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How to deal with a strong performer facing some personal issues

A manager noticed a drop in performance from one of their direct reports, who had been a consistently strong performer. After establishing a strong and trusting relationship with the employee, the manager was able to probe deeper into the root cause of the drop in performance. It was discovered that the employee's youngest son had a growth abnormality, which was causing her distress. Through sincere conversations and understanding, the manager was able to help the employee get back to performing at the expected level. The manager learned that strong performers may not be forthcoming about their personal troubles, and that building strong relationships with reports during good times is important for challenging times.

Be prepared when giving negative feedback

When giving negative feedback, the author found that starting with positive feedback was not efficient. To address this, they created a spreadsheet to organize their thoughts and expectations, and then had a meeting with the underperforming team member to discuss the issues. The spreadsheet was shared with the team member and was used to mix negative and positive feedback. This approach was found to be effective in addressing the issue.

Hiring employees from within your organization

A team at Polaris Wireless was facing restructuring, resulting in two senior engineers and an excellent developer being let go. The team members asked the hiring manager if they could take on a role, and the manager decided to give them a chance to prove themselves. The two team members ended up proving themselves and becoming great developers for the technologies, showing that knowledge of a technology isn't the main consideration when hiring, but rather a person's aptitude and attitude. This was a great win for the company, as it prevented them from having to let go of valued staff members.

The importance of defining and reinforcing your company values every day.

This article discusses the importance of company culture and how to define and reinforce it. It suggests spending time to figure out what values are important, writing them down, and creating a way to recognize employees who demonstrate those values. It also suggests having a clear vocabulary for culture to use in decision-making scenarios, such as hiring. Taking the time to define company values is essential to ensure the best culture for the company.

The importance of talking about career plans.

This story is about a manager helping an employee who is pursuing an MBA to create a career path. The manager looked at this as an opportunity to groom the employee into a management role or product management role, and brainstormed areas of interest and potential shadow opportunities. The manager also helped the employee to identify people they could talk to in the company with an MBA, and checked if the company could provide any financial assistance. The lesson learned is that it is important to understand the employee's perspective and provide them with ideas and stories to help them reflect on their own thoughts.

Solve conflicts by giving ownership of the solution to the most impacted party

A communication problem between two teams was solved by giving the ownership of the solution to the team most impacted by the problem. The solution was to have the "install" lead dev attend the "feature" team's sprint meetings and ask for a "feature done" requirement regarding installation. This helped to reduce stress, show the "install" team they were being considered, and improve the quality of the delivery.

Be careful with written communication

A tech lead from a remote team at Digital Ocean had a tense conversation with another tech team via Slack. The manager of the other team complained to the team lead, who then called the tech lead to hear his version. To resolve the issue, the tech lead and the manager had a video call to talk and calm the tension, and the team lead had a chat with each of them to understand how the situation could have been avoided. The lesson learned is that remote teams need to pay special attention to communication, and when it becomes too emotional, the best thing to do is to call the person you wish to communicate with.

Employees encroaching each other’s territory

A manager at a company intervened in an open conflict between two people in different teams who were trying to solve a problem and believed the other was encroaching on their territory. After listening to both sides, the manager realized their aspirations were different and complementary, and organized a meeting with the three of them to discuss the problem. This led to a better outcome than either of them could have reached independently, and the manager learned that when it comes to staff believing someone is encroaching on their territory, the best way to solve the problem is to define a bigger task and show it to the arguing staff members, and help each employee think about what motivates them.

Removing disruptive team member[s] will vastly improve productivity and morale

In a previous role, a manager noticed that a scrum team was not working well despite being highly motivated and technically strong. After attending meetings and speaking with team members, it became clear that one senior engineer was challenging almost any proposal or decision, causing the team to hesitate and decisions to take three times longer than needed. The manager decided to remove the engineer from the team, and the remaining team of four became more productive shortly after. This reinforced the importance of staying close to a team's dynamics and identifying early obstacles to achieving smooth collaboration and an agile tempo.

An employee intimidating others team members

A developer was excellent at complex tasks but had a negative impact on the team due to his condescending attitude. After realizing the problem, the manager took action by talking to the developer and coaching him before meetings and code reviews. Despite some improvement, the manager eventually decided to let the developer go, which had a positive effect on the team. The manager learned that they should have acted earlier and should have been more explicit with the team.

How to Grow Talent From Within a Company Successfully

In order to keep the best talent, companies must offer various paths of evolution. To transition a support engineer to tech, the employee must be ready for the change, go through a classic interview process, and build a path that both parties agree on. This model of transition has been successful when used multiple times. Spotting key employees early on is important to involve them in the process.

Giving some visibility to performing junior engineers

At a company hackathon, junior engineers took the opportunity to work on an exciting project and ended up winning first prize. This hackathon was a great way for them to gain visibility and motivation in the organization, as it allowed them to try out new ideas and show off their skills. It also strengthened bonds between employees and fostered social cohesion.

How to deal with remote workers

A manager allowed an employee to work remotely, but the experience was not positive. The manager then set clear expectations for the employee and it went much better the second time. This experience taught the manager that when expectations are set clearly, it can lead to a satisfying compromise.

Inheriting a dysfunctional team

In three months, a team had to build and design a brand new platform, but the atmosphere was not good and the team didn't know how to prioritize their work. The manager worked with the stakeholders to understand the requirements and split the team into two, setting milestones and creating a roadmap for the business to track. The team was able to deliver on time, but the manager still had to focus on ensuring clarity around business requirements and making better decisions about priority. The lesson learned was to only work on the problem that needs to be solved first and to have a manager to fill the gaps and set a vision for the team.

How to know if you need contractors or to hire new engineers?

