Knowledge shared by our community

Identifying engineering talent in unusual places

This story is about a hiring manager who was challenged to find qualified talent during the dot com boom. He took a chance on the company's best foosball player, who had no programming background or degree in computer science, and invested heavily in teaching him the technical skills and industry best practices. Two years later, the foosball player was able to step into the manager's place as the engineering manager of the team. The lesson learned is to be open minded and self-aware when hiring, and to distinguish between skills that must be innate to the candidate versus skills that can be taught.

How to better manage your time and responsibilities as a new manager

This article details the steps taken by a manager of 14 people to stay on top of inbound requests and managerial duties. The manager used a physical notebook to organize notes and action items, and delegated some of their responsibilities to free up time and sanity. Through delegating, the manager was able to create a new engineering role and staff a new team before the need became obvious. The article also highlights the importance of delegation and ownership in any given task.

Lessons from My Learn-by-Doing Approach to Product Management

This article tells the story of how the author became a product manager by accident. Through interning for a French startup company, the author was exposed to various aspects of product management and tech, and eventually realized that this was the field they wanted to pursue. The article then goes on to provide advice to aspiring product managers, such as finding an engineering soulmate, learning about code, being constantly curious, and creating a strong bond with the engineering team.

How to Reach Team Consensus

The team faced the challenge of migrating from a traditional SQL database to a distributed NoSQL solution, which none of them had any experience with. To address the issue, they brainstormed a list of NoSQL products, evaluated them, and ran benchmarks and proof-of-concept integrations. A senior architect proposed a migration plan which was later executed successfully. The team learned the importance of looking ahead to potential challenges and engaging as many staff members as possible in decisions that can have a broad impact.

My supervisor instructed me to fire someone on my first day in the job

When faced with a request from his VP to fire one of his direct reports without explanation, the engineering manager negotiated a plan to collect evidence, learn the engineer's job, and design a hiring plan for replacing him. Through biweekly conversations, he learned the engineer was suffering from burnout and had a passion for music. The engineer eventually resigned, avoiding litigation and saving the company money. The manager learned it is ok to push back when asked to do something wrong, and that listening with an open mind can help resolve conflicts.

Contractors: Know When to Hold ‘Em, Know When to Fold ‘Em

The author was promoted to Director and inherited a team of 10 contractors and one junior FTE. After assessing the situation, the author created a hiring plan to reduce contractor headcount and hire more senior full-time engineers. Through creative problem solving, the author was able to bring up a new group of engineers in New York City and increase customer satisfaction by 50%. The author learned that contractors can be a quick fix but their incentives are not always aligned with the business, and that it is important to think outside the box to use resources that might not be obvious.

Understanding Your Options - A Key to Deploying a Management Plan That Works for Varying Levels of Experience

This article discusses the dilemma of hiring junior engineering managers or someone with more experience. It suggests three options: hiring a more experienced manager, hiring junior people with oversight, or hiring a more experienced manager and promoting a junior to a mentorship role. Ultimately, it is important to go with your instincts and provide mentorship to junior engineers to help them grow into management roles.

What To Do When Your Project Guidelines Are Not Clear

In order to ensure that the team is aware of the changes in a new project, story mapping and kickoff meetings should be held. The team should be included in the meetings and given the opportunity to ask questions and provide feedback. This will help to ensure that everyone is on the same page and that the project is progressing in the right direction.

Growing Into a Manager of Managers

When transitioning from an engineering manager to a manager of other managers, it is important to set boundaries to differentiate tasks and responsibilities. This helps to ensure that the managers are doing their own job without the manager's manager jumping in and doing it themselves. It is important to respect the boundaries and to coach the managers on how to handle their own situations. Additionally, the manager's manager should spend time with each of the managers to get feedback and ensure alignment. Ultimately, it is all about setting boundaries and respecting the roles of each individual.

Start-Ups: How to Release When Your Sales Increase

This article outlines the steps needed to ensure a successful release cycle for a small start-up transitioning to a larger one. It suggests organizing features and outcomes, creating automated testing, keeping customer satisfaction a priority, aligning engineering methodologies with HR, and increasing internal communication between teams. These steps will help to ensure predictability and the successful release of products that add value to the business.

Reliant on Hardware: Software Testing

In order to meet a customer's tight deadline, the company took the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) approach to build a prototype of their software product. They built a phone the size of a desktop and a laptop-sized version of the MVP. The customer was then able to test the product on the streets. The MVP approach worked out well and the company learned that they can cut time and resources by not creating a perfect phone to test their product. If they had to do it again, they would do most of it the same way but spend more time building out the UX/UI of the script on the prototype.

The Best Way to Form a Product Team From Scratch

To form a new product team from scratch, the company put the author in charge. The author's strategy was to find a mix of internal people with domain expertise and external, more senior product managers with product management experience. Both internal and external hires faced challenges, but with the help of senior product managers, the team was eventually built and performed well.

What To Do if You Don’t Agree with an Executive Decision

An executive wanted to enter a new market, but the product team conducted market research and customer interviews to determine that it was not a good fit. The findings were presented to the executive, who agreed to focus on the current market instead. This process gained credibility for the product team and strengthened their relationship with the executive.

The Importance of Observing the Field to Gain Clarity on A New Product

In order to gain agreement on the direction and roadmap of a new mobile product, two product managers went on a field trip with energy assessors to observe how they used the current product and ask questions. This provided a strong point of view on the new product based on factual data from the field, allowing the team to gain agreement and create a successful roadmap.

Structuring Your Team's Roles and Responsibilities

To balance team dynamics in a smaller company, a manager can use the RACI matrix to define and document roles and responsibilities, or define distinct territories for each team member. Additionally, weekly group updates, communication of company values, and respect for team members should be encouraged.

