/Management

From Engineer To Tech Lead - Doubts And Challenges

- Davide de Paolis tl;dr: The main difference between an IC and tech lead is the difference between output and outcome. Davide is an advocate for "extreme ownership," going slow to become fast. He advocates the drive to be a better version of yourself but not projecting that version onto others, focus on what you can control but not the outcome, and learn to delegate effectively.

featured in #241

The Importance of Written Communication for Engineering Teams

- Stephanie Emma Pfeffer tl;dr: A 3 step strategy for written comms: (1) Create communication and decision-making frameworks from day one using collaborative docs and by surveying teams on preferences. (2) Teams should own the documents but edit privileges are to a select few. (3) Increase the sophistication of existing frameworks in order to scale teams.

featured in #241

Cleaning Up Git History

- Robin Schroer tl;dr: "Every commit should make sense by itself. There is a just right size for commits, where there is nothing to add and nothing to remove. We want to add / remove / change exactly one thing in each commit." If you are struggling, that's a sign your commit is not well scoped. Robin discusses techniques, how to leverage interactive rebasing, and more.

featured in #241

Guiding Critical Projects Without Micromanaging

- Camille Fournier tl;dr: When managing managers, it’s tempting to be hands off, but that's not optimal. Camille was managing a complex migration and decided to hold a monthly status update meeting that paid dividends. It allowed her team to "show off" and air grievances. Camille recommends it when there's a critical area that has misalignment between participants, a forcing function to organize a manager or when there's uncertainty around direction.

featured in #240

The SOC 2 Compliance Checklist

tl;dr: SOC 2 is a framework for all B2B tech companies that store customer data in the cloud. SOC 2 prep, audit, and reports... oh my! This SOC 2 checklist will give you all the steps for a successful audit.

featured in #240

Pockets Of Rest Enable Careers

- Will Larson tl;dr: Two pieces of advice if you feel burnt out: (1) Avoid making career decisions while in a bad mental place - take a two week vacation. (2) Great careers are not linear but often have a number of lulls. When you’re high energy, these lulls are opportunities to learn and accelerate your trajectory. When you are low energy, they are opportunities to rest.

featured in #240

The Bad Habit That Even Productive People Keep Falling Into

- Hunter Walk tl;dr: Know how to prioritize. Hunter gives 3 tactical tips: (1) Prioritize what requires your input for others to move forward. (2) Think "top down, not bottom up" and avoid low impact work. (3) Set deadlines in your to-do list.

featured in #240

Making ‘Big Changes’ Successfully

- Pat Kua tl;dr: (1) Quantify the problem and success criteria. (2) Start with a tracer bullet. (3) Work in small, end-to-end increments. (4) Prioritize increments by risk and value. (5) Use ratcheting to prevent regressions. (6) Start what you finish.

featured in #239

Arguments For A Project Kickoff Strategy

- Miroslav Nikolov tl;dr: "You can do some preparation work and stick to a simple execution guide. It will help you identify hidden information early and during the project journey while adding some structure to the process if it lacks such."

featured in #239

Why "Bring Solutions Not Problems" Doesn't Work

- Lara Hogan tl;dr: When a leader uses this line, it means (1) Your leader can’t / won’t listen or care about this thing, or (2) You need to step up your game and adapt. Lara also lists open questions to ask in place i.e. "What could we try?" or "If you could wave a magic wand, what one thing would you change?"

featured in #238