/Management

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. 

featured in #521

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.”

featured in #520

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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How to Avoid Breached Passwords

tl;dr: Cyber attackers have many ways to infiltrate your systems. Proper password protocols could help, but ensuring users follow them is difficult. Breaches can lead to costly lawsuits and damage reputations. Compromised passwords can also be reused to access user accounts. This tech paper explores the issue, offers solutions, and provides strategies to protect users and organizations.

featured in #520

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.

featured in #519

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 Developer’s Guide To User Management At Scale

tl;dr: When you’re building an application at scale, there’s a ton of features to consider around user management such as implementing sessions via cookies or JWT, supporting bot protection, and handling identity linking. And these only scratch the surface. This comprehensive guide covers all things related to authentication (Multi-Factor Auth, SSO, handling sessions), security (bot protections, authorization policies), and user flows (inviting new users, identity linking) that you need to keep in mind for your app.

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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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An Engineering Manager Challenge

- Ted Neward tl;dr: Ted shares his answer to the following interview question: "You're the tech lead and your team is getting stretched thin. You decide to add resources but you can afford 1 senior full-stack developer or 2 junior full-stack devs. Which do you choose and why?" 

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Emotional Signposting: Why You Should Tell People How To Feel

- Wes Kao tl;dr: “If you share information that’s not obviously positive or negative, you must proactively tell people how they should feel. Give context to the information, data, or fact. If there’s even a slight chance your audience might benefit from the extra clues, I would consider using signposting. It’s super fast for you, and super helpful for them.” Wes shares examples.

featured in #517