Geeky Leadership Rants by Tig Kindel
People ask me which of my posts to read if they want to get better at product management. I never had a good answer, because I did not write them as a curriculum. I wrote them because something was on fire. The post Tig’s Toolbox for Product Management first appeared on tig.log .
Excellence in organizations starts and ends with hiring. Most leaders agree in principle. Very few behave as though they believe it. The post Hiring First. Everything Else Second. first appeared on tig.log .
Effective leaders master the skill of choosing memorable terms, defining them precisely, and using them with unreasonable consistency. I call these load-bearing terms: words and phrases that hold up part of the structure. Remove one and something falls down. The post Load-Bearing Terms first appeared on tig.log .
These are the tenets for Principal Engineers that define the engineering culture at Amazon. They are just about as perfect as a set of rules that define senior engineers behaviors as you ll find. Ensuring your company s ... Read more The post Principal Engineer Tenets first appeared on tig.log .
In 1938, P.G. Wodehouse wrote this in The Code of the Woosters: He spoke with a certain what-is-it in his voice, and I could see that, if not actually disgruntled, he was far from being gruntled. ... Read more The post Be Gruntled. I Am first appeared on tig.log .
This week the argument found a name. Uncle Bob Martin, who started coding in the late 60s and wrote the book on clean code, posted that his current strategy is to not read any of the ... Read more The post No-Look Coding and the Five Stages of Grief first appeared on tig.log .
Software engineers stopped opening IDEs. Hardware engineers are about to stop opening KiCad. I define Prompt to Metal, explain why the prompt-box startups have no moat, and share five weakly held opinions about where this all goes. The post Prompt to Metal first appeared on tig.log .
If you want help writing a 5Ps, use the 5Ps editor. It s a prompt you paste into an agent. It writes a first draft and revises it. The post The Most Dangerous Lie In Project Plans: “We’ll Hire” first appeared on tig.log .
The Model Context Environment Controller is eyes, hands, and a safe front door for agents on Windows; and the same battle-tested remote control for smart-home systems. The post MCEC 3.0: Eyes and Hands for Agents on Windows first appeared on tig.log .
I, for one, welcome embrace our robotic overlords. Nine months ago I sat down with ChatGPT to upgrade the command routing and keybinding system for Terminal.Gui. I expected magic. What I got was C# that would have compiled cleanly in 2007. Static singletons. Obsolete event handlers. APIs we’d deprecated two years ago. The agent was confident, fast, and clinically insane. I had a choice. Get mad at…
Updated July 2026. The original March version of this post is below, revised. The biggest changes: my credentials for giving this advice got stronger (I stopped reading the code entirely; see No-Look Coding and the Five Stages ... Read more The post You Are Behind in Using AI. Here’s How to Catch Up first appeared on tig.log .
For the past few months we ve been architecting, refactoring, and refining. 146 commits. Dozens of PRs. One PR touched 493 files. The long-awaited Beta isn t just about revolutionary features. It s about getting the architecture right and ... Read more The post Terminal.Gui: Still Absurd, Now Beta! first appeared on tig.log .
I’ve heard “program” used to mean everything from a team to a project plan to a portfolio to lines of code. At some point, someone has to stop and say: you keep using that word—I don’t ... Read more The post Program: You Keep Using that Word, I Don’t Think You Know What it Means first appeared on tig.log .
Mechanisms are complete processes—owned by a leader, built around a tool or ritual, broadly adopted, and continually inspected and improved—that make the right behavior the default. Rather than hoping people do the right thing, great leaders engineer processes that guarantee it. The post Mechanisms In Action: How Tech Giants Scale “Good Intentions” first appeared on tig.log .
You don’t scale excellence by inspecting outcomes—you scale it by designing systems that send the right signals. These are called Fitness Functions. The post Leading by Fitness Functions first appeared on tig.log .
The right kind of feedback can transform teams, while the wrong kind erodes trust and performance. SBI, which stands for Situation–Behavior–Impact, is a structured way to give feedback that’s clear, non-defensive, and actionable. The post The Secret to Giving Feedback Without Triggering Defensiveness first appeared on tig.log .
Terminal.Gui is a .NET UI framework for cross-platform terminal apps. It started life as gui.cs, created by Miguel de Icaza. Miguel, being Miguel, casually dropped a complete cross-platform console UI stack into the world, made it ... Read more The post Terminal.Gui: My Beautiful Absurdist Adventure first appeared on tig.log .
