Knowledge shared by our community

The Rewards of a Speedy Development By a Small Team

In a situation where there was no headcount to launch a pilot project in partnership with another company in 4 months, the lead engineer was able to be resourceful and assemble a team of three people to design and build the product. The product was launched and led to the acquisition of the company they were partnering with. The engineer was then responsible for growing the team from three to over 50 people in one year, proving that it is possible to build innovative products in a large company if you are resourceful and have a can-do attitude.

When Feedback Comes as a Surprise

Leaders often face uncomfortable situations when giving feedback to their team members, such as when the feedback comes as a surprise to the recipient. To avoid this, it is important to have transparent conversations and follow-ups to ensure that the feedback is understood and internalized. Leaders should give honest and transparent feedback to their team members, and remember that their role is to ensure the complete success of the team, not just act as a coach.

Journeying Between Companies of Different Size

This article discusses the challenges of navigating different size companies and the importance of taking the time to understand the culture of the new company. It emphasizes the need to observe and listen before jumping in and trying to prove value, and highlights the benefits of working at both small and large companies.

Creating Space in Your Fully Booked Calendar

This article provides advice on how to manage time as a manager, including making two separate lists of tasks that can be delegated and those that only you can do, saying no to certain tasks, and creating opportunities for others by giving them new challenges. It also suggests blocking out dedicated focus time in your calendar to be strategically effective.

Mistakes Are OK as Long as We Learn from Them

This article discusses the lessons learned from the author's experience of managing teams. The author emphasizes the importance of encouraging team members to make decisions independently and to think through the consequences of their actions. Postmortems are also suggested as a way to improve decision-making and to focus on what can be done better rather than pointing out mistakes. The author's guiding principle is to support team members as long as they have thought through the implications of their decisions and spent enough time considering the best choice.

How to Improve Collaboration Between Product Management and Engineering

This article discusses the journey of merging different organizations into a cross-functional team structure, and the two-in-a-box approach that was implemented to foster strong relationships between product owners and technical leads. It also outlines the importance of reducing focus, evaluating the impact of changes, and nurturing communication between product and engineering teams. Finally, it suggests replacing project teams with product teams to ensure that features are maintained and updated.

Hiring the Right Fit

This article discusses the importance of hiring the right person for a successful business. It outlines the actions taken by the author to ensure that they are making the best hiring decisions, such as relying on external recruiters and trusting their instinct. It also explains how to read resumes to get a better understanding of a candidate's personality and skills. The article also highlights the importance of being aware of cultural differences when assessing a candidate.

Health and Emotions Should Not Come with Targets and Goals

In order to understand the emotions of employees in the age of data and OKRs, a cultural identity exercise was conducted with three basic questions. It was found that self-awareness and deprecation are key to understanding people's thoughts and how to make situations better. Additionally, it was found that quantified and direct interviewing misses out on the impact of people who bring excitement to the conversation.

Maintaining Direct, Clear Engineering Feedback While Becoming Less Hands On

As managers become less hands-on in the day-to-day routines of those they manage, their ability to provide direct, clear engineering feedback becomes harder. To stay involved, managers can either carve out time to stay hands-on with one project, or create a support structure for those individuals to have direct engineering feedback from a mentor or technical lead. Staying involved is important to stay current and provide feedback to those individuals, and can be done by starting a new initiative and pulling in more senior folks to help transition it.

The Discipline of Carving Out Time for Career Investments

This article discusses the importance of investing in one's future through discipline and dedication. It emphasizes the need to carve out time for learning new skills, reading, and contributing to side projects. It also suggests that one should force themselves through the motions and be mindful of where they are making trade-offs.

Happiness in Your Work Life

The Happiness Triangle is a framework for achieving a successful and happy life, which can be applied to work life. It consists of three components: pleasure, meaning, and good mood. Pleasure is about enjoying what you do, meaning is about finding purpose in your work, and good mood is about achieving a state of flow. To maximize the three components, it is important to reflect on each area and acknowledge where you are lacking.

Failed Attempt at Job Simulation

This article discusses the experience of a company that used job simulation and homework as interview strategies, which proved to be unsuccessful. Poor planning and validation on-site led to the phasing out of these strategies. The article also provides lessons learned, such as the importance of balancing hypothetical testing with actual work, and the need to ask questions that relate to the candidate's work.

Leveraging Team Adversity

When forming a team, it is important to leverage internal conflict in order to develop a productive and tightly knit group. To do this, give the team tasks to complete and set high standards for the work they should be doing. This will create a sense of trust, connection, and confidence amongst the team, even if they don't reach the goal. Leadership is a balance between opposing ideas and caring for the team and mission.

Three Prioritization Frameworks To Make The Most Impact On The Business

This article discusses effective tools to ensure that every engineer within an organization is prioritizing what will be the most impactful for the business. These tools include OKRs (Objectives and Key Results), SLOs (Service-Level Objectives), and a Bug Zero Policy. Additionally, the article provides lessons learned from a company that had a team dedicated to resolving technical issues, which ultimately led to poor response times and disempowered teams from owning their products.

Conducting Course Correcting 1:1s

This article discusses the importance of one-on-ones in providing feedback and course-correcting performance. It suggests that if managers are providing consistent feedback, performance reviews become a formality and there is no need for them. The article also highlights the need for managers to stay ahead of their reports in terms of good and bad performance, and to use one-on-ones to build trust and discuss growth and opportunity.

