QFM015 Engineering Leadership Reading List April 2024: Everything that I found interesting about engineering leadership during April 2024

1. Quantum Fax Machine
QFM015: Engineering Leadership
Reading List April 2024
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2. QFM015: Engineering Leadership
Reading List April 2024
In this month's Engineering Leadership Reading List contains a curated a selection of
articles that weave together critical themes for engineering leaders, and that also
piqued my interest last month.
Several articles such as Improving OKRs and Abolish Performance Reviews, and 10
toxic employees to avoid focus on the employee experience, providing a some
contrary examples to the usual narrative.
How to Be a Better Software Engineering Leader asks how you can be better at
leading software engineering teams, whilst Everyone lies to leaders shines some light
on the way that leadership fundamentally changes the relationship between people,
particularly following a promotion to a senior leadership role.
Changing tack towards the practicalities of building software The Grand Unified
Theory of Documentation presents a new (or at least, repackaged) way to document
software, whilst For God's sake follow the Lean Startup Method implores you to
rethink exactly what and how you are "doing" lean/agile product development.
Finally, in Creating Discomfort Zones we look at the (somewhat contrarian) view that
favouring comfort over success is a mistaken priority of modern leadership.
As always, the Quantum Fax Machine Propellor Hat Key will guide your browsing.
Enjoy!
Key:
: Unrelated to technology, management, or leadership
: Suitable for management and leadership novices
: Topics of interest for the new manager or leader
: Technology management and leadership in real-world use cases
: Topics for experienced managers and leaders
: Advanced topics in management and leadership
Source: Photo by Mathias Jensen on Unsplash
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3. Improving OKRs: This article discusses various
applications of Objectives and Key Results (OKRs).
It highlights how leading practitioners are refining
OKRs by focusing on real outcomes rather than
outputs, using a truth statement approach for
setting goals, excluding numerical components
from objectives, and defining key results as
evidence of achieving objectives. The piece also
emphasizes the importance of having fewer,
more focused OKRs and suggests alignment over
cascading OKRs, paired with a persistent model
for aligning with long-term organisational
strategy.
#OKRs #GoalSetting #Leadership
#ManagementStrategies
#ContinuousImprovement
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4. 10 toxic employees to avoid: Toxic
employees can devastate your workplace
culture and productivity, as shown by
Harvard research. Learn about the ten
types of harmful personalities and how to
identify and manage them effectively.
#WorkplaceCulture #ToxicEmployees
#LeadershipTips
#WorkplaceWellbeing
#EmployeeManagement
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5. 11 questions to crush your next interview:
Prepare for these 11 additional interview
questions to excel, from what motivates
you to your greatest achievement. Each
question is an opportunity to highlight your
strengths and align them with the
company's mission and values.
#InterviewTips #JobSearch
#CareerGrowth #JobInterview
#ProfessionalDevelopment
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6. Abolish Performance Reviews: Phil Haack argues
systematically against performance reviews, stating
they are expensive, biased, and largely ineffective.
Drawing from various studies and experts like Dr.
William Edwards Deming, the post reveals that
performance appraisals neither improve
performance nor accurately reflect an employee's
contribution. Instead, they perpetuate anxiety and
discouragement, fail to foster team unity, and are
prone to gender biases. Emphasising this, Haack
advocates for management styles that prioritise
intrinsic motivation, ongoing feedback, and removing
traditional performance reviews to better recognise
and encourage employee value and team dynamics.
#PerformanceReviews #Management
#WorkplaceCulture #EmployeeMotivation
#GenderBias
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7. Positive feedback is different from praise: Jacob
Kaplan-Moss discusses the crucial distinction
between positive feedback and praise in
management, emphasizing how feedback, unlike
praise, is specific to behaviors and their impacts,
aimed at encouraging future performance. He
advises managers on utilizing positive feedback
effectively to drive improvement, and cautions
about the potential pitfalls of praise, suggesting
it may not always lead to the desired outcomes.
The article provides practical examples of both
praise and positive feedback, underlining the
importance of specificity and forward-looking
guidance in managerial communication.
#management #feedback #praise
#performanceimprovement #leadership
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8. The Grand Unified Theory of Documentation: The
Documentation System, as defined by David
Laing, categorizes good software documentation
into four essential types: tutorials, how-to guides,
technical reference, and explanation, each serving
a unique purpose and requiring a distinct
approach. It advocates for a universal, simple
documentation scheme that's proven effective
across various fields and applications, promising
enhanced project success with its adoption. The
system is embraced widely, applying
straightforward principles to vastly improve
documentation quality.
