Chemaclass - mentoring

Working With the Garage Door Open

2026-07-14T00:00:00+00:00

Most people work with the garage door closed. They work in private and raise it only when the car is polished and parked. The neighbors see a finished thing. Never the work.

The phrase comes from writer Robin Sloan. Researcher Andy Matuschak turned it into a practice: notes and half-baked ideas visible to anyone walking past.

Open the door.

It means showing the work while it’s still in progress. The draft with the ugly variable names. The experiment you’re halfway through. Not the demo. The middle.

Why we keep it closed #

Fear, mostly. A closed door protects you. Nobody judges a mess they can’t see.

So we hide the drafts. We only push code once it’s clean enough to survive review. By the time anyone sees the work, every real decision was made in private.

That instinct feels safe. It costs you the exact moments where help was still possible.

A finished result can only be admired. A work in progress can be shaped.

What the open door gives you #

When people see the middle, they can change it. A teammate spots the dead-end approach before you sink another day into it. A junior asks the “dumb” question that turns out to be the real problem. Pair programming is this at its purest: the door open, live.

The open door also kills the myth that seniors don’t struggle. When a junior watches you get stuck and google an error you “should” know, they learn what real work looks like. Not the highlight reel.

I lived this with bashunit, my bash testing library. I shipped it imperfect. Everyone who looked inside the garage shaped it: bug reports, feature requests, pull requests. Same with Phel and my public .claude folder. The open-source way.

But an open door isn’t enough #

Here’s the trap. You leave the door up, open a PR, write notes in a shared doc, and wait for help to arrive.

It doesn’t. Nobody wanders into your garage.

Visibility is passive. “Public by default” is the floor, not the goal.

Leaving the door open is not the same as inviting someone in.

The skill isn’t openness. It’s pushing the right signal to the right people, on purpose.

Push signal to the right room #

Every channel comes with an expectation of who reads it. Matching your update to it is the whole game. Post in the wrong room and you’re noise or invisible.

The whole company reads it. #general. Post only what matters to everyone.
The tech team reads it. #engineering. Where a work-in-progress update belongs.
Interested people opt in. #insights: industry news, customer signals. Useful, but nobody has to read it.
Nobody has to read it. #random. Say whatever.

Same update, four different outcomes depending on where it lands. Learn the map before you broadcast.

What a good signal looks like #

A good update is not “hey, I pushed something.” It carries enough context that a reader can engage without asking you a single question.

Say I’m halfway through a pilot: a new way to slice and review pull requests, tested on one team. I don’t wait for the end. A short update goes to #engineering: where I’m stuck, plus one explicit ask. “Has anyone tried this with a monorepo?” gets answers.

When the pilot ends, the result goes to the same room:

What I tried and why it mattered.
What worked, with a concrete before and after.
What didn’t, honestly. The failed part is the most useful part.
What you’d do to try it yourself.

Both are signals, not statuses. They turn one team’s experiment into something the whole org can copy or shoot down. This is Ship, Show, Ask applied past the pull request.

Start small #

Pick one thing this week. One experiment, one draft, one stuck moment. Do two things: leave the door open, then walk out and tell the right room it’s there.

You’ll get help you didn’t expect. You’ll teach someone without meaning to. And the fear that kept the door down will look smaller from the other side.

The polished result impresses people. The pushed signal is how the work gets better.

Open the door. Then point at it.

Radical Candor

2024-04-17T00:00:00+00:00

Radical Candor is a management philosophy developed by Kim Scott, a former Google leader. It’s a crash course on how to be a great manager, focusing on being empathetic and results-oriented. The core idea is to create a stress-free environment where people feel safe to speak their minds, get their jobs done, and feel respected.

Key Insights #

Command and control can hinder innovation and harm a team’s efficiency. Collaboration and innovation flourish when human relationships replace bullying and bureaucracy.
The goal of Radical Candor is to help managers and leaders achieve collaboratively what they cannot achieve individually, by caring about the people they work with.
Radical Candor is about being radically honest and open, while still being kind and respectful.

The Two Dimensions of Radical Candor #

Care Personally: This dimension involves showing genuine interest in people’s lives, well-being, and goals. It’s about being human and empathetic.
Challenge Directly: This dimension involves giving specific, timely, and actionable feedback that is both kind and clear. It’s about being straightforward and results-oriented.

Avoiding the Three Behaviors #

Obnoxious Aggression: Being overly critical or aggressive.
Ruinous Empathy: Being overly sympathetic or enabling.
Manipulative Insincerity: Being insincere or manipulative in your feedback.

Radical Candor in Action #

Give specific and sincere praise and kind and clear criticism.
Create a stress-free environment where people feel safe to speak their minds.
Focus on collaboration and innovation, rather than command and control.
Care about the people you work with and challenge them to do their best work.

By applying Radical Candor, managers and leaders can build strong relationships, motivate their teams, and achieve better results.

It's Your Ship

2023-09-20T00:00:00+00:00

“It’s Your Ship” is a leadership book written by D. Michael Abrashoff, a former commander of the USS Benfold, a guided missile destroyer. The book focuses on Abrashoff’s experiences and the leadership principles he applied to transform the performance and culture of his ship.

