Level-up Engineering

Interview with Radoslav Stankov, Head of Engineering at Product Hunt. He tells stories about him going from IC to Head of Engineering, the different stages he led through Product Hunt, the challenges he faces in product development, his leadership journal and much more.Sign up to the Level-up Engineering newsletter!In this interview we're covering:The evolution of Product Hunt's structureGoing from IC to leaderEvaluating yourself as a leaderThe effects of the pandemic on remote workLeadership challenges in product developmentLearnings about product developmentAnd more!Excerpt from the interview:"I have a technique that I call my manager journal. I write a log of everything that happens every week.This includes the general things, like what I was doing or what core events happened to our system. I also use it to keep track of what I’m worried about that week. For example, there might have been an outage, or an argument in my team, or some of my points didn’t go through.For example, my concern right now is the design system we’re building. My main concern was balancing its flexibility with performance. I write these in my journal every week and check back every month to track how my concerns have changed and to see whether they’d been resolved."Click here to read the full interview!

Interview with Tom Sommer, Director of Engineering at Redbubble about creating an internship program for software engineers. Tom tells stories about setting up the internship program at Redbubble and the iterations they've gone through over the years to give you a headstart at building your own program.Sign up to the Level-up Engineering newsletter!In this interview we're covering:Mistakes while creating an internship program for software engineersRecruiting to an internship programEvaluating candidates going into the programEvaluating candidates at the end of the programChoosing teams and mentors for internsStages and expectations in an internship programExcerpt from the interview:"Early on, we put the new interns into their own team, gave them a task to rewrite a system or a project for us, and checked in on them periodically. The point wasn’t to test whether they could do it, but we thought it was a good way to gain experience.It didn’t work out well.This is why we transitioned to embedding interns into teams to give them the full experience of working on a product engineering team."Click here to read the full interview!

Interview with Lara Hogan, legendary leadership coach and former engineering leader about building a performance review process. Lara goes into detail about building a process from the bottom up and takes a deep dive into synthesizing and delivering feedback to your direct reports for maximum effectiveness.Sign up to the Level-up Engineering newsletter!In this interview we're covering:Definition of performance reviewsSteps of a performance review processPreparation tips for giving and receiving feedbackRules to giving feedback based on a performance reviewSharpening your skills in giving feedbackSupporting your team to give feedbackExcerpt from the interview:"You want to make a performance review discussion a two-way conversation.I’ve seen people say that you should end your feedback with a request like, “Could you pick up more tickets, please?” I consider this a terrible way to deliver feedback that shuts down any chance of a conversation.Leading questions may serve you well in a toxic situation, or when working out a performance improvement plan. When it comes to delivering constructive criticism in a regular performance review, make it a two-way conversation. This is the best you can do for everybody."Click here to read the full interview!

Interview with Greg Dick, Senior Engineering Manager at Hudl about building engagement with remote employees in distributed teams. They miss out on a lot of professional and personal interactions, and don't integrate well into the team. Check out Greg's tips to learn how you can kickstart that process as a manager!Sign up to the Level-up Engineering newsletter!In this interview we're covering:Definition of remote employees and distributed teamsIntegrating remote employees to distributed teams vs remote teamsChallenges of managing remote employees in a distributed teamEngaging remote employees in the office chit chatEngaging remote emplyoees in team building activitiesTips to set up the office to better engage remote employeesManaging the return to the office in distributed teamsIncreasing retention by getting remote employees engagedExcerpt from the interview:"A few years ago, I had a remote member on my team who left the company after about a year. I asked him what happened and he said, “I saw all the cool stuff you all were doing in the office and I wanted that too.” It turns out, he considered moving to Lincoln to work with us in the office, but he had family ties, so he ended up joining a local company that had a similar culture to ours.This left me wondering how much of this is our fault for bombarding him with reminders and videos of the office events. These might feed his feeling of being left out. Holding events every few weeks was an integral part of our engineering culture, but you had to be in Lincoln to partake.Currently, we make our events visible in a way that if somebody is interested, it’s easy to find them. This is valuable to remote employees when they’re looking for times to visit headquarters. Looking at the calendar and picking the events they like makes this choice easier."Click here to read the full interview!

Interview with Michael Lopp, Rands about his time as VP of Product Engineering at Slack. He tells stories about the darkest day of Slack, the mistakes he made along the way and how he grew into his executive role.Sign up to the Level-up Engineering newsletter!In this interview we're covering:Leadership takeaways from SlackThe darkest day of SlackTactical vs strategic focus as VP of Product EngineeringRetaining your direct reportsCreating processes before they're necessaryThe experience of Slack going publicStory about telling the truthAnd much more!Excerpt from the interview:"I suggest executives in growing companies tell the truth as quickly as possible.It’s great advice, but this story is about how it backfires. Really, this was a failure on my part as a senior leader, and it flowed from this approach. If I get a question, I answer it. If you ask, “How are we doing on hiring women in engineering?” I’ll say, “Here’s the answer and here’s the data.”At Slack, we had a lot of data come in about hiring in a big spreadsheet. It’s data like the number of people hired, diversity in hiring, and so on..."Click here to read the full interview!