#Documentation #SoftwareDevelopment
#TechWriting #BestPractices
#DocumentationSystem
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9. How to Be a Better Software Engineering Leader:
This detailed article addresses the pivotal role of
first-level managers in engineering, blending
technical proficiency with strategic foresight to
meet company objectives. It delves into the
transformative shift from traditional managerial
roles to more hands-on leadership positions
amidst organizational flattening. The emphasis
lies on how effective management, beyond mere
task delegation, can significantly influence a
company's success by fostering an environment
that balances technical debt management, team
development, and innovative productivity.
#Leadership #EngineeringManagement
#Productivity #TechLeadership
#StrategicThinking
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10. Amazon's Press Release and FAQ: This article
introduces a practical guide on Amazon's
Press Release and FAQ (PR/FAQ) approach,
emphasizing its crucial role in the 'Working
Backwards' strategy for product
development. It consolidates important
starter instructions for those new to PR/FAQ
writing, aiming to make the process more
accessible and practical. The author shares
insights and templates to help product
managers (PMs) craft their first PR/FAQ,
highlighting its value in strategic product
thinking and execution.
#ProductManagement #Amazon #Strategy
#PRFAQ #WorkingBackwards
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11. Everyone lies to leaders: The article delves into the
complexities of leadership and the surprising shifts
in dynamics that occur when one attains a position
of power. It follows the author’s personal journey of
promotion and the realization of becoming a 'Very
Important Person,' leading to a profound
understanding of how authority impacts
relationships and decision-making. Highlighting the
paradox of power, it emphasizes that leaders often
receive filtered information, which can significantly
affect their effectiveness. The piece provides
actionable advice for leaders to counter these
challenges by fostering open communication,
inviting critique, and building genuine relationships
within their organizations.
#Leadership #CompanyCulture
#Communication #Recognition #Management
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12. Guide to Understanding Onion Diagrams: The article
discusses the concept, creation, benefits, and uses
of onion diagrams, particularly in the context of
MindManager, a tool that simplifies the process of
making complex, detailed onion diagrams. Onion
diagrams are detailed charts used for showing
dependencies and relationships between different
parts of a process or organization. MindManager is
highlighted as an advantageous tool for creating
these diagrams, with features like an intuitive
interface, extensive image library, premade
templates, and powerful integrations, facilitating the
easy visualization of organizational layers and
stakeholder relationships.
#OnionDiagram #MindManager
#VisualizationTools #ProcessMapping
#OrganizationalChart
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13. The Five Conditions for (Organizational)
Improvement: Roy Rapoport's 2017 essay, "The Five
Conditions for Improvement," discusses a framework
for organizational and individual improvement,
detailing the essential steps for recognizing and
solving performance issues. Using the example of
Bob's Organic Bagels, a growing company, the piece
elaborates on the conditions necessary for
improvement, including recognizing a problem,
wanting to resolve it, understanding management's
role in the problem, devising a solution plan, and
executing it successfully. This framework provides
valuable insights for leaders looking to navigate
organizational change effectively.
#OrganizationalChange #Leadership
#PerformanceImprovement
#BusinessManagement #RoyRapoport
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14. The Death of the Big 4: AI-Enabled Services Are
Opening a Whole New Market: The article
discusses the new market opportunities created
by AI-enabled services, challenging the
traditional dominance of the Big 4 and other
service-heavy industries. The evolving landscape
sees a shift from software-centric startups to
businesses blending AI and human efforts to
offer innovative solutions. Founders are
encouraged to explore this promising frontier,
positioning themselves as the next generation of
disruptors aiming for higher margins and scalable
models in various service sectors.
#AI #ServicesIndustry #MarketDisruption
#TechInnovation #StartupOpportunities
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15. Creating Discomfort Zones: This article
emphasises the mistaken priority of comfort
over success in modern leadership. It argues that
perks in the tech industry should aim to ease all
but the work itself, allowing employees to focus
and exert effort where it truly matters. The piece
advocates for a culture of candidness and
challenge, stating that avoiding tough
conversations leads to stagnation and
underperformance. It concludes with strategies
for leaders to foster growth and face
uncomfortable truths for the betterment of their
teams.