Testing Product Ideas Using the Wizard of Oz Technique

A company was trying to make it easier for small businesses to purchase Workers' Comp insurance. To address the issue of businesses growing and needing to adjust their payments, they tested a Wizard of Oz technique where customers were emailed their current payroll and asked if it had changed. The test was successful, with 70% of customers responding and several expressing appreciation for the feature. The test also validated the assumptions that customers would understand why their prices were increasing or decreasing.

Little ‘P’ Product Owner

To encourage engineers to take ownership of their products, the author suggests having them think of themselves as the "little 'P' product owner" and to think of the product as if it were their own. This encourages them to think about user experience, latency, and other higher-level questions, and helps them to feel more secure about bringing up ideas and working harder.

The Three Dimensions of Engineering Management

Engineering management is a complex role that involves three key focus areas: people management, project management, and technical oversight. People management involves giving feedback, helping low and high performers, and building a healthy team. Project management involves building the right sort of things, meeting deadlines, and collaborating with other teams. Technical oversight involves building a product for the long-term, understanding complexities, and helping the team make the best technical decisions. Ultimately, engineering management is about making sure the team is healthy and effective.

Structuring Teams

This article discusses how to manage a team of engineers when product management and design are not available. It suggests focusing on metrics and goals, staying plugged in as a leader, and creating an organizational structure that is flexible and can be validated regularly. It also suggests having dedicated teams, prioritizing tasks, and having hard conversations when needed.

Making Your Remote Team Feel Part of the Company

When a new office was opened in Dublin, Ireland to expand the payments team at Patreon, the remote team felt disconnected from the company due to only being given projects B and C. To motivate the team, the importance of their work was shared with them and the rest of the company was made aware of the importance of the remote team's work. It is necessary to find a way to give the remote team more relevant projects so they can identify with a real project and stay motivated in the long term.

The Rewards of a Speedy Development By a Small Team

In a situation where there was no headcount to launch a pilot project in partnership with another company in 4 months, the lead engineer was able to be resourceful and assemble a team of three people to design and build the product. The product was launched and led to the acquisition of the company they were partnering with. The engineer was then responsible for growing the team from three to over 50 people in one year, proving that it is possible to build innovative products in a large company if you are resourceful and have a can-do attitude.

When Feedback Comes as a Surprise

Leaders often face uncomfortable situations when giving feedback to their team members, such as when the feedback comes as a surprise to the recipient. To avoid this, it is important to have transparent conversations and follow-ups to ensure that the feedback is understood and internalized. Leaders should give honest and transparent feedback to their team members, and remember that their role is to ensure the complete success of the team, not just act as a coach.

Journeying Between Companies of Different Size

This article discusses the challenges of navigating different size companies and the importance of taking the time to understand the culture of the new company. It emphasizes the need to observe and listen before jumping in and trying to prove value, and highlights the benefits of working at both small and large companies.

Creating Space in Your Fully Booked Calendar

This article provides advice on how to manage time as a manager, including making two separate lists of tasks that can be delegated and those that only you can do, saying no to certain tasks, and creating opportunities for others by giving them new challenges. It also suggests blocking out dedicated focus time in your calendar to be strategically effective.

Mistakes Are OK as Long as We Learn from Them

This article discusses the lessons learned from the author's experience of managing teams. The author emphasizes the importance of encouraging team members to make decisions independently and to think through the consequences of their actions. Postmortems are also suggested as a way to improve decision-making and to focus on what can be done better rather than pointing out mistakes. The author's guiding principle is to support team members as long as they have thought through the implications of their decisions and spent enough time considering the best choice.

How to Improve Collaboration Between Product Management and Engineering

This article discusses the journey of merging different organizations into a cross-functional team structure, and the two-in-a-box approach that was implemented to foster strong relationships between product owners and technical leads. It also outlines the importance of reducing focus, evaluating the impact of changes, and nurturing communication between product and engineering teams. Finally, it suggests replacing project teams with product teams to ensure that features are maintained and updated.

Hiring the Right Fit

This article discusses the importance of hiring the right person for a successful business. It outlines the actions taken by the author to ensure that they are making the best hiring decisions, such as relying on external recruiters and trusting their instinct. It also explains how to read resumes to get a better understanding of a candidate's personality and skills. The article also highlights the importance of being aware of cultural differences when assessing a candidate.

Health and Emotions Should Not Come with Targets and Goals

In order to understand the emotions of employees in the age of data and OKRs, a cultural identity exercise was conducted with three basic questions. It was found that self-awareness and deprecation are key to understanding people's thoughts and how to make situations better. Additionally, it was found that quantified and direct interviewing misses out on the impact of people who bring excitement to the conversation.

Maintaining Direct, Clear Engineering Feedback While Becoming Less Hands On

As managers become less hands-on in the day-to-day routines of those they manage, their ability to provide direct, clear engineering feedback becomes harder. To stay involved, managers can either carve out time to stay hands-on with one project, or create a support structure for those individuals to have direct engineering feedback from a mentor or technical lead. Staying involved is important to stay current and provide feedback to those individuals, and can be done by starting a new initiative and pulling in more senior folks to help transition it.

The Discipline of Carving Out Time for Career Investments

This article discusses the importance of investing in one's future through discipline and dedication. It emphasizes the need to carve out time for learning new skills, reading, and contributing to side projects. It also suggests that one should force themselves through the motions and be mindful of where they are making trade-offs.

