Knowledge shared by our community

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.

A shared technical vision to manage your technical debt

Managing technical debt can be difficult, but it is important to find time to create and pursue a shared technical vision that all engineers can buy into. To do this, it is important to give engineers a voice, look ahead to what will impact the business in the future, establish a decision-making framework, and steer the team towards understanding the business. This will help the team reach their own conclusions about which technical tasks are the most important.

Specified Candidate Pools for Hiring Product Managers

When looking for a new product manager, the best approach is to attend niche hackathons, leverage trustworthy promoters and product hunters, and contact competitors. It is important to find someone who is great at product and passionate about the mission, and having a seasoned product manager can bring a systematic way of doing things. The head of product can still have strategic input while the product manager manages the products.

Managing Expectations and the Growth of Reports in a Matrix System

In a matrix system, it can be difficult to manage teams and expectations for projects that you are not managing. To optimize for the company's goals, it is important to be clear and transparent about expectations, set performance goals, and present opportunities for growth. Additionally, it is important to be in the weeds with the team to understand what stories the engineers are working on in order to evaluate for future productivity and performance.

Interviewing for Management- Answering and Then Asking

Interviews for leadership and management positions are important for both the interviewer and the interviewee. This article provides two example interview questions and tips on how to effectively answer them. It also provides tips on how to conduct yourself in an interview, such as asking leading questions and offering hooks for the interviewer to learn more about you. Additionally, it suggests two books to read to help you better understand the art of management.

Do You Know What Motivates and Drives Your Junior Developers?

As a manager of junior developers, it is important to tailor a different approach to each individual, build trust, and use one-on-one time to have them reflect on their own personal growth. Ask abstract questions to get them to think beyond their day-to-day tasks and build out a framework for what it looks like to move progressively upward in the company. Ultimately, the junior engineer needs to be intrinsically motivated for their own success and growth.

Shaping Metric Improvements

This article outlines ways to set and hold teams accountable to metrics. It suggests centralizing teams working on the same metric, picking metrics ahead of time and publicly, A/B testing components, and focusing on metric lifts rather than absolute numbers. It also emphasizes the importance of having a great product manager who can help brainstorm ideas and take stress off the team.

Negative or Positive - How to Manage the Influential Impact Engineers Have on a Team

In engineering teams, one or two people can have a large influence on the team, either positively or negatively. To address this issue, it is important to build a better rapport with the primary influencer, have them understand the negative impact their attitude is having on the team, and get them to buy into the idea of creating a team of high performers. If that doesn't work, reach out to the second most influential person or the most junior person to drive motivation through competition. It is important to be open and honest with the influencer to make them realize the impression they are leaving on the company and those around them.

Engineers - How to Best Support Product Managers During an Integration

As an engineer, it is important to build overlap with other teams and move projects forward. To do this, it is important to ask the PM trick questions to help them understand the process and come up with a better method. It is also important to be repetitive and start with the basics when explaining a process. This will help the PM understand the product better and be able to explain it to the customer. A PM is like a Swiss Army knife, in that while it may not be the best tool, it can be used if opened.

Improving Product Release and Functionality

This article discusses the common mistake of releasing a product with too many features that nobody will use. It outlines the steps taken to launch the first version of the product, get feedback from users, and make changes in a simple and modular way. It also highlights the lessons learned from this process, such as the importance of getting direct feedback from users, the difficulty of making changes to heavily intertwined code, and the benefits of making shortcut decisions to manage technical debt.

Advice for Engineers as First Time Managers

Making the transition from an engineering role to a managerial one can be daunting, but it is possible to make the change successfully. It is important to understand the role and its expectations, as well as to analyze where the excitement lies for you. Scoping should be the extent of your technical contribution, and you should value and judge your work through the execution of the team. It is also important to build trust with your team and to take advantage of feedback to measure your own success. Ultimately, the bulk of your learning will come from personal experiences.

Remaining Stable and Collaborative While Scaling

This article discusses strategies for keeping engineers motivated and committed while scaling a startup. It suggests using squad/cross-functional team organizations, delegating ownership, tracking performance expectations, doing continuous deployment, tracking KPIs, introducing a squad weekly summary, and allowing engineers to switch squads at a semester frequency. It also emphasizes the importance of giving engineers the right context to make decisions, investing in one-on-one meetings, and avoiding changing organization too often.

