Chemaclass - team-management

Ship, Show, Ask

2025-04-12T00:00:00+00:00

In fast-moving teams, one of the biggest tensions we face is this: How do we keep shipping without compromising quality or collaboration?

The traditional approach to pull requests often slows things down. We wait hours, or days, for approvals, even for trivial changes. But the alternative, merging directly, can feel reckless or invisible to the rest of the team.

That’s where the Ship-Show-Ask strategy comes in. Originally described by Rouan Wilsenach, this model offers a more flexible and thoughtful way to handle code changes. It’s not just a branching strategy, it’s a shift in how teams collaborate, trust, and take ownership.

What is Ship, Show, Ask? #

It’s a model that classifies changes based on how much review they require:

Ship: Merge directly to main (without a PR)
Show: Open a pull request, but merge it immediately
Ask: Open a pull request and wait for review

The key idea is to use Ask as the default for most work, fall back to Show when the context makes it safe, and avoid Ship (or reserve it for extremely trivial cases, if used at all).

Why I prefer to Ask and Show #

Treat every change, even the small ones, as something worth sharing. I always create a branch and open a PR. It provides visibility, builds a shared history, and creates a space for optional or asynchronous feedback. It’s working with the garage door open, applied to code.

But not all PRs need to follow the same review process.

I default to Ask #

I prefer to wait for a peer review when:

The change involves risky or complex logic
It could impact other developers or teams
It introduces architectural or structural decisions that haven’t been agreed on yet
It benefits from shared input or a second pair of eyes

That said, Ask doesn’t mean over-engineering the process. Often, one thoughtful reviewer is enough, especially if they’re familiar with the domain. If the change touches a specific area, I’ll ask for feedback from the person who owns (or best understands) that part of the code. It doesn’t need to involve everyone.

In small teams, requiring two approvals on every PR can quickly become a bottleneck and slow down the delivery of value. The goal is alignment and quality, not ceremony for its own sake.

I use Show for safe, low-impact changes #

I might merge immediately when:

Practicing pair programming (the review already happened live)
Fixing typos or broken links
Updating documentation or changelogs
Refactoring within a module I own
Adding tests for existing behavior
Making non-functional tweaks (formatting, logs, comments)
Applying UI or style adjustments with no logic change

The key principle: Show is optional, never mandatory. I choose Show only if the change is low-risk and fits within team expectations. When I use Show, I own the outcome. The responsibility is mine.

Why this approach works for me #

This model helps me:

Ship faster without compromising quality
Work with greater autonomy and ownership
Avoid bottlenecks, especially in small or async teams
Foster a mindset of trust, accountability, and thoughtful decision-making

It shifts the goal from getting approval to sharing intent and owning the outcome.

What makes a good “Show”? #

A Show PR might be the right choice when:

The change is trivial and within my area of responsibility
No one is available to review, and waiting would block progress
The PR includes clear context and reasoning
I’m open to post-merge feedback
I’m ready to follow up with adjustments if needed

Tips for making it work #

Some practical advice from experience:

Clarify team expectations for when to use Show vs Ask
Always provide context in your PR, even if merging immediately
Write tests for any new logic or behavior
Welcome post-merge feedback, review doesn’t stop at merge
Reflect regularly as a team and adjust the approach as needed

Ship, Show, Ask is more than branching hygiene. It builds a culture of clarity, accountability, and trust, where developers move fast while staying thoughtful.

If you’re tired of slow PR queues and over-engineered approvals, try it on your next change. Want to dive deeper? Read Rouan Wilsenach’s original post.

Match the review to the risk. Own what you merge.

People Skills

2024-09-02T00:00:00+00:00

So, you’re a software developer, and you’ve mastered coding languages, algorithms, and all the tech stuff. That’s awesome! But here’s the deal: technical skills alone won’t get you as far as you might think.

If you can’t work well with others, it doesn’t matter how great your code is, nobody will want to work with you.

Why People Skills Matter in Software #

In software development, collaboration is everything. Projects aren’t just solo endeavors. You will be part of a team, with other developers, designers, or even non-tech folks like managers and clients. How you communicate, collaborate, and handle feedback can make or break your success.

The Brilliant but Difficult Teammate #

Think about it. Have you ever had that one teammate who’s brilliant but hard or nearly impossible to work with? Maybe they don’t listen, get all the credit, or make everything more complicated than it needs to be. No one likes working with that person, right? It’s the same for you. If you can’t get along with your team, it doesn’t matter how good your code is.

What Being a Good Team Player Means #

Being a good team player means listening to others, being open to feedback, sharing ideas, and, most importantly, being respectful and considerate. You want people to enjoy working with you, not avoid it.

Good people skills help you build strong working relationships, solve problems faster, and create a better work environment for everyone. Don’t just aim to be a coding expert, ensure you’re also great to work with.

The Long-Term Impact #

In the long run, your people skills can boost your success as much, if not more, than your technical abilities. They play a vital role in a team’s success and make the work experience enjoyable for everyone involved.

People skills are as necessary as technical skills. No one will want to work with you if you are not a good team player.

What are people skills? #

The competencies that enable you to interact effectively and smoothly with others.

Core Communication Skills #

Communication: The ability to clearly convey ideas, listen actively, and engage in meaningful conversations. This includes both verbal and non-verbal communication.
Empathy: Understanding and being sensitive to the feelings, thoughts, and experiences of others. It involves seeing things from someone else’s perspective.
Emotional intelligence: Recognizing and managing your own emotions and understanding and influencing the emotions of others.

Collaboration Skills #

Teamwork: Working well with others to achieve common goals. This includes collaboration, sharing responsibilities, and supporting colleagues.
Conflict resolution: The ability to handle disagreements and disputes constructively, finding solutions that satisfy all parties involved.
Negotiation: Finding mutually acceptable solutions or compromises during discussions or disagreements.

Growth and Influence #

Adaptability: Being flexible and open to change, adjusting your approach as needed to meet different situations or personalities.
Leadership: Inspiring and guiding others, providing direction, and fostering a positive environment.
Networking: Building and maintaining professional relationships that can provide support, opportunities, and resources.

These skills are essential in almost every job and help build strong relationships, enhance teamwork, and create a positive work environment.

Why They’re Harder Than You Think #

These are often called interpersonal or soft skills, but mastering them can be surprisingly challenging, perhaps even more so than many technical skills. Unlike “hard skills,” which are tangible and can often be learned through a few hours or days of study, people skills involve navigating the intricate web of human emotions, experiences, and expectations.

While technical skills might require you to dive into documentation, run experiments, and refine your approach, understanding and relating to people is far more complex.

Humans bring their feelings, backgrounds, and routines into interactions, adding layers of complexity beyond machines’ straightforward logic. These personal details shape the reality we perceive, making interpersonal skills an essential yet complex part of effective communication and collaboration.

What Is Waterfall?

2024-08-01T00:00:00+00:00

Waterfall is like following a straight path where you move from one step to the next in a defined order, like water flowing down a waterfall through different stages.

The problem is that each step can take a lot of time and resources to complete. Plus, you don’t get feedback until the entire stage is finished, which can lead to a lot of wasted time. This is especially tricky in software development, where things are always changing and evolving.

It usually follows a straightforward sequence like this:

The reality of Waterfall #

Waterfall can be like communism in theory, it seems perfect on paper but doesn’t work in the real world.

Clients often don’t know exactly what they want.
Requirements are constantly changing.
Businesses need to quickly adapt to market shifts and client needs.
Software needs to be flexible to keep up with these changes.

So, in a constantly changing world, Waterfall can really hurt a business. It tends to frustrate developers and teams, and it can also annoy clients and the businesses paying for the software. This usually leads to delays and extra costs.

Why companies still use Waterfall #

Even with its problems, a lot of companies still use Waterfall because it seems straightforward and logical. This makes them reluctant to take the time to learn Agile. Plus, getting management to agree to switch to Agile can be a tough sell, especially since it requires an investment in time and learning.

The big issue is when higher-ups dictate exactly how teams should work, leading to micromanagement. This messes up the flexibility that Agile brings. From what I’ve seen, this is a common problem.

Looking back, switching to Agile could have fixed a lot of issues.

Why Agile was created #

Agile was created to overcome the limits of the Waterfall method. It focuses on constant interaction with clients and teams.

Agile builds autonomous and responsible teams that handle tasks from start to finish, reducing wasted time and resources. It emphasizes flexibility, collaboration, and customer feedback.

Unlike Waterfall, Agile uses iterative development, breaking projects into small, manageable sprints or iterations that last 1-4 weeks. Each cycle includes planning, development, testing, and review, aiming to deliver value quickly and gather feedback to improve.

Key aspects of Agile #

Iterative Development: Work in small chunks and adjust as you go.
Customer Collaboration: Keep talking with clients to make sure they’re happy.
Cross-Functional Teams: Teams with different skills working together.
Adaptive Planning: Stay flexible and tweak plans based on feedback.
Continuous Improvement: Always look for ways to get better.

