Knowledge shared by our community

The Benefits of Restructuring Teams for Customer Use Cases

The author's previous company had an engineering and product structure that was misaligned, leading to a lack of customer-facing products or features. To address this, the author suggested restructuring the engineering and scrum teams to focus on customer use cases, bringing together technical problems to deliver a single customer outcome. This restructuring had many advantages, such as improved engineering efficiency, better alignment between product and engineering teams, and increased morale and motivation of the team. The author's key lessons learned were that restructuring can be hard to implement, scrum teams don't have to reflect reporting structure, and having a roadmap based on customer problems rather than features leads to higher product development efficiency.

Techniques for Managing Upward and Outward

This article discusses the importance of managing outward in order to ensure effective communication and collaboration between teams. The author implemented a framework to discuss successes, failures, and support needs in weekly collaboration meetings. Through this process, the author learned that reflecting on successes, expressing vulnerability, and asking for help were key to building trust and creating a culture of collaboration.

Building a Career Ladder for Employees at an Early Stage Company

When the author's first employee asked for a promotion, the author created a career ladder with four pillars: UX/PM skills, productivity, communication, and leadership. This ladder was shared with all employees proactively and enabled them to have tangible career growth conversations. The author learned to be proactive and transparent with expectations and to articulate expectations around critical soft skills.

Designing a Successful App Using Lean and Agile Principles

A team successfully launched an app that went viral by using Lean/Agile principles. They validated their idea, knew their ideal user, built small, shipped imperfect products, tested actual users, iterated often, tied into human behavior, guided people, and measured the important stuff. They learned to create and launch a smart and simple product, know their target user, and open source their code.

Taking Ownership and Empowering Your Team

This article discusses the importance of taking responsibility as a leader and how to do so effectively. It outlines the steps to take ownership of failure, such as asking questions to determine if it was indeed the leader's fault, and how to move forward. It also discusses the importance of root cause analysis meetings, team over individual, and focused disagreement. It emphasizes the need for courage and humility to be an effective leader.

Steps to Take with an Underperforming Employee Before Implementing a PIP

Managers should have sufficient documentation when dealing with an underperforming employee, and should discuss the issue with the employee and provide feedback to correct it. Shared documentation, explicit articulation of consequences, and a coaching memo can help transition the employee out of the company. This process can take up to 6 months and has a 15-20% success rate. It is important to provide support to the employee and be aware of other employees' reactions.

‘Pretotyping’ - Prototyping Without the Hassle

Pretotyping is a process that allows you to test the demand for a product before investing time and money into building it. It involves developing a platform with criteria, creating a trial group, and measuring the number of people who are willing to pay for the service. It can save time, effort, and money, and it is a smart way to test demand before investing in a product.

Transitioning from Marketing to Product: A Non-Tech in Tech

A marketer with no traditional tech skillset was given the opportunity to lead a customer migration project for a major replatform project. Through saying yes to the role and taking on tasks, they were able to learn the development lifecycle, build relationships with experts, and ask questions to gain knowledge. They learned that it's ok to not know everything, and to use their strengths to their advantage. They also learned to start conversations with what they do know, and to find advocates to soundboard with when stuck.

ICs Managing Upward to a VP

This article discusses how an individual contributor was able to build a successful relationship with a new vice president by taking initiative and showing interest in the VP's goals and vision. The individual contributor took action by paying attention in meetings, taking detailed notes, volunteering for extra assignments, and delivering strategic projects on-time and on-budget. The article also provides lessons learned, such as taking action, studying the person you are managing up to, and being true to yourself.

The Necessity of Reorganization of teams and processes in a Growing Company

As the business grew, the product and engineering teams faced three main problems: dependencies between teams, customer-focused culture, and team size. Leaders adjusted their perspective, created a source of truth Execution Roadmap, and implemented a semi-permanent team structure to address these problems. After four months, the company was able to release features efficiently while keeping the team motivated. At key stages of a company's scaling, leadership must reorganize both teams and processes to ensure success.

Why a Data Science Team is Advantageous

This article discusses how data science teams can use predictive modeling to provide insights into projects and decisions. It also explains how data science teams should be constantly learning and have project ownership, and encourages leadership teams to create avenues for the free exchange of ideas and knowledge throughout the company.

You acquired a new company -- now what?

This article outlines the steps to effectively manage an acquisition, such as getting an executive commitment on success, building trust with the founders, getting to know the acquired team, developing new leadership talent, visiting frequently, and encouraging cross team communication. These steps are important to ensure the acquired company feels part of the greater whole and to ensure a successful integration.

Managing through a seismic departure shift within an org

The company experienced a chaotic 6-9 months after the sudden passing of their CEO, including hiring a new CEO, layoffs, and many departures. The leadership team in Engineering took steps to maintain strong team communication, reassure key engineers, start hiring, and keep the focus on shipping new features. They learned that it is important to communicate authentically about departures, thank outgoing employees, re-hire, and get back into the rhythm of shipping code.

Motivating a Quiet, Underperforming Engineer

When a senior engineer on a high performing team was underperforming, the manager took action to understand the issue. After validating his assumptions, the manager subtly hinted at missed opportunities and asked the engineer to compare his level to the rest of the team. Through this, the manager realized the engineer lacked confidence and encouraged him to take risks and not be afraid to make mistakes. The manager learned that validating assumptions, creating a safe environment, and avoiding pep talks are important for managing underperformers.

Growing Leaders Through Participatory Goal-Setting

This article describes a goal-setting exercise that was conducted by an organization of 15 engineers. The exercise was designed to be a bottoms-up exercise to get better buy-in and enable creativity. It was conducted over two half-days and focused on solving existing problems and creating aspirational goals. At the end of the exercise, six high-level improvement goals were identified. Each engineer was asked to pick an area they were interested in and brainstorm ideas/projects/processes to meet those goals. The results were great and the initiatives enabled the organization to create a common language about leadership and skill growth. In retrospect, it was noted that six goals were too many and that it would have been better to prioritize the top three goals.