#Leadership #TechIndustry
#GrowthMindset #CorporateCulture
#Innovation
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16. How to Coach an Employee Who is
Performing Well: The article discusses the
importance of coaching top-performing
employees, emphasizing that such coaching
often gets overlooked. It highlights the
necessity of understanding an employee's
core motivation, offering choices that align
with their motivation, and connecting their
work to progress. The overall message is to
invest in coaching well-performing team
members to retain their talent and
contribution to the team's success.
#Coaching #EmployeePerformance
#Leadership #EmployeeRetention
#Motivation
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17. What Sam Altman’s Prediction About The $1B
One-Person Business Model Means For You:
The article dives into Sam Altman's bold
prediction about the burgeoning potential of
$1B one-person businesses, emphasizing how
younger generations hold a distinct advantage
in this domain. It presents an optimistic view
on the viability of solo entrepreneurship,
resonating with those looking to leverage their
individual capabilities to build significant
wealth and impact without the traditional
workforce or large-scale operations.
#Entrepreneurship #SamAltman
#OnePersonBusiness #WealthBuilding
#SoloEntrepreneurship
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18. Coaching for Sanity: This article discusses the
underutilised potential of coaching within
startups, especially during growth phases.
The author, Aviv Ben-Yosef, emphasises the
importance of properly applying coaching to
empower individuals and amplify their
positive impact on the organisation. He
outlines a nuanced approach to coaching,
moving beyond a binary view to adapt
strategies based on risk and urgency, thereby
fostering an environment conducive to
learning and adaptation.
#Coaching #StartupGrowth
#LeadershipDevelopment #Empowerment
#ProfessionalGrowth
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19. Why Software Projects Fail: This article tackles not
only the evident reasons behind the failure of
software projects but delves into the subtler, often
overlooked aspects. It stresses how overconfidence
among developers, inexperienced management, and
mismanaged stakeholders contribute significantly
to project derailments. The insights provided by
both the author and commenter reflections paint a
comprehensive picture of the multifaceted nature of
project failures, emphasizing the need for realistic
estimations, the importance of acknowledging and
learning from failures, and the vital role of clear
communication and objective setting in the success
of software projects.
#SoftwareDevelopment #ProjectManagement
#TechLeadership #TeamDynamics #ITFailures
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20. The best engineering interview question I’ve ever
gotten, Part 1: Arthur O’Dwyer shares a memorable
engineering interview challenge from his
experience at MemSQL (now SingleStore) involving
memcached, an in-memory key-value store. Tasked
with adding an 'atomic multiply by k' operation to
memcached, this challenge showcases the
intricacies of working with low-level system
programming and database manipulation. The story
not only highlights a unique interview question but
also delves into the usage of memcached, including
commands like 'incr,' 'decr,' and the proposed 'mult,'
demonstrating how these operations manage data
atomically in concurrent environments.
#Engineering #Interviews #Memcached
#SystemProgramming #Database
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21. Introducing Narrative-Driven Development:
This video presents a novel approach to
unify development teams by focusing on
the comprehensive narrative of the system
rather than fragmented tasks and
documentation. This methodology aims to
streamline teamwork and enhance
understanding of the system in its entirety.
#TechInnovation
#DevelopmentMethodology
#NarrativeDrivenDevelopment
#Teamwork #SystemUnderstanding
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22. Agile in the Age of AI: This article explores how Agile
methodologies adapt to the advancements in
artificial intelligence (AI), challenging traditional
practices. Agile principles, over two decades old, are
based on human behavior and team productivity
assumptions, which AI technology is quickly
reshaping. The integration of AI into teams could
significantly reduce the necessity for human team
members, suggesting a future where Agile practices
undergo substantial alteration to accommodate AI's
capabilities, including more significant reliance on AI
for development tasks, changing team dynamics,
and potentially redefining the roles within Agile
frameworks.
#Agile #ArtificialIntelligence
#SoftwareDevelopment #TeamDynamics
#FutureOfWork
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23. Celebrating Failure: This article delves into
the paradigm shift of viewing failures
within organisations not just as tolerated
mistakes, but as opportunities for growth,
learning, and systemic improvement. It
argues that a culture that openly celebrates
failures can lead to increased innovation,
transparency, and resilience, fostering an
environment where risk-taking is seen in a
positive light and failure is used as a
powerful learning tool.
