Knowledge shared by our community

The Importance Speed, Intra-Company Communication, and Identifying Ambition in the Hiring and Onboarding Process

The original hiring process at Territory Foods was inefficient and led to a lot of unsuccessful onboards. The author took responsibility for the hiring and onboarding process and worked with engineers and the CEO to create a list of important qualities for new hires. They published a job posting with a clear description of the role and benefits, and conducted 8-10 interviews per day. Through this process, they learned the importance of speed and attention to detail in the hiring process. After a month and a half, they created a fast-paced hiring process that allowed them to hire ambitious people within two days.

How To Successfully Empower Your Employees

A manager must find the best way to empower their employees without distracting them from their daily tasks. This can be done by rereading job descriptions, promoting independence and confidence, and providing the tools needed to succeed. Clear communication and setting up processes can help determine if the team is confident and efficient.

Evaluating and Measuring Communication of Non-Fluent English Speaking Engineers

When faced with a team member who was not proficient in English, the team decided to invest in the person and create a plan to improve their language skills. This included enrolling in a language school, encouraging more interactions with team members, and incorporating language skills into their KPIs. The team also provided constructive feedback and corrections privately. Ultimately, the team learned that if something is important enough to be in the top three objectives for the year, it should be taken seriously, and metrics should be used to measure progress. If the person is not the right fit for the team or the company, an honest discussion should be had.

How To Manage without Micromanaging

Managing and micromanaging is a common problem faced by managers. To differentiate between the two, it is important to start with trust and give employees space to do their job. Daily check-ins and goal-oriented meetings can help to ensure that the team is aligned with company objectives. It can be difficult to find the balance between management and micromanagement, but if the manager explains why the process is beneficial, it can become part of the company culture.

Using Metrics to Revisit Released Projects

The team had difficulty tracking metrics related to their product releases. To address this issue, a dashboard was created to track initiatives and metrics. This dashboard forced conversations and kept the team honest in their efforts to improve and push themselves. The dashboard was a visual reminder of the progress and allowed the team to track feedback and metrics.

Combating Misperceptions of Engineer Productivity through Communication and Education

A manager faced the challenge of untangling misperceptions of an engineer who was always working, but rarely seen. To combat this, the manager opened up a channel of communication and became the PR for the team, explaining the work they were doing and the problems they were solving. This taught non-engineers about the complex process of creating technology and showed the progress they were making. The manager learned that it is important to constantly publish information and take the time to educate non-engineers.

Build an Impact-Focused Culture: Outcomes over Outputs

At a startup, it is important to prioritize work by focusing on the "why" behind opinions. Techniques such as Hypothesis Driven Development and 5 whys can help with this. Business impact should be the key driver behind engineering-related decisions, and growth and promotions should be based on solving problems that have a direct correlation to business impact. Outcomes should be used to measure meaningful results and create a sense of purpose in the work produced.

Scaling a Team Globally Across Multiple Sites

This article discusses the importance of building strong, globally distributed teams. It outlines several steps to take, such as creating an onboarding experience, consistent screening during the interview process, hiring the right talent, investing in shared tools, communication, coding standards, code reviews, automation, and testing the product at scale. These steps are necessary to ensure the success of distributed teams.

If the Personality Fits: How a Company can Boost New Hires’ Potential

This article discusses the challenges of hiring software engineers in Brazil and the actions taken by a company to overcome them. The company allowed remote work, demanded responsibility, and introduced a program to help those who did not speak English. The lessons learned from this experience are to be flexible, understand strengths and weaknesses, and explain decisions and vision to those who share it.

Improving Company Culture: The Importance of Supporting Your Employees’ Personal and Professional Sides

When tasked with rebuilding a tech team from scratch, the author identified underlying issues that led to the team's departure and implemented processes to increase engagement and foster an open-feedback culture. These processes made the organization more attractive during the hiring process and improved retention rates. The author continues to evaluate the team's needs every three weeks to ensure the team is supported.

What Can Happen If You Don’t Plan Ahead Before Launching A New Product

A health management company was preparing to launch a web portal for clients to view and manage health reports. To avoid a data breach, the company had data safety and compliance teams in place to review development plans and sign off on completed products. It is important to bring in experienced data safety and compliance personnel early in the product's life cycle to ensure that sensitive medical and financial data is not breached.

Hard Data is the Best Evidence You Can Provide Against Assumptions

After four years of providing support and training, the company had seen a plateau in growth due to ignoring customer feedback. The founder was resistant to making changes, so the Technical Product Manager spent four months gathering customer feedback and data to prove the need for changes. With the hard data, the Product Manager was able to convince the founder to make the changes, resulting in increased productivity and sales growth. The lesson learned is that hard facts are needed to back up assumptions in order to make progressive changes.

How to Build a Great Engineering Team

As a VP of Engineering, the author has learned how to build a world-class engineering team while assembling the rocketship. This includes hiring great people, building an engineering brand, creating an impact-focused culture, and articulating the path forward. The author has plenty more to share about these lessons and looks forward to discussing them further.

How to Be an Effective Leader While Scaling Teams

This article discusses the importance of scaling an organization and building high-performing engineering teams. It outlines various actions to take, such as embracing failure, over-communicating, creating a culture of trust, and maximizing the "golden hours". The article also emphasizes the importance of being uncomfortable in a comfortable situation in order to keep scaling teams in terms of growth, skill set, and innovation.

Defend Your True North and Prioritize

This article discusses the importance of planning and prioritizing in a professional career, particularly for a Product Manager. It outlines strategies for setting a True North and OKRs, as well as how to politely say "No" to requests. The key lessons learned are that it is important to plan work, resources and time, streamline planning to reach True North, and prioritize by saying "No".

