Software Lead Weekly
Issue #58, 27th December 2013
This Week's Favorite
How Netflix Reinvented HR
20 minutes read.
Patty McCord represents HR at its best form, at least in my eyes. I was lucky to see Patty speaks at Cultivate this year, and her stories, no-bullshit attitude, and vision on how to build a company are truly inspiring. I wish more companies and specifically HR teams, would step up and try to implement some of Patty's ideas. Most of these ideas, as Patty sees it, are common sense; The real trick is to act upon these ideas, rather than looking for excuses on why it would never work. If you care about making your company a better place to work at, read it and share it at work.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
20 minutes read.
Patty McCord represents HR at its best form, at least in my eyes. I was lucky to see Patty speaks at Cultivate this year, and her stories, no-bullshit attitude, and vision on how to build a company are truly inspiring. I wish more companies and specifically HR teams, would step up and try to implement some of Patty's ideas. Most of these ideas, as Patty sees it, are common sense; The real trick is to act upon these ideas, rather than looking for excuses on why it would never work. If you care about making your company a better place to work at, read it and share it at work.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
Culture
Introducing Open Salaries at Buffer: Our Transparent Formula and All Individual Salaries
8 minutes read.
If Patty's post above wasn't inspirational enough, this one will change everything you know about how to approach salaries. I believe that this approach can work only if the founders are pushing strongly towards it, but what I appreciate most about Joel & Leo (Buffer's co-founders) journey, is that they follow their values in every way you can imagine of. People could relate to this approach because it's the culture Buffer has built and act upon on a daily basis. It's how they run support, share their business numbers, handle a nasty hack crisis and work as a unit. It feels "real" and "right" for their team. Now, if you don't have such culture, you could still learn a lot about their formula to decide how much money individuals should get and how to let your teammates to balance equity and salary.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
8 minutes read.
If Patty's post above wasn't inspirational enough, this one will change everything you know about how to approach salaries. I believe that this approach can work only if the founders are pushing strongly towards it, but what I appreciate most about Joel & Leo (Buffer's co-founders) journey, is that they follow their values in every way you can imagine of. People could relate to this approach because it's the culture Buffer has built and act upon on a daily basis. It's how they run support, share their business numbers, handle a nasty hack crisis and work as a unit. It feels "real" and "right" for their team. Now, if you don't have such culture, you could still learn a lot about their formula to decide how much money individuals should get and how to let your teammates to balance equity and salary.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
“GEBY”: The 4 Ways to Engineer A Great Morning
5 minutes read.
One of the problems without highly creative people who can also implement their vision, is the feeling of self-disappointment. As strange as it may sound, even for the most performant employees, it always feels as if we're running behind our tasks, goals and dreams. Noah Kagan is a personal hero of mine, and looking at his accomplishment it could feel as if he's conquering the world, one product (and taco) at a time. It was amazing to see how Noah deals with his ups & downs running a company while balancing his own happiness.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
5 minutes read.
One of the problems without highly creative people who can also implement their vision, is the feeling of self-disappointment. As strange as it may sound, even for the most performant employees, it always feels as if we're running behind our tasks, goals and dreams. Noah Kagan is a personal hero of mine, and looking at his accomplishment it could feel as if he's conquering the world, one product (and taco) at a time. It was amazing to see how Noah deals with his ups & downs running a company while balancing his own happiness.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
Inside the Box: People Don’t Actually Like Creativity
6 minutes read.
One lesson I've picked up from this post is how important it is to create an environment where creativity is nurtured, not judged. We often judge creativity due to the environment in our work place. If one of the company's core-value is efficiency and getting things done, no wonder creativity will be pushed away. What are you doing (not saying!) to nurture creativity?
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
6 minutes read.
One lesson I've picked up from this post is how important it is to create an environment where creativity is nurtured, not judged. We often judge creativity due to the environment in our work place. If one of the company's core-value is efficiency and getting things done, no wonder creativity will be pushed away. What are you doing (not saying!) to nurture creativity?
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
Peopleware
Deployments at Yammer
5 minutes read.
Check out how Yammer approached Continuous Deployment. The best part which I appreciate the most, is how they start the entire discussion with why they did this move and end it with how it transformed their engineering (and culture) into a better state. Technology, product and process can be amazingly sexy, but they tend to lost their charm quickly, if we don't remind ourselves and our teammates why we're operating in a certain way.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
5 minutes read.
Check out how Yammer approached Continuous Deployment. The best part which I appreciate the most, is how they start the entire discussion with why they did this move and end it with how it transformed their engineering (and culture) into a better state. Technology, product and process can be amazingly sexy, but they tend to lost their charm quickly, if we don't remind ourselves and our teammates why we're operating in a certain way.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
Do You Know How to Lead Your Team?
7 minutes read.
The gals at popforms did it again! If you're looking for a pragmatic approach to mentor your teammates, I suggest keeping this post as a resource you can pull out and use on the spot. Also, check their "Creating an individual development coaching strategy" section. It offers a perfect approach to figure out how to mentor each teammate, based on their knowledge, experience and motivation.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
7 minutes read.
The gals at popforms did it again! If you're looking for a pragmatic approach to mentor your teammates, I suggest keeping this post as a resource you can pull out and use on the spot. Also, check their "Creating an individual development coaching strategy" section. It offers a perfect approach to figure out how to mentor each teammate, based on their knowledge, experience and motivation.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
Making Decisions Under Uncertainty
6 minutes read.
I've never seen a framework for making decisions under uncertainty (and pressure!), so Ameet Ranadive's post about it was an amazing opportunity to learn. If you need to run a risk analysis on one of your toughest decisions, it's a great framework to understand your current state of belives and building a model and hypothesis to verify. It also amplifies the need for a decision rather a solution, by setting the focus on direction and range, instead of single and exact number. Highly recommended!
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
6 minutes read.
I've never seen a framework for making decisions under uncertainty (and pressure!), so Ameet Ranadive's post about it was an amazing opportunity to learn. If you need to run a risk analysis on one of your toughest decisions, it's a great framework to understand your current state of belives and building a model and hypothesis to verify. It also amplifies the need for a decision rather a solution, by setting the focus on direction and range, instead of single and exact number. Highly recommended!
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
Inspiring Tweets
@joelgrus: "We're looking for a rock-star developer to ..."
"Sorry, I'm more of a *singer-songwriter* developer."
@kgale: You can't empower people by approving their actions. You empower by designing the need for your approval out of the system.
- 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.