Happiness in Your Work Life

The Happiness Triangle is a framework for achieving a successful and happy life, which can be applied to work life. It consists of three components: pleasure, meaning, and good mood. Pleasure is about enjoying what you do, meaning is about finding purpose in your work, and good mood is about achieving a state of flow. To maximize the three components, it is important to reflect on each area and acknowledge where you are lacking.

Failed Attempt at Job Simulation

This article discusses the experience of a company that used job simulation and homework as interview strategies, which proved to be unsuccessful. Poor planning and validation on-site led to the phasing out of these strategies. The article also provides lessons learned, such as the importance of balancing hypothetical testing with actual work, and the need to ask questions that relate to the candidate's work.

Leveraging Team Adversity

When forming a team, it is important to leverage internal conflict in order to develop a productive and tightly knit group. To do this, give the team tasks to complete and set high standards for the work they should be doing. This will create a sense of trust, connection, and confidence amongst the team, even if they don't reach the goal. Leadership is a balance between opposing ideas and caring for the team and mission.

Three Prioritization Frameworks To Make The Most Impact On The Business

This article discusses effective tools to ensure that every engineer within an organization is prioritizing what will be the most impactful for the business. These tools include OKRs (Objectives and Key Results), SLOs (Service-Level Objectives), and a Bug Zero Policy. Additionally, the article provides lessons learned from a company that had a team dedicated to resolving technical issues, which ultimately led to poor response times and disempowered teams from owning their products.

Conducting Course Correcting 1:1s

This article discusses the importance of one-on-ones in providing feedback and course-correcting performance. It suggests that if managers are providing consistent feedback, performance reviews become a formality and there is no need for them. The article also highlights the need for managers to stay ahead of their reports in terms of good and bad performance, and to use one-on-ones to build trust and discuss growth and opportunity.

Testing Product Ideas Using the Wizard of Oz Technique

A company was trying to make it easier for small businesses to purchase Workers' Comp insurance. To address the issue of businesses growing and needing to adjust their payments, they tested a Wizard of Oz technique where customers were emailed their current payroll and asked if it had changed. The test was successful, with 70% of customers responding and several expressing appreciation for the feature. The test also validated the assumptions that customers would understand why their prices were increasing or decreasing.

Little ‘P’ Product Owner

To encourage engineers to take ownership of their products, the author suggests having them think of themselves as the "little 'P' product owner" and to think of the product as if it were their own. This encourages them to think about user experience, latency, and other higher-level questions, and helps them to feel more secure about bringing up ideas and working harder.

The Three Dimensions of Engineering Management

Engineering management is a complex role that involves three key focus areas: people management, project management, and technical oversight. People management involves giving feedback, helping low and high performers, and building a healthy team. Project management involves building the right sort of things, meeting deadlines, and collaborating with other teams. Technical oversight involves building a product for the long-term, understanding complexities, and helping the team make the best technical decisions. Ultimately, engineering management is about making sure the team is healthy and effective.

Structuring Teams

This article discusses how to manage a team of engineers when product management and design are not available. It suggests focusing on metrics and goals, staying plugged in as a leader, and creating an organizational structure that is flexible and can be validated regularly. It also suggests having dedicated teams, prioritizing tasks, and having hard conversations when needed.

Making Your Remote Team Feel Part of the Company

When a new office was opened in Dublin, Ireland to expand the payments team at Patreon, the remote team felt disconnected from the company due to only being given projects B and C. To motivate the team, the importance of their work was shared with them and the rest of the company was made aware of the importance of the remote team's work. It is necessary to find a way to give the remote team more relevant projects so they can identify with a real project and stay motivated in the long term.

The Rewards of a Speedy Development By a Small Team

In a situation where there was no headcount to launch a pilot project in partnership with another company in 4 months, the lead engineer was able to be resourceful and assemble a team of three people to design and build the product. The product was launched and led to the acquisition of the company they were partnering with. The engineer was then responsible for growing the team from three to over 50 people in one year, proving that it is possible to build innovative products in a large company if you are resourceful and have a can-do attitude.

When Feedback Comes as a Surprise

Leaders often face uncomfortable situations when giving feedback to their team members, such as when the feedback comes as a surprise to the recipient. To avoid this, it is important to have transparent conversations and follow-ups to ensure that the feedback is understood and internalized. Leaders should give honest and transparent feedback to their team members, and remember that their role is to ensure the complete success of the team, not just act as a coach.

Journeying Between Companies of Different Size

This article discusses the challenges of navigating different size companies and the importance of taking the time to understand the culture of the new company. It emphasizes the need to observe and listen before jumping in and trying to prove value, and highlights the benefits of working at both small and large companies.

Creating Space in Your Fully Booked Calendar

This article provides advice on how to manage time as a manager, including making two separate lists of tasks that can be delegated and those that only you can do, saying no to certain tasks, and creating opportunities for others by giving them new challenges. It also suggests blocking out dedicated focus time in your calendar to be strategically effective.

Mistakes Are OK as Long as We Learn from Them

This article discusses the lessons learned from the author's experience of managing teams. The author emphasizes the importance of encouraging team members to make decisions independently and to think through the consequences of their actions. Postmortems are also suggested as a way to improve decision-making and to focus on what can be done better rather than pointing out mistakes. The author's guiding principle is to support team members as long as they have thought through the implications of their decisions and spent enough time considering the best choice.

