

Experimenting with One Week Sprints

This article discusses the challenge of quickly growing a product team from 5 to 12 teammates within three months. To maintain good practices and efficiency, the team decided to move from three week Sprints to one week Sprints. This allowed them to speed up the learning process and workflow experience, better figure out issues, and take smaller actions to remove obstacles. After four months, the team changed to two week Sprints and learned that setting constraints can help the team and organization improve, and that the learning rhythm is a powerful lever when dealing with a lot of changes.

Dealing with an Unhappy Team Member

A team member was constantly criticizing the company, creating a negative environment. The manager tried to resolve the situation but it was not enough. With help from HR, the manager was able to get the team member to resign and leave the team feeling better. The manager learned that it is important to address negativity immediately, be specific when giving feedback, and phrase it as a challenge instead of a threat.

Recovering From the Abilene Paradox

A team made a collective decision that was counter to the thoughts and feelings of its individual members, a phenomenon known as the 'Abilene Paradox'. To remedy the situation, the manager conducted one-on-ones with each team member and had a meeting with the whole team to explain the findings. After rethinking the team's decision, the design was republished successfully. The manager learned the importance of creating an environment where team members feel safe to voice their differing views and of making sure the team is focused on the vision when making major decisions.

Hiring and Building a Data Science Team

When building a data science team, it is important to identify the bottleneck and hire the appropriate people. Consider hiring a generalist with coding skills and business skills, or a data engineer instead of a data scientist. Passion is more important than education/experience. Additionally, pairing a good engineer with a data engineer or analytics person can be beneficial. Lastly, be mindful of the broad term "data science" when hiring.

The ‘30-60-90 Day Plan’ for New Managers

This article outlines a strategy for onboarding a new engineering manager to an existing team. The strategy involves having the new manager create a 30-60-90 day plan that outlines what they will do in each of those time frames. This plan should include getting to know the team, understanding the architecture, and making small and large changes. This strategy helps to ensure that the new manager has done their research and is coming up with their own solutions to the problems. It also allows for feedback from the hiring manager. For more junior-level hires, more coaching and guidance may be necessary.

Helping Your Reports Grow in Their Careers

This article discusses a management philosophy that focuses on building upon people's strengths and helping them become the best version of themselves. It also emphasizes the importance of understanding what the individual wants and what the company needs in order to create the best path for them. The article also provides lessons learned, such as not having a template to follow for guiding someone on their career path and getting comfortable with the fact that neither the manager nor the direct report knows the definitive answer on the best way to develop and grow.

Creating an Environment for Learning and Growth

Engineering managers have a lot of pressure coming from different angles, but their main focus is their team's well-being. To create an environment where individuals on the team are learning, growing, and thriving, the engineering manager should implement methods such as Lunch-and-Learns, Group Code Reviews, and Pair Programming. These methods should be layered on top of one another, and should be low barrier and low entry. Additionally, the engineering manager should ask the team for feedback to ensure that the sessions are useful and valuable.

Learning to Say No Using Collected Data

This article discusses the experience of working with a CEO on a second startup that was not as successful as the first. The CEO was making bad decisions and piling on features, leading to a toll on the team and the business. Fortunately, the organization replaced the CEO with a new one who implemented changes that saved them. The team learned to collect data and say no to feature requests, and the lesson learned was that it is important to learn how to say no and defend the bandwidth of the team.

Prioritizing Urgent Tasks in Scrum

This article discusses how to manage a project with an external task that needs immediate attention. It suggests introducing a "Prod first" policy to prioritize urgent tasks, and to refine the backlog each day to prioritize new tasks. It also highlights the importance of leaving bandwidth for urgent tasks, but also the difficulty of committing to long-term goals when urgent tasks take precedence.

Understanding Your Role as a CTO When Scaling

Technology leaders need to relinquish control, hire and train smart people to make decisions, create boundaries with guiding principles, and embrace their role as a leader in order to move into a CTO role or continue to run the technology organization at a fast scaling company.

Establishing Habits to Combat Stress and Uncertainty

This article discusses how to become more productive in daily work by implementing a manager schedule/maker schedule philosophy, review meetings, and a 'Do/Try/Consider' model for giving feedback. Establishing rituals and habits can provide structure and a sense of calmness when external things are moving quickly and unexpectedly.

