/Management

The Core Challenges of Principal Engineering

- Will Larson 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.

featured in #570


Dump The Golden Dataset: Switch To Random Sampling

- Nishant Shukla tl;dr: Golden Datasets have long been a reliable method for measuring AI prompt performance. But as AI innovation moves fast, companies need a more agile, flexible, and cost-effective solution to stay ahead of their competition. Enter random sampling of AI prompt performance—a cutting-edge approach that adapts to real-world data and drives scalable performance for QA Wolf customers. Stay ahead of the curve—watch the webinar now.

featured in #570


Engineering Principles – The 5 Step Process

- Christian Scheb tl;dr: “There’s this interview with Elon Musk, showing around the SpaceX rocket production facility in Texas. There’s a lot of talk about rockets and stuff, though in between he’s giving some fascinating insights into the design process and the principles he’s following. The “5 Step Process” as he calls it. Wanted to write it up for myself, so I though I can share it here as well.”

featured in #570


Engineering Principles – The 5 Step Process

- Christian Scheb tl;dr: “There’s this interview with Elon Musk, showing around the SpaceX rocket production facility in Texas. There’s a lot of talk about rockets and stuff, though in between he’s giving some fascinating insights into the design process and the principles he’s following. The “5 Step Process” as he calls it. Wanted to write it up for myself, so I though I can share it here as well.”

featured in #569


Managing Impostor Syndrome As A New Engineering Manager

- Péter Szász tl;dr: “Here's an idea: what if Impostor Syndrome isn't always bad? That nagging feeling that you might miss something to be successful can actually make you a better manager - if you learn to use it right.”

featured in #569


A Practical Guide To Executive Presence: Earning Respect

tl;dr: “It can be somewhat circular, but one of the best ways to build executive presence is for other executives to obviously care about what you have to say. This time, we’re going to dive into the behaviors that earn respect from other executives – the traits that help make them allies, and that prevent them from resenting you or taking you for granted.”

featured in #568


How We Choose Technologies

- Ian Vanagas tl;dr: “Our solution is trust and feedback over process and letting product teams own the process from beginning to end. We can't tell you what technologies to use, or the perfect way to pick them, but this is how our company of ~60, remote and async people does it.”

featured in #568


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?" 

featured in #567


The Developer's Guide To Notification System Tooling In 2025

- Chris Bell tl;dr: “If you opened this blog post, you’re probably about to wade into the complicated ecosystem of notification and customer engagement tooling. It can feel like a daunting task. Not to fear, in this post we’re here to walk you through the basics of notification systems and the ecosystem of tools, frameworks, and vendors that surround them.”

featured in #567


How To Get More Headcount

- Will Larson 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.”

featured in #567