Read the original Agile Manifesto.

Where can you start? #

As a developer, you can boost your agility by diving into pair programming and TDD.

With pair programming, two developers work side by side, which means you get instant feedback and shared problem-solving, leading to better code.
TDD, on the other hand, involves writing tests before the code, which help specifying what you want to do, focusing on baby steps.

Together, these practices make your development process more flexible, collaborative, and high-quality, fitting right in with Agile’s focus on quick adjustments and continuous improvement. See more practices here.

The key is collaboration, baby steps, and quick feedback on everything you work on.

My experience with Agile #

I’ve talked about Agile at various tech events and explored it in depth because I’m passionate about how it can supercharge software teams. When done right, Agile can completely change how teams work, making them faster, more efficient, and better at delivering what clients and businesses really need.

2022-06-26 | International PHP Conference [Berlin, Germany] (EN)
2022-09-16 | Code Talks [Hamburg, Germany] (EN)
2022-10-26 | International PHP Conference [Munich, Germany] (EN)
2022-12-21 | IES Ginés Pérez Chirinos [Murcia, Spain] (ES)
2023-01-19 | devm.io [Remote] (EN)
2023-07-28 | WeAreDeveloper World Congress [Berlin, Germany] (EN)

WeAreDevelopers World Congress in Berlin #

The Phoenix Project

2024-05-31T00:00:00+00:00

This is a story about an impossible project in which the people around are constantly playing politics, busy fixing critical bugs and wasting constant efforts on quick patches instead of helping the business thrive.

If IT fails, the business fails.

DevOps Principles: Flow, Feedback, and Continual Learning and Experimentation. These guiding concepts promote advancements in responsiveness, dependability, and teamwork.

Summary #

The book starts with the promotion of Bill as VP of IT, and with that the responsibility of delivering an imposible (Phoenix) project. The CEO warns him that if the project does not deliver in time, then the entire IT department will be outsourced and the current IT employees will be fired.

Bill tries to understand the status quo, and finds out that the people are too busy firefighting constantly and dealing with too many responsibilities (in addition, they are understaffed). Everything is urgent and needs to be done asap. The deadline was already setup from above, and there is no planning or discussions with other departments. TL;DR: Corporate chaos, politics and bloodbath meetings.

However, Bill gets to know one person in the company that helps him improve the status quo, not by telling him what to do but by asking him questions to help find the solution.

For example, the first question: “What are the four types of work that IT does?” which is not answered immediately but during the story:

Business projects: these are the projects that directly affect business goals. They generate revenue and deliver value to customers.
Internal projects: these are regular tasks that keep the system working. Like system upgrades, security patches, etc. It tends to be invisible and can become a bottleneck for IT departments.
Changes: the result of the previous business and internal projects, to know what to change with and within them.
Unplanned work: this is the real productivity killer. This is related to all operational issues resulted from the previous three types of work.

What Kills Agility?

2024-05-30T00:00:00+00:00

Dozens of documents and spreadsheets, meetings over meetings, and yet without much impact, result in team misalignments, realized too late.

How we manage an organization defines its quality. Excellent management is crucial to avoid the Waterfall trap if we aim to build an Agile environment. But why would we want that? What’s wrong with the way we already work?

If you are already happy with how you and your team work together, that’s okay. However, what about reevaluating how you work to look for potential improvements?

I am referring to evaluating your system and how you and the people around you act within it. What worked months or years ago might differ from what we could discover today, as part of continuous improvement.

I dislike politics in the workplace, where each team looks out for themselves instead of having a bigger shared direction. This results in daily work filled with fear from above, passed down to the people below, maintaining an unhealthy working environment. Game of Thrones is great as a fictional series, but not something to deal with in daily business.

Agile was born precisely as a response to the excessive waste generated by politics and organizational micromanagement.

Controlling and “slow performance” needed a more flexible approach. When people adopt a fixed mindset, they resist change, fear failure, and prioritize rigid processes and hierarchies. This conflicts with Agile’s core ideas of embracing change, continuous delivery with iterative development, flexible planning, and fostering collaboration and innovation.

A fixed mindset leads to fear of experimentation and a reluctance to challenge the status quo, reducing progress and the potential for learning and growth.

What kills agility? #

Fixed mindset: Resistance to change, fear of failure, and prioritizing rigid processes over learning and adaptation strangle innovation and flexibility.
Excessive bureaucracy: Complex processes and excessive documentation slow down decision-making and responsiveness.
Micromanagement: Over-controlling leadership undermines team autonomy.
Lack of collaboration: Poor communication and teamwork hinder progress.
Ineffective feedback loops: Prevent adjustments and continuous improvement.
Fear of experimentation: A culture that punishes failure discourages experimentation and learning from mistakes.
Inflexible processes: Strict adherence without adapting to project needs.
Misaligned goals: Conflicting priorities reduce efficiency.
Lack of leadership’s support: Without backing from upper management, Agile initiatives can struggle to gain the necessary resources and commitment.
Poor technical practices: Neglecting technical excellence and good design can lead to a fragile codebase that is difficult to adapt and extend.

What can you do about it? #

Learn the basics of Extreme Programming (XP) and Lean Software Development.

XP: Focused on software development practices and technical excellence, with specific practices like pair programming and Test-Driven Development (TDD).
Lean: Takes a broader approach, focusing on removing waste, optimizing flow, and improving processes across the organization.

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.

The Lean Startup

2024-01-26T00:00:00+00:00

Most startups fail. But many of those failures are preventable. The Lean Startup is a new approach being adopted across the globe, changing the way companies are built and new products are launched.

Eric Ries defines a startup as an organization dedicated to creating something new under conditions of extreme uncertainty. This is just as true for one person in a garage or a group of seasoned professionals in a Fortune 500 boardroom. What they have in common is a mission to penetrate that fog of uncertainty to discover a successful path to a sustainable business.

Key Takeaways #

Test frequently and learn quickly
Observe and measure real customer behaviour
Focus exclusively on capturing actionable Metrics
Be comfortable pivoting based on key learnings
Embrace new accounting methods
Learn what is not working and apply changes immediately: stay lean

Summary #

Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing

2023-11-25T00:00:00+00:00

In 1965, psychologist Bruce Tuckman developed a model (Tuckman’s Model) that describes the stages of group development, forming and maturing into a cohesive and effective team.

The model initially consisted of four stages: “forming, storming, norming, and performing,” adding one additional “adjourning” in 1977.

It’s important to note that teams may not always progress through these stages linearly, and they might revert to a previous stage under certain circumstances.

Forming #

In this initial stage, team members are polite, tentative, and unsure about their roles. There is a reliance on the leader for guidance.

Goal: Members are getting to know each other, and there is a focus on defining the team’s purpose, goals, and roles.

Leadership approach #

Provide clear direction and guidance
Clearly define team goals, roles, and expectations
Act as a facilitator, encouraging open communication and helping team members get to know each other.

Storming #

Conflict and disagreement emerge as team members start to express their individuality. There may be power struggles and challenges to the leader’s authority.

Goal: The team clarifies its goals, members learn to resolve conflicts and address differences constructively.

Leadership approach #

Facilitate conflict resolution
Acknowledge and address conflicts constructively
Encourage open and honest communication while guiding the team through the process of understanding and appreciating diverse perspectives

Norming #

Cohesion begins to develop, and team members establish norms and values. Roles become clearer, and there is a sense of unity.

Goal: The team strives to establish norms, values, and a shared understanding. Members learn to appreciate each other’s strengths and weaknesses.

Leadership approach #

Foster collaboration and inclusivity
Encourage team members to establish norms and values collectively
Recognize and celebrate individual strengths, fostering a sense of unity and mutual respect

Performing #

The team is highly functional, with a focus on achieving its goals. Members work collaboratively, trust each other, and are mutually supportive.

Goal: The team is committed to its common purpose and operates at a high level of efficiency and effectiveness.

Leadership approach #

Empower autonomy and trust
Provide opportunities for team members to take ownership of tasks and projects
Foster an environment where individuals feel confident in their abilities and can collaborate seamlessly

Adjourning (or Mourning) #

This stage involves the completion of the task or project. Team members may experience a sense of loss as the group disbands.

Goal: Acknowledge and celebrate the team’s achievements, provide closure, and reflect on the overall experience.

Leadership approach #

Acknowledge achievements and provide closure
Recognize the team’s accomplishments and express gratitude for individual contributions
Facilitate a reflective session to capture lessons learned and create a positive closure experience

To develop a team to a high-performance level using Tuckman’s Model, leaders should be aware of the stages and adapt their leadership style accordingly.

This involves providing guidance and structure during the forming stage, facilitating conflict resolution during storming, fostering collaboration and communication during norming, empowering autonomy during performing, and recognizing achievements during adjourning.

Regular communication, team-building activities, and constructively addressing conflicts are crucial throughout the process.

Video summary #

Crucial Conversations

2023-10-31T00:00:00+00:00

When stakes are high, opinions vary, and emotions run strong, you have three choices: Avoid a crucial conversation and suffer the consequences; handle the conversation badly and suffer the consequences; or read Crucial Conversations and discover how to communicate best when it matters most.

