Software Lead Weekly

Brian Chesky’s New Playbook (Video)
73 minutes read.

Brian Chesky is one of my favorite tech leaders and product thinkers. I was inspired by his "11 Stars Experience" and his creativity and determination to keep the company alive and successful in any way and shape - in the early days with selling serials, during COVID with shifting the business, and many other stories. This interview is a must-watch for anyone who tries to build and run companies (as a cofounder or employee).

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Annual Planning Sounds Hard, but It Really Is Very Simple.
3 minutes read.

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

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Engineering Leadership Tactics: Building Alignment
5 minutes read.

Francisco Trindade shares helpful tactics you can try out to drive alignment within the team on changes and improvements you want to make. I found this approach very useful and used it multiple times before to help me shape the transition: "In these situations, I have found it helpful to drive the conversation individually before exposing it to a larger group. That has allowed me to understand many perspectives and adapt the solution to them, ensuring everyone felt heard."

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Don't Do Invisible Work (Video)
16 minutes read.

"The problem is that performance reviews, promotions, bonuses, and other evaluations are based on the work they remember. And if they don't remember, you can be evaluated as if you never dit it. And people suck at remembering." -- Chris Albon with an important talk you should adopt (the methodology) and share with your teammates. This will help you improve at marketing (yourself) and better align yourself with things the business cares about, i.e., working on and suggesting ideas that move the needle for the team and company.

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"Good Things Come to Those Who Wait."
4 minutes read.

"Patience helps you trust the process as a designer. It guides you when you're annoyed of yourself not finding a solution to your problem today, right now. It reminds you that efforts build and compound. Patience is in itself optimistic. It requires believing that whatever you want now will still be there in the future – or may even be better in the future. " -- I love it. Patience reminds you that efforts build and compound.

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The 100-Hour Rule: Forgotten Study Shows How You Can Become World-Class in 100 Hours
11 minutes read.

"Deliberate Practice * Skill Selection * 100 Hours = World-Class Skill" -- Michael Simmons shares a framework that will make you think about how to pick your next learning area and invest your time learning it effectively.

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Startup Employees Are Under Immense Stress Right Now. They've Been Told to Do More With Less and That Bad Things Will Happen if Commitments Are Missed. Stress Can't Be Eliminated but Great Leaders Take Steps That Can Help (Thread)
5 minutes read.

"[W]orld class Leaders know that it's better to focus the collective resources of an organization against fewer things than to challenge their team to deliver everything that’s theoretically possible. Delivering 100% of 70% is better than delivering 50% of 100%. [...] Speed starts by framing WHO can make WHICH decisions. Acceleration happens when the AMOUNT OF PROOF needed to make a decision matches the IMPACT of the decision. Max speed comes when there’s NO LAG between a decision being SURFACED and decision being MADE." -- helpful tips that great companies adopt in a down market, prioritizing harder on what's critical to live another day and another week to continue and build a great business.

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The 100 Best Bits of Advice From 10 Years of First Round Review
18 minutes read.

Many great leaders share their insights, frameworks, and practices that helped them the most in their careers. I recommend skimming it and delving deeper into areas that feel more relevant for you now. One of my favorites: "It’s essential to grow with the company — rather than having the company grow around you. Are you constantly looking around to find new ways that you could help the people around you? Instead of being super frustrated by how busy your manager is these days, is there something you could do to help them get more leverage?" by Cristina Cordova

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@hnshah: Chase your own best version, not the shadow of someone else’s success. Self-competition is the key to personal growth.

@shreyas: When you’re looking for a job, there is a big difference between coming across as self-confident (improves your chances) and coming across as someone who deserves the job (ruins your chances esp. for coveted jobs). Remember: You need the job. The company doesn’t owe you the job.