This article discusses the decision to hire a contractor or an engineer for a mobile app development project. It is suggested that contractors are best for short-term projects with specific skillsets and timelines, while engineers are better for long-term projects that require context and care. The decision should also depend on the company's culture.

Team Members Who Miss the Daily Standup Meeting

Doctolib implemented a system to encourage developers to attend daily stand-up meetings without having to resort to reproaching or punishing them. If a developer arrives late five times, they must buy croissants for the whole team the next day, resulting in the team enjoying a nice breakfast and the developer receiving gratitude from their team.

How to hire a start-up team

When hiring a startup team, it is important to assess whether the candidate would make a good teammate and have the necessary skills. In this case, the team looked for emotional intelligence, language skills, and the ability to understand and master basics deeply. They also hired a recruiter to find an engineer with 7-8 years' worth of Rails experience. The team had to hire quickly, but also carefully, and they said no to a lot of people who were almost a fit.

How to improve the collaboration with the Product team

Doordash addressed the issue of engineers not driving business impact by ensuring that the product and engineering teams are held accountable for the same goals. This approach has improved visibility into what engineers are working on and changed the conversation away from finger-pointing to collaboration.

Struggling to delegate

The author was initially reluctant to let their team of engineers fix the custom software they had integrated, as they had done all of the customizations themselves. However, they eventually realized that it was not respecting their team and that it was a natural part of learning. They then changed their approach, giving their team members more in-depth training and allowing them to take control of the software. This shift in mindset allowed the team to actively engage with the product and relieved the author of their fear of letting them potentially mess up.

How to accelerate hiring processes

Doordash faced a situation where their engineering managers were not aligned with their recruiting team in terms of how to be involved with the recruiting process. To fix this, they made sure engineering managers were more involved with the recruitment process and set up a dashboard to track progress. This approach greatly accelerated their hiring process and they have already doubled their hiring rate. The key lesson learned is that setting concrete hiring targets for engineering leadership is the most effective way to ensure they are focused on recruiting.

How to deal with a strong performer facing some personal issues

A manager noticed a drop in performance from one of their direct reports, who had been a consistently strong performer. After establishing a strong and trusting relationship with the employee, the manager was able to probe deeper into the root cause of the drop in performance. It was discovered that the employee's youngest son had a growth abnormality, which was causing her distress. Through sincere conversations and understanding, the manager was able to help the employee get back to performing at the expected level. The manager learned that strong performers may not be forthcoming about their personal troubles, and that building strong relationships with reports during good times is important for challenging times.

Be prepared when giving negative feedback

When giving negative feedback, the author found that starting with positive feedback was not efficient. To address this, they created a spreadsheet to organize their thoughts and expectations, and then had a meeting with the underperforming team member to discuss the issues. The spreadsheet was shared with the team member and was used to mix negative and positive feedback. This approach was found to be effective in addressing the issue.

Hiring employees from within your organization

A team at Polaris Wireless was facing restructuring, resulting in two senior engineers and an excellent developer being let go. The team members asked the hiring manager if they could take on a role, and the manager decided to give them a chance to prove themselves. The two team members ended up proving themselves and becoming great developers for the technologies, showing that knowledge of a technology isn't the main consideration when hiring, but rather a person's aptitude and attitude. This was a great win for the company, as it prevented them from having to let go of valued staff members.

The importance of defining and reinforcing your company values every day.

This article discusses the importance of company culture and how to define and reinforce it. It suggests spending time to figure out what values are important, writing them down, and creating a way to recognize employees who demonstrate those values. It also suggests having a clear vocabulary for culture to use in decision-making scenarios, such as hiring. Taking the time to define company values is essential to ensure the best culture for the company.

The importance of talking about career plans.

This story is about a manager helping an employee who is pursuing an MBA to create a career path. The manager looked at this as an opportunity to groom the employee into a management role or product management role, and brainstormed areas of interest and potential shadow opportunities. The manager also helped the employee to identify people they could talk to in the company with an MBA, and checked if the company could provide any financial assistance. The lesson learned is that it is important to understand the employee's perspective and provide them with ideas and stories to help them reflect on their own thoughts.

Solve conflicts by giving ownership of the solution to the most impacted party

A communication problem between two teams was solved by giving the ownership of the solution to the team most impacted by the problem. The solution was to have the "install" lead dev attend the "feature" team's sprint meetings and ask for a "feature done" requirement regarding installation. This helped to reduce stress, show the "install" team they were being considered, and improve the quality of the delivery.

Be careful with written communication

A tech lead from a remote team at Digital Ocean had a tense conversation with another tech team via Slack. The manager of the other team complained to the team lead, who then called the tech lead to hear his version. To resolve the issue, the tech lead and the manager had a video call to talk and calm the tension, and the team lead had a chat with each of them to understand how the situation could have been avoided. The lesson learned is that remote teams need to pay special attention to communication, and when it becomes too emotional, the best thing to do is to call the person you wish to communicate with.

Employees encroaching each other’s territory

A manager at a company intervened in an open conflict between two people in different teams who were trying to solve a problem and believed the other was encroaching on their territory. After listening to both sides, the manager realized their aspirations were different and complementary, and organized a meeting with the three of them to discuss the problem. This led to a better outcome than either of them could have reached independently, and the manager learned that when it comes to staff believing someone is encroaching on their territory, the best way to solve the problem is to define a bigger task and show it to the arguing staff members, and help each employee think about what motivates them.

Removing disruptive team member[s] will vastly improve productivity and morale

In a previous role, a manager noticed that a scrum team was not working well despite being highly motivated and technically strong. After attending meetings and speaking with team members, it became clear that one senior engineer was challenging almost any proposal or decision, causing the team to hesitate and decisions to take three times longer than needed. The manager decided to remove the engineer from the team, and the remaining team of four became more productive shortly after. This reinforced the importance of staying close to a team's dynamics and identifying early obstacles to achieving smooth collaboration and an agile tempo.