If you don’t talk it out, then you’ll act it out.

Chapters #

Know your heart
Ensure safety
Beware of reverting to your style under stress
Make the content safe
Control your emotions
Share your stories
Move from conversation to results

Key takeaways #

A crucial conversation is a confrontation you need to handle with care, which usually is characterized by three factors:

Stakes are high
Opinions vary
The parties involved have strong emotions

Examples:

Calling a client who didn’t pay their invoices
Talk to your boss about a promised promotion that is being delayed
Confronting a teammate who is not doing their share of the project
Talking to your siblings about your parent’s inheritance

Navigating through a crucial conversation is like defusing a bomb. Touch the wrong button or hit the wrong wire, and you create an explosion of emotions. The key is to have an honest and productive dialog to work out the situation.

These are unplanned conversations, and we tend to avoid them because we believe that we are going to make it worse. We tend to react negatively because we are humans, and human beings “behave their worst at the most critical moments.”

The “Story” #

Everybody walks into a crucial conversation with a story. Examples:

My mate doesn’t care about the project because they don’t come to the meetings
My boss doesn’t care about my career because they haven’t given me a promotion

If you approach a crucial conversation with a story in mind, there is no room for dialog, because your mind already made it up.

When… I… framework #

To create the space for a dialog, you need to start assuming you don’t know the whole story, and that you need the help of the person you are talking to. You can use: When... I... Example:

When [you don’t show up to team meetings], I [fear you don’t care about this project].

Invite them to share their own When...I..., so you can discover together what might be the issue, misunderstanding, or misalignment between you two.

The key is to avoid being passive/aggressive, but rather assertive, and honest with facts. This will help reduce the chance of being defensive and willing to help clarify the situation.

Common goal #

To avoid a confronting hit and get back to a productive dialog, you need to convince the person you’re talking to that you’re not their opponent or enemy, you are on the same side. To do this, you must communicate a common goal, value, or purpose.

I don’t want to fight. I just want to find a way for both of us to get [common goal/purpose].

I know we both care about [common value], let’s see if we can both get what we want.

Make a good-faith guess. The more you engage in productive dialog, the more chance you have to find agreements, and the more luckily you will work together to resolve the problem at the heart of a crucial conversation.

Keynote: Mastering The Art of Crucial Conversations #

Video Summary #

Unhealthy Working Environment

2023-10-11T00:00:00+00:00

An unhealthy working environment can have various symptoms that negatively impact employees’ physical and mental well-being.

While writing about The Peter Principle, I mentioned: “Talk to each other. If you feel you can’t, that’s a symptom of a non-healthy working environment, and that’s something more significant to deal with.” But what are those symptoms?

Symptoms #

From all possible symptoms, these are the ones that I would highlight: High stress, poor communication, lack of recognition, micromanagement, lack of work-life balance, unfair treatment, lack of growth opportunities, unhealthy conflicts among colleagues, lack of clear goals and expectations, high turnover rates, low morale and motivation, and constant physical or emotional tiredness.

Let’s go one by one.

High stress #

Excessive stress and pressure. This can be due to heavy workloads, unrealistic expectations, or a lack of support.

Poor communication #

Ineffective communication, whether it’s between colleagues, teams, or between management and employees, can lead to misunderstandings, frustration, and unhealthy conflicts.

Lack of recognition #

When employees feel that their efforts are not acknowledged or rewarded, it can lead to feelings of demotivation and reduced job satisfaction.

Micromanagement #

Overly controlling management styles can stifle creativity and autonomy, leading to frustration and decreased job satisfaction.

Lack of work-life balance #

A healthy work-life balance is essential for employee well-being. Long working hours, excessive overtime, or unrealistic expectations can lead to burnout and reduced productivity.

Unfair treatment #

Discrimination, favoritism, or unequal opportunities can create a toxic and divisive atmosphere among employees.

Lack of growth opportunities #

When employees feel that there is no room for advancement or professional growth, they may become disengaged and unfulfilled in their roles.

Unhealthy conflicts among colleagues #

Constant disagreements, conflicts, or a hostile atmosphere among colleagues can create a toxic working environment.

Lack of clear goals and expectations #

Employees need clear guidance on their roles, responsibilities, and performance expectations. Unclear or constantly changing goals can lead to confusion and frustration.

High turnover rates #

If there is a constant stream of employees leaving the company, it may be a sign that the working environment is not conducive to long-term employment.

Low morale and motivation #

When employees are consistently demotivated or have low morale, it can lead to decreased productivity and a negative atmosphere.

Constant physical or emotional tiredness #

Prolonged exposure to a non-healthy work environment can lead to physical and emotional exhaustion or even mental health issues.

It’s important to note that these symptoms can vary from one workplace to another. Addressing these issues promptly and effectively is crucial to create a healthy and productive environment.

What can you do about it? #

Yourself #

Embrace the change Who moved my cheese?
The process itself is the goal How to focus and have self-discipline
Have you always been like this? How to find a balance of growth and happiness

Your managers and leaders #

Great leadership Leadership starts within your own life and behaviour
Understanding people Misunderstandings, effective communication, and self-reflection

The Peter Principle

2023-09-30T00:00:00+00:00

A person who is competent at their job will get promoted to a position that requires other skills. If they lack the skills for the new role, they will be incompetent at the new level, and will not be promoted again.

If the person is competent in the new role, they will be promoted again and will continue to be promoted until reaching a level at which they are incompetent. Being incompetent, the individual will not qualify for promotion again, and so will remain stuck at this final placement or Peter’s plateau.

There are incentives at play. People work hard to reach a particular position or salary. Once they achieve that, some get lazy. Once people lose passion, they stop learning. They might fail to keep up with new developments, which might lead to poor work quality. To protect their comfort zone, they challenge any new idea or person that could make their life unconformable. Incompetent employees are often unhappy.

Have you experienced the Peter Principle? #

I’ve seen this several times during my 10-year career, working in different companies with people in various departments at different levels. It’s indeed more dangerous than it seems because it can kill the spirit of a healthy environment and company.

Creating awareness about this can help you to be cautious to avoid this from happening to yourself, or at least trigger warnings when you feel this might be happening to you.

What can you do about it? #

If you can recognize this situation within your company, I recommend helping to create awareness about it. Talk to each other. If you feel you can’t, that’s a symptom of an unhealthy working environment, and that’s something more significant to deal with.

If you are the one experiencing this in “first person,” I would recommend you:

Talk to your manager; ask for training, mentoring, or whatever you need to get the skills you lack, from confidence, communication, or anything that could help your new role. Maybe you didn’t get enough or proper training for the new job, which requires different skills.
Consider pivoting back where you were good and keep mastering that, helping and inspiring those next to you. Not everybody has to be promoted all the time.

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.

Agile Project Management

2023-05-31T00:00:00+00:00

A basic and straightforward overview of what Agile is, presenting some framework examples that are well known today, such as Scrum or Kanban, everything condensed in a 100’s pages book that you can read in a couple of hours.

Chapters #

The fluid manifesto
Being agile
Agile process
Planning for success
Agile communication
Scrum basics
Introduction to Kanban
Building an adaptive team
Leadership and collaborative management
Common errors behind agile failure
Final words: agile is adaptation

“The benefits of Agile projects extend no only to the team using it, but also to the customer receiving the final product.”

“There is an underlying critical metric that consistently leads to the success of an Agile project: communication. Miscommunication, under-communication, or poor communication of any type leads to the collapse and failure of said project.”

Key takeaways #

Projects that followed a Waterfall methodology tended to exceed their expenses over time, while the product delivered was below standard and difficult to use.

That situation originated that a group of developers signed a brief, 68-word manifesto in 2001.

A brief background #

During the 1960s, software got into a big crisis; creating software was complex but changing it later became pure chaos. Waterfall to the rescue.

Waterfall outlined a simple, logical set of processes that a company would need to follow for a project to be successful. Its name comes from the metaphor of water gently cascading down a predictable, steady, incremental stream. Its life cycle of software development would be in six simple steps.

Requirements
Analysis
Design
Code
Testing
Operations

For 10 years, Waterfall was the standard methodology in the software universe. And for 10 more years, chaos persisted. Although the intention was good, the reality is that the ever-changing set of constraints does not cope very well with this methodology because each step is dependent on the previous one.

86% of the time a company uses the Waterfall method for project management, the customer receives inadequate or useless software. A lot of software projects were unused or never finished.

During the 70’ and 80’, Iterations and Incremental Development (IID) proved to be a viable option. In the 90’ surges an Evolutionary Delivery (ED), which changes the situation. The developer is responsible for listening to the user’s reactions early and often. The user starts playing a direct role in the development process.

A few years later, a new method surged Rapid Iterative Production Prototyping (RIPP), later called Rapid Application Development (RAD), which they claimed “Working software in 90 days… or your money back.”