Transitioning from IC to Management: Allow Yourself to be Hands-Off

After moving into an Engineering Manager role, the author had to learn to delegate tasks to their team and become selective of the project related meetings they attended. This allowed them to focus on tasks that only they could do, such as hiring and strategy, while allowing members of their team to grow in areas they may be weak at. The author also learned to stay close to a couple of projects, but not try to stay close to all of them, depending on their motivation.

Effectively Managing New Teams After a Reorg

When taking on new teams, it is important to assess and learn before correcting. Establish clarity and purpose, set boundaries, and provide the necessary resources and tools for success. Regularly meet with team leads and consider reading The First 90 Days for guidance. Spend time with all teams, prioritize, and give autonomy where deserved.

Aligning with the Goals of Non-Technical Management

Aligning technical goals with business goals is a common challenge for startups. This article provides tactical tips on how to have a constructive conversation with non-technical leads of a company to ensure that goals are aligned. The article suggests that both sides should list their goals, be considerate of certain milestones, quantify what is being built and why, and come to a compromise. Ultimately, both sides should have the same end goals and be honest with each other.

Job Transitioning Due to Frustration in Current Role

It is important to know when to stay in a job and when to move on. If you are looking to exit gracefully, it is important to keep your current role and create a plan for the future. When talking to companies, focus on the people in the organization. Additionally, people tend to stay in their roles too long and leave their jobs too late. It is important to find a job where you can have a good time and do your best work.

Performance Management and Promotional Processes in Startups

This article outlines ways for early stage startups to approach performance management and promotional development. It suggests establishing a good cadence, giving team members stretch work, collecting data, and conducting performance reviews every three months. It also emphasizes the importance of defining and articulating the promotional process, and understanding the difference between promotions and raises.

The Benefits of Restructuring Teams for Customer Use Cases

The author's previous company had an engineering and product structure that was misaligned, leading to a lack of customer-facing products or features. To address this, the author suggested restructuring the engineering and scrum teams to focus on customer use cases, bringing together technical problems to deliver a single customer outcome. This restructuring had many advantages, such as improved engineering efficiency, better alignment between product and engineering teams, and increased morale and motivation of the team. The author's key lessons learned were that restructuring can be hard to implement, scrum teams don't have to reflect reporting structure, and having a roadmap based on customer problems rather than features leads to higher product development efficiency.

Techniques for Managing Upward and Outward

This article discusses the importance of managing outward in order to ensure effective communication and collaboration between teams. The author implemented a framework to discuss successes, failures, and support needs in weekly collaboration meetings. Through this process, the author learned that reflecting on successes, expressing vulnerability, and asking for help were key to building trust and creating a culture of collaboration.

Building a Career Ladder for Employees at an Early Stage Company

When the author's first employee asked for a promotion, the author created a career ladder with four pillars: UX/PM skills, productivity, communication, and leadership. This ladder was shared with all employees proactively and enabled them to have tangible career growth conversations. The author learned to be proactive and transparent with expectations and to articulate expectations around critical soft skills.

Designing a Successful App Using Lean and Agile Principles

A team successfully launched an app that went viral by using Lean/Agile principles. They validated their idea, knew their ideal user, built small, shipped imperfect products, tested actual users, iterated often, tied into human behavior, guided people, and measured the important stuff. They learned to create and launch a smart and simple product, know their target user, and open source their code.

Taking Ownership and Empowering Your Team

This article discusses the importance of taking responsibility as a leader and how to do so effectively. It outlines the steps to take ownership of failure, such as asking questions to determine if it was indeed the leader's fault, and how to move forward. It also discusses the importance of root cause analysis meetings, team over individual, and focused disagreement. It emphasizes the need for courage and humility to be an effective leader.

Steps to Take with an Underperforming Employee Before Implementing a PIP

Managers should have sufficient documentation when dealing with an underperforming employee, and should discuss the issue with the employee and provide feedback to correct it. Shared documentation, explicit articulation of consequences, and a coaching memo can help transition the employee out of the company. This process can take up to 6 months and has a 15-20% success rate. It is important to provide support to the employee and be aware of other employees' reactions.

‘Pretotyping’ - Prototyping Without the Hassle

Pretotyping is a process that allows you to test the demand for a product before investing time and money into building it. It involves developing a platform with criteria, creating a trial group, and measuring the number of people who are willing to pay for the service. It can save time, effort, and money, and it is a smart way to test demand before investing in a product.

Transitioning from Marketing to Product: A Non-Tech in Tech

A marketer with no traditional tech skillset was given the opportunity to lead a customer migration project for a major replatform project. Through saying yes to the role and taking on tasks, they were able to learn the development lifecycle, build relationships with experts, and ask questions to gain knowledge. They learned that it's ok to not know everything, and to use their strengths to their advantage. They also learned to start conversations with what they do know, and to find advocates to soundboard with when stuck.

ICs Managing Upward to a VP

This article discusses how an individual contributor was able to build a successful relationship with a new vice president by taking initiative and showing interest in the VP's goals and vision. The individual contributor took action by paying attention in meetings, taking detailed notes, volunteering for extra assignments, and delivering strategic projects on-time and on-budget. The article also provides lessons learned, such as taking action, studying the person you are managing up to, and being true to yourself.

The Necessity of Reorganization of teams and processes in a Growing Company

As the business grew, the product and engineering teams faced three main problems: dependencies between teams, customer-focused culture, and team size. Leaders adjusted their perspective, created a source of truth Execution Roadmap, and implemented a semi-permanent team structure to address these problems. After four months, the company was able to release features efficiently while keeping the team motivated. At key stages of a company's scaling, leadership must reorganize both teams and processes to ensure success.

