Knowledge shared by our community

Aligning Business with Poker Planning

This CTO experienced difficulty with team efficiency due to a lack of engagement and alignment in the company's product vision. To address this, they set up bi-monthly meetings to involve all departments in the estimation of tasks and the sorting of the roadmap. This improved communication, understanding, and engagement, resulting in better team efficiency.

Managing Up: Regular One-On-Ones versus Career One-On-Ones

After struggling to manage up in the first two years of his career, the author learned to advocate for himself in a smaller company. He then became more deliberate in his one-on-one meetings with his current manager, and initiated separate career one-on-ones to discuss his goals and progress. This allowed him to have visibility into his career goals and document his progress.

It’s Never Too Late in a Product to Conduct User Research

When working at Glassdoor, the product manager was tasked with redesigning the salary experience to stay competitive in the market. After initial designs were deemed too iterative, the product manager took a step back and started from scratch, conducting user research to identify user needs and create a roadmap for the product. Through this process, the product manager learned the importance of conducting user research and starting from scratch to ensure the product is meeting user needs.

Preparing, Transitioning, and Restructuring into a Netflix Model

The author was tasked with transitioning an engineering organization of 150 people from traditional software development practices to a Netflix model. To do so, they created a manifesto and got buy-in from executives and product, formed a platform engineering organization, and surveyed the engineering organization to identify problems and common patterns. Through this process, 98% of the services were migrated to the new model and adoption was organic. The key lessons learned were to focus on alignment, maintain existing operations while empowering engineers, get key people into the platform organization, ask the team to define the problems, and have transparency.

Engineering Teams Run as a Product Organization

This article discusses the experience of transitioning from a consumer web application to enterprise software, and the difficulty of connecting to the business value. The author took action by retraining their mind to think like a product organization, hiring a technical program manager, and implementing product metrics and a feature prioritization framework. As a result, the engineering teams were able to build customer-facing products and create a revenue-generating feature in less than a month. The author learned that product and engineering should be under one organization, and that having a product-minded engineering leader will result in better products.

Implementing an Internship Program

An internship committee was created within the web organization to vet interns and assign them to teams with mentors. The interns participate in all work scrum activities and are embedded as part of the team for three months. Community service projects, lunches with mentors, and a final presentation are also incorporated into the program. The program has been successful, with one intern hired per year, and feedback from interns has been positive.

Scaling an Organization

This article discusses the problem of having no tech leads and how the development team was divided into scrum teams with tech leads and managers. It also outlines the lesson learned from this experience, which is that it is better to have five to eight direct reports and that scalability within a team is important for onboarding engineers.

Measuring Quality and Getting the Team to Buy-In

The health framework was created to measure code quality, velocity of code shipping, and impact, but when it was first published, complications arose due to doubts about how the data would be used. Actions were taken to reassure developers that the data was not being used to single out people, but rather to start conversations about areas to improve. Lessons learned include that the framework is a good tool to show how external factors can affect productivity, that people are more open to accepting it, and that progress is being made to make the organization more efficient.

Creating Focused Paths for Growth

In response to feedback from team members, the organization created three paths for career growth: a technical lead path, an architect path, and a manager path. This was supported by the TILES framework and a strategy document, as well as an engineering health framework. The implementation of these paths was adjusted to provide a softer transition for those crossing over to a manager role, and to separate tech leads from HR duties.

Step Out of the Way to Allow Engineers Thrive

This article discusses the importance of creating an environment where passionate engineers can thrive. It shares a story of a junior engineer who had a bold idea to rewrite a critical component, and how the author decided to let him do it despite their doubts. The article emphasizes the importance of taking risks and letting go of biases and fears when someone is passionate about doing something bold.

The Importance of Hiring at Speed

This article discusses the challenge of hiring good talent in Silicon Valley, and how the author was able to successfully hire 20+ engineers in a short amount of time. The author designed a recruiting process that optimized for a superior candidate experience, and focused on quickly identifying and engaging with candidates with the desired traits. The article emphasizes the importance of creating a warm and respectful interview experience, as it can be an effective way to compete against well-known and well-funded companies.

How to Establish Yourself as a New Engineering Leader

Joining a new engineering team can be intimidating, but it is possible to establish yourself as a leader by being genuine and authentic, helping the team out, getting to know the people, reading up on the product and stack, and understanding the customers. Investing time in these areas will help to earn the team's trust.

Lessons Learned from a CSO’s First 100 Days

The chief security officer (CSO) of Relativity recently completed their first 100 days and has come up with some recommendations to help new CSOs navigate their first few months. These include taking time to assess the current state, aligning security with the business, creating ambassadors, picking concrete collaborators, and investing in people. The most important thing a new CSO can do is to create a compelling vision and communicate it effectively.

Career Enrichment Sessions: the Coaching of Soft Skills

A manager and engineer had difficulty working together due to the engineer's quick temper and unwillingness to accept changes to his code. To address the issue, they began holding weekly "Career Enrichment" sessions to read a book on emotional intelligence and log their faults and critiques for each other. After a year of collaboration, the engineer has grown significantly and the sessions continue. This experience has taught the manager and engineer the importance of taking time to reflect and learn from each other.

Structuring Using Tools, Measurements, and a Spreadsheet of Expectations

This company quickly grew from 150 to 600 employees and needed to implement a better structure and guidelines to measure team members. A team effort was made to standardize the structure, including implementing tools to measure technical debt, code quality, and efficiency. A spreadsheet was created to list out expectations for each engineering level, and Phase II will focus on non-measurable aspects such as collaboration, communication, attitude, and reliability. Lessons learned include the need for structure, careful rollout of new frameworks, and use of numbers to tell a story.

