To create an engineering organization that’s focused on high-impact and that routinely provides innovation, you have to put in place a culture based on curiosity and willingness to fail. Genuine novelty does not always succeed. I can say unequivocally that most teams I worked with started in a default state of risk aversion. No one […]
Many leaders and executives are lately feeling a void. Sheltering in place and working from home means, for most, that there are a lot fewer interruptions. That, on top of the zero commute time, translates to more discretionary time than they are accustomed to having. Now they have to decide what to do with it. […]
I see many companies rushing to take action and react to the pandemic. Given the current global economic changes, it makes complete sense to revisit your company’s strategy and recalibrate. However, what seems to be the knee jerk reaction here is not the right strategy for everyone. Entire industries have furloughed many employees, and others […]
Since the pandemic has started, I’ve been talking to many clients, readers, and friends. I probably spoke with almost a hundred different executives and managers in tech the last few weeks. I asked most of them a simple question: how has the team been doing with the quarantine WFH? Here’s what I have gathered from […]
During these interesting times where multitudes of tech businesses are busy trying to reinvent how they work together (and sometimes their business models), it is becoming clearer and clearer that there is a big gap between what managers think they should do to what they truly should do. You cannot blame this on the pandemic: […]
A scenario I’ve seen several times is one where a person in a leadership position, after deciding and announcing they will be switching jobs, finally starts acting on things they’ve been procrastinating for months and sometimes even years. As if a huge weight has been lifted off their shoulders, they provide feedback, lay out plans, […]
You’re sitting in a post-mortem or providing an employee some feedback during your 1:1. What follows all too often when you try and give feedback to someone with a technical background is a bunch of excuses. “I didn’t feel well.” “Product should have defined things better.” “No one else does it, either.” A cascade of […]
Due to the motives and momentum that currently abound in the tech industry, most companies are in a constant state of growth. Every manager and exec has added “We’re hiring” to their LinkedIn tagline. With all this hiring going on, a very common pitfall I see for tech executives is to do Premature Organization. No […]
During the Second World War, the CIA created a short manual called Simple Sabotage. It had instructions on how citizens of enemy countries can take steps to harm their own governments’ efforts, in case they didn’t agree to their actions. While containing information about using inadequate tools, misplacing orders, and so on, it contains several […]
Tech executives, especially those coming from a substantial hands-on background, naturally gravitate towards focusing on rote delivery. In my work, I often see clients toting grandiose roadmaps that boil down to “we will do what Product has asked,” but less succinctly. Of course, delivery is essential. If you don’t deliver, no one cares how nice […]