Setting Up a Framework for Meetings to Avoid Disruptions

This article discusses how to deal with a disruptive team member in meetings. It suggests having a private one-on-one chat with the individual to discuss their behavior and its effect on the team, as well as establishing a framework with principles for conducting meetings. It also suggests giving micro feedback and having another one-on-one after a couple of weeks to assess progress. The article concludes with lessons learned, such as the difficulty of changing people's behavior and the need for intrinsic motivation.

Leadership Across Time Zones

This article provides tips and methods for managing a remote team, such as creating a long-term roadmap, co-locating teams, using Jira to track progress, and planning sprints. It also emphasizes the importance of communication, assigning work, and planning ahead of time.

What To Consider When Onboarding A Quality Assurance Position

This article discusses the importance of considering Quality Assurance (QA) when designing a team. It outlines the need to be transparent about expectations and to involve QA from the beginning of a project. It also emphasizes the need to think holistically and to rally the group around the common mission of quality.

Shifting Bandwidth and Using POCs for Larger Projects

In a small company, the team was facing problems with an analytics product that wasn't serving users' needs. To solve the underlying problem, a full platform re-architecture was needed. To achieve this, a proof of concept process was done to find the main components of an analytics stack, and engineering bandwidth was freed up to focus on the long-term issues. Lessons learned included the importance of proof of concepts for big projects, working closely with engineering, support, professional services, and product marketing when rolling out a product, and getting users comfortable with the migration process.

Finding a Routine That Works for a Distributed Engineering Team

This article outlines the challenges of finding a daily stand up time that suits everyone and the absence of a development process. The author was able to build a process together, stick to it, and continuously refine it. They established a routine with daily stand-ups, bi-weekly product demos, sprint plannings & grooming sessions, and monthly retrospectives. The lesson learned is that there is always room for improvement and it is important to enable and encourage the team to allow for such improvements to happen.

Identifying engineering talent in unusual places

This story is about a hiring manager who was challenged to find qualified talent during the dot com boom. He took a chance on the company's best foosball player, who had no programming background or degree in computer science, and invested heavily in teaching him the technical skills and industry best practices. Two years later, the foosball player was able to step into the manager's place as the engineering manager of the team. The lesson learned is to be open minded and self-aware when hiring, and to distinguish between skills that must be innate to the candidate versus skills that can be taught.

How to better manage your time and responsibilities as a new manager

This article details the steps taken by a manager of 14 people to stay on top of inbound requests and managerial duties. The manager used a physical notebook to organize notes and action items, and delegated some of their responsibilities to free up time and sanity. Through delegating, the manager was able to create a new engineering role and staff a new team before the need became obvious. The article also highlights the importance of delegation and ownership in any given task.

Lessons from My Learn-by-Doing Approach to Product Management

This article tells the story of how the author became a product manager by accident. Through interning for a French startup company, the author was exposed to various aspects of product management and tech, and eventually realized that this was the field they wanted to pursue. The article then goes on to provide advice to aspiring product managers, such as finding an engineering soulmate, learning about code, being constantly curious, and creating a strong bond with the engineering team.

How to Reach Team Consensus

The team faced the challenge of migrating from a traditional SQL database to a distributed NoSQL solution, which none of them had any experience with. To address the issue, they brainstormed a list of NoSQL products, evaluated them, and ran benchmarks and proof-of-concept integrations. A senior architect proposed a migration plan which was later executed successfully. The team learned the importance of looking ahead to potential challenges and engaging as many staff members as possible in decisions that can have a broad impact.

My supervisor instructed me to fire someone on my first day in the job

When faced with a request from his VP to fire one of his direct reports without explanation, the engineering manager negotiated a plan to collect evidence, learn the engineer's job, and design a hiring plan for replacing him. Through biweekly conversations, he learned the engineer was suffering from burnout and had a passion for music. The engineer eventually resigned, avoiding litigation and saving the company money. The manager learned it is ok to push back when asked to do something wrong, and that listening with an open mind can help resolve conflicts.

Contractors: Know When to Hold ‘Em, Know When to Fold ‘Em

The author was promoted to Director and inherited a team of 10 contractors and one junior FTE. After assessing the situation, the author created a hiring plan to reduce contractor headcount and hire more senior full-time engineers. Through creative problem solving, the author was able to bring up a new group of engineers in New York City and increase customer satisfaction by 50%. The author learned that contractors can be a quick fix but their incentives are not always aligned with the business, and that it is important to think outside the box to use resources that might not be obvious.

Understanding Your Options - A Key to Deploying a Management Plan That Works for Varying Levels of Experience

This article discusses the dilemma of hiring junior engineering managers or someone with more experience. It suggests three options: hiring a more experienced manager, hiring junior people with oversight, or hiring a more experienced manager and promoting a junior to a mentorship role. Ultimately, it is important to go with your instincts and provide mentorship to junior engineers to help them grow into management roles.

What To Do When Your Project Guidelines Are Not Clear

In order to ensure that the team is aware of the changes in a new project, story mapping and kickoff meetings should be held. The team should be included in the meetings and given the opportunity to ask questions and provide feedback. This will help to ensure that everyone is on the same page and that the project is progressing in the right direction.

Growing Into a Manager of Managers

When transitioning from an engineering manager to a manager of other managers, it is important to set boundaries to differentiate tasks and responsibilities. This helps to ensure that the managers are doing their own job without the manager's manager jumping in and doing it themselves. It is important to respect the boundaries and to coach the managers on how to handle their own situations. Additionally, the manager's manager should spend time with each of the managers to get feedback and ensure alignment. Ultimately, it is all about setting boundaries and respecting the roles of each individual.

