SWLW #451: A manager’s guide to holding your team accountable, Dropbox engineering career framework, and more.

Heya,

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

This Week's Favorite

​​Product Lessons Learned: A Conversation With Shreyas Doshi & John Cutler
82 minutes read.

John Cutler and Shreyas Doshi are two of my favorite Product thinkers and leaders, so when they meet to talk and share their insights, you should pay attention. Nice tip: I've used huffduffer to stream this episode in my favorite podcast app.

Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
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Product [sponsored]

 Promote your product on SWLW and reach over 27,750 leaders 

Culture

VCs Who Never Built Anything Telling Founders What They Need to Do for Their Startup.
1 minute read.

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

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Dropbox Engineering Career Framework
8 minutes read.

Dropbox released their career ladder for Engineers (various roles) and Engineering Managers. Skim between the different roles and seniority you think is relevant in your career or your company, and share it with others. Which parts did you like? What did you learn?

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Hiring Is Hard. I Asked a Bunch of Founders Who Are Crushing It at Hiring What They Believe Contributes Most to Their Hiring Success. Five Consistent Themes Emerged: 1. Captivating Vision 2. A++ Early Team 3. Putting in the Work 4. Founder’s Network 5. Pitching Prowess (Thread)
4 minutes read.

Lenny Rachitsky with a great thread on attracting strong talent to join you. I love this insight when reaching out to your network: "Make specific asks. When you tap your network, most people make vague requests for introductions. You’re much more likely to get positive results if you make specific asks. What’s the specific persona you’re looking for? How many people?"

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A Manager’s Guide to Holding Your Team Accountable
6 minutes read.

An excellent post by Dave Bailey you should read and adopt. The section on "Transitioning to Accountability/Feedback" is worth remembering (Add it to your Anki cards, if you're into it) so you could delve deeper into problems while keeping a positive mindset.

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Jobs [sponsored]

Engineering Director @ Tessian (Remote / London)
We're building the world’s first Human Layer Security platform and we’re looking for an experienced technical Engineering Director to join our team.
 

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

Peopleware

How to Work Hard
6 minutes read.

"I can't be sure I'm getting anywhere when I'm working hard, but I can be sure I'm getting nowhere when I'm not, and it feels awful." -- Paul Graham takes another tricky topic and shares his wisdom. Nowadays, people often try to go around it with "work smart, not hard" and "find your work-life balance". I wish it were that simple, but life is a continuum, and we need to make our craft part of it. Something we're proud of, something we can get lost in, something we'll tell others about.

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Share it via Twitter or email.


A Life Well-Lived Is a Life-Well Planned. 5 Steps to Build Your Own "Life Map" Inspired From Building a Business (Thread)
5 minutes read.

I enjoyed playing with Alex Lieberman's framework of building a Life Map. My vision is to help software companies develop incredible managerial capabilities to scale sustainably and with grace. I sometimes struggle to imagine what I want ten years into the future, but it's easier to say what I don't want and make sure I take care of that. I then draw a few possible lines of interesting areas I'd love to explore and write them down.

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The Mindsets and Practices of Excellent CEOs
13 minutes read.

Many of the tips here are relevant to all leaders in the org, not only the CEO. I'd read twice the sections on "Organizational alignment: Manage performance and health with equal rigor" and "Team and processes: Put dynamics ahead of mechanics."

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And finally, inspiring tweets...

@JorgeO: One of my best decisions as an engineering manager: Schedule a cleanup release 2-4 weeks immediately after the set-in-stone, we’ve-committed-to-users, press-and-blog-post-scheduled product release. 9000% APR loans are cheapest when paid back immediately.

@AdamMGrant: Identity is a work in progress. Your past self shouldn’t constrain your future goals. Comfort comes from maintaining your identity. Growth comes from evolving your identity.



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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.