Lastly, during the 90’ Extreme Programming (XP), Scrum, and Crystal were defined in detail.

These distinct yet similar solutions were decentralized, working independently of one another. This realization led to that night in Utag the unification of these ideas under one banner, in one document.

Agile became the definitive standard for software development.

The Agile Manifesto #

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan

That is, while there is value in the items on the rights, we value the items on the left more.

Effective Remote Work

2023-04-17T00:00:00+00:00

An effective remote work environment is about treating everyone as remote, with everyone in mind having the same level, equality, and information.

Part 1 - Getting oriented for remote work #

It covers the foundation for a possible remote work environment. It seems a bit common sense nowadays, especially after the covid hit, where we had no choice but to work remotely for more than a year. But I think it’s still good to see this foundational knowledge written to polish assumptions in the following chapters of the book.

Chapters #

A remote future: A brief history of the future. Lockdown. Remote is here to stay. Time to get set up.
Getting set up: The office: what we want and what we don’t. The basics, briefly. In the real world. Installing mental scaffolding. The golden rule.

Part 2 - Building effective remote teams #

Most likely, we all had the experience of casual remote work (before remote work was even a trend) when we felt that we were apart from the team dynamics when we were doing remote work for some reason. This is precisely why “treat everyone as remote” is so important - when at least one person works remotely.

There are different ways to communicate depending on the urgency, intention, and how long and easy that message should be accessible. It’s about sync/async communication with our peers.

Highly related to the previous paragraph, the quality of our messages should be considered when aiming for effective communication. We need to consider the right tools. A phone call is different from a chat message or an email. Use the right tools for the right messages within the proper context.

Chapters #

Treat everyone as remote: Out of sight, out of mind. A principle for cultural change. Taking practical action. Let’s build a model!
The spectrum of synchronousness: Synchronousness. Permanence. Restoring your humanity. Onward to Hyrule.
The same but different: A normal day in the office. Through the magic mirror. Conquering the dark world. Let’s discover some artifacts.
Artifacts for a better future: Comparing artifacts. Written artifacts. Codebase and recorded artifacts. Getting on board with onboarding.
Onboarding and orientation: The contribution curve. The onboarding equation. And here’s the trick. Considering communication.
Effective communication techniques: Why humans communicate. Principles for better remote communication. Techniques to improve interactions. The right tools and when to use them. Turning inwards.
Managing yourself: An organizational bedrock. On being unobserved. Riding peaks and troughs. From yourself to teams.
Managing teams: The output equation revisited. Shrinking the scale factor. Supercharging the scale factor. Time to take it up a level.

Part 3 - Creating a world-class remote culture #

Even though a fully remote company might not be possible for some reasons out of our control, if the company claims to be remote-friendly, there are some aspects that we can consider:

Do you treat everyone as remote?
Do you provide a remote work-space setup?
Do you spend money equally on in-office and remote staff?
Do you optimize for asynchronous communication?
Do you create artifacts from synchronous interactions?
Do you measure staff by their impact?
Do you allow staff to choose flexible hours?
Are the members of the executive team remote workers?
Do you use the best collaborative tools that money can buy?
Do you hire staff anywhere in the world?
Do you support families as well as employees?
Do you give back to an employee’s local community?

This is a “Joel Test version for a remote working environment”. The Joel Test originated in the year 2000, during the dot-com bubble; a test to rate the quality of teams with “yes/no” questions. If a team can answer each question wit a yes, they’re likely a productive team. Read more about the original Joel Test.

Chapters #

The remote working test: The joel test. Twelve questions about remote working. Making changes in your company. Something to guide us.
Creating a handbook: The GitLab handbook. Creating a handbook for your team. A handbook for the company. Fully making the shift.
Becoming fully remote: The spectrum of remoteness. The challenge of retrofitting fully remote culture. The triangle of transition. Learning from trailblazers. Now the difficult stuff.
The hard parts: Walking the curves. The physical and mental impact of working remotely. Supporting other remotely.
The path to equality is remote: Diversity and inclusion. Remote: The great leveler. This is just the beginning.

Book summary #

Introducing a New Tech Stack

2023-04-14T00:00:00+00:00

To introduce a new tech stack for the entire team, it’s important to bring “why?” and a strategy to make it happen among the team because it will affect everyone.

Why that new tech stack? #

To decide whether to use a new tech stack or not, remember that it is a team decision, according to the standardization and maintainability of the project when introducing such a new tech stack. But, most importantly, what problem do you want to solve by introducing it? Is it because it is “cool”? Or is there an actual “necessity” that this tech helps you with?

The direction of the technology #

When proposing adopting a new library, framework, or entire new technology, an important aspect to consider is to be aware of its background and the direction where they are moving forward.

What is the motivation for that tech, and why are you considering introducing it in your current stack?

Coupling and dependencies #

When adopting new technologies in our daily business, it’s not rare that we tend to couple ourselves with them. This makes it harder later to roll back if, after a while, we regret that decision.

Don’t get me wrong, learning and experimenting with new technologies is great, but introducing it in your daily work is another story because it will affect the whole team. So we need to be more careful with this.

The focus of the conversation #

What does this new tech contribute to the project?
What problem do we want to solve by introducing it?
Can we solve that problem with our current tech?
If we already have a similar tech, do we want to have a mix of both?
What are the tradeoffs when using it vs. not using it?
Is it worth the incremental complexity over time?
What is the team strategy to onboard everyone if we aim to use it?

Architectural Decision Records (ADRs) #

Whatever the outcome, you should write it down as an ADR to revisit it as time passes. An ADR will record your team’s decisions regarding the pros and cons, among any other arguments you have found together, to decide what to do and why.

ADRs are useful to understand old decisions and keep them in the version control, in the same project if possible. They are helpful for the current team, but also for new joiners.

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.”

Adapt or die

2023-02-26T00:00:00+00:00

Told through the story of one bold company (People First IT), Adapt or Die takes readers through the unparalleled business system known as The Algorithm of Success that has the potential to inspire, ignite, and affect change for all aspects of an organization.

Each chapter reveals more of the winning formula that all small and midsize businesses absolutely must have to succeed. Through real examples, research, and practical tools, Adapt or Die unpacks exactly how to create innovation, solve people puzzles, and win in business.

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

Why businesses fail? #

Businesses fail because they…

are unable or unwilling to have courageous conversations
focus on money too much or too soon instead of on people
can provide the value themselves but can’t make it scale
fail to focus on people as their primary responsibility
focus on people, but don’t have the necessary skills to make a difference
listen to respond instead of listening to hear
think that because their idea is unique and specific, so are their issues
live in the business and fail to spend time on the business
expect thing to happen without truly leading through change
fail to fall in love with the truth and fight the truth instead

How to help growing your teamwork #

“As a business scales, the primary focus of the owner and the leadership must shift from focusing on customers to focusing on employees.”

By having courageous conversions about the full spectrum of skills required to go to the next level, focusing on improving the personal and professional career experience for that person and the people around them.

These are the main points that everyone could develop:

Good communications
Focus & achieve goals & results
Everyone contributes
Offer each other support
Good leadership
Clear and good organization
Constructive conflict drives innovation

“People is not usually the root problem. The taxonomy is 3Ps: product, process, or people. And “people” is the final step because leaders need to look at product and process first. In other words, “people first” when it comes to values, but “people last” when it comes to blame.“

The Algorithm of Success #

As you can see in the diagram, all of this comes under leadership. If leadership is about helping others adapt to change, then it must be core to our organizations.

Product #

Promises
Solve a problem or need
Cash release triggers
The way we create value
Pain or Pleasure
Innovation
Connections: Logical, emotional and competitive

Strategy #

Target customer profile (Who)
Value Creation Strategy (VCS)
Core Values
Shared vision
Value loop
Key processes

The Growth Engine #

Unique selling proposition
Targeted marketing
Sales channels
Sales steps
Measuring the Growth Engine
Funnel & opportunity management
Return on Sales

The Financial Model #

Revenue management
Cost of goods sold (COGS)
Sales and marketing costs
General administration
EBITDA, ITDA, NOI
Categorization
Reporting

People #

Alignment
People elevators
Problem solving
People banks
Leadership code of conduct
Career plans
One-on-one’s
Income managements

Operations #

Identify the core operations
Responsibilities
Cadence management
Meetings
GSD (Get Shit Done)

Process #

Promises Kept
Downstream / Upstream
Accountability
Repeatable
Efficiencies

You can find the book in https://www.adaptordie.com/the-book/.

The infinite game

2023-01-29T00:00:00+00:00

How do we win a game that has no end? Finite games, like football or chess, have known players, fixed rules and a clear endpoint. The winners and losers are easily identified. Infinite games, games with no finish line, like business or politics, or life itself, have players who come and go. The rules of an infinite game are changeable while infinite games have no defined endpoint. There are no winners or losers: only ahead and behind.

Infinite-minded leaders understand that “best” is not a permanent state. Instead, they strive to be “better”. “Better” suggests a journey of constant improvement and makes us feel like we are being invited to contribute our talents and energies to make progress in that journey.