Key takeaways #

Empowerment: Abrashoff emphasizes the importance of empowering team members. He believes that when people feel trusted and empowered, they take ownership of their work and perform at a higher level.
Listen and Communicate: He highlights the significance of active listening and open communication. He made an effort to listen to his crew members, seek their input, and address their concerns. This helped build trust and fostered a culture of open dialogue.
Lead by Example: Leaders should set the standard through their own actions. He worked hard to be a positive role model for his crew, demonstrating the behavior and work ethic he expected from them.
Delegate Responsibility: Abrashoff encourages leaders to delegate authority and responsibility. By giving his crew members more control over their areas of expertise, he allowed them to take ownership of their roles.
Foster a Culture of Innovation: Abrashoff promoted a culture of continuous improvement and innovation. He encouraged his crew to suggest and implement changes that would enhance efficiency and effectiveness.
Celebrate Achievements: It is important to recognize and celebrate the achievements and contributions of team members. This recognition serves as positive reinforcement and motivates individuals to continue performing at a high level.
Take Calculated Risks: Abrashoff was not afraid to take calculated risks in order to achieve better results. He was willing to challenge established procedures and norms when he believed it would lead to improvements.
Build Trust and Respect: Trust and respect are foundational elements of effective leadership. Abrashoff worked to build strong relationships with his crew members, which created a sense of camaraderie and mutual trust.
Adaptability and Flexibility: In a rapidly changing environment, leaders need to be adaptable and flexible. Being able to adjust to new circumstances and make quick decisions is crucial for success.
Continuous Learning and Improvement: A mindset of continuous learning and improvement is crucial. He encouraged his crew to seek out opportunities for professional development and to always strive for excellence.

Overall, “It’s Your Ship” provides valuable insights into leadership principles that can be applied in various organizational settings.

Abrashoff’s approach emphasizes the importance of empowering and valuing team members, fostering open communication, and constantly seeking ways to improve performance.

How Do You Get Everyone on Board?

2023-08-02T00:00:00+00:00

I was invited to the WeAreDevelopers World Congress to give a tech talk about my experience with XP and the profound benefits of embracing change in your work and life.

With more than 12k attendees, 300 speakers, and ~10 tracks in parallel, I was invited to give not one but two talks. One is about my experience with Extreme Programming and the profound benefits of embracing change in your work and life.

I especially enjoyed the audience engagement and feedback they gave me after each talk. In particular, a question I had faced many times during my career: “How do you deal with people reluctant to change?”

This is one of the most complex topics affecting any team, regardless of their profession. But, especially in our constantly changing software industry, if you are reluctant to embrace change, you will do more harm than good to your team, career, and yourself.

As stated in Peopleware, “our software profession is less about computers and more about humans and their interactions”. This is usually the root problem for people; it’s a human problem first.

To become truly agile, you must have a good foundation of trust among your peers. Without trust, there is no team, and the primary responsibility of a good leader is to help create a trusted environment without fear of healthy conflicts. Everyone feels they can speak and express freely in a safe environment.

A safe environment means you don’t need to carry on armor the whole day to protect yourself from others, so you will have more energy to drive excellence in your workplace.

But still, despite your effort to create a trustable and safe environment, you might encounter people reluctant to change. For those, you might need to try different approaches. How can you help create trust among everyone?

Don’t be afraid of failure; instead, think that everything you do is an experiment from which you will learn something. And anything that brings you closer to a better state is better than nothing.

The key here is to find a way to connect with people by understanding how they understand their potential so you can empower them and help them grow.

Grant time for reading #

1:1 meetings are ideal for establishing personal connections with your peers. However, you might feel that the situation requires an additional push, especially if you have someone who doesn’t like to speak about themselves, and it is hard to know what they think about what’s happening.

Here is an idea you could try:

Give them a book containing ideas or knowledge that could benefit the whole.
Allow reading this book during work time, eg: on Fridays after lunch. This is a company investment for the development of your team.
The book should be read in 3-4 hours, or a couple of Fridays, depending on the number of pages.
Don’t wait until the book is finished to talk about it. Follow the progress.
You will have great topics to discuss during your next 1:1.

You could use any book for this exercise #

Any book would be fine. Still, if you are looking for great examples, these are my favourite three to start thriving a conversation:

Who moved my cheese? is a metaphor of the different attitudes that people adopt as part of their identity in life when they have to confront any change.
Extreme Programming Explained contains a compilation of values, principles, and practices highly related to the human touch in our software industry. Focusing on the team aspect, collaboration with your peers, and creating a sense of mastery and purpose in our craft.
Start with Why addresses the importance of starting with “Why?” in order to define a purpose for anything we do.

Experiment with any book, timeframe, person, or group to create a shared understanding of the team’s foundational values and motivations. The goal is to engage in active knowledge-sharing while cultivating a team that feels they belong, fostering passion at work. This will help create trust, and you can start building on top of it.

If you are looking for books to help scale up your leadership skills, there you go: “Great Leadership”.

You cannot force people to change. On the contrary, the more you try to force it, the harder they will make it for you. Instead, focus on understanding them by acknowledging what they feel and thinking about what they do to create a common ground of understanding each other.

Photos from me at WeAreDevelopers World Congress, Berlin 2023.

Great Leadership

2023-02-27T00:00:00+00:00

As business scales, the leaders’ primary focus must shift from customers to employees. Therefore, I would like to share what I consider critical points that any leader should address and focus on regularly.

For each key point, you will have book recommendations that go deeper into the matter, giving you references from real experts behind them.

I already wrote about the beauty of leadership, and as a quick recap, to become a leader, you need specific skills:

Excellent communication, giving support, and enabling your people
Leading by example, especially to become a better self
Passion for sharing your leadership skills, so you build other leaders

To extend the previous post providing resources and examples, in this one, you will find books about the following topics:

Motivation
Leading through change
Empowering your people
Effective communication
Persuasion
Team dysfunctions
Management principles
CEO Mindset
Engineering leadership

For “starting” leaders #

Motivation #

First of all, you need to define a purpose for your leadership. I would recommend “Start with Why”, as this can help you clarify the difference between great leaders and those who are not.

“The ability to inspire those around you and to achieve remarkable things starts with WHY.” - Start with Why

You need to be aware that leadership is not about being the boss of anyone but serving others. It would help if you were a role example that your people would copy and follow, especially in hard times. This is a leadership philosophy in which the leader aims to serve. “Leaders Eat Last” goes deeper into this topic.