Start-Ups: How to Release When Your Sales Increase

This article outlines the steps needed to ensure a successful release cycle for a small start-up transitioning to a larger one. It suggests organizing features and outcomes, creating automated testing, keeping customer satisfaction a priority, aligning engineering methodologies with HR, and increasing internal communication between teams. These steps will help to ensure predictability and the successful release of products that add value to the business.

Reliant on Hardware: Software Testing

In order to meet a customer's tight deadline, the company took the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) approach to build a prototype of their software product. They built a phone the size of a desktop and a laptop-sized version of the MVP. The customer was then able to test the product on the streets. The MVP approach worked out well and the company learned that they can cut time and resources by not creating a perfect phone to test their product. If they had to do it again, they would do most of it the same way but spend more time building out the UX/UI of the script on the prototype.

The Best Way to Form a Product Team From Scratch

To form a new product team from scratch, the company put the author in charge. The author's strategy was to find a mix of internal people with domain expertise and external, more senior product managers with product management experience. Both internal and external hires faced challenges, but with the help of senior product managers, the team was eventually built and performed well.

What To Do if You Don’t Agree with an Executive Decision

An executive wanted to enter a new market, but the product team conducted market research and customer interviews to determine that it was not a good fit. The findings were presented to the executive, who agreed to focus on the current market instead. This process gained credibility for the product team and strengthened their relationship with the executive.

The Importance of Observing the Field to Gain Clarity on A New Product

In order to gain agreement on the direction and roadmap of a new mobile product, two product managers went on a field trip with energy assessors to observe how they used the current product and ask questions. This provided a strong point of view on the new product based on factual data from the field, allowing the team to gain agreement and create a successful roadmap.

Structuring Your Team's Roles and Responsibilities

To balance team dynamics in a smaller company, a manager can use the RACI matrix to define and document roles and responsibilities, or define distinct territories for each team member. Additionally, weekly group updates, communication of company values, and respect for team members should be encouraged.

Setting Up a Framework for Meetings to Avoid Disruptions

This article discusses how to deal with a disruptive team member in meetings. It suggests having a private one-on-one chat with the individual to discuss their behavior and its effect on the team, as well as establishing a framework with principles for conducting meetings. It also suggests giving micro feedback and having another one-on-one after a couple of weeks to assess progress. The article concludes with lessons learned, such as the difficulty of changing people's behavior and the need for intrinsic motivation.

Leadership Across Time Zones

This article provides tips and methods for managing a remote team, such as creating a long-term roadmap, co-locating teams, using Jira to track progress, and planning sprints. It also emphasizes the importance of communication, assigning work, and planning ahead of time.

What To Consider When Onboarding A Quality Assurance Position

This article discusses the importance of considering Quality Assurance (QA) when designing a team. It outlines the need to be transparent about expectations and to involve QA from the beginning of a project. It also emphasizes the need to think holistically and to rally the group around the common mission of quality.

Shifting Bandwidth and Using POCs for Larger Projects

In a small company, the team was facing problems with an analytics product that wasn't serving users' needs. To solve the underlying problem, a full platform re-architecture was needed. To achieve this, a proof of concept process was done to find the main components of an analytics stack, and engineering bandwidth was freed up to focus on the long-term issues. Lessons learned included the importance of proof of concepts for big projects, working closely with engineering, support, professional services, and product marketing when rolling out a product, and getting users comfortable with the migration process.

Finding a Routine That Works for a Distributed Engineering Team

This article outlines the challenges of finding a daily stand up time that suits everyone and the absence of a development process. The author was able to build a process together, stick to it, and continuously refine it. They established a routine with daily stand-ups, bi-weekly product demos, sprint plannings & grooming sessions, and monthly retrospectives. The lesson learned is that there is always room for improvement and it is important to enable and encourage the team to allow for such improvements to happen.

Identifying engineering talent in unusual places

This story is about a hiring manager who was challenged to find qualified talent during the dot com boom. He took a chance on the company's best foosball player, who had no programming background or degree in computer science, and invested heavily in teaching him the technical skills and industry best practices. Two years later, the foosball player was able to step into the manager's place as the engineering manager of the team. The lesson learned is to be open minded and self-aware when hiring, and to distinguish between skills that must be innate to the candidate versus skills that can be taught.

How to better manage your time and responsibilities as a new manager

This article details the steps taken by a manager of 14 people to stay on top of inbound requests and managerial duties. The manager used a physical notebook to organize notes and action items, and delegated some of their responsibilities to free up time and sanity. Through delegating, the manager was able to create a new engineering role and staff a new team before the need became obvious. The article also highlights the importance of delegation and ownership in any given task.

Lessons from My Learn-by-Doing Approach to Product Management

This article tells the story of how the author became a product manager by accident. Through interning for a French startup company, the author was exposed to various aspects of product management and tech, and eventually realized that this was the field they wanted to pursue. The article then goes on to provide advice to aspiring product managers, such as finding an engineering soulmate, learning about code, being constantly curious, and creating a strong bond with the engineering team.

How to Reach Team Consensus

The team faced the challenge of migrating from a traditional SQL database to a distributed NoSQL solution, which none of them had any experience with. To address the issue, they brainstormed a list of NoSQL products, evaluated them, and ran benchmarks and proof-of-concept integrations. A senior architect proposed a migration plan which was later executed successfully. The team learned the importance of looking ahead to potential challenges and engaging as many staff members as possible in decisions that can have a broad impact.