Why a Data Science Team is Advantageous

This article discusses how data science teams can use predictive modeling to provide insights into projects and decisions. It also explains how data science teams should be constantly learning and have project ownership, and encourages leadership teams to create avenues for the free exchange of ideas and knowledge throughout the company.

You acquired a new company -- now what?

This article outlines the steps to effectively manage an acquisition, such as getting an executive commitment on success, building trust with the founders, getting to know the acquired team, developing new leadership talent, visiting frequently, and encouraging cross team communication. These steps are important to ensure the acquired company feels part of the greater whole and to ensure a successful integration.

Managing through a seismic departure shift within an org

The company experienced a chaotic 6-9 months after the sudden passing of their CEO, including hiring a new CEO, layoffs, and many departures. The leadership team in Engineering took steps to maintain strong team communication, reassure key engineers, start hiring, and keep the focus on shipping new features. They learned that it is important to communicate authentically about departures, thank outgoing employees, re-hire, and get back into the rhythm of shipping code.

Motivating a Quiet, Underperforming Engineer

When a senior engineer on a high performing team was underperforming, the manager took action to understand the issue. After validating his assumptions, the manager subtly hinted at missed opportunities and asked the engineer to compare his level to the rest of the team. Through this, the manager realized the engineer lacked confidence and encouraged him to take risks and not be afraid to make mistakes. The manager learned that validating assumptions, creating a safe environment, and avoiding pep talks are important for managing underperformers.

Growing Leaders Through Participatory Goal-Setting

This article describes a goal-setting exercise that was conducted by an organization of 15 engineers. The exercise was designed to be a bottoms-up exercise to get better buy-in and enable creativity. It was conducted over two half-days and focused on solving existing problems and creating aspirational goals. At the end of the exercise, six high-level improvement goals were identified. Each engineer was asked to pick an area they were interested in and brainstorm ideas/projects/processes to meet those goals. The results were great and the initiatives enabled the organization to create a common language about leadership and skill growth. In retrospect, it was noted that six goals were too many and that it would have been better to prioritize the top three goals.

Transitioning from IC to Management: Allow Yourself to be Hands-Off

After moving into an Engineering Manager role, the author had to learn to delegate tasks to their team and become selective of the project related meetings they attended. This allowed them to focus on tasks that only they could do, such as hiring and strategy, while allowing members of their team to grow in areas they may be weak at. The author also learned to stay close to a couple of projects, but not try to stay close to all of them, depending on their motivation.

Effectively Managing New Teams After a Reorg

When taking on new teams, it is important to assess and learn before correcting. Establish clarity and purpose, set boundaries, and provide the necessary resources and tools for success. Regularly meet with team leads and consider reading The First 90 Days for guidance. Spend time with all teams, prioritize, and give autonomy where deserved.

Aligning with the Goals of Non-Technical Management

Aligning technical goals with business goals is a common challenge for startups. This article provides tactical tips on how to have a constructive conversation with non-technical leads of a company to ensure that goals are aligned. The article suggests that both sides should list their goals, be considerate of certain milestones, quantify what is being built and why, and come to a compromise. Ultimately, both sides should have the same end goals and be honest with each other.

Job Transitioning Due to Frustration in Current Role

It is important to know when to stay in a job and when to move on. If you are looking to exit gracefully, it is important to keep your current role and create a plan for the future. When talking to companies, focus on the people in the organization. Additionally, people tend to stay in their roles too long and leave their jobs too late. It is important to find a job where you can have a good time and do your best work.

Performance Management and Promotional Processes in Startups

This article outlines ways for early stage startups to approach performance management and promotional development. It suggests establishing a good cadence, giving team members stretch work, collecting data, and conducting performance reviews every three months. It also emphasizes the importance of defining and articulating the promotional process, and understanding the difference between promotions and raises.

The Benefits of Restructuring Teams for Customer Use Cases

The author's previous company had an engineering and product structure that was misaligned, leading to a lack of customer-facing products or features. To address this, the author suggested restructuring the engineering and scrum teams to focus on customer use cases, bringing together technical problems to deliver a single customer outcome. This restructuring had many advantages, such as improved engineering efficiency, better alignment between product and engineering teams, and increased morale and motivation of the team. The author's key lessons learned were that restructuring can be hard to implement, scrum teams don't have to reflect reporting structure, and having a roadmap based on customer problems rather than features leads to higher product development efficiency.

Techniques for Managing Upward and Outward

This article discusses the importance of managing outward in order to ensure effective communication and collaboration between teams. The author implemented a framework to discuss successes, failures, and support needs in weekly collaboration meetings. Through this process, the author learned that reflecting on successes, expressing vulnerability, and asking for help were key to building trust and creating a culture of collaboration.

Building a Career Ladder for Employees at an Early Stage Company

When the author's first employee asked for a promotion, the author created a career ladder with four pillars: UX/PM skills, productivity, communication, and leadership. This ladder was shared with all employees proactively and enabled them to have tangible career growth conversations. The author learned to be proactive and transparent with expectations and to articulate expectations around critical soft skills.

Designing a Successful App Using Lean and Agile Principles

A team successfully launched an app that went viral by using Lean/Agile principles. They validated their idea, knew their ideal user, built small, shipped imperfect products, tested actual users, iterated often, tied into human behavior, guided people, and measured the important stuff. They learned to create and launch a smart and simple product, know their target user, and open source their code.

Taking Ownership and Empowering Your Team

This article discusses the importance of taking responsibility as a leader and how to do so effectively. It outlines the steps to take ownership of failure, such as asking questions to determine if it was indeed the leader's fault, and how to move forward. It also discusses the importance of root cause analysis meetings, team over individual, and focused disagreement. It emphasizes the need for courage and humility to be an effective leader.

