tl;dr:“All interesting problems operate across a number of context layers. For a concrete example, let’s think about a problem I’ve run into twice: what are the layers of context for evaluating a team that wants to introduce a new programming language like Erlang or Elixir to your company’s technology stack?" Will shares some layers of context and how to see across them.
tl;dr:Wardley Mapping is a strategic planning tool that helps visualize how business components evolve over time, from novel ideas to industry standards. Will shares resources that guide might be useful for leaders.
tl;dr:In this 20 minute video presentation, Will discusses the under-defined and ambiguous role of Principal Engineers. He defines them as engineers who solve ambiguous, company-wide problems that would otherwise block engineering executives.
tl;dr:“The solution here is obvious, always make sure you agree on the problem and general solution, and provide evidence the team is working well. These can be an appendix of a document or appendix slides, and should take little to no time to prepare as the first two are core decisions for your team, and the later is a set of metrics or plans that you should already be maintaining as part of operating your team.”
tl;dr:“Modeling makes it possible iterate your thinking much faster than running a live process or technology experiment with your team. I sometimes hear concerns that modeling slows things down, but this is just an issue of familiarity. The more you practice, modeling can be faster than asking for advice from industry peers.”
tl;dr:A model examining how different policies affect engineering organization seniority mix. Without intervention, orgs become top-heavy with senior engineers, increasing costs. Three key policies work together: backfilling departures at lower levels, stopping senior-level external hiring, and capping the maximum number of senior positions.
tl;dr:Will reflect on his shift from a 'company, team, self' framework to an eventual ‘quid pro quo' approach during his management tenure at Uber. His ‘quid pro quo' approach is: (1) Generally, prioritize company and team priorities over your own. (2) If you are getting de-energized, artificially prioritize some energizing work. Increase the quantity until equilibrium is restored. (3) If the long-term balance between energy and proper priorities can’t be balanced for more than a year, stop everything else and work on solving this issue e.g. change your role or quit. Will emphasizes the importance of remaining flexible and curious.
tl;dr:Will reflect on his shift from a 'company, team, self' framework to an eventual ‘quid pro quo' approach during his management tenure at Uber. His ‘quid pro quo' approach is: (1) Generally, prioritize company and team priorities over your own. (2) If you are getting de-energized, artificially prioritize some energizing work. Increase the quantity until equilibrium is restored. (3) If the long-term balance between energy and proper priorities can’t be balanced for more than a year, stop everything else and work on solving this issue e.g. change your role or quit. Will emphasizes the importance of remaining flexible and curious.
tl;dr:“Models are imperfect representations of reality, but this one gives us a clear sense of what matters the most: if we want to increase our velocity, we have to reduce the rate that we discover errors in production. That might be reducing the error rate as implied in this model, or it might be ideas that exist outside of this model. For example, the model doesn’t represent this well, but perhaps we’d be better off iterating more on fewer things to avoid this scenario. If we make multiple changes to one area, it still just represents one implemented feature, not many implement features, and the overall error rate wouldn’t increase.”
tl;dr:“If I could only popularize one idea about technical strategy, it would be that prematurely applying pressure to a strategy’s rollout prevents evaluating whether the strategy is effective. Pressure changes behavior in profound ways, and many of those changes are intended to make you believe your strategy is working while minimizing change to the status quo (if you’re an executive) or get your strategy repealed (if you’re not an executive). Neither is particular helpful.”