The question is, how do we play to succeed in the game we’re in? In this book, Simon Sinek offers a framework for leading with an infinite mindset:

Just Cause
Courageous leadership
Trusting teams
Worthy rival

#1 You have to have a Just Cause #

A Just Cause is the answer of Why your organization exists?

A cause so just that people will be willing to sacrifice themselves to see the advancement of that cause. Eg: working more hours, giving your best ideas, or rejecting another job offer and staying here because you believe in what you are doing.

In order to be happy, we need a sense of purpose or meaning; businesses are no different. When we look at developing a Just Cause, there are a few things that we need to articulate. Firstly, we must stand for something that’s inclusive, and exists primarily for the benefit of others.

In short, a Just Cause is a vision of a compelling future, making people want to be part of building this future, although they may never see it completed.

#2 You have to have courageous leadership #

Courageous leaders are the ones that are willing to sacrifice the sort term in order to advance the long term.

Leadership is the acceptance of the responsibility to create an environment in which people can work on their natural best.

The senior most people in an organisation are not responsible for the result. They are responsible for the people that are responsible for the result.

#3 You have to have trusting teams #

A trusting team is an environment in which people feel safe to raise their hand and say “I made a mistake. I don’t feel qualify to do the job you asked me to do, and I need more training. I need help. I am scared.” Without any fear of humiliation or punishment, whatsoever.

If you don’t have trusting teams, you have a group of people that work together lying and faking, and you’re forcing them to. It’s not their fault. You’re creating an environment in which people will not share mistakes because they think it will make them in trouble. Which means eventually things will compound and break.

It’s the responsibility of the leader to get the environment right. Get the environment right, you’ll get trusted teams. Get the environment wrong, you are forcing people to protect themselves from you.

#4 You have to have a worthy rival #

Although the only true competitor in an infinite game is yourself, what competition does is help to reveal your weaknesses.

The goal is not to be number one in the infinite game, because there is no such thing. It’s about building a strong foundation. It’s about looking long term.

Money is a result, not a purpose.

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.

Leaders who embrace an infinite mindset build stronger, more innovative, more inspiring organizations. Ultimately, they are the ones who lead us into the future.

Working Agile with Non-Agile Teams

2022-11-11T00:00:00+00:00

Let’s assume you already know what the agile manifesto is. Let’s consider that you apply most of the “extreme programming” values, principles, and practices. How can you work with other teams that aren’t agile?

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

Working software over comprehensive documentation

Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

Responding to change over following a plan

You’re using short feedback loops, where things are constantly changing. You can feel that the team is alive and every one is essential.

You embrace the change to the point that you enjoy going out of your comfort zone whenever needed. Seeking to create value for your team and its dynamics, and always considering personal growth.

But sure, let’s assume all that, and everything else I might have missed regarding “agility,” how could you work with an external team that is not agile? How could your “perfectly agile team” work with another group of people with nothing to do with software? For example, a doctor.

A doctor has no time to learn about your “agile values and principles for software development.” A doctor has no time to learn about “extreme programming.” Similarly, they don’t have time to learn about testing, design, architecture, and good practices related to software in general.

How could you create a bridge between that doctor and your software team?

How could you work agile with that doctor? #

If you need to work with that doctor is because he/she should be a domain expert. I suggest getting one or two of your team members to meet with that expert for 30/60 min, so they can talk and share their impressions. And then repeat this as much as possible to shorten the feedback loop. For example, once a week.

Collecting those requirements and impressions from the experts and then driving the design of your software according to that is Domain-Driven Design. You can find a lot of documentation about DDD in books (like Domain-Driven Design Distilled) or in many blogs on the Internet.

However, the critical aspect here is not what requirements or impressions are being resolved but how. How could you work agile with that doctor?

Agile is about quick feedback. It’s about effective communication and reducing waste while aiming for simplicity.

By truly applying these five values, you’re already acting agile #

Communication
Feedback
Simplicity
Courage
Respect

These abstract goals apply to any profession, and even life, not just software.

Continuous communication helps shorten the feedback loop, which simplifies the tasks. Always with the courage to address the truth and respect for each other.

Practices are the things that you do #

Sit Together
Pair Programming
Test First
Incremental Design
and many more

And despite having a technical name, they might apply to any profession:

Sit Together & Pair Programming: think and do with other peers

Test First: verify your assumptions first, then solve the problem

Incremental Design: whatever you do, make it better incrementally

Principles guide and motivate the practices to the values #

Mutual Benefit
Diversity
Failure
Opportunity
Baby Steps
Quality
and many more

Mutual benefit is the most important because it’s about finding practices that benefit us now, us later, and the customer too.

Other principles include the diversity of ideas. Don’t be afraid of failure. Look at everything you do as an opportunity for learning. Avoid giant steps because they have a higher risk of failing. Aim for a high-quality system because they are more predictable and easier to change.

The question remains: are you agile? #

I truly believe an agile team is the one who can cope with change at team level. Therefore, you must first master agile within your team, and then you can collaborate with other teams in an “agile way”.

Once you have internalized these points above, you can apply them while working with anyone from any team.

While these isolated ideas are good, they are even more powerful when combined. They create an atmosphere of curiosity and active learning. It might even wake up some passion for your profession that builds an aura of team cohesion, and just like that, the team breathes on its own.

Everyone cares and takes full responsibility for keeping the team healthy by building trust. There is no fear of healthy conflicts. They feel empowered and accountable to their commitments. The team celebrates their results and learns from their mistakes; there is no need for masks anymore.

That’s when the magic starts to happen, and suddenly you can work agile with any team, especially yours.

The Essential Drucker

2022-10-29T00:00:00+00:00

A twenty-six selections on management in the organization, management and the individual, and management and society.

It covers the basic principles of management and its problems, challenges, and opportunities, giving managers, executives, and professionals the tools to perform the tasks that the economy and society of tomorrow will demand of them.

4 Essential Principles Of Management #

Management is about humans
Management should define an organization’s values, objective, goals & mission
Management must enable the organization and members to grow and develop
Results only exist outside the organization

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.

Understanding People

2022-08-22T00:00:00+00:00

One of the most complicated challenges for everyone is avoiding misunderstandings and being aware that other people don’t think the same way as you do.

Different perceptions #

People have different experiences and backgrounds, and we all have different perceptions of reality. This is the first thing we need to be aware of if we want to create self-awareness of our role in communication with others or empathy.

Very often, the real issue behind friction in a team is due to miscommunication. Sometimes no one knows how or why two or more team members don’t like each other anymore, but the conflict is obvious.

This can be a problem because it prevents the team from working as effectively as possible. Often, the reason for that friction is because of their inability to understand each other’s motivation and problems.

And this misfunction often leads to misunderstandings.

Misunderstandings #

Our understanding of a conversation might differ from what the other person perceives, which could (and often will) cause a problem. This can become a serious problem related to the relationship’s direction between both parties.

How to solve this? #

Avoiding misunderstandings is not always easy, but by improving your communication skills, you can get better at this step by step.

Empathy #

Empathy is the ability to understand what other people feel, see things from their point of view, and imagine yourself in their place. Essentially, it is putting yourself in someone else’s position.

Effective communication #

In most cases, the solution does not start by fixing the other person. Instead, it helps to work on making yourself more explicit. For example:

Work on clarifying the expectations around the common goal
- Create an open and honest conversation about your expectations
- Assumptions are dangerous
Provide as much context as needed
- Even if it seems evident to you at first instance
Every little detail counts
- More information is always better than less

While aiming for effective communication, we need to reduce the risk of misunderstandings to the minimum.

Self-reflection #

Healthy conflicts are expected and acceptable. We shouldn’t be afraid of disagreements. It’s ok to change our minds when discovering new possibilities; the sooner, the better.

In my experience, understanding people is complicated for multiple reasons, but most especially because of misunderstandings we generate due to missing context, more than disagreements.

If something doesn’t work as expected, start looking at yourself, not blaming others when dealing with people. What could you have said to create more clarity? What would you do differently?

Self-reflection is essential to improve and correct your attitude, adapting to the evolution of the constant change we are surrounded by, especially when dealing with people.

Look over your reach area, share your thoughts, and don’t be ashamed of your mistakes as far as you take them as learning opportunities.

Continuous Discovery Habits

2022-08-21T00:00:00+00:00

This book explores how product managers and designers can keep making a positive impact on their customers’ lives. It explores an optimal decision-making process for product teams, so that they can continue to improve their offerings.

Part 1: What is continuous discovery? #

The What and Why of Continuous Discovery
A Common Framework for Continuous Discovery

Part 2: The continuous discovery habits #

Focusing on Outcomes Over Outputs
Visualizing What You Know
Continuous Interviewing
Mapping the Opportunity Space
Prioritizing Opportunities, Not Solutions
Supercharged Ideation
Identifying Hidden Assumptions
Testing Assumptions, Not Ideas
Measuring Impact
Managing the Cycles
Show Your Work

Part 3: Developing your continuous discovery habits #

Start Small, and Iterate
What’s Next?

