CTOs and VPEs tend to come from a technical background, naturally. That means that some patterns of thought have been engraved in their mind. Sometimes those act like superpowers. For example, the critical thinking skills you gained learning how to debug a production issue effectively and pinpoint the culprit rapidly can often be translated to […]
Having had the opportunity to work with dozens of teams and companies globally, I’ve spent quite some time considering what seems to set the best ones apart. Given that my personal mission is to create world-class engineering teams, knowing how to achieve that is a prerequisite to reliably replicating them. I believe that the extraordinary […]
I’ve been enamored with writing code since I was nine years old. I still view it as somewhat like sci-fi: we type on our keyboards, and things happen. However, we are prone to committing a mistake here and treat code not as a means to an end but an end. I posit that we become […]
One of the hottest terms among tech leaders nowadays seems to be the “scale-up.” You’re no longer a mere startup. They’re relatively easy to identify, as these are companies where all managers are occupied with maintaining the breakneck hiring pace. There’s nothing necessarily bad about achieving this phase. In fact, many times, that’s the right […]
Every person has a different propensity regarding taking risks and the associated anxiety or excitement. You might be wholly risk-averse or get a thrill out of trying something out. Further, it is common to have a certain risk-aversion in some areas in your life and a completely different take in others. For example, I know […]
We all know that creating a team filled with code monkeys is a bad thing. Paying a small fortune for engineers to merely follow precise orders doesn’t make sense, and most of them object to being micromanaged and being deprived of any autonomy. Your intent is to form an engineering team that has ownership and […]
The best tech leaders I’ve seen and who remain remarkable over the years are those who are never “done.” They evolve, learn, experiment, and change their minds routinely. The constant need to undergo personal growth is both the most fascinating thing about leadership and a source of anxiety and fatigue. It can feel like a […]
“Titles don’t cost money.” I’ve heard that more than once from executives who were trying to justify different promotions and structures they’ve arrived at. Titles might not require a budget and indeed do not require cold hard cash to pay for. Nevertheless, I’ve seen them wreak havoc in teams in the long term. That is […]
Coding is magic. Leading an engineering organization is like being in charge of a cadre of brilliant wizards. At least, it should be. The experienced and calloused tech executive has learned—often the hard way—that things are not as easy as they seem. As the team grows, complexity prospers. The intrinsic perfectionism engenders a vicious negative […]
People in R&D are sometimes unaware of the great power they hold over the company. Can you imagine the VP of Sales saying, “We have so much sales debt that we have to redo our playbook for three months and only then get back to selling”? Want to wager how long it would be between […]