Steps to Take with an Underperforming Employee Before Implementing a PIP

Managers should have sufficient documentation when dealing with an underperforming employee, and should discuss the issue with the employee and provide feedback to correct it. Shared documentation, explicit articulation of consequences, and a coaching memo can help transition the employee out of the company. This process can take up to 6 months and has a 15-20% success rate. It is important to provide support to the employee and be aware of other employees' reactions.

‘Pretotyping’ - Prototyping Without the Hassle

Pretotyping is a process that allows you to test the demand for a product before investing time and money into building it. It involves developing a platform with criteria, creating a trial group, and measuring the number of people who are willing to pay for the service. It can save time, effort, and money, and it is a smart way to test demand before investing in a product.

Transitioning from Marketing to Product: A Non-Tech in Tech

A marketer with no traditional tech skillset was given the opportunity to lead a customer migration project for a major replatform project. Through saying yes to the role and taking on tasks, they were able to learn the development lifecycle, build relationships with experts, and ask questions to gain knowledge. They learned that it's ok to not know everything, and to use their strengths to their advantage. They also learned to start conversations with what they do know, and to find advocates to soundboard with when stuck.

ICs Managing Upward to a VP

This article discusses how an individual contributor was able to build a successful relationship with a new vice president by taking initiative and showing interest in the VP's goals and vision. The individual contributor took action by paying attention in meetings, taking detailed notes, volunteering for extra assignments, and delivering strategic projects on-time and on-budget. The article also provides lessons learned, such as taking action, studying the person you are managing up to, and being true to yourself.

The Necessity of Reorganization of teams and processes in a Growing Company

As the business grew, the product and engineering teams faced three main problems: dependencies between teams, customer-focused culture, and team size. Leaders adjusted their perspective, created a source of truth Execution Roadmap, and implemented a semi-permanent team structure to address these problems. After four months, the company was able to release features efficiently while keeping the team motivated. At key stages of a company's scaling, leadership must reorganize both teams and processes to ensure success.

Why a Data Science Team is Advantageous

This article discusses how data science teams can use predictive modeling to provide insights into projects and decisions. It also explains how data science teams should be constantly learning and have project ownership, and encourages leadership teams to create avenues for the free exchange of ideas and knowledge throughout the company.

You acquired a new company -- now what?

This article outlines the steps to effectively manage an acquisition, such as getting an executive commitment on success, building trust with the founders, getting to know the acquired team, developing new leadership talent, visiting frequently, and encouraging cross team communication. These steps are important to ensure the acquired company feels part of the greater whole and to ensure a successful integration.

Managing through a seismic departure shift within an org

The company experienced a chaotic 6-9 months after the sudden passing of their CEO, including hiring a new CEO, layoffs, and many departures. The leadership team in Engineering took steps to maintain strong team communication, reassure key engineers, start hiring, and keep the focus on shipping new features. They learned that it is important to communicate authentically about departures, thank outgoing employees, re-hire, and get back into the rhythm of shipping code.

Motivating a Quiet, Underperforming Engineer

When a senior engineer on a high performing team was underperforming, the manager took action to understand the issue. After validating his assumptions, the manager subtly hinted at missed opportunities and asked the engineer to compare his level to the rest of the team. Through this, the manager realized the engineer lacked confidence and encouraged him to take risks and not be afraid to make mistakes. The manager learned that validating assumptions, creating a safe environment, and avoiding pep talks are important for managing underperformers.

Growing Leaders Through Participatory Goal-Setting

This article describes a goal-setting exercise that was conducted by an organization of 15 engineers. The exercise was designed to be a bottoms-up exercise to get better buy-in and enable creativity. It was conducted over two half-days and focused on solving existing problems and creating aspirational goals. At the end of the exercise, six high-level improvement goals were identified. Each engineer was asked to pick an area they were interested in and brainstorm ideas/projects/processes to meet those goals. The results were great and the initiatives enabled the organization to create a common language about leadership and skill growth. In retrospect, it was noted that six goals were too many and that it would have been better to prioritize the top three goals.

Transitioning from IC to Management: Allow Yourself to be Hands-Off

After moving into an Engineering Manager role, the author had to learn to delegate tasks to their team and become selective of the project related meetings they attended. This allowed them to focus on tasks that only they could do, such as hiring and strategy, while allowing members of their team to grow in areas they may be weak at. The author also learned to stay close to a couple of projects, but not try to stay close to all of them, depending on their motivation.

Effectively Managing New Teams After a Reorg

When taking on new teams, it is important to assess and learn before correcting. Establish clarity and purpose, set boundaries, and provide the necessary resources and tools for success. Regularly meet with team leads and consider reading The First 90 Days for guidance. Spend time with all teams, prioritize, and give autonomy where deserved.

Aligning with the Goals of Non-Technical Management

Aligning technical goals with business goals is a common challenge for startups. This article provides tactical tips on how to have a constructive conversation with non-technical leads of a company to ensure that goals are aligned. The article suggests that both sides should list their goals, be considerate of certain milestones, quantify what is being built and why, and come to a compromise. Ultimately, both sides should have the same end goals and be honest with each other.

Job Transitioning Due to Frustration in Current Role

It is important to know when to stay in a job and when to move on. If you are looking to exit gracefully, it is important to keep your current role and create a plan for the future. When talking to companies, focus on the people in the organization. Additionally, people tend to stay in their roles too long and leave their jobs too late. It is important to find a job where you can have a good time and do your best work.

Performance Management and Promotional Processes in Startups

This article outlines ways for early stage startups to approach performance management and promotional development. It suggests establishing a good cadence, giving team members stretch work, collecting data, and conducting performance reviews every three months. It also emphasizes the importance of defining and articulating the promotional process, and understanding the difference between promotions and raises.