Recalibrating Peer Relationships When Transitioning to Management

Transitioning from IC to manager can be tricky, especially when managing a friend. To build trust and set the right expectations, it is important to plan out how the change will be communicated and to deliver value in the first 30 days. Additionally, it is important to be confident and clear with expectations, and to ask for feedback to grow as a new manager.

Formalizing Career Conversations

New Relic implemented a process to increase the time managers spent engaging with engineers on career plans. This included having engineers write a one-page description of their 5-10 year career timeline and having the engineering leadership team review the career plans of engineers across all functions. This improved survey scores and created visibility for new career opportunities.

Building Career Ladders with the Help of a Diverse Team

New Relic needed to create a formal career ladder to align with their pay levels. To do this, they sent out an email to the entire organization asking for names of people to be part of a 20-person working group. This group then held an off-site session to brainstorm and develop criteria and behaviors for each level. The career ladder was then sent out to a wider group for feedback, and finally published. The process was successful, and the lessons learned were that it was important to have a diverse group of people work on the ladder, and to have the group also be responsible for training the managers.

Pay Equity Improves Your Company’s Performance

This company implemented a pay equity policy to address discrepancies in salary setting due to unconscious bias. After a year of implementation, all engineers and managers at the same level were paid identically. The policy was well-received internally and externally, and helped to attract more people to the company due to its commitment to equity and inclusion.

Managing a Problematic Peer Relationship

This article discusses the problem of working with peers who are not aligned on direction, combative or aggressive. It outlines the actions taken to address this problem, such as getting alignment on decision-making frameworks, understanding the root assumptions and emotions that led to disagreements, discouraging triangulation, and adopting non-violent communication. It also outlines the lessons learned, such as understanding the root causes of disagreements, prioritizing alignment to get needs met, and managing up to drive alignment and get the team executing.

Helping Your Boss Reconsider Lowering Technical Standards When Hiring

When hiring someone for a project, it is important to be in alignment with your boss about the success levels you expect. It is better to not lose the client in pursuit of an exemplary candidate, and to lower the technical standards if there are no client complaints. Creating a defined process and bringing factual elements to the table during discussions with your superior will help make the hiring process easier and more successful.

Guiding Engineers to Create Valuable Software

This article discusses the need for managers to provide support and scaffolding for engineers to be successful in creating software that adds value to the company. It suggests that managers should be honest about the need to produce things of value, set milestones and goals, and demonstrate their own approach to work. It also emphasizes the importance of repetition in building skill and the need to deliver things through technology in order to get better at it.

Generating Good Feedback as a Manager

This article discusses how managers can create a stronger working relationship with their reports by changing the type of questions they ask from closed to open, and by creating a space of psychological safety and vulnerability by sharing their own frustrations and challenges. This exercise helps to build a deeper understanding of each person and can lead to productive conversations around feedback.

Improving Operational Readiness

After an unexpected departure of a key engineer, a team of 12 engineers with multiple products to support needed to become more operationally aware. To do this, they created a team improvement plan, studied how other teams handled the issue, adopted dashboards and metrics, asked for help from other teams, and created information radiators. Over time, they improved their process and were better prepared to help drive an engineering-wide initiative. Lessons learned included getting engineers to buy into the problem, being able to trace bugs to rare user errors, and learning more about the systems and their potential failure modes.

Experimenting with One Week Sprints

This article discusses the challenge of quickly growing a product team from 5 to 12 teammates within three months. To maintain good practices and efficiency, the team decided to move from three week Sprints to one week Sprints. This allowed them to speed up the learning process and workflow experience, better figure out issues, and take smaller actions to remove obstacles. After four months, the team changed to two week Sprints and learned that setting constraints can help the team and organization improve, and that the learning rhythm is a powerful lever when dealing with a lot of changes.

Dealing with an Unhappy Team Member

A team member was constantly criticizing the company, creating a negative environment. The manager tried to resolve the situation but it was not enough. With help from HR, the manager was able to get the team member to resign and leave the team feeling better. The manager learned that it is important to address negativity immediately, be specific when giving feedback, and phrase it as a challenge instead of a threat.