What to do when you are leading a turnaround in your company

This is a story of a healthcare company with a product that had 7 versions of software supporting 1800 healthcare systems. The organization had embarked on a very ambitious new version release with large ownership given to the India Leadership team. Due to complexities, regulatory changes, and first time leadership, the release was delayed by 10 months. The current India Engg leadership was moved out and the author volunteered to step in. Through deep dive sessions, Open AMA sessions, and creating 12 teams of max 9 people, the author was able to commit to a full version release in 6 months and the product was successfully submitted for regulatory approval. The author learned that teams in the trenches always know what's going well and not, to localize and empower teams, to allow teams to take ownership, to create metrics that matter and enable the data to be seen by the team, to always communicate strongly and reiterate the goal and commitment, and to take decisions and keep moving forward.

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.

A shared technical vision to manage your technical debt

Managing technical debt can be difficult, but it is important to find time to create and pursue a shared technical vision that all engineers can buy into. To do this, it is important to give engineers a voice, look ahead to what will impact the business in the future, establish a decision-making framework, and steer the team towards understanding the business. This will help the team reach their own conclusions about which technical tasks are the most important.

Specified Candidate Pools for Hiring Product Managers

When looking for a new product manager, the best approach is to attend niche hackathons, leverage trustworthy promoters and product hunters, and contact competitors. It is important to find someone who is great at product and passionate about the mission, and having a seasoned product manager can bring a systematic way of doing things. The head of product can still have strategic input while the product manager manages the products.

Managing Expectations and the Growth of Reports in a Matrix System

In a matrix system, it can be difficult to manage teams and expectations for projects that you are not managing. To optimize for the company's goals, it is important to be clear and transparent about expectations, set performance goals, and present opportunities for growth. Additionally, it is important to be in the weeds with the team to understand what stories the engineers are working on in order to evaluate for future productivity and performance.

Interviewing for Management- Answering and Then Asking

Interviews for leadership and management positions are important for both the interviewer and the interviewee. This article provides two example interview questions and tips on how to effectively answer them. It also provides tips on how to conduct yourself in an interview, such as asking leading questions and offering hooks for the interviewer to learn more about you. Additionally, it suggests two books to read to help you better understand the art of management.

Do You Know What Motivates and Drives Your Junior Developers?

As a manager of junior developers, it is important to tailor a different approach to each individual, build trust, and use one-on-one time to have them reflect on their own personal growth. Ask abstract questions to get them to think beyond their day-to-day tasks and build out a framework for what it looks like to move progressively upward in the company. Ultimately, the junior engineer needs to be intrinsically motivated for their own success and growth.

Shaping Metric Improvements

This article outlines ways to set and hold teams accountable to metrics. It suggests centralizing teams working on the same metric, picking metrics ahead of time and publicly, A/B testing components, and focusing on metric lifts rather than absolute numbers. It also emphasizes the importance of having a great product manager who can help brainstorm ideas and take stress off the team.

Negative or Positive - How to Manage the Influential Impact Engineers Have on a Team

In engineering teams, one or two people can have a large influence on the team, either positively or negatively. To address this issue, it is important to build a better rapport with the primary influencer, have them understand the negative impact their attitude is having on the team, and get them to buy into the idea of creating a team of high performers. If that doesn't work, reach out to the second most influential person or the most junior person to drive motivation through competition. It is important to be open and honest with the influencer to make them realize the impression they are leaving on the company and those around them.

Engineers - How to Best Support Product Managers During an Integration

As an engineer, it is important to build overlap with other teams and move projects forward. To do this, it is important to ask the PM trick questions to help them understand the process and come up with a better method. It is also important to be repetitive and start with the basics when explaining a process. This will help the PM understand the product better and be able to explain it to the customer. A PM is like a Swiss Army knife, in that while it may not be the best tool, it can be used if opened.

Improving Product Release and Functionality

This article discusses the common mistake of releasing a product with too many features that nobody will use. It outlines the steps taken to launch the first version of the product, get feedback from users, and make changes in a simple and modular way. It also highlights the lessons learned from this process, such as the importance of getting direct feedback from users, the difficulty of making changes to heavily intertwined code, and the benefits of making shortcut decisions to manage technical debt.