Interview with Mark Kinsella, VP of Engineering at Opendoor about what makes entrepreneurial engineers great and how to lead them. We go in-depth from the definition through the key qualities of entrepreneurial engineers, hiring and retaining them, and much more.Sign up to the Level-up Engineering newsletter!In this interview we're covering:Definition and qualities of entrepreneurial engineersHiring entrepreneurial engineersOnboarding and retaining entrepreneurial engineersNurturing the business mindset in software engineersCulturally supporting the business mindsetGiving feedback to engineersPreventing burnout for entrepreneurial engineersExcerpt from the interview:"At Opendoor, we need to ingest a large amount of data. Real estate data is public, so we need to process all that data to make informed decisions. We had a hard time importing MLS and home data because it was so messy.At the end of the day, a few of our engineers went to shadow agents at a different company who were importing this data. They tried to understand the customer’s perspective and what they were doing. They took the insights they’d collected, and managed to build a better data ingestion pipeline.Understanding their customer made it possible to build a faster and scalable tech solution. This initiative and creative thinking got us to the point where we could ingest more data with higher reliability. This is an example of why we want to work with entrepreneurial engineers."Click here to read the full interview!

Interview with Jean Hsu, VP of Engineering at Range about structuring, scheduling and making your remote meetings productive. Learn from her stories about handling an avalanche of remote meetings, and what she's learned along the way about transforming these meetings and supporting her team.Sign up for the Level-up Engineering newsletter!In this interview we're covering:The optimal number of remote meetings dailyMaking remote meetings productiveStructuring remote meetingsNecessary extra meetings in a remote environmentTools to support remote meetingsMeetings that don't work remotelyProviding a flexibility of schedule in your companyExcerpt from the interview:"This is my rule of thumb: remove status updates and announcements from meetings, and communicate them as asynchronous updates. You can use a tool like Loom for this. Leaders can record a short video message, and the employees can watch it at any time and leave comments.Use async channels with anything that doesn’t require discussion, or where you can start out without a discussion.Don’t rely too much on meetings; move everything you can to asynchronous updates. For example, it’s easier for me to reply to an email than it would be to find 15-30 minutes to discuss the same thing in a video call."Click here to read the full interview!

Interview with Mike Seavers, former CTO at Riot Games about building self-managed teams for high performance. Learn from a seasoned leader about making sure you have the right people, and coach them the right way to empower them so you can stop holding their hands. Unlock your team's potential and unleash them to do great work!Sign up for the Level-up Engineering newsletter!In this interview we're covering:Relationship between performance and autonomyRole of the leader in self-managed teamsDescription of self-managed teamsMaking time to coach your employeesMeasuring the manager's performance in self-managing teamsLeadership strategies to build self-managed teamsCommunicating your expectationsBuilding self-managed teams in a new companyBuilding self-managed teams in an established organizationExcerpt from the interview:"In a self-managed team, even the most junior employee is empowered to make a meaningful decision that affects the team’s performance. They’re not dependent on management to make all the decisions. No winning team requires the coach to explain how to kick the ball; the coaching happens before and after the game.Leadership’s job is to make the vision and the goals clear. In my one-on-one meetings, I always ask these questions from my reports:Is the company vision clear?Are the company goals clear?Do you understand what we’re trying to accomplish and the near-term objectives?"Click here to read the full interview!

State of Software Development 2021 reportInterview with John Ford, VP of Engineering and Country Leader at LogMeIn discussing emerging industry trends based on data from the State of Software Development 2021 report. We touch on the effects of COVID-19 on the industry, old and new challenges, hiring, retention and more.Sign up for the Level-up Engineering newsletter!In this interview we're covering:The effects of COVID-19 on the software industryTop challenges in software developmentComparing the perception of managers and engineersHiring and retentionPerformance managementOutsourcing development

Interview with Ellen Wong, Director of Engineering at Calm about leading partially remote and partially on-site hybrid teams. She shares her experience in hiring the right people for hybrid teams, creating processes, and handling all the day-to-day difficulties of the hybrid environment.In this interview we're covering:Advantages and disadvantages of a hybrid teamLeadership challenges in a hybrid teamPreparing your team for hybrid processesExtra support requirements in hybrid teamsFuture plans with the hybrid environmentKey skills to lead hybrid teamsKeeping the community alive in a hybrid environmentExcerpt from the interview:"I joined Calm remotely, and I’ve hired the majority of my team for remote work. My previous company was focused on working from the office, so we chose carefully who we allowed to work remotely. We came up with certain criteria, which I use when hiring for my hybrid team.Look for these qualities in your interview:Inclusivity and kindnessGood communication skillsProactivityOpenness to feedbackFor example, if they have issues conveying their points, and you have to keep asking follow-up questions, they may not be a good fit for remote work."Click here to read the full interview!