How to Improve Collaboration Between Product Management and Engineering

This article discusses the journey of merging different organizations into a cross-functional team structure, and the two-in-a-box approach that was implemented to foster strong relationships between product owners and technical leads. It also outlines the importance of reducing focus, evaluating the impact of changes, and nurturing communication between product and engineering teams. Finally, it suggests replacing project teams with product teams to ensure that features are maintained and updated.

Hiring the Right Fit

This article discusses the importance of hiring the right person for a successful business. It outlines the actions taken by the author to ensure that they are making the best hiring decisions, such as relying on external recruiters and trusting their instinct. It also explains how to read resumes to get a better understanding of a candidate's personality and skills. The article also highlights the importance of being aware of cultural differences when assessing a candidate.

Health and Emotions Should Not Come with Targets and Goals

In order to understand the emotions of employees in the age of data and OKRs, a cultural identity exercise was conducted with three basic questions. It was found that self-awareness and deprecation are key to understanding people's thoughts and how to make situations better. Additionally, it was found that quantified and direct interviewing misses out on the impact of people who bring excitement to the conversation.

Maintaining Direct, Clear Engineering Feedback While Becoming Less Hands On

As managers become less hands-on in the day-to-day routines of those they manage, their ability to provide direct, clear engineering feedback becomes harder. To stay involved, managers can either carve out time to stay hands-on with one project, or create a support structure for those individuals to have direct engineering feedback from a mentor or technical lead. Staying involved is important to stay current and provide feedback to those individuals, and can be done by starting a new initiative and pulling in more senior folks to help transition it.

The Discipline of Carving Out Time for Career Investments

This article discusses the importance of investing in one's future through discipline and dedication. It emphasizes the need to carve out time for learning new skills, reading, and contributing to side projects. It also suggests that one should force themselves through the motions and be mindful of where they are making trade-offs.

Happiness in Your Work Life

The Happiness Triangle is a framework for achieving a successful and happy life, which can be applied to work life. It consists of three components: pleasure, meaning, and good mood. Pleasure is about enjoying what you do, meaning is about finding purpose in your work, and good mood is about achieving a state of flow. To maximize the three components, it is important to reflect on each area and acknowledge where you are lacking.

Failed Attempt at Job Simulation

This article discusses the experience of a company that used job simulation and homework as interview strategies, which proved to be unsuccessful. Poor planning and validation on-site led to the phasing out of these strategies. The article also provides lessons learned, such as the importance of balancing hypothetical testing with actual work, and the need to ask questions that relate to the candidate's work.

Leveraging Team Adversity

When forming a team, it is important to leverage internal conflict in order to develop a productive and tightly knit group. To do this, give the team tasks to complete and set high standards for the work they should be doing. This will create a sense of trust, connection, and confidence amongst the team, even if they don't reach the goal. Leadership is a balance between opposing ideas and caring for the team and mission.

Three Prioritization Frameworks To Make The Most Impact On The Business

This article discusses effective tools to ensure that every engineer within an organization is prioritizing what will be the most impactful for the business. These tools include OKRs (Objectives and Key Results), SLOs (Service-Level Objectives), and a Bug Zero Policy. Additionally, the article provides lessons learned from a company that had a team dedicated to resolving technical issues, which ultimately led to poor response times and disempowered teams from owning their products.

Conducting Course Correcting 1:1s

This article discusses the importance of one-on-ones in providing feedback and course-correcting performance. It suggests that if managers are providing consistent feedback, performance reviews become a formality and there is no need for them. The article also highlights the need for managers to stay ahead of their reports in terms of good and bad performance, and to use one-on-ones to build trust and discuss growth and opportunity.

Testing Product Ideas Using the Wizard of Oz Technique

A company was trying to make it easier for small businesses to purchase Workers' Comp insurance. To address the issue of businesses growing and needing to adjust their payments, they tested a Wizard of Oz technique where customers were emailed their current payroll and asked if it had changed. The test was successful, with 70% of customers responding and several expressing appreciation for the feature. The test also validated the assumptions that customers would understand why their prices were increasing or decreasing.

Little ‘P’ Product Owner

To encourage engineers to take ownership of their products, the author suggests having them think of themselves as the "little 'P' product owner" and to think of the product as if it were their own. This encourages them to think about user experience, latency, and other higher-level questions, and helps them to feel more secure about bringing up ideas and working harder.

The Three Dimensions of Engineering Management

Engineering management is a complex role that involves three key focus areas: people management, project management, and technical oversight. People management involves giving feedback, helping low and high performers, and building a healthy team. Project management involves building the right sort of things, meeting deadlines, and collaborating with other teams. Technical oversight involves building a product for the long-term, understanding complexities, and helping the team make the best technical decisions. Ultimately, engineering management is about making sure the team is healthy and effective.

Structuring Teams

This article discusses how to manage a team of engineers when product management and design are not available. It suggests focusing on metrics and goals, staying plugged in as a leader, and creating an organizational structure that is flexible and can be validated regularly. It also suggests having dedicated teams, prioritizing tasks, and having hard conversations when needed.

Making Your Remote Team Feel Part of the Company

When a new office was opened in Dublin, Ireland to expand the payments team at Patreon, the remote team felt disconnected from the company due to only being given projects B and C. To motivate the team, the importance of their work was shared with them and the rest of the company was made aware of the importance of the remote team's work. It is necessary to find a way to give the remote team more relevant projects so they can identify with a real project and stay motivated in the long term.

