/Management

Engineering Management Basics

- Francisco Trindade tl;dr: Instead, when helping ICs transition to management, I have focused on introducing the basics of engineering management. That’s because the basics will: (1) Provide the manager a structure to apply to their role initially, creating more stability and space for them to learn. (2) Create stability in the team, avoiding initial problems and crises that could destabilize and complicate the manager’s role. (3) Provide guidelines and principles the manager can apply to everyday situations, improving their chance of success.

featured in #566

On Good Software Engineers

- Candost Dagdeviren tl;dr: “Setting expectations for software engineers is tricky for all managers. Every company has different needs and a different structure, tech stack, and culture. Whenever someone joins a team, one of the manager’s challenges is aligning the organization’s expectations with those of the new joiner. As there’s no universal guidance on this subject, I set out to find a simple definition that would help managers frame the fundamental things they expect from software engineers.”

featured in #566

5 Frameworks To Master Communication And Influence As An Engineer

- Jordan Cutler Wes Kao tl;dr: Wes and Jordan discuss the following frameworks: (1) Reduce cognitive load using phrases like “For example”, “Action Items”, “Action Needed”, “Next Steps,” etc... (2) MP-CB: Main point, context below. (3) Anticipate the objection. (4) CEDAF for delegating tasks. (5) QBQ: Question behind the question. 

featured in #566

Dumb Leadership Mistakes I’ve Made

- Laura Tacho tl;dr: (1) Dismissing intuition. (2) Data-driven theater. (3) Trying to be smart instead of making other people smart. (4) Not utilizing experts soon enough. (5) Not realizing that I’m not an engineering leader.

featured in #565

Radiate Intent

- Lee Byron tl;dr: “This is classic advice when operating in a large organization. There’s a problem to be solved, you have a bold solution in mind and everything necessary to take action, but there will be very real costs felt broadly. You think the tradeoff is worth it, but will your team or higher-ups agree?”

featured in #565

Learn What Role Based Access Control Is And How To It Simplifies B2B Permission Management

tl;dr: Managing permissions in large SaaS applications can be a nightmare. Providing team owners a way to grant functionality to users in a simplified way can be the difference between companies purchasing your software or going with a competitor. Clerk provides you with a way to build this functionality with minimal effort.

featured in #565

What Finesse Looks Like When Reading People And Situations

- Wes Kao tl;dr: Wes covers: (1) Share bad news effectively. (2) Understand power dynamics. (3) Know when to call someone out. (4) Understand intention vs impact. (5) Recognize the question behind the question. (6) Consider what’s advantageous for both parties. (7) Realize popular adages aren’t fully accurate. 

featured in #564

Managing Irritating People

- Dan Rockwell tl;dr: Record the top three strengths of everyone on your team. Discuss your observations publicly in a team meeting. “I notice three important strengths in Mary.” Before Mary speaks, ask team members what strengths they notice in her. Check in with Mary. “On a scale of 1:10 how accurate are we?” Use your strengths list in one on ones. Explore ways to apply each person’s strengths to organizational goals. Ask, “How could you maximize your strengths?”

featured in #564

When Is Systems Modeling Useful?

- Will Larson tl;dr: “Modeling makes it possible iterate your thinking much faster than running a live process or technology experiment with your team. I sometimes hear concerns that modeling slows things down, but this is just an issue of familiarity. The more you practice, modeling can be faster than asking for advice from industry peers.”

featured in #564

To Build A Meritocracy

- Max Levchin tl;dr: “High-performance culture is pretty easy to define: a culture of individuals doing productive work for the company in the most efficient way possible and helping others do the same, while generally having a good time. But what do you actually do to have such a culture? And what do you not do?” Max jotted down a few incomplete one-liners of what that means to me him as a founder and CEO. 

featured in #564