Issue #125, 17th April 2015

This Week's Favorite


Is Slack Really Worth $2.8 Billion? A Conversation With Stewart Butterfield
5 minutes read.

This interview is going to put a huge smile on your face: "Q: I’m surprised that you’re raising money, because last time we talked you said that you had enough money. A: Do you have enough money?" -- Stewart Butterfield, Slack's CEO (previously co-founded Flickr) is funny, direct and honest. It's great to see Slack doing so well (I use & love their product!), and to see that Stewart has a great sense of humor towards such questions.

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Culture


Software Engineering in One GIF
1 minutes read.

As always, something to start the weekend with a huge smile on your face. Just another day at the office.

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The Moby Dick Theory of Big Companies
10 minutes read.

Marc Andreessen with an old yet brilliant post that I enjoyed reading this week. No matter if you're working in a startup or a big company, you'd enjoy (or at least appreciate, mostly because you could probably relate) Marc's observations and tips.

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How We Launch New Products and Features
6 minutes read.

Sometimes all you need to do to get a feeling of the company's culture is to look at how they approach building their product. It's how they prioritize, how they listen to your customers. But above all - you must check "The Workaround Cases". I just love their attitude.

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Size Matters: Why Growth Happens on Small Teams
5 minutes read.

"Our prototypical team is five people: one Tech Lead, two Developers, one Designer, and one Product Manager. This team of five, led by the Tech Lead, owns a meaningful area of the product, such as our blogging platform or our marketing automation tools. And by own, I mean OWN. They answer to no one about the specifics of what they work on day-to-day or what their priorities are." -- The team at HubSpot shares their views on optimal team format.

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Peopleware


Criticism and Ineffective Feedback
7 minutes read.

A must read if you want to improve the way you give feedback to others. "The best way to create an environment where people do what you want them to do is to tell them exactly what you want from them...You will create an environment where people understand how to be successful, instead of just understanding that they somehow currently are not."

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Why and Where Is Teamwork Important?
4 minutes read.

Great answer by Edmond Lau on the importance of working together on projects. I'm going through similar dilemmas at work where I try to make sure that at least two people work together on most projects in my team. It's not always possible, but when it happens I see them coming up with a design, splitting the work, doing pair programming and mutual code reviews and most of all - having fun working together.

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To Be a Great Leader, Rethink Your Default Behaviors
7 minutes read.

What are your default behaviors as a leader? This post really made me think and reflect, wondering if I'm doing enough to inspire others in my team to act upon their intuition and owning their personal growth. Good reading material for a weekend reflection.

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Inspiring Tweets


@kamens: A good manager with too much on their plate is indistinguishable from a bad manager.

@cap: Hire people who learn constantly and teach others what they learn.

- Oren

P.S. Can you share this email? I'd love for more people to experiment and improve their company's culture.

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