SWLW #425: Developing Talent in R&D, Three Crucial Skills That Leaders Must Develop to Become Executives, and more.

Heya,

I hope that you and your family are doing well, and you are able to find a new rhythm in this hard situation.

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

This Week's Favorite

​​No Meetings, No Deadlines, No Full-Time Employees
9 minutes read.

I've been using Gumroad for the past six years, and it's a great product and even better company. Sahil Lavingia decided to run the company in a unique way after Gumroad was struggling to raise their third funding round. I'm sharing this post to show there are many ways to build great companies. It might inspire you to do things differently, whatever that may be (not all of us want to build companies): "The internet has enabled new ways of working, but we’re just starting to see them unfold. There are a lot of different ways to make work work. Ours is just one."

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

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Culture

The Design and the Implementation
1 minute read.

My humble effort to help you start the weekend with a smile on your face, even in this difficult time.

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


I Test in Prod
11 minutes read.

I think that testing in production is the only way to build confidence in your deliverables. The question becomes then which tools and processes you need to have to make it sustainable. You develop it as a muscle, making it a habit you apply every day. Charity Majors's post will open interesting discussions internally to explore ways to get you there.

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


The Gardeners Dilemma
5 minutes read.

"Owning software is both an asset and a liability. It is an asset as the existing software delivers value for customers. It works and generates revenue. It is a liability as the costs to maintenance and enhance the software are ever growing and seldom quantified" -- Dirk Jan Swagerman wrote a post you should utilize in two ways: one is to look at the cost of maintenance at least once a quarter and come up with suggestions to reduce that, and second is to share it with business leaders. It might help them understand the liability side of code, and why you constantly need to invest energy and time to improve it.

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


Developing Talent in R&D
11 minutes read.

Payam Moghaddam writes about how Galvanize is investing in training their engineers, helping them develop new skills and take existing skills to the next level. This made me think about how we do it in my group, and sparked some interesting directions for our internal tools.

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

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Peopleware

Three Crucial Skills That Leaders Must Develop to Become Executives
11 minutes read.

This is where most people who want to increase their impact feel the pain (feeling constant friction): "As you grow as a leader, your scope increases, the problems are increasingly ambiguous, and the solutions are unclear. Though you might have the knowledge to tackle these challenges, you might not be prepared for the emotional ups and downs. The majority of my leadership coaching is to help people manage these anxieties and frustrations." -- Nikhyl Singhal with a great post worth sharing with people who try to get into leadership positions. You can prepare yourself better by knowing what to expect.

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


Building Principles (Thread)
3 minutes read.

I always enjoy Jack Butcher's visuals to tell stories and capture insights. I'm sure you'll like this one as well, so pass it along to your teammates so they can benefit from it too.

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

And finally, inspiring tweets...

@karen_meep: Your success as a mentor is not measured by how much closer you got your mentee to be like you. You should help them achieve their goals, not yours.

@Austen: Have been thinking constantly about Frank Slootman's formula for building a successful company: (1) Narrow the focus. (2) Up the quality. (3) Increase the speed. It seems to apply to so much more than company-building.



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 and my work by becoming a SWLW Patron. Thank you ❤️




Keep reading, keep learning.
-- Oren Ellenbogen.