My supervisor instructed me to fire someone on my first day in the job

When faced with a request from his VP to fire one of his direct reports without explanation, the engineering manager negotiated a plan to collect evidence, learn the engineer's job, and design a hiring plan for replacing him. Through biweekly conversations, he learned the engineer was suffering from burnout and had a passion for music. The engineer eventually resigned, avoiding litigation and saving the company money. The manager learned it is ok to push back when asked to do something wrong, and that listening with an open mind can help resolve conflicts.

Contractors: Know When to Hold ‘Em, Know When to Fold ‘Em

The author was promoted to Director and inherited a team of 10 contractors and one junior FTE. After assessing the situation, the author created a hiring plan to reduce contractor headcount and hire more senior full-time engineers. Through creative problem solving, the author was able to bring up a new group of engineers in New York City and increase customer satisfaction by 50%. The author learned that contractors can be a quick fix but their incentives are not always aligned with the business, and that it is important to think outside the box to use resources that might not be obvious.

Understanding Your Options - A Key to Deploying a Management Plan That Works for Varying Levels of Experience

This article discusses the dilemma of hiring junior engineering managers or someone with more experience. It suggests three options: hiring a more experienced manager, hiring junior people with oversight, or hiring a more experienced manager and promoting a junior to a mentorship role. Ultimately, it is important to go with your instincts and provide mentorship to junior engineers to help them grow into management roles.

What To Do When Your Project Guidelines Are Not Clear

In order to ensure that the team is aware of the changes in a new project, story mapping and kickoff meetings should be held. The team should be included in the meetings and given the opportunity to ask questions and provide feedback. This will help to ensure that everyone is on the same page and that the project is progressing in the right direction.

Growing Into a Manager of Managers

When transitioning from an engineering manager to a manager of other managers, it is important to set boundaries to differentiate tasks and responsibilities. This helps to ensure that the managers are doing their own job without the manager's manager jumping in and doing it themselves. It is important to respect the boundaries and to coach the managers on how to handle their own situations. Additionally, the manager's manager should spend time with each of the managers to get feedback and ensure alignment. Ultimately, it is all about setting boundaries and respecting the roles of each individual.

Start-Ups: How to Release When Your Sales Increase

This article outlines the steps needed to ensure a successful release cycle for a small start-up transitioning to a larger one. It suggests organizing features and outcomes, creating automated testing, keeping customer satisfaction a priority, aligning engineering methodologies with HR, and increasing internal communication between teams. These steps will help to ensure predictability and the successful release of products that add value to the business.

Reliant on Hardware: Software Testing

In order to meet a customer's tight deadline, the company took the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) approach to build a prototype of their software product. They built a phone the size of a desktop and a laptop-sized version of the MVP. The customer was then able to test the product on the streets. The MVP approach worked out well and the company learned that they can cut time and resources by not creating a perfect phone to test their product. If they had to do it again, they would do most of it the same way but spend more time building out the UX/UI of the script on the prototype.

The Best Way to Form a Product Team From Scratch

To form a new product team from scratch, the company put the author in charge. The author's strategy was to find a mix of internal people with domain expertise and external, more senior product managers with product management experience. Both internal and external hires faced challenges, but with the help of senior product managers, the team was eventually built and performed well.

What To Do if You Don’t Agree with an Executive Decision

An executive wanted to enter a new market, but the product team conducted market research and customer interviews to determine that it was not a good fit. The findings were presented to the executive, who agreed to focus on the current market instead. This process gained credibility for the product team and strengthened their relationship with the executive.

The Importance of Observing the Field to Gain Clarity on A New Product

In order to gain agreement on the direction and roadmap of a new mobile product, two product managers went on a field trip with energy assessors to observe how they used the current product and ask questions. This provided a strong point of view on the new product based on factual data from the field, allowing the team to gain agreement and create a successful roadmap.

Structuring Your Team's Roles and Responsibilities

To balance team dynamics in a smaller company, a manager can use the RACI matrix to define and document roles and responsibilities, or define distinct territories for each team member. Additionally, weekly group updates, communication of company values, and respect for team members should be encouraged.

Setting Up a Framework for Meetings to Avoid Disruptions

This article discusses how to deal with a disruptive team member in meetings. It suggests having a private one-on-one chat with the individual to discuss their behavior and its effect on the team, as well as establishing a framework with principles for conducting meetings. It also suggests giving micro feedback and having another one-on-one after a couple of weeks to assess progress. The article concludes with lessons learned, such as the difficulty of changing people's behavior and the need for intrinsic motivation.

Leadership Across Time Zones

This article provides tips and methods for managing a remote team, such as creating a long-term roadmap, co-locating teams, using Jira to track progress, and planning sprints. It also emphasizes the importance of communication, assigning work, and planning ahead of time.

What To Consider When Onboarding A Quality Assurance Position

This article discusses the importance of considering Quality Assurance (QA) when designing a team. It outlines the need to be transparent about expectations and to involve QA from the beginning of a project. It also emphasizes the need to think holistically and to rally the group around the common mission of quality.

Shifting Bandwidth and Using POCs for Larger Projects

In a small company, the team was facing problems with an analytics product that wasn't serving users' needs. To solve the underlying problem, a full platform re-architecture was needed. To achieve this, a proof of concept process was done to find the main components of an analytics stack, and engineering bandwidth was freed up to focus on the long-term issues. Lessons learned included the importance of proof of concepts for big projects, working closely with engineering, support, professional services, and product marketing when rolling out a product, and getting users comfortable with the migration process.

Finding a Routine That Works for a Distributed Engineering Team

This article outlines the challenges of finding a daily stand up time that suits everyone and the absence of a development process. The author was able to build a process together, stick to it, and continuously refine it. They established a routine with daily stand-ups, bi-weekly product demos, sprint plannings & grooming sessions, and monthly retrospectives. The lesson learned is that there is always room for improvement and it is important to enable and encourage the team to allow for such improvements to happen.