“There are no bad days.”

This article discusses how to be a pillar of positivity and radiate optimism as a leader. It suggests leaving bad moods at home, celebrating wins, and starting and ending meetings with something positive. It emphasizes the importance of staying positive in and out of the office, as it will have a positive effect on those around you.

How To Bring Change To An Organization

When moving to the U.S. from Germany, the author had to adjust to the more friendly culture. To bring change to their organization, they built relationships with co-workers by organizing trips to Germany and weekly exercises. They learned that investing time in relationships and communication was necessary to receive something back, and this would be beneficial when needing help.

My Unconventional Journey into Product Management

This story is about a person who was working in technical account management for a large software organization. Through their natural tendency to optimize and their "hack for everything" attitude, they developed a close working relationship with the product team and were eventually invited to visit them overseas. This eventually led to them becoming a candidate for a position in the product team, even though they had never considered it before. The lesson learned is that engaging with the product team and sharing ideas and skills can lead to unexpected opportunities.

Trust but Verify: How Much is Too Much Autonomy?

A development manager was informed two weeks prior to a Beta release that the team was going to miss the commitment by up to 8 weeks. After discovering that the instructions of not making any changes to the developer's estimates had been ignored, the manager held an accountability meeting with the developers. One of the engineers then revealed that the manager had taken all their commitments and systematically reduced them by 30%. After confronting the manager, the manager was kept on with a warning and the engineers saw that there was some compassion for not firing him. The manager went on to deliver well and eventually changed careers.

Developing a Company Vision that Motivates through the Heart (and Not the Head)

Tom Willerer was initially reluctant to create a company vision for his team, believing it was a pointless exercise. However, he eventually realized that it was about motivating the team rather than predicting the future. He then set out on a process to create a vision, involving a collaborative process, a low-fidelity artifact, a compelling story, and a performance. Through this process, he learned the importance of vision setting and the need to connect to people's hearts rather than their heads in order to motivate them.

The Importance Speed, Intra-Company Communication, and Identifying Ambition in the Hiring and Onboarding Process

The original hiring process at Territory Foods was inefficient and led to a lot of unsuccessful onboards. The author took responsibility for the hiring and onboarding process and worked with engineers and the CEO to create a list of important qualities for new hires. They published a job posting with a clear description of the role and benefits, and conducted 8-10 interviews per day. Through this process, they learned the importance of speed and attention to detail in the hiring process. After a month and a half, they created a fast-paced hiring process that allowed them to hire ambitious people within two days.

How To Successfully Empower Your Employees

A manager must find the best way to empower their employees without distracting them from their daily tasks. This can be done by rereading job descriptions, promoting independence and confidence, and providing the tools needed to succeed. Clear communication and setting up processes can help determine if the team is confident and efficient.

Evaluating and Measuring Communication of Non-Fluent English Speaking Engineers

When faced with a team member who was not proficient in English, the team decided to invest in the person and create a plan to improve their language skills. This included enrolling in a language school, encouraging more interactions with team members, and incorporating language skills into their KPIs. The team also provided constructive feedback and corrections privately. Ultimately, the team learned that if something is important enough to be in the top three objectives for the year, it should be taken seriously, and metrics should be used to measure progress. If the person is not the right fit for the team or the company, an honest discussion should be had.

How To Manage without Micromanaging

Managing and micromanaging is a common problem faced by managers. To differentiate between the two, it is important to start with trust and give employees space to do their job. Daily check-ins and goal-oriented meetings can help to ensure that the team is aligned with company objectives. It can be difficult to find the balance between management and micromanagement, but if the manager explains why the process is beneficial, it can become part of the company culture.

Using Metrics to Revisit Released Projects

The team had difficulty tracking metrics related to their product releases. To address this issue, a dashboard was created to track initiatives and metrics. This dashboard forced conversations and kept the team honest in their efforts to improve and push themselves. The dashboard was a visual reminder of the progress and allowed the team to track feedback and metrics.

Combating Misperceptions of Engineer Productivity through Communication and Education

A manager faced the challenge of untangling misperceptions of an engineer who was always working, but rarely seen. To combat this, the manager opened up a channel of communication and became the PR for the team, explaining the work they were doing and the problems they were solving. This taught non-engineers about the complex process of creating technology and showed the progress they were making. The manager learned that it is important to constantly publish information and take the time to educate non-engineers.

Build an Impact-Focused Culture: Outcomes over Outputs

At a startup, it is important to prioritize work by focusing on the "why" behind opinions. Techniques such as Hypothesis Driven Development and 5 whys can help with this. Business impact should be the key driver behind engineering-related decisions, and growth and promotions should be based on solving problems that have a direct correlation to business impact. Outcomes should be used to measure meaningful results and create a sense of purpose in the work produced.

Scaling a Team Globally Across Multiple Sites

This article discusses the importance of building strong, globally distributed teams. It outlines several steps to take, such as creating an onboarding experience, consistent screening during the interview process, hiring the right talent, investing in shared tools, communication, coding standards, code reviews, automation, and testing the product at scale. These steps are necessary to ensure the success of distributed teams.

If the Personality Fits: How a Company can Boost New Hires’ Potential

This article discusses the challenges of hiring software engineers in Brazil and the actions taken by a company to overcome them. The company allowed remote work, demanded responsibility, and introduced a program to help those who did not speak English. The lessons learned from this experience are to be flexible, understand strengths and weaknesses, and explain decisions and vision to those who share it.

Improving Company Culture: The Importance of Supporting Your Employees’ Personal and Professional Sides

When tasked with rebuilding a tech team from scratch, the author identified underlying issues that led to the team's departure and implemented processes to increase engagement and foster an open-feedback culture. These processes made the organization more attractive during the hiring process and improved retention rates. The author continues to evaluate the team's needs every three weeks to ensure the team is supported.