Handling the Stress of Working Two Leadership Positions

The author was placed in a dual role of management and tech lead, which became too difficult to balance. After discussing the issue with their manager, the roles were split into two individual positions and the author chose to focus on management. The author learned the importance of good communication and not dragging oneself along in a situation that is not working.

Disagreement? Put Yourself in the Other Person’s Shoes

When faced with a conflict with a manager, it is important to take a step back and try to understand the situation from their perspective. In this case, the manager was trying to help and mentor the employee, and the employee was able to find a middle ground by trusting the manager's judgement and understanding the value of being uncomfortable.

Building a Team Vision

This article discusses how a manager was able to turn around an unmotivated team of engineers by giving them a vision and direction to work towards. Through research, group discussions, and aligning the team's vision with the company's, the manager was able to motivate the team and turn a legacy system into a healthy one. The article also highlights the importance of having a vision that is motivating and comes from both top-down and bottom-up, as well as the need to align organizational and people growth.

Minimizing the Challenges Non-Native English Speakers Face in the Engineering Sector

This article discusses the challenges faced by engineers with English as a second language, and the unfair advantage that native English speakers have in the workplace. The author outlines a plan to help second language learners improve their English, including providing resources, setting stretch goals, and encouraging them to present to the engineering team. The article emphasizes the importance of offering developmental strategies to give second language learners the same opportunities as native English speakers.

Breaking the Ice: Navigating Cultural Differences and Building Relationships

An engineer with an H-1B visa experienced culture shock when he immigrated to the United States. His leader empathized with him and developed a plan to help him build relationships with his team and improve his English. As a result, the engineer became a top performer, is close to a promotion, and is much happier. The leader learned that it is important to help with outside problems in order to have a happier and more productive team.

Aligning Business with Poker Planning

This CTO experienced difficulty with team efficiency due to a lack of engagement and alignment in the company's product vision. To address this, they set up bi-monthly meetings to involve all departments in the estimation of tasks and the sorting of the roadmap. This improved communication, understanding, and engagement, resulting in better team efficiency.

Managing Up: Regular One-On-Ones versus Career One-On-Ones

After struggling to manage up in the first two years of his career, the author learned to advocate for himself in a smaller company. He then became more deliberate in his one-on-one meetings with his current manager, and initiated separate career one-on-ones to discuss his goals and progress. This allowed him to have visibility into his career goals and document his progress.

It’s Never Too Late in a Product to Conduct User Research

When working at Glassdoor, the product manager was tasked with redesigning the salary experience to stay competitive in the market. After initial designs were deemed too iterative, the product manager took a step back and started from scratch, conducting user research to identify user needs and create a roadmap for the product. Through this process, the product manager learned the importance of conducting user research and starting from scratch to ensure the product is meeting user needs.

Preparing, Transitioning, and Restructuring into a Netflix Model

The author was tasked with transitioning an engineering organization of 150 people from traditional software development practices to a Netflix model. To do so, they created a manifesto and got buy-in from executives and product, formed a platform engineering organization, and surveyed the engineering organization to identify problems and common patterns. Through this process, 98% of the services were migrated to the new model and adoption was organic. The key lessons learned were to focus on alignment, maintain existing operations while empowering engineers, get key people into the platform organization, ask the team to define the problems, and have transparency.

Engineering Teams Run as a Product Organization

This article discusses the experience of transitioning from a consumer web application to enterprise software, and the difficulty of connecting to the business value. The author took action by retraining their mind to think like a product organization, hiring a technical program manager, and implementing product metrics and a feature prioritization framework. As a result, the engineering teams were able to build customer-facing products and create a revenue-generating feature in less than a month. The author learned that product and engineering should be under one organization, and that having a product-minded engineering leader will result in better products.

Implementing an Internship Program

An internship committee was created within the web organization to vet interns and assign them to teams with mentors. The interns participate in all work scrum activities and are embedded as part of the team for three months. Community service projects, lunches with mentors, and a final presentation are also incorporated into the program. The program has been successful, with one intern hired per year, and feedback from interns has been positive.

Scaling an Organization

This article discusses the problem of having no tech leads and how the development team was divided into scrum teams with tech leads and managers. It also outlines the lesson learned from this experience, which is that it is better to have five to eight direct reports and that scalability within a team is important for onboarding engineers.

Measuring Quality and Getting the Team to Buy-In

The health framework was created to measure code quality, velocity of code shipping, and impact, but when it was first published, complications arose due to doubts about how the data would be used. Actions were taken to reassure developers that the data was not being used to single out people, but rather to start conversations about areas to improve. Lessons learned include that the framework is a good tool to show how external factors can affect productivity, that people are more open to accepting it, and that progress is being made to make the organization more efficient.

Creating Focused Paths for Growth

In response to feedback from team members, the organization created three paths for career growth: a technical lead path, an architect path, and a manager path. This was supported by the TILES framework and a strategy document, as well as an engineering health framework. The implementation of these paths was adjusted to provide a softer transition for those crossing over to a manager role, and to separate tech leads from HR duties.

Step Out of the Way to Allow Engineers Thrive

This article discusses the importance of creating an environment where passionate engineers can thrive. It shares a story of a junior engineer who had a bold idea to rewrite a critical component, and how the author decided to let him do it despite their doubts. The article emphasizes the importance of taking risks and letting go of biases and fears when someone is passionate about doing something bold.