An employee intimidating others team members

A developer was excellent at complex tasks but had a negative impact on the team due to his condescending attitude. After realizing the problem, the manager took action by talking to the developer and coaching him before meetings and code reviews. Despite some improvement, the manager eventually decided to let the developer go, which had a positive effect on the team. The manager learned that they should have acted earlier and should have been more explicit with the team.

How to Grow Talent From Within a Company Successfully

In order to keep the best talent, companies must offer various paths of evolution. To transition a support engineer to tech, the employee must be ready for the change, go through a classic interview process, and build a path that both parties agree on. This model of transition has been successful when used multiple times. Spotting key employees early on is important to involve them in the process.

Giving some visibility to performing junior engineers

At a company hackathon, junior engineers took the opportunity to work on an exciting project and ended up winning first prize. This hackathon was a great way for them to gain visibility and motivation in the organization, as it allowed them to try out new ideas and show off their skills. It also strengthened bonds between employees and fostered social cohesion.

How to deal with remote workers

A manager allowed an employee to work remotely, but the experience was not positive. The manager then set clear expectations for the employee and it went much better the second time. This experience taught the manager that when expectations are set clearly, it can lead to a satisfying compromise.

Inheriting a dysfunctional team

In three months, a team had to build and design a brand new platform, but the atmosphere was not good and the team didn't know how to prioritize their work. The manager worked with the stakeholders to understand the requirements and split the team into two, setting milestones and creating a roadmap for the business to track. The team was able to deliver on time, but the manager still had to focus on ensuring clarity around business requirements and making better decisions about priority. The lesson learned was to only work on the problem that needs to be solved first and to have a manager to fill the gaps and set a vision for the team.

How to know if you need contractors or to hire new engineers?

This article discusses the decision to hire a contractor or an engineer for a mobile app development project. It is suggested that contractors are best for short-term projects with specific skillsets and timelines, while engineers are better for long-term projects that require context and care. The decision should also depend on the company's culture.

Team Members Who Miss the Daily Standup Meeting

Doctolib implemented a system to encourage developers to attend daily stand-up meetings without having to resort to reproaching or punishing them. If a developer arrives late five times, they must buy croissants for the whole team the next day, resulting in the team enjoying a nice breakfast and the developer receiving gratitude from their team.

How to hire a start-up team

When hiring a startup team, it is important to assess whether the candidate would make a good teammate and have the necessary skills. In this case, the team looked for emotional intelligence, language skills, and the ability to understand and master basics deeply. They also hired a recruiter to find an engineer with 7-8 years' worth of Rails experience. The team had to hire quickly, but also carefully, and they said no to a lot of people who were almost a fit.

How to improve the collaboration with the Product team

Doordash addressed the issue of engineers not driving business impact by ensuring that the product and engineering teams are held accountable for the same goals. This approach has improved visibility into what engineers are working on and changed the conversation away from finger-pointing to collaboration.

Struggling to delegate

The author was initially reluctant to let their team of engineers fix the custom software they had integrated, as they had done all of the customizations themselves. However, they eventually realized that it was not respecting their team and that it was a natural part of learning. They then changed their approach, giving their team members more in-depth training and allowing them to take control of the software. This shift in mindset allowed the team to actively engage with the product and relieved the author of their fear of letting them potentially mess up.

How to accelerate hiring processes

Doordash faced a situation where their engineering managers were not aligned with their recruiting team in terms of how to be involved with the recruiting process. To fix this, they made sure engineering managers were more involved with the recruitment process and set up a dashboard to track progress. This approach greatly accelerated their hiring process and they have already doubled their hiring rate. The key lesson learned is that setting concrete hiring targets for engineering leadership is the most effective way to ensure they are focused on recruiting.

How to deal with a strong performer facing some personal issues

A manager noticed a drop in performance from one of their direct reports, who had been a consistently strong performer. After establishing a strong and trusting relationship with the employee, the manager was able to probe deeper into the root cause of the drop in performance. It was discovered that the employee's youngest son had a growth abnormality, which was causing her distress. Through sincere conversations and understanding, the manager was able to help the employee get back to performing at the expected level. The manager learned that strong performers may not be forthcoming about their personal troubles, and that building strong relationships with reports during good times is important for challenging times.

Be prepared when giving negative feedback

When giving negative feedback, the author found that starting with positive feedback was not efficient. To address this, they created a spreadsheet to organize their thoughts and expectations, and then had a meeting with the underperforming team member to discuss the issues. The spreadsheet was shared with the team member and was used to mix negative and positive feedback. This approach was found to be effective in addressing the issue.

Hiring employees from within your organization

A team at Polaris Wireless was facing restructuring, resulting in two senior engineers and an excellent developer being let go. The team members asked the hiring manager if they could take on a role, and the manager decided to give them a chance to prove themselves. The two team members ended up proving themselves and becoming great developers for the technologies, showing that knowledge of a technology isn't the main consideration when hiring, but rather a person's aptitude and attitude. This was a great win for the company, as it prevented them from having to let go of valued staff members.

The importance of defining and reinforcing your company values every day.

This article discusses the importance of company culture and how to define and reinforce it. It suggests spending time to figure out what values are important, writing them down, and creating a way to recognize employees who demonstrate those values. It also suggests having a clear vocabulary for culture to use in decision-making scenarios, such as hiring. Taking the time to define company values is essential to ensure the best culture for the company.

The importance of talking about career plans.