What Can Happen If You Don’t Plan Ahead Before Launching A New Product

A health management company was preparing to launch a web portal for clients to view and manage health reports. To avoid a data breach, the company had data safety and compliance teams in place to review development plans and sign off on completed products. It is important to bring in experienced data safety and compliance personnel early in the product's life cycle to ensure that sensitive medical and financial data is not breached.

Hard Data is the Best Evidence You Can Provide Against Assumptions

After four years of providing support and training, the company had seen a plateau in growth due to ignoring customer feedback. The founder was resistant to making changes, so the Technical Product Manager spent four months gathering customer feedback and data to prove the need for changes. With the hard data, the Product Manager was able to convince the founder to make the changes, resulting in increased productivity and sales growth. The lesson learned is that hard facts are needed to back up assumptions in order to make progressive changes.

How to Build a Great Engineering Team

As a VP of Engineering, the author has learned how to build a world-class engineering team while assembling the rocketship. This includes hiring great people, building an engineering brand, creating an impact-focused culture, and articulating the path forward. The author has plenty more to share about these lessons and looks forward to discussing them further.

How to Be an Effective Leader While Scaling Teams

This article discusses the importance of scaling an organization and building high-performing engineering teams. It outlines various actions to take, such as embracing failure, over-communicating, creating a culture of trust, and maximizing the "golden hours". The article also emphasizes the importance of being uncomfortable in a comfortable situation in order to keep scaling teams in terms of growth, skill set, and innovation.

Defend Your True North and Prioritize

This article discusses the importance of planning and prioritizing in a professional career, particularly for a Product Manager. It outlines strategies for setting a True North and OKRs, as well as how to politely say "No" to requests. The key lessons learned are that it is important to plan work, resources and time, streamline planning to reach True North, and prioritize by saying "No".

“There are no bad days.”

This article discusses how to be a pillar of positivity and radiate optimism as a leader. It suggests leaving bad moods at home, celebrating wins, and starting and ending meetings with something positive. It emphasizes the importance of staying positive in and out of the office, as it will have a positive effect on those around you.

How To Bring Change To An Organization

When moving to the U.S. from Germany, the author had to adjust to the more friendly culture. To bring change to their organization, they built relationships with co-workers by organizing trips to Germany and weekly exercises. They learned that investing time in relationships and communication was necessary to receive something back, and this would be beneficial when needing help.

My Unconventional Journey into Product Management

This story is about a person who was working in technical account management for a large software organization. Through their natural tendency to optimize and their "hack for everything" attitude, they developed a close working relationship with the product team and were eventually invited to visit them overseas. This eventually led to them becoming a candidate for a position in the product team, even though they had never considered it before. The lesson learned is that engaging with the product team and sharing ideas and skills can lead to unexpected opportunities.

Trust but Verify: How Much is Too Much Autonomy?

A development manager was informed two weeks prior to a Beta release that the team was going to miss the commitment by up to 8 weeks. After discovering that the instructions of not making any changes to the developer's estimates had been ignored, the manager held an accountability meeting with the developers. One of the engineers then revealed that the manager had taken all their commitments and systematically reduced them by 30%. After confronting the manager, the manager was kept on with a warning and the engineers saw that there was some compassion for not firing him. The manager went on to deliver well and eventually changed careers.

Developing a Company Vision that Motivates through the Heart (and Not the Head)

Tom Willerer was initially reluctant to create a company vision for his team, believing it was a pointless exercise. However, he eventually realized that it was about motivating the team rather than predicting the future. He then set out on a process to create a vision, involving a collaborative process, a low-fidelity artifact, a compelling story, and a performance. Through this process, he learned the importance of vision setting and the need to connect to people's hearts rather than their heads in order to motivate them.

The Importance Speed, Intra-Company Communication, and Identifying Ambition in the Hiring and Onboarding Process

The original hiring process at Territory Foods was inefficient and led to a lot of unsuccessful onboards. The author took responsibility for the hiring and onboarding process and worked with engineers and the CEO to create a list of important qualities for new hires. They published a job posting with a clear description of the role and benefits, and conducted 8-10 interviews per day. Through this process, they learned the importance of speed and attention to detail in the hiring process. After a month and a half, they created a fast-paced hiring process that allowed them to hire ambitious people within two days.

How To Successfully Empower Your Employees

A manager must find the best way to empower their employees without distracting them from their daily tasks. This can be done by rereading job descriptions, promoting independence and confidence, and providing the tools needed to succeed. Clear communication and setting up processes can help determine if the team is confident and efficient.

Evaluating and Measuring Communication of Non-Fluent English Speaking Engineers

When faced with a team member who was not proficient in English, the team decided to invest in the person and create a plan to improve their language skills. This included enrolling in a language school, encouraging more interactions with team members, and incorporating language skills into their KPIs. The team also provided constructive feedback and corrections privately. Ultimately, the team learned that if something is important enough to be in the top three objectives for the year, it should be taken seriously, and metrics should be used to measure progress. If the person is not the right fit for the team or the company, an honest discussion should be had.

How To Manage without Micromanaging

Managing and micromanaging is a common problem faced by managers. To differentiate between the two, it is important to start with trust and give employees space to do their job. Daily check-ins and goal-oriented meetings can help to ensure that the team is aligned with company objectives. It can be difficult to find the balance between management and micromanagement, but if the manager explains why the process is beneficial, it can become part of the company culture.

Using Metrics to Revisit Released Projects

The team had difficulty tracking metrics related to their product releases. To address this issue, a dashboard was created to track initiatives and metrics. This dashboard forced conversations and kept the team honest in their efforts to improve and push themselves. The dashboard was a visual reminder of the progress and allowed the team to track feedback and metrics.

