Software Lead Weekly

Incident Analysis: How *Learning* Is Different Than *Fixing* (Video)
31 minutes read.

John Allspaw gave an excellent lecture I highly recommend. I liked the ideas in slides 12 and 13 the most - Capturing incidents as a story increases the likelihood of remembering the lessons in them and learn from them in your next project. It might feel like a waste, but looking at it as a long term investment, I think any other way is more wasteful.

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I Built Myself a Proud Parent. It Charges Me 25¢ for a Pat on the Shoulder.
1 minutes read.

My humble effort to help you start the weekend with a smile on your face, even in this difficult time.

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You Don’t Need to Stop Shipping Features to Fix Technical Debt
11 minutes read.

This post by Ryan Djurovich will be the one I recommend for people who ask me about dealing with their Tech Debt, while aligning it with the business needs and stakeholders. Consider what to measure and make visible, as it would help you deal with anxiety and frustration caused by our natural Recency Bias as humans. Let the data shows if things are better or worse, and use that data to show it over a 6-12 months graph so the last 2-3 weeks won't give you the wrong impression.

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The Berkshire Hathaway of the Internet
7 minutes read.

I thought this framing by Andrew Wilkinson, of the "Berkshire Hathaway's way" for making (acquisition) decisions, is relevant in many things we do at work: can we make painful processes today easier for people, so they'll do it more? One area I can think of is suggesting new ideas for the product or technology stack. So while becoming a buyer of businesses is less relevant for most of us, there is plenty to learn in this post and the mindset Andrew is using to build Tiny. Can you think of any? What is painfully slow for you and your teammates now?

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Remote Brainstorming for Regular Humans
5 minutes read.

Bartek Ciszkowski will help you make some order in how you run brainstorming session. Considering more in-writing preparation (e.g. sharing a doc with goals, pains, KPIs, etc. a few days before the meeting) and the roles you'd like to see people take can help boost the effectiveness and inclusiveness of your team.

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Reading List for Leaders in Uncertain Times
5 minutes read.

Amelia Salyers shares a list of posts and videos worth checking to help you and your company deal with the emotional and financial aspects due to covid-19. I've shared many of them over the years, but it's good to skim over them and pick the ones you want to read (or reread).

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Brick by Brick
5 minutes read.

"if you are not “killing it” at home, doing so at work is nothing to brag about" -- this sentence made me stop for a few minutes and opened my eyes to how I deploy my mental and physical energy. Josh Sloat shares how he thinks and structure his time and energy to find a better balance.

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We'll Be Working Remote for Another 6+ Months. Time for a 1:1 Tune-Up.
6 minutes read.

Chris Hicken offers the latest iteration of how they conduct 1:1s at Nuffsaid. I like the fact they chose a different name to it ("syzygy") and framed it around long-term alignment between teammate-manager-company. What can you use from Nuffsaid's format? Which ideas can you barrow?

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@awilkinson: Starting a startup is like an inverted Pareto Principle: 95% effort + insane risk = 5% potential for a good return.

@BarrettABrooks: A person’s best thinking is rarely communicated through synchronous conversation.