Best of Leadership — October 2024
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Microservices.io·2y
The evolution of the Microservice Architecture pattern language
The post discusses the evolution of the Microservice Architecture pattern language over the past decade, highlighting its origins and development. It introduces essential concepts like anti-patterns, the forces of dark energy and dark matter in architectural decisions, and the importance of context in determining architectural choices. Additionally, it advises on refining terminology and emphasizes that monolithic architectures remain useful in many contexts. Future improvements and ongoing adaptation in the field are also covered.
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The Developing Dev·2y
Write Down the Plan
Writing down a plan can significantly impact a software engineer's career growth. It helps in improving thinking, building team alignment, and increasing visibility. These benefits often lead to smoother promotions and more opportunities. Engineers should consider adopting this habit to enhance their professional standing.
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Tech Lead Digest·2y
Dear CTO: it's not 2015 anymore
Engineering leaders need to adapt to a rapidly changing environment influenced by AI advancements and industry upheavals such as big tech layoffs. Tools like CodeRabbit offer solutions to reduce code review time and improve code quality. The shift to remote work and fluctuating VC funding have significantly impacted the engineering landscape, making it crucial for leaders to navigate these changes effectively.
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Community Picks·2y
The Clever Programmer
A software developer recounts his experience working in a small German startup during the COVID-19 pandemic. The company hired an intern named Stefan without a technical interview, who then struggled significantly with programming tasks. The story reveals how Stefan deceived team members by leveraging their help in different programming languages, only to show the borrowed work as his own. The author uncovers Stefan's dishonesty, leading to the intern's eventual departure from the company.
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Hacker News·2y
Software Engineer Titles Have (Almost) Lost All Their Meaning
Title inflation in the software engineering industry has diluted the once clear distinctions between junior, mid, and senior roles. The fierce competition for talent, the rise of professional branding on platforms like LinkedIn, and short-sighted retention strategies have all contributed to this phenomenon. A true senior engineer's title should reflect substantial experience, technical skills, and leadership abilities—a depth not typically gained in just a few years. Companies must focus on creating meaningful career progression frameworks and standardized titles to maintain industry integrity and functionality.
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asayer·2y
Do's and Don'ts of Commenting Code
Writing clear and helpful comments is essential in collaborative projects to keep everyone in sync. Use consistent commenting standards, explain the 'why' rather than the 'what', and annotate decisions, hacks, and tradeoffs. Avoid commenting on obvious things, incorrect comments, outdated comments, incorrectly placed comments, and personal or informal comments. Utilize tools and styles like Better Comments, GitHub Copilot, ESLint, Codeium, and JSDoc to enhance your commenting process.
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Tech World With Milan·2y
How to delegate?
Effective delegation enhances personal productivity, builds trust, and fosters team growth. It's more than task distribution; it's about shared responsibility. Key tools like the Delegation funnel and the Skill/Will Matrix guide managers on what to delegate and to whom. Successful delegation leads to better team morale, operational efficiency, and reduced risks. Practical steps include listing tasks, prioritizing, selecting the right person, defining clear objectives, and fostering accountability.
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Code Like A Girl·2y
Finding Your Fit: Tech Roles for Growth and Impact
Choosing the right tech role involves understanding the responsibilities of Product Managers, Technical Leads, and Engineering Managers. Product Managers focus on what to do, Technical Leads on how to do it, and Engineering Managers on executing it. Career paths vary, with more Individual Contributor positions at lower levels and managerial roles at higher levels. Growth opportunities depend on organizational needs and one's strengths and interests. Skills in communication, leadership, and dealing with ambiguity are essential for advancing in these roles.
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Kirupa·2y
You’ll Always be Building & Designing
Throughout your career, the core activities of building and designing remain constant, though the nature of these tasks evolves. Early on, you focus on tangible outputs like software, hardware, or strategic plans. As you advance, you will design and build teams, organizations, and cultures, culminating in roles like CEO. Success at higher levels requires excellent building and designing skills.
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A Culture of Good Decision-Making
The post explores techniques for enhancing decision-making within organizations, including the ACID model for defining decision roles, the 'disagree and commit' approach, and avoiding outcome bias. It also discusses group dynamics in decision meetings, prioritization using the ICE algorithm, and de-risking decisions with evidence.