The Benefits of Restructuring Teams for Customer Use Cases

The author's previous company had an engineering and product structure that was misaligned, leading to a lack of customer-facing products or features. To address this, the author suggested restructuring the engineering and scrum teams to focus on customer use cases, bringing together technical problems to deliver a single customer outcome. This restructuring had many advantages, such as improved engineering efficiency, better alignment between product and engineering teams, and increased morale and motivation of the team. The author's key lessons learned were that restructuring can be hard to implement, scrum teams don't have to reflect reporting structure, and having a roadmap based on customer problems rather than features leads to higher product development efficiency.

Techniques for Managing Upward and Outward

This article discusses the importance of managing outward in order to ensure effective communication and collaboration between teams. The author implemented a framework to discuss successes, failures, and support needs in weekly collaboration meetings. Through this process, the author learned that reflecting on successes, expressing vulnerability, and asking for help were key to building trust and creating a culture of collaboration.

Building a Career Ladder for Employees at an Early Stage Company

When the author's first employee asked for a promotion, the author created a career ladder with four pillars: UX/PM skills, productivity, communication, and leadership. This ladder was shared with all employees proactively and enabled them to have tangible career growth conversations. The author learned to be proactive and transparent with expectations and to articulate expectations around critical soft skills.

Designing a Successful App Using Lean and Agile Principles

A team successfully launched an app that went viral by using Lean/Agile principles. They validated their idea, knew their ideal user, built small, shipped imperfect products, tested actual users, iterated often, tied into human behavior, guided people, and measured the important stuff. They learned to create and launch a smart and simple product, know their target user, and open source their code.

Taking Ownership and Empowering Your Team

This article discusses the importance of taking responsibility as a leader and how to do so effectively. It outlines the steps to take ownership of failure, such as asking questions to determine if it was indeed the leader's fault, and how to move forward. It also discusses the importance of root cause analysis meetings, team over individual, and focused disagreement. It emphasizes the need for courage and humility to be an effective leader.

Steps to Take with an Underperforming Employee Before Implementing a PIP

Managers should have sufficient documentation when dealing with an underperforming employee, and should discuss the issue with the employee and provide feedback to correct it. Shared documentation, explicit articulation of consequences, and a coaching memo can help transition the employee out of the company. This process can take up to 6 months and has a 15-20% success rate. It is important to provide support to the employee and be aware of other employees' reactions.

‘Pretotyping’ - Prototyping Without the Hassle

Pretotyping is a process that allows you to test the demand for a product before investing time and money into building it. It involves developing a platform with criteria, creating a trial group, and measuring the number of people who are willing to pay for the service. It can save time, effort, and money, and it is a smart way to test demand before investing in a product.

Transitioning from Marketing to Product: A Non-Tech in Tech

A marketer with no traditional tech skillset was given the opportunity to lead a customer migration project for a major replatform project. Through saying yes to the role and taking on tasks, they were able to learn the development lifecycle, build relationships with experts, and ask questions to gain knowledge. They learned that it's ok to not know everything, and to use their strengths to their advantage. They also learned to start conversations with what they do know, and to find advocates to soundboard with when stuck.

ICs Managing Upward to a VP

This article discusses how an individual contributor was able to build a successful relationship with a new vice president by taking initiative and showing interest in the VP's goals and vision. The individual contributor took action by paying attention in meetings, taking detailed notes, volunteering for extra assignments, and delivering strategic projects on-time and on-budget. The article also provides lessons learned, such as taking action, studying the person you are managing up to, and being true to yourself.

The Necessity of Reorganization of teams and processes in a Growing Company

As the business grew, the product and engineering teams faced three main problems: dependencies between teams, customer-focused culture, and team size. Leaders adjusted their perspective, created a source of truth Execution Roadmap, and implemented a semi-permanent team structure to address these problems. After four months, the company was able to release features efficiently while keeping the team motivated. At key stages of a company's scaling, leadership must reorganize both teams and processes to ensure success.

Why a Data Science Team is Advantageous

This article discusses how data science teams can use predictive modeling to provide insights into projects and decisions. It also explains how data science teams should be constantly learning and have project ownership, and encourages leadership teams to create avenues for the free exchange of ideas and knowledge throughout the company.

You acquired a new company -- now what?

This article outlines the steps to effectively manage an acquisition, such as getting an executive commitment on success, building trust with the founders, getting to know the acquired team, developing new leadership talent, visiting frequently, and encouraging cross team communication. These steps are important to ensure the acquired company feels part of the greater whole and to ensure a successful integration.

Managing through a seismic departure shift within an org

The company experienced a chaotic 6-9 months after the sudden passing of their CEO, including hiring a new CEO, layoffs, and many departures. The leadership team in Engineering took steps to maintain strong team communication, reassure key engineers, start hiring, and keep the focus on shipping new features. They learned that it is important to communicate authentically about departures, thank outgoing employees, re-hire, and get back into the rhythm of shipping code.

Motivating a Quiet, Underperforming Engineer

When a senior engineer on a high performing team was underperforming, the manager took action to understand the issue. After validating his assumptions, the manager subtly hinted at missed opportunities and asked the engineer to compare his level to the rest of the team. Through this, the manager realized the engineer lacked confidence and encouraged him to take risks and not be afraid to make mistakes. The manager learned that validating assumptions, creating a safe environment, and avoiding pep talks are important for managing underperformers.

Growing Leaders Through Participatory Goal-Setting

This article describes a goal-setting exercise that was conducted by an organization of 15 engineers. The exercise was designed to be a bottoms-up exercise to get better buy-in and enable creativity. It was conducted over two half-days and focused on solving existing problems and creating aspirational goals. At the end of the exercise, six high-level improvement goals were identified. Each engineer was asked to pick an area they were interested in and brainstorm ideas/projects/processes to meet those goals. The results were great and the initiatives enabled the organization to create a common language about leadership and skill growth. In retrospect, it was noted that six goals were too many and that it would have been better to prioritize the top three goals.