Focusing on outcomes over outputs will help you create the right products for your customers.

The What & Why of Continuous Discovery #

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 Project Management Triangle

2022-07-25T00:00:00+00:00

A triangle of time, quality and cost. It’s an indicator that these three parameters are interconnected. You can fix one or two of them, but not three.

The triple constraint #

Cheap and fast: the quality will suffer.
Cheap and good: it will take more time.
Fast and good: it will push the price up.

Waterfall vs Agile #

In software methodologies, you can adapt this idea by changing quality to scope:

Waterfall #

In waterfall projects, the scope is fixed, while the time and money will be more variable. Depending if it’s more important finishing on time or on budget.

Agile #

On the other hand, in an agile environment we usually work on a few weeks’ iterations, so this is the fix part: the time, in order to deliver value as soon as possible, and so get feedback and recalibrate again and again.

The costs in a software team are also fixed by the people that belong to it.

Time is fixed, cost is fixed, so by the rule of the iron triangle, the scope must be variable.

An agile team cannot predict the scope of their work in one-year project, however, they don’t need to. Their focus should be on deliver constantly value as much as possible, or at least at the end of every iteration, reflecting their learnings and recalibrating their priorities again and again.

As you can see, one funny fact is that the waterfall and agile share an inverted triangle with their fixed and variables parameters. Really interesting indeed.

Reference #

The Starfish and the Spider

2022-07-19T00:00:00+00:00

If you cut off a spider’s head, it dies; if you cut off a starfish’s leg it grows a new one, and that leg can grow into an entirely new starfish. Traditional top-down organizations are like spiders, but now starfish organizations are changing the face of business and the world.

What’s the hidden power behind the success of Wikipedia, craigslist, and Skype? What do eBay and General Electric have in common with the abolitionist and women’s rights movements? What fundamental choice put General Motors and Toyota on vastly different paths?

Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom have discovered some unexpected answers, gripping stories, and a tapestry of unlikely connections. The Starfish and the Spider explores what happens when starfish take on spiders and reveals how established companies and institutions, from IBM to Intuit to the U.S. government, are also learning how to incorporate starfish principles to achieve success.

In this talk, Rod Beckstrom, does a great overview of the main ideas of his book:

Bikeshedding

2022-05-27T00:00:00+00:00

The term was coined as a metaphor to illuminate Parkinson’s Law of triviality. People within an organization typically give disproportionate weight to trivial issues.

Bikeshed +-ing #

The concept was first presented as a corollary of his broader “Parkinson’s law” spoof of management. “Bikeshedding” is a dramatized form of the “Law of triviality”.

C. Northcote Parkinson observed that a committee whose job is to approve plans for a nuclear power plant may spend the majority of its time on relatively unimportant but easy-to-grasp issues, such as what materials to use for the staff bikeshed while neglecting the design of the power plant itself, which is far more important but also far more difficult to criticize constructively. As he put it:

“The time spent on any item of the agenda will be in inverse proportion to the sum of money involved.”

People within an organization typically give disproportionate weight to trivial issues #

This has been true in all companies where I’ve been working. From time to time, when you have important mixed with not-so-important topics together (or even not important at all!), it’s pretty common to see yourself “bikeshedding” with your peers about the trivial topics instead of confronting the important things that will bring real value soon to the end customer/consumer.

This is more common than we think, and it can happen to everyone.

What can we do about it? #

Create awareness about this problem with your team. Honest communication and trust are crucial for the solution.

Break down steps:

You need to be aware of this problem.
You see value in changing this team behavior.
You are able to point to the problem when you see it occurring.
You expect the same from your team members.

References #

Dunbar Number

2022-04-02T00:00:00+00:00

A cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships, in which an individual knows who each person is and how each person relates to every other person.

The study shows that:

Close relationship: 5 people.
Share deep trust: 15 people.
Meaningful relations: 50 people.
Active contacts: 150 people.

Why is this limit 150? #

This is due to the limit of our cognitive ability. This is our ability to reason, solve problems, and comprehend complex ideas. As the team size increases, the cognitive load of the team does it as well and communication suffers, thereby breaking down the benefit of a large team.

Origin #

In the 1990s, the British anthropologist Robin Dunbar found a correlation between primate brain size and average social group size. By using the average human brain size and extrapolating from the results of primates, he proposed that humans can comfortably maintain 150 stable relationships. Dunbar theorised that:

“this limit is a direct function of relative neocortex size, and that this, in turn, limits group size […] the limit imposed by neocortical processing capacity is simply on the number of individuals with whom a stable inter-personal relationship can be maintained”.

The number also includes past colleagues, such as high school friends, with whom a person would want to reacquaint themselves if they met again.

Single teams: 5-9 people.
- There is a shared trust among the team members.
- The trust is built over time.
- Therefore, they must be a long term team.
Group: 50 people.
- They can have meaningful relationships.
- They share a domain or subdomain.
- They understand the challenges and help each other out.
Division: 150 people

References #

Team Topologies

2022-03-31T00:00:00+00:00

Team Topologies focuses on how to set up dynamic team structures and interaction modes that can help teams adapt quickly to new conditions, and achieve fast and safe software delivery.

Team structure #

High cohesion: Group related things together.
Loose coupling: There must be clear boundaries between the teams.
Cognitive load: It’s like the RAM of the team. The team can burn down if you load with more than the team can handle.

In order to avoid bottleneck teams, you need to make sure their cognitive load is not very high.

Conway’s Law #

The organization structure will influence the architecture of the team.
Conway’s Law says that organizations will design systems that copy their communication structure.
In other words, there will be no focus on the optimal architecture for the project.
First you need to define the architecture of the project, and then form the teams.

Team-First Thinking #

Who is in the team matters less than the team dynamics.
When measuring performance, teams matter more than individuals.
Team = group of 5-9 who work towards a shared goals as a unit.
- Check Dunbar number.
Forming a team takes from 2 weeks to 3 months.
Cognitive load is the total amount of mental effort being used in the working memory.
3 Types of cognitive load:
- Intrinsic: Fundamentals of the problem space. Example: programming language.
- Extraneous: Environment related. Example: how to deploy.
- Germane: Special attention is required. Example: business domain.
Heuristics:
- 3 types of domain: Simple, complicated, complex.
- If the domain is too big, split it into subdomains.
- One team, either:
  - 2-3 simple domains.
  - 1 complex domain.
  - Avoid 2 complicated domains, better split the team.
Define a Team API:
- Code: endpoints, libraries, clients, …
- Versioning.
- Documentation.
- Practices and principles.
- Communication tools.

Team Topologies #

Instead of structuring teams according to know-how or activities, organize teams according to business domain areas.

Success of topology depends both on team members and surrounding environment, teams and interactions.
Split responsibilities to breakdown silos.
Types of dependencies: Knowledge, task, and resource.
Four types of teams:
- Stream-aligned: deliver features, projects, products to the market asap.
- Enabling: grow the capabilities for the Stream-aligned team(s).
- Complicated-subsystem: reduce the cognitive load of the Stream-aligned team(s).
- Platform: make the Stream-aligned team(s) autonomous.

Team Interactions #

Collaboration. Work closely between teams with different skill sets.
X-as-a-Service. Clear ownership, small cognitive load.
Facilitation. Helping to clear impediments, focus on quality interactions between other teams.

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.

Modern CTO

2022-01-23T00:00:00+00:00

Developers are not CTOs, but developers can learn how to be CTOs.

In Modern CTO, Joel Beasley provides readers with an in-depth road map on how to successfully navigate the unexplored and jagged transition between these two roles. Drawing from personal experience, Joel gives a refreshing take on the challenges, lessons, and things to avoid on this journey.

These are the topics you’ll find in the book:

A Modern CTO knows… #

Developers are not CTOs
The spaghetti code MVP epidemic
Over-engineering is a problem
Whether to hire, buy, or out-build their competitor
How not to scale prematurely
How to solve any problem
How to work with programers when you aren’t one
UX mistakes to watch out for
When to speak up
When to hire & fire consultants
How to analyze failure
How to bounce back from unforeseen constraints
Answer the question: “How difficult is it to code…?”
How to avoid the “bottom of the ninth” guy
When to respond to feedback
How to validate an expert in any field
How to effectively communicate complex ideas

Favorite quotes #

If I rest on past achievements, I’ll never grow.

LEVERAGE OTHERS’ EXPERIENCE Books condense a lifetime of experience into a few hours’ read. Powerful right?

There are only two reasons you write bad code:

1)You know how to write good code, but you choose to write bad code. 2)You don’t know how to write good code. And both suck.

As the CTO, you must have a business focus.

Always return to your core goals. […] I make sure each core goal has a clearly defined “why?” behind it, this way if I ever get lost, I go back to my “why.”

Reference to “Start with Why” by Simon Sinek.

When you’re the boss, remember this golden rule: Ask people what they think instead of telling them what to do.

