SWLW #533: Fixing “too much WIP”, Beware of Fake Urgency, and more.

Heya,

As always, below you can read my best findings for the week.
 

This Week's Favorite

​​Big Data Is Dead
7 minutes read.

Jordan Tigani wrote a blog post that every mature company should include as part of the onboarding material: "An alternate definition of Big Data is “when the cost of keeping data around is less than the cost of figuring out what to throw away.” I like this definition because it encapsulates why people end up with Big Data. It isn’t because they need it; they just haven’t bothered to delete it. If you think about many data lakes that organizations collect, they fit this bill entirely: giant, messy swamps where no one really knows what they hold or whether it is safe to clean them up."

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Culture

Designers Pitching a Full Design System to One Person Startups
1 minute read.

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

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The Alternative to Performance Reviews for Software Engineers
16 minutes read.

Mario Caropreso with in-depth analysis of how to shift Performance Reviews to "Building an environment that fosters intrinsic motivation." -- I like the questions Mario suggests as it focuses on the customers, the team, and the individual. For example: "hich capabilities do we need to build or improve both at the individual and system levels to keep serving their [the customers'] needs?"

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DevEx Principles: Minimize Switching Contexts
4 minutes read.

Kathy Korevec covers a critical aspect of keeping people engaged with your product, creating a state of Flow: "The more powerful you can make existing tools, the more effective you'll make the developer."

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Fixing “Too Much WIP”
3 minutes read.

"I generally suspect two main contributing factors for why too much WIP happens: lack of strategy, overemphasis on utilisation." -- Jason Yip shares why WIP happens and tips to cope with it. I often find that having a rule of "at least 2 people working together on a problem" naturally reduces WIP and increases knowledge sharing within the team.

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Peopleware

Note to Future Self: Beware of Fake Urgency
4 minutes read.

"Fake urgency effectively delivers results - the team is likely to gather and complete it, as good teams tend to do. The downside is that fake urgency erodes trust, a fundamental trait of a healthy culture." -- Oded Blayer with an important reminder. The antidote is to build a sustainable company, one that people will feel proud working for ten years. This requires deeper trust, one that is easy to break.

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‘Cyclic Sighing’ Can Help Breathe Away Anxiety
6 minutes read.

Breathing techniques are still an area I feel I can leverage more in my life. Hadley Leggett covers how you can start with 5 minutes daily to reduce anxiety levels.

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My Role as a Founder CTO: Year Five
7 minutes read.

Miguel Carranza shares a personal summary with highlights, lowlights, and lessons learned as a CTO. It's a healthy habit to formalize, as it enables a longer perspective and analysis that can open up thinking in years and decades instead of months and years.

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And finally, inspiring tweets...

@jenistyping: Why People & Culture work matters: When employees feel genuinely cared for by leaders / the org, they can finally stop worrying about what's best for themselves and start doing what's best for the team.

@Jack_Raines: Good writing informs, entertains, or incites an emotional response. Great writing does all three.



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.