The Importance of Hiring at Speed

This article discusses the challenge of hiring good talent in Silicon Valley, and how the author was able to successfully hire 20+ engineers in a short amount of time. The author designed a recruiting process that optimized for a superior candidate experience, and focused on quickly identifying and engaging with candidates with the desired traits. The article emphasizes the importance of creating a warm and respectful interview experience, as it can be an effective way to compete against well-known and well-funded companies.

How to Establish Yourself as a New Engineering Leader

Joining a new engineering team can be intimidating, but it is possible to establish yourself as a leader by being genuine and authentic, helping the team out, getting to know the people, reading up on the product and stack, and understanding the customers. Investing time in these areas will help to earn the team's trust.

Lessons Learned from a CSO’s First 100 Days

The chief security officer (CSO) of Relativity recently completed their first 100 days and has come up with some recommendations to help new CSOs navigate their first few months. These include taking time to assess the current state, aligning security with the business, creating ambassadors, picking concrete collaborators, and investing in people. The most important thing a new CSO can do is to create a compelling vision and communicate it effectively.

Career Enrichment Sessions: the Coaching of Soft Skills

A manager and engineer had difficulty working together due to the engineer's quick temper and unwillingness to accept changes to his code. To address the issue, they began holding weekly "Career Enrichment" sessions to read a book on emotional intelligence and log their faults and critiques for each other. After a year of collaboration, the engineer has grown significantly and the sessions continue. This experience has taught the manager and engineer the importance of taking time to reflect and learn from each other.

Structuring Using Tools, Measurements, and a Spreadsheet of Expectations

This company quickly grew from 150 to 600 employees and needed to implement a better structure and guidelines to measure team members. A team effort was made to standardize the structure, including implementing tools to measure technical debt, code quality, and efficiency. A spreadsheet was created to list out expectations for each engineering level, and Phase II will focus on non-measurable aspects such as collaboration, communication, attitude, and reliability. Lessons learned include the need for structure, careful rollout of new frameworks, and use of numbers to tell a story.

Handling the Stress of Working Two Leadership Positions

The author was placed in a dual role of management and tech lead, which became too difficult to balance. After discussing the issue with their manager, the roles were split into two individual positions and the author chose to focus on management. The author learned the importance of good communication and not dragging oneself along in a situation that is not working.

Disagreement? Put Yourself in the Other Person’s Shoes

When faced with a conflict with a manager, it is important to take a step back and try to understand the situation from their perspective. In this case, the manager was trying to help and mentor the employee, and the employee was able to find a middle ground by trusting the manager's judgement and understanding the value of being uncomfortable.

Building a Team Vision

This article discusses how a manager was able to turn around an unmotivated team of engineers by giving them a vision and direction to work towards. Through research, group discussions, and aligning the team's vision with the company's, the manager was able to motivate the team and turn a legacy system into a healthy one. The article also highlights the importance of having a vision that is motivating and comes from both top-down and bottom-up, as well as the need to align organizational and people growth.

Minimizing the Challenges Non-Native English Speakers Face in the Engineering Sector

This article discusses the challenges faced by engineers with English as a second language, and the unfair advantage that native English speakers have in the workplace. The author outlines a plan to help second language learners improve their English, including providing resources, setting stretch goals, and encouraging them to present to the engineering team. The article emphasizes the importance of offering developmental strategies to give second language learners the same opportunities as native English speakers.

Breaking the Ice: Navigating Cultural Differences and Building Relationships

An engineer with an H-1B visa experienced culture shock when he immigrated to the United States. His leader empathized with him and developed a plan to help him build relationships with his team and improve his English. As a result, the engineer became a top performer, is close to a promotion, and is much happier. The leader learned that it is important to help with outside problems in order to have a happier and more productive team.

Aligning Business with Poker Planning

This CTO experienced difficulty with team efficiency due to a lack of engagement and alignment in the company's product vision. To address this, they set up bi-monthly meetings to involve all departments in the estimation of tasks and the sorting of the roadmap. This improved communication, understanding, and engagement, resulting in better team efficiency.

Managing Up: Regular One-On-Ones versus Career One-On-Ones

After struggling to manage up in the first two years of his career, the author learned to advocate for himself in a smaller company. He then became more deliberate in his one-on-one meetings with his current manager, and initiated separate career one-on-ones to discuss his goals and progress. This allowed him to have visibility into his career goals and document his progress.

It’s Never Too Late in a Product to Conduct User Research

When working at Glassdoor, the product manager was tasked with redesigning the salary experience to stay competitive in the market. After initial designs were deemed too iterative, the product manager took a step back and started from scratch, conducting user research to identify user needs and create a roadmap for the product. Through this process, the product manager learned the importance of conducting user research and starting from scratch to ensure the product is meeting user needs.

Preparing, Transitioning, and Restructuring into a Netflix Model

The author was tasked with transitioning an engineering organization of 150 people from traditional software development practices to a Netflix model. To do so, they created a manifesto and got buy-in from executives and product, formed a platform engineering organization, and surveyed the engineering organization to identify problems and common patterns. Through this process, 98% of the services were migrated to the new model and adoption was organic. The key lessons learned were to focus on alignment, maintain existing operations while empowering engineers, get key people into the platform organization, ask the team to define the problems, and have transparency.

Engineering Teams Run as a Product Organization

This article discusses the experience of transitioning from a consumer web application to enterprise software, and the difficulty of connecting to the business value. The author took action by retraining their mind to think like a product organization, hiring a technical program manager, and implementing product metrics and a feature prioritization framework. As a result, the engineering teams were able to build customer-facing products and create a revenue-generating feature in less than a month. The author learned that product and engineering should be under one organization, and that having a product-minded engineering leader will result in better products.

