At a recent engineering offsite, someone brought up a useful principle that stuck with me: 1 2 0 The more I thought about it, the more I liked it. I would add one constraint: never more than two. Mathematically, it is wrong. Operationally, it is often right. With the added constraint, the full principle Continue reading "1 > 2 > 0, but n ≤ 2"
There is a difference between taking on technical debt and misplacing it. Teams operate under deadlines, incomplete information, and real business pressure. Sometimes the right decision is not to build the perfect abstraction. Sometimes the right decision is to take the shortcut. The analogy is a sock drawer. Before you can organize your sock drawer, the socks Continue reading "The Sock Drawer…
This post delves into how software teams can overcome operational overload, reclaim time for technical improvements, and align their efforts with business goals. Here’s what you’ll learn: Uncovering the Challenges The journey began with mounting frustrations among teams. Engineers often expressed how business, product, and operational demands overwhelmed their ability to focus on technical…
Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress. Mahatma Gandhi As you begin to manage managers, your job changes from focusing on individuals within a team to supporting managers to deliver broader outcomes successfully. Your role is to facilitate clear, effective communication to maintain a high degree of alignment between managers within your Continue reading "The Art of Clean Escalation"
Embracing productivity systems leads you to handle all aspects of your personal and professional lives effectively. These systems provide a framework for efficient task management, improved time allocation, enhanced focus, reduced stress levels, goal attainment, and adaptability to changing circumstances. In this post, we will discuss: Workflow This workflow is an adapted version system behind…
Glue work helps fulfill the primary human drive to bond, which significantly impacts employee commitment. Commitment captures the extent to which employees engage in corporate citizenship. However, it can be seen as less glamorous and not promotable, hurting careers. Managers need to be intentional about the amount of glue work, using glue work to develop Continue reading "Beyond the Glamour: The…
Today s teams are neither co-located nor co-scheduled and comprise individuals from different backgrounds, skills, and personalities working together. To be a high-functioning team, each team member should have clarity in terms of what is expected of them and each other to communicate effectively and hold each other accountable. Let us take a look at three Continue reading "From Chaos to…
A closing call is a call or meeting with a prospective candidate who has cleared the interview process. Its purpose is to convince them to join your team. You ll likely encounter one if you ve been a manager for a while. Doing it well will significantly boost your hiring efficiency. Before the call Prepare. You get Continue reading "How to be prepared and authentic on closing calls?"
You may have read many resources on Managing Up , but you re still unsure how to begin or if you re doing it correctly. If you are like me, you may even dismiss it as jargon nobody cares about. But I have since realized that it can be transformative. An excellent way to think about this is Continue reading "Managing Up (without sucking up!)"