Software Lead Weekly
Issue #72, 4th April 2014
This Week's Favorite
How It Feels to Be an Engineer in the Corporate World
3 minutes read.
A must see video, and a great way to start the weekend. My only advice before watching this video is avoiding any beverage at least 30 minutes prior to clicking the play button. It would make you pee. A lot.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
3 minutes read.
A must see video, and a great way to start the weekend. My only advice before watching this video is avoiding any beverage at least 30 minutes prior to clicking the play button. It would make you pee. A lot.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
Culture
Buffer's Open Salaries Formula + Spreadsheet
3 minutes read.
While some companies talk about transparency as a core value but never act upon it, the team at Buffer is always pushing the boundaries. Check out their open formula and spreadsheet, containing all of Buffer employees' equity and salaries. There is no doubt that some people would hate it and some would love it, but that's the idea - hire people who could emotionally connect to the company's mission statement and values. People who will be awesome because of this unique setup. Are you acting based on your values or do you simply put it in some nice presentation and forget about it?
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
3 minutes read.
While some companies talk about transparency as a core value but never act upon it, the team at Buffer is always pushing the boundaries. Check out their open formula and spreadsheet, containing all of Buffer employees' equity and salaries. There is no doubt that some people would hate it and some would love it, but that's the idea - hire people who could emotionally connect to the company's mission statement and values. People who will be awesome because of this unique setup. Are you acting based on your values or do you simply put it in some nice presentation and forget about it?
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
DON’T LOSE THE HUSTLE AS YOU GROW
5 minutes read.
One of the main challenges in scaling the company is making sure the team is still looking for ways to innovate and make an impact. Check out how BigCommerce managed to attract local talent by using some healthy hustle + great campaigns to make some noise - "The formula to make hustle work as your business scales is leverage + creativity = hustle. I believe that everyone should hustle in some way, shape or form to improve their contribution to the business."
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
5 minutes read.
One of the main challenges in scaling the company is making sure the team is still looking for ways to innovate and make an impact. Check out how BigCommerce managed to attract local talent by using some healthy hustle + great campaigns to make some noise - "The formula to make hustle work as your business scales is leverage + creativity = hustle. I believe that everyone should hustle in some way, shape or form to improve their contribution to the business."
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
Eventbrite's Playbook for Building Amazing Customer Service From Scratch
15 minutes read.
If you're building a great customer service in your company, this post is everything you need. It's a long read, but as we're facing the same problems in my own startup, I found it to be amazingly pragmatic and helpful.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
15 minutes read.
If you're building a great customer service in your company, this post is everything you need. It's a long read, but as we're facing the same problems in my own startup, I found it to be amazingly pragmatic and helpful.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
Peopleware
Rule by Committee: The Best Way to Kill Teams
5 minutes read.
"That was a year ago. The manager has left. No decision has been made yet. We were killed by the committee." - my best advice would be to simply read this post and share it with your team. Just like Shantnu, the best solution I've found was to split ownership between people. We also used it to reduce the amount of docuemntation in our team's wiki. Each person had a few areas of ownership and one their responsbilities as owners was to teach the team and share knowledege. It also helped a lot when new employee joined the team - every owner talked about their area of ownership and helped with mentorship.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
5 minutes read.
"That was a year ago. The manager has left. No decision has been made yet. We were killed by the committee." - my best advice would be to simply read this post and share it with your team. Just like Shantnu, the best solution I've found was to split ownership between people. We also used it to reduce the amount of docuemntation in our team's wiki. Each person had a few areas of ownership and one their responsbilities as owners was to teach the team and share knowledege. It also helped a lot when new employee joined the team - every owner talked about their area of ownership and helped with mentorship.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
Analysis Paralysis: Over-Thinking and Knowing Too Much to Just CODE
5 minutes read.
Scott Hanselman with another great post (you should follow his blog!) about the danger in over-thinking. Been there, done that, heck, I'm still there sometimes. My trick is to use some explicit dependencies with someone, working on the same feature - we create an interface and a few dummy mocks and each of us work on something else. A few hours later, we replace the mocks with the real implementation and do some code-review. The notion of someone else waiting for me to complete my job creates great urgency. I know that it's not a great solution for everyone, but I find it to be a great tactic for people who enjoy working under pressure. What's your trick?
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
5 minutes read.
Scott Hanselman with another great post (you should follow his blog!) about the danger in over-thinking. Been there, done that, heck, I'm still there sometimes. My trick is to use some explicit dependencies with someone, working on the same feature - we create an interface and a few dummy mocks and each of us work on something else. A few hours later, we replace the mocks with the real implementation and do some code-review. The notion of someone else waiting for me to complete my job creates great urgency. I know that it's not a great solution for everyone, but I find it to be a great tactic for people who enjoy working under pressure. What's your trick?
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
The Brain Hacks Top Founders Use to Get the Job Done
15 minutes read.
I hate the title but the post is ridicoulsly great. For those of you who know me, I'm a "write it all down" kind of person. Maybe it's my German roots but I believe that improving your leadership skills comes from a lot of self-retrospection while you are trying different things. I've enjoyed this post as I didn't consider the importance of aligning my energy levels so these tiny experiments will actually be meaningful. I reminds me something my teacher once told me - "Don't try to quit one of your habbits before an important exam. Let your mind be focused on one big goal and focus your energy around it."
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
15 minutes read.
I hate the title but the post is ridicoulsly great. For those of you who know me, I'm a "write it all down" kind of person. Maybe it's my German roots but I believe that improving your leadership skills comes from a lot of self-retrospection while you are trying different things. I've enjoyed this post as I didn't consider the importance of aligning my energy levels so these tiny experiments will actually be meaningful. I reminds me something my teacher once told me - "Don't try to quit one of your habbits before an important exam. Let your mind be focused on one big goal and focus your energy around it."
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
Inspiring Tweets
@marcprecipice: Always surprising to see managers care for the best people right up until they quit. Take care of them whether or not they work for you now.
@jasonyogeshshah: Don't forget to measure productivity by meaningful output -- not raw output, and certainly not input.
- Oren
P.S. Can you share this email? I'd love for more people to experiment and improve their company's culture.
P.S. Can you share this email? I'd love for more people to experiment and improve their company's culture.