Implementing an Internship Program

An internship committee was created within the web organization to vet interns and assign them to teams with mentors. The interns participate in all work scrum activities and are embedded as part of the team for three months. Community service projects, lunches with mentors, and a final presentation are also incorporated into the program. The program has been successful, with one intern hired per year, and feedback from interns has been positive.

Scaling an Organization

This article discusses the problem of having no tech leads and how the development team was divided into scrum teams with tech leads and managers. It also outlines the lesson learned from this experience, which is that it is better to have five to eight direct reports and that scalability within a team is important for onboarding engineers.

Measuring Quality and Getting the Team to Buy-In

The health framework was created to measure code quality, velocity of code shipping, and impact, but when it was first published, complications arose due to doubts about how the data would be used. Actions were taken to reassure developers that the data was not being used to single out people, but rather to start conversations about areas to improve. Lessons learned include that the framework is a good tool to show how external factors can affect productivity, that people are more open to accepting it, and that progress is being made to make the organization more efficient.

Creating Focused Paths for Growth

In response to feedback from team members, the organization created three paths for career growth: a technical lead path, an architect path, and a manager path. This was supported by the TILES framework and a strategy document, as well as an engineering health framework. The implementation of these paths was adjusted to provide a softer transition for those crossing over to a manager role, and to separate tech leads from HR duties.

Step Out of the Way to Allow Engineers Thrive

This article discusses the importance of creating an environment where passionate engineers can thrive. It shares a story of a junior engineer who had a bold idea to rewrite a critical component, and how the author decided to let him do it despite their doubts. The article emphasizes the importance of taking risks and letting go of biases and fears when someone is passionate about doing something bold.

The Importance of Hiring at Speed

This article discusses the challenge of hiring good talent in Silicon Valley, and how the author was able to successfully hire 20+ engineers in a short amount of time. The author designed a recruiting process that optimized for a superior candidate experience, and focused on quickly identifying and engaging with candidates with the desired traits. The article emphasizes the importance of creating a warm and respectful interview experience, as it can be an effective way to compete against well-known and well-funded companies.

How to Establish Yourself as a New Engineering Leader

Joining a new engineering team can be intimidating, but it is possible to establish yourself as a leader by being genuine and authentic, helping the team out, getting to know the people, reading up on the product and stack, and understanding the customers. Investing time in these areas will help to earn the team's trust.

Lessons Learned from a CSO’s First 100 Days

The chief security officer (CSO) of Relativity recently completed their first 100 days and has come up with some recommendations to help new CSOs navigate their first few months. These include taking time to assess the current state, aligning security with the business, creating ambassadors, picking concrete collaborators, and investing in people. The most important thing a new CSO can do is to create a compelling vision and communicate it effectively.

Career Enrichment Sessions: the Coaching of Soft Skills

A manager and engineer had difficulty working together due to the engineer's quick temper and unwillingness to accept changes to his code. To address the issue, they began holding weekly "Career Enrichment" sessions to read a book on emotional intelligence and log their faults and critiques for each other. After a year of collaboration, the engineer has grown significantly and the sessions continue. This experience has taught the manager and engineer the importance of taking time to reflect and learn from each other.

Structuring Using Tools, Measurements, and a Spreadsheet of Expectations

This company quickly grew from 150 to 600 employees and needed to implement a better structure and guidelines to measure team members. A team effort was made to standardize the structure, including implementing tools to measure technical debt, code quality, and efficiency. A spreadsheet was created to list out expectations for each engineering level, and Phase II will focus on non-measurable aspects such as collaboration, communication, attitude, and reliability. Lessons learned include the need for structure, careful rollout of new frameworks, and use of numbers to tell a story.

Handling the Stress of Working Two Leadership Positions

The author was placed in a dual role of management and tech lead, which became too difficult to balance. After discussing the issue with their manager, the roles were split into two individual positions and the author chose to focus on management. The author learned the importance of good communication and not dragging oneself along in a situation that is not working.

Disagreement? Put Yourself in the Other Person’s Shoes

When faced with a conflict with a manager, it is important to take a step back and try to understand the situation from their perspective. In this case, the manager was trying to help and mentor the employee, and the employee was able to find a middle ground by trusting the manager's judgement and understanding the value of being uncomfortable.

Building a Team Vision

This article discusses how a manager was able to turn around an unmotivated team of engineers by giving them a vision and direction to work towards. Through research, group discussions, and aligning the team's vision with the company's, the manager was able to motivate the team and turn a legacy system into a healthy one. The article also highlights the importance of having a vision that is motivating and comes from both top-down and bottom-up, as well as the need to align organizational and people growth.

Minimizing the Challenges Non-Native English Speakers Face in the Engineering Sector

This article discusses the challenges faced by engineers with English as a second language, and the unfair advantage that native English speakers have in the workplace. The author outlines a plan to help second language learners improve their English, including providing resources, setting stretch goals, and encouraging them to present to the engineering team. The article emphasizes the importance of offering developmental strategies to give second language learners the same opportunities as native English speakers.

Breaking the Ice: Navigating Cultural Differences and Building Relationships

An engineer with an H-1B visa experienced culture shock when he immigrated to the United States. His leader empathized with him and developed a plan to help him build relationships with his team and improve his English. As a result, the engineer became a top performer, is close to a promotion, and is much happier. The leader learned that it is important to help with outside problems in order to have a happier and more productive team.

