/Management

How Do I Get Better At Giving Feedback?

- James Stanier tl;dr: (1) Start with a "micro-yes:" e.g. “I’ve got a couple of ideas for how we could improve. Can I share them?” (2) State your data point: e.g. "we said we’d ship this change by midday, but it’s 4pm.” (3) Make your impact statement: e.g. “our support staff are getting inundated with tickets because we said that it would be fixed earlier.” (4) End on a question: e.g. “what are your thoughts?” As a rule of thumb, most feedback should be positive.

featured in #339

Thinking About The Costs Of A Software Feature

- Roland Weigelt tl;dr: (1) The work necessary for turning a rough sketch of an idea into a viable concept. (2) Time spent on planning the work. (3) Effort that goes into preparing the coding part of the development. (4) Time spent on writing the code. (5) Testing the software. (6) Documentation. And more. 

featured in #339

The Really Important Job Interview Questions Engineers Should Ask (But Don't)

- James Hawkins tl;dr: "It's normal for candidates not to ask harder questions about our company, so they usually miss out on a chance to (1) de-risk our company's performance and (2) increase the chances they'll like working here." James gives several examples of interview questions candidates can ask about product-market fit, financial runway and more.

featured in #339

Software Visualization - Challenge, Accepted

- Renato Kalman Johan Wallin tl;dr: "While capturing all of our software in one large diagram is technically possible, it would be very hard to understand and navigate. We need tools to look at our architecture at different abstraction levels in order to make good design decisions and evolve our software in a sustainable way. As part of our solution, we leverage a standardized software metadata model to create a common language for communicating software architecture."

featured in #339

How to Deliver Bad News

- Ed Batista tl;dr: 3 steps: (1) State what happened. The most important step is initiating the conversation. It's common to downplay bad news or share the bare minimum. (2) Provide an explanation for the cause. This may be embarrassing, particularly if your action or inaction was a contributing factor but trying to avoid acknowledging your embarrassment often makes it worse. (3) Here's what you're planning to do: this gives the other parties the benefit of your thinking while signaling your openness to theirs.

featured in #338

The Critical Startup Skills You Might Be Overlooking - And How to Bring Them Into Focus

tl;dr: (1) How to get better at taking your own pulse. (2) How to get better at delegating. (3) How to make your strategy more clear. (4) How to speak less and become a better detective during 1:1s. (5) How to get better at listening — by paying more attention to yourself. And more.

featured in #338

How To Access Infrastructure Without Usernames And Passwords

- Ev Kontsevoy tl;dr: Teleport 10 introduces Passwordless Access. Eliminate passwords and other static credentials like SSH keys from your infrastructure, making it more secure, scalable, and easier to use. Stolen credentials are the #1 cause of data breaches — Teleport 10 makes it easy to ditch the secrets and embrace identity. Learn more.

featured in #338

Different Strokes For Different Folks

- Paulo André tl;dr: "It may not be obvious, but it’s one of the most common issues in product & engineering teams: different people are solving different problems, whether they realize it or not. And that is the root of much anxiety, frustration, and disappointment." Paulo advises us on how to reconcile such a situation. 

featured in #337

Remote, Hybrid, Or In-Person?

- Fred Wilson tl;dr: "All change has good and bad downstream effects. The broad-based adoption of remote work is allowing people to balance work and home life in ways that are extremely beneficial to them. But team morale and the broader cultural needs of companies have suffered and we need to recognize that... A hybrid model that provides continued flexibility while creating a lot more face time is the long-term answer."

featured in #337

How We Onboard Engineers At A Devtools Startup

- Chris Bell tl;dr: "To build a truly great developer tool you need to go beyond the default empathy that new engineers have for developers at large. You need to use the tool itself, exactly as a customer would." Chris shares Knock's onboarding principles, process, onboarding project and more. 

featured in #337