The Rewards of a Speedy Development By a Small Team

In a situation where there was no headcount to launch a pilot project in partnership with another company in 4 months, the lead engineer was able to be resourceful and assemble a team of three people to design and build the product. The product was launched and led to the acquisition of the company they were partnering with. The engineer was then responsible for growing the team from three to over 50 people in one year, proving that it is possible to build innovative products in a large company if you are resourceful and have a can-do attitude.

When Feedback Comes as a Surprise

Leaders often face uncomfortable situations when giving feedback to their team members, such as when the feedback comes as a surprise to the recipient. To avoid this, it is important to have transparent conversations and follow-ups to ensure that the feedback is understood and internalized. Leaders should give honest and transparent feedback to their team members, and remember that their role is to ensure the complete success of the team, not just act as a coach.

Journeying Between Companies of Different Size

This article discusses the challenges of navigating different size companies and the importance of taking the time to understand the culture of the new company. It emphasizes the need to observe and listen before jumping in and trying to prove value, and highlights the benefits of working at both small and large companies.

Creating Space in Your Fully Booked Calendar

This article provides advice on how to manage time as a manager, including making two separate lists of tasks that can be delegated and those that only you can do, saying no to certain tasks, and creating opportunities for others by giving them new challenges. It also suggests blocking out dedicated focus time in your calendar to be strategically effective.

Mistakes Are OK as Long as We Learn from Them

This article discusses the lessons learned from the author's experience of managing teams. The author emphasizes the importance of encouraging team members to make decisions independently and to think through the consequences of their actions. Postmortems are also suggested as a way to improve decision-making and to focus on what can be done better rather than pointing out mistakes. The author's guiding principle is to support team members as long as they have thought through the implications of their decisions and spent enough time considering the best choice.

How to Improve Collaboration Between Product Management and Engineering

This article discusses the journey of merging different organizations into a cross-functional team structure, and the two-in-a-box approach that was implemented to foster strong relationships between product owners and technical leads. It also outlines the importance of reducing focus, evaluating the impact of changes, and nurturing communication between product and engineering teams. Finally, it suggests replacing project teams with product teams to ensure that features are maintained and updated.

Hiring the Right Fit

This article discusses the importance of hiring the right person for a successful business. It outlines the actions taken by the author to ensure that they are making the best hiring decisions, such as relying on external recruiters and trusting their instinct. It also explains how to read resumes to get a better understanding of a candidate's personality and skills. The article also highlights the importance of being aware of cultural differences when assessing a candidate.

Health and Emotions Should Not Come with Targets and Goals

In order to understand the emotions of employees in the age of data and OKRs, a cultural identity exercise was conducted with three basic questions. It was found that self-awareness and deprecation are key to understanding people's thoughts and how to make situations better. Additionally, it was found that quantified and direct interviewing misses out on the impact of people who bring excitement to the conversation.

Maintaining Direct, Clear Engineering Feedback While Becoming Less Hands On

As managers become less hands-on in the day-to-day routines of those they manage, their ability to provide direct, clear engineering feedback becomes harder. To stay involved, managers can either carve out time to stay hands-on with one project, or create a support structure for those individuals to have direct engineering feedback from a mentor or technical lead. Staying involved is important to stay current and provide feedback to those individuals, and can be done by starting a new initiative and pulling in more senior folks to help transition it.

The Discipline of Carving Out Time for Career Investments

This article discusses the importance of investing in one's future through discipline and dedication. It emphasizes the need to carve out time for learning new skills, reading, and contributing to side projects. It also suggests that one should force themselves through the motions and be mindful of where they are making trade-offs.

Happiness in Your Work Life

The Happiness Triangle is a framework for achieving a successful and happy life, which can be applied to work life. It consists of three components: pleasure, meaning, and good mood. Pleasure is about enjoying what you do, meaning is about finding purpose in your work, and good mood is about achieving a state of flow. To maximize the three components, it is important to reflect on each area and acknowledge where you are lacking.

Failed Attempt at Job Simulation

This article discusses the experience of a company that used job simulation and homework as interview strategies, which proved to be unsuccessful. Poor planning and validation on-site led to the phasing out of these strategies. The article also provides lessons learned, such as the importance of balancing hypothetical testing with actual work, and the need to ask questions that relate to the candidate's work.

Leveraging Team Adversity

When forming a team, it is important to leverage internal conflict in order to develop a productive and tightly knit group. To do this, give the team tasks to complete and set high standards for the work they should be doing. This will create a sense of trust, connection, and confidence amongst the team, even if they don't reach the goal. Leadership is a balance between opposing ideas and caring for the team and mission.

Three Prioritization Frameworks To Make The Most Impact On The Business

This article discusses effective tools to ensure that every engineer within an organization is prioritizing what will be the most impactful for the business. These tools include OKRs (Objectives and Key Results), SLOs (Service-Level Objectives), and a Bug Zero Policy. Additionally, the article provides lessons learned from a company that had a team dedicated to resolving technical issues, which ultimately led to poor response times and disempowered teams from owning their products.

Conducting Course Correcting 1:1s

This article discusses the importance of one-on-ones in providing feedback and course-correcting performance. It suggests that if managers are providing consistent feedback, performance reviews become a formality and there is no need for them. The article also highlights the need for managers to stay ahead of their reports in terms of good and bad performance, and to use one-on-ones to build trust and discuss growth and opportunity.

