Software Lead Weekly

Leadership Guide for the Reluctant Leader (Video)
50 minutes read.

David Neal with a fantastic talk I highly recommend, as it's relevant for all of us (not just managers). It's funny, easy to relate to and above all - practical. Share it with your team, they'll thank you for it.

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Key to Getting in Shape Faster Is Joining a Gym You Can't Exit
1 minutes read.

My humble effort to help you start the weekend with a smile on your face.

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Performance Management at Startups
7 minutes read.

Nice playbook by Homebrew that you can take and use in your company, including practices and tools to try out. Both the section on "How Performance Impacts Compensation" and "Giving Feedback" are worth your time even if you have good practices in place.

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Documenting Architecture Decisions
5 minutes read.

Logging your decisions can serve you well as you scale the company and new individual contributors join, asking a lot of smart questions you can no longer remember the reasoning behind. Log your decisions, and log the questions that serve you as guidance when making questions.

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1/ A Few Years Ago, Entrepreneurs and Investors Would Frequently Advise Me That Wistia Was “too Profitable.” One of the Biggest Mistakes I've Made Was Believing Them.
3 minutes read.

"People said it didn't feel like the Wistia they knew." -- Staying true and authentic to your style as a founder, and your vibe as a company is important as speed tends to increase fragility. Once you start slowing down and lose momentum, it's really hard to hit the reset button. There isn't a lot you can do except for increasing the team's awareness and keep the conversation open.

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Here’s Exactly How to Respond if You Keep Getting Interrupted at Meetings
5 minutes read.

Tania Luna offers practical tools and language you can use to handle interruptions during meetings. The post-meeting suggestions are important to follow, as it's your chance to provide feedback privately and make sure you're explicit and clear. There is a thin line here between letting people deal with the situation and speak up for them when needed. Pay attention, the way your meetings are handled says a lot about the safety people feel to share their opinion.

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How to Keep Your Job as Your Company Grows (It's Not Change You Fear It's Loss)
5 minutes read.

Steve Blank shares his personal journey, and I believe that many people could relate to it: "[...] I literally paid zero attention. In my righteous anger, I was unreachable. [...] What I wish I knew was that if you’re an early company employee, it’s not likely that the skills you have on day one are the skills needed as the company scales to the next level." -- One tip worth trying is to ask yourself how x10 would look like: people to lead, projects to manage, risks to handle, decisions to make etc.

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An Email I Will Never Open
5 minutes read.

Chris Sacca with a post that I took to my own world - thinking about how to find the relevant group to help me think and digest my own ideas to apply at work, very much similar to what Chris mentions: "So take that cute, native idea of yours and throw it to the wolves. Ask your peers to tear it up. Meet with fellow entrepreneurs and invite them to bury it. Take what’s left after your mentors spit it out and head back to the whiteboard." -- This is why I created downleft.com -- having a peer group to challenge me and hold me accountable really helps to shape my thinking. It made me think about taking that group and spend a couple of days (instead of a couple of hours) to go deeper. Can be worthwhile to do at work as well, as an offsite that can push the connections and how far we want to stretch ourselves, a bit forward.

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@eriktorenberg: Evolutions/Phases of career advice: Phase 1 - Follow your passion. Phase 2- Follow the intersection of your interests, skillsets, and what the world needs. Phase 3 - Pick Something Rare & Valuable, Use Deliberate Practice and Get So Good They Can’t Ignore You (Cal Newport).

@david_perell: I have an idea! Companies should onboard employees with an internal podcast. It would focus on: - Company history - How decisions are made - Industry 101 - How the company makes money - Long-term goals and company vision Fast, efficient, and fun for everybody.