Combating Misperceptions of Engineer Productivity through Communication and Education

A manager faced the challenge of untangling misperceptions of an engineer who was always working, but rarely seen. To combat this, the manager opened up a channel of communication and became the PR for the team, explaining the work they were doing and the problems they were solving. This taught non-engineers about the complex process of creating technology and showed the progress they were making. The manager learned that it is important to constantly publish information and take the time to educate non-engineers.

Build an Impact-Focused Culture: Outcomes over Outputs

At a startup, it is important to prioritize work by focusing on the "why" behind opinions. Techniques such as Hypothesis Driven Development and 5 whys can help with this. Business impact should be the key driver behind engineering-related decisions, and growth and promotions should be based on solving problems that have a direct correlation to business impact. Outcomes should be used to measure meaningful results and create a sense of purpose in the work produced.

Scaling a Team Globally Across Multiple Sites

This article discusses the importance of building strong, globally distributed teams. It outlines several steps to take, such as creating an onboarding experience, consistent screening during the interview process, hiring the right talent, investing in shared tools, communication, coding standards, code reviews, automation, and testing the product at scale. These steps are necessary to ensure the success of distributed teams.

If the Personality Fits: How a Company can Boost New Hires’ Potential

This article discusses the challenges of hiring software engineers in Brazil and the actions taken by a company to overcome them. The company allowed remote work, demanded responsibility, and introduced a program to help those who did not speak English. The lessons learned from this experience are to be flexible, understand strengths and weaknesses, and explain decisions and vision to those who share it.

Improving Company Culture: The Importance of Supporting Your Employees’ Personal and Professional Sides

When tasked with rebuilding a tech team from scratch, the author identified underlying issues that led to the team's departure and implemented processes to increase engagement and foster an open-feedback culture. These processes made the organization more attractive during the hiring process and improved retention rates. The author continues to evaluate the team's needs every three weeks to ensure the team is supported.

What Can Happen If You Don’t Plan Ahead Before Launching A New Product

A health management company was preparing to launch a web portal for clients to view and manage health reports. To avoid a data breach, the company had data safety and compliance teams in place to review development plans and sign off on completed products. It is important to bring in experienced data safety and compliance personnel early in the product's life cycle to ensure that sensitive medical and financial data is not breached.

Hard Data is the Best Evidence You Can Provide Against Assumptions

After four years of providing support and training, the company had seen a plateau in growth due to ignoring customer feedback. The founder was resistant to making changes, so the Technical Product Manager spent four months gathering customer feedback and data to prove the need for changes. With the hard data, the Product Manager was able to convince the founder to make the changes, resulting in increased productivity and sales growth. The lesson learned is that hard facts are needed to back up assumptions in order to make progressive changes.

How to Build a Great Engineering Team

As a VP of Engineering, the author has learned how to build a world-class engineering team while assembling the rocketship. This includes hiring great people, building an engineering brand, creating an impact-focused culture, and articulating the path forward. The author has plenty more to share about these lessons and looks forward to discussing them further.

How to Be an Effective Leader While Scaling Teams

This article discusses the importance of scaling an organization and building high-performing engineering teams. It outlines various actions to take, such as embracing failure, over-communicating, creating a culture of trust, and maximizing the "golden hours". The article also emphasizes the importance of being uncomfortable in a comfortable situation in order to keep scaling teams in terms of growth, skill set, and innovation.

Defend Your True North and Prioritize

This article discusses the importance of planning and prioritizing in a professional career, particularly for a Product Manager. It outlines strategies for setting a True North and OKRs, as well as how to politely say "No" to requests. The key lessons learned are that it is important to plan work, resources and time, streamline planning to reach True North, and prioritize by saying "No".

“There are no bad days.”

This article discusses how to be a pillar of positivity and radiate optimism as a leader. It suggests leaving bad moods at home, celebrating wins, and starting and ending meetings with something positive. It emphasizes the importance of staying positive in and out of the office, as it will have a positive effect on those around you.

How To Bring Change To An Organization

When moving to the U.S. from Germany, the author had to adjust to the more friendly culture. To bring change to their organization, they built relationships with co-workers by organizing trips to Germany and weekly exercises. They learned that investing time in relationships and communication was necessary to receive something back, and this would be beneficial when needing help.

My Unconventional Journey into Product Management

This story is about a person who was working in technical account management for a large software organization. Through their natural tendency to optimize and their "hack for everything" attitude, they developed a close working relationship with the product team and were eventually invited to visit them overseas. This eventually led to them becoming a candidate for a position in the product team, even though they had never considered it before. The lesson learned is that engaging with the product team and sharing ideas and skills can lead to unexpected opportunities.

Trust but Verify: How Much is Too Much Autonomy?

A development manager was informed two weeks prior to a Beta release that the team was going to miss the commitment by up to 8 weeks. After discovering that the instructions of not making any changes to the developer's estimates had been ignored, the manager held an accountability meeting with the developers. One of the engineers then revealed that the manager had taken all their commitments and systematically reduced them by 30%. After confronting the manager, the manager was kept on with a warning and the engineers saw that there was some compassion for not firing him. The manager went on to deliver well and eventually changed careers.

Developing a Company Vision that Motivates through the Heart (and Not the Head)

Tom Willerer was initially reluctant to create a company vision for his team, believing it was a pointless exercise. However, he eventually realized that it was about motivating the team rather than predicting the future. He then set out on a process to create a vision, involving a collaborative process, a low-fidelity artifact, a compelling story, and a performance. Through this process, he learned the importance of vision setting and the need to connect to people's hearts rather than their heads in order to motivate them.