Here's a simple yet powerful exercise, the CBTO Stack Rank, designed to force you into uncomfortable clarity about where you really stand as a leader. The post Your Leadership Priorities Are Probably Backwards (And How to Fix Them) first appeared on tig.log .
Organizational Silos Are Like Gravity. You Don’t Hope Them Away. You can’t culture-doc them into nonexistence. You Engineer Around Them. The post Your Org Is Sinking in Silo Gravity. Build a Damn Rocket first appeared on tig.log .
Every great org starts the same way: a handful of people with conviction, urgency, and the energy of a shared mission. The best ones are driven by clarity of purpose, crisp principles, and a team that ... Read more The post Exorcise the Ghost of Mediocrity first appeared on tig.log .
The Single-Threaded Leader (STL) model was born inside Amazon and became foundational to how we scaled and delivered customer-obsessed innovation—especially in the early years of Alexa. I wrote the original doc that helped crystalize the model, ... Read more The post How We Scaled Alexa: One Problem, One Leader first appeared on tig.log .
There are three states a leader can be in relative to people management: 🔧 The Builder This is the Individual Contributor (IC) track. Builders go deep on the T, C, and B parts of Customer, Business, ... Read more The post People Management Is Not a Hobby first appeared on tig.log .
The first rule of skills is simple: know the skill exists. That sounds obvious, but most people—especially growing leaders—aren’t intentional about skills. They focus on outcomes. Goals. KPIs. But they don’t stop to ask: What specific ... Read more The post The First Rule of Skills first appeared on tig.log .
When an organization hits a wall (be it a product failing in the field, a critical project slipping off the rails, or a big customer walking away) the knee-jerk reaction is often to lean on the ... Read more The post Send in the Wolfes: Why Hard Problems Need Fixers, Not Just Leaders first appeared on tig.log .
Let’s start with a simple question: What kind of work do you like doing? Go ahead, answer it in your head. I’ll wait. … Did you just describe what you like working on? Or who you like working with? Or maybe ... Read more The post Stop Answering the Wrong Question: Unlock Your True Work Happiness first appeared on tig.log .
This post introduces the concept of Working Backward (WB) narratives and formalizes the mechanism through which a company can drive product development. The WB mechanism is a complete process designed to create a “virtuous cycle” that ... Read more The post How To: Write a Working Backwards Doc first appeared on tig.log .
Prioritization means making decisions that focus energy and resources on a few things that are at the top of the list, and starving things that are lower in the list. The most important aspect of prioritization ... Read more The post No Starving Children? The Shocking Truth About Prioritization. first appeared on tig.log .
The practice of selling ideas in meetings can lead to misalignment and superficial agreement. When the focus is on persuasion rather than understanding, team members may agree without fully grasping the implications or having their concerns ... Read more The post Don’t Sell Ideas – Debate Them first appeared on tig.log .
I was a guest on the Are We There Yet? podcast. We dove deep into several topics close to my heart: The future of life on Earth, artificial intelligence, human-computer interaction, leadership, and more. Have a ... Read more The post How AI Will Keep Us Honest first appeared on tig.log .
In 35+ years of building companies and organizations in multiple industries, I ve concluded most leadership books are great examples of survivorship bias. I ve learned a lot from many of these books. But none of them really ... Read more The post The Secret to Delivering Outsized Results first appeared on tig.log .
In 2020 started hosting my Free and Open Office Hours as a way to give back and meet more people in the space industry. As I became useful to those in the space industry and gained ... Read more The post Announcing Kindel Leadership Development first appeared on tig.log .
When I was a baby my favorite eldest sister nicknamed me “Tigger” because I was bouncy and acting Tiggerish . Friends and family have called me “Tigger” or “Tig” ever since. When I started my professional career ... Read more The post cek.log -> tig.log (Charlie -> Tigger) first appeared on tig.log .
All human beings are prone to cognitive biases and fallacies that influence our thinking and decision-making processes. These biases and fallacies can be sneaky and hard to detect, but it s important that we are aware of ... Read more The post Biases and Fallacies Lead to Smol Thinking first appeared on tig.log .