Aligning Business with Poker Planning

This CTO experienced difficulty with team efficiency due to a lack of engagement and alignment in the company's product vision. To address this, they set up bi-monthly meetings to involve all departments in the estimation of tasks and the sorting of the roadmap. This improved communication, understanding, and engagement, resulting in better team efficiency.

Managing Up: Regular One-On-Ones versus Career One-On-Ones

After struggling to manage up in the first two years of his career, the author learned to advocate for himself in a smaller company. He then became more deliberate in his one-on-one meetings with his current manager, and initiated separate career one-on-ones to discuss his goals and progress. This allowed him to have visibility into his career goals and document his progress.

It’s Never Too Late in a Product to Conduct User Research

When working at Glassdoor, the product manager was tasked with redesigning the salary experience to stay competitive in the market. After initial designs were deemed too iterative, the product manager took a step back and started from scratch, conducting user research to identify user needs and create a roadmap for the product. Through this process, the product manager learned the importance of conducting user research and starting from scratch to ensure the product is meeting user needs.

Preparing, Transitioning, and Restructuring into a Netflix Model

The author was tasked with transitioning an engineering organization of 150 people from traditional software development practices to a Netflix model. To do so, they created a manifesto and got buy-in from executives and product, formed a platform engineering organization, and surveyed the engineering organization to identify problems and common patterns. Through this process, 98% of the services were migrated to the new model and adoption was organic. The key lessons learned were to focus on alignment, maintain existing operations while empowering engineers, get key people into the platform organization, ask the team to define the problems, and have transparency.

Engineering Teams Run as a Product Organization

This article discusses the experience of transitioning from a consumer web application to enterprise software, and the difficulty of connecting to the business value. The author took action by retraining their mind to think like a product organization, hiring a technical program manager, and implementing product metrics and a feature prioritization framework. As a result, the engineering teams were able to build customer-facing products and create a revenue-generating feature in less than a month. The author learned that product and engineering should be under one organization, and that having a product-minded engineering leader will result in better products.

Implementing an Internship Program

An internship committee was created within the web organization to vet interns and assign them to teams with mentors. The interns participate in all work scrum activities and are embedded as part of the team for three months. Community service projects, lunches with mentors, and a final presentation are also incorporated into the program. The program has been successful, with one intern hired per year, and feedback from interns has been positive.

Scaling an Organization

This article discusses the problem of having no tech leads and how the development team was divided into scrum teams with tech leads and managers. It also outlines the lesson learned from this experience, which is that it is better to have five to eight direct reports and that scalability within a team is important for onboarding engineers.

Measuring Quality and Getting the Team to Buy-In

The health framework was created to measure code quality, velocity of code shipping, and impact, but when it was first published, complications arose due to doubts about how the data would be used. Actions were taken to reassure developers that the data was not being used to single out people, but rather to start conversations about areas to improve. Lessons learned include that the framework is a good tool to show how external factors can affect productivity, that people are more open to accepting it, and that progress is being made to make the organization more efficient.

Creating Focused Paths for Growth

In response to feedback from team members, the organization created three paths for career growth: a technical lead path, an architect path, and a manager path. This was supported by the TILES framework and a strategy document, as well as an engineering health framework. The implementation of these paths was adjusted to provide a softer transition for those crossing over to a manager role, and to separate tech leads from HR duties.

Step Out of the Way to Allow Engineers Thrive

This article discusses the importance of creating an environment where passionate engineers can thrive. It shares a story of a junior engineer who had a bold idea to rewrite a critical component, and how the author decided to let him do it despite their doubts. The article emphasizes the importance of taking risks and letting go of biases and fears when someone is passionate about doing something bold.

The Importance of Hiring at Speed

This article discusses the challenge of hiring good talent in Silicon Valley, and how the author was able to successfully hire 20+ engineers in a short amount of time. The author designed a recruiting process that optimized for a superior candidate experience, and focused on quickly identifying and engaging with candidates with the desired traits. The article emphasizes the importance of creating a warm and respectful interview experience, as it can be an effective way to compete against well-known and well-funded companies.

How to Establish Yourself as a New Engineering Leader

Joining a new engineering team can be intimidating, but it is possible to establish yourself as a leader by being genuine and authentic, helping the team out, getting to know the people, reading up on the product and stack, and understanding the customers. Investing time in these areas will help to earn the team's trust.

Lessons Learned from a CSO’s First 100 Days

The chief security officer (CSO) of Relativity recently completed their first 100 days and has come up with some recommendations to help new CSOs navigate their first few months. These include taking time to assess the current state, aligning security with the business, creating ambassadors, picking concrete collaborators, and investing in people. The most important thing a new CSO can do is to create a compelling vision and communicate it effectively.

Career Enrichment Sessions: the Coaching of Soft Skills

A manager and engineer had difficulty working together due to the engineer's quick temper and unwillingness to accept changes to his code. To address the issue, they began holding weekly "Career Enrichment" sessions to read a book on emotional intelligence and log their faults and critiques for each other. After a year of collaboration, the engineer has grown significantly and the sessions continue. This experience has taught the manager and engineer the importance of taking time to reflect and learn from each other.

Structuring Using Tools, Measurements, and a Spreadsheet of Expectations

This company quickly grew from 150 to 600 employees and needed to implement a better structure and guidelines to measure team members. A team effort was made to standardize the structure, including implementing tools to measure technical debt, code quality, and efficiency. A spreadsheet was created to list out expectations for each engineering level, and Phase II will focus on non-measurable aspects such as collaboration, communication, attitude, and reliability. Lessons learned include the need for structure, careful rollout of new frameworks, and use of numbers to tell a story.