Recovering From the Abilene Paradox

A team made a collective decision that was counter to the thoughts and feelings of its individual members, a phenomenon known as the 'Abilene Paradox'. To remedy the situation, the manager conducted one-on-ones with each team member and had a meeting with the whole team to explain the findings. After rethinking the team's decision, the design was republished successfully. The manager learned the importance of creating an environment where team members feel safe to voice their differing views and of making sure the team is focused on the vision when making major decisions.

Hiring and Building a Data Science Team

When building a data science team, it is important to identify the bottleneck and hire the appropriate people. Consider hiring a generalist with coding skills and business skills, or a data engineer instead of a data scientist. Passion is more important than education/experience. Additionally, pairing a good engineer with a data engineer or analytics person can be beneficial. Lastly, be mindful of the broad term "data science" when hiring.

The ‘30-60-90 Day Plan’ for New Managers

This article outlines a strategy for onboarding a new engineering manager to an existing team. The strategy involves having the new manager create a 30-60-90 day plan that outlines what they will do in each of those time frames. This plan should include getting to know the team, understanding the architecture, and making small and large changes. This strategy helps to ensure that the new manager has done their research and is coming up with their own solutions to the problems. It also allows for feedback from the hiring manager. For more junior-level hires, more coaching and guidance may be necessary.

Helping Your Reports Grow in Their Careers

This article discusses a management philosophy that focuses on building upon people's strengths and helping them become the best version of themselves. It also emphasizes the importance of understanding what the individual wants and what the company needs in order to create the best path for them. The article also provides lessons learned, such as not having a template to follow for guiding someone on their career path and getting comfortable with the fact that neither the manager nor the direct report knows the definitive answer on the best way to develop and grow.

Creating an Environment for Learning and Growth

Engineering managers have a lot of pressure coming from different angles, but their main focus is their team's well-being. To create an environment where individuals on the team are learning, growing, and thriving, the engineering manager should implement methods such as Lunch-and-Learns, Group Code Reviews, and Pair Programming. These methods should be layered on top of one another, and should be low barrier and low entry. Additionally, the engineering manager should ask the team for feedback to ensure that the sessions are useful and valuable.

Learning to Say No Using Collected Data

This article discusses the experience of working with a CEO on a second startup that was not as successful as the first. The CEO was making bad decisions and piling on features, leading to a toll on the team and the business. Fortunately, the organization replaced the CEO with a new one who implemented changes that saved them. The team learned to collect data and say no to feature requests, and the lesson learned was that it is important to learn how to say no and defend the bandwidth of the team.

Prioritizing Urgent Tasks in Scrum

This article discusses how to manage a project with an external task that needs immediate attention. It suggests introducing a "Prod first" policy to prioritize urgent tasks, and to refine the backlog each day to prioritize new tasks. It also highlights the importance of leaving bandwidth for urgent tasks, but also the difficulty of committing to long-term goals when urgent tasks take precedence.

Understanding Your Role as a CTO When Scaling

Technology leaders need to relinquish control, hire and train smart people to make decisions, create boundaries with guiding principles, and embrace their role as a leader in order to move into a CTO role or continue to run the technology organization at a fast scaling company.

Establishing Habits to Combat Stress and Uncertainty

This article discusses how to become more productive in daily work by implementing a manager schedule/maker schedule philosophy, review meetings, and a 'Do/Try/Consider' model for giving feedback. Establishing rituals and habits can provide structure and a sense of calmness when external things are moving quickly and unexpectedly.

Recalibrating Peer Relationships When Transitioning to Management

Transitioning from IC to manager can be tricky, especially when managing a friend. To build trust and set the right expectations, it is important to plan out how the change will be communicated and to deliver value in the first 30 days. Additionally, it is important to be confident and clear with expectations, and to ask for feedback to grow as a new manager.

Formalizing Career Conversations

New Relic implemented a process to increase the time managers spent engaging with engineers on career plans. This included having engineers write a one-page description of their 5-10 year career timeline and having the engineering leadership team review the career plans of engineers across all functions. This improved survey scores and created visibility for new career opportunities.

Building Career Ladders with the Help of a Diverse Team

New Relic needed to create a formal career ladder to align with their pay levels. To do this, they sent out an email to the entire organization asking for names of people to be part of a 20-person working group. This group then held an off-site session to brainstorm and develop criteria and behaviors for each level. The career ladder was then sent out to a wider group for feedback, and finally published. The process was successful, and the lessons learned were that it was important to have a diverse group of people work on the ladder, and to have the group also be responsible for training the managers.