After reading the previous two books, if you are looking for more, the cherry on top is “The infinite game”, which is the third and last book (so far) by Simon Sinek. This book questions our daily mindset when confronting (business) problems. It’s about the need of a just cause, courageous leadership, trusting teams, and a worthy rival.

“There is no such thing as the one “right” organization. There are only organizations, each of which has distinct strengths, distinct limitations, and specific applications. An organization is not absolute. It is a tool for making people productive in working together.“ - The infinite game

Leading through change #

Leading through change is something you have to face in many moments in your life, whether you like it or not. “Who moved my cheese?” is a tale about the different attitudes people adopt as part of their identity when confronting change.

How do you eliminate bad habits and start creating good ones? “The Power of Habit” and “Atomic Habits” are great books that help you understand that habits are like a muscle. You can train them.

“Change how you identify yourself. The environment is more important than being motivated. Reduce friction for good habits and increase friction for bad habits.” - Atomic Habits

Empowering your people #

It would be best if you empowered your people to become leaders themselves. A great book I recommend is “Turn the ship around!”, in which the author challenges the commonly accepted leaders vs. followers model into a leaders-to-leaders relationship.

“Leadership is communicating to people their worth so clearly that they are inspired to see it in themselves.” - Turn the ship around!

Effective communication #

Communication is one of the most challenging skills you need because you constantly communicate with other people; with different backgrounds, experiences, expectations, and even understanding of life. And the important key aspect is not just what you say but how you say it to ensure your desired message is correctly delivered to the receiver.

“Leadership is Language” challenges the industrial-age playbook (where leaders give commands and employees follow them), giving you strategies that can help you such as: control the clock, collaborate, commit, complete, and improve.

“Your words matter more than you think.” - Leadership is Language

It is important to recognize our emotions and not let them control our actions. Creating an open, honest, and safe environment is crucial to create trust among your peers.

“Dare to lead” addresses that leaders need to be more vulnerable. It shows that solid values guide you to do what is correct rather than easy. The importance of trust and difficult conversations even when they make you uncomfortable.

“Great leaders must be brave and always dare to provide constructive feedback, speak the truth, and be clear about their expectations.” - Dare to lead

Persuasion #

Regarding communication, you might need some good persuasion skills to convince others about your ideas. “Never split the difference” is a book about negotiation (from one FBI’s lead international kidnapping negotiator) that gives you great insides into how to negotiate effectively: negotiation begins with listening, using mirrors to encourage the other side to empathise, tactical empathy to getting an agreement, labelling emotions, among others.

“Negotiation begins with listening, making it about the other people, validating their emotions, and creating enough trust and safety for a real conversation to begin.” - Never split the difference

For “experienced” leaders #

Assuming you have read the books above (for “starting leaders”) I can give you more recommendations.

Team dysfunctions #

One of the most difficult areas from the communication layer is dealing effectively with conflicts; so “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team” is a great book which addresses the “absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability and inattention to results” as a pyramid of dysfunctions that you need to pay attention.

Management principles #

Although leadership is not the same as management, I find it quite useful knowing some theory behind management, and for this “High Output Management” is a great starting point.

After that one, if you want more, I can recommend something more advance with “The Essential Drucker”, which addresses the essential principles of management.

“Management is about humans.” - The Essential Drucker

CEO Mindset #

Although not every leader might want to be a CEO, I find “The Great CEO Within” a great book because this can help you understand the responsibilities from any organization’s most abstract point of view.

Similarly, “Adapt or Die” is a great book that covers the fundamental aspects of overall responsibilities and capabilities to thrive in any business, addressing aspects such as Product, Strategy, Growth Engine, Financial Model, People, Operations, Process, and Leadership.

“Leadership is about helping people adapt and leading through change so the business and its people can thrive.” - Adapt or die

Engineering leadership #

Related to engineering and growing, I also recommend “The Manager Path”, and “The Art of Leadership”, both great books; easy to read and full of wisdom.

“Managers tell you where you are; leaders tell you where you are going.” - The Art of Leadership

I hope I got enough attention to create awareness about the key areas you must work on. I am aware that many other books could be included in this list. You might have others on your shelf. These are just a reference, not necessarily better or worse than others.

I still have many other books I want/will read over time. Still, I thought it would be interesting to compile these already, aiming to create value, sharing especially for those who don’t know where to start or how to become better leaders themselves.

However, these are the essential points to remember:

You need to have passion for your work and share this passion with the people around you. You cannot expect passion from your peers if you don’t have passion for what you do.
You need to empower your people, creating leaders instead of folks who follow orders from their superiors.
You need to learn how to create a safe environment, which is crucial for trust and honest relationships.
You need to help create agreements when dealing with conflict resolutions. Avoiding healthy conflicts doesn’t help long-term relationships.
You have to look for opportunities to grow everywhere and help our team grow with you.

Your primary responsibility is to help others improve, and this is only possible if you embrace the change and start with yourself.

All mentioned authors #

Simon Sinek: Start with Why, Leaders Eat Last, The infinite game
Spencer Johnson: Who moved my cheese?
Charles Duhigg: The Power of Habit
James Clear: Atomic Habits
L. David Marquet: Turn the ship around!, Leadership is Language
Brené Brown: Dare to lead
Chris Voss: Never split the difference
Patrick M. Lencioni: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
Andrew S. Grove: High Output Management
Peter F. Drucker: The Essential Drucker
Matt Mochary: The Great CEO Within
Thomas H. Douglas: Adapt or Die
Camille Fournier: The Manager Path
Michael Lopp: The Art of Leadership

Extra: Leadership Guide for the Reluctant Leader #

Especially if you are a software developer, this video is for you.

“Leadership is for everybody. It is for all y’all.”

