Software Lead Weekly Software Lead Weekly

The Uncanny Valley of A Functional Oragnization
15 minutes read.

Reading this post was the first time I really understood the deep foundations required to shift your organization toward functional structure. The risk in this transition is enormous, so there is so much to learn from Ben Thompson and the way he analyzes Microsoft recent reorganization. Highly recommended!

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There Is No Talent Shortage (slides)
10 minutes read.

Andrew Shafer with a thought-provoking ideas on culture, incentives and building a learning organization. His message is clear - we're building organizations around titles, using "lip service culture", instead of educating our people to learn to ask the right questions. Quick execution in an absence of meaningful business is futile.

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That Little Bit Extra
2 minutes read.

Adii with a short post that I enjoyed about the power of small "extra" investments you can apply to yourself, your teammates or your customers. Can you think of a little surprise you can do to show your gratitude to your teammates for their hard work? Can you do the same for yourself (you deserve it)?

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Funny Out of Office Messages: Top 13 Ideas for Your Out of Office Replies
2 minutes read.

Noah Kagan (of AppSumo) with some great Out of Office replies you can use to have fun with your teammates on your next OOO. Personally, I liked best "Thank you for your message, which has been added to a queuing system. You are currently in 352nd place and can expect to receive a reply in approximately 19 weeks."

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The Solution to Technical Debt
15 minutes read.

While it's a bit long, this post is a great reference for ongoing fighting with Technical Debt. Henrik Kniberg offers a simple way to measure your satisfaction with your current code's quality and how to improve it over time. Eliminating Technical Debt should be part of your planning (e.g. part of writing features, or as tasks in the sprint/backlog). My advice is to pay attention as you don't want to invest time in eliminating Technical Debt in features/system that are not useful for the business. It will always be cheaper to cut out some features and reducing your code. Share it with your technical leads and have a discussion about your current satisfaction with your code and the way you're handling quality for the long run.

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6 Secrets for Building a Super Team
5 minutes read.

Greg Brockman shares 6 lessons learned from hiring at Stripe, a company with probably one of the best engineering teams in the world. My favorites are "Only hire people who make others want to be around them" and "Everyone gets a veto". Having these guidelines for hiring can help you check for culture fit.

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How Do I Tell My Team to Work More Hours to Hit a Launch Date?
10 minutes read.

What a great post by Edmond Lau (ex-Quora Engineer). If there is only one thing I could take from it, I'd choose "Focus on the overarching mission of the project, team, or organization, and why it's critical to that mission to meet the launch date". It is nearly impossible to enforce a commitment from your teammates. Build relationships with them to allow such openness. Invest the time, share your thoughts, help them succeed. It would pay off when you'll need their help.

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@joshlong: Writing Is the Best Way to Improve Your Thinking.

@dcancel: "I Believe You Have to Be Willing to Be Misunderstood if You're Going to Innovate." - Jeff Bezos