Pay Equity Improves Your Company’s Performance

This company implemented a pay equity policy to address discrepancies in salary setting due to unconscious bias. After a year of implementation, all engineers and managers at the same level were paid identically. The policy was well-received internally and externally, and helped to attract more people to the company due to its commitment to equity and inclusion.

Managing a Problematic Peer Relationship

This article discusses the problem of working with peers who are not aligned on direction, combative or aggressive. It outlines the actions taken to address this problem, such as getting alignment on decision-making frameworks, understanding the root assumptions and emotions that led to disagreements, discouraging triangulation, and adopting non-violent communication. It also outlines the lessons learned, such as understanding the root causes of disagreements, prioritizing alignment to get needs met, and managing up to drive alignment and get the team executing.

Helping Your Boss Reconsider Lowering Technical Standards When Hiring

When hiring someone for a project, it is important to be in alignment with your boss about the success levels you expect. It is better to not lose the client in pursuit of an exemplary candidate, and to lower the technical standards if there are no client complaints. Creating a defined process and bringing factual elements to the table during discussions with your superior will help make the hiring process easier and more successful.

Guiding Engineers to Create Valuable Software

This article discusses the need for managers to provide support and scaffolding for engineers to be successful in creating software that adds value to the company. It suggests that managers should be honest about the need to produce things of value, set milestones and goals, and demonstrate their own approach to work. It also emphasizes the importance of repetition in building skill and the need to deliver things through technology in order to get better at it.

Generating Good Feedback as a Manager

This article discusses how managers can create a stronger working relationship with their reports by changing the type of questions they ask from closed to open, and by creating a space of psychological safety and vulnerability by sharing their own frustrations and challenges. This exercise helps to build a deeper understanding of each person and can lead to productive conversations around feedback.

Improving Operational Readiness

After an unexpected departure of a key engineer, a team of 12 engineers with multiple products to support needed to become more operationally aware. To do this, they created a team improvement plan, studied how other teams handled the issue, adopted dashboards and metrics, asked for help from other teams, and created information radiators. Over time, they improved their process and were better prepared to help drive an engineering-wide initiative. Lessons learned included getting engineers to buy into the problem, being able to trace bugs to rare user errors, and learning more about the systems and their potential failure modes.

Experimenting with One Week Sprints

This article discusses the challenge of quickly growing a product team from 5 to 12 teammates within three months. To maintain good practices and efficiency, the team decided to move from three week Sprints to one week Sprints. This allowed them to speed up the learning process and workflow experience, better figure out issues, and take smaller actions to remove obstacles. After four months, the team changed to two week Sprints and learned that setting constraints can help the team and organization improve, and that the learning rhythm is a powerful lever when dealing with a lot of changes.

Dealing with an Unhappy Team Member

A team member was constantly criticizing the company, creating a negative environment. The manager tried to resolve the situation but it was not enough. With help from HR, the manager was able to get the team member to resign and leave the team feeling better. The manager learned that it is important to address negativity immediately, be specific when giving feedback, and phrase it as a challenge instead of a threat.

Recovering From the Abilene Paradox

A team made a collective decision that was counter to the thoughts and feelings of its individual members, a phenomenon known as the 'Abilene Paradox'. To remedy the situation, the manager conducted one-on-ones with each team member and had a meeting with the whole team to explain the findings. After rethinking the team's decision, the design was republished successfully. The manager learned the importance of creating an environment where team members feel safe to voice their differing views and of making sure the team is focused on the vision when making major decisions.

Hiring and Building a Data Science Team

When building a data science team, it is important to identify the bottleneck and hire the appropriate people. Consider hiring a generalist with coding skills and business skills, or a data engineer instead of a data scientist. Passion is more important than education/experience. Additionally, pairing a good engineer with a data engineer or analytics person can be beneficial. Lastly, be mindful of the broad term "data science" when hiring.