Identifying engineering talent in unusual places

This story is about a hiring manager who was challenged to find qualified talent during the dot com boom. He took a chance on the company's best foosball player, who had no programming background or degree in computer science, and invested heavily in teaching him the technical skills and industry best practices. Two years later, the foosball player was able to step into the manager's place as the engineering manager of the team. The lesson learned is to be open minded and self-aware when hiring, and to distinguish between skills that must be innate to the candidate versus skills that can be taught.

How to better manage your time and responsibilities as a new manager

This article details the steps taken by a manager of 14 people to stay on top of inbound requests and managerial duties. The manager used a physical notebook to organize notes and action items, and delegated some of their responsibilities to free up time and sanity. Through delegating, the manager was able to create a new engineering role and staff a new team before the need became obvious. The article also highlights the importance of delegation and ownership in any given task.

Lessons from My Learn-by-Doing Approach to Product Management

This article tells the story of how the author became a product manager by accident. Through interning for a French startup company, the author was exposed to various aspects of product management and tech, and eventually realized that this was the field they wanted to pursue. The article then goes on to provide advice to aspiring product managers, such as finding an engineering soulmate, learning about code, being constantly curious, and creating a strong bond with the engineering team.

How to Reach Team Consensus

The team faced the challenge of migrating from a traditional SQL database to a distributed NoSQL solution, which none of them had any experience with. To address the issue, they brainstormed a list of NoSQL products, evaluated them, and ran benchmarks and proof-of-concept integrations. A senior architect proposed a migration plan which was later executed successfully. The team learned the importance of looking ahead to potential challenges and engaging as many staff members as possible in decisions that can have a broad impact.

My supervisor instructed me to fire someone on my first day in the job

When faced with a request from his VP to fire one of his direct reports without explanation, the engineering manager negotiated a plan to collect evidence, learn the engineer's job, and design a hiring plan for replacing him. Through biweekly conversations, he learned the engineer was suffering from burnout and had a passion for music. The engineer eventually resigned, avoiding litigation and saving the company money. The manager learned it is ok to push back when asked to do something wrong, and that listening with an open mind can help resolve conflicts.

Contractors: Know When to Hold ‘Em, Know When to Fold ‘Em

The author was promoted to Director and inherited a team of 10 contractors and one junior FTE. After assessing the situation, the author created a hiring plan to reduce contractor headcount and hire more senior full-time engineers. Through creative problem solving, the author was able to bring up a new group of engineers in New York City and increase customer satisfaction by 50%. The author learned that contractors can be a quick fix but their incentives are not always aligned with the business, and that it is important to think outside the box to use resources that might not be obvious.

Understanding Your Options - A Key to Deploying a Management Plan That Works for Varying Levels of Experience

This article discusses the dilemma of hiring junior engineering managers or someone with more experience. It suggests three options: hiring a more experienced manager, hiring junior people with oversight, or hiring a more experienced manager and promoting a junior to a mentorship role. Ultimately, it is important to go with your instincts and provide mentorship to junior engineers to help them grow into management roles.

What To Do When Your Project Guidelines Are Not Clear

In order to ensure that the team is aware of the changes in a new project, story mapping and kickoff meetings should be held. The team should be included in the meetings and given the opportunity to ask questions and provide feedback. This will help to ensure that everyone is on the same page and that the project is progressing in the right direction.

Growing Into a Manager of Managers

When transitioning from an engineering manager to a manager of other managers, it is important to set boundaries to differentiate tasks and responsibilities. This helps to ensure that the managers are doing their own job without the manager's manager jumping in and doing it themselves. It is important to respect the boundaries and to coach the managers on how to handle their own situations. Additionally, the manager's manager should spend time with each of the managers to get feedback and ensure alignment. Ultimately, it is all about setting boundaries and respecting the roles of each individual.

Start-Ups: How to Release When Your Sales Increase

This article outlines the steps needed to ensure a successful release cycle for a small start-up transitioning to a larger one. It suggests organizing features and outcomes, creating automated testing, keeping customer satisfaction a priority, aligning engineering methodologies with HR, and increasing internal communication between teams. These steps will help to ensure predictability and the successful release of products that add value to the business.

Reliant on Hardware: Software Testing

In order to meet a customer's tight deadline, the company took the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) approach to build a prototype of their software product. They built a phone the size of a desktop and a laptop-sized version of the MVP. The customer was then able to test the product on the streets. The MVP approach worked out well and the company learned that they can cut time and resources by not creating a perfect phone to test their product. If they had to do it again, they would do most of it the same way but spend more time building out the UX/UI of the script on the prototype.

The Best Way to Form a Product Team From Scratch

To form a new product team from scratch, the company put the author in charge. The author's strategy was to find a mix of internal people with domain expertise and external, more senior product managers with product management experience. Both internal and external hires faced challenges, but with the help of senior product managers, the team was eventually built and performed well.

What To Do if You Don’t Agree with an Executive Decision

An executive wanted to enter a new market, but the product team conducted market research and customer interviews to determine that it was not a good fit. The findings were presented to the executive, who agreed to focus on the current market instead. This process gained credibility for the product team and strengthened their relationship with the executive.

The Importance of Observing the Field to Gain Clarity on A New Product

In order to gain agreement on the direction and roadmap of a new mobile product, two product managers went on a field trip with energy assessors to observe how they used the current product and ask questions. This provided a strong point of view on the new product based on factual data from the field, allowing the team to gain agreement and create a successful roadmap.

Structuring Your Team's Roles and Responsibilities

To balance team dynamics in a smaller company, a manager can use the RACI matrix to define and document roles and responsibilities, or define distinct territories for each team member. Additionally, weekly group updates, communication of company values, and respect for team members should be encouraged.

