SWLW #496: Consent Over Consensus, Building Faster, and more

Heya,

As always, below you can read my best findings for the week. If you want to support my work or join SWLW community in Slack - scroll down to the bottom of the email to see how.
 

This Week's Favorite

​​Introducing PinFlex: Pinterest’s Model for the Future of Work
5 minutes read.

It will be interesting to observe how companies will innovate around working remotely and working in person. Figuring out when and how to leverage face-to-face time will be a challenge: how much space should you have (budget constraints)? Should you set some goals for in-person time? Do you let teams figure out what works for them or have some broader policy? The PinFlex model is one of many to come, and I highly recommend you think about it. It can become a differentiator in attracting the type of talent that you seek.

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Culture

NPM Install Be Like...
1 minute read.

My humble effort to help you start the weekend with a smile on your face.

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Guiding Principle: Consent Over Consensus
3 minutes read.

"Consent over consensus shifts the burden to objectors. If the proposal is safe enough to try with no reasoned, substantial objections, then our default position is to proceed." -- Using Jason Yip's advice to figure out who should be part of the decision (due to impact or expertise) and changing the model to "opt-out" versus "opt-in" can help reduce a lot of the friction while letting you move faster.

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Fast Builds, Secure Builds. Choose Two.
8 minutes read.

Sushain Cherivirala will inspire you to think about the Developer Experience you have today and how you and your team can push it forward. Making Security a first-class citizen in how people think about infrastructure and production is so critical if you want to scale the company.

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The Age of Scrum Is Over
7 minutes read.

This article by Chris Lennon will make you think about the process you're using now. I don't hate Scrum, nor am I a huge fan. I think it's helpful if you stick to the problems you're trying to solve and take what you think is helpful from it. I love how Bill responded to the post in the comments section: "I often use the metaphor of a jazz band to a software project team. Following a process to the letter is like playing from sheet music. It's boring, rigid, and lacks emotion. A great jazz band understands the rules and structure use them to improvise to make great music together. Improvisation without rules and understanding is noise."

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Peopleware

Building Faster
7 minutes read.

Ellen Chisa wrote one of my favorite reads about building productive teams. Most of her tips are relevant for all stages, not only early-stage companies. The sections on "Debug The Never-ending Tasks," "Notice when you're talking past each other," and "Order of Magnitude Timeboxing" are insightful and spot on.

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What Do the Best CEOs Know About Management That You Don’t? How to Implement “The Workback Plan” With Their Team. Here’s How in 90 Seconds: (Thread)
4 minutes read.

Ayman Al-Abdullah shares how to practice Inversion Thinking. This is a powerful approach worth mastering over time. It helps with risk management and project execution early on, even on smaller efforts, and becomes critical when done on larger ones.

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A Pause to Revisit: What’s the Product Manager’s Role?
4 minutes read.

The role of the PM is critical for early-stage companies and big Enterprises. Sometimes you need to have the "PM responsibility" shared with others (e.g., the CEO or CTO in the early days), and it gets more effective to hire people to hold the role at a specific size (>20 engineers).

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And finally, inspiring tweets...

@dharmesh: It's better to treat ideas as relative, not absolute. Don't say: That's a bad idea. It will not work. That closes the door. Instead, try: Here's an iteration on that idea. It may be more likely to work. That opens new doors.

@mwseibel: It's surprising how often startups will copy their competitor's features rather than talk to their users. The best startups understand they cannot outsource one of the most important parts of building a successful product.



p.s. if you're interested in joining SWLW's Slack channel, simply reply to this email and let me know. If you're leading a team, consider writing your Manager README (it's free) or getting my e-book and interviews Leading Snowflakes: The New Engineering Manager's Handbook. You can also support me by becoming a SWLW Patron. Thank you ❤️




Keep reading, keep learning.
-- Oren Ellenbogen.