The Importance Speed, Intra-Company Communication, and Identifying Ambition in the Hiring and Onboarding Process

The original hiring process at Territory Foods was inefficient and led to a lot of unsuccessful onboards. The author took responsibility for the hiring and onboarding process and worked with engineers and the CEO to create a list of important qualities for new hires. They published a job posting with a clear description of the role and benefits, and conducted 8-10 interviews per day. Through this process, they learned the importance of speed and attention to detail in the hiring process. After a month and a half, they created a fast-paced hiring process that allowed them to hire ambitious people within two days.

How To Successfully Empower Your Employees

A manager must find the best way to empower their employees without distracting them from their daily tasks. This can be done by rereading job descriptions, promoting independence and confidence, and providing the tools needed to succeed. Clear communication and setting up processes can help determine if the team is confident and efficient.

Evaluating and Measuring Communication of Non-Fluent English Speaking Engineers

When faced with a team member who was not proficient in English, the team decided to invest in the person and create a plan to improve their language skills. This included enrolling in a language school, encouraging more interactions with team members, and incorporating language skills into their KPIs. The team also provided constructive feedback and corrections privately. Ultimately, the team learned that if something is important enough to be in the top three objectives for the year, it should be taken seriously, and metrics should be used to measure progress. If the person is not the right fit for the team or the company, an honest discussion should be had.

How To Manage without Micromanaging

Managing and micromanaging is a common problem faced by managers. To differentiate between the two, it is important to start with trust and give employees space to do their job. Daily check-ins and goal-oriented meetings can help to ensure that the team is aligned with company objectives. It can be difficult to find the balance between management and micromanagement, but if the manager explains why the process is beneficial, it can become part of the company culture.

Using Metrics to Revisit Released Projects

The team had difficulty tracking metrics related to their product releases. To address this issue, a dashboard was created to track initiatives and metrics. This dashboard forced conversations and kept the team honest in their efforts to improve and push themselves. The dashboard was a visual reminder of the progress and allowed the team to track feedback and metrics.

Combating Misperceptions of Engineer Productivity through Communication and Education

A manager faced the challenge of untangling misperceptions of an engineer who was always working, but rarely seen. To combat this, the manager opened up a channel of communication and became the PR for the team, explaining the work they were doing and the problems they were solving. This taught non-engineers about the complex process of creating technology and showed the progress they were making. The manager learned that it is important to constantly publish information and take the time to educate non-engineers.

Build an Impact-Focused Culture: Outcomes over Outputs

At a startup, it is important to prioritize work by focusing on the "why" behind opinions. Techniques such as Hypothesis Driven Development and 5 whys can help with this. Business impact should be the key driver behind engineering-related decisions, and growth and promotions should be based on solving problems that have a direct correlation to business impact. Outcomes should be used to measure meaningful results and create a sense of purpose in the work produced.

Scaling a Team Globally Across Multiple Sites

This article discusses the importance of building strong, globally distributed teams. It outlines several steps to take, such as creating an onboarding experience, consistent screening during the interview process, hiring the right talent, investing in shared tools, communication, coding standards, code reviews, automation, and testing the product at scale. These steps are necessary to ensure the success of distributed teams.

If the Personality Fits: How a Company can Boost New Hires’ Potential

This article discusses the challenges of hiring software engineers in Brazil and the actions taken by a company to overcome them. The company allowed remote work, demanded responsibility, and introduced a program to help those who did not speak English. The lessons learned from this experience are to be flexible, understand strengths and weaknesses, and explain decisions and vision to those who share it.

Improving Company Culture: The Importance of Supporting Your Employees’ Personal and Professional Sides

When tasked with rebuilding a tech team from scratch, the author identified underlying issues that led to the team's departure and implemented processes to increase engagement and foster an open-feedback culture. These processes made the organization more attractive during the hiring process and improved retention rates. The author continues to evaluate the team's needs every three weeks to ensure the team is supported.

What Can Happen If You Don’t Plan Ahead Before Launching A New Product

A health management company was preparing to launch a web portal for clients to view and manage health reports. To avoid a data breach, the company had data safety and compliance teams in place to review development plans and sign off on completed products. It is important to bring in experienced data safety and compliance personnel early in the product's life cycle to ensure that sensitive medical and financial data is not breached.

Hard Data is the Best Evidence You Can Provide Against Assumptions

After four years of providing support and training, the company had seen a plateau in growth due to ignoring customer feedback. The founder was resistant to making changes, so the Technical Product Manager spent four months gathering customer feedback and data to prove the need for changes. With the hard data, the Product Manager was able to convince the founder to make the changes, resulting in increased productivity and sales growth. The lesson learned is that hard facts are needed to back up assumptions in order to make progressive changes.

How to Build a Great Engineering Team

As a VP of Engineering, the author has learned how to build a world-class engineering team while assembling the rocketship. This includes hiring great people, building an engineering brand, creating an impact-focused culture, and articulating the path forward. The author has plenty more to share about these lessons and looks forward to discussing them further.

How to Be an Effective Leader While Scaling Teams

This article discusses the importance of scaling an organization and building high-performing engineering teams. It outlines various actions to take, such as embracing failure, over-communicating, creating a culture of trust, and maximizing the "golden hours". The article also emphasizes the importance of being uncomfortable in a comfortable situation in order to keep scaling teams in terms of growth, skill set, and innovation.

Defend Your True North and Prioritize

This article discusses the importance of planning and prioritizing in a professional career, particularly for a Product Manager. It outlines strategies for setting a True North and OKRs, as well as how to politely say "No" to requests. The key lessons learned are that it is important to plan work, resources and time, streamline planning to reach True North, and prioritize by saying "No".