Setting Up a Framework for Meetings to Avoid Disruptions

This article discusses how to deal with a disruptive team member in meetings. It suggests having a private one-on-one chat with the individual to discuss their behavior and its effect on the team, as well as establishing a framework with principles for conducting meetings. It also suggests giving micro feedback and having another one-on-one after a couple of weeks to assess progress. The article concludes with lessons learned, such as the difficulty of changing people's behavior and the need for intrinsic motivation.

Leadership Across Time Zones

This article provides tips and methods for managing a remote team, such as creating a long-term roadmap, co-locating teams, using Jira to track progress, and planning sprints. It also emphasizes the importance of communication, assigning work, and planning ahead of time.

What To Consider When Onboarding A Quality Assurance Position

This article discusses the importance of considering Quality Assurance (QA) when designing a team. It outlines the need to be transparent about expectations and to involve QA from the beginning of a project. It also emphasizes the need to think holistically and to rally the group around the common mission of quality.

Shifting Bandwidth and Using POCs for Larger Projects

In a small company, the team was facing problems with an analytics product that wasn't serving users' needs. To solve the underlying problem, a full platform re-architecture was needed. To achieve this, a proof of concept process was done to find the main components of an analytics stack, and engineering bandwidth was freed up to focus on the long-term issues. Lessons learned included the importance of proof of concepts for big projects, working closely with engineering, support, professional services, and product marketing when rolling out a product, and getting users comfortable with the migration process.

Finding a Routine That Works for a Distributed Engineering Team

This article outlines the challenges of finding a daily stand up time that suits everyone and the absence of a development process. The author was able to build a process together, stick to it, and continuously refine it. They established a routine with daily stand-ups, bi-weekly product demos, sprint plannings & grooming sessions, and monthly retrospectives. The lesson learned is that there is always room for improvement and it is important to enable and encourage the team to allow for such improvements to happen.

Identifying engineering talent in unusual places

This story is about a hiring manager who was challenged to find qualified talent during the dot com boom. He took a chance on the company's best foosball player, who had no programming background or degree in computer science, and invested heavily in teaching him the technical skills and industry best practices. Two years later, the foosball player was able to step into the manager's place as the engineering manager of the team. The lesson learned is to be open minded and self-aware when hiring, and to distinguish between skills that must be innate to the candidate versus skills that can be taught.

How to better manage your time and responsibilities as a new manager

This article details the steps taken by a manager of 14 people to stay on top of inbound requests and managerial duties. The manager used a physical notebook to organize notes and action items, and delegated some of their responsibilities to free up time and sanity. Through delegating, the manager was able to create a new engineering role and staff a new team before the need became obvious. The article also highlights the importance of delegation and ownership in any given task.

Lessons from My Learn-by-Doing Approach to Product Management

This article tells the story of how the author became a product manager by accident. Through interning for a French startup company, the author was exposed to various aspects of product management and tech, and eventually realized that this was the field they wanted to pursue. The article then goes on to provide advice to aspiring product managers, such as finding an engineering soulmate, learning about code, being constantly curious, and creating a strong bond with the engineering team.

How to Reach Team Consensus

The team faced the challenge of migrating from a traditional SQL database to a distributed NoSQL solution, which none of them had any experience with. To address the issue, they brainstormed a list of NoSQL products, evaluated them, and ran benchmarks and proof-of-concept integrations. A senior architect proposed a migration plan which was later executed successfully. The team learned the importance of looking ahead to potential challenges and engaging as many staff members as possible in decisions that can have a broad impact.

My supervisor instructed me to fire someone on my first day in the job

When faced with a request from his VP to fire one of his direct reports without explanation, the engineering manager negotiated a plan to collect evidence, learn the engineer's job, and design a hiring plan for replacing him. Through biweekly conversations, he learned the engineer was suffering from burnout and had a passion for music. The engineer eventually resigned, avoiding litigation and saving the company money. The manager learned it is ok to push back when asked to do something wrong, and that listening with an open mind can help resolve conflicts.

Contractors: Know When to Hold ‘Em, Know When to Fold ‘Em

The author was promoted to Director and inherited a team of 10 contractors and one junior FTE. After assessing the situation, the author created a hiring plan to reduce contractor headcount and hire more senior full-time engineers. Through creative problem solving, the author was able to bring up a new group of engineers in New York City and increase customer satisfaction by 50%. The author learned that contractors can be a quick fix but their incentives are not always aligned with the business, and that it is important to think outside the box to use resources that might not be obvious.

Understanding Your Options - A Key to Deploying a Management Plan That Works for Varying Levels of Experience

This article discusses the dilemma of hiring junior engineering managers or someone with more experience. It suggests three options: hiring a more experienced manager, hiring junior people with oversight, or hiring a more experienced manager and promoting a junior to a mentorship role. Ultimately, it is important to go with your instincts and provide mentorship to junior engineers to help them grow into management roles.

What To Do When Your Project Guidelines Are Not Clear

In order to ensure that the team is aware of the changes in a new project, story mapping and kickoff meetings should be held. The team should be included in the meetings and given the opportunity to ask questions and provide feedback. This will help to ensure that everyone is on the same page and that the project is progressing in the right direction.

Growing Into a Manager of Managers

When transitioning from an engineering manager to a manager of other managers, it is important to set boundaries to differentiate tasks and responsibilities. This helps to ensure that the managers are doing their own job without the manager's manager jumping in and doing it themselves. It is important to respect the boundaries and to coach the managers on how to handle their own situations. Additionally, the manager's manager should spend time with each of the managers to get feedback and ensure alignment. Ultimately, it is all about setting boundaries and respecting the roles of each individual.

