/Management

Drowning In Feedback

- Ed Batista tl;dr: “A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it.” Ed discusses the challenges leaders face in an era saturated with feedback and emphasizes the pitfalls of information overload. He critiques common organizational beliefs, such as "feedback is a gift" and the objectivity of anonymous feedback. Ed encourages leaders to self-reflect, manage their attention, and prioritize meaningful insights over sheer data volume. Ed advises leaders to create an "information ecosystem" that filters out noise, allocate dedicated time for deep reflection, and regularly assess the quality and relevance of feedback sources.

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How To Hire

- Sam Altman tl;dr: “The vast majority of founders don’t spend nearly enough time hiring.  After you figure out your vision and get product-market fit, you should probably be spending between a third and a half of your time hiring.  It sounds crazy, and there will always be a ton of other work, but it’s the highest-leverage thing you can do, and great companies always, always have great people.” Sam provides his hiring playbook.

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The Musk Algorithm

- David Heinemeier Hansson tl;dr: DHH highlights Musk's unique "algorithm" for success, which includes the following in order: questioning every requirement, deleting unnecessary parts or processes, simplifying, optimizing, accelerating cycle time, and finally, automating. While acknowledging Musk's controversial nature, DHH emphasizes the value of extracting wisdom from such figures without feeling compelled to emulate them entirely.

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How Many Direct Reports Should A Manager Have?

- James Stanier tl;dr: James explores the concept of "span of control," which refers to the number of direct reports a manager oversees. He argues that there's no one-size-fits-all answer, but suggests that around 8 direct reports could be a "sweet spot." Factors affecting the optimal number include practical limits, the seniority of the manager, the experience level of the reports, the manager's individual contributions, and the type of work the team does. An organization's span of control needs to be managed carefully, especially during economic downturns, to avoid negative outcomes like layoffs or role changes.

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What Predicts Software Developers’ Productivity?

- Abi Noda tl;dr: Abi summarizes a study by Google researchers on the factors that correlate with software developers' productivity. The study found that "Job enthusiasm," "Peer support for new ideas," and "Useful feedback about job performance" were the most strongly correlated factors with self-rated productivity. The top 10 productivity factors were non-technical.

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How DoorDash Fosters Meaningful Engineering Career Development

tl;dr: “In Q2 2023, we revisited our performance expectations for all engineers at DoorDash. We started by gathering a group of engineers to discuss which existing expectations were still relevant, and which ones were no longer serving us. We defined what we see as the traits of our most successful engineers at each level based on our three pillars: (1) Business Outcome: how engineers deliver impact based on our direction and goals. (2) People: how well we collaborate as a team and invest in each other’s development and success. (3) Engineering Excellence: the quality of our products and systems, how fast we can move, and how efficiently our systems use resources.” The team shares these performance expectations publicly, in this post.

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Elevate Your Performance Review Conversations With These 12 Expert Tips

tl;dr: (1) Hone your narrative with a personal press release. (2) Managers try this template to structure your next review conversation. (3) Zoom out to get a fuller picture. (4) Spend more time than you think you need to with your high performers. (5) Differentiate between interpersonal and performance feedback. (6) Ask this question to give feedback that lands - “Does this feedback resonate with you? Why or why not?”

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Common Authentication Implementation Risks And How To Mitigate Them

- James Hickey tl;dr: Data breaches are more common than ever. Ensuring a secure authentication system is critical to your trust with customers. Whether you build or buy your auth solution, this article offers insights into secure practices that can help keep you and your customers safe.

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LLMs Demand Observability-Driven Development

- Charity Majors tl;dr: “Many software engineers are encountering LLMs for the very first time, while many ML engineers are being exposed directly to production systems for the very first time. Both types of engineers are finding themselves plunged into a disorienting new world—one where a particular flavor of production problem they may have encountered occasionally in their careers is now front and center. Namely, that LLMs are black boxes that produce nondeterministic outputs and cannot be debugged or tested using traditional software engineering techniques. Hooking these black boxes up to production introduces reliability and predictability problems that can be terrifying.“ Charity believes that the integration of LLMs will necessitate a shift in development practices, particularly towards Observability-Driven Development, to handle the nondeterministic nature of these models.

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How Microsoft Does Quality Assurance (QA)

- Gergely Orosz tl;dr: Microsoft's approach to Quality Assurance (QA), focusing on the Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET) role. The SDET role was designed for engineers who focused on writing automated tests and maintaining testing systems. "An SDET is a developer who works in a test team and not a development team." This role was retired around 2014, as Microsoft moved towards a more integrated approach where all software engineers became responsible for testing their code.

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