Interview with Ákos Kapui, VP of Engineering at Shapr3D. He talks about running an engineering organization in hypergrowth, doubling its employee count every year. Pick up his tips, tricks, and learn from his experience as he goes into detail on recruitment, decision making at scale, and planning while in hypergrowth.In this interview we're covering:Challenges in hypergrowthFinding the right employeesKey moments for a startup in hypergrowthScaling management as the organization growsPlanning hypergrowthPreparations for projected growthExcerpt from the interview:"Startups often don't recognize that the teams in the frontline should make their own decisions. The top leaders are far from the problem, their insight is limited, and their knowledge of the ground level work may be outdated. Micromanagement has its place, but it often leads to bad decisions.As you grow from 20 people to 40 and 100, you need to start making decisions differently. As a high level leader, your job is to help your employees make decisions, show them how to align a good decision, spot a bad one, and help them learn from their mistakes.Cities don’t involve the prime minister in details, and the frontline workers make the big decisions. The problem is that people lack experience in making decisions quickly, sticking with them, learning from them, and taking responsibility for them."Click here to read the full interview!

Interview with Taavi Rehemägi, co-founder and CEO of Dashbird. He tells the story of founding Dashbird, and what it took for him to go from software engineer to CEO. Learn how he built his network and found success in a completely different role!In this interview we're covering:How they came up with the idea of DashbirdChallenges of going from engineer to CEOEssential skills for a CEOHow his engineer background made him a better CEOHow he improved the skills necessary to be a CEONetworking tipsExcerpt from the interview:"A CEO has to continuously learn just like a software engineer. My background in engineering helped me with the following:Iterating different solutionsSetting expectations toward solutionsLearning from past activitiesTracking variablesThe first years of a new tech company are about learning what strategy is viable on your market. Your best bet is using data and making logical decisions. Engineers are good at this."Click here to read the full interview!

Interview with Gergely Hodicska "Felhő", VP of Engineering at Bitrise. We take a deep dive with him into leadership soft skills and his story about finding his weaknesses and turning them into superpowers. We cover common weaknesses, methods to improve yourself and others around you, and more.In this interview we're covering:Importance of soft skills in engineering leadershipEssential leadership soft skillsStory about building up leadership soft skillsPractices to improve leadership soft skillsCommon challenges for engineering managersHelping direct reports improve their leadership skillsIntegrating leadership soft skills into your engineering cultureExcerpt from the interview:"I had a heated argument with a friend of mine at Ustream, and he told me, “This is why I don’t like working with you.” At first, I thought, I’m just trying to find the best solution, but really I was defending my ego in that conversation.Moments like that made me realize that I should improve, and research why I react the way I do in certain situations. That’s when I started to learn about my psychological drivers.The first step I took was learning about personality types. This didn’t give me a lot of answers, but it helped me understand why others are stupid..."Click here to read the full interview!

Interview with Jerie Shaw, Senior Technical Program Manager at Shopify about building a remote onboarding process to suit the needs of remote software engineers. Coming up with new ways to get developers familiar with the job, keep energy and engagement high, and integrate them into the team while they're often continents apart.This is how Shopify deals with onboarding remotely.In this interview we're covering:Differences between remote onboarding and in-person onboardingMethods to integrate new hires into a group remotelyStakeholders in the remote onboarding of new hiresBreakdown of Shopify's remote onboarding processTracking the progress of new hiresMistakes when setting up the remote onboarding processExcerpt from the interview:"Solving problems together energizes people. On the other hand, spending an entire day on a video call drains their energy. Knowing this, we redesigned the onboarding experience to be active, synchronous, and hybrid.We give a group of new employees a real challenge, like ship a dashboard or build a data pipeline. They work on it together at the same time. We provide them with support structures like a virtual pod for better collaboration, and experts on the topic to answer their questions via Slack.This gives them a sense of being with a group and working on an interesting problem without being trapped in a video call for eight hours straight."Click here to read the full interview!

Interview with John Ford, VP of Engineering and Site Leader at LogMeIn about his management framework to turn around underachieving teams and improve overall team performance. Learn from his practical tips and tricks while listening to some of the stories from his decades worth of engineering leadership experience!In this interview we're covering:Assessing team performanceVelocity goals for a productive engineering teamFocus points for underperforming teamsPeople improvementsProcess improvementsTechnical improvementsA story about turning around an underachieving teamBonus adviceExcerpt from the interview:"My advice for engineering managers and leaders is to keep an open mind because there might be many reasons for suboptimal performance. There are lots of differences between companies in engineering culture, team history, management, etc.If you’ve been running your team for a while, and the performance is dropping off, the reason is often a lack of clarity around the high-level objectives. In this case, you need to link the product or company strategy to the daily work of the team, and to provide direction about the higher-level strategy. Consider these questions:What's important for my manager?What’s the team doing..."Click here to read the full interview!

