Organizations
My Reflections on Bret Taylor’s Podcast Conversation with Shane Parrish About AI and Software Development
From code generation to shifting developer roles to organizational decay, here’s what stood out to me in their discussion.
Organizations
Organizations
Day 1 Is About Doing What’s Right. Day 2 Is About Getting Promoted.
The shift from customer obsession to career obsession happens quietly, usually through the hiring process. But as your original leadership team transitions out, a new culture moves in.
Organizations
Blockers Are Urgent, While Friction Endures
Blockers trigger fire drills, but friction quietly shapes customer and employee behavior every single day. (Additional bonus included - The Toilet Paper Roll Test)
Organizations
Customer Obsession Means Listening Harder—Not Measuring Harder
Large businesses use metrics to handle millions of customers. Yet a single customer story can reveal more than a mountain of metrics—if you’re willing to invest some time to learn more.
Organizations
More Engineers = Less Output? The Costs of Growth.
Growing quickly is lauded as a great thing in the news. But is it always a great thing?
Organizations
Wishing for a Better Outcome Isn't a Mechanism. The COE Approach to Continual Improvement and Avoiding Blame.
Focus on what you can control, and move past your narrow focus on outcomes. When mistakes happen, the right question is: Why did your system allow it? How could you have influenced that result?
Organizations
The Hidden Cost of Process: A Guide for Tech Leaders
Building processes is a mechanism for resolving issues fully. But they're also bottlenecks which slow your organization down. How do you navigate this conundrum?
Organizations
13 Tech Career Misconceptions — Things I Wish I'd Learned Earlier
Misunderstandings about performance, promotions, influence, and leadership that most people only realize late in their careers.
Organizations
RTO is a lie, 3rd party misinformation, the source of my anecdotes, and how (not) to make decisions. An article of many topics!
Sometimes writing about one topic just isn't good enough.
Late Career
4 Common But Insidious Patterns That Derail Software Projects
With experience, you can recognize the less obvious patterns which lead to costly disasters.
Organizations
How I Transformed Amazon's Internal Transfer Process
Anecdotes, ranting, and some personal philosophy.
Organizations
4 (More) Good Things and 2 (More) Bad Things and 2 Misunderstandings About Working at Amazon: From 12+ Years in Management
A continuation of my previous article about my experiences at Amazon. What they do well, what they don't do well, and in this article, I also mention a few common beliefs I disagree with.