Start-Ups: How to Release When Your Sales Increase

This article outlines the steps needed to ensure a successful release cycle for a small start-up transitioning to a larger one. It suggests organizing features and outcomes, creating automated testing, keeping customer satisfaction a priority, aligning engineering methodologies with HR, and increasing internal communication between teams. These steps will help to ensure predictability and the successful release of products that add value to the business.

Reliant on Hardware: Software Testing

In order to meet a customer's tight deadline, the company took the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) approach to build a prototype of their software product. They built a phone the size of a desktop and a laptop-sized version of the MVP. The customer was then able to test the product on the streets. The MVP approach worked out well and the company learned that they can cut time and resources by not creating a perfect phone to test their product. If they had to do it again, they would do most of it the same way but spend more time building out the UX/UI of the script on the prototype.

The Best Way to Form a Product Team From Scratch

To form a new product team from scratch, the company put the author in charge. The author's strategy was to find a mix of internal people with domain expertise and external, more senior product managers with product management experience. Both internal and external hires faced challenges, but with the help of senior product managers, the team was eventually built and performed well.

What To Do if You Don’t Agree with an Executive Decision

An executive wanted to enter a new market, but the product team conducted market research and customer interviews to determine that it was not a good fit. The findings were presented to the executive, who agreed to focus on the current market instead. This process gained credibility for the product team and strengthened their relationship with the executive.

The Importance of Observing the Field to Gain Clarity on A New Product

In order to gain agreement on the direction and roadmap of a new mobile product, two product managers went on a field trip with energy assessors to observe how they used the current product and ask questions. This provided a strong point of view on the new product based on factual data from the field, allowing the team to gain agreement and create a successful roadmap.

Structuring Your Team's Roles and Responsibilities

To balance team dynamics in a smaller company, a manager can use the RACI matrix to define and document roles and responsibilities, or define distinct territories for each team member. Additionally, weekly group updates, communication of company values, and respect for team members should be encouraged.

Setting Up a Framework for Meetings to Avoid Disruptions

This article discusses how to deal with a disruptive team member in meetings. It suggests having a private one-on-one chat with the individual to discuss their behavior and its effect on the team, as well as establishing a framework with principles for conducting meetings. It also suggests giving micro feedback and having another one-on-one after a couple of weeks to assess progress. The article concludes with lessons learned, such as the difficulty of changing people's behavior and the need for intrinsic motivation.

Leadership Across Time Zones

This article provides tips and methods for managing a remote team, such as creating a long-term roadmap, co-locating teams, using Jira to track progress, and planning sprints. It also emphasizes the importance of communication, assigning work, and planning ahead of time.

What To Consider When Onboarding A Quality Assurance Position

This article discusses the importance of considering Quality Assurance (QA) when designing a team. It outlines the need to be transparent about expectations and to involve QA from the beginning of a project. It also emphasizes the need to think holistically and to rally the group around the common mission of quality.

Shifting Bandwidth and Using POCs for Larger Projects

In a small company, the team was facing problems with an analytics product that wasn't serving users' needs. To solve the underlying problem, a full platform re-architecture was needed. To achieve this, a proof of concept process was done to find the main components of an analytics stack, and engineering bandwidth was freed up to focus on the long-term issues. Lessons learned included the importance of proof of concepts for big projects, working closely with engineering, support, professional services, and product marketing when rolling out a product, and getting users comfortable with the migration process.

Finding a Routine That Works for a Distributed Engineering Team

This article outlines the challenges of finding a daily stand up time that suits everyone and the absence of a development process. The author was able to build a process together, stick to it, and continuously refine it. They established a routine with daily stand-ups, bi-weekly product demos, sprint plannings & grooming sessions, and monthly retrospectives. The lesson learned is that there is always room for improvement and it is important to enable and encourage the team to allow for such improvements to happen.

Identifying engineering talent in unusual places

This story is about a hiring manager who was challenged to find qualified talent during the dot com boom. He took a chance on the company's best foosball player, who had no programming background or degree in computer science, and invested heavily in teaching him the technical skills and industry best practices. Two years later, the foosball player was able to step into the manager's place as the engineering manager of the team. The lesson learned is to be open minded and self-aware when hiring, and to distinguish between skills that must be innate to the candidate versus skills that can be taught.

How to better manage your time and responsibilities as a new manager

This article details the steps taken by a manager of 14 people to stay on top of inbound requests and managerial duties. The manager used a physical notebook to organize notes and action items, and delegated some of their responsibilities to free up time and sanity. Through delegating, the manager was able to create a new engineering role and staff a new team before the need became obvious. The article also highlights the importance of delegation and ownership in any given task.

Lessons from My Learn-by-Doing Approach to Product Management

This article tells the story of how the author became a product manager by accident. Through interning for a French startup company, the author was exposed to various aspects of product management and tech, and eventually realized that this was the field they wanted to pursue. The article then goes on to provide advice to aspiring product managers, such as finding an engineering soulmate, learning about code, being constantly curious, and creating a strong bond with the engineering team.

How to Reach Team Consensus

The team faced the challenge of migrating from a traditional SQL database to a distributed NoSQL solution, which none of them had any experience with. To address the issue, they brainstormed a list of NoSQL products, evaluated them, and ran benchmarks and proof-of-concept integrations. A senior architect proposed a migration plan which was later executed successfully. The team learned the importance of looking ahead to potential challenges and engaging as many staff members as possible in decisions that can have a broad impact.

My supervisor instructed me to fire someone on my first day in the job

When faced with a request from his VP to fire one of his direct reports without explanation, the engineering manager negotiated a plan to collect evidence, learn the engineer's job, and design a hiring plan for replacing him. Through biweekly conversations, he learned the engineer was suffering from burnout and had a passion for music. The engineer eventually resigned, avoiding litigation and saving the company money. The manager learned it is ok to push back when asked to do something wrong, and that listening with an open mind can help resolve conflicts.