Interview with Balázs Balázs, former Engineering Manager at Facebook about the knowledge sharing strategies he's used over the years with his engineering teams. You'll get tips, tricks and real stories from behind the scenes about how knowledge sharing works with real people, rather than how it should work in an ideal situation.In this interview we're covering:Picking the right methods for sharing knowledge in your teamThe best knowledge sharing methods in engineering teamsThe rules of using documentationThe best methods to help junior engineers growOnboarding software engineers to your teamMaking time for knowledge sharingTools for knowledge sharing in engineering teamsEncouraging engineers to partake in knowledge sharingThe key to Facebook's success in sharing knowledgeExcerpt from the interview:"Facebook has offices all over the world and employees get to travel to other offices for free with business reasons. As it turns out, software engineers are very innovative when it comes to figuring out business reasons for free travel.My team was based in London, and we worked with a team in New York for a while. We were struggling with effectively analyzing data. One of my engineers came up with the idea to fly our team to New York, and hold a data week, where the two teams analyze data together.I'm pretty sure that the motivation was to get a free week in New York. Still, it was the most productive week we’d had for a long time. It took a lot of preparation, but people didn’t mind, because the traveling made it fun.This is just an example; there are far more affordable ways to make knowledge sharing fun..."Click here to read the full interview!

Panel discussion interview with Sarah Milstein, Sr. Director of Engineering at Mailchimp, and Tanisha Barnett, Director of Engineering at Mailchimp. They get into the details of holding skip level meetings, let them be one-on-ones or group meetings.Here's everything you'll ever need to know about why you want to have your own skip level meetings, what they look like, what questions to ask, how to break the ice, keep track of them all, and much more. Master skip level meetings to become a great engineering leader yourself!In this interview we're covering:Skip level meeting definitionThe reason they started doing skip level meetingsSkip level one-on-one meeting and regular one-on-one comparisonChoosing the people to schedule skip level meetings withNotifying the in-between manager about skip level meetingsSkip level meetings' role at Mailchimp's engineering cultureKeeping track of the content of skip level meetingsSkip level meeting questionsIcebreakers for skip level meetingsSensitive topics at skip level meetingsAdvice for new leaders on skip level meetingsSkip level meeting storiesExcerpt from the interview:"Even though a key reason for the meeting is to talk about the manager, I don't want to support gossiping. It's a structured meeting that we use for giving feedback, not to talk trash behind people’s backs.When I get feedback about what employees wish their manager would do, I listen, but I try not to reinforce it in any inappropriate way. I say things like, "That sounds difficult," or "I understand why you want that," while I avoid saying, "Your manager really screwed up." I have to be..."Click here to read the full interview!

Interview with Jurgen Appelo, leadership speaker, writer and entrepreneur. He is an expert on the topic of managing teams to maximize happiness, which heavily bolsters productivity. Learn his tips, tricks and strategies in making it happen, and make your own team happier so you all win.In this interview we're covering:Connection between happiness and performancePrerequisites for high performanceCreate a company culture based on experimentationMethods for managers to learn their team's needsSurveys and measuring team happinessThe process to build a management system for happinessSigns of a happy teamMethods to engage employees to take action for their happinessExcerpt from the interview:"There isn’t one process to manage for happiness.The best way is to think outside the box and to do the things you enjoy and others might enjoy as well. Here are some examples of what I did as an engineering manager:I invited people for dinner at my house and surprised them with the fact that we would cook together.I put a bell in the office..."Click here to read the full interview!

Interview with Gergely Orosz, self-employed author of 'The Tech Resume Inside Out', former Engineering Manager at Uber.He shares unique insight into the process of hiring for a big tech company. We also look at tips to stand out from the crowd with your software engineer resume, and what companies should do differently to find talent more effectively.Giveaway ended.In this interview we're covering:The importance of a software engineer resumeThe goal of a software engineer CVHighlights in a great tech resumeThe resume review process in a big tech companyThe role of referrals in the tech industryWhy you get no response to your applicationRemaining objective for hiring managersImproving the hiring process in a tech companyExcerpt from the interview:"Before COVID-19, resumes were less important for software engineers, especially with a few years of experience. Engineers new to the industry have always needed a resume that represented them fairly. But COVID-19 changed the way we work, and it made resumes more important than before.The challenge when recruiting engineers, especially with a few years of experience, used to be to get them interested in your company. This was true even for Uber.COVID-19 unfortunately brought layoffs, even to the tech world, and resulted in fewer companies hiring. Now these people are applying for jobs, and they need to submit a CV."Click here to read the full interview!

Interview with Jonathan Rasmusson, ex-Spotify engineer and author of 'Competing with Unicorns' about the key elements of making the Spotify model work.Squads, tribes and guilds are the essential elements of the Spotify model, but there is a lot more to it. Leadership is the force that drives all the elements, makes the model come alive and deliver a great product. You get all the answers here about how that works.Giveaway ended.In this interview we're covering:Comparing traditional organizations vs the Spotify modelThe keys to effective engineering in the Spotify modelWhat makes the squad system successfulContribute as an engineering managerRole of engineering leaders in the Spotify modelIncentives to keep up developer motivationPerformance management in the Spotify modelHow to improve when you're missing deadlinesExcerpt from the interview:"In 2014, Sony came to Spotify to set up a partnership, because their music service was shutting down. This instantly became our biggest project, and a lot of squads started working on making Spotify work on PlayStation. I was coaching a team working on this.At one point, I realized that the launch date was coming up, and we were behind schedule. I thought we were in trouble. At the next all-hands meeting, I told everyone that the deadline was in jeopardy.In any other company I’ve been part of before, this would have been a big deal. Instead, the program director said, “Thank you for the information. We'll let the team tell us if they think there's a problem.” Then she simply moved on.This left me puzzled, because I expected the CEO and everyone else to get up in arms and demand action. This showed me how much trust Spotify puts in their teams."Click here to read the full interview!