Transitioning from IC to Management: Allow Yourself to be Hands-Off

After moving into an Engineering Manager role, the author had to learn to delegate tasks to their team and become selective of the project related meetings they attended. This allowed them to focus on tasks that only they could do, such as hiring and strategy, while allowing members of their team to grow in areas they may be weak at. The author also learned to stay close to a couple of projects, but not try to stay close to all of them, depending on their motivation.

Effectively Managing New Teams After a Reorg

When taking on new teams, it is important to assess and learn before correcting. Establish clarity and purpose, set boundaries, and provide the necessary resources and tools for success. Regularly meet with team leads and consider reading The First 90 Days for guidance. Spend time with all teams, prioritize, and give autonomy where deserved.

Aligning with the Goals of Non-Technical Management

Aligning technical goals with business goals is a common challenge for startups. This article provides tactical tips on how to have a constructive conversation with non-technical leads of a company to ensure that goals are aligned. The article suggests that both sides should list their goals, be considerate of certain milestones, quantify what is being built and why, and come to a compromise. Ultimately, both sides should have the same end goals and be honest with each other.

Job Transitioning Due to Frustration in Current Role

It is important to know when to stay in a job and when to move on. If you are looking to exit gracefully, it is important to keep your current role and create a plan for the future. When talking to companies, focus on the people in the organization. Additionally, people tend to stay in their roles too long and leave their jobs too late. It is important to find a job where you can have a good time and do your best work.

Performance Management and Promotional Processes in Startups

This article outlines ways for early stage startups to approach performance management and promotional development. It suggests establishing a good cadence, giving team members stretch work, collecting data, and conducting performance reviews every three months. It also emphasizes the importance of defining and articulating the promotional process, and understanding the difference between promotions and raises.

The Benefits of Restructuring Teams for Customer Use Cases

The author's previous company had an engineering and product structure that was misaligned, leading to a lack of customer-facing products or features. To address this, the author suggested restructuring the engineering and scrum teams to focus on customer use cases, bringing together technical problems to deliver a single customer outcome. This restructuring had many advantages, such as improved engineering efficiency, better alignment between product and engineering teams, and increased morale and motivation of the team. The author's key lessons learned were that restructuring can be hard to implement, scrum teams don't have to reflect reporting structure, and having a roadmap based on customer problems rather than features leads to higher product development efficiency.

Techniques for Managing Upward and Outward

This article discusses the importance of managing outward in order to ensure effective communication and collaboration between teams. The author implemented a framework to discuss successes, failures, and support needs in weekly collaboration meetings. Through this process, the author learned that reflecting on successes, expressing vulnerability, and asking for help were key to building trust and creating a culture of collaboration.

Building a Career Ladder for Employees at an Early Stage Company

When the author's first employee asked for a promotion, the author created a career ladder with four pillars: UX/PM skills, productivity, communication, and leadership. This ladder was shared with all employees proactively and enabled them to have tangible career growth conversations. The author learned to be proactive and transparent with expectations and to articulate expectations around critical soft skills.

Designing a Successful App Using Lean and Agile Principles

A team successfully launched an app that went viral by using Lean/Agile principles. They validated their idea, knew their ideal user, built small, shipped imperfect products, tested actual users, iterated often, tied into human behavior, guided people, and measured the important stuff. They learned to create and launch a smart and simple product, know their target user, and open source their code.

Taking Ownership and Empowering Your Team

This article discusses the importance of taking responsibility as a leader and how to do so effectively. It outlines the steps to take ownership of failure, such as asking questions to determine if it was indeed the leader's fault, and how to move forward. It also discusses the importance of root cause analysis meetings, team over individual, and focused disagreement. It emphasizes the need for courage and humility to be an effective leader.

Steps to Take with an Underperforming Employee Before Implementing a PIP

Managers should have sufficient documentation when dealing with an underperforming employee, and should discuss the issue with the employee and provide feedback to correct it. Shared documentation, explicit articulation of consequences, and a coaching memo can help transition the employee out of the company. This process can take up to 6 months and has a 15-20% success rate. It is important to provide support to the employee and be aware of other employees' reactions.

‘Pretotyping’ - Prototyping Without the Hassle

Pretotyping is a process that allows you to test the demand for a product before investing time and money into building it. It involves developing a platform with criteria, creating a trial group, and measuring the number of people who are willing to pay for the service. It can save time, effort, and money, and it is a smart way to test demand before investing in a product.

Transitioning from Marketing to Product: A Non-Tech in Tech

A marketer with no traditional tech skillset was given the opportunity to lead a customer migration project for a major replatform project. Through saying yes to the role and taking on tasks, they were able to learn the development lifecycle, build relationships with experts, and ask questions to gain knowledge. They learned that it's ok to not know everything, and to use their strengths to their advantage. They also learned to start conversations with what they do know, and to find advocates to soundboard with when stuck.

ICs Managing Upward to a VP

This article discusses how an individual contributor was able to build a successful relationship with a new vice president by taking initiative and showing interest in the VP's goals and vision. The individual contributor took action by paying attention in meetings, taking detailed notes, volunteering for extra assignments, and delivering strategic projects on-time and on-budget. The article also provides lessons learned, such as taking action, studying the person you are managing up to, and being true to yourself.

The Necessity of Reorganization of teams and processes in a Growing Company

As the business grew, the product and engineering teams faced three main problems: dependencies between teams, customer-focused culture, and team size. Leaders adjusted their perspective, created a source of truth Execution Roadmap, and implemented a semi-permanent team structure to address these problems. After four months, the company was able to release features efficiently while keeping the team motivated. At key stages of a company's scaling, leadership must reorganize both teams and processes to ensure success.

