SWLW #516: Back to the office, Hire for Director+ roles, 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 Plan?
11 minutes read.

I think this post by Kellan Elliott-McCrea should be included as part of managers' onboarding material in every company. It's hard to do planning right, yet it's important to try (planning > plan). The section under "You must provide frameworks and constraints" is where you should start the process - it can help the team focus on the right things.

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Culture

Watching Users Try Your Product for the First Time
1 minute read.

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

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Back to the Office
6 minutes read.

Elad Gil's post can serve as a good baseline for discussing the office strategy - like every other tool you use, how do you see the office being used in 2023 and onwards?

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Is the Startup Grind Really Necessary?
6 minutes read.

A brute-force strategy is very effective in getting things done. Earlier in the career (or a company's life), it can help increase the repetitions and, with that - the chance for success. It's not the only strategy or an efficient one, but I feel that we try to judge strategies as "good" or "bad." It's neither. Same about "work hard" versus "work smart" - it's hard (impossible, maybe?) to clearly define where you landed before you finish the job. I don't think that working hard is only for kids. Some people enjoy the intensity and flourish. Some will burn out. Figure out what works for you and make sure it's aligned with what the company is looking for.

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How Do We Get Speed, Innovation and Engagement?
12 minutes read.

"The stronger alignment we have, the more autonomy we can grant. This will give us speed, innovation and engagement." -- Erik Schön's writing can help to observe the current process we have today, and give you ideas for how to adjust them to increase autonomy.

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Peopleware

How to Hire for Director+ Roles?
9 minutes read.

Stas Sajin provides excellent questions (and reasoning!) when hiring a Director+ role. Starting with "Do they have an understanding of the P&L?" is the right approach, and the "Hiring Views" section is golden.

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"We Need a Strong Leader!" if You Stopped Pouring Fuel Onto the Fires, Maybe You Would Not Need Heroic Firefighters. (Thread)
4 minutes read.

Benji Weber with a thread I couldn't stop reading and agreeing with. If you prefer the blog post format, scroll a bit, and you'll see a link there. What did you take from it? Share it with a friend at work and have a discussion.

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Writing for Engineers
8 minutes read.

Writing (and the power of storytelling) is and might continue to be an undervalued skill. One that can help you progress faster in your career and increase your level of impact. I'd read Heinrich Hartmann's tips monthly to remind myself of concepts like "Have something to say" and "Start at the Top, not the Beginning."

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And finally, inspiring tweets...

@natfriedman: Note to CEOs: your burn is too high and your leadership style is too hands-off. Grab the wheel or run out of gas.

@tylertringas: Chaos happens in business. Sometimes the answer is more structure. Sometimes the answer is being comfortable with chaos.



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.