Software Lead Weekly
Issue #273, 16th February 2018
This Week's Favorite
How to Run a Quarterly Product Strategy Meeting: A Board Meeting for Product
14 minutes read.
Gibson Biddle, ex-VP Product at Netflix, shares in-depth strategies and metrics back when Netflix pushed hard on streaming to replace DVDs. "The irony was that as much as Reed wanted to let go of critical decisions, he set up a dynamic where folks felt they needed to present work to him before making a decision" -- This happens in many organizations. Follow Gibson's format to change the meeting into an informative strategic meeting.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
14 minutes read.
Gibson Biddle, ex-VP Product at Netflix, shares in-depth strategies and metrics back when Netflix pushed hard on streaming to replace DVDs. "The irony was that as much as Reed wanted to let go of critical decisions, he set up a dynamic where folks felt they needed to present work to him before making a decision" -- This happens in many organizations. Follow Gibson's format to change the meeting into an informative strategic meeting.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
Culture
Forget ICOs, You Should Invest in My JIRA Backlog Now
1 minutes read.
My humble effort to help you start the weekend with a smile on your face.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
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1 minutes read.
My humble effort to help you start the weekend with a smile on your face.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
How We Built a Distributed, Self-Funded, Family-Friendly, Profitable Startup
15 minutes read.
I'm a big fan of the concept of Company Handbook, and this one by Gruntwork is really well executed. I loved the part of "How we bootstrapped the company" as it's a nice look at Day 1 of the company and how the founders managed to create a business model to bootstrap their core technological assets via consulting.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
15 minutes read.
I'm a big fan of the concept of Company Handbook, and this one by Gruntwork is really well executed. I loved the part of "How we bootstrapped the company" as it's a nice look at Day 1 of the company and how the founders managed to create a business model to bootstrap their core technological assets via consulting.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
Quantifying Personal Retention Impact: A Mathematical Thought Exercise
4 minutes read.
The formula suggested by Roy Rapoport to measure future desire to work with you (or anyone in your team) is a good proxy for the impact each individual has on their teammates. You should try to use it to understand your preferences.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
4 minutes read.
The formula suggested by Roy Rapoport to measure future desire to work with you (or anyone in your team) is a good proxy for the impact each individual has on their teammates. You should try to use it to understand your preferences.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
Panel Notes on Culture With @Dharmesh, @Katieburkie and @Jasonlk
3 minutes read.
"Culture is the product you build. Your people are its customers." and other insightful takeaways in this short summary. Check out the answers to Jason Lemkin's question “How do you measure employee churn, turnover is death?”
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
3 minutes read.
"Culture is the product you build. Your people are its customers." and other insightful takeaways in this short summary. Check out the answers to Jason Lemkin's question “How do you measure employee churn, turnover is death?”
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
Peopleware
Inversion: The Crucial Thinking Skill Nobody Ever Taught You
5 minutes read.
״Inversion is not about finding good advice, but rather about finding anti-advice. It teaches you what to avoid... Inversion prevents you from making up your mind after your first conclusion. It is a way to counteract the gravitational pull of confirmation bias.״ -- I like to apply this thinking in a Pre-mortem, where you're trying to assume the project has failed and work backward on what could be the reasons for it. It often works better when you do it with different teams on the same project, as you can get fresh opinions based on different context and expertise.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
5 minutes read.
״Inversion is not about finding good advice, but rather about finding anti-advice. It teaches you what to avoid... Inversion prevents you from making up your mind after your first conclusion. It is a way to counteract the gravitational pull of confirmation bias.״ -- I like to apply this thinking in a Pre-mortem, where you're trying to assume the project has failed and work backward on what could be the reasons for it. It often works better when you do it with different teams on the same project, as you can get fresh opinions based on different context and expertise.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
Moonlighting Managers Ain’t Got No Time for BS
2 minutes read.
I think that great managers can be meaningful multipliers - they often bridge the business context individual contributors need, to move faster without involving the entire company. I'm a big believer in this sentiment: "So rather than dream up elaborate plans and complex policies, the moonlighting manager tends to pick the simpler, easier road that doesn’t require them to constantly steer the buggy. That’s a path that invites delegation of responsibility and autonomy. Fewer sign-offs, fewer check-ins, fewer bottlenecks."
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
2 minutes read.
I think that great managers can be meaningful multipliers - they often bridge the business context individual contributors need, to move faster without involving the entire company. I'm a big believer in this sentiment: "So rather than dream up elaborate plans and complex policies, the moonlighting manager tends to pick the simpler, easier road that doesn’t require them to constantly steer the buggy. That’s a path that invites delegation of responsibility and autonomy. Fewer sign-offs, fewer check-ins, fewer bottlenecks."
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
Want to Be a Better VP R&D? Then Lose This One False Metric.
5 minutes read.
“The one thing that matters is RESULTS. The outputs. ” — what I’ve seen working best is to agree on the results and prioritize them before you start your Unit of Execution, e.g. sprint, quarter etc. Misalignment of expectations between the CTO or CEO and the VP Engineering often happen where things you’d consider nice to have, and didn’t happen in the required time frame, were implicitly tagged as “must win!” in their view, and vice-versa.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
5 minutes read.
“The one thing that matters is RESULTS. The outputs. ” — what I’ve seen working best is to agree on the results and prioritize them before you start your Unit of Execution, e.g. sprint, quarter etc. Misalignment of expectations between the CTO or CEO and the VP Engineering often happen where things you’d consider nice to have, and didn’t happen in the required time frame, were implicitly tagged as “must win!” in their view, and vice-versa.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
Inspiring Tweets
@iamdevloper: Elon Musk: I'm putting people on Mars! Developers: Fantastic, more timezones to support.
- 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.