If I can’t asses the human component, I can’t lead a team. […] Team composition carries as much or perhaps even greater weight than programming expertise.

As CTO, if you can’t explain value simply, it means you don’t understand the business value behind your technology.

Leaders Eat Last

2022-01-16T00:00:00+00:00

A company’s biggest strength doesn’t lie in its products or services. It always lies in its people, and in their ability to cooperate closely and rally behind the organization, especially during a crisis.

However, loyalty and commitment must be earned. Today, work has become a contractual, transactional relationship in many organizations. Intense competition and layoffs are the norm. Hardly anyone believes in loyalty to a company anymore, much less lifetime employment.

The 4 Chemicals (E.D.S.O.) #

Each of us is an individual and a part of social groups. We make daily decisions that require us to weigh our self-interests against group interests. This dilemma also happens in our bodies via 4 key chemicals:

Endorphins and dopamine drive us to satisfy our personal needs, e.g. to find food, develop solutions and persevere through problems. They help us to get things done, so we can survive.
Serotonin and oxytocin encourage us to work together with others. They build feelings of trust, loyalty and camaraderie, strengthen our social bonds and increase our inclination to cooperate with others to achieve what we can’t on our own.

Circles of Safety #

Traditionally, our family provides a Circle of Safety where we feel safe and supported. Inside the circle, we have a healthy balance of E.D.S.O. and low Cortisol levels. In organizations, Circles of Safety provide people with a sense of belonging and security. This facilitates communication, cooperation, problem-solving and innovation, allowing people to direct their attention to external threats and opportunities. In contrast, when people feel threatened by internal politics and infighting, they turn their attention inward to focus on self-preservation, making the group more vulnerable as a whole.

Leaders must earn others’ respect and loyalty by making the most sacrifices and being willing to eat last. They must give trust to earn trust.

A Society that’s Out of Balance #

Each of the 4 E.D.S.O. chemicals play important roles in our survival. When they’re in balance, people prosper the way they’re designed to, and their groups/organizations prosper too. Unfortunately, the modern workplace tends to be overflowed with Cortisol and dopamine addiction. We lack Circles of Safety and have become dangerously imbalanced. How did we get here?

Abstraction and Dehumanization: how management via numbers, global systems and virtual interactions can be dangerous and lead to careless acts.
Destructive Abundance: how humans respond to shortage vs excess, and why/how leaders have become so blinded by the commercial interest that they’ve forgotten who they’re supposed to serve.
Social Changes: how our societal norms and values have changed with the post-WWII Boomer Generation, followed by Gen-Xers and Gen-Ys, to become increasingly dopamine-addicted and imbalanced.

Simon Sinek offers many detailed examples and stories of leaders in all walks from the military to politics and businesses.

TED Talk: Why Leaders Eat Last #

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

2021-12-07T00:00:00+00:00

This book is a leadership fable about a tech company that is struggling to get more customers. The C level is not working as a team, and they have a hard time coming to any agreements which result in negative morale. Until the new CEO, Catherine Petersen, joins the team, and she is able to recognize the problems and help the team overcome them by understanding the situation.

This is the first book I read from the author Patrick Lencioni, who is an American writer who writes books on business management. He is the founder and president of the Table group, a management consulting focused on organizational health.

Book summary #

Kathryn Petersen, Decision Tech’s CEO, faces the ultimate leadership crisis: Uniting a team in such disarray that it threatens to bring down the entire company. Will she succeed? Will she be fired? Will the company fail?

Throughout the story, Lencioni reveals the five dysfunctions which go to the very heart of why teams even the best ones-often struggle. He outlines a powerful model and actionable steps that can be used to overcome these common hurdles and build a cohesive, effective team.

The 5 dysfunction model #

1) Absence of trust #

The fear of being vulnerable prevents team members from building trust with each other.

This occurs when team members are reluctant to be vulnerable with one another and are unwilling to admit their mistakes, weaknesses or needs for help. Without a certain comfort level among team members, a foundation of trust is impossible.

2) Fear of conflict #

The desire to preserve artificial harmony stifles productive ideological conflict within the team.

Teams that are lacking on trust are incapable of engaging in unfiltered, passionate debate about key issues, causing situations where team conflict can easily turn into veiled discussions and back channel comments. In a work setting where team members do not openly air their opinions, inferior decisions are the result.

3) Lack of commitment #

The lack of clarity and/or buy-in prevents team members from making decisions they stick to.

Without conflict, it is difficult for team members to commit to decisions, creating an environment where ambiguity prevails. Lack of direction and commitment can make employees, particularly star employees, disgruntled.

4) Avoidance of accountability #

The need to avoid interpersonal discomfort prevents team members from holding each other accountable for their behaviors and performance.

When teams don’t commit to a clear plan of action, even the most focused and driven individuals hesitate to call their peers on actions and behaviors that may seem counterproductive to the overall good of the team.

5) Inattention to results #

The pursuit of individual goals and personal status erodes the team’s focus on collective success.

Team members naturally tend to put their own needs (ego, career development, recognition, etc.) ahead of the collective goals of the team when individuals aren’t held accountable. If a team has lost sight of the need for achievement, the business ultimately suffers.

Video Summary #

Leadership is Language

2021-10-22T00:00:00+00:00

A radical playbook to empower your people and put your team on a path to continuous improvement.

In this book, the former submarine commander Captain L. David Marquet dives deep into one of the most investigated marine disasters, the sinking of the El Faro, and surfaces with new ideas on leadership and language.

You might imagine that an effective leader is someone who makes quick, intelligent decisions, gives inspiring speeches, and issues clear orders to their team, so they can execute a plan to achieve your organization’s goals. Unfortunately, that’s an outdated model of leadership that just doesn’t work anymore.

Your words matter more than you think.

David gives six plays that all leaders should use to improve how their teams operate. He says a big problem with leaders today is that they are trapped in an industrial-age playbook. In the industrial age leaders gave commands and employees followed, and that was it. But that way of leading is no longer effective, it is outdated.

The six plays #

Control the clock, don’t obey the clock: pre-plan decision points and give your people the tools they need to hit pause on a plan of action if they notice something wrong.
Collaborate, don’t coerce: as the leader, you should be the last one to offer your opinion.
Commit, don’t comply: rather than expect your team to comply with specific directions, explain your overall goals, and get their commitment to achieving it one piece at a time.
Complete, not continue: if every day feels like a repetition of the last, you’re doing something wrong.
Improve, don’t prove: ask your people to improve on plans and processes, rather than prove that they can meet fixed goals or deadlines.
Connect, don’t conform: flatten hierarchies in your organization and connect with your people to encourage them to contribute to decision-making

Video Summary #

Red Work vs Blue Work

2021-10-21T00:00:00+00:00

“Blue Work” and “Red Work” are concepts that David Marquet describes in his book Leadership is Language. Both require different mindsets and have different languages.

“Doing” in our traditional leadership style will not take us to where we need to be in the future.

What is “Red Work”? #

Red Work is about doing and reducing variability. Red Work focuses on a proving mindset and a performance mindset.

In Red Work, you seek to complete a task without a lot of need for deciding what or how. Red Work is being in control and taking control. Such as:

Process work and avoid errors.
Having predictability and controllability.

We need a mechanism to stop Red Work and ask: are we doing the right thing?

What is “Blue Work”? #

Blue Work is about deciding, thinking, planning. Blue Work focuses on improving with an embarrassing mindset.

The correct place to do Blue Work is at the beginning and at the end of a decision point.

Blue Work is crucial for a good starting point, allowing us to decide the best way to do something with the information that we have right now.

It’s also important to establish short iterations between the different actions or activities that we want to complete, so we can have some “Blue Work time” and reflect again. Blue Work is perfect to do retrospectives and see what could be improved.

It’s the time to stop and “control the clock”, collaborate and make a commitment for the next iteration. Blue Work is also about:

Thinking work.
Decision-making.
Looking to achieve excellence.
Getting more people to do independent thinking answers.
Embracing variability and looking for different inputs.

Blue Work in isolation is useless. The job of Blue Work is to make Red Work better. Endless Blue Work, planning without outcome doesn’t bring any real benefits.

Nowadays, especially in our modern software industry, there is no room for the old school of “Red-Workers” and “Blue-Workers”, but “Red Work” and “Blue Work”, and everyone should be involved in both.

It is, therefore, everyone’s responsibility to be aware of these different types of work and find a good balance between them. Leaders involve everyone in both Red Work and Blue Work.

References #

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 #

Become an Effective Software Engineering Manager

2021-06-27T00:00:00+00:00

A great compilation of all topics that are important for management: 1:1s, performance reviews, hiring and laying off, workplace politics, remote work, and others.

The book is divided into 3 parts: the first part covers things a new manager should know, the second and third parts go into topics that all managers should master.

Although I kept nodding along with the bits of advice, I sometimes felt it was too “wordy” or going into too many details that I wasn’t interested in. That said, I kept moving forward, and I am glad that I finished it, gathering a lot of useful tips.