Dare to lead

2022-09-30T00:00:00+00:00

Leadership is not about titles, status, and power over people. Leaders are people who hold themselves accountable for recognising the potential in people and ideas and developing that potential. This book is for everyone ready to choose courage over comfort, make a difference, and lead.

Courage and vulnerability #

Leaders need to be more vulnerable #

The problem is that most people associate that vulnerability as a synonym for weakness, but that’s not true.

“Vulnerability is the universal human emotion we feel when we expose ourselves to others during times of risk or uncertainty.”

And this is what the core of leadership is about: the courage to act how we should despite fear, uncertainty, or danger in our way.

Values #

The modern workplace might feel like a “gladiator arena.” While it might not be a matter of a life-dead situation, it still requires bravery, and plenty of sweetness and tears, to the point that we can feel so overwhelmed that we are tempted to leave. So, according to Brené:

“One of the most significant sources of motivation for sticking it out is to be crystal clear about our core values.”

Values are the ideals that we have that bring purpose to what we do in our life. They guide us and give us something to hold on to during dark and difficult times. Strong values guide us to do what is correct rather than easy.

Honesty #

A great leader encourages potential in people and possesses the courage to guide this potential as it develops. One of the critical skills for doing this is courage and the ability to deliver honest and open feedback.

Unfortunately, many leaders are afraid to give tuff feedback and leave their employees in the dark. Yes, sometimes the truth hurts, but we often avoid difficult conversations because they make us uncomfortable.

“Great leaders must be brave and always dare to provide constructive feedback, speak the truth, and be clear about their expectations.”

In the long run, this is kinder and more productive.

Trust #

“Trust is an essential aspect of our working relationships.”

7 behaviours that encourage trust #

Expressed together with the acronym: BRAVING

Setting Boundaries - respect one another’s boundaries
Reliability - which means to follow-up words with actions
Accountability - being responsible and acknowledging mistakes
Vault - the ability to keep confidential information private
Integrity - choosing courage over comfort
Non-judgment - talk to one another without judgment
Generosity - assuming that people meet you with the best intentions

Failure #

The ability to fail and recover from it is an essential skill for any great leader. Fear of failure holds us back and stops us from achieving true greatness.

It is crucial to take off the armor of perfectionism and jump into the uncertainty of life. Only this way do we indeed gain the courage to succeed and lead.

Summary #

The Beauty of Leadership

2022-09-25T00:00:00+00:00

Leadership is not a synonym for management, it has nothing to do with titles or personal attributes. So, what is it? How can we become leaders? And most importantly, why?

While researching this topic, I found “What is leadership” by Kevin Kruse, which I liked particularly. I thought about sharing the key takeaways from that blog post as it expresses very well the general points about what is and what is not leadership.

What is not leadership? #

Leadership has nothing to do with titles. Just because you have a C-level title, doesn’t automatically make you a “leader”. You don’t need a leading title to become a leader.

Leadership has nothing to do with your personal attributes. Leadership is not an adjective. You don’t have to be an extroverted charismatic person to practice leadership.

Leadership and management are not synonymous. Management needs to plan, measure, monitor, coordinate, solve, hire, fire, etc. Managers manage things. Leaders lead people.

What is leadership? #

“A leader is someone who has followers.” Peter Drucker.

This definition is too simplistic and can be dangerous. Just because you have “under you” some people that do what you say simply “following orders” doesn’t mean that you are a leader. You might be a commander, but not necessarily a leader.

“The capacity to translate vision into reality.” Warren Bennis.

Every sprint, you envision fruits in your garden. And you work towards it and make that happen. This makes you a gardener, not a leader.

“Leaders will be those who empower others.” Bill Gates.

Empowering others is essential, but it’s missing the vision or common goal.

“Leadership is influence.” John Maxwell.

A manager has the power to fire team members, which provides a lot of influence. Same as a robber with a gun who has “influence” over their victims. We are missing the source of influence.

So, what about combining them all? #

“Leadership is a process of social influence, which maximizes the efforts of others toward the achievement of a goal.” Kevin Kruse

Key elements of this definition:

Leadership starts from social influence, not authority or power
Leadership requires others, not necessarily direct reports
It includes a goal
No mention of a title or attributes of any kind

End from the key takeaways by “What is leadership” by Kevin Kruse.

Why would anyone want to become a leader? #

We need to make clear that there are two different conceptions when asking that question, and we need to separate them from the beginning.

There is the “leader title” aspect, which is usually attached to the management position. I am not talking about that one. You can be a great manager and an appalling leader.

A leader is a person with the multiplier factor attitude that wants to develop specific skills (related to their social influence) to boost even more the value they produce.

So, can anyone become a leader? What are those skills that you need to be a leader?

Can everyone become a leader? #

Now that we found a definition of leadership, we can agree that this definition could have different degrees applied depending on the type of person and responsibilities they want.

However, to become a leader, you need specific skills. These are the ones I find the most important:

Excellent communication, giving support, and enabling the people around you
Leading by example, especially to become a better self
Passion for sharing your leadership skills, so you build other leaders

Leadership starts within your own life and behaviour.

I am aware that not everyone might want to accept the necessary changes to become a leader, but I truly believe everyone can grow certain leadership skills to some extent, which also means inspiring the people around you.

How to become a better leader? #

You can get inspiration from a lot of different sources. While it’s true that you can learn a lot from your own mistakes and successes, and even from the people around you, I think it’s very optimal to listen to the wisdom from other people’s experiences outside your circle. For example listening to podcasts, ted-talks, books, or even audiobooks.

The beauty of leadership is that it asks for no permission. No title, no promotion, no org chart. It begins the moment you decide to lift the people around you.

