/Management

Factors That Can Affect The Development Time Of Your MVP

tl;dr: The concept of a Minimum Viable Product has emerged as a beacon for startups and entrepreneurs. However, the development time required to breathe life into the MVP is an intricate equation, influenced by a multitude of factors. In this blog post Match.dev team summarizes non-obvious factors that can negatively affect the development time of your MVP.

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How to Write Great Tech Specs

- Nicola Ballotta tl;dr: Nicola covers: (1) What a tech specs document is, why it's important, and why it can sometimes be challenging to create one. (2) How to create outstanding tech specs. (3) A Notion system for creating tech specs. (4) Tips from both his own experience as well as the communities.

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How We Work Asynchronously

- Ian Vanagas tl;dr: Besides being difficult to pronounce, being asynchronous means people can work autonomously and on their own schedule, even if other teams members aren’t immediately available. This post shares PostHog's not-so-secret strategies for working asynchronously across 11 countries.

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Look Back To Leap Ahead: 7 Questions For Your End of Year Reflection

tl;dr: A wide-ranging retro to set yourself up for success in the new year: (1) Evaluating projects to quit earlier. (2) Revamping regular meetings. (3) Using time wisely. (4) Alignment with manager’s goals. (5) Receiving and giving impactful feedback. (6) Changes in job role. (7) Readiness for career advancement. 

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How To Uncover Your Users' Real Problems

- Ian Vanagas tl;dr: Users are like kids at Christmas. They say they really want this one thing, but that one thing won’t keep them happy for long. Solving their unspoken problems will. And the best way to uncover them is to ask really good questions. This post covers what the best lessons PostHog has learned about asking user's questions.

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Why Should You (Or Anyone) Become An Engineering Manager?

- Charity Majors tl;dr: "The main reason I would encourage you to try engineering management is a reason that I’m not sure I’ve ever heard someone cite in advance, which is that it can make you better at life and relationships, in a huge and meaningful way. Work is always about two things: what you put out into the world, and who you become while doing it. I want to stop well short of proclaiming that “being a manager will make you a better person!” because skills are skills, and they can be used for good or ill. But it can." Charity discusses how management skills help with personal skills, such as self-awareness, understanding other people, hard conversations, and more.

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7 Challenges With Long-Term Projects And How To Manage Them

- Raviraj Achar tl;dr: Raviraj, a tech lead from Meta, outlines his approach to the following: (1) Prioritizing hard problems. (2) Dealing with hidden work. (3) Managing attrition. (4) Staging the value. (5) Adapting to changing constraints. (6) Maintaining confidence and perception. (7) Having a concrete timeline.

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Deliver Software Security, Reliability, And Maintainability Through Clean Code Practices

- Gabriel Vivas tl;dr: Every company is a software company, and improving the quality, reliability, and security of your code matters. Sonar has spent the last 15 years building tools like SonarQube and SonarLint to help improve developer velocity, reduce code- level technical debt, and put security in the hands of developers. In this article, we detail how companies can make Clean Code a priority.

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How to Take Bigger, Bolder Product Bets — Lessons from Slack’s Chief Product Officer

- Noah Desai Weiss tl;dr: Noah emphasizes that not all product problems can be solved through data-driven experimentation alone, advocating for intuition and judgment in tackling complex challenges. He advises focusing on individual decision-making rather than being swayed by overall outcomes, a concept known as "resulting." Noah outlines a three-step process for quality decision-making: sharing context, building trust, and factoring in risk. He also introduces the 70:20:10 product roadmap rule for diversifying risk. 70% of efforts should focus on core products, 20% on emerging products, and 10% on experimental ideas. Finally, Noah highlights the importance of well-defined organizational values, like taking bigger, bolder bets and humility, to foster a culture conducive to impactful decision-making.

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How Much Do Companies Invest in Developer Productivity Teams?

- Abi Noda tl;dr: What percentage of headcount should be allocated toward centralized productivity teams? Abi found that companies under 1,000 engineers allocate 18.9% of their headcount toward centralized productivity teams, with a range of 8%-37%. The average allocation decreased to 17.8% when including companies with more than 1,000 engineers. Abi breaks this down further by company size and categories of productivity teams.

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