Advice for Engineers as First Time Managers

Making the transition from an engineering role to a managerial one can be daunting, but it is possible to make the change successfully. It is important to understand the role and its expectations, as well as to analyze where the excitement lies for you. Scoping should be the extent of your technical contribution, and you should value and judge your work through the execution of the team. It is also important to build trust with your team and to take advantage of feedback to measure your own success. Ultimately, the bulk of your learning will come from personal experiences.

Remaining Stable and Collaborative While Scaling

This article discusses strategies for keeping engineers motivated and committed while scaling a startup. It suggests using squad/cross-functional team organizations, delegating ownership, tracking performance expectations, doing continuous deployment, tracking KPIs, introducing a squad weekly summary, and allowing engineers to switch squads at a semester frequency. It also emphasizes the importance of giving engineers the right context to make decisions, investing in one-on-one meetings, and avoiding changing organization too often.

What to do when you are leading a turnaround in your company

This is a story of a healthcare company with a product that had 7 versions of software supporting 1800 healthcare systems. The organization had embarked on a very ambitious new version release with large ownership given to the India Leadership team. Due to complexities, regulatory changes, and first time leadership, the release was delayed by 10 months. The current India Engg leadership was moved out and the author volunteered to step in. Through deep dive sessions, Open AMA sessions, and creating 12 teams of max 9 people, the author was able to commit to a full version release in 6 months and the product was successfully submitted for regulatory approval. The author learned that teams in the trenches always know what's going well and not, to localize and empower teams, to allow teams to take ownership, to create metrics that matter and enable the data to be seen by the team, to always communicate strongly and reiterate the goal and commitment, and to take decisions and keep moving forward.

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.

A shared technical vision to manage your technical debt

Managing technical debt can be difficult, but it is important to find time to create and pursue a shared technical vision that all engineers can buy into. To do this, it is important to give engineers a voice, look ahead to what will impact the business in the future, establish a decision-making framework, and steer the team towards understanding the business. This will help the team reach their own conclusions about which technical tasks are the most important.

Specified Candidate Pools for Hiring Product Managers

When looking for a new product manager, the best approach is to attend niche hackathons, leverage trustworthy promoters and product hunters, and contact competitors. It is important to find someone who is great at product and passionate about the mission, and having a seasoned product manager can bring a systematic way of doing things. The head of product can still have strategic input while the product manager manages the products.

Managing Expectations and the Growth of Reports in a Matrix System

In a matrix system, it can be difficult to manage teams and expectations for projects that you are not managing. To optimize for the company's goals, it is important to be clear and transparent about expectations, set performance goals, and present opportunities for growth. Additionally, it is important to be in the weeds with the team to understand what stories the engineers are working on in order to evaluate for future productivity and performance.

Interviewing for Management- Answering and Then Asking

Interviews for leadership and management positions are important for both the interviewer and the interviewee. This article provides two example interview questions and tips on how to effectively answer them. It also provides tips on how to conduct yourself in an interview, such as asking leading questions and offering hooks for the interviewer to learn more about you. Additionally, it suggests two books to read to help you better understand the art of management.

Do You Know What Motivates and Drives Your Junior Developers?

As a manager of junior developers, it is important to tailor a different approach to each individual, build trust, and use one-on-one time to have them reflect on their own personal growth. Ask abstract questions to get them to think beyond their day-to-day tasks and build out a framework for what it looks like to move progressively upward in the company. Ultimately, the junior engineer needs to be intrinsically motivated for their own success and growth.

Shaping Metric Improvements

This article outlines ways to set and hold teams accountable to metrics. It suggests centralizing teams working on the same metric, picking metrics ahead of time and publicly, A/B testing components, and focusing on metric lifts rather than absolute numbers. It also emphasizes the importance of having a great product manager who can help brainstorm ideas and take stress off the team.

Negative or Positive - How to Manage the Influential Impact Engineers Have on a Team

In engineering teams, one or two people can have a large influence on the team, either positively or negatively. To address this issue, it is important to build a better rapport with the primary influencer, have them understand the negative impact their attitude is having on the team, and get them to buy into the idea of creating a team of high performers. If that doesn't work, reach out to the second most influential person or the most junior person to drive motivation through competition. It is important to be open and honest with the influencer to make them realize the impression they are leaving on the company and those around them.

Engineers - How to Best Support Product Managers During an Integration

As an engineer, it is important to build overlap with other teams and move projects forward. To do this, it is important to ask the PM trick questions to help them understand the process and come up with a better method. It is also important to be repetitive and start with the basics when explaining a process. This will help the PM understand the product better and be able to explain it to the customer. A PM is like a Swiss Army knife, in that while it may not be the best tool, it can be used if opened.