“There are no bad days.”

This article discusses how to be a pillar of positivity and radiate optimism as a leader. It suggests leaving bad moods at home, celebrating wins, and starting and ending meetings with something positive. It emphasizes the importance of staying positive in and out of the office, as it will have a positive effect on those around you.

How To Bring Change To An Organization

When moving to the U.S. from Germany, the author had to adjust to the more friendly culture. To bring change to their organization, they built relationships with co-workers by organizing trips to Germany and weekly exercises. They learned that investing time in relationships and communication was necessary to receive something back, and this would be beneficial when needing help.

My Unconventional Journey into Product Management

This story is about a person who was working in technical account management for a large software organization. Through their natural tendency to optimize and their "hack for everything" attitude, they developed a close working relationship with the product team and were eventually invited to visit them overseas. This eventually led to them becoming a candidate for a position in the product team, even though they had never considered it before. The lesson learned is that engaging with the product team and sharing ideas and skills can lead to unexpected opportunities.

Trust but Verify: How Much is Too Much Autonomy?

A development manager was informed two weeks prior to a Beta release that the team was going to miss the commitment by up to 8 weeks. After discovering that the instructions of not making any changes to the developer's estimates had been ignored, the manager held an accountability meeting with the developers. One of the engineers then revealed that the manager had taken all their commitments and systematically reduced them by 30%. After confronting the manager, the manager was kept on with a warning and the engineers saw that there was some compassion for not firing him. The manager went on to deliver well and eventually changed careers.

Developing a Company Vision that Motivates through the Heart (and Not the Head)

Tom Willerer was initially reluctant to create a company vision for his team, believing it was a pointless exercise. However, he eventually realized that it was about motivating the team rather than predicting the future. He then set out on a process to create a vision, involving a collaborative process, a low-fidelity artifact, a compelling story, and a performance. Through this process, he learned the importance of vision setting and the need to connect to people's hearts rather than their heads in order to motivate them.

The Importance Speed, Intra-Company Communication, and Identifying Ambition in the Hiring and Onboarding Process

The original hiring process at Territory Foods was inefficient and led to a lot of unsuccessful onboards. The author took responsibility for the hiring and onboarding process and worked with engineers and the CEO to create a list of important qualities for new hires. They published a job posting with a clear description of the role and benefits, and conducted 8-10 interviews per day. Through this process, they learned the importance of speed and attention to detail in the hiring process. After a month and a half, they created a fast-paced hiring process that allowed them to hire ambitious people within two days.

How To Successfully Empower Your Employees

A manager must find the best way to empower their employees without distracting them from their daily tasks. This can be done by rereading job descriptions, promoting independence and confidence, and providing the tools needed to succeed. Clear communication and setting up processes can help determine if the team is confident and efficient.

Evaluating and Measuring Communication of Non-Fluent English Speaking Engineers

When faced with a team member who was not proficient in English, the team decided to invest in the person and create a plan to improve their language skills. This included enrolling in a language school, encouraging more interactions with team members, and incorporating language skills into their KPIs. The team also provided constructive feedback and corrections privately. Ultimately, the team learned that if something is important enough to be in the top three objectives for the year, it should be taken seriously, and metrics should be used to measure progress. If the person is not the right fit for the team or the company, an honest discussion should be had.

How To Manage without Micromanaging

Managing and micromanaging is a common problem faced by managers. To differentiate between the two, it is important to start with trust and give employees space to do their job. Daily check-ins and goal-oriented meetings can help to ensure that the team is aligned with company objectives. It can be difficult to find the balance between management and micromanagement, but if the manager explains why the process is beneficial, it can become part of the company culture.

Using Metrics to Revisit Released Projects

The team had difficulty tracking metrics related to their product releases. To address this issue, a dashboard was created to track initiatives and metrics. This dashboard forced conversations and kept the team honest in their efforts to improve and push themselves. The dashboard was a visual reminder of the progress and allowed the team to track feedback and metrics.

Combating Misperceptions of Engineer Productivity through Communication and Education

A manager faced the challenge of untangling misperceptions of an engineer who was always working, but rarely seen. To combat this, the manager opened up a channel of communication and became the PR for the team, explaining the work they were doing and the problems they were solving. This taught non-engineers about the complex process of creating technology and showed the progress they were making. The manager learned that it is important to constantly publish information and take the time to educate non-engineers.

Build an Impact-Focused Culture: Outcomes over Outputs

At a startup, it is important to prioritize work by focusing on the "why" behind opinions. Techniques such as Hypothesis Driven Development and 5 whys can help with this. Business impact should be the key driver behind engineering-related decisions, and growth and promotions should be based on solving problems that have a direct correlation to business impact. Outcomes should be used to measure meaningful results and create a sense of purpose in the work produced.

Scaling a Team Globally Across Multiple Sites

This article discusses the importance of building strong, globally distributed teams. It outlines several steps to take, such as creating an onboarding experience, consistent screening during the interview process, hiring the right talent, investing in shared tools, communication, coding standards, code reviews, automation, and testing the product at scale. These steps are necessary to ensure the success of distributed teams.

If the Personality Fits: How a Company can Boost New Hires’ Potential

This article discusses the challenges of hiring software engineers in Brazil and the actions taken by a company to overcome them. The company allowed remote work, demanded responsibility, and introduced a program to help those who did not speak English. The lessons learned from this experience are to be flexible, understand strengths and weaknesses, and explain decisions and vision to those who share it.

Improving Company Culture: The Importance of Supporting Your Employees’ Personal and Professional Sides

When tasked with rebuilding a tech team from scratch, the author identified underlying issues that led to the team's departure and implemented processes to increase engagement and foster an open-feedback culture. These processes made the organization more attractive during the hiring process and improved retention rates. The author continues to evaluate the team's needs every three weeks to ensure the team is supported.