This story is about a manager helping an employee who is pursuing an MBA to create a career path. The manager looked at this as an opportunity to groom the employee into a management role or product management role, and brainstormed areas of interest and potential shadow opportunities. The manager also helped the employee to identify people they could talk to in the company with an MBA, and checked if the company could provide any financial assistance. The lesson learned is that it is important to understand the employee's perspective and provide them with ideas and stories to help them reflect on their own thoughts.

Solve conflicts by giving ownership of the solution to the most impacted party

A communication problem between two teams was solved by giving the ownership of the solution to the team most impacted by the problem. The solution was to have the "install" lead dev attend the "feature" team's sprint meetings and ask for a "feature done" requirement regarding installation. This helped to reduce stress, show the "install" team they were being considered, and improve the quality of the delivery.

Be careful with written communication

A tech lead from a remote team at Digital Ocean had a tense conversation with another tech team via Slack. The manager of the other team complained to the team lead, who then called the tech lead to hear his version. To resolve the issue, the tech lead and the manager had a video call to talk and calm the tension, and the team lead had a chat with each of them to understand how the situation could have been avoided. The lesson learned is that remote teams need to pay special attention to communication, and when it becomes too emotional, the best thing to do is to call the person you wish to communicate with.

Employees encroaching each other’s territory

A manager at a company intervened in an open conflict between two people in different teams who were trying to solve a problem and believed the other was encroaching on their territory. After listening to both sides, the manager realized their aspirations were different and complementary, and organized a meeting with the three of them to discuss the problem. This led to a better outcome than either of them could have reached independently, and the manager learned that when it comes to staff believing someone is encroaching on their territory, the best way to solve the problem is to define a bigger task and show it to the arguing staff members, and help each employee think about what motivates them.

Removing disruptive team member[s] will vastly improve productivity and morale

In a previous role, a manager noticed that a scrum team was not working well despite being highly motivated and technically strong. After attending meetings and speaking with team members, it became clear that one senior engineer was challenging almost any proposal or decision, causing the team to hesitate and decisions to take three times longer than needed. The manager decided to remove the engineer from the team, and the remaining team of four became more productive shortly after. This reinforced the importance of staying close to a team's dynamics and identifying early obstacles to achieving smooth collaboration and an agile tempo.

An employee intimidating others team members

A developer was excellent at complex tasks but had a negative impact on the team due to his condescending attitude. After realizing the problem, the manager took action by talking to the developer and coaching him before meetings and code reviews. Despite some improvement, the manager eventually decided to let the developer go, which had a positive effect on the team. The manager learned that they should have acted earlier and should have been more explicit with the team.

How to Grow Talent From Within a Company Successfully

In order to keep the best talent, companies must offer various paths of evolution. To transition a support engineer to tech, the employee must be ready for the change, go through a classic interview process, and build a path that both parties agree on. This model of transition has been successful when used multiple times. Spotting key employees early on is important to involve them in the process.

Giving some visibility to performing junior engineers

At a company hackathon, junior engineers took the opportunity to work on an exciting project and ended up winning first prize. This hackathon was a great way for them to gain visibility and motivation in the organization, as it allowed them to try out new ideas and show off their skills. It also strengthened bonds between employees and fostered social cohesion.

How to deal with remote workers

A manager allowed an employee to work remotely, but the experience was not positive. The manager then set clear expectations for the employee and it went much better the second time. This experience taught the manager that when expectations are set clearly, it can lead to a satisfying compromise.

Inheriting a dysfunctional team

In three months, a team had to build and design a brand new platform, but the atmosphere was not good and the team didn't know how to prioritize their work. The manager worked with the stakeholders to understand the requirements and split the team into two, setting milestones and creating a roadmap for the business to track. The team was able to deliver on time, but the manager still had to focus on ensuring clarity around business requirements and making better decisions about priority. The lesson learned was to only work on the problem that needs to be solved first and to have a manager to fill the gaps and set a vision for the team.

How to know if you need contractors or to hire new engineers?

This article discusses the decision to hire a contractor or an engineer for a mobile app development project. It is suggested that contractors are best for short-term projects with specific skillsets and timelines, while engineers are better for long-term projects that require context and care. The decision should also depend on the company's culture.

Team Members Who Miss the Daily Standup Meeting

Doctolib implemented a system to encourage developers to attend daily stand-up meetings without having to resort to reproaching or punishing them. If a developer arrives late five times, they must buy croissants for the whole team the next day, resulting in the team enjoying a nice breakfast and the developer receiving gratitude from their team.

How to hire a start-up team

When hiring a startup team, it is important to assess whether the candidate would make a good teammate and have the necessary skills. In this case, the team looked for emotional intelligence, language skills, and the ability to understand and master basics deeply. They also hired a recruiter to find an engineer with 7-8 years' worth of Rails experience. The team had to hire quickly, but also carefully, and they said no to a lot of people who were almost a fit.

How to improve the collaboration with the Product team

Doordash addressed the issue of engineers not driving business impact by ensuring that the product and engineering teams are held accountable for the same goals. This approach has improved visibility into what engineers are working on and changed the conversation away from finger-pointing to collaboration.

Struggling to delegate

The author was initially reluctant to let their team of engineers fix the custom software they had integrated, as they had done all of the customizations themselves. However, they eventually realized that it was not respecting their team and that it was a natural part of learning. They then changed their approach, giving their team members more in-depth training and allowing them to take control of the software. This shift in mindset allowed the team to actively engage with the product and relieved the author of their fear of letting them potentially mess up.

How to accelerate hiring processes

Doordash faced a situation where their engineering managers were not aligned with their recruiting team in terms of how to be involved with the recruiting process. To fix this, they made sure engineering managers were more involved with the recruitment process and set up a dashboard to track progress. This approach greatly accelerated their hiring process and they have already doubled their hiring rate. The key lesson learned is that setting concrete hiring targets for engineering leadership is the most effective way to ensure they are focused on recruiting.

