The Power of Performance Reviews: Use This System to Become a Better Manager
- Lenny Rachitsky tl;dr: Lenny's framework for giving performance reviews, starts with how to prepare: (1) Gather direct feedback from your report & their coworkers. (2) Capture accomplishments. (3) Describe their “superpower.” (4) Write a short high-level summary of their performance. (5) Identify 1-2 development areas, with examples, concrete suggestions, and what success looks like. (6) Share a timeline for their next career milestone. Lenny also discusses how to deliver and follow-up the review.featured in #271
Stop Requiring Specific Technology Experience For Senior-plus Engineers
- Mike McQuaid tl;dr: What companies do not consider when demanding that senior engineers know specific technologies: (1) Most of the job is unrelated to that technology e.g. databases, deployment, mentoring. (2) Experienced engineers can pick up new technologies relatively quickly. (3) You may not be using this technology in perpetuity. And more.featured in #271
A Practical Guide To Secure SSH Access
tl;dr: SSH is a powerful tool that often grants extended access to anyone using it to log in to a server. This tech paper covers three practical approaches to securing SSH access.featured in #271
More Follow-Up On The Tech Hiring Market
- Gergely Orosz tl;dr: Gergely looks at 30+ compensation related data points to see how companies, across different regions, are adjusting to the rapidly changing hiring market. His advice: "if your company has not yet made off-cycle compensation changes, you’ll likely have to make a case for a larger than usual raise for the new year. Start engaging your leadership now."featured in #271
featured in #270
A Cheeky Checklist for GDPR Compliance Management
tl;dr: Managing your business outside the U.S. can be tricky, especially with strict policies like GDPR. What does GDPR compliance mean for your organization and how will it impact your growth? Vanta's GDPR compliance checklist identifies the steps you need to take in order to get - and stay - compliant.featured in #270
Building Confidence In A Decision
tl;dr: "This is the fifth post in a multi-part series on how Netflix uses A/B tests to inform decisions and continuously innovate on our products." This post covers helpful questions to ask when thinking through if a test is conclusive enough.featured in #270
The Secret to a Great Planning Process - Lessons from Airbnb and Eventbrite
- Lenny Rachitsky tl;dr: The W framework is "intended to help the leaders of the company put a planning process in place across the entire org," comprised of 4 steps: (1) Context: Leadership shares a high-level strategy with teams. (2) Plans: teams respond with proposed plans. (3) Integration: leadership integrates into a single plan, and shares with teams. (4) Buy-in: Teams make final tweaks, confirm buy-in, and get rolling.featured in #269
Symmathesies Follow A Power Law, Not A Bell Curve
- Jessica Kerr tl;dr: Jessica argues that software teams reflect a power law distribution, not a normal distribution. Power law distribution are "a learning system" where "every interaction feeds every future interaction," and team members adjust accordingly. Jessica discusses healthy signs of a team functioning in this manner.featured in #269
My Lessons From Interviewing 400+ Engineers Over Three Startups
- Marco Rogers tl;dr: 3 harmful startup hiring mistakes: (1) Hiring for specifics skills vs understanding you may not know what you need. (2) Prioritizing technical over soft skills i.e. lack of ego, communication, adaptability, cross-functional collaboration. (3) Lack of thoroughness & consistency in the process. Marco also discusses steps to make interviewing a critical business strategy.featured in #268