Improving Product Release and Functionality

This article discusses the common mistake of releasing a product with too many features that nobody will use. It outlines the steps taken to launch the first version of the product, get feedback from users, and make changes in a simple and modular way. It also highlights the lessons learned from this process, such as the importance of getting direct feedback from users, the difficulty of making changes to heavily intertwined code, and the benefits of making shortcut decisions to manage technical debt.

Advice for Engineers as First Time Managers

Making the transition from an engineering role to a managerial one can be daunting, but it is possible to make the change successfully. It is important to understand the role and its expectations, as well as to analyze where the excitement lies for you. Scoping should be the extent of your technical contribution, and you should value and judge your work through the execution of the team. It is also important to build trust with your team and to take advantage of feedback to measure your own success. Ultimately, the bulk of your learning will come from personal experiences.

Remaining Stable and Collaborative While Scaling

This article discusses strategies for keeping engineers motivated and committed while scaling a startup. It suggests using squad/cross-functional team organizations, delegating ownership, tracking performance expectations, doing continuous deployment, tracking KPIs, introducing a squad weekly summary, and allowing engineers to switch squads at a semester frequency. It also emphasizes the importance of giving engineers the right context to make decisions, investing in one-on-one meetings, and avoiding changing organization too often.

What to do when you are leading a turnaround in your company

This is a story of a healthcare company with a product that had 7 versions of software supporting 1800 healthcare systems. The organization had embarked on a very ambitious new version release with large ownership given to the India Leadership team. Due to complexities, regulatory changes, and first time leadership, the release was delayed by 10 months. The current India Engg leadership was moved out and the author volunteered to step in. Through deep dive sessions, Open AMA sessions, and creating 12 teams of max 9 people, the author was able to commit to a full version release in 6 months and the product was successfully submitted for regulatory approval. The author learned that teams in the trenches always know what's going well and not, to localize and empower teams, to allow teams to take ownership, to create metrics that matter and enable the data to be seen by the team, to always communicate strongly and reiterate the goal and commitment, and to take decisions and keep moving forward.

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.

A shared technical vision to manage your technical debt

Managing technical debt can be difficult, but it is important to find time to create and pursue a shared technical vision that all engineers can buy into. To do this, it is important to give engineers a voice, look ahead to what will impact the business in the future, establish a decision-making framework, and steer the team towards understanding the business. This will help the team reach their own conclusions about which technical tasks are the most important.

Specified Candidate Pools for Hiring Product Managers

When looking for a new product manager, the best approach is to attend niche hackathons, leverage trustworthy promoters and product hunters, and contact competitors. It is important to find someone who is great at product and passionate about the mission, and having a seasoned product manager can bring a systematic way of doing things. The head of product can still have strategic input while the product manager manages the products.

Managing Expectations and the Growth of Reports in a Matrix System

In a matrix system, it can be difficult to manage teams and expectations for projects that you are not managing. To optimize for the company's goals, it is important to be clear and transparent about expectations, set performance goals, and present opportunities for growth. Additionally, it is important to be in the weeds with the team to understand what stories the engineers are working on in order to evaluate for future productivity and performance.

Interviewing for Management- Answering and Then Asking

Interviews for leadership and management positions are important for both the interviewer and the interviewee. This article provides two example interview questions and tips on how to effectively answer them. It also provides tips on how to conduct yourself in an interview, such as asking leading questions and offering hooks for the interviewer to learn more about you. Additionally, it suggests two books to read to help you better understand the art of management.

Do You Know What Motivates and Drives Your Junior Developers?

As a manager of junior developers, it is important to tailor a different approach to each individual, build trust, and use one-on-one time to have them reflect on their own personal growth. Ask abstract questions to get them to think beyond their day-to-day tasks and build out a framework for what it looks like to move progressively upward in the company. Ultimately, the junior engineer needs to be intrinsically motivated for their own success and growth.

Shaping Metric Improvements

This article outlines ways to set and hold teams accountable to metrics. It suggests centralizing teams working on the same metric, picking metrics ahead of time and publicly, A/B testing components, and focusing on metric lifts rather than absolute numbers. It also emphasizes the importance of having a great product manager who can help brainstorm ideas and take stress off the team.