Contractors: Know When to Hold ‘Em, Know When to Fold ‘Em

The author was promoted to Director and inherited a team of 10 contractors and one junior FTE. After assessing the situation, the author created a hiring plan to reduce contractor headcount and hire more senior full-time engineers. Through creative problem solving, the author was able to bring up a new group of engineers in New York City and increase customer satisfaction by 50%. The author learned that contractors can be a quick fix but their incentives are not always aligned with the business, and that it is important to think outside the box to use resources that might not be obvious.

Understanding Your Options - A Key to Deploying a Management Plan That Works for Varying Levels of Experience

This article discusses the dilemma of hiring junior engineering managers or someone with more experience. It suggests three options: hiring a more experienced manager, hiring junior people with oversight, or hiring a more experienced manager and promoting a junior to a mentorship role. Ultimately, it is important to go with your instincts and provide mentorship to junior engineers to help them grow into management roles.

What To Do When Your Project Guidelines Are Not Clear

In order to ensure that the team is aware of the changes in a new project, story mapping and kickoff meetings should be held. The team should be included in the meetings and given the opportunity to ask questions and provide feedback. This will help to ensure that everyone is on the same page and that the project is progressing in the right direction.

Growing Into a Manager of Managers

When transitioning from an engineering manager to a manager of other managers, it is important to set boundaries to differentiate tasks and responsibilities. This helps to ensure that the managers are doing their own job without the manager's manager jumping in and doing it themselves. It is important to respect the boundaries and to coach the managers on how to handle their own situations. Additionally, the manager's manager should spend time with each of the managers to get feedback and ensure alignment. Ultimately, it is all about setting boundaries and respecting the roles of each individual.

Start-Ups: How to Release When Your Sales Increase

This article outlines the steps needed to ensure a successful release cycle for a small start-up transitioning to a larger one. It suggests organizing features and outcomes, creating automated testing, keeping customer satisfaction a priority, aligning engineering methodologies with HR, and increasing internal communication between teams. These steps will help to ensure predictability and the successful release of products that add value to the business.

Reliant on Hardware: Software Testing

In order to meet a customer's tight deadline, the company took the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) approach to build a prototype of their software product. They built a phone the size of a desktop and a laptop-sized version of the MVP. The customer was then able to test the product on the streets. The MVP approach worked out well and the company learned that they can cut time and resources by not creating a perfect phone to test their product. If they had to do it again, they would do most of it the same way but spend more time building out the UX/UI of the script on the prototype.

The Best Way to Form a Product Team From Scratch

To form a new product team from scratch, the company put the author in charge. The author's strategy was to find a mix of internal people with domain expertise and external, more senior product managers with product management experience. Both internal and external hires faced challenges, but with the help of senior product managers, the team was eventually built and performed well.

What To Do if You Don’t Agree with an Executive Decision

An executive wanted to enter a new market, but the product team conducted market research and customer interviews to determine that it was not a good fit. The findings were presented to the executive, who agreed to focus on the current market instead. This process gained credibility for the product team and strengthened their relationship with the executive.

The Importance of Observing the Field to Gain Clarity on A New Product

In order to gain agreement on the direction and roadmap of a new mobile product, two product managers went on a field trip with energy assessors to observe how they used the current product and ask questions. This provided a strong point of view on the new product based on factual data from the field, allowing the team to gain agreement and create a successful roadmap.

Structuring Your Team's Roles and Responsibilities

To balance team dynamics in a smaller company, a manager can use the RACI matrix to define and document roles and responsibilities, or define distinct territories for each team member. Additionally, weekly group updates, communication of company values, and respect for team members should be encouraged.

Setting Up a Framework for Meetings to Avoid Disruptions

This article discusses how to deal with a disruptive team member in meetings. It suggests having a private one-on-one chat with the individual to discuss their behavior and its effect on the team, as well as establishing a framework with principles for conducting meetings. It also suggests giving micro feedback and having another one-on-one after a couple of weeks to assess progress. The article concludes with lessons learned, such as the difficulty of changing people's behavior and the need for intrinsic motivation.

Leadership Across Time Zones

This article provides tips and methods for managing a remote team, such as creating a long-term roadmap, co-locating teams, using Jira to track progress, and planning sprints. It also emphasizes the importance of communication, assigning work, and planning ahead of time.

What To Consider When Onboarding A Quality Assurance Position

This article discusses the importance of considering Quality Assurance (QA) when designing a team. It outlines the need to be transparent about expectations and to involve QA from the beginning of a project. It also emphasizes the need to think holistically and to rally the group around the common mission of quality.

Shifting Bandwidth and Using POCs for Larger Projects

In a small company, the team was facing problems with an analytics product that wasn't serving users' needs. To solve the underlying problem, a full platform re-architecture was needed. To achieve this, a proof of concept process was done to find the main components of an analytics stack, and engineering bandwidth was freed up to focus on the long-term issues. Lessons learned included the importance of proof of concepts for big projects, working closely with engineering, support, professional services, and product marketing when rolling out a product, and getting users comfortable with the migration process.

Finding a Routine That Works for a Distributed Engineering Team

This article outlines the challenges of finding a daily stand up time that suits everyone and the absence of a development process. The author was able to build a process together, stick to it, and continuously refine it. They established a routine with daily stand-ups, bi-weekly product demos, sprint plannings & grooming sessions, and monthly retrospectives. The lesson learned is that there is always room for improvement and it is important to enable and encourage the team to allow for such improvements to happen.