GUIDE TO YOUR SUCCESS
and deliver 80%+ of key results consistently.
Many software companies have adopted the OKR system. Compared to the old-fashioned yearly SMART goals, the shorter quarterly-based objectives of OKRs are more likely to result in strategic initiative completion due to the shorter feedback loop and regular monthly updates.
On the other hand, it is more challenging for a manager to handle the condensed 3-month cycle right and deliver outcomes.
Scenario
Practically speaking, after the OKR system is introduced to the company, most people have the impression of being on a runaway train. The Q3 goals have barely started and in two months we come to the end. We push…
THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE
At work, do you need to be a stronger weightlifter to outdo more senior guys? Not necessarily. The difference lies in learning.
You will come to a point where knowledge gathering from more senior peers becomes less enriching. While reading, you might stumble upon an article describing an obscure tool or innovative technology that could solve your product’s issue. In two days, you’ll come up with an integration of the new cloud service mentioned in ThoughWorks radar as a working prototype. Meanwhile, the more experienced developers suggest implementing a solution from scratch, estimating two months.
After some time, people come for advice, a senior manager asks for your opinion. Fast-forward, you end up in a software architect role.
Turn your learning into a routine
In the beginning, the…
A look back on my 1st year
🚀 Take off
Life is fun! Joining a new company in April 2020 couldn’t have been easier: The Prague HQ office got closed due to the virus whose name we shall not mention. That said, all my individual introductions with engineers, team leads, my peers, and the leadership board were done remotely, video only. How can I build a relationship with my folks in such a situation? Is it going to work? I was doubtful, as I knew building trust was going to be essential.
During the initial 2 months, I invested most of the time getting to know the culture, people, environment…
Great people are active in self-learning
Top picks of Engineering Management and Leadership
- https://www.platohq.com/blog about tech leadership and product management
- https://www.mironov.com/ about engineering and product management
- https://marcusblankenship.com/ about engineering mostly
- https://getnave.com/ about Kanban methodology
- https://softwareengineeringdaily.com/ about tech and leadership
- https://linearb.io/ about tech metrics
- https://lethain.com/ about tech structure and management
- https://cutle.fish/ about to make product management right
- https://bloggingfordevs.com/engineering-management-blogs/ about tech
- https://poddtoppen.se/ and https://soundcloud.com/agileamped about the process flow and agility
- medium.com and hbr.com with leadership tag
If interested in more knowledge sources, follow by github list.
For a Software Developer, it can feel unrealistic to think of being the Engineering Manager of, say, dozens of people in the future.
Time passes by. The future turns into the present.
One day you realize that being a manager has the potential to dramatically increase the influence you have. Together with your teams, you can achieve much more compared to working on your own.
I believe the set of principles below will help you to become a leader worth following in a shorter time frame, particularly in the Software Engineering world.
1st principle: Make changes happen
Stay focused and invest your time into…
In engineering management, my vision is to create a productive software delivery environment that developers are proud to work in, with a focus on tangible outcomes across the company.
It’s a system with the proper guidelines and the right level of automation, so standard development work gets done seamlessly. That’s why, in the engineering department, we implemented real-time team health boards. It gave us back some precious time to focus on systematic process improvements.
To fulfill such ambitions, the standard set of predefined methodology (Scrum, for example) and the ticketing system won’t do the trick out-of-the-box.
Measure What Matters Most: Roadmap Focus
The problem I struggle…
My humble effort to put the topmost indicators of what defines great software companies in the first place.
Do I trust the Product?
It is the Product which matters, not the technology.
Are you fully on board with the Product`s vision? Alternatively, I like to judge the Product`s impact via its simplicity: Is the Product simple enough you can explain the point in 15 seconds? That signals the Product can make it to the top and take you there as well. Simplicity sells ideas. Does the Product aim to cut its piece out of the market without a WOW! feature or a differentiator, compared to…
Marian Kamenistak
VP of Engineering @ Mews. SW Products Builder. Engineering leadership coach and advisor. Making the software delivery process work.
