SWLW #469: Time management for Makers, Persistent Models vs. Point-In-Time Goals, and more.

Heya,

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

This Week's Favorite

​​Persistent Models vs. Point-In-Time Goals
4 minutes read.

John Cutler with another excellent post that helped me figure out the time horizon to aim for when setting a strategy and thinking of OKRs. Can we use it to set a North Star for the department and not only for the company? Can we define the inputs properly? Should we focus on business inputs? Technical inputs? Who can help us validate it?

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

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Culture

This Is the Best Metaphor for Machine Learning I Have Ever Seen
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.


A New Way to Think About Product-Market Fit
4 minutes read.

Erez Druk provides a constructive framing into Product-Market Fit that I'd share with the team. It can help explain specific actions the company is taking to people with less business experience. This is true not only for early-stage startups. Bigger companies often launch new products, looking for PMF (with some advantage, of course.) This post can serve the team as a new language to use when figuring out the current phase of the product.

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


How to Influence Attitudes on Your Team for Better Results
4 minutes read.

If you're a technical leader, Tim Reynolds's post will challenge the "autopilot mode" you might have today when reacting to different situations the team is dealing with. Map the type of efforts you're leading today - Do you add energy or reduce energy? What would you like to improve knowing that it hurts the team?

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


How We Measure Backstage Success at Spotify
5 minutes read.

Measuring the adoption and usefulness of internal tools to optimize the organization's productivity and efficiency is extremely hard. Share it in your organization and discuss which metrics you'd like to optimize for. How do you know which metrics to focus on? When will you change them?

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

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Peopleware

Time Management for Makers
7 minutes read.

David Noël-Romas shares 7 practical ways for you to better manage your time and energy. "Paying themselves first" is golden: "engineers who understand the extralinear benefit of continued un-interruption can schedule their focus time first, far in advance of other demands which might come up. (It is never too late to start this practice! If your calendar is full right now, it is probably empty next month or the month after.)"

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


Want to Accelerate Your Career? Write Better. The Principles of Powerful Business Writing (Thread)
4 minutes read.

Take 3 ideas from Sahil Bloom and practice them the next time you write. You can practice some of these ideas daily: responding to a customer's ticket, helping others out over Slack, summarizing a meeting, sharing a new concept with the team, etc.

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


How I Got My Brain Back: Using Observation, Investigation, and Productivity Methods to Understand My Depression
12 minutes read.

Brie Wolfson shares a personal story of how she dealt with depression, putting the "debugging mode" on until she could find ways to recover. Brave and important read. I found myself feeling low during the past 18 months, like many others. Being open about it and talking with family, friends, and teammates made me feel that I have others who care about me.

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

And finally, inspiring tweets...

@kelseyhightower: Automation tools don't reduce cloud complexity, they embrace it.

@lilykonings: The shift in 1:1s with I replaced "How's everything going?" with "What's one thing that could be better?" is bonkers. This is the difference between being open to feedback and seeking feedback.



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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.