#Leadership #Innovation
#CultureOfLearning #Resilience
#CelebratingFailure
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24. The Arc Product-Market Fit Framework: This article
discusses a framework to assist startups in
understanding their product’s position within the
market. It outlines three archetypes: 'Hair on Fire,'
'Hard Fact,' and 'Future Vision,' each offering a
unique perspective on product-market fit. Through
examples and case studies, the article explains how
startups can navigate their path to success by
understanding customer-product dynamics,
distinguishing themselves in competitive
landscapes, and innovating for the future. It
emphasises the fluidity of product-market fit and
how companies can transition between these paths
over time, using companies like Apple as an
example.
#ProductMarketFit #Startups #Innovation
#SequoiaCapital #Technology
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25. A Sketch of the Biggest Idea in Software
Architecture: The article elaborates on the concept
of 'narrow waists' in software architecture,
highlighting its significance across various areas like
networking, operating systems, and language
design. It contrasts two styles of building software:
one focused on fine-grained static types and build-
time composition, and the other on coarse-grained
'waists' and runtime composition. The post delves
into the benefits of the second style, which
becomes more evident at larger scales and over
longer time horizons, suggesting it encourages
global economy, flexibility, generality, and extension
at the cost of local convenience.
#SoftwareArchitecture #Programming
#TechnologyTrends #OpenSource
#TechInnovation
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26. Avoid blundering: 80% of a winning strategy:
Jason Cohen explores the paradoxical idea
that not making mistakes—or blundering—is
a significant part of achieving success,
especially in chess and start-ups. The article
delves into the concept that avoiding
common pitfalls can often lead to victory,
emphasizing the importance of knowing what
not to do. Cohen uses chess as a metaphor to
illustrate how avoiding blunders is crucial for
success, and applies this lesson to startups,
advising founders to focus on avoiding major
mistakes to increase their chances of thriving.
#Startups #Strategy #Success #Chess
#AvoidingMistakes
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27. For God's sake follow the Lean Startup
Method: This article critiques the "Lean
Startup" method, emphasizing that while
the concept is widely embraced, it may not
be fully understood or correctly
implemented by many entrepreneurs. It
argues that the iterative approach and
customer feedback strategies often lead to
incremental rather than revolutionary
improvements.
#LeanStartup #Innovation
#Entrepreneurship #BusinessGrowth
#StartupTips
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28. The Last Re-Org You’ll Ever Do: This article
explores modern approaches to organisational
design, focusing on adaptive and evolutionary
models over traditional hierarchical structures. It
discusses the concept of antifragile
organisations that thrive on change and delves
into three specific frameworks: Holacracy, Agile
Squads, and Self Organising. By examining
companies like Valve, Spotify, and Medium, the
piece illustrates how these models distribute
authority and foster an environment of
continuous evolution, aiming for organisations
that are more responsive to technological
advancements and employee autonomy.
#OrganizationalDesign #Holacracy
#Agile #SelfOrganizing #FutureOfWork
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29. GenAI Copilots Exacerbate Problems: The article
discusses the impact of Generative AI and how it
can exacerbate problems for companies not
prepared to integrate it effectively. It contrasts this
technology's potential to speed up development
processes with the challenges it poses, such as
aggravating bottlenecks in systems not equipped
to handle faster code generation. The distinction
between companies that can leverage AI to
minimize technical debt and those that cannot
highlights the widening gap in industry
performance. It also emphasises the importance of
having a well-functioning software delivery system
to truly benefit from Generative AI's capabilities.
#GenerativeAI #TechDebt
#SoftwareDelivery #DevOps #IndustryGap
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30. TBM 271: The Biggest Untapped Opportunity:
The article identifies 'skilled pragmatists' as the
most significant untapped resource within
companies, larger in number and potential than
low performers or high achievers. Such
employees, capable and practical, remain
underutilised due to their aversion to office
politics and visibility, focusing instead on
productivity within existing systems. The piece
critiques the conventional corporate approach to
engagement and problem-solving, urging a
reevaluation of how companies perceive and
utilise this quiet majority.
#EmployeeEngagement
#SkilledPragmatists #CorporateCulture
#TalentManagement #UntappedPotential
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31. Thankyou!
hello@matthewsinclair.com
matthewsinclair.com
masto.ai/@matthewsinclair
medium.com/@matthewsinclair
twitter.com/@matthewsinclair
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