Why a Data Science Team is Advantageous

This article discusses how data science teams can use predictive modeling to provide insights into projects and decisions. It also explains how data science teams should be constantly learning and have project ownership, and encourages leadership teams to create avenues for the free exchange of ideas and knowledge throughout the company.

You acquired a new company -- now what?

This article outlines the steps to effectively manage an acquisition, such as getting an executive commitment on success, building trust with the founders, getting to know the acquired team, developing new leadership talent, visiting frequently, and encouraging cross team communication. These steps are important to ensure the acquired company feels part of the greater whole and to ensure a successful integration.

Managing through a seismic departure shift within an org

The company experienced a chaotic 6-9 months after the sudden passing of their CEO, including hiring a new CEO, layoffs, and many departures. The leadership team in Engineering took steps to maintain strong team communication, reassure key engineers, start hiring, and keep the focus on shipping new features. They learned that it is important to communicate authentically about departures, thank outgoing employees, re-hire, and get back into the rhythm of shipping code.

Motivating a Quiet, Underperforming Engineer

When a senior engineer on a high performing team was underperforming, the manager took action to understand the issue. After validating his assumptions, the manager subtly hinted at missed opportunities and asked the engineer to compare his level to the rest of the team. Through this, the manager realized the engineer lacked confidence and encouraged him to take risks and not be afraid to make mistakes. The manager learned that validating assumptions, creating a safe environment, and avoiding pep talks are important for managing underperformers.

Growing Leaders Through Participatory Goal-Setting

This article describes a goal-setting exercise that was conducted by an organization of 15 engineers. The exercise was designed to be a bottoms-up exercise to get better buy-in and enable creativity. It was conducted over two half-days and focused on solving existing problems and creating aspirational goals. At the end of the exercise, six high-level improvement goals were identified. Each engineer was asked to pick an area they were interested in and brainstorm ideas/projects/processes to meet those goals. The results were great and the initiatives enabled the organization to create a common language about leadership and skill growth. In retrospect, it was noted that six goals were too many and that it would have been better to prioritize the top three goals.

Transitioning from IC to Management: Allow Yourself to be Hands-Off

After moving into an Engineering Manager role, the author had to learn to delegate tasks to their team and become selective of the project related meetings they attended. This allowed them to focus on tasks that only they could do, such as hiring and strategy, while allowing members of their team to grow in areas they may be weak at. The author also learned to stay close to a couple of projects, but not try to stay close to all of them, depending on their motivation.

Effectively Managing New Teams After a Reorg

When taking on new teams, it is important to assess and learn before correcting. Establish clarity and purpose, set boundaries, and provide the necessary resources and tools for success. Regularly meet with team leads and consider reading The First 90 Days for guidance. Spend time with all teams, prioritize, and give autonomy where deserved.

Aligning with the Goals of Non-Technical Management

Aligning technical goals with business goals is a common challenge for startups. This article provides tactical tips on how to have a constructive conversation with non-technical leads of a company to ensure that goals are aligned. The article suggests that both sides should list their goals, be considerate of certain milestones, quantify what is being built and why, and come to a compromise. Ultimately, both sides should have the same end goals and be honest with each other.

Job Transitioning Due to Frustration in Current Role

It is important to know when to stay in a job and when to move on. If you are looking to exit gracefully, it is important to keep your current role and create a plan for the future. When talking to companies, focus on the people in the organization. Additionally, people tend to stay in their roles too long and leave their jobs too late. It is important to find a job where you can have a good time and do your best work.

Performance Management and Promotional Processes in Startups

This article outlines ways for early stage startups to approach performance management and promotional development. It suggests establishing a good cadence, giving team members stretch work, collecting data, and conducting performance reviews every three months. It also emphasizes the importance of defining and articulating the promotional process, and understanding the difference between promotions and raises.

The Benefits of Restructuring Teams for Customer Use Cases

The author's previous company had an engineering and product structure that was misaligned, leading to a lack of customer-facing products or features. To address this, the author suggested restructuring the engineering and scrum teams to focus on customer use cases, bringing together technical problems to deliver a single customer outcome. This restructuring had many advantages, such as improved engineering efficiency, better alignment between product and engineering teams, and increased morale and motivation of the team. The author's key lessons learned were that restructuring can be hard to implement, scrum teams don't have to reflect reporting structure, and having a roadmap based on customer problems rather than features leads to higher product development efficiency.

Techniques for Managing Upward and Outward

This article discusses the importance of managing outward in order to ensure effective communication and collaboration between teams. The author implemented a framework to discuss successes, failures, and support needs in weekly collaboration meetings. Through this process, the author learned that reflecting on successes, expressing vulnerability, and asking for help were key to building trust and creating a culture of collaboration.

Building a Career Ladder for Employees at an Early Stage Company

When the author's first employee asked for a promotion, the author created a career ladder with four pillars: UX/PM skills, productivity, communication, and leadership. This ladder was shared with all employees proactively and enabled them to have tangible career growth conversations. The author learned to be proactive and transparent with expectations and to articulate expectations around critical soft skills.

Designing a Successful App Using Lean and Agile Principles

A team successfully launched an app that went viral by using Lean/Agile principles. They validated their idea, knew their ideal user, built small, shipped imperfect products, tested actual users, iterated often, tied into human behavior, guided people, and measured the important stuff. They learned to create and launch a smart and simple product, know their target user, and open source their code.

Taking Ownership and Empowering Your Team

This article discusses the importance of taking responsibility as a leader and how to do so effectively. It outlines the steps to take ownership of failure, such as asking questions to determine if it was indeed the leader's fault, and how to move forward. It also discusses the importance of root cause analysis meetings, team over individual, and focused disagreement. It emphasizes the need for courage and humility to be an effective leader.

