Angela Riggs | Engineering & People Leader
Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm. – Publius Syrus Someone shared this quote recently, and my mind immediately went to the idea of managing in calm seas compared to managing in stormy seas. I’ve often heard the analogy of wartime general / peacetime general when it comes to being a manager in a chaotic dynamic and rapidly changing environment, but I like this one better. The last…
I often write about things I’ve learned, but this blog post is about how I’ve felt. Specifically, it’s about how I was feeling last fall as I was ramping up at my new job. And how was I feeling, you may ask? In a word: Imposter-y. (We can argue about whether that’s actually a word in the next blog post 😄) I’ve done lots of new things and scary things throughout my life. I dropped out of college…
I’ll start this post by saying that if you’re one of the thousands of employees impacted by tech industry layoffs over the last year - I’m so sorry. I know how much it sucks. I was laid off last May, and I know how hard it is. If you’re still processing, I wrote about that too ; I hope it can be something that helps you. If you’re ready to start your job search but feel overwhelmed trying to get…
As I’m wrapping up the fourth week at my new job, I figured this was a good time to reflect on how I approach onboarding to a new role, team, and company! Company onboarding The first week of onboarding is typically very broad and company-focused: benefits, how to find information, company culture, IT setup, etc. It’s an overload of information that doesn’t have a ton of meaning yet, and my main…
Previously on Tales From a Journey Around Metrics Mojtaba’s journey into metrics episodes were interrupted last by a few other posts on metrics related to build org. We left off in episode 9 where even crude workload metrics were helpful in setting up a team to have productive conversations. Before Visualizing: A Humble Beginning Before visualizing ther (workload) metrics, the team in episode 8…
Mojtaba brings us another great guest post about using real estate investment as an analogy for thinking about product engineering metrics! I’ve been thinking about high level build org metrics for some time now. I like analogies and so thinking about it in terms of a real-estate investment helped clarify in my mind the differences between 3 separate things. I imagined myself as an investor in a…
When deciding to come up with metrics to measure, it is helpful to distinguish between activities and outcomes and their associated metrics. One leads into another and one is best assessed in the context of another. Summary This post posits that: One is or should be accountable for outcomes, not activities It is good to measure both (outcomes and activities) It is good to start with measuring…
In a previous post, Mojtaba introduced us to the 5 categories of engineering metrics . These are appropriate for engineering teams. When combined with product and design, and looking at the organization and business as a whole, it’s important to distinguish between various levels of metrics. Levels of Metrics It’s important to distinguish between various levels of metrics, especially when looking…
The One Where Crude Team Workload Metrics Led to Fruitful Conversations Previously on Tales From a Journey Around Metrics Episode 8 began the story of an under-served team crudely measuring its workload by making work visible in the hopes of being to advocate for itself. Crude Workload Metrics The team in episode 8 began its metrics journey by making work visible through capturing what it…
The One Where Team Workload Helped an Under-Served Team Advocate for Itself Previously on Tales From a Journey Around Metrics We last interrupted our Managing Metrics episodes by going over the value of measuring Team Workload . Before that, in Episode 7 Mojtaba recounted a team increasing its autonomy with aid of metrics. An Under-Served Team At the last organization, we had an “Ops” team that…