/Leadership

Know Yourself

- Murat Demirbas tl;dr: “MongoDB has a nice leadership development program internally. They suggested that filling / sharing this questionnaire would be useful to get you acquainted with the people you work with daily." Questions include: (1) What are you amazing at? Where do you want to improve? (2) What makes you most excited about your work / role? (3) Describe an ideal workday. (4) What is your meeting participation style? (5) What is something that people incorrectly assume about you?

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Managing A Bottleneck Team

- Jade Rubick tl;dr: “One of the harder situations you might find yourself in is managing a bottleneck team. What is a bottleneck team? When other teams can’t get their work done unless you do something for them, you’re a bottleneck team.” Jade discusses his approach to managing such teams. 

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Conflict

- Mike Fisher tl;dr: Conflict within teams can be productive or destructive. Steve Jobs likened constructive disagreement to a rock tumbler that polishes ideas. Cognitive conflict, in moderation, facilitates learning and innovation. However, relationship, goal, and process conflicts often hinder team performance. Mike discusses each. 

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Structuring Engineering Organizations

- Otto Hilska tl;dr: How you split your software organization into teams can make or break developer experience and productivity. Your organization structure should allow each team to make decisions about a clearly defined product area. After reading this blog post, you’ll know how to balance the four defining factors of a team: outcomes, features, people, and architecture.

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Briefly: Anonymous Questions

- Kellan Elliot-McCrea tl;dr: Q&A serves to answer questions, engage the team, and maintain accountability. Kellan suggests using a 3rd party tool for anonymous submissions within a time window. Leaders should address good-faith questions, acknowledging unanswered ones. 

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How To Build Engineering Strategy

- Mirek Stanek tl;dr: “In this article, I will explore tools and techniques to help you build a long-term engineering strategy. Some work best at the organizational level, where Product and Technology collaborate on their challenges. Some can also be successfully applied at the team level and can inspire the rest of the organization from the bottom up.”

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Communication Structures

- Kevin Yien tl;dr: “Every company has, or develops, a hierarchical reporting structure over time. It's normal. A common mistake I see is allowing the communication structure to mirror the reporting structure.” Kevin explains why. 

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Unexpected Anti-Patterns For Engineering Leaders — Lessons From Stripe, Uber & Carta

- Will Larson tl;dr: “Anytime you apply a rule too universally, it turns into an anti-pattern.” The key to effective engineering leadership, Larson argues, lies in figuring out which scenarios are worth deliberately defying conventional logic, and when to simply follow the rules. “ Will discusses his tonics for the following anti-patterns: (1) Shying away from micromanagement. (2) Pushing back on flawed metrics. (3) Serving as the umbrella for your team.

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Signposting: How To Reduce Cognitive Load For Your Reader

- Wes Kao tl;dr: “Signposting is using key words, phrases, or an overall structure in your writing to signal what the rest of your post is about. This helps your reader quickly get grounded, so their brain doesn’t waste cycles wondering where you’re taking them.” Wes shares how to implement this when writing about complex ideas. 

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The Disappointment Frontier

- James Stanier tl;dr: The disappointment frontier is the void formed from the mismatch between your team and reality. “Overcommunication, transparency, and a clear delineation between what you can and can't control will help you navigate the disappointment frontier bridging your team's world and the external reality. It's not your job to create a perfect utopia for your team. Instead, it's your job to help them successfully navigate reality with you as their guide.”

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