Software Lead Weekly Software Lead Weekly

On Schelling Points in Organizations
18 minutes read.

Alex Komoroske covers the complexity of making decisions as the number of people and number of options grow. Leveraging the concept of Schelling Point and the patterns Alex suggests can help create a language (framework) between people. This is a powerful reminder of why alignment and speed of making decisions are critical: "Remember that the Schelling point only has to be good enough to be obviously better than other alternatives. Not much better, just obviously better. That means that Schelling points can often start off as seemingly arbitrary blips."

Read it later via Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.

The Best Software Development Documentary I've Ever Seen
1 minutes read.

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

Read it later via Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.

Great Engineering Teams Focus on Milestones Instead of Projects
8 minutes read.

I think that using customer-centric milestones of 1-3 weeks of work is easier to manage and continuously aligns everyone on delivering value. Jade Rubick wrote a post you should share internally and discuss how project management works for you today.

Read it later via Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.

Howie: The Post-Incident Guide
21 minutes read.

How (process) you learn from incidents can say a lot about a company's culture. It can be helpful when interviewing, asking the interviewee about their process. The team at Jeli shared one of the best guidelines on the subject I've seen. It can be used as your go-to reference in your company, taking some concepts and ideas to practice. Remember this one: "A clumsily executed investigation can make things worse in terms of people’s difficult emotions in the aftermath of an incident."

Read it later via Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.

Metrics-Driven Product Development Is Hard
5 minutes read.

Daniel Schmidt covers the struggles we're all facing when thinking of connecting business goals and metrics to day-to-day. Using a North Star metric to connect short-term and long-term is a good practice. It is easier said than done, but Daniel's post is a good introduction.

Read it later via Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.

The Best Is Still Yet to Come
6 minutes read.

I'm an optimistic person who enjoys reading and thinking about the future. I'm not trying to predict it or even leverage that, as I'm more a "what will stay the same" type of person, seeking an evergreen value delivering (hence this newsletter). Packy McCormick's thoughts and action plan is inspiring: "Personally, I’m going to read a lot, write thoughts not meant for public consumption, put some systems in place, and try to anchor myself to a longer-term vision of where the world is heading and how I can best contribute. [...] Whatever you do, approach all of the novelty out there with an open mind. You can be skeptical, of course, but be curiously skeptical. Don’t default to cynicism, and don’t dismiss new things out of hand."

Read it later via Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.

The Power Business Writing Guide
6 minutes read.

Sahil Bloom is a terrific thinker and writer I enjoy following on Twitter. I often take the first principle of "Draft Fast, Edit Slow" to an extreme - the easiest way to draft fast is to talk and record yourself. Then use a transcription tool (like Otter.ai) to get your first draft quickly in text. This is a trick I experimented with after reading Seth Godin's "Talker's Block" post.

Read it later via Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.

Principles of Decision Making: User’s Manual to Leadership
7 minutes read.

I love this interview with James Trunk on decision-making principles: "I recommend every leader to come up with their own principles of decision making. You don’t have to treat them as absolute truth. Use them as guidelines that remind you to stop and reflect on whether you’re headed in the right direction." -- What are your principles? Why are they important to you?

Read it later via Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.

@wiseconnector: Avoid people who are unwilling to say, "I was wrong."

@GiladPeleg: New metric not found in the accelerate book: Time to fix critical security breach in log4j