Testing Product Ideas Using the Wizard of Oz Technique

A company was trying to make it easier for small businesses to purchase Workers' Comp insurance. To address the issue of businesses growing and needing to adjust their payments, they tested a Wizard of Oz technique where customers were emailed their current payroll and asked if it had changed. The test was successful, with 70% of customers responding and several expressing appreciation for the feature. The test also validated the assumptions that customers would understand why their prices were increasing or decreasing.

Little ‘P’ Product Owner

To encourage engineers to take ownership of their products, the author suggests having them think of themselves as the "little 'P' product owner" and to think of the product as if it were their own. This encourages them to think about user experience, latency, and other higher-level questions, and helps them to feel more secure about bringing up ideas and working harder.

The Three Dimensions of Engineering Management

Engineering management is a complex role that involves three key focus areas: people management, project management, and technical oversight. People management involves giving feedback, helping low and high performers, and building a healthy team. Project management involves building the right sort of things, meeting deadlines, and collaborating with other teams. Technical oversight involves building a product for the long-term, understanding complexities, and helping the team make the best technical decisions. Ultimately, engineering management is about making sure the team is healthy and effective.

Structuring Teams

This article discusses how to manage a team of engineers when product management and design are not available. It suggests focusing on metrics and goals, staying plugged in as a leader, and creating an organizational structure that is flexible and can be validated regularly. It also suggests having dedicated teams, prioritizing tasks, and having hard conversations when needed.

Making Your Remote Team Feel Part of the Company

When a new office was opened in Dublin, Ireland to expand the payments team at Patreon, the remote team felt disconnected from the company due to only being given projects B and C. To motivate the team, the importance of their work was shared with them and the rest of the company was made aware of the importance of the remote team's work. It is necessary to find a way to give the remote team more relevant projects so they can identify with a real project and stay motivated in the long term.

The Rewards of a Speedy Development By a Small Team

In a situation where there was no headcount to launch a pilot project in partnership with another company in 4 months, the lead engineer was able to be resourceful and assemble a team of three people to design and build the product. The product was launched and led to the acquisition of the company they were partnering with. The engineer was then responsible for growing the team from three to over 50 people in one year, proving that it is possible to build innovative products in a large company if you are resourceful and have a can-do attitude.

When Feedback Comes as a Surprise

Leaders often face uncomfortable situations when giving feedback to their team members, such as when the feedback comes as a surprise to the recipient. To avoid this, it is important to have transparent conversations and follow-ups to ensure that the feedback is understood and internalized. Leaders should give honest and transparent feedback to their team members, and remember that their role is to ensure the complete success of the team, not just act as a coach.

Journeying Between Companies of Different Size

This article discusses the challenges of navigating different size companies and the importance of taking the time to understand the culture of the new company. It emphasizes the need to observe and listen before jumping in and trying to prove value, and highlights the benefits of working at both small and large companies.

Creating Space in Your Fully Booked Calendar

This article provides advice on how to manage time as a manager, including making two separate lists of tasks that can be delegated and those that only you can do, saying no to certain tasks, and creating opportunities for others by giving them new challenges. It also suggests blocking out dedicated focus time in your calendar to be strategically effective.

Mistakes Are OK as Long as We Learn from Them

This article discusses the lessons learned from the author's experience of managing teams. The author emphasizes the importance of encouraging team members to make decisions independently and to think through the consequences of their actions. Postmortems are also suggested as a way to improve decision-making and to focus on what can be done better rather than pointing out mistakes. The author's guiding principle is to support team members as long as they have thought through the implications of their decisions and spent enough time considering the best choice.

How to Improve Collaboration Between Product Management and Engineering

This article discusses the journey of merging different organizations into a cross-functional team structure, and the two-in-a-box approach that was implemented to foster strong relationships between product owners and technical leads. It also outlines the importance of reducing focus, evaluating the impact of changes, and nurturing communication between product and engineering teams. Finally, it suggests replacing project teams with product teams to ensure that features are maintained and updated.

Hiring the Right Fit

This article discusses the importance of hiring the right person for a successful business. It outlines the actions taken by the author to ensure that they are making the best hiring decisions, such as relying on external recruiters and trusting their instinct. It also explains how to read resumes to get a better understanding of a candidate's personality and skills. The article also highlights the importance of being aware of cultural differences when assessing a candidate.

Health and Emotions Should Not Come with Targets and Goals

In order to understand the emotions of employees in the age of data and OKRs, a cultural identity exercise was conducted with three basic questions. It was found that self-awareness and deprecation are key to understanding people's thoughts and how to make situations better. Additionally, it was found that quantified and direct interviewing misses out on the impact of people who bring excitement to the conversation.

Maintaining Direct, Clear Engineering Feedback While Becoming Less Hands On

As managers become less hands-on in the day-to-day routines of those they manage, their ability to provide direct, clear engineering feedback becomes harder. To stay involved, managers can either carve out time to stay hands-on with one project, or create a support structure for those individuals to have direct engineering feedback from a mentor or technical lead. Staying involved is important to stay current and provide feedback to those individuals, and can be done by starting a new initiative and pulling in more senior folks to help transition it.

The Discipline of Carving Out Time for Career Investments

This article discusses the importance of investing in one's future through discipline and dedication. It emphasizes the need to carve out time for learning new skills, reading, and contributing to side projects. It also suggests that one should force themselves through the motions and be mindful of where they are making trade-offs.