The ‘30-60-90 Day Plan’ for New Managers

This article outlines a strategy for onboarding a new engineering manager to an existing team. The strategy involves having the new manager create a 30-60-90 day plan that outlines what they will do in each of those time frames. This plan should include getting to know the team, understanding the architecture, and making small and large changes. This strategy helps to ensure that the new manager has done their research and is coming up with their own solutions to the problems. It also allows for feedback from the hiring manager. For more junior-level hires, more coaching and guidance may be necessary.

Helping Your Reports Grow in Their Careers

This article discusses a management philosophy that focuses on building upon people's strengths and helping them become the best version of themselves. It also emphasizes the importance of understanding what the individual wants and what the company needs in order to create the best path for them. The article also provides lessons learned, such as not having a template to follow for guiding someone on their career path and getting comfortable with the fact that neither the manager nor the direct report knows the definitive answer on the best way to develop and grow.

Creating an Environment for Learning and Growth

Engineering managers have a lot of pressure coming from different angles, but their main focus is their team's well-being. To create an environment where individuals on the team are learning, growing, and thriving, the engineering manager should implement methods such as Lunch-and-Learns, Group Code Reviews, and Pair Programming. These methods should be layered on top of one another, and should be low barrier and low entry. Additionally, the engineering manager should ask the team for feedback to ensure that the sessions are useful and valuable.

Learning to Say No Using Collected Data

This article discusses the experience of working with a CEO on a second startup that was not as successful as the first. The CEO was making bad decisions and piling on features, leading to a toll on the team and the business. Fortunately, the organization replaced the CEO with a new one who implemented changes that saved them. The team learned to collect data and say no to feature requests, and the lesson learned was that it is important to learn how to say no and defend the bandwidth of the team.

Prioritizing Urgent Tasks in Scrum

This article discusses how to manage a project with an external task that needs immediate attention. It suggests introducing a "Prod first" policy to prioritize urgent tasks, and to refine the backlog each day to prioritize new tasks. It also highlights the importance of leaving bandwidth for urgent tasks, but also the difficulty of committing to long-term goals when urgent tasks take precedence.

Understanding Your Role as a CTO When Scaling

Technology leaders need to relinquish control, hire and train smart people to make decisions, create boundaries with guiding principles, and embrace their role as a leader in order to move into a CTO role or continue to run the technology organization at a fast scaling company.

Establishing Habits to Combat Stress and Uncertainty

This article discusses how to become more productive in daily work by implementing a manager schedule/maker schedule philosophy, review meetings, and a 'Do/Try/Consider' model for giving feedback. Establishing rituals and habits can provide structure and a sense of calmness when external things are moving quickly and unexpectedly.

Recalibrating Peer Relationships When Transitioning to Management

Transitioning from IC to manager can be tricky, especially when managing a friend. To build trust and set the right expectations, it is important to plan out how the change will be communicated and to deliver value in the first 30 days. Additionally, it is important to be confident and clear with expectations, and to ask for feedback to grow as a new manager.

Formalizing Career Conversations

New Relic implemented a process to increase the time managers spent engaging with engineers on career plans. This included having engineers write a one-page description of their 5-10 year career timeline and having the engineering leadership team review the career plans of engineers across all functions. This improved survey scores and created visibility for new career opportunities.

Building Career Ladders with the Help of a Diverse Team

New Relic needed to create a formal career ladder to align with their pay levels. To do this, they sent out an email to the entire organization asking for names of people to be part of a 20-person working group. This group then held an off-site session to brainstorm and develop criteria and behaviors for each level. The career ladder was then sent out to a wider group for feedback, and finally published. The process was successful, and the lessons learned were that it was important to have a diverse group of people work on the ladder, and to have the group also be responsible for training the managers.

Pay Equity Improves Your Company’s Performance

This company implemented a pay equity policy to address discrepancies in salary setting due to unconscious bias. After a year of implementation, all engineers and managers at the same level were paid identically. The policy was well-received internally and externally, and helped to attract more people to the company due to its commitment to equity and inclusion.

Managing a Problematic Peer Relationship

This article discusses the problem of working with peers who are not aligned on direction, combative or aggressive. It outlines the actions taken to address this problem, such as getting alignment on decision-making frameworks, understanding the root assumptions and emotions that led to disagreements, discouraging triangulation, and adopting non-violent communication. It also outlines the lessons learned, such as understanding the root causes of disagreements, prioritizing alignment to get needs met, and managing up to drive alignment and get the team executing.