How to deal with a strong performer facing some personal issues

A manager noticed a drop in performance from one of their direct reports, who had been a consistently strong performer. After establishing a strong and trusting relationship with the employee, the manager was able to probe deeper into the root cause of the drop in performance. It was discovered that the employee's youngest son had a growth abnormality, which was causing her distress. Through sincere conversations and understanding, the manager was able to help the employee get back to performing at the expected level. The manager learned that strong performers may not be forthcoming about their personal troubles, and that building strong relationships with reports during good times is important for challenging times.

Be prepared when giving negative feedback

When giving negative feedback, the author found that starting with positive feedback was not efficient. To address this, they created a spreadsheet to organize their thoughts and expectations, and then had a meeting with the underperforming team member to discuss the issues. The spreadsheet was shared with the team member and was used to mix negative and positive feedback. This approach was found to be effective in addressing the issue.

Hiring employees from within your organization

A team at Polaris Wireless was facing restructuring, resulting in two senior engineers and an excellent developer being let go. The team members asked the hiring manager if they could take on a role, and the manager decided to give them a chance to prove themselves. The two team members ended up proving themselves and becoming great developers for the technologies, showing that knowledge of a technology isn't the main consideration when hiring, but rather a person's aptitude and attitude. This was a great win for the company, as it prevented them from having to let go of valued staff members.

The importance of defining and reinforcing your company values every day.

This article discusses the importance of company culture and how to define and reinforce it. It suggests spending time to figure out what values are important, writing them down, and creating a way to recognize employees who demonstrate those values. It also suggests having a clear vocabulary for culture to use in decision-making scenarios, such as hiring. Taking the time to define company values is essential to ensure the best culture for the company.

The importance of talking about career plans.

This story is about a manager helping an employee who is pursuing an MBA to create a career path. The manager looked at this as an opportunity to groom the employee into a management role or product management role, and brainstormed areas of interest and potential shadow opportunities. The manager also helped the employee to identify people they could talk to in the company with an MBA, and checked if the company could provide any financial assistance. The lesson learned is that it is important to understand the employee's perspective and provide them with ideas and stories to help them reflect on their own thoughts.

Solve conflicts by giving ownership of the solution to the most impacted party

A communication problem between two teams was solved by giving the ownership of the solution to the team most impacted by the problem. The solution was to have the "install" lead dev attend the "feature" team's sprint meetings and ask for a "feature done" requirement regarding installation. This helped to reduce stress, show the "install" team they were being considered, and improve the quality of the delivery.

Be careful with written communication

A tech lead from a remote team at Digital Ocean had a tense conversation with another tech team via Slack. The manager of the other team complained to the team lead, who then called the tech lead to hear his version. To resolve the issue, the tech lead and the manager had a video call to talk and calm the tension, and the team lead had a chat with each of them to understand how the situation could have been avoided. The lesson learned is that remote teams need to pay special attention to communication, and when it becomes too emotional, the best thing to do is to call the person you wish to communicate with.

Employees encroaching each other’s territory

A manager at a company intervened in an open conflict between two people in different teams who were trying to solve a problem and believed the other was encroaching on their territory. After listening to both sides, the manager realized their aspirations were different and complementary, and organized a meeting with the three of them to discuss the problem. This led to a better outcome than either of them could have reached independently, and the manager learned that when it comes to staff believing someone is encroaching on their territory, the best way to solve the problem is to define a bigger task and show it to the arguing staff members, and help each employee think about what motivates them.

Removing disruptive team member[s] will vastly improve productivity and morale

In a previous role, a manager noticed that a scrum team was not working well despite being highly motivated and technically strong. After attending meetings and speaking with team members, it became clear that one senior engineer was challenging almost any proposal or decision, causing the team to hesitate and decisions to take three times longer than needed. The manager decided to remove the engineer from the team, and the remaining team of four became more productive shortly after. This reinforced the importance of staying close to a team's dynamics and identifying early obstacles to achieving smooth collaboration and an agile tempo.

An employee intimidating others team members

A developer was excellent at complex tasks but had a negative impact on the team due to his condescending attitude. After realizing the problem, the manager took action by talking to the developer and coaching him before meetings and code reviews. Despite some improvement, the manager eventually decided to let the developer go, which had a positive effect on the team. The manager learned that they should have acted earlier and should have been more explicit with the team.

How to Grow Talent From Within a Company Successfully

In order to keep the best talent, companies must offer various paths of evolution. To transition a support engineer to tech, the employee must be ready for the change, go through a classic interview process, and build a path that both parties agree on. This model of transition has been successful when used multiple times. Spotting key employees early on is important to involve them in the process.

Giving some visibility to performing junior engineers

At a company hackathon, junior engineers took the opportunity to work on an exciting project and ended up winning first prize. This hackathon was a great way for them to gain visibility and motivation in the organization, as it allowed them to try out new ideas and show off their skills. It also strengthened bonds between employees and fostered social cohesion.

How to deal with remote workers

A manager allowed an employee to work remotely, but the experience was not positive. The manager then set clear expectations for the employee and it went much better the second time. This experience taught the manager that when expectations are set clearly, it can lead to a satisfying compromise.

Inheriting a dysfunctional team

In three months, a team had to build and design a brand new platform, but the atmosphere was not good and the team didn't know how to prioritize their work. The manager worked with the stakeholders to understand the requirements and split the team into two, setting milestones and creating a roadmap for the business to track. The team was able to deliver on time, but the manager still had to focus on ensuring clarity around business requirements and making better decisions about priority. The lesson learned was to only work on the problem that needs to be solved first and to have a manager to fill the gaps and set a vision for the team.

How to know if you need contractors or to hire new engineers?