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Stop telling yourself it’s all on you
Constantly blaming yourself can harm both you and your team by reducing autonomy, limiting trust, and creating an overly protective environment. Embrace shared responsibility, clearly define roles, foster a safe environment for mistakes, and promote delegation and empowerment. Leadership is about recognizing your limits and supporting others' growth.
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How to regain control of a meeting
Regaining control of a meeting is key to maintaining productivity and efficient time usage. To achieve this without alienating colleagues, Wes Kao suggests three scripts: acknowledging tangents while redirecting to the main topic, stepping back to refocus on key goals, and emphasizing mutual accountability by highlighting the cost of off-topic discussions. These strategies help ensure meetings stay on track while maintaining a collaborative atmosphere.
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Cerbos·2y
Front End Happy Hour podcast: Leadership, startups, and GTM with Emre Baran
Emre Baran, CEO and Co-Founder of Cerbos, discusses his journey from Google to founding an externalized authorization platform on the Front End Happy Hour podcast. He highlights the evolution of his role as a CEO, the importance of a clear go-to-market strategy, and the necessity of scalable permission management systems for developers. Emre also emphasizes the significance of asynchronous communication and transparency in managing a fully remote team.
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InfoQ·2y
Strategic Thinking for Staff+ Engineers
The post discusses the importance of strategic thinking for staff engineers, emphasizing its role in optimizing for long-term success. It highlights the distinction between critical thinking, creative thinking, and strategic thinking, describing it as a muscle that needs intentional development. The author uses real-world examples, such as Kodak and Blockbuster, to illustrate the consequences of poor strategic planning. The post provides a framework for strategic thinking, including diagnostics, guiding principles, execution, and evaluation, and offers insights on balancing risk and innovation in a rapidly changing environment. The importance of influencing organizational culture and leadership’s role in empowering staff engineers is also discussed.
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Itamar Gilad·2y
A Culture of Good Decision-Making (Part 2)
Learn specific techniques for better decision-making, including using the ACID model, disagreeing and committing, and avoiding outcome bias. The post emphasizes setting clear decision roles, fostering a healthy decision culture, and leveraging algorithms to enhance decision accuracy. High-performing companies can benefit from these methods to accelerate and improve their decision quality.
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UX Planet·2y
The Leader to Be
Proactive leadership and strategic alignment are crucial for the success of complex projects. Involving teams throughout the journey and aligning leadership with the vision can help overcome challenges such as siloed work and resistance to change. Reflecting on Simon Sinek’s principles, the author emphasizes the importance of leaders prioritizing team well-being and fostering collaboration to achieve better outcomes.
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Conducting a Time Audit
Managing time effectively is a challenge for many CEOs, founders, and executives, often leading to feelings of being overwhelmed. Conducting a time audit can help mitigate these challenges. Additionally, the Enterprise Ready Conference in SF, hosted by WorkOS, offers insights into key enterprise SaaS topics with speakers from leading companies like OpenAI and Asana.
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The Mountain Goat Software·2y
5 Ways to Create Accurate Estimates Agile Teams & Orgs Trust
Achieving accurate estimates in agile teams is crucial for making informed decisions, yet the pursuit of perfect estimates often leads to more harm. Through a detailed case study, the post highlights three main problems caused by treating estimates as guarantees: estimate padding, underestimated padded estimates, and eroded trust. To counter these issues, five practical solutions are proposed, including creating a shared understanding of estimate types, explaining estimates to stakeholders, providing accurate plans rather than perfect ones, ensuring estimates are correct on average, and using distinguishable numbers for estimates.
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Managing Dev·2y
Sometime leadership requires bold moves
Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, faced a legal issue and responded with a bold leadership move by offering a generous buy-out package to employees to either stay committed or leave. The offer, termed 'Alignment Offer', resulted in only 8.4% of employees choosing to leave, showcasing an impressive outcome despite the high risks involved.
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Atomic Spin·2y
How To Be a Good Internal Consultant
Consulting within your own organization involves practicing the same professionalism, client treatment, and delivery standards as with external clients. It's crucial to instill confidence, respect, and autonomy by treating colleagues like clients and delivering high-quality work. This approach not only improves your skills but also enhances the organization's overall capability.