What Can Happen If You Don’t Plan Ahead Before Launching A New Product

A health management company was preparing to launch a web portal for clients to view and manage health reports. To avoid a data breach, the company had data safety and compliance teams in place to review development plans and sign off on completed products. It is important to bring in experienced data safety and compliance personnel early in the product's life cycle to ensure that sensitive medical and financial data is not breached.

Hard Data is the Best Evidence You Can Provide Against Assumptions

After four years of providing support and training, the company had seen a plateau in growth due to ignoring customer feedback. The founder was resistant to making changes, so the Technical Product Manager spent four months gathering customer feedback and data to prove the need for changes. With the hard data, the Product Manager was able to convince the founder to make the changes, resulting in increased productivity and sales growth. The lesson learned is that hard facts are needed to back up assumptions in order to make progressive changes.

How to Build a Great Engineering Team

As a VP of Engineering, the author has learned how to build a world-class engineering team while assembling the rocketship. This includes hiring great people, building an engineering brand, creating an impact-focused culture, and articulating the path forward. The author has plenty more to share about these lessons and looks forward to discussing them further.

How to Be an Effective Leader While Scaling Teams

This article discusses the importance of scaling an organization and building high-performing engineering teams. It outlines various actions to take, such as embracing failure, over-communicating, creating a culture of trust, and maximizing the "golden hours". The article also emphasizes the importance of being uncomfortable in a comfortable situation in order to keep scaling teams in terms of growth, skill set, and innovation.

Defend Your True North and Prioritize

This article discusses the importance of planning and prioritizing in a professional career, particularly for a Product Manager. It outlines strategies for setting a True North and OKRs, as well as how to politely say "No" to requests. The key lessons learned are that it is important to plan work, resources and time, streamline planning to reach True North, and prioritize by saying "No".

“There are no bad days.”

This article discusses how to be a pillar of positivity and radiate optimism as a leader. It suggests leaving bad moods at home, celebrating wins, and starting and ending meetings with something positive. It emphasizes the importance of staying positive in and out of the office, as it will have a positive effect on those around you.

How To Bring Change To An Organization

When moving to the U.S. from Germany, the author had to adjust to the more friendly culture. To bring change to their organization, they built relationships with co-workers by organizing trips to Germany and weekly exercises. They learned that investing time in relationships and communication was necessary to receive something back, and this would be beneficial when needing help.

My Unconventional Journey into Product Management

This story is about a person who was working in technical account management for a large software organization. Through their natural tendency to optimize and their "hack for everything" attitude, they developed a close working relationship with the product team and were eventually invited to visit them overseas. This eventually led to them becoming a candidate for a position in the product team, even though they had never considered it before. The lesson learned is that engaging with the product team and sharing ideas and skills can lead to unexpected opportunities.

Trust but Verify: How Much is Too Much Autonomy?

A development manager was informed two weeks prior to a Beta release that the team was going to miss the commitment by up to 8 weeks. After discovering that the instructions of not making any changes to the developer's estimates had been ignored, the manager held an accountability meeting with the developers. One of the engineers then revealed that the manager had taken all their commitments and systematically reduced them by 30%. After confronting the manager, the manager was kept on with a warning and the engineers saw that there was some compassion for not firing him. The manager went on to deliver well and eventually changed careers.

Developing a Company Vision that Motivates through the Heart (and Not the Head)

Tom Willerer was initially reluctant to create a company vision for his team, believing it was a pointless exercise. However, he eventually realized that it was about motivating the team rather than predicting the future. He then set out on a process to create a vision, involving a collaborative process, a low-fidelity artifact, a compelling story, and a performance. Through this process, he learned the importance of vision setting and the need to connect to people's hearts rather than their heads in order to motivate them.

The Importance Speed, Intra-Company Communication, and Identifying Ambition in the Hiring and Onboarding Process

The original hiring process at Territory Foods was inefficient and led to a lot of unsuccessful onboards. The author took responsibility for the hiring and onboarding process and worked with engineers and the CEO to create a list of important qualities for new hires. They published a job posting with a clear description of the role and benefits, and conducted 8-10 interviews per day. Through this process, they learned the importance of speed and attention to detail in the hiring process. After a month and a half, they created a fast-paced hiring process that allowed them to hire ambitious people within two days.

How To Successfully Empower Your Employees

A manager must find the best way to empower their employees without distracting them from their daily tasks. This can be done by rereading job descriptions, promoting independence and confidence, and providing the tools needed to succeed. Clear communication and setting up processes can help determine if the team is confident and efficient.

Evaluating and Measuring Communication of Non-Fluent English Speaking Engineers

When faced with a team member who was not proficient in English, the team decided to invest in the person and create a plan to improve their language skills. This included enrolling in a language school, encouraging more interactions with team members, and incorporating language skills into their KPIs. The team also provided constructive feedback and corrections privately. Ultimately, the team learned that if something is important enough to be in the top three objectives for the year, it should be taken seriously, and metrics should be used to measure progress. If the person is not the right fit for the team or the company, an honest discussion should be had.

How To Manage without Micromanaging

Managing and micromanaging is a common problem faced by managers. To differentiate between the two, it is important to start with trust and give employees space to do their job. Daily check-ins and goal-oriented meetings can help to ensure that the team is aligned with company objectives. It can be difficult to find the balance between management and micromanagement, but if the manager explains why the process is beneficial, it can become part of the company culture.

Using Metrics to Revisit Released Projects

The team had difficulty tracking metrics related to their product releases. To address this issue, a dashboard was created to track initiatives and metrics. This dashboard forced conversations and kept the team honest in their efforts to improve and push themselves. The dashboard was a visual reminder of the progress and allowed the team to track feedback and metrics.

