SWLW #501: Remote first async second, How to structure your product org to optimise for growth, and more.

Heya,

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

This Week's Favorite

​​How to Structure Your Product Org to Optimise for Growth
7 minutes read.

"If the local team isn’t gelling, give it a deadline. If they can’t figure it out quickly enough, you should shift people around, or even let people go. Give them lots of support and direct feedback. But don’t allow ineffective leadership teams to persist." -- The "Symptoms of poor local leadership structures are" and "Define interactions between local and central groups" sections are excellent as a way to build effective local teams and verify a strong leadership in place.

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Culture

My Design After the Developer Has Coded It
1 minute read.

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

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Remote First, Async Second
5 minutes read.

"Creative work takes time, but more time does not necessarily equal a more valuable output. The best ideas come up when smart people are allowed to focus — on their own or with a small group. [...] Letting your people choose where to work is only the first step. The logical next step is empowering them to decide when and how to work. This does not mean that employees don’t talk to each other or never meet. It means teams and individuals are empowered to work in new ways and that actual meetings and get-togethers are deliberate activities that are often more intense, enjoyable, and meaningful." -- I think the way Dror Poleg captures the changes we see now is exactly how companies will define and shape their Future of Work.

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As Startups Grow There Is Extremely Strong Pull Into What I Call the Death Spiral of Bullshit (Thread)
4 minutes read.

Austen Allred with a provocative thread that will get you to think. This is essential to remember: "The mistake many founders (myself included) make is assuming the death spiral is an unavoidable part of working in a bigger company." -- There are many tactics to consider to break this inertia. The most important part is to remind yourself and others around you to have more control (and high agency) over it.

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We Sign Tomorrow? Inside a Tech Acquisition (Video)
18 minutes read.

Acquisitions are never an easy nor fun experience on both sides. You often hear the news on Techcrunch with the big numbers and happy faces, but this video probably provides a better view of how the process feels.

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Peopleware

Risk, Decisions, and Scarcity
3 minutes read.

"Risk tolerance is the scarcest resource in most companies. [...] While the company at large is focused on results, founders should be focused on taking chances." -- founders can make bold decisions because they have context and insights that often are hard to put into words. They took a commitment to work on something for at least a decade, and took the credibility-risk when building the company from zero to convince investors, customers, employees, etc.

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Operating Well: It's a State, Not an Outcome.
8 minutes read.

"Elevate each cross-functional partner you work with. [...] Expectations elevate expectations. And reputations reverberate – both internally and externally. To elevate other partners, you have to both absolutely respect their craft and be willing to jump in and act like an owner for their outcome. Never take credit. Never point fingers." -- Sam Gerstenzang's insights show how good of an operator he is, with so many gems worth taking and leveraging in your role.

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The 8 Jobs of Management
3 minutes read.

How would you group the responsibilities of a manager? How much time would you invest in each category? How would you improve in each area?

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And finally, inspiring tweets...

@AdamMGrant: Strong emotions can help to explain behavior, but they don't excuse misbehavior. You can't always control what you feel. You do get to decide whether, when, and how you express it. A mark of emotional intelligence is being thoughtful about the impact of your moods on others.

@hunterwalk: Most "i'd like to pick your brain on Topic X over coffee" emails can be replaced with "I'm interested in Topic X, can you recommend your fav essays, books, pods, etc?" and you'll get both (a) better response rate & (b) better info on Topic X.



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.