Handling the Stress of Working Two Leadership Positions

The author was placed in a dual role of management and tech lead, which became too difficult to balance. After discussing the issue with their manager, the roles were split into two individual positions and the author chose to focus on management. The author learned the importance of good communication and not dragging oneself along in a situation that is not working.

Disagreement? Put Yourself in the Other Person’s Shoes

When faced with a conflict with a manager, it is important to take a step back and try to understand the situation from their perspective. In this case, the manager was trying to help and mentor the employee, and the employee was able to find a middle ground by trusting the manager's judgement and understanding the value of being uncomfortable.

Building a Team Vision

This article discusses how a manager was able to turn around an unmotivated team of engineers by giving them a vision and direction to work towards. Through research, group discussions, and aligning the team's vision with the company's, the manager was able to motivate the team and turn a legacy system into a healthy one. The article also highlights the importance of having a vision that is motivating and comes from both top-down and bottom-up, as well as the need to align organizational and people growth.

Minimizing the Challenges Non-Native English Speakers Face in the Engineering Sector

This article discusses the challenges faced by engineers with English as a second language, and the unfair advantage that native English speakers have in the workplace. The author outlines a plan to help second language learners improve their English, including providing resources, setting stretch goals, and encouraging them to present to the engineering team. The article emphasizes the importance of offering developmental strategies to give second language learners the same opportunities as native English speakers.

Breaking the Ice: Navigating Cultural Differences and Building Relationships

An engineer with an H-1B visa experienced culture shock when he immigrated to the United States. His leader empathized with him and developed a plan to help him build relationships with his team and improve his English. As a result, the engineer became a top performer, is close to a promotion, and is much happier. The leader learned that it is important to help with outside problems in order to have a happier and more productive team.

Aligning Business with Poker Planning

This CTO experienced difficulty with team efficiency due to a lack of engagement and alignment in the company's product vision. To address this, they set up bi-monthly meetings to involve all departments in the estimation of tasks and the sorting of the roadmap. This improved communication, understanding, and engagement, resulting in better team efficiency.

Managing Up: Regular One-On-Ones versus Career One-On-Ones

After struggling to manage up in the first two years of his career, the author learned to advocate for himself in a smaller company. He then became more deliberate in his one-on-one meetings with his current manager, and initiated separate career one-on-ones to discuss his goals and progress. This allowed him to have visibility into his career goals and document his progress.

It’s Never Too Late in a Product to Conduct User Research

When working at Glassdoor, the product manager was tasked with redesigning the salary experience to stay competitive in the market. After initial designs were deemed too iterative, the product manager took a step back and started from scratch, conducting user research to identify user needs and create a roadmap for the product. Through this process, the product manager learned the importance of conducting user research and starting from scratch to ensure the product is meeting user needs.

Preparing, Transitioning, and Restructuring into a Netflix Model

The author was tasked with transitioning an engineering organization of 150 people from traditional software development practices to a Netflix model. To do so, they created a manifesto and got buy-in from executives and product, formed a platform engineering organization, and surveyed the engineering organization to identify problems and common patterns. Through this process, 98% of the services were migrated to the new model and adoption was organic. The key lessons learned were to focus on alignment, maintain existing operations while empowering engineers, get key people into the platform organization, ask the team to define the problems, and have transparency.

Engineering Teams Run as a Product Organization

This article discusses the experience of transitioning from a consumer web application to enterprise software, and the difficulty of connecting to the business value. The author took action by retraining their mind to think like a product organization, hiring a technical program manager, and implementing product metrics and a feature prioritization framework. As a result, the engineering teams were able to build customer-facing products and create a revenue-generating feature in less than a month. The author learned that product and engineering should be under one organization, and that having a product-minded engineering leader will result in better products.

Implementing an Internship Program

An internship committee was created within the web organization to vet interns and assign them to teams with mentors. The interns participate in all work scrum activities and are embedded as part of the team for three months. Community service projects, lunches with mentors, and a final presentation are also incorporated into the program. The program has been successful, with one intern hired per year, and feedback from interns has been positive.

Scaling an Organization

This article discusses the problem of having no tech leads and how the development team was divided into scrum teams with tech leads and managers. It also outlines the lesson learned from this experience, which is that it is better to have five to eight direct reports and that scalability within a team is important for onboarding engineers.

Measuring Quality and Getting the Team to Buy-In

The health framework was created to measure code quality, velocity of code shipping, and impact, but when it was first published, complications arose due to doubts about how the data would be used. Actions were taken to reassure developers that the data was not being used to single out people, but rather to start conversations about areas to improve. Lessons learned include that the framework is a good tool to show how external factors can affect productivity, that people are more open to accepting it, and that progress is being made to make the organization more efficient.

Creating Focused Paths for Growth

In response to feedback from team members, the organization created three paths for career growth: a technical lead path, an architect path, and a manager path. This was supported by the TILES framework and a strategy document, as well as an engineering health framework. The implementation of these paths was adjusted to provide a softer transition for those crossing over to a manager role, and to separate tech leads from HR duties.

Step Out of the Way to Allow Engineers Thrive

This article discusses the importance of creating an environment where passionate engineers can thrive. It shares a story of a junior engineer who had a bold idea to rewrite a critical component, and how the author decided to let him do it despite their doubts. The article emphasizes the importance of taking risks and letting go of biases and fears when someone is passionate about doing something bold.