Negative or Positive - How to Manage the Influential Impact Engineers Have on a Team

In engineering teams, one or two people can have a large influence on the team, either positively or negatively. To address this issue, it is important to build a better rapport with the primary influencer, have them understand the negative impact their attitude is having on the team, and get them to buy into the idea of creating a team of high performers. If that doesn't work, reach out to the second most influential person or the most junior person to drive motivation through competition. It is important to be open and honest with the influencer to make them realize the impression they are leaving on the company and those around them.

Engineers - How to Best Support Product Managers During an Integration

As an engineer, it is important to build overlap with other teams and move projects forward. To do this, it is important to ask the PM trick questions to help them understand the process and come up with a better method. It is also important to be repetitive and start with the basics when explaining a process. This will help the PM understand the product better and be able to explain it to the customer. A PM is like a Swiss Army knife, in that while it may not be the best tool, it can be used if opened.

Improving Product Release and Functionality

This article discusses the common mistake of releasing a product with too many features that nobody will use. It outlines the steps taken to launch the first version of the product, get feedback from users, and make changes in a simple and modular way. It also highlights the lessons learned from this process, such as the importance of getting direct feedback from users, the difficulty of making changes to heavily intertwined code, and the benefits of making shortcut decisions to manage technical debt.

Advice for Engineers as First Time Managers

Making the transition from an engineering role to a managerial one can be daunting, but it is possible to make the change successfully. It is important to understand the role and its expectations, as well as to analyze where the excitement lies for you. Scoping should be the extent of your technical contribution, and you should value and judge your work through the execution of the team. It is also important to build trust with your team and to take advantage of feedback to measure your own success. Ultimately, the bulk of your learning will come from personal experiences.

Remaining Stable and Collaborative While Scaling

This article discusses strategies for keeping engineers motivated and committed while scaling a startup. It suggests using squad/cross-functional team organizations, delegating ownership, tracking performance expectations, doing continuous deployment, tracking KPIs, introducing a squad weekly summary, and allowing engineers to switch squads at a semester frequency. It also emphasizes the importance of giving engineers the right context to make decisions, investing in one-on-one meetings, and avoiding changing organization too often.

What to do when you are leading a turnaround in your company

This is a story of a healthcare company with a product that had 7 versions of software supporting 1800 healthcare systems. The organization had embarked on a very ambitious new version release with large ownership given to the India Leadership team. Due to complexities, regulatory changes, and first time leadership, the release was delayed by 10 months. The current India Engg leadership was moved out and the author volunteered to step in. Through deep dive sessions, Open AMA sessions, and creating 12 teams of max 9 people, the author was able to commit to a full version release in 6 months and the product was successfully submitted for regulatory approval. The author learned that teams in the trenches always know what's going well and not, to localize and empower teams, to allow teams to take ownership, to create metrics that matter and enable the data to be seen by the team, to always communicate strongly and reiterate the goal and commitment, and to take decisions and keep moving forward.

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.

A shared technical vision to manage your technical debt

Managing technical debt can be difficult, but it is important to find time to create and pursue a shared technical vision that all engineers can buy into. To do this, it is important to give engineers a voice, look ahead to what will impact the business in the future, establish a decision-making framework, and steer the team towards understanding the business. This will help the team reach their own conclusions about which technical tasks are the most important.

Specified Candidate Pools for Hiring Product Managers

When looking for a new product manager, the best approach is to attend niche hackathons, leverage trustworthy promoters and product hunters, and contact competitors. It is important to find someone who is great at product and passionate about the mission, and having a seasoned product manager can bring a systematic way of doing things. The head of product can still have strategic input while the product manager manages the products.

Managing Expectations and the Growth of Reports in a Matrix System

In a matrix system, it can be difficult to manage teams and expectations for projects that you are not managing. To optimize for the company's goals, it is important to be clear and transparent about expectations, set performance goals, and present opportunities for growth. Additionally, it is important to be in the weeds with the team to understand what stories the engineers are working on in order to evaluate for future productivity and performance.

Interviewing for Management- Answering and Then Asking

Interviews for leadership and management positions are important for both the interviewer and the interviewee. This article provides two example interview questions and tips on how to effectively answer them. It also provides tips on how to conduct yourself in an interview, such as asking leading questions and offering hooks for the interviewer to learn more about you. Additionally, it suggests two books to read to help you better understand the art of management.

