SWLW #582: Goal on what matters, Highly profitable Engineering teams, and more.

Like always, sharing my best findings for the week.

 

This Week's Favorite

Goal on What Matters. Even if Its Not Fully Within the Teams Control.
3 minutes read.

"I used to buy into the argument and I’ve set my share of esoteric product goals, but I stopped after seeing product teams celebrate narrow metric wins while the business struggled or neglected ramping successful tests after taking the a/b test win. Now, I always push product teams to be accountable for full business outcomes, even where control is partial." -- Such a powerful takeaway from Mads Johnsen. Your customers care about their success, so you better align internally to win as one team.

Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.

Product [sponsored]

 Promote your product on SWLW and reach over 33,000 leaders 

Culture

First Time Startup Founder After the First Sale 😎
1 minute read.

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

Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.


Cancel Your Meetings if You Can Live With the Outcome
3 minutes read.

Andy Grunwald with a brilliant litmus test for the worth of your meetings: "At a previous workplace, during onboarding, I was introduced to a new rule: You can cancel every meeting as long as you live with the outcome."

Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.


Highly Profitable Engineering Teams
4 minutes read.

One of the takeaways from Aviv Ben-Yosef's post is to draw a few graphs to understand the variables that influence the need to hire more to your R&D team. Some are tech-related, while others are around how you take products to market and integrate them.

Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.


Customer Service Is a Choice
3 minutes read.

Seth Godin reminds us that the way you serve and support your customers is part of your offering. Do it right, or you might lose your business to someone who understands that.

Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
 

Jobs [sponsored]

 Looking to hire for your team? Promote your open positions on SWLW! 

Peopleware

Founders: It Doesn’t Have to Be This Hard
13 minutes read.

Dave Kashen wrote a post that applies to many of us. The "Preference v. Attachment" section is where most high achievers struggle to find a healthy place: "Remember, tension is a powerful motivator because it seeks to be resolved by its nature. Creative Tension is a source of motivation that leads to inspired, creative action. It feels more like being pulled toward an inspiring future than being pushed or driven away from an unsatisfactory present."

Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.


As a Senior Executive, You Care a Lot About Your Teams Moving Fast. (Thread)
4 minutes read.

Consistently delivering healthy feedback on execution delays is extremely hard - you need to be 100% serious and avoid any cynical commentary around it while being curious enough to handle the conversations around it. We need to celebrate failures and our learnings from them just as much as we do so for success, being aggressive yet thinking about sustainability. This mix, or finding the right balance, is challenging for leaders on all seniority levels and levels of experience.

Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.


How to Write More
5 minutes read.

Writing a cohesive Design Reviews. Writing clear and concise emails. Writing an interesting CFP for a conference. Writing a powerful pitch for a new idea. Summarizing your takeaways from a retrospection on a project. Writing a blog post for your blog or your company's blog. Writing can take you far. Andrew Chen will inspire you to practice it more often.

Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.

And finally, inspiring tweets...

@NavalismHQ: The ability to stay calm during conflict is a superpower.

@shreyas: Product operators who proudly pooh-pooh instinct & creativity (“it’s all about the numbers!”) often don’t realize that they have that luxury precisely because of the instinct & creativity of those who built that product before them.



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.