If you only read one thingDear CTO: itâs not 2015 anymore (24 minute read) âBut these leaders donât realize that the days of focusing on retention are over.â I also fear a new era has dawned. âSoftware ate the world, and thereâs no longer a point for Google to hoard 60,000 engineers. In 2023, Big Tech unceremoniously laid off 250,000+ workers and slashed benefits left and right.â PRINT THIS ARTICLE AND READ IT EVERY DAY I wanted to add something to the article, but I canât. Itâs perfect. https://blog.godfreyai.com/p/dear-cto-its-not-2015-anymore
Stories Iâve enjoyed this weekFailed #SquadGoals (14 minute read) From time to time I hear about the Spotify model. An overcomplicated model on how to run your development org. A model bred from engineering orgs with too much money and too much navel gazing - and agile coaches (there, too much money!). Engineering orgs that were glorified by their respective companies. The Spotify model of tribes, and circles, and chapters, squads, guilds (ha I smuggled circles in, thatâs from the overcomplicated hologracy), never made sense, so âI learned the famed squad model was only ever aspirational and never fully implemented.â didnât come as a surprise to me. Spotify never (fully?) used the model. Thought out by Agile consultants, not engineers. Patrons telling cooks how to cook. Why it didnât work at Spotify, read the article in full. Also whenever I use Spotify, the UI is bad and there are bugs. Consultant driven development. I have seen many stupid things suggested by Agile coaches (who never wrote a line of code), but the Spotify model is the crown. Hopefully the idea will soon be forgotten. "âControl without competence is chaos.â âL. David Marquet, Turn the Ship Around!" Ha! Found in the article but funnily also on Klaus Engineering Managers Must Read Books! https://www.jeremiahlee.com/posts/failed-squad-goals/ Scrumâs âProduct Ownerâ Problem (18 minute read) You know my stance on Scrum, I donât like it anymore (and I was a cerfified Scrum Master in 2007). Itâs not for engineers. I also donât like the term Product Owner, because they seldom own anything. If you own a car, you have the say where it goes, PMs seldom have. But this is more nuanced, âAs a result, the ideal role for a Product Owner is providing data and assessmentânot direction.â Can scrum be salvaged? And indeed we come to the core of the problem âIn Scrum, the Product Owners have taken up a permanent residence in the kitchenâthey draft the menus (can you say Product Backlog?), tell the chefs what ingredients to buy, what dishes to prepare, in what order.â People who canât cook tell cooks how to cook. Again. Developers should know how best to develop software. The article is about salvaging Scrum by empowering engineers, a noble goal. But why salvage Scrum and not drop it (Did you try Shape Up? - from an engineer for engineers, not from an Agile coach). https://rethinkingsoftware.substack.com/p/scrums-product-owner-problem How Saboteurs Threaten Innovation (25 minute read) âInnovators often assume that their organizations and industry will welcome new ideas, operating concepts and new companies.â And they are wrong. Although I urge all techies, especially CTOs, to drive innovation, there is always resistance. The article goes into more detail. My take on resistance, everyone in a startup has their own ideas, the VP of Marketing and the COO and the CEO. These futures compete with each other. Your idea about this new feature or innovative tech creates more problems for them personally than they benefit from it. Or they canât see the benefits. So there is resistance. I have seen many innovative and transformative ideas die in startups because they threatened other peoples ideas. Be prepared. https://steveblank.com/2024/10/08/how-saboteurs-threaten-innovation-and-what-to-do-about-it/ Warm Handoffs (14 minute read) Warm handoffs vs. cold redirects, âIf someone asks you a question you canât answer, take them to someone who can answer it. If you donât know who that is, help find someone who can.â This works on many levels. When I was working at a large company, with lots of pressure, people were bounced around and redirected to others in circles. Special dispatchers were hired, and failed. With warm handoffs instead, people take responsibility to find a solution. This reflects back into the teams as an example for taking ownership and responsibility and will encourage more do to so. Love it. https://luckymike.dev/posts/warm-handoffs/ How to make Product give a shit about your architecture proposal (37 minute read) âYou are the plumberâ You frame it like an offer. Interesting idea on how to get what you need. Itâs also always better to give options. Instead of âShould we do A?â always ask âShould we do A or B?â - by framing the question into either/or vs yes/no you more easily get what you need, from Product or the CEO. Donât ask questions where ânoâ could be the answer. Is Age Really a Factor in Tech? (7 minute read) I do think ageism is a factor in tech. The article seems a little fuzzy. The core is not ageism by itself, but people hiring copies of themselves. 25 year old men loving Star Trek and some Netflix shows hire other 25 year old men loving Star Trek and the same Netflix shows. If youâre not 25, or donât like Star Trek, youâre out (also people have a bias against hiring older people than they are, out of fear, I assume, which means, the only way to hire older people, is growing older together - the average age in a company is going up 1 year each year ;-) - but you know my take on diversity. Itâs hard work and often inconvenient, but breeds better ideas and innovation (beside being fair and often more fun). Donât hire only people younger than you! https://www.trevorlasn.com/blog/ageism-in-tech Mental Wellbeing at Work: Perspectives of Software Engineers (74 minute read) We have made progress on mental wellbeing, but still âSoftware engineers exhibit higher burnout [..] rates compared to many other information workers.â Please take care of your engineers (but keep in mind youâre not a professional!). Trigger warning for the article. https://dl.acm.org/doi/fullHtml/10.1145/3544548.3581528 Engineering Managersâ Guide to Effective Annual Feedback (17 minute read) I donât like annual feedback. I love continuous feedback. People should always know where they are standing: 1. Out 2. No (above inflation) pay raise 3. Pay raise 4. Promotion - Iâm using 1on1s for constant feedback to tell people on what trajectory they are - people donât like surprises. BUT if HR demands a yearly cycle and you canât do anything about it, the article has some clues. https://peterszasz.com/engineering-managers-guide-to-effective-annual-feedback/ The Mr. Beast Memo is a Guide to the Gen Z Workforce (33 minute read) I disagree with basically everything in the article concerning AI (donât hold that against the author, she is a âfinancial content creatorâ (Wikipedia), so how could she?). But you might have Gen Z employees, so the article is interesting I think. https://kyla.substack.com/p/the-mr-beast-memo-is-a-guide-to-the My other workFind your CTO dream jobâfor CTOs, VPs of Engineering, engineering managers and senior developers who want to become CTOs I have created a website to describe your dream jobâand we match you to companies. Not another boring job, but a job youâll love â¤ď¸ Inkmi is from a CTO for CTOs! Join the CTO newsletter! | |