Happiness in Your Work Life

The Happiness Triangle is a framework for achieving a successful and happy life, which can be applied to work life. It consists of three components: pleasure, meaning, and good mood. Pleasure is about enjoying what you do, meaning is about finding purpose in your work, and good mood is about achieving a state of flow. To maximize the three components, it is important to reflect on each area and acknowledge where you are lacking.

Failed Attempt at Job Simulation

This article discusses the experience of a company that used job simulation and homework as interview strategies, which proved to be unsuccessful. Poor planning and validation on-site led to the phasing out of these strategies. The article also provides lessons learned, such as the importance of balancing hypothetical testing with actual work, and the need to ask questions that relate to the candidate's work.

Leveraging Team Adversity

When forming a team, it is important to leverage internal conflict in order to develop a productive and tightly knit group. To do this, give the team tasks to complete and set high standards for the work they should be doing. This will create a sense of trust, connection, and confidence amongst the team, even if they don't reach the goal. Leadership is a balance between opposing ideas and caring for the team and mission.

Three Prioritization Frameworks To Make The Most Impact On The Business

This article discusses effective tools to ensure that every engineer within an organization is prioritizing what will be the most impactful for the business. These tools include OKRs (Objectives and Key Results), SLOs (Service-Level Objectives), and a Bug Zero Policy. Additionally, the article provides lessons learned from a company that had a team dedicated to resolving technical issues, which ultimately led to poor response times and disempowered teams from owning their products.

Conducting Course Correcting 1:1s

This article discusses the importance of one-on-ones in providing feedback and course-correcting performance. It suggests that if managers are providing consistent feedback, performance reviews become a formality and there is no need for them. The article also highlights the need for managers to stay ahead of their reports in terms of good and bad performance, and to use one-on-ones to build trust and discuss growth and opportunity.

Testing Product Ideas Using the Wizard of Oz Technique

A company was trying to make it easier for small businesses to purchase Workers' Comp insurance. To address the issue of businesses growing and needing to adjust their payments, they tested a Wizard of Oz technique where customers were emailed their current payroll and asked if it had changed. The test was successful, with 70% of customers responding and several expressing appreciation for the feature. The test also validated the assumptions that customers would understand why their prices were increasing or decreasing.

Little ‘P’ Product Owner

To encourage engineers to take ownership of their products, the author suggests having them think of themselves as the "little 'P' product owner" and to think of the product as if it were their own. This encourages them to think about user experience, latency, and other higher-level questions, and helps them to feel more secure about bringing up ideas and working harder.

The Three Dimensions of Engineering Management

Engineering management is a complex role that involves three key focus areas: people management, project management, and technical oversight. People management involves giving feedback, helping low and high performers, and building a healthy team. Project management involves building the right sort of things, meeting deadlines, and collaborating with other teams. Technical oversight involves building a product for the long-term, understanding complexities, and helping the team make the best technical decisions. Ultimately, engineering management is about making sure the team is healthy and effective.

Structuring Teams

This article discusses how to manage a team of engineers when product management and design are not available. It suggests focusing on metrics and goals, staying plugged in as a leader, and creating an organizational structure that is flexible and can be validated regularly. It also suggests having dedicated teams, prioritizing tasks, and having hard conversations when needed.

Making Your Remote Team Feel Part of the Company

When a new office was opened in Dublin, Ireland to expand the payments team at Patreon, the remote team felt disconnected from the company due to only being given projects B and C. To motivate the team, the importance of their work was shared with them and the rest of the company was made aware of the importance of the remote team's work. It is necessary to find a way to give the remote team more relevant projects so they can identify with a real project and stay motivated in the long term.

The Rewards of a Speedy Development By a Small Team

In a situation where there was no headcount to launch a pilot project in partnership with another company in 4 months, the lead engineer was able to be resourceful and assemble a team of three people to design and build the product. The product was launched and led to the acquisition of the company they were partnering with. The engineer was then responsible for growing the team from three to over 50 people in one year, proving that it is possible to build innovative products in a large company if you are resourceful and have a can-do attitude.

When Feedback Comes as a Surprise

Leaders often face uncomfortable situations when giving feedback to their team members, such as when the feedback comes as a surprise to the recipient. To avoid this, it is important to have transparent conversations and follow-ups to ensure that the feedback is understood and internalized. Leaders should give honest and transparent feedback to their team members, and remember that their role is to ensure the complete success of the team, not just act as a coach.

Journeying Between Companies of Different Size

This article discusses the challenges of navigating different size companies and the importance of taking the time to understand the culture of the new company. It emphasizes the need to observe and listen before jumping in and trying to prove value, and highlights the benefits of working at both small and large companies.

Creating Space in Your Fully Booked Calendar

This article provides advice on how to manage time as a manager, including making two separate lists of tasks that can be delegated and those that only you can do, saying no to certain tasks, and creating opportunities for others by giving them new challenges. It also suggests blocking out dedicated focus time in your calendar to be strategically effective.

Mistakes Are OK as Long as We Learn from Them

This article discusses the lessons learned from the author's experience of managing teams. The author emphasizes the importance of encouraging team members to make decisions independently and to think through the consequences of their actions. Postmortems are also suggested as a way to improve decision-making and to focus on what can be done better rather than pointing out mistakes. The author's guiding principle is to support team members as long as they have thought through the implications of their decisions and spent enough time considering the best choice.