This article discusses the decision to hire a contractor or an engineer for a mobile app development project. It is suggested that contractors are best for short-term projects with specific skillsets and timelines, while engineers are better for long-term projects that require context and care. The decision should also depend on the company's culture.

Team Members Who Miss the Daily Standup Meeting

Doctolib implemented a system to encourage developers to attend daily stand-up meetings without having to resort to reproaching or punishing them. If a developer arrives late five times, they must buy croissants for the whole team the next day, resulting in the team enjoying a nice breakfast and the developer receiving gratitude from their team.

How to hire a start-up team

When hiring a startup team, it is important to assess whether the candidate would make a good teammate and have the necessary skills. In this case, the team looked for emotional intelligence, language skills, and the ability to understand and master basics deeply. They also hired a recruiter to find an engineer with 7-8 years' worth of Rails experience. The team had to hire quickly, but also carefully, and they said no to a lot of people who were almost a fit.

How to improve the collaboration with the Product team

Doordash addressed the issue of engineers not driving business impact by ensuring that the product and engineering teams are held accountable for the same goals. This approach has improved visibility into what engineers are working on and changed the conversation away from finger-pointing to collaboration.

Struggling to delegate

The author was initially reluctant to let their team of engineers fix the custom software they had integrated, as they had done all of the customizations themselves. However, they eventually realized that it was not respecting their team and that it was a natural part of learning. They then changed their approach, giving their team members more in-depth training and allowing them to take control of the software. This shift in mindset allowed the team to actively engage with the product and relieved the author of their fear of letting them potentially mess up.

How to accelerate hiring processes

Doordash faced a situation where their engineering managers were not aligned with their recruiting team in terms of how to be involved with the recruiting process. To fix this, they made sure engineering managers were more involved with the recruitment process and set up a dashboard to track progress. This approach greatly accelerated their hiring process and they have already doubled their hiring rate. The key lesson learned is that setting concrete hiring targets for engineering leadership is the most effective way to ensure they are focused on recruiting.

How to deal with a strong performer facing some personal issues

A manager noticed a drop in performance from one of their direct reports, who had been a consistently strong performer. After establishing a strong and trusting relationship with the employee, the manager was able to probe deeper into the root cause of the drop in performance. It was discovered that the employee's youngest son had a growth abnormality, which was causing her distress. Through sincere conversations and understanding, the manager was able to help the employee get back to performing at the expected level. The manager learned that strong performers may not be forthcoming about their personal troubles, and that building strong relationships with reports during good times is important for challenging times.

Be prepared when giving negative feedback

When giving negative feedback, the author found that starting with positive feedback was not efficient. To address this, they created a spreadsheet to organize their thoughts and expectations, and then had a meeting with the underperforming team member to discuss the issues. The spreadsheet was shared with the team member and was used to mix negative and positive feedback. This approach was found to be effective in addressing the issue.

Hiring employees from within your organization

A team at Polaris Wireless was facing restructuring, resulting in two senior engineers and an excellent developer being let go. The team members asked the hiring manager if they could take on a role, and the manager decided to give them a chance to prove themselves. The two team members ended up proving themselves and becoming great developers for the technologies, showing that knowledge of a technology isn't the main consideration when hiring, but rather a person's aptitude and attitude. This was a great win for the company, as it prevented them from having to let go of valued staff members.

The importance of defining and reinforcing your company values every day.

This article discusses the importance of company culture and how to define and reinforce it. It suggests spending time to figure out what values are important, writing them down, and creating a way to recognize employees who demonstrate those values. It also suggests having a clear vocabulary for culture to use in decision-making scenarios, such as hiring. Taking the time to define company values is essential to ensure the best culture for the company.

The importance of talking about career plans.

This story is about a manager helping an employee who is pursuing an MBA to create a career path. The manager looked at this as an opportunity to groom the employee into a management role or product management role, and brainstormed areas of interest and potential shadow opportunities. The manager also helped the employee to identify people they could talk to in the company with an MBA, and checked if the company could provide any financial assistance. The lesson learned is that it is important to understand the employee's perspective and provide them with ideas and stories to help them reflect on their own thoughts.

Solve conflicts by giving ownership of the solution to the most impacted party

A communication problem between two teams was solved by giving the ownership of the solution to the team most impacted by the problem. The solution was to have the "install" lead dev attend the "feature" team's sprint meetings and ask for a "feature done" requirement regarding installation. This helped to reduce stress, show the "install" team they were being considered, and improve the quality of the delivery.

Be careful with written communication

A tech lead from a remote team at Digital Ocean had a tense conversation with another tech team via Slack. The manager of the other team complained to the team lead, who then called the tech lead to hear his version. To resolve the issue, the tech lead and the manager had a video call to talk and calm the tension, and the team lead had a chat with each of them to understand how the situation could have been avoided. The lesson learned is that remote teams need to pay special attention to communication, and when it becomes too emotional, the best thing to do is to call the person you wish to communicate with.

Employees encroaching each other’s territory

A manager at a company intervened in an open conflict between two people in different teams who were trying to solve a problem and believed the other was encroaching on their territory. After listening to both sides, the manager realized their aspirations were different and complementary, and organized a meeting with the three of them to discuss the problem. This led to a better outcome than either of them could have reached independently, and the manager learned that when it comes to staff believing someone is encroaching on their territory, the best way to solve the problem is to define a bigger task and show it to the arguing staff members, and help each employee think about what motivates them.

Removing disruptive team member[s] will vastly improve productivity and morale

In a previous role, a manager noticed that a scrum team was not working well despite being highly motivated and technically strong. After attending meetings and speaking with team members, it became clear that one senior engineer was challenging almost any proposal or decision, causing the team to hesitate and decisions to take three times longer than needed. The manager decided to remove the engineer from the team, and the remaining team of four became more productive shortly after. This reinforced the importance of staying close to a team's dynamics and identifying early obstacles to achieving smooth collaboration and an agile tempo.

