/Leadership

Bar Raisers, Hiring Committees, And Other Complex Ways To Improve Hiring Quality

- Will Larson tl;dr: Will discusses pros and cons of each. His "default advice" on the topic of increasing quality of organizational hiring is: (1) Introduce structured approval when you introduce your second hiring manager in a function. (2) Wait until organization trust grows sufficiently weak that there’s significant skepticism about hiring quality across teams, then introduce a hiring committee. (3) Avoid introducing bar raising unless you have a clear thesis on why the other approaches won’t work out.

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How to Optimize the Remote Employee Experience in 2022

tl;dr: (1) Invest in Tools for Easier Team Collaboration. (2) Improve Internal Communication. (3) Establish a Meeting Protocol. (4) Allocate Time for Team Bonding. (5) Introduce Company Culture from the Start, so new employees feel integrated. And more. 

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An Engineering Manager's Bill Of Rights (And Responsibilities)

- Emily Nakashima tl;dr: The bill is designed to further support engineering managers at Honeycomb, with the following guidelines: (1) Create a culture of respect for both management and IC work, due to the increasing "disdain" managers are facing. (2) Provide a career path within management with multiple ways to advance. (3) Be straight with teams about what managers are there to do. (4) Cultivate the flow of feedback in both directions, between managers and IC. (5) Allow manager & IC compensation to move independently with the market.

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First Focus. Then Simplify

- John Cutler tl;dr: "Imagine two people - Person A acknowledges the complex problem, and focuses. Person B doesn’t see the complex problem, and simplifies." Both approaches may seem very similar at first glance. "Focus looks like simplification. Simplification looks like focus." But when things go wrong, as they tend to do, Person B will make bad decisions. They’ll pick bad strategies and tactics and spread the lack of context awareness to their team. 

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Why Automation Is Crucial For Security And Compliance

tl;dr: "Good security not only minimizes downside, but also enables faster growth. Learn how an automated security and compliance platform improves security posture, stands up to security audits, and can get you compliant in just weeks."

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Be Good-Argument-Driven, Not Data-Driven

- Richard Marmorstein tl;dr: "The trouble begins when you begin to favor bad arguments that involve data over good arguments that don’t, or insist that metrics be introduced in realms where data can’t realistically be the foundation of a good argument." An over-reliance on data can lead to introducing metrics where they don't belong and focussing only on what can be measured. 

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Questions For Our First 1:1

- Lara Hogan tl;dr: "I’ve learned that getting some particular data during an initial 1:1 can be really helpful, as I can refer back to the answers as I need to give a person feedback, recognize them, and find creative ways to support them." Lara discusses her template for initial 1-1s with questions around "grumpiness", feedback and recognition, goals and support, and the most important question - what’s your favorite way to treat yourself?

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What Great Hybrid Cultures Do Differently

- James Stanier tl;dr: "Hybrid work only works when all employees are treated as remote employees. To do this, companies need to do five things: embrace asynchronous communication, make communication boundaries clear, champion documentation and the production of artifacts, share information widely, and provide the right tools for employees to succeed." Each are discussed in this post. 

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The State Of Internal Tools 2022

tl;dr: Since 2020, we’ve surveyed developers for our State of Internal Tools report. We set out to find how companies build internal tools, who uses them, and how teams measure their impact on the business. Discover our highlights from this year’s State Of Internal Tools here.

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How To Tool For Developer Productivity

- Kathryn Koehler tl;dr: Director of Developer Productivity Engineering at Netflix shares what kind of tooling you should focus on building, whether you should build or buy your tooling, and how to measure the success of your tooling in developer satisfaction and productivity.

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