My takeaways from this book:

Part 1 - Getting Oriented #

Chapter 01: A New Adventure #

Practical advice on things to do the first week and finding misalignment signals on your first week.

Chapter 02: Manage Yourself First #

A good reminder of how getting your things an order comes first - this is a pre-requisite to you being efficient, as a manager.

“Your calendar it is both for you and other people to use. Keep it tidy and meaningful. It represents you. Making meetings public by default can help others reason better about how to schedule time with you.”

Part 2 - Working with Individuals #

Chapter 03: Interfacing with Humans #

This chapter covers a lot of ground on how to communicate with others.
Think twice before broadcasting information.
Be consistent in your communications style.

“Don’t communicate when you want to, but when you need to.”

Chapter 04: One-to-Ones #

It’s their meeting, not yours.

“Try to get your direct reports to do 70% of the talking. If you feel like solving their problem for them, don’t. Ask another question and let them arrive at the conclusion themselves. This is an art that takes some practice.”

Chapter 05: The Right Job for the Person #

Motivation and the hierarchy of needs. Developing skills with some practical examples on doing so.

“However, as their manager, you can work with them to place these career achievements at the bottom of their skill tree, and then plan out the milestones along the way that they can aim for to make measurable progress. Thus pushing the frontier of their zone of proximal development further and further.”

Chapter 06: The Most Wonderful Time of the Year (Performance Reviews) #

Preparing for performance reviews ahead of time. Getting peer feedback, and doing this via email, for example.

Chapter 07: Join Us! (Hiring) #

The case for not needing the most senior candidate.
Culture fit.
Setting up an interview process.

Chapter 08: Game Over (Attrition) #

People leaving is normal.
Voluntary resignations that are:
- “good reasons”, aka you could have not done much about it.
- “bad reasons”, that is you could have caught (and addressed) things early like coworker conflict, lack of challenge, compensation.

“As a manager, you are doomed to failure if you think that you are going to keep everyone in your current team indefinitely. […] You should never fight to keep staff if you cannot actually provide the conditions under which they can become happier than they already are. You’ll just defer their departure.”

Chapter 09: How to win friends and influence people (Being well-connected) #

Building your network . Making introductions, checking in with others.
Coaching and mentoring.

Part 3 - The Bigger Picture #

Chapter 10: Humans are Hard #

Working harder or faster isn’t what you should be focusing on. Instead, you should be creating the conditions that make your staff happy and productive through nurturing their autonomy, mastery, and purpose.

“At more senior levels, During bad times, you will get the fingers pointed at you as you are fundamentally accountable, even though it may have not been your fault.”

Chapter 11: Projects are Hard #

“The eye off Sauron” - working on high-stakes projects.
Things slowing down as the team is growing. More (legacy) code, more problems to deal with.
Scope, resources and time balance.

“Lead from the front: As a leader, you need to set the example for the rest of the team. Put in the work. The hardest projects can become career-defining moments. Own them and be there.”

Chapter 12: The Information Stock Exchange #

Spies and gatekeepers.

“As a manager, you will be required to make regular decisions about how much you should share with other staff and when.”

Workplace politics.

“In workplace politics, your network of peers is important as it allows you to be more broadly informed about how the wider business feels about your own initiatives and priorities.”

Chapter 13: Letting Go of Control #

Remove distractions and recharge properly outside work.
Use 10% of your time each week to do nothing and let your thoughts emerge.

“Let go of outcomes that you cannot control. Be accepting of trying your best, and encourage the same behavior in your staff. Unpredictable results are normal. Failure is acceptable. As long as you are trying your best, and you are enabling your team to try your best, then you have nothing to worry about.”

Chapter 14: Good Housekeeping #

Turn problems into learning opportunities.
Work on improving the team communication.

Chapter 15: Dual Ladders #

Designing an Individual Contributor and Manager track is vital to a healthy engineering organization culture.

Chapter 16: The Modern Workplace #

Diversity and inclusion.
Remote working.
Lead by example: work-life-balance.

Chapter 17: Startups #

Management doesn’t mean bureaucracy.
Good management is a light touch and continued collaboration.

“Remember that start-up experience is highly sought after because being impactful in that environment involves being enterprising, self-motivated, collaborative, and quick to learn. Even if the start-up itself doesn’t work out, your next gig will be all the better for it.”

Chapter 18: The Crystal Ball #

Your career vision. Looking back, looking ahead.

“An important part of a long and fulfilling life is purpose. Purpose is not about economic status or feeling well-being. It’s about a life worth living.”

Peopleware

2021-05-28T00:00:00+00:00

Software development is about people: when, how and where they can best work together. Not about programming languages or tools. Not about fast computers, networks or internet access.

Soft skills are truly important in IT, more than people tend to think.

Developing software is about people that communicate with their customers and stakeholders, are supported by their managers and collaborate in teams.

Some of my favourite quotes from this book #

Staying late or arriving early is a damaging indictment of the office environment.
Someone who can help a project to take solid form and progress is worth two people who just do work.
People should be asking and wondering why things are getting done the way they are being done.
There must be always a trade between quality and quantity.
Organisations tend to expand and create a “busy day”, creating a lot of meetings rather than trust their employees to self-organize.
The human elements are usually the bottleneck of a project.
People won’t work harder if you put them under pressure. They might work more for some time, but they will also get overburden and leave.
Managers’ real role is to make it possible for people to work, rather than forcing them to.
Anything you need to quantify can be measured in any way that it’s superior to not measuring at all.
The ultimate management sin is wasting people’s time.
Change won’t even get started unless people feel safe.
Change only has a chance of succeeding if failure (at least a little of failure) is also okay.
Experience gets turned into learning when an organization alters itself to take account of what experience has shown.

Professionals want to develop themselves, and want to be happy at work. This book provides ideas in what managers and developers can do to address these and other similar topics. If you are concerned with people, and looking for ways to improve how you collaboratively develop and deliver software, then this book is for you.

The Whole Is Greater Than the Sum of the Parts

We tend to use the word team fairly loosely in the business world, calling any group of people assigned to work together a “team.” But many of these groups just don’t seem like teams. They don’t have a common definition of success or any identifiable team spirit. Something is missing. What is missing is a phenomenon we call jell.

Concept of the Jelled Team

A jelled team is a group of people so strongly knit that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. The production of such a team is greater than that of the same people working in unjelled form. Just as important, the enjoyment that people derive from their work is greater than what you’d expect given the nature of the work itself.

I found also a nice serie that shares some thoughts over each chapter of this book.

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 ;)

Zombie Scrum Survival Guide

2021-03-01T00:00:00+00:00

I really enjoy the ideas and experiments presented in the book. It points out a lot of “big elephants in many rooms” for a lot of teams claiming to do Scrum or Agile in a really questionable way, aka: Zombie Scrum.

Summary #

Zombie Scrum Survival Guide reveals why Scrum runs aground and shows how to supercharge your Scrum outcomes, while having a lot more fun along the way. Humorous, visual, and extremely relatable, it offers practical approaches, exercises, and tools for escaping Zombie Scrum. Even if you’re surrounded by skeptics, this book will be the antidote to help you build more of what users need, ship faster, improve more continuously, interact more successfully in any team, and feel a lot better about what you’re doing. Suddenly, one day soon, you’ll remember: that’s why we adopted Scrum in the first place!

Learn how Zombie Scrum infects you, why it spreads, and how to inoculate yourself.
Get closer to your stakeholders, and wake up to their understanding of value.
Discover why Zombie teams can’t learn, and what to do about it.
Clear away the specific obstacles to real continuous improvement.
Make self-managed teams real so people can behave like humans, not Zombies.

This is a nice webinar, when they offer a fresh perspective on Zombie Scrum, share key insights from the book, and discuss their latest findings on the relentless ongoing research.

Scrum

2020-06-10T00:00:00+00:00

Every organisation, whatever its size, constantly has to come to grips with delivering a product or service on time and on budget. Scrum shows you how. It explains how to define precisely what it is that you are seeking to achieve, how to set up the team to achieve it, and how to monitor progress until the project is successfully completed.

High Output Management

2020-04-03T00:00:00+00:00

In this legendary business book and Silicon Valley staple, the former chairman and CEO of Intel shares his perspective on how to build and run a company. A practical handbook for navigating real-life business scenarios and a powerful management manifesto with the ability to revolutionize the way we work.

Sections #

Managerial Leverage
Training
Motivation
Meetings and Decisions
One-on-One Meetings
Delegation and Task-Relevant Maturity
KPIs
Performance Reviews
Interviews
Promotions and Recycling

A pretty nice overview from the takeaways by Marc Koenig:

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.

Sprint

2016-09-01T00:00:00+00:00

“Sprint offers a transformative formula for testing ideas that works whether you’re at a startup or a large organization. Within five days, you’ll move from idea to prototype to decision, saving you and your team countless hours and countless dollars. A must read for entrepreneurs of all stripes.” - Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup

From three partners at Google Ventures, a unique five-day process for solving tough problems, proven at more than a hundred companies.