/Management

10 Must-Reads For Engineering Leaders

- Anton Zaides tl;dr: “Although I insist you should fully read them, I summarized my main takeaway from each book in today’s article.” Anton discusses: (1) Turn the Ship Around: building a team that doesn’t depend on you. (2) No Rules Rules: removing all controls and bureaucracy. (3) Extreme Ownership: You are the organization. And more. 

featured in #508

The 37signals Guide To Internal Communication

tl;dr: 30 rules including: (1) Give meaningful discussions a meaningful amount of time to develop and unfold. Rushing to judgement, or demanding immediate responses, only serves to increase the odds of poor decision making. (2) Meetings are the last resort, not the first option. (3) Writing solidifies, chat dissolves. Substantial decisions start and end with an exchange of complete thoughts, not one-line-at-a-time jousts. If it’s important, critical, or fundamental, write it up, don’t chat it down.

featured in #507

An Open Letter To Auth Providers

tl;dr: The first job of any auth company is to protect its customers – before anything else. Somewhere along the way it feels like a lot of auth providers lost sight of the thing that matters: You, their customers.

featured in #507

Mentorship, Coaching, Sponsorship: Three Different — And Equally Important — Tools For Developing Talent

- Jacob Kaplan-Moss tl;dr: “One of the main responsibilities of a leader / manager is helping their staff develop. Mentorship, coaching, and sponsorship are import tools in the staff development toolbox. Good leaders should be adept in all three, and know when (and when not) to use each. In my work with new managers, I sometimes see confusion about these three different tools, and I see people using them in the wrong circumstances.” Jacob provides a glossary, high-level explanation of what these three things are, how they differ, and where to use them.

featured in #507

5 Non-Verbal Behaviors Killing Team Health

- Raviraj Achar tl;dr: Raviraj shares annoying non-verbal behaviors, how he avoids exhibiting them, and how to deal with them. These include: (1) Silent but Irritated - the person that rolls their eyes when they hear something “stupid” or exhales heavily when someone disagrees with them. (2) Annoying Interrupter - they appear eager to interrupt the speaker and can’t seem to wait for their turn. This behavior can be distracting when the speaker is trying to make their point. (3) Ever Confused - The person gives a puzzled look to everything you say but asks no follow-up questions.

featured in #506

Overcoming Event-Driven Architecture Complexity With An Event Gateway

- James Higginbotham tl;dr: EDA offers flexibility and scalability, but as your architecture grows, complexities arise. Message receivers struggle with filtering, third-party orchestration consumes developer time, and webhook integration becomes challenging. James explores how event gateways can address common scenarios that increase EDA complexity.

featured in #506

The Remoteness Of Remote Work

- Kailash Nadh tl;dr: “We transitioned to being fully remote during the first pandemic in 2020. It worked out great in the first year, started losing its sheen in the second year, and became detrimental to creativity and collaboration by the third year. It failed for us in the most critical areas. We then made the collective decision to switch to a “hybrid” mode, where about 10% of us involved in creative and decision-making endeavours now come to the office three days a week while 90% of us continue to be fully remote. The hard lesson is that effective, long term remote work requires specific skill sets and DNA to pull off.”

featured in #506

How We Decide What To Build

- Ian Vanagas tl;dr: “There is a point in your product journey where what to build next goes from obvious to unclear. The options seem endless and choosing correctly can be the difference between a thriving product and a failing one.” Ian discusses how to navigate this. 

featured in #506

Meetings For An Effective Eng Organization

- Will Larson tl;dr: "I’d like to recommend 6 core meetings that I recommend every organization start with, and that I’ve found can go a surprisingly long way. These six are split across three operational meetings, two developmental meetings and finally a monthly engineering Q&A to learn what the organization is really thinking about." Will discusses each in depth. 

featured in #506

Meetings For An Effective Eng Organization

- Will Larson tl;dr: "I’d like to recommend 6 core meetings that I recommend every organization start with, and that I’ve found can go a surprisingly long way. These six are split across three operational meetings, two developmental meetings and finally a monthly engineering Q&A to learn what the organization is really thinking about." Will discusses each in depth. 

featured in #505