An employee intimidating others team members

A developer was excellent at complex tasks but had a negative impact on the team due to his condescending attitude. After realizing the problem, the manager took action by talking to the developer and coaching him before meetings and code reviews. Despite some improvement, the manager eventually decided to let the developer go, which had a positive effect on the team. The manager learned that they should have acted earlier and should have been more explicit with the team.

How to Grow Talent From Within a Company Successfully

In order to keep the best talent, companies must offer various paths of evolution. To transition a support engineer to tech, the employee must be ready for the change, go through a classic interview process, and build a path that both parties agree on. This model of transition has been successful when used multiple times. Spotting key employees early on is important to involve them in the process.

Giving some visibility to performing junior engineers

At a company hackathon, junior engineers took the opportunity to work on an exciting project and ended up winning first prize. This hackathon was a great way for them to gain visibility and motivation in the organization, as it allowed them to try out new ideas and show off their skills. It also strengthened bonds between employees and fostered social cohesion.

How to deal with remote workers

A manager allowed an employee to work remotely, but the experience was not positive. The manager then set clear expectations for the employee and it went much better the second time. This experience taught the manager that when expectations are set clearly, it can lead to a satisfying compromise.

Inheriting a dysfunctional team

In three months, a team had to build and design a brand new platform, but the atmosphere was not good and the team didn't know how to prioritize their work. The manager worked with the stakeholders to understand the requirements and split the team into two, setting milestones and creating a roadmap for the business to track. The team was able to deliver on time, but the manager still had to focus on ensuring clarity around business requirements and making better decisions about priority. The lesson learned was to only work on the problem that needs to be solved first and to have a manager to fill the gaps and set a vision for the team.

How to know if you need contractors or to hire new engineers?

This article discusses the decision to hire a contractor or an engineer for a mobile app development project. It is suggested that contractors are best for short-term projects with specific skillsets and timelines, while engineers are better for long-term projects that require context and care. The decision should also depend on the company's culture.

Team Members Who Miss the Daily Standup Meeting

Doctolib implemented a system to encourage developers to attend daily stand-up meetings without having to resort to reproaching or punishing them. If a developer arrives late five times, they must buy croissants for the whole team the next day, resulting in the team enjoying a nice breakfast and the developer receiving gratitude from their team.

How to hire a start-up team

When hiring a startup team, it is important to assess whether the candidate would make a good teammate and have the necessary skills. In this case, the team looked for emotional intelligence, language skills, and the ability to understand and master basics deeply. They also hired a recruiter to find an engineer with 7-8 years' worth of Rails experience. The team had to hire quickly, but also carefully, and they said no to a lot of people who were almost a fit.

How to improve the collaboration with the Product team

Doordash addressed the issue of engineers not driving business impact by ensuring that the product and engineering teams are held accountable for the same goals. This approach has improved visibility into what engineers are working on and changed the conversation away from finger-pointing to collaboration.

Struggling to delegate

The author was initially reluctant to let their team of engineers fix the custom software they had integrated, as they had done all of the customizations themselves. However, they eventually realized that it was not respecting their team and that it was a natural part of learning. They then changed their approach, giving their team members more in-depth training and allowing them to take control of the software. This shift in mindset allowed the team to actively engage with the product and relieved the author of their fear of letting them potentially mess up.

How to accelerate hiring processes

Doordash faced a situation where their engineering managers were not aligned with their recruiting team in terms of how to be involved with the recruiting process. To fix this, they made sure engineering managers were more involved with the recruitment process and set up a dashboard to track progress. This approach greatly accelerated their hiring process and they have already doubled their hiring rate. The key lesson learned is that setting concrete hiring targets for engineering leadership is the most effective way to ensure they are focused on recruiting.

How to deal with a strong performer facing some personal issues

A manager noticed a drop in performance from one of their direct reports, who had been a consistently strong performer. After establishing a strong and trusting relationship with the employee, the manager was able to probe deeper into the root cause of the drop in performance. It was discovered that the employee's youngest son had a growth abnormality, which was causing her distress. Through sincere conversations and understanding, the manager was able to help the employee get back to performing at the expected level. The manager learned that strong performers may not be forthcoming about their personal troubles, and that building strong relationships with reports during good times is important for challenging times.

Be prepared when giving negative feedback

When giving negative feedback, the author found that starting with positive feedback was not efficient. To address this, they created a spreadsheet to organize their thoughts and expectations, and then had a meeting with the underperforming team member to discuss the issues. The spreadsheet was shared with the team member and was used to mix negative and positive feedback. This approach was found to be effective in addressing the issue.

Hiring employees from within your organization

A team at Polaris Wireless was facing restructuring, resulting in two senior engineers and an excellent developer being let go. The team members asked the hiring manager if they could take on a role, and the manager decided to give them a chance to prove themselves. The two team members ended up proving themselves and becoming great developers for the technologies, showing that knowledge of a technology isn't the main consideration when hiring, but rather a person's aptitude and attitude. This was a great win for the company, as it prevented them from having to let go of valued staff members.

The importance of defining and reinforcing your company values every day.

This article discusses the importance of company culture and how to define and reinforce it. It suggests spending time to figure out what values are important, writing them down, and creating a way to recognize employees who demonstrate those values. It also suggests having a clear vocabulary for culture to use in decision-making scenarios, such as hiring. Taking the time to define company values is essential to ensure the best culture for the company.

The importance of talking about career plans.

