Photo by Lance Grandahl / UnsplashI've noticed that people often like to break down problems into hierarchies. When we are tasked with thinking about a Mission or Vision, the immediate goal is to define what we're planning for on a longer time horizon. OKRs are another example where the Objective is…
Photo by Todd Quackenbush / UnsplashWe've been building a house for my in-laws and it has been really interesting to watch things come together. I've been especially interested in the framing process after watching Essential Craftsman and working on leveling up my (very limited) construction skills. One big difference between a…
Photo by Coasteering / UnsplashOrganizations often focus on results over anything else. Specifically, the focus is on metrics around revenue and growth, which on the surface, makes nothing but sense. At the same time we also know that bad metrics will undoubtedly produce bad outcomes. Squeezing customers for every last nickel…
Photo by Shengjun Shi / UnsplashAs an Engineering Manager, I'm often trying to coach my team members to think about how to break down tasks. I recently had a more junior engineer take on a task we pointed as an 8. This is typically considered a large task and I did…
Photo by Wim van 't Einde / UnsplashAs a manager, I review a lot of resumes. In perfect world, I could read hundreds of resumes and give each a fair, objective chance. The reality is, I need to filter things quickly, while still avoiding my internal biases. With that in mind,…
Photo by Brittany Bendabout / UnsplashAs a long time Emacs user and org-mode user, I was hopeful that org-roam could tame the plethora of paths offered for taking notes and keeping track of information. The key factor was understanding this article on How to Take Smart-Notes with Org-mode. I'll admit that…
Photo by Ghis / UnsplashOne inevitable part of engineering management is some form of ticket management. For most, that means using Jira, and I've yet to meet someone who likes it. However, despite the distaste for Jira, everyone knows if we didn't have ticket tracking, getting things done would be messy…
Photo by Zane Lee / UnsplashIt shouldn't be surprising that as a manger, you have a lot of meetings. There are the organization wide meetings, syncs with other managers, staff meetings, 1:1s, project meetings, etc. One thing I've tried to do (and struggled with quite a bit) is running efficient…
Photo by Pope Moysuh / UnsplashOne of the hardest things going from programming to managing has been the change in output. People often write about it is challenging being a manager because you don't get those quick wins like you do as a programmer. Some challenging bug doesn't get fix in…
Photo by George Kourounis / UnsplashThe beginning of this year I made a commitment to write at least once a week. For those few people counting, that has clearly not happened. While I don't like to make excuses, I think I have some really good ones that certainly trump blogging in…