Combating Misperceptions of Engineer Productivity through Communication and Education

A manager faced the challenge of untangling misperceptions of an engineer who was always working, but rarely seen. To combat this, the manager opened up a channel of communication and became the PR for the team, explaining the work they were doing and the problems they were solving. This taught non-engineers about the complex process of creating technology and showed the progress they were making. The manager learned that it is important to constantly publish information and take the time to educate non-engineers.

Build an Impact-Focused Culture: Outcomes over Outputs

At a startup, it is important to prioritize work by focusing on the "why" behind opinions. Techniques such as Hypothesis Driven Development and 5 whys can help with this. Business impact should be the key driver behind engineering-related decisions, and growth and promotions should be based on solving problems that have a direct correlation to business impact. Outcomes should be used to measure meaningful results and create a sense of purpose in the work produced.

Scaling a Team Globally Across Multiple Sites

This article discusses the importance of building strong, globally distributed teams. It outlines several steps to take, such as creating an onboarding experience, consistent screening during the interview process, hiring the right talent, investing in shared tools, communication, coding standards, code reviews, automation, and testing the product at scale. These steps are necessary to ensure the success of distributed teams.

If the Personality Fits: How a Company can Boost New Hires’ Potential

This article discusses the challenges of hiring software engineers in Brazil and the actions taken by a company to overcome them. The company allowed remote work, demanded responsibility, and introduced a program to help those who did not speak English. The lessons learned from this experience are to be flexible, understand strengths and weaknesses, and explain decisions and vision to those who share it.

Improving Company Culture: The Importance of Supporting Your Employees’ Personal and Professional Sides

When tasked with rebuilding a tech team from scratch, the author identified underlying issues that led to the team's departure and implemented processes to increase engagement and foster an open-feedback culture. These processes made the organization more attractive during the hiring process and improved retention rates. The author continues to evaluate the team's needs every three weeks to ensure the team is supported.

What Can Happen If You Don’t Plan Ahead Before Launching A New Product

A health management company was preparing to launch a web portal for clients to view and manage health reports. To avoid a data breach, the company had data safety and compliance teams in place to review development plans and sign off on completed products. It is important to bring in experienced data safety and compliance personnel early in the product's life cycle to ensure that sensitive medical and financial data is not breached.

Hard Data is the Best Evidence You Can Provide Against Assumptions

After four years of providing support and training, the company had seen a plateau in growth due to ignoring customer feedback. The founder was resistant to making changes, so the Technical Product Manager spent four months gathering customer feedback and data to prove the need for changes. With the hard data, the Product Manager was able to convince the founder to make the changes, resulting in increased productivity and sales growth. The lesson learned is that hard facts are needed to back up assumptions in order to make progressive changes.

How to Build a Great Engineering Team

As a VP of Engineering, the author has learned how to build a world-class engineering team while assembling the rocketship. This includes hiring great people, building an engineering brand, creating an impact-focused culture, and articulating the path forward. The author has plenty more to share about these lessons and looks forward to discussing them further.

How to Be an Effective Leader While Scaling Teams

This article discusses the importance of scaling an organization and building high-performing engineering teams. It outlines various actions to take, such as embracing failure, over-communicating, creating a culture of trust, and maximizing the "golden hours". The article also emphasizes the importance of being uncomfortable in a comfortable situation in order to keep scaling teams in terms of growth, skill set, and innovation.

Defend Your True North and Prioritize

This article discusses the importance of planning and prioritizing in a professional career, particularly for a Product Manager. It outlines strategies for setting a True North and OKRs, as well as how to politely say "No" to requests. The key lessons learned are that it is important to plan work, resources and time, streamline planning to reach True North, and prioritize by saying "No".

“There are no bad days.”

This article discusses how to be a pillar of positivity and radiate optimism as a leader. It suggests leaving bad moods at home, celebrating wins, and starting and ending meetings with something positive. It emphasizes the importance of staying positive in and out of the office, as it will have a positive effect on those around you.

How To Bring Change To An Organization

When moving to the U.S. from Germany, the author had to adjust to the more friendly culture. To bring change to their organization, they built relationships with co-workers by organizing trips to Germany and weekly exercises. They learned that investing time in relationships and communication was necessary to receive something back, and this would be beneficial when needing help.

My Unconventional Journey into Product Management

This story is about a person who was working in technical account management for a large software organization. Through their natural tendency to optimize and their "hack for everything" attitude, they developed a close working relationship with the product team and were eventually invited to visit them overseas. This eventually led to them becoming a candidate for a position in the product team, even though they had never considered it before. The lesson learned is that engaging with the product team and sharing ideas and skills can lead to unexpected opportunities.

Trust but Verify: How Much is Too Much Autonomy?

A development manager was informed two weeks prior to a Beta release that the team was going to miss the commitment by up to 8 weeks. After discovering that the instructions of not making any changes to the developer's estimates had been ignored, the manager held an accountability meeting with the developers. One of the engineers then revealed that the manager had taken all their commitments and systematically reduced them by 30%. After confronting the manager, the manager was kept on with a warning and the engineers saw that there was some compassion for not firing him. The manager went on to deliver well and eventually changed careers.

Developing a Company Vision that Motivates through the Heart (and Not the Head)

Tom Willerer was initially reluctant to create a company vision for his team, believing it was a pointless exercise. However, he eventually realized that it was about motivating the team rather than predicting the future. He then set out on a process to create a vision, involving a collaborative process, a low-fidelity artifact, a compelling story, and a performance. Through this process, he learned the importance of vision setting and the need to connect to people's hearts rather than their heads in order to motivate them.