Steps to Take with an Underperforming Employee Before Implementing a PIP

Managers should have sufficient documentation when dealing with an underperforming employee, and should discuss the issue with the employee and provide feedback to correct it. Shared documentation, explicit articulation of consequences, and a coaching memo can help transition the employee out of the company. This process can take up to 6 months and has a 15-20% success rate. It is important to provide support to the employee and be aware of other employees' reactions.

‘Pretotyping’ - Prototyping Without the Hassle

Pretotyping is a process that allows you to test the demand for a product before investing time and money into building it. It involves developing a platform with criteria, creating a trial group, and measuring the number of people who are willing to pay for the service. It can save time, effort, and money, and it is a smart way to test demand before investing in a product.

Transitioning from Marketing to Product: A Non-Tech in Tech

A marketer with no traditional tech skillset was given the opportunity to lead a customer migration project for a major replatform project. Through saying yes to the role and taking on tasks, they were able to learn the development lifecycle, build relationships with experts, and ask questions to gain knowledge. They learned that it's ok to not know everything, and to use their strengths to their advantage. They also learned to start conversations with what they do know, and to find advocates to soundboard with when stuck.

ICs Managing Upward to a VP

This article discusses how an individual contributor was able to build a successful relationship with a new vice president by taking initiative and showing interest in the VP's goals and vision. The individual contributor took action by paying attention in meetings, taking detailed notes, volunteering for extra assignments, and delivering strategic projects on-time and on-budget. The article also provides lessons learned, such as taking action, studying the person you are managing up to, and being true to yourself.

The Necessity of Reorganization of teams and processes in a Growing Company

As the business grew, the product and engineering teams faced three main problems: dependencies between teams, customer-focused culture, and team size. Leaders adjusted their perspective, created a source of truth Execution Roadmap, and implemented a semi-permanent team structure to address these problems. After four months, the company was able to release features efficiently while keeping the team motivated. At key stages of a company's scaling, leadership must reorganize both teams and processes to ensure success.

Why a Data Science Team is Advantageous

This article discusses how data science teams can use predictive modeling to provide insights into projects and decisions. It also explains how data science teams should be constantly learning and have project ownership, and encourages leadership teams to create avenues for the free exchange of ideas and knowledge throughout the company.

You acquired a new company -- now what?

This article outlines the steps to effectively manage an acquisition, such as getting an executive commitment on success, building trust with the founders, getting to know the acquired team, developing new leadership talent, visiting frequently, and encouraging cross team communication. These steps are important to ensure the acquired company feels part of the greater whole and to ensure a successful integration.

Managing through a seismic departure shift within an org

The company experienced a chaotic 6-9 months after the sudden passing of their CEO, including hiring a new CEO, layoffs, and many departures. The leadership team in Engineering took steps to maintain strong team communication, reassure key engineers, start hiring, and keep the focus on shipping new features. They learned that it is important to communicate authentically about departures, thank outgoing employees, re-hire, and get back into the rhythm of shipping code.

Motivating a Quiet, Underperforming Engineer

When a senior engineer on a high performing team was underperforming, the manager took action to understand the issue. After validating his assumptions, the manager subtly hinted at missed opportunities and asked the engineer to compare his level to the rest of the team. Through this, the manager realized the engineer lacked confidence and encouraged him to take risks and not be afraid to make mistakes. The manager learned that validating assumptions, creating a safe environment, and avoiding pep talks are important for managing underperformers.

Growing Leaders Through Participatory Goal-Setting

This article describes a goal-setting exercise that was conducted by an organization of 15 engineers. The exercise was designed to be a bottoms-up exercise to get better buy-in and enable creativity. It was conducted over two half-days and focused on solving existing problems and creating aspirational goals. At the end of the exercise, six high-level improvement goals were identified. Each engineer was asked to pick an area they were interested in and brainstorm ideas/projects/processes to meet those goals. The results were great and the initiatives enabled the organization to create a common language about leadership and skill growth. In retrospect, it was noted that six goals were too many and that it would have been better to prioritize the top three goals.

Transitioning from IC to Management: Allow Yourself to be Hands-Off

After moving into an Engineering Manager role, the author had to learn to delegate tasks to their team and become selective of the project related meetings they attended. This allowed them to focus on tasks that only they could do, such as hiring and strategy, while allowing members of their team to grow in areas they may be weak at. The author also learned to stay close to a couple of projects, but not try to stay close to all of them, depending on their motivation.

Effectively Managing New Teams After a Reorg

When taking on new teams, it is important to assess and learn before correcting. Establish clarity and purpose, set boundaries, and provide the necessary resources and tools for success. Regularly meet with team leads and consider reading The First 90 Days for guidance. Spend time with all teams, prioritize, and give autonomy where deserved.

Aligning with the Goals of Non-Technical Management

Aligning technical goals with business goals is a common challenge for startups. This article provides tactical tips on how to have a constructive conversation with non-technical leads of a company to ensure that goals are aligned. The article suggests that both sides should list their goals, be considerate of certain milestones, quantify what is being built and why, and come to a compromise. Ultimately, both sides should have the same end goals and be honest with each other.

Job Transitioning Due to Frustration in Current Role

It is important to know when to stay in a job and when to move on. If you are looking to exit gracefully, it is important to keep your current role and create a plan for the future. When talking to companies, focus on the people in the organization. Additionally, people tend to stay in their roles too long and leave their jobs too late. It is important to find a job where you can have a good time and do your best work.

Performance Management and Promotional Processes in Startups

This article outlines ways for early stage startups to approach performance management and promotional development. It suggests establishing a good cadence, giving team members stretch work, collecting data, and conducting performance reviews every three months. It also emphasizes the importance of defining and articulating the promotional process, and understanding the difference between promotions and raises.