Do You Know What Motivates and Drives Your Junior Developers?

As a manager of junior developers, it is important to tailor a different approach to each individual, build trust, and use one-on-one time to have them reflect on their own personal growth. Ask abstract questions to get them to think beyond their day-to-day tasks and build out a framework for what it looks like to move progressively upward in the company. Ultimately, the junior engineer needs to be intrinsically motivated for their own success and growth.

Shaping Metric Improvements

This article outlines ways to set and hold teams accountable to metrics. It suggests centralizing teams working on the same metric, picking metrics ahead of time and publicly, A/B testing components, and focusing on metric lifts rather than absolute numbers. It also emphasizes the importance of having a great product manager who can help brainstorm ideas and take stress off the team.

Negative or Positive - How to Manage the Influential Impact Engineers Have on a Team

In engineering teams, one or two people can have a large influence on the team, either positively or negatively. To address this issue, it is important to build a better rapport with the primary influencer, have them understand the negative impact their attitude is having on the team, and get them to buy into the idea of creating a team of high performers. If that doesn't work, reach out to the second most influential person or the most junior person to drive motivation through competition. It is important to be open and honest with the influencer to make them realize the impression they are leaving on the company and those around them.

Engineers - How to Best Support Product Managers During an Integration

As an engineer, it is important to build overlap with other teams and move projects forward. To do this, it is important to ask the PM trick questions to help them understand the process and come up with a better method. It is also important to be repetitive and start with the basics when explaining a process. This will help the PM understand the product better and be able to explain it to the customer. A PM is like a Swiss Army knife, in that while it may not be the best tool, it can be used if opened.

Improving Product Release and Functionality

This article discusses the common mistake of releasing a product with too many features that nobody will use. It outlines the steps taken to launch the first version of the product, get feedback from users, and make changes in a simple and modular way. It also highlights the lessons learned from this process, such as the importance of getting direct feedback from users, the difficulty of making changes to heavily intertwined code, and the benefits of making shortcut decisions to manage technical debt.

Advice for Engineers as First Time Managers

Making the transition from an engineering role to a managerial one can be daunting, but it is possible to make the change successfully. It is important to understand the role and its expectations, as well as to analyze where the excitement lies for you. Scoping should be the extent of your technical contribution, and you should value and judge your work through the execution of the team. It is also important to build trust with your team and to take advantage of feedback to measure your own success. Ultimately, the bulk of your learning will come from personal experiences.

Remaining Stable and Collaborative While Scaling

This article discusses strategies for keeping engineers motivated and committed while scaling a startup. It suggests using squad/cross-functional team organizations, delegating ownership, tracking performance expectations, doing continuous deployment, tracking KPIs, introducing a squad weekly summary, and allowing engineers to switch squads at a semester frequency. It also emphasizes the importance of giving engineers the right context to make decisions, investing in one-on-one meetings, and avoiding changing organization too often.

What to do when you are leading a turnaround in your company

This is a story of a healthcare company with a product that had 7 versions of software supporting 1800 healthcare systems. The organization had embarked on a very ambitious new version release with large ownership given to the India Leadership team. Due to complexities, regulatory changes, and first time leadership, the release was delayed by 10 months. The current India Engg leadership was moved out and the author volunteered to step in. Through deep dive sessions, Open AMA sessions, and creating 12 teams of max 9 people, the author was able to commit to a full version release in 6 months and the product was successfully submitted for regulatory approval. The author learned that teams in the trenches always know what's going well and not, to localize and empower teams, to allow teams to take ownership, to create metrics that matter and enable the data to be seen by the team, to always communicate strongly and reiterate the goal and commitment, and to take decisions and keep moving forward.

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.

A shared technical vision to manage your technical debt

Managing technical debt can be difficult, but it is important to find time to create and pursue a shared technical vision that all engineers can buy into. To do this, it is important to give engineers a voice, look ahead to what will impact the business in the future, establish a decision-making framework, and steer the team towards understanding the business. This will help the team reach their own conclusions about which technical tasks are the most important.

Specified Candidate Pools for Hiring Product Managers

When looking for a new product manager, the best approach is to attend niche hackathons, leverage trustworthy promoters and product hunters, and contact competitors. It is important to find someone who is great at product and passionate about the mission, and having a seasoned product manager can bring a systematic way of doing things. The head of product can still have strategic input while the product manager manages the products.