How to Improve Collaboration Between Product Management and Engineering

This article discusses the journey of merging different organizations into a cross-functional team structure, and the two-in-a-box approach that was implemented to foster strong relationships between product owners and technical leads. It also outlines the importance of reducing focus, evaluating the impact of changes, and nurturing communication between product and engineering teams. Finally, it suggests replacing project teams with product teams to ensure that features are maintained and updated.

Hiring the Right Fit

This article discusses the importance of hiring the right person for a successful business. It outlines the actions taken by the author to ensure that they are making the best hiring decisions, such as relying on external recruiters and trusting their instinct. It also explains how to read resumes to get a better understanding of a candidate's personality and skills. The article also highlights the importance of being aware of cultural differences when assessing a candidate.

Health and Emotions Should Not Come with Targets and Goals

In order to understand the emotions of employees in the age of data and OKRs, a cultural identity exercise was conducted with three basic questions. It was found that self-awareness and deprecation are key to understanding people's thoughts and how to make situations better. Additionally, it was found that quantified and direct interviewing misses out on the impact of people who bring excitement to the conversation.

Maintaining Direct, Clear Engineering Feedback While Becoming Less Hands On

As managers become less hands-on in the day-to-day routines of those they manage, their ability to provide direct, clear engineering feedback becomes harder. To stay involved, managers can either carve out time to stay hands-on with one project, or create a support structure for those individuals to have direct engineering feedback from a mentor or technical lead. Staying involved is important to stay current and provide feedback to those individuals, and can be done by starting a new initiative and pulling in more senior folks to help transition it.

The Discipline of Carving Out Time for Career Investments

This article discusses the importance of investing in one's future through discipline and dedication. It emphasizes the need to carve out time for learning new skills, reading, and contributing to side projects. It also suggests that one should force themselves through the motions and be mindful of where they are making trade-offs.

Happiness in Your Work Life

The Happiness Triangle is a framework for achieving a successful and happy life, which can be applied to work life. It consists of three components: pleasure, meaning, and good mood. Pleasure is about enjoying what you do, meaning is about finding purpose in your work, and good mood is about achieving a state of flow. To maximize the three components, it is important to reflect on each area and acknowledge where you are lacking.

Failed Attempt at Job Simulation

This article discusses the experience of a company that used job simulation and homework as interview strategies, which proved to be unsuccessful. Poor planning and validation on-site led to the phasing out of these strategies. The article also provides lessons learned, such as the importance of balancing hypothetical testing with actual work, and the need to ask questions that relate to the candidate's work.

Leveraging Team Adversity

When forming a team, it is important to leverage internal conflict in order to develop a productive and tightly knit group. To do this, give the team tasks to complete and set high standards for the work they should be doing. This will create a sense of trust, connection, and confidence amongst the team, even if they don't reach the goal. Leadership is a balance between opposing ideas and caring for the team and mission.

Three Prioritization Frameworks To Make The Most Impact On The Business

This article discusses effective tools to ensure that every engineer within an organization is prioritizing what will be the most impactful for the business. These tools include OKRs (Objectives and Key Results), SLOs (Service-Level Objectives), and a Bug Zero Policy. Additionally, the article provides lessons learned from a company that had a team dedicated to resolving technical issues, which ultimately led to poor response times and disempowered teams from owning their products.

Conducting Course Correcting 1:1s

This article discusses the importance of one-on-ones in providing feedback and course-correcting performance. It suggests that if managers are providing consistent feedback, performance reviews become a formality and there is no need for them. The article also highlights the need for managers to stay ahead of their reports in terms of good and bad performance, and to use one-on-ones to build trust and discuss growth and opportunity.

Testing Product Ideas Using the Wizard of Oz Technique

A company was trying to make it easier for small businesses to purchase Workers' Comp insurance. To address the issue of businesses growing and needing to adjust their payments, they tested a Wizard of Oz technique where customers were emailed their current payroll and asked if it had changed. The test was successful, with 70% of customers responding and several expressing appreciation for the feature. The test also validated the assumptions that customers would understand why their prices were increasing or decreasing.

Little ‘P’ Product Owner

To encourage engineers to take ownership of their products, the author suggests having them think of themselves as the "little 'P' product owner" and to think of the product as if it were their own. This encourages them to think about user experience, latency, and other higher-level questions, and helps them to feel more secure about bringing up ideas and working harder.

The Three Dimensions of Engineering Management

Engineering management is a complex role that involves three key focus areas: people management, project management, and technical oversight. People management involves giving feedback, helping low and high performers, and building a healthy team. Project management involves building the right sort of things, meeting deadlines, and collaborating with other teams. Technical oversight involves building a product for the long-term, understanding complexities, and helping the team make the best technical decisions. Ultimately, engineering management is about making sure the team is healthy and effective.

Structuring Teams

This article discusses how to manage a team of engineers when product management and design are not available. It suggests focusing on metrics and goals, staying plugged in as a leader, and creating an organizational structure that is flexible and can be validated regularly. It also suggests having dedicated teams, prioritizing tasks, and having hard conversations when needed.

Making Your Remote Team Feel Part of the Company

When a new office was opened in Dublin, Ireland to expand the payments team at Patreon, the remote team felt disconnected from the company due to only being given projects B and C. To motivate the team, the importance of their work was shared with them and the rest of the company was made aware of the importance of the remote team's work. It is necessary to find a way to give the remote team more relevant projects so they can identify with a real project and stay motivated in the long term.