on principle
If you find yourself arguing for something “on principle” and laying out complex reasoning, you probably stumbled at the outset and already lost.
Tag: Business
valuing stakeholders
Generalists solve many early business problems, but you can summarize most of that list as “effects of inexperienced management.” By building a team of stakeholders instead, you create opportunities that might just save your organization one day.
evaluating value
I find many senior software and IT folks don’t know how to talk about the value of tools. I frequently get asked by peers, inside my company and outside it, why I can successfully get tool expenses approved when theirs get rejected. Here’s my simple framework.
reviewing performance
Several executives over my career have sat me down, looked me in the eye, and implied I was a naive fool for trusting my employees. Fuck ’em.
career goals
I don’t understand career goals. Is my career a list of job titles, start dates, or projects I delivered? I don’t think so.
first resignation
This is a reflection on my first resignation in late 2006, nearly 18 years ago, that I found today while looking for a document in my attic.
legal entities
Working relationships between humans are far more durable & valuable than those between people and a legal entity. What’s a company, anyway?
strategic capacity
In a small & fast engineering team, it’s challenging to quantify work being done. There’s so much to do, and it’s difficult to categorize. How can you determine your capacity for addressing your strategic roadmap when stakeholders ask about it?
successful people
If you start your career debasing yourself in drudgery for someone else’s profit, you won’t acquire the leadership & critical thinking skills you need and you’ll suffer for it.
community signal
Patrick O’Keefe of the long-running show Community Signal asked me to join him in a discussion that ranged from private equity buying community software, community data ownership, and the stakeholder challenges of community software roadmaps.
executive bullies
How does an executive bully operate in the workplace? Knowing the signs can help clarify your decisions and make the experience less traumatic.
interviewing humans
Many folks approach interviewing like an infinite avocado cart and they aren’t quite sure how to find a ripe one. Maybe if you have more people squeeze it you’ll figure it out?
startup power
If you don’t invest in engineering leadership early you’re burning your salary budget. Once it’s time for process, you need someone who empowers your engineers and helps them operate safely rather than imposing rules that grind your releases to a halt.
family metaphors
Your company isn’t a family. Every time I hear someone describe their workplace as a family, it’s a red flag. It means one of two things: You’re squeezing people, or you’re earnest but inexperienced.
10x developers
The myth of the “10x Developer” is rooted in pure technical fluency and short-term growth metrics, and it’s a dangerous narrative to sustainable teams and products.
binary consensus
Most substantive community work is about consensus seeking, and software is naturally very bad at this. How do you put humans at the center of community software? Don’t build better algorithms, build better workflows.