Errors. They re everywhere, but they don t have to spell disaster. In fact, they re an opportunity for improvement, if you Engineer the Sh*it out of them. By everywhere, I mean in all functions of a company, not ... Read more The post Engineer the Sh*t out of Errors – Everywhere first appeared on tig.log .
As fast-growing organizations approach Dumbar's number, they either become forever mediocre or they adapt and become excellent at scaling (in addition to being excellent at delivering customer value). The key differentiator is making the routine, routine by implementing cadence-based mechanisms, which I call Routines. The post Make the Routine, Routine – Blow up Dunbar’s Number first appeared on…
A friend recently asked me if I had a Lexicon Taxonomy for Innovation and Invention. While I do, I realized I ve never written it down. Here s my first stab; using the Customer, Business, Organization, and ... Read more The post Breaking Down Innovation & Invention first appeared on tig.log .
Mars has long captivated the human imagination as a potential destination for exploration and settlement. With its rugged terrain and extreme conditions, Mars presents a unique challenge and an exciting opportunity for humanity. There are several ... Read more The post Why Mars? For the Dogs! first appeared on tig.log .
Torpedo fuses in BMW, Mercedes, Audi, and Porsche cars from the 1960s, 70s, and 80s have not stood the test of time. Here's why... The post Torpedo Fuses: The Bane of Classic German Automobiles first appeared on tig.log .
Once you get to the point in your career where you realize a) you’ll be just fine financially (because your resume kicks ass), b) your company doesn’t give a sh*t about you, and c) you know what the Right Thing to do is, act like a volunteer. The post Be A Volunteer first appeared on tig.log .
In November 2020, I declared I was going to break into the space industry for my next professional chapter. My hypothesis was my experience rapidly scaling organizations that deliver results, coupled with my expertise in software ... Read more The post I’ve Joined STOKE Space Technologies as an Advisor first appeared on tig.log .
Every decade I try my hand at being a videographer. My foot surgery led me to giving Premiere Pro a try (I still hate Adobe UIs). A test project: Should I do more garage/wrenching videos? The post Posting Wrenching Videos first appeared on tig.log .
I m honored to announce that Rebel Space Technologies has asked me to join them as a Strategic and Technical Advisor. Satellites need to reliably and efficiently communicate with each other and ground stations in the face ... Read more The post Advising Rebel Space Technologies first appeared on tig.log .
I m working on writing down my thoughts on space. I ve learned a ton since deciding space would be my next mission. Some pretty clear thoughts are forming, and whenever that happens, I ve trained myself to write, ... Read more The post Virtuous Cycles, Platforms, Flywheels, Snowballs, and Tidal Waves first appeared on tig.log .
Last Christmas (2019) my daughter gifted me Carv. I fell so in love with the product that I stalked the CEO and begged him to talk to me to see if I could help. I ve been ... Read more The post I’m Advising Carv Because It Improves My Skiing first appeared on tig.log .
Last week I joined my good friend Den Delimarsky and his colleague Courtny Cotten hosted me on The Work Item podcast. In this episode, we dive a bit deeper into Charlie’s approach to product ideation and design, discuss ... Read more The post From Servers, Phones, and Voice Assistants to Space… first appeared on tig.log .
No, don t debate excellence; become excellent at debating. It is better to debate a decision without settling it than settling a decision without debating it. Joseph Joubert Vigorous debate is critical to clear thinking in ... Read more The post Find the Crux by Debating Excellence first appeared on tig.log .
Great leaders don’t let changes happen to them. Instead, they become skilled at driving change. Leaders effective in driving change are known as agents of change or change agents. This post documents a tool called D x V x F > R that will enable you to become a great agent of change. The post How to be a Secret Agent (of Change) first appeared on tig.log .
I exited my last role recently and have been drafting my next chapter. I have decided to make my new mission Space; specifically getting humanity off Earth. Over the past months, I’ve focused on learning about ... Read more The post I’m Breaking into Space first appeared on tig.log .
If you are a UX designer, Software Developer, or Product Manager, and you use placeholder text anywhere but where it s impossible to know what the content will be (user supplied) then you are doing it wrong. ... Read more The post Do Your Job – Don’t Use Placeholder Text first appeared on tig.log .
Last month I offered office hours to anyone who wanted to chat with me. It was an experiment to see a) if interesting people would reach out, b) if I could be useful to these people, ... Read more The post Open Office Hours with Tig first appeared on tig.log .