Managing Expectations and the Growth of Reports in a Matrix System

In a matrix system, it can be difficult to manage teams and expectations for projects that you are not managing. To optimize for the company's goals, it is important to be clear and transparent about expectations, set performance goals, and present opportunities for growth. Additionally, it is important to be in the weeds with the team to understand what stories the engineers are working on in order to evaluate for future productivity and performance.

Interviewing for Management- Answering and Then Asking

Interviews for leadership and management positions are important for both the interviewer and the interviewee. This article provides two example interview questions and tips on how to effectively answer them. It also provides tips on how to conduct yourself in an interview, such as asking leading questions and offering hooks for the interviewer to learn more about you. Additionally, it suggests two books to read to help you better understand the art of management.

Do You Know What Motivates and Drives Your Junior Developers?

As a manager of junior developers, it is important to tailor a different approach to each individual, build trust, and use one-on-one time to have them reflect on their own personal growth. Ask abstract questions to get them to think beyond their day-to-day tasks and build out a framework for what it looks like to move progressively upward in the company. Ultimately, the junior engineer needs to be intrinsically motivated for their own success and growth.

Shaping Metric Improvements

This article outlines ways to set and hold teams accountable to metrics. It suggests centralizing teams working on the same metric, picking metrics ahead of time and publicly, A/B testing components, and focusing on metric lifts rather than absolute numbers. It also emphasizes the importance of having a great product manager who can help brainstorm ideas and take stress off the team.

Negative or Positive - How to Manage the Influential Impact Engineers Have on a Team

In engineering teams, one or two people can have a large influence on the team, either positively or negatively. To address this issue, it is important to build a better rapport with the primary influencer, have them understand the negative impact their attitude is having on the team, and get them to buy into the idea of creating a team of high performers. If that doesn't work, reach out to the second most influential person or the most junior person to drive motivation through competition. It is important to be open and honest with the influencer to make them realize the impression they are leaving on the company and those around them.

Engineers - How to Best Support Product Managers During an Integration

As an engineer, it is important to build overlap with other teams and move projects forward. To do this, it is important to ask the PM trick questions to help them understand the process and come up with a better method. It is also important to be repetitive and start with the basics when explaining a process. This will help the PM understand the product better and be able to explain it to the customer. A PM is like a Swiss Army knife, in that while it may not be the best tool, it can be used if opened.

Improving Product Release and Functionality

This article discusses the common mistake of releasing a product with too many features that nobody will use. It outlines the steps taken to launch the first version of the product, get feedback from users, and make changes in a simple and modular way. It also highlights the lessons learned from this process, such as the importance of getting direct feedback from users, the difficulty of making changes to heavily intertwined code, and the benefits of making shortcut decisions to manage technical debt.

Advice for Engineers as First Time Managers

Making the transition from an engineering role to a managerial one can be daunting, but it is possible to make the change successfully. It is important to understand the role and its expectations, as well as to analyze where the excitement lies for you. Scoping should be the extent of your technical contribution, and you should value and judge your work through the execution of the team. It is also important to build trust with your team and to take advantage of feedback to measure your own success. Ultimately, the bulk of your learning will come from personal experiences.

Remaining Stable and Collaborative While Scaling

This article discusses strategies for keeping engineers motivated and committed while scaling a startup. It suggests using squad/cross-functional team organizations, delegating ownership, tracking performance expectations, doing continuous deployment, tracking KPIs, introducing a squad weekly summary, and allowing engineers to switch squads at a semester frequency. It also emphasizes the importance of giving engineers the right context to make decisions, investing in one-on-one meetings, and avoiding changing organization too often.

What to do when you are leading a turnaround in your company

This is a story of a healthcare company with a product that had 7 versions of software supporting 1800 healthcare systems. The organization had embarked on a very ambitious new version release with large ownership given to the India Leadership team. Due to complexities, regulatory changes, and first time leadership, the release was delayed by 10 months. The current India Engg leadership was moved out and the author volunteered to step in. Through deep dive sessions, Open AMA sessions, and creating 12 teams of max 9 people, the author was able to commit to a full version release in 6 months and the product was successfully submitted for regulatory approval. The author learned that teams in the trenches always know what's going well and not, to localize and empower teams, to allow teams to take ownership, to create metrics that matter and enable the data to be seen by the team, to always communicate strongly and reiterate the goal and commitment, and to take decisions and keep moving forward.