The Importance of Hiring at Speed

This article discusses the challenge of hiring good talent in Silicon Valley, and how the author was able to successfully hire 20+ engineers in a short amount of time. The author designed a recruiting process that optimized for a superior candidate experience, and focused on quickly identifying and engaging with candidates with the desired traits. The article emphasizes the importance of creating a warm and respectful interview experience, as it can be an effective way to compete against well-known and well-funded companies.

How to Establish Yourself as a New Engineering Leader

Joining a new engineering team can be intimidating, but it is possible to establish yourself as a leader by being genuine and authentic, helping the team out, getting to know the people, reading up on the product and stack, and understanding the customers. Investing time in these areas will help to earn the team's trust.

Lessons Learned from a CSO’s First 100 Days

The chief security officer (CSO) of Relativity recently completed their first 100 days and has come up with some recommendations to help new CSOs navigate their first few months. These include taking time to assess the current state, aligning security with the business, creating ambassadors, picking concrete collaborators, and investing in people. The most important thing a new CSO can do is to create a compelling vision and communicate it effectively.

Career Enrichment Sessions: the Coaching of Soft Skills

A manager and engineer had difficulty working together due to the engineer's quick temper and unwillingness to accept changes to his code. To address the issue, they began holding weekly "Career Enrichment" sessions to read a book on emotional intelligence and log their faults and critiques for each other. After a year of collaboration, the engineer has grown significantly and the sessions continue. This experience has taught the manager and engineer the importance of taking time to reflect and learn from each other.

Structuring Using Tools, Measurements, and a Spreadsheet of Expectations

This company quickly grew from 150 to 600 employees and needed to implement a better structure and guidelines to measure team members. A team effort was made to standardize the structure, including implementing tools to measure technical debt, code quality, and efficiency. A spreadsheet was created to list out expectations for each engineering level, and Phase II will focus on non-measurable aspects such as collaboration, communication, attitude, and reliability. Lessons learned include the need for structure, careful rollout of new frameworks, and use of numbers to tell a story.

Handling the Stress of Working Two Leadership Positions

The author was placed in a dual role of management and tech lead, which became too difficult to balance. After discussing the issue with their manager, the roles were split into two individual positions and the author chose to focus on management. The author learned the importance of good communication and not dragging oneself along in a situation that is not working.

Disagreement? Put Yourself in the Other Person’s Shoes

When faced with a conflict with a manager, it is important to take a step back and try to understand the situation from their perspective. In this case, the manager was trying to help and mentor the employee, and the employee was able to find a middle ground by trusting the manager's judgement and understanding the value of being uncomfortable.

Building a Team Vision

This article discusses how a manager was able to turn around an unmotivated team of engineers by giving them a vision and direction to work towards. Through research, group discussions, and aligning the team's vision with the company's, the manager was able to motivate the team and turn a legacy system into a healthy one. The article also highlights the importance of having a vision that is motivating and comes from both top-down and bottom-up, as well as the need to align organizational and people growth.

Minimizing the Challenges Non-Native English Speakers Face in the Engineering Sector

This article discusses the challenges faced by engineers with English as a second language, and the unfair advantage that native English speakers have in the workplace. The author outlines a plan to help second language learners improve their English, including providing resources, setting stretch goals, and encouraging them to present to the engineering team. The article emphasizes the importance of offering developmental strategies to give second language learners the same opportunities as native English speakers.

Breaking the Ice: Navigating Cultural Differences and Building Relationships

An engineer with an H-1B visa experienced culture shock when he immigrated to the United States. His leader empathized with him and developed a plan to help him build relationships with his team and improve his English. As a result, the engineer became a top performer, is close to a promotion, and is much happier. The leader learned that it is important to help with outside problems in order to have a happier and more productive team.

Aligning Business with Poker Planning

This CTO experienced difficulty with team efficiency due to a lack of engagement and alignment in the company's product vision. To address this, they set up bi-monthly meetings to involve all departments in the estimation of tasks and the sorting of the roadmap. This improved communication, understanding, and engagement, resulting in better team efficiency.

Managing Up: Regular One-On-Ones versus Career One-On-Ones

After struggling to manage up in the first two years of his career, the author learned to advocate for himself in a smaller company. He then became more deliberate in his one-on-one meetings with his current manager, and initiated separate career one-on-ones to discuss his goals and progress. This allowed him to have visibility into his career goals and document his progress.

It’s Never Too Late in a Product to Conduct User Research

When working at Glassdoor, the product manager was tasked with redesigning the salary experience to stay competitive in the market. After initial designs were deemed too iterative, the product manager took a step back and started from scratch, conducting user research to identify user needs and create a roadmap for the product. Through this process, the product manager learned the importance of conducting user research and starting from scratch to ensure the product is meeting user needs.

Preparing, Transitioning, and Restructuring into a Netflix Model

The author was tasked with transitioning an engineering organization of 150 people from traditional software development practices to a Netflix model. To do so, they created a manifesto and got buy-in from executives and product, formed a platform engineering organization, and surveyed the engineering organization to identify problems and common patterns. Through this process, 98% of the services were migrated to the new model and adoption was organic. The key lessons learned were to focus on alignment, maintain existing operations while empowering engineers, get key people into the platform organization, ask the team to define the problems, and have transparency.

Engineering Teams Run as a Product Organization

This article discusses the experience of transitioning from a consumer web application to enterprise software, and the difficulty of connecting to the business value. The author took action by retraining their mind to think like a product organization, hiring a technical program manager, and implementing product metrics and a feature prioritization framework. As a result, the engineering teams were able to build customer-facing products and create a revenue-generating feature in less than a month. The author learned that product and engineering should be under one organization, and that having a product-minded engineering leader will result in better products.