The Great CEO Within

2022-08-01T00:00:00+00:00

Matt Mochary coaches the CEOs of many of the fastest-scaling technology companies in Silicon Valley. He shares his highly effective leadership and business-operating tools with any CEO or manager in the world.

Learn how to efficiently scale your business from startup to corporation by implementing a system of accountability, effective problem-solving, and transparent feedback.

Reading, talking to other experts in a particular area, practicing, and teaching are the best ways to learn and improve yourself.

3 Key takeaways #

You need to learn how to manage yourself before you can manage your business.
Don’t ignore conflict. Be transparent, give and take feedback often, and be an active listener.
Be obsessed with learning about your customer. Do so by asking better questions.

Summary #

The team #

Do not create a 50/50 partnership, because despite it sounds ideal, it actually leads to real pain if there is no easy way to break a deadlock.
Find a partner who has complementary skills to yours. Give a large percentage of the company; it worth it.
Founding teams should never grow beyong six until there is a true product-market fit (PMF).
Metrics that PMF are important. For example revenue, renewal rates, …

Getting things done #

Read “Getting Things Done: The art of stress-free productivity”, by David Allen.

Inbox zero #

Keep your inbox clean as a single triage room at a hospital.
- It is important to distinguish the urgent cases from the ones that aren’t.

Top goal #

Schedule two hours each day to work on your top goal only.
The earlier in the day you schedule this top goal, the better.

On-time and present #

Don’t waste other people’s time.
If you know you’re going to be late, let the other people know as soon as possible.
Be present and focus on what’s being discussed.

When you say it twice write it down #

Write down all processes. In doubt, write everything.

Gratitude #

Focus on the positives.
We perform our best when we are having fun and feeling good.
Be appreciative. Tell people when they’ve done something good.

Energy audit #

Audit your time and figure out how much of it is spend on activities that energize you and what activities drain you.
- Delegate or outsouce the things that drain you as much as possible.

Health #

Your mental and physical health is the most important resource we all have.
- Take care of yourself and the people around you.

Decision-making #

Require that anyone who wants to discuss an issue write it up, along with the desired solution, ahead of time.
This method, thought time-consuming, yields extraordinarily thoughtful decisions in a very shrt amount of time.

Getting buy-in #

When people feel they are part of the decision and their input matters.
When people are given more influence, they feel more invested.

Issues and proposed solution #

Require that anyone who presents an issue at a team meeting do so in writing.
- It should include both a detailed description of the issue and their proposed solution. They cannot say “I don’t know.” They must at least present a guess.
All issues should be presented at the weekly team meeting.
Allow 5 min to discuss each proposed solution.
- If consensus is reached in that time - great.
- Otherwise, don’t spend more time debating, and use RAPID framework instead.

Loudest voice in the roomo #

Be aware of who is in the room when you have a group discussion.
Avoid influencing other people’s ideas by wriring down their vote or thoughts before you share your perspective.
Let juniors ask and speak first.

Sloppy agreements #

Sloppy agreements are when people don’t show up on time, or don’t complete the goals they declare.
The antidote is “impeccable agreements”:
- precisely defined
- fully agreed to by all relevant people
There must be consequences of breaking agreements.
If you can’t meet the agreement, then you have an obligation to let other members of the agreement circle know asap.

Transparency #

Don’t hide negative information.
Our imaginations are much more powerful than reality.
Share all relevant information with your team, both negative and positive.
- Let them adapt.

Conflict resolution #

Interpersonal conflict is almost due to people:
- Not fully sharing their thoughts and feelings
- Not feeling heard
Prove to people that you have heard them by summarizing what you just said back to you until they say “that’s right!”.

Issue identification #

Ask people to pretend they’re the CEO and answer:
- “What are the 3 most important issues for me to solve in the next 90 days?”
Ask people to write down their thoughts about the company when they feel their joy, excitement, sadness, anger and fear.

Conscious leadership #

Be more interested in learning than been right.

Customer obsession #

Focus on the outcome, not the output.
You are solving a customer problem, not just making a product.

Culture #

You don’t choose your values. You have them.
Use your values as a guide to who you hire and when you fire.
Don’t forget to celebrate. Make an effort to publicly acknowledge achievements.
Don’t measure hours. Measure output.
You prevent office politics by never allowing lobbying to be successful.

Company folder system and wiki #

Have a company wiki and make it mandatory that all new hires read it.
Whenever you find yourself doing something twice, write down exactly what it is that you did.
- Everyone on the team should contribute.

Goal tracking #

Never assign someone an action without them agreeing to it verbally or in writing.

Areas of responsibility #

When more than one person shares a responsibility, it often does not get done well, or at all.
One person is assigned to each function in the company.

No single point of failure #

Write down all processes.
Cross-train a second person for each role.

Key Performance Indicators (KPI) #

Known your 5-6 most significant KPIs and track them religiously. Make them visible to the entire team.

Collaboration #

Set vision and goals for the company, each dept, and each individual.
Communicate that vision and those goals to every team member.
Tracking and reporting progress towards those goals on a regular timetable (usually weekly).
Feedback on what’s going right and what needs to be adapted.

Objectives and Key Results (OKR) #

Target 3 objectives with 3 key results for each.
For the company, department, team, individual.
- Cascade them down so they are in alignment.
The objective = “where do we want to go?”. No necessarily measurable.
Key results = “how do we know that we’re getting there?”. It should be measurable.
Gather your leadership team and have everyone come to the meeting with their ideas for what the OKRs should be for the quarter.
- Let individuals come up with their own OKRs. They will be more invested.

Feedback #

Never give negative feedback using a one-way communication method
- Like email, text, or voicemail.

The problem with no giving feedback #

You won’t notice your company’s problems.
Communication will break down.
Your best talent will leave you.

4 A’s of seeking feedback #

Ask for it.
Acknowledge it - repeat what they said. Make them feel heard and understood.
Appreciate it.
Act on it.