This story is about a manager helping an employee who is pursuing an MBA to create a career path. The manager looked at this as an opportunity to groom the employee into a management role or product management role, and brainstormed areas of interest and potential shadow opportunities. The manager also helped the employee to identify people they could talk to in the company with an MBA, and checked if the company could provide any financial assistance. The lesson learned is that it is important to understand the employee's perspective and provide them with ideas and stories to help them reflect on their own thoughts.

Solve conflicts by giving ownership of the solution to the most impacted party

A communication problem between two teams was solved by giving the ownership of the solution to the team most impacted by the problem. The solution was to have the "install" lead dev attend the "feature" team's sprint meetings and ask for a "feature done" requirement regarding installation. This helped to reduce stress, show the "install" team they were being considered, and improve the quality of the delivery.

Be careful with written communication

A tech lead from a remote team at Digital Ocean had a tense conversation with another tech team via Slack. The manager of the other team complained to the team lead, who then called the tech lead to hear his version. To resolve the issue, the tech lead and the manager had a video call to talk and calm the tension, and the team lead had a chat with each of them to understand how the situation could have been avoided. The lesson learned is that remote teams need to pay special attention to communication, and when it becomes too emotional, the best thing to do is to call the person you wish to communicate with.

Employees encroaching each other’s territory

A manager at a company intervened in an open conflict between two people in different teams who were trying to solve a problem and believed the other was encroaching on their territory. After listening to both sides, the manager realized their aspirations were different and complementary, and organized a meeting with the three of them to discuss the problem. This led to a better outcome than either of them could have reached independently, and the manager learned that when it comes to staff believing someone is encroaching on their territory, the best way to solve the problem is to define a bigger task and show it to the arguing staff members, and help each employee think about what motivates them.

Removing disruptive team member[s] will vastly improve productivity and morale

In a previous role, a manager noticed that a scrum team was not working well despite being highly motivated and technically strong. After attending meetings and speaking with team members, it became clear that one senior engineer was challenging almost any proposal or decision, causing the team to hesitate and decisions to take three times longer than needed. The manager decided to remove the engineer from the team, and the remaining team of four became more productive shortly after. This reinforced the importance of staying close to a team's dynamics and identifying early obstacles to achieving smooth collaboration and an agile tempo.

An employee intimidating others team members

A developer was excellent at complex tasks but had a negative impact on the team due to his condescending attitude. After realizing the problem, the manager took action by talking to the developer and coaching him before meetings and code reviews. Despite some improvement, the manager eventually decided to let the developer go, which had a positive effect on the team. The manager learned that they should have acted earlier and should have been more explicit with the team.

How to Grow Talent From Within a Company Successfully

In order to keep the best talent, companies must offer various paths of evolution. To transition a support engineer to tech, the employee must be ready for the change, go through a classic interview process, and build a path that both parties agree on. This model of transition has been successful when used multiple times. Spotting key employees early on is important to involve them in the process.

Giving some visibility to performing junior engineers

At a company hackathon, junior engineers took the opportunity to work on an exciting project and ended up winning first prize. This hackathon was a great way for them to gain visibility and motivation in the organization, as it allowed them to try out new ideas and show off their skills. It also strengthened bonds between employees and fostered social cohesion.

How to deal with remote workers

A manager allowed an employee to work remotely, but the experience was not positive. The manager then set clear expectations for the employee and it went much better the second time. This experience taught the manager that when expectations are set clearly, it can lead to a satisfying compromise.

Inheriting a dysfunctional team

In three months, a team had to build and design a brand new platform, but the atmosphere was not good and the team didn't know how to prioritize their work. The manager worked with the stakeholders to understand the requirements and split the team into two, setting milestones and creating a roadmap for the business to track. The team was able to deliver on time, but the manager still had to focus on ensuring clarity around business requirements and making better decisions about priority. The lesson learned was to only work on the problem that needs to be solved first and to have a manager to fill the gaps and set a vision for the team.

How to know if you need contractors or to hire new engineers?

This article discusses the decision to hire a contractor or an engineer for a mobile app development project. It is suggested that contractors are best for short-term projects with specific skillsets and timelines, while engineers are better for long-term projects that require context and care. The decision should also depend on the company's culture.

Team Members Who Miss the Daily Standup Meeting

Doctolib implemented a system to encourage developers to attend daily stand-up meetings without having to resort to reproaching or punishing them. If a developer arrives late five times, they must buy croissants for the whole team the next day, resulting in the team enjoying a nice breakfast and the developer receiving gratitude from their team.

How to hire a start-up team

When hiring a startup team, it is important to assess whether the candidate would make a good teammate and have the necessary skills. In this case, the team looked for emotional intelligence, language skills, and the ability to understand and master basics deeply. They also hired a recruiter to find an engineer with 7-8 years' worth of Rails experience. The team had to hire quickly, but also carefully, and they said no to a lot of people who were almost a fit.

How to improve the collaboration with the Product team

Doordash addressed the issue of engineers not driving business impact by ensuring that the product and engineering teams are held accountable for the same goals. This approach has improved visibility into what engineers are working on and changed the conversation away from finger-pointing to collaboration.

Struggling to delegate

The author was initially reluctant to let their team of engineers fix the custom software they had integrated, as they had done all of the customizations themselves. However, they eventually realized that it was not respecting their team and that it was a natural part of learning. They then changed their approach, giving their team members more in-depth training and allowing them to take control of the software. This shift in mindset allowed the team to actively engage with the product and relieved the author of their fear of letting them potentially mess up.

How to accelerate hiring processes

Doordash faced a situation where their engineering managers were not aligned with their recruiting team in terms of how to be involved with the recruiting process. To fix this, they made sure engineering managers were more involved with the recruitment process and set up a dashboard to track progress. This approach greatly accelerated their hiring process and they have already doubled their hiring rate. The key lesson learned is that setting concrete hiring targets for engineering leadership is the most effective way to ensure they are focused on recruiting.