Implementing an Internship Program

An internship committee was created within the web organization to vet interns and assign them to teams with mentors. The interns participate in all work scrum activities and are embedded as part of the team for three months. Community service projects, lunches with mentors, and a final presentation are also incorporated into the program. The program has been successful, with one intern hired per year, and feedback from interns has been positive.

Scaling an Organization

This article discusses the problem of having no tech leads and how the development team was divided into scrum teams with tech leads and managers. It also outlines the lesson learned from this experience, which is that it is better to have five to eight direct reports and that scalability within a team is important for onboarding engineers.

Measuring Quality and Getting the Team to Buy-In

The health framework was created to measure code quality, velocity of code shipping, and impact, but when it was first published, complications arose due to doubts about how the data would be used. Actions were taken to reassure developers that the data was not being used to single out people, but rather to start conversations about areas to improve. Lessons learned include that the framework is a good tool to show how external factors can affect productivity, that people are more open to accepting it, and that progress is being made to make the organization more efficient.

Creating Focused Paths for Growth

In response to feedback from team members, the organization created three paths for career growth: a technical lead path, an architect path, and a manager path. This was supported by the TILES framework and a strategy document, as well as an engineering health framework. The implementation of these paths was adjusted to provide a softer transition for those crossing over to a manager role, and to separate tech leads from HR duties.

Step Out of the Way to Allow Engineers Thrive

This article discusses the importance of creating an environment where passionate engineers can thrive. It shares a story of a junior engineer who had a bold idea to rewrite a critical component, and how the author decided to let him do it despite their doubts. The article emphasizes the importance of taking risks and letting go of biases and fears when someone is passionate about doing something bold.

The Importance of Hiring at Speed

This article discusses the challenge of hiring good talent in Silicon Valley, and how the author was able to successfully hire 20+ engineers in a short amount of time. The author designed a recruiting process that optimized for a superior candidate experience, and focused on quickly identifying and engaging with candidates with the desired traits. The article emphasizes the importance of creating a warm and respectful interview experience, as it can be an effective way to compete against well-known and well-funded companies.

How to Establish Yourself as a New Engineering Leader

Joining a new engineering team can be intimidating, but it is possible to establish yourself as a leader by being genuine and authentic, helping the team out, getting to know the people, reading up on the product and stack, and understanding the customers. Investing time in these areas will help to earn the team's trust.

Lessons Learned from a CSO’s First 100 Days

The chief security officer (CSO) of Relativity recently completed their first 100 days and has come up with some recommendations to help new CSOs navigate their first few months. These include taking time to assess the current state, aligning security with the business, creating ambassadors, picking concrete collaborators, and investing in people. The most important thing a new CSO can do is to create a compelling vision and communicate it effectively.

Career Enrichment Sessions: the Coaching of Soft Skills

A manager and engineer had difficulty working together due to the engineer's quick temper and unwillingness to accept changes to his code. To address the issue, they began holding weekly "Career Enrichment" sessions to read a book on emotional intelligence and log their faults and critiques for each other. After a year of collaboration, the engineer has grown significantly and the sessions continue. This experience has taught the manager and engineer the importance of taking time to reflect and learn from each other.

Structuring Using Tools, Measurements, and a Spreadsheet of Expectations

This company quickly grew from 150 to 600 employees and needed to implement a better structure and guidelines to measure team members. A team effort was made to standardize the structure, including implementing tools to measure technical debt, code quality, and efficiency. A spreadsheet was created to list out expectations for each engineering level, and Phase II will focus on non-measurable aspects such as collaboration, communication, attitude, and reliability. Lessons learned include the need for structure, careful rollout of new frameworks, and use of numbers to tell a story.

Handling the Stress of Working Two Leadership Positions

The author was placed in a dual role of management and tech lead, which became too difficult to balance. After discussing the issue with their manager, the roles were split into two individual positions and the author chose to focus on management. The author learned the importance of good communication and not dragging oneself along in a situation that is not working.

Disagreement? Put Yourself in the Other Person’s Shoes

When faced with a conflict with a manager, it is important to take a step back and try to understand the situation from their perspective. In this case, the manager was trying to help and mentor the employee, and the employee was able to find a middle ground by trusting the manager's judgement and understanding the value of being uncomfortable.

Building a Team Vision

This article discusses how a manager was able to turn around an unmotivated team of engineers by giving them a vision and direction to work towards. Through research, group discussions, and aligning the team's vision with the company's, the manager was able to motivate the team and turn a legacy system into a healthy one. The article also highlights the importance of having a vision that is motivating and comes from both top-down and bottom-up, as well as the need to align organizational and people growth.

Minimizing the Challenges Non-Native English Speakers Face in the Engineering Sector

This article discusses the challenges faced by engineers with English as a second language, and the unfair advantage that native English speakers have in the workplace. The author outlines a plan to help second language learners improve their English, including providing resources, setting stretch goals, and encouraging them to present to the engineering team. The article emphasizes the importance of offering developmental strategies to give second language learners the same opportunities as native English speakers.

Breaking the Ice: Navigating Cultural Differences and Building Relationships

An engineer with an H-1B visa experienced culture shock when he immigrated to the United States. His leader empathized with him and developed a plan to help him build relationships with his team and improve his English. As a result, the engineer became a top performer, is close to a promotion, and is much happier. The leader learned that it is important to help with outside problems in order to have a happier and more productive team.