How to give negative feedback #

Ask for permission.
State the behaviour (fact).
State how the behaviour makes you feel (feelings).
State your thoughts, opinions, and judgments around the situation (story).
Make a request - a change you’d lie to see in the future.
Ask if they accept the feedback.

Fundraising #

Pick a partner, not a enterprise.
When you need to speak to an investor, ask 3-5 people in your network who know that person to send an email of recommendation to them.
Stack the referrals close together (in the same week) so that you get noticed.
Talk about your company once you know that the investor likes and trust you.
Sell yourself, not the company.

Recruiting #

Spend as little time as possible with the candidates that you don’t hire, and as much time as possible with the candidates that you want to hire.
As the hiring manager, write out a 90 roadmap for the position you need to fill.

On-boarding #

Give onboarding even more attention, time and energy than you give to recruiting.
Assign each new team member a buddy with whom they’ll check in each day for 15 minutes for the first 2 weeks.

Firing #

Whe you make the announcement, praise the person’s contributions to the company, and take ownership yourself for the fact that you weren’t able to match their skills to the company’s needs.
Do not blame or criticise the person. Instead, take responsibility for the situation.

Effective sales #

Build trust.
Sell results, not features.
Identify customers’ pains.

Build trust #

Ask customers about them.
- Listen actively and reflect back what they say.
- At the second meeting show that you remember what they said at the first.
Be explicit about not talking about your company.
Ask for a limited amount of time.
Invite them to a purely social event.

Customer development #

Asking the right questions will help you identify customer’s specific challenges.
You need to understand their pain before presenting your solution.
1. What are their goals?
2. What are the challenges preventing them from reaching those goals?
3. What are their ideal solutions to overcoming those obstacles?

Sell results, not features #

Most people don’t care about your product functionality or features. They care about their business results.
Focus on the why.
Focus on painting the vision of a world where customer’s desires are fulfilled with the help of your product.

Building a sales team & pipeline #

Don’t hire sales people right away.
In most cases, sales people will never be able to sell better than the founders, and they won’t be able to sell the product if you are not able to.
Only hire a sales team if:
- You have found an initial version of product-market fit (this means that a significant proportion of your paying customers are renewing their contracts).
- You have figure out what you are selling and who you are selling to.

The structure of a sales team #

Generating leads and closing deals are distinct functions that must be split.
Senior salespeople are expensive, so their time is best spent focusing on the most high-value activity: closing deals.
Ideal sales team structure:
- Qualifiers - sales development reps: focus on generating leads.
- Closers - account executives: focus on closing leads.
- Farmers - customer success: focus on tending existing customers.

Lead generation #

Predictable leads is the first step to achieve predictable revenue.

Marketing #

Start by concentrating all of your efforts on the low-hanging fruit - the small customer segment that has a particular problem that your product solves 10x better than the competition.
Move on to the next customer segment only after you have the resources to do so.

Product market fit (PMF) #

Designing a significantly better solution to your target customers’ problem than existing in the marketplace.
How do you know when you have achieved PMF?
- Ask your customers. They will tell you by renewing their subscriptions, buying more product(s), etc.
B2B, PMF = long term contracts
B2C, PMF = second purchase, renewing subscription, sharing in social media.

Matt Mochary shares insights on developing his coaching method, understanding & overcoming primal fear, addressing imposter syndrome & more.

The Path to Seniority in Software

2022-06-08T00:00:00+00:00

We all have been junior developers at some point. This is easy to know because it sits at the very beginning of your career. Your responsibilities were narrowed down by other peers who were looking after you.

At some point, after months or years, you got your promotion or another job, where you weren’t a junior anymore, but an intermediate.

An intermediate (also known as middle) is something between junior and senior. You know now that you are not a junior anymore, you know how to deliver value but yet you also have mixed feelings about seniority. You want to be a senior, but you don’t know how. There is no clear path to achieving this goal.

Wait for a second… there are actually two easy ways to get the senior title! You can get promoted as such in your company, or you can start a new position as a “senior” in another company, easy right?

Marketing and politics #

Unfortunately, the “seniority” level is very much polluted by marketing and politics. First, what does it mean “senior” in this context? In all the companies where I have been working (if not all) I have always been surrounded by people who claimed to be “seniors” when in reality only a few I would consider such.

Our senior label is inflated by companies needing experts on paper more than in reality, and this is a problem we need to deal with and speak about.

Seniority generally means more experience, but how do you calculate this? It is easy from a company’s point of view: more years in the industry. But, is the number of years you have been working really relevant in an industry that is constantly changing and evolving? Actually, this wouldn’t be a big issue if you have the software fundamentals well interiorized, but funny enough, I have seen these fundamentals in only ~10% of the seniors I have met across many years and several companies.

The fact that you have been working for 10 or more years doesn’t necessarily mean you are a “senior” with software. What else can we measure in order to identify if you deserve indeed this title?

It is not all about the money #

Let us be honest, senior titles are better paid than junior or middle positions. If you have the chance to get a higher salary because you got the “senior” in your job title, well, it wouldn’t be clever to reject it. But, independently of politics and marketing, we must address some seniority fundamentals to understand better what the word “senior” means in this context.

It is not all about the money, but also about the responsibilities that come with seniority.

Seniority fundamentals #

Being senior in our software industry is not about “the number of years of experience” but:

How well do you transmit your knowledge to others? Sharing what you know is a core task for a senior person.
How well do you collaborate with other people, including the PM/PO and other teams? Collaboration is crucial to creating a constant feedback loop.
How well do you work together with your peers? Pair-programming builds team cohesion and helps everyone become better.
How strong are your testing skills? Testing is tied to the quality of your work, and a senior should aim for an incremental design.
How well do you understand delivering value constantly in small chunks? The sooner you deliver value, the sooner you get feedback about it.
How deep is your technical knowledge of quality software and the trade-offs to get there? SOLID principles, clean code, TDD, refactoring as part of your daily job, low coupling, high cohesion, appropriate data structures, and choosing the right solution (KISS, YAGNI…).
How well do you adapt and cope with change? Change is inevitable, so we must learn to deal with it, especially the parts we cannot control.
How developed is your entrepreneurial thinking? Always keeping the organization’s goals in mind.