Interview with Tim Olshansky, EVP of Product & Engineering at Zenput on creating a software engineer career ladder for your own team.This isn't a template you can just copy and paste, then forget it ever even existed. This is a guide to creating a meaningful engineering career ladder from Tim, who has been through it more than once.In this interview we're covering:Building a software engineer career ladder at ZenputThe first steps of building a career ladderPeople to involve in the processKey differences between the career levelsThe importance of experience in the career ladderThe transition to engineering managementThe role of engineering leaders and managers in the career ladderUpdating your engineering career ladderCommon mistakes in creating software engineer career laddersExcerpt from the interview:"The first four levels of the engineering career ladder are about writing code. Engineers on these levels do their part in supporting their team too, but it isn’t their focus. As they move beyond the senior engineer level, supporting the team becomes their priority.Either they choose engineering management and do one-on-ones, feedback sessions, and everything that comes with it, or they pick technical leadership, and help people make the right technology decisions.They end up working with people on the highest levels either way."Click here to read the full interview!

Interview with Ola Sitarska, Engineering Lead at Onfido about addressing diversity and inclusion at the base level: integrating these values into your recruitment process.Why do you want to put up the effort? How do you balance it with hiring the most competent developers? What goals are realistic? You get these answers and more right here.In this interview we're covering:The difference between diversity and inclusionHow to balance hiring for diversity and competenceWhat makes an inclusive hiring processObstacles in implementing diversity in recruitingFirst steps to make your hiring process more diverseHow to make your interviews inclusiveHow to encourage your team to be more inclusiveExcerpt from the interview:"When you’re running a business, you always want to hire the best candidates. Increasing diversity and inclusion broadens the pool of qualified candidates applying to work at your company.If the pool is limited, then your ability to hire the best is limited as well. You always want to work towards broadening the pool of exceptional people who may have gone through a non-traditional path in their career.My story is an example of this..."Click here to read the full interview!

Software engineers, like any other person can get stuck. Their personal development slows down, their career may not move in the direction they want to go to.Great engineering managers and leaders can do a lot to stop that from happening, facilitate growth for their developers and advancement from junior engineer to the senior level and beyond that. Get the know-how from Farhan Thawar, VP of Engineering, Shopify!In this interview we're covering:Differences between a junior and a senior engineerThe best way to level up coding skillsPotential career roadmaps in software developmentA manager's methods to develop the career of their engineersA company's options to facilitate professional developmentCreating a career plan in software engineeringMotivating developers to keep honing their craftIncorporating soft skills trainingExcerpt from the interview:"I was talking to one of our senior developers about a promotion. The next career level from there is either staff engineer or engineering manager. This person was interested in the staff engineer route.We figured out that to move up the ladder, this person at this time needed to have an impact beyond his group. Helping with building software for Shopify in a broader context is the job of a staff engineer. So this person shifted focus toward that.We checked in again after six months. He was doing well, and he was about to receive the promotion, but it turns out that he didn’t enjoy the staff engineer work. He saw how it would broaden his skills, how he’d work with other groups, and he didn’t want to do that.Here's what we did..."Click here to read the full interview!

GitHub versus Facebook feedback culture comparison with a breakdown of their key elements and cultural differences. Learn the secrets of a healthy feedback culture both on an organizational and personal level from Ryan Nystrom, Director of Engineering at GitHub.In this interview we're covering:The essential elements of a big company's feedback cultureGitHub vs Facebook feedback culture comparisonFormal performance reviews at GitHubThe benefits of a healthy feedback cultureCrucial elements to build a feedback cultureKeeping feedback usefulHandling strong emotional reactions to feedbackA leader's role in a good feedback cultureGathering feedback as an engineering leaderWhen to avoid giving feedback face to faceHR's involvement in GitHub's feedback cultureExcerpt from the interview:"When I’m encouraging people to share feedback, I tell them to consider their feedback a data point. I used to be nervous about giving critical feedback about others, because I didn’t want to cause trouble for them.As a director, if I hear one thing from one person, but I don’t hear it from anyone else, I consider it a small issue. I’ll look into it and ask around if others are observing the same thing. If I see more corroborating evidence, only then will I consider acting on it.No one is exclusively responsible for the consequences coming from their feedback."Click here to read the full interview!

