Aviv Ben-Yosef

You know those engineers who, in the name of preferring ‘best practices,’ copy things automatically? You can probably spot that going on in your teams and avoid people implementing the same infrastructure and processes that work for a Fortune 100 company but would cripple your startup. Great. How about when you’re doing the equivalent as […]

There’s not a week that goes by without an executive or leader who tells me about a very unpleasant situation. They feel like the company they joined doesn’t (or no longer) match their preferences, habits, culture, etc. Sometimes this comes as an immediate revelation after joining a company, other times you realize it after months […]

You’ve heard the adage about some people having ten years of experience, whereas others have the same year repeated ten times. Regular growth is easier to do as an individual contributor, but how do you maximize your growth as a leader? How can you accelerate your “seniorification”? Let’s consider deliberate practice for leaders. Experience Basics […]

My website recently crossed the 300 articles mark. Those, along with two books and hundreds of podcasts and videos made me want to write down a few basic maxims and concepts for tech executives. It’s a fun exercise for me, and definitely enjoyable for you. I’m sure you’ll hate at least one! You don’t need […]

Today’s dose of healthy common sense for tech leaders: You’re probably not planning things enough. The pendulum swing in the industry over the past couple of decades has made planning be seen almost as a complete waste. Yes, agile has taught us that detailing product requirements down to the pixel months in advance is a […]

It’s common practice to say it’s the leaders’ job to protect their team, be a buffer (Andy Grove), shield them (Rands), abstract things (Ben Horowitz), etc. Yes, however we overdo it. If you believe that’s a major part of your role as a leader and what you ask your managers to do, you might be […]

No matter how experienced you are in the technical aspects of the role, being a tech executive requires knowing how to communicate with other executives in the company, and especially having a great relationship with the CEO. For some people, this is a scary and problematic aspect of the job, yet I’ve found that boiling […]

In times of economic uncertainty, like many startups have been going through, it’s natural to opt for playing it safe. However, deciding to do so can risk your organization forgetting what startups should be about: taking the right risks. Sometimes, the best thing we can do is bang our head against the wall for a […]

A CEO once told me it felt like the CTO misheard and thought his title was CT-NO. “Can we do that? No. Is that feasible? No.” After wiping myself from having spilled my coffee laughing, I realized that’s such a common stance tech executives take that I’m surprised I hadn’t heard the term earlier. Let’s […]

You might know the old adage about the only two hard things in computer science: cache invalidation and naming things. Sadly, we disregard the effort people have put into naming things properly and abuse them. The other day a barista asked me if I wanted some milk in my macchiato or just foam. I’m not […]