As you can see, there is no mention of concrete technology or years of experience. Why? Because technology is just an “implementation detail”, and experience comes by practicing and attitude, not by letting the time pass by.

Attitude is important #

We’ve got two persons:

A) a person who is working for 15 years, doing relatively the same every day, and without caring about his own skills. He just does what others tell him to do.

B) a person who is working for 5 years, challenging herself every week, trying different approaches when dealing with problems, and sharpening her own skills constantly.

Can you see the main difference? No, it’s not the 10 years difference of “experience” between them, but their attitude.

We wrongly understand that a year of experience must come with learning and knowledge, so we tend to use time as a measurement of seniority. But I argue that the “attitude factor” is equal or even more important. I have been surrounded by many people who call themselves seniors with 3, 6, 10, and more years of “experience” but lacking attitude, and you could clearly see this problem on a daily basis.

You need this combination to build yourself as a truly senior developer; time, experience, and most importantly: attitude towards improving your own skills and the ones that surround you.

Where to start #

Seniority is not granted, it is practiced. You don’t wait for the title, you build the behavior until the title catches up. Start small, and start now:

Teach what you know. Pick one thing you understand and explain it to someone this week. If you can’t explain it, you don’t own it yet.
Seek the uncomfortable. Volunteer for the task slightly beyond you. Growth lives at the edge of what you can already do.
Reflect on purpose. After each project, ask what you would do differently. Experience without reflection is just repetition.

The path is not a promotion. It is the daily decision to improve yourself and the people around you. Do that long enough, and the title becomes a formality.

Update Your Team to Be More Extreme

2022-02-26T00:00:00+00:00

Our software profession is constantly evolving; it demands a non-stop learning process. We must embrace the change in our industry.

We need to create spaces to get out of our comfort zone, so our cognitive brain can train and improve how to adapt to our surroundings, which are constantly transforming.

Why code katas, tech talks or research Fridays? #

The goal is to help create an environment that aims for continuous improvement towards looking for learning everywhere, all the time, as the core attitude for the individuals and the group.

Create learnings opportunities #

Schedule some time every X weeks for practicing together.

At the end of each iteration, or even 2 or 4 weeks, we celebrate and work on katas in pairs/mob for 2 hours. That space is also an opportunity to create an internal tech-talk presentation to share exciting knowledge with the team non-directly-related to our “regular daily business”.

The goal is to get out of our comfort zone, improving our recognition for change in general while learning other subjects regularly.

What is a code kata? #

As a group, software developers don’t practice enough. Most of our learning takes place on the job, so most of our mistakes get made there as well.

The term “kata” comes from the repetitive movements done in karate that help you improve your fighting skills.

Code Katas exists to help developers get the same benefits as practicing in any other profession. There are simple, artificial exercises that let you experiment and learn without the pressure in a production environment.

There are no right or wrong answers in any software kata: the benefit comes from the process, not the result.

Motivation #

Work on refactoring techniques.
Work on TDD examples.
Work on SOLID principles.
Work on live coding sessions.
Work on driver-navigator concepts.
Work on team cohesion.
Have fun while learning and practicing together.

If you’re interested in my thoughts about TDD and katas, I wrote a post about it not long ago: Test-Driven Development.

What is a tech-talk? #

Tech talks allow us to share some knowledge related to our tech industry with our team members.

It can be any FrontEnd, BackEnd, DevOps related. But I encourage also:

a new programming language that you are learning,
a summary of one book that you finished,
a new technology that you are studying or feeling curious about,
a piece of software that you would like to share and present thoughts about it,
a new tool that helps you to improve your productivity,
really: anything related to creating value or knowledge.

How can I present a tech talk? #

I wrote this article with some tips about how to improve your tech-talk. Some key questions that might help you to find something on your own:

What have you learned recently (in the last X months)?
What knowledge might be interesting to be shared with your peers?
Which aspect of yourself you’d like to improve professionally and/or personally?

Just one rule: Be curious and “embrace the change.”

Research and learning Fridays #

Block the last Friday of the month for research and learning purposes. The whole team will have a dedicated space for growth and experiment.

It’s crucial to build trust with your team, so you all know everyone will use this time as good as possible. Don’t micromanage this time forcing keeping a record in a wikipage with what everyone does in detail.

Although, it would be nice that the team shares what they do during this time, mostly to create transparency among themselves. A verbal announcement to the peers the day before, with their intentions. Even the day after with the learnings key-takeaways.

Summary #

You can help your team to be more extreme by helping with a dedicated team space for growth and experimentation.

Provide flexibility to experiment with these ideas as they see fit.
It is an opportunity for self-growth and learning at the same time.
It is, ultimately, up to the person and the team.

Do not micromanage this dedicated time. Focus on the outcome. Help your team to grow, and they will enjoy growing with you.

Tech Talk #

After writing this blog post (originally in Feb, 2022), I was invited to do a tech talk in different conferences about this topic.

Turn the Ship Around!

2021-09-12T00:00:00+00:00

The book is about his leadership theories to how he implemented a fresh leadership model. Including the limitations of a hierarchical top-down model, why/how he failed to empower his team earlier in his career, and how the circumstances for Santa Fe were ideal for him to experiment with the new leader-leader approach.

Most people unconsciously divide the world into leaders vs followers, and make assumptions about what each group can/can’t do. Such assumptions influence our thoughts and actions that impact the performance of individual employees and the organization.

It is common for enthusiastic employees to suggest new ideas, and then they are told “it’s not your job” or “that won’t work”. People feel frustrated and eventually stop trying or leave the organization. Bosses also feel frustrated when their staff would rather do the minimum rather than to innovate or take responsibility.

The leader-leader model recognizes that everyone has the ability and potential to lead. It taps on individual potential at all levels, reduces dependency on a single leader and delivers sustained performance.

The 3 key components: Control, Competence and Clarity #

Control #

Control refers to the freedom and authority to make decisions about why, what and how you’re going to work. The goal is to delegate decision-making control as far as possible in the organization.

Find the genetic code for control and rewrite it.
Act your way to new thinking.
Short, early conversations make efficient work.
Use “I intend to…” to turn passive followers into active leaders.
Resist the urge to provide solutions.
Eliminate top-down monitoring systems.
Think out loud (both superiors and subordinates).

Competence #

People at every level must be technically competent to make the right decisions. If you give people additional responsibility without equipping them with the required knowledge and resources, things will fall apart.

Take deliberate action.
We learn (everywhere, all the time).
Don’t brief, certify.
Continually and consistently repeat the message.
Specify goals, not methods.

Clarity #

For people at all levels to make effective decisions, they must be fully aligned with the organization’s purpose, and thoroughly understand the organization’s goals and decision-making criteria.

Achieve excellence, don’t just avoid errors.
Build trust and take care of your people.
Use your legacy for inspiration.
Use guiding principles for decision criteria.
Use immediate recognition to reinforce desired behaviours.
Begin with the end in mind.
Encourage a questioning attitude over blind obedience.

Favourite quotes #

Leadership is communicating to people their worth and potential so clearly that they are inspired to see it in themselves.

Summary #

David Marquet talks about leadership that turns the ship around in his keynote at the Worldwebforum.

Responsibilities of a Tech Lead

2021-07-01T00:00:00+00:00

The Trident Career Model by Patrick Kua has three tracks. Each track represents where people spend most of their time or energy.

Archetypal Story #

Individual Contributor #

70-80% time spent on “Executing, doing”.
Designing. Testing. Coding.

Management #

70-80% time spent on “Managing the system”.
Planning. Organizing. Supporting. Budgeting.

Technical Leader #

70-80% time spent on “Leading Technical Topics & Teams”.
Aligning Team. Technical Vision. Growing Tech Knowledge. Tech Risk & Tech Debt Management.

What is a Tech Lead?

“A Tech Lead is a software engineer, responsible for leading a development team, and responsible for the quality of its technical deliverables.” (source)

A Tech Lead is a Developer who is a Leader #

A good leader is making sure that the team is moving in the same direction. The team moves further altogether, rather than simply people who are working “together”.

Leadership skills to invest in #

Empathy
Self-Awareness
Motivation
Conflict Resolution
Communication
Coaching
Feedback
Influencing
Delegation

The Tech Lead role is a leadership position, not necessarily a management position.

Surprises & Struggle #

Feeling Alone: “Outsider”. Different role. Shield/Filter.
Uncertainty: No right answer. Binary habit. Imperfect information.
People are puzzling: Unique. Different Strengths. Archetypes.

A Great Tech Lead #

A great Tech Leader is really focusing on developing others, so the team will get better capabilities.

Tell or Delegate? #

The goal is to reach a complete delegation, step by step. It’s about starting to shift responsibilities to other people, so they grow as well. It can also depend on the skills, motivations, and urgency of the task.

“Nobody is perfect, but a team can be.” - Meredith Belbin

Key points #

Tech Lead is a role change.
It requires leadership skills.
Others have been on this journey.
There are many resources available.
Move from maker mode to multiplier.

Recommended books on this field #

References #

The Art of Leadership

2021-04-19T00:00:00+00:00

Some nice keynotes #

Leadership practices are small things done repetitively over time.
Empathy is a powerful skillset.
The practice of one on ones is important in connecting to a team.
Asking for feedback can build trust and relationships.
Respond to feedback with a thank you and follow up comprehension questions.
Feedback is a gift.
It’s not personal, it’s professional.
Leadership is an outfit that you choose to wear for others to see.
Managers tell you where you are, leaders tell you where you’re going.
Your peers become your allies.

97 Things Every Engineering Manager should know

2021-04-05T00:00:00+00:00

The main takeaway #

As a manager your work is to create clarity, clarity, and more clarity.

Key Insights #

As a manager, you need to fix your personal quirks.
Consider doing experiments instead of making decisions.
“Bad news test” - Given two tasks, which one would you rather be sharing bad news about? Delegate that task.
On a struggling team, start by answering two questions:
- How do I create clarity?
- How do I create capacity?
Ask for clarification.
To give constructive feedback, pay attention to how the person gets stuck, sidetracked or sloppy.
Management is not a promotion. It is a career change.
Most of the dysfunctions come from some lack of clarity goal.
For a fixed deadline, scope and quality are always negotiable.
Emotional contagion is real.
As a new manager, listen and understand before you try to change something.
Good interview questions:
- What have you learned in the past six months?
- Tell me about the time when you failed and what you learned from that?
- Do you have the skills, expertise and experience to perform the job?
Complains are good: they show that you are trusted.

Another blog post with way more detailed key insights: Danlebrero Blog ;)

The Manager Path

2020-03-26T00:00:00+00:00

Key lessons #

One-on-one meetings with your manager are an essential feature of a good working relationship.
A manager’s job involves making it easy for her employees to get things done by creating fertile environments in which work can happen.
Mentoring new hires is critical.
Feedback works best when you, as a manager, pair that feedback with coaching.
It’s unrealistic to think you can or should shield your team from everything.