Avoid the rookie mistakes engineering managers and engineering leaders make at running one-on-one meetings. James Stanier, SVP of Engineering at Brandwatch, and author of "Become an Effective Software Engineering Manager" will teach you how to handle one-on-ones with both introverts, and people who complain all the time, along with many more tips and tricks.The raffle is closed.In this interview we're covering:The goal of a one on one meetingThe ideal frequency of one on one meetingsOne on one preparation tips for engineering managersHandling challenging personalitiesDocumenting your one on onesCritical feedback at one on onesCommon mistakes of engineering managersWalking versus sitting one on onesOne on one meeting with a new team memberOne on one meetings questions and topicsDoing one on ones with individual contributors vs managersPreparing engineering managers to run one on onesHow direct reports should prepare for one on onesExcerpt from the interview:"Remember; venting to your manager is fine. Sometimes people get frustrated and need to blow off steam in a private setting. You should support this.If it becomes a recurring thing though, it's your duty as a manager to turn this into constructive energy. In this situation, you rarely have anything to say; you're just listening to a frustrated person. Sometimes you try to turn the conversation in a positive direction, but they just vent more, and you end up getting frustrated yourself.I’ve dealt with employees who were venting all the time. I’m a good listener, but it can backfire when I run into these people. The first time I had a team member doing this early in my management career, I had no idea what to do.Many weeks went by until I finally said..."Click here to read the full interview!

Building trust across the board and becoming familiar with the whole context of a company is a common challenge for engineering leaders and managers as they transition to a new workplace. Nadia Alramli explains HubSpot's process to set up newly hired managers for their role.In this interview we're covering:The challenges of transitioning to a new company as an engineering leaderHubSpot's engineering leader onboarding processThe idea behind the processDifferences between the leadership onboarding and the engineer onboarding experienceThe documentation of the processThe crucial factorsMeasuring the successAlternatives of HubSpot's manager onboarding processExcerpt from the interview:"Engineering leaders during the embedding process don’t have privileged access to information, nor management responsibilities. They’re expected to focus exclusively on doing an individual contributor’s job. They take the same training courses and go through the same engineer onboarding process as everyone else.Leaders and managers are switching between the different engineering teams they will be responsible for in this period. They’re building features, fixing bugs, and reporting to the manager of the team they’re working with at the time.The embedding experience is a great way to learn HubSpot’s tech stack, the product details, and the guiding principles. But really, it’s all about the relationships you get to build with the engineers. The whole point is the trust you build."Click here to read the full interview!

Learn how to build an engineering team that not only survives under pressure, but consistently gets better. Adam Wolff explains the key ideas you need to know to make your team antifragile, and shows you how they've worked out through his personal experience from Robinhood and Facebook.In this interview we're covering:Concepts of antifragilityInternal and external sources of stress for engineering teamsNecessary characteristics of an antifragile engineering teamAgile methods and antifragilityHow to measure antifragility in an engineering teamThe leader's contribution to antifragilityHow to make an agile team antifragileHiring for antifragilityExcerpt from the interview:"What I don't like about agile is that it's become more like a cult than a set of ideas. It has great basics, like the team should get together every day to discuss what they're doing, or to run development in a few weeks of increments. Agile also preserves optionality well if development doesn’t go smoothly.What I sometimes miss from agile software development is the longer arc.Agile can be surprisingly short-sighted. You set a goal, and you work towards that in two-week increments. It lacks the moments where you consider a black swan event and the monthly checkpoints where you make sure if you’re still building the right product..."Click here to read the full interview!

Learn the basics of engineering leadership from seasoned veteran and praised writer of the leadership world: Michael Lopp a. k. a. "Rands". Everything you need to know is in this interview, so you won't have to learn the hard way, like Michael did.In this interview we're covering:The biggest challenge in leadershipMastering the finer points of leadershipThe biggest takeaway from decades of leadership experienceTraits and skills of great engineering leadersDaily practices of engineering leadershipBuilding your influenceCommon mistakes in engineering leadershipBuilding a personal brand as a leaderDelegating effectivelyExcerpt from the interview:"Engineering leadership is all about your ability to delegate, and it’s hard to do.You get a big task, hand it to an engineer on your team, and you’re not doing the actual work. Maybe you slice it up into different tasks, and then give it to others. This is fundamentally tough for engineers, because we like building things ourselves.Leaders don't get to do any of this work. Management is a ton of work, but you don’t do testing, don’t improve performance, don’t do anything that’s been your work as an engineer."Click here to read the full interview!

Do you want access to the best talent out there in the tech world? Obviously. This is why you need to build your engineering employer brand. You aren't Google or Netflix, you may not even become them, but you can make yourself visible in the right way to the right people, and you can get them into your organization. Learn pro tips from Sarah Wells, Technical Director at Financial Times!In this interview we're covering:Synchronizing the engineering brand coexisting with the company brandThe challenges of building an engineering employer brandThe key elements of a powerful engineering brandThe tools to build your engineering brandThe first steps to building your employer brand in engineeringInvolving your employees in facilitating your brandKeeping your employer brand consistent across different officesOrganizing an internal tech conferenceThe results of investing into the FInancial Times' engineering brandExcerpt from the interview:"The Financial Times came up with a list of cultural values about a year ago that we wanted to demonstrate. I attended a workshop with people from all over the company to figure out how to demonstrate these values. Some key values were creativity, trust and integrity; I focused on creativity.I found it interesting that many suggestions coming from other departments were ones engineering had been doing naturally. The 10% days came up as an idea, but in product and technology, we've been doing 10% days for a long time.This shows there’s a fit in our overall values, but each department ends up being specifically focused on their own area. We write software and operate systems, so that leads to inherent differences."Click here to read the full interview!

Learn the top time management and productivity tips, tricks, hacks and practices engineering managers use to get on top of their endless mountain of work. Profit from the hard-earned experience of Matt Martin, CEO of Clockwise to become the best manager you can be!In this interview we're covering:Time management 101 for managersHow to do a calendar auditHow to use time dedicated to proactive managementMetrics of productivity for managersHow to develop team membersDelegating tasksHow to handle your emailsHow to lead meetings productivelyProductivity myths managers should avoidThe signs of good time management for managersExcerpt from the interview:"I've struggled with delegating effectively in the past. It's easy for managers at all levels to take on more work than they need to.The toughest thing about delegating is that you’re often better at doing a task. Usually, you get promoted for a reason. You know the context, you have the information, and you've probably been a great individual contributor.You might be the best person for a task, but that doesn't mean you should do it. If there's an opportunity to put a task on a team member, think critically about delegating it to them."Click here to read the full interview!

Learn the steps of creating a culture document for an engineering company! In this interview Rob Volk reveals why Foxbox Digital needed a culture document, and what impact it had on their day-to-day work.In this interview we're covering:What's Included and excluded in the Foxbox culture documentWhy do you need a company culture document?The steps of creating a culture documentThe impact of a culture document on an engineering teamHow does the document help to sustain the cultureHow to change your copmany cultureHow to check for cultural fitWhether it's better to hire for diversity or for cultural fitExcerpt from the interview:"We've always had a strong company culture, but early on, it was accidental. I hired engineers who I thought were great, and the engineering culture formed organically.By now, we've had cultural miss-hires, some contentions and issues. These are signs of a bad culture.So, we tried to distill the good parts of our culture down to a cultural document. The purpose was to be able to maintain the culture as we scale up."Click here to read the full interview!

Master these 3 leadership styles to build an amazing engineering team and maximize your own potential as well. In this interview with Shawn Fair, you'll learn how, when, and why to use the democratic, autocratic, and free rein leadership styles for optimal results.In this interview we're covering:The 3 base leadership stylesDetermine the best leadership style for your developer teamHow to train yourself to always find the right leadership styleCommon mistakesHow the leadership styles improve team performance and employee retention5 core leadership attributesBonus adviceExcerpt from the interview:"If you demonstrate both the three leadership styles and the five critical leadership attributes, your people will be more productive and more likely to stick around.If you become a leader doing all this to meet the needs of every individual working for you, you’re a fair boss and a rare commodity.You'll find one or two of those leaders in your lifetime in corporate America."Click here to read the full interview!

Utilize social engineering tactics to make your developer team stronger and more productive than ever before. In this interview, Olivia Liddell from Amazon Web Services shows you how to use social engineering for good.In this interview we're covering:How to measure the strength of an engineering teamThe definition of social engineeringThe process of using social engineering to build your teamExamples of social engineering in a positive contextCommon mistakes when using social engineering in managementHow to use social engineering with a new teamPossible conflicts when using social engineering on your teamThe timeframe to successfully use social engineeringExcerpt from the interview:"I used to work in higher education as a learning technologist with online courses for universities. I was on a team with 12 different program directors from areas like accounting and healthcare. I needed all program directors to give me information to get their courses up and running.Some directors gave me what I needed right away, but I had to track others down and work hard to get them to give me what I needed. As you might imagine, this resulted in delays, and I had no idea why they'd make it hard for me.Then I looked at it from the social engineering perspective. I started thinking about why these different directors would want to give me what I needed..."Click here to read the full interview!

Leading vs managing comparison, true stories of failures, shortcomings, struggles and solutions that lead to success in an executive leadership position. András Fincza, VP of Engineering, Emarsys shares his invaluable experience to tell you what you've never heard about leadership before.In this interview we're covering:The difference between managing developers and leading engineering managersHow to get direct information as an executive leaderHow to transition from engineering management to leadershipWhat new tech leaders should do in their first 60 daysHow to build trustCharacteristics of a great engineering managerHow to evaluate the performance of your engineering managersAnd more!Excerpt from the interview:"I felt overwhelmed. I felt I couldn't finish anything. I didn't feel safe making decisions.One night, in the midst of my agony, I started to write down all my duties, tasks, initiatives, and everything I couldn't finish. There were hundreds of items, and I put them into 20 categories and 80 subcategories. Then I buried my face in my hands, and the only thing I could think was, "What am I doing?"It was insane.I grabbed the list, and the next day, I reached out to my boss and mentor and asked to go out for a coffee or beer. He saw that I was upset, and I threw everything at him. The list, my feelings about it—I told him I was thinking of resigning because I couldn’t handle the pressure."Click here to read the full interview!

Clean code is the most essential part of building great software with your team. In this interview Uncle Bob shares half a century worth of experience and practical tips about measuring code quality, leading your team, having them write clean code, and selling clean code standards to impatient clients.In this interview we're covering:Definition of clean codeMetrics of clean codeConsequences of bad codeTips for engineering managersCommunication tipsOn-boarding to clean codeScaling with clean codeClean code vs deadlinesAnd more!Excerpt from the interview:"The underlying theme is that if you want to go fast, meet schedules, and keep your customers and your managers happy, keep your code as clean as possible. Nothing will make you work faster than keeping your workspace clean.One of the most important things a developer can say to a manager is the word no. You must be able to look your manager in the eye with all the empathy and sympathy you can muster, and say, “The answer is no.” You will save a lot of money if you say no at the right time.Never promise to do something you know you can't do. They will believe you, bet a lot on your ability to do it, and you will let them down."Click here to read the full interview!

You've just become a manager, and don't know where to start? You're close to a promotion, and want to be ready? It's unclear what you should focus on, how to get accepted, and how to streamline your ocean of tasks?Jeff Perry has faced all these problems, and he'll help you find the way to success in this new role.In this interview we're covering:Challenges of becoming an engineering managerMisconceptions about becoming a managerThe process to transition to managementCommon mistakes of new engineering managersNecessary skills for a great engineering managerHow to get accepted as a new managerHow to manage former teammatesAnd more!Excerpt from the interview:"Listening is critical for leaders. I struggle with this because I'm quite a talker. It’s amazing what you can learn when you ask a question and truly listen to the other person without interrupting or letting your mind wander.Here’s a quote from Stephen R. Covey, “Seek first to understand and then be understood.” We’ll understand more if we start by listening more than we talk.To help with this, I have an exercise the whole team can do together..."Click here to read the full interview!

Download the full State of Software Development 2020 report here!Discussion about the latest trends in the software industry, including the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic with Camille Fournier (Managing Director at Two Sigma) and Juan Pablo Buriticá (taking a break, running his consultant company, ex-VPE at Splice) based on the State of Software Development 2020 report.In this panel discussion we're covering:The effects of COVID-19 on the software worldThe state of remote workThe top industry challengesThe latest recruitment trendsAnd more...Follow our guests, Camille Fournier and Juan Pablo Buriticá on Twitter!

In this interview Steven McCord, Senior Vice President of Technology explains the ins and out of entering the role of a tech leader. This is how you win at your first 100 days.In this interview we're covering:Challenges of becoming a tech leaderEarly priorities when becoming a tech leaderFocus areas for a tech leaderThings you'd do differentlyCommon mistakes for tech leadersHow can a company help you transition?Bonus advice for tech leadersExcerpt from the interview:"You have to make sure you figure out your architecture. But you shouldn't rush it. First, you need to understand the business problems.Wherever I go, I build trust and culture around me. This is interesting in WhyHotel, because it isn't a tech company. Most people here come from real estate and hospitality. It’s a challenge because we’re from different worlds.I try to breed trust by making decisions so I don’t tear people apart. I don’t just go and question, “Why did you make this decision?” Instead, I say, “I'm sure there were reasons why we made these decisions. Let's talk about them.You need to prove yourself a team player. I believe as an executive, you have to lead by example. This is how you build the culture.You have to show them that you're open and transparent about communication. You need to be empathetic and you use your emotional intelligence before you expect it from others. I demonstrate my core values of being accountable and transparent to show my reports the way.Doing this is very softy-feely. It may sound weird from a technologist, but if you can set this tone and build trust across the organization, a lot of things become easier long-term."Click here to read the full interview!

Interview with Sally Lait, Senior Engineering Manager at Monzo. Their engineering culture is well-known in the industry for being one of the best. In this podcast you'll learn how to improve your engineering culture and what red flags to look for.In this interview we're covering:Key elements of a great engineering cultureMonzo's engineering cultureCultural on-boardingEngineering culture metricsBuilding your engineering cultureSigns of a weak engineering cultureDangerous behaviorsImproving your engineering cultureImplementing changes to your cultureScaling your engineering cultureExcerpt from the interview:"My favourite thing in the culture here is that defaulting to transparency is a key value for us. It doesn’t mean everything is transparent, but we keep as much in the open as possible. This includes engineering proposals as well.When somebody is looking to make a change to the architecture or to the culture, they write a proposal, and anybody in the company is free to comment and to share their views. This way, everyone can see what's going on. Everything goes through Slack, so everything is visible.Slack is an important tool from a cultural point of view as well. One of our senior engineers built the Guys bot, which pings up on Slack if anybody uses the word “guys.” It’s not an inclusive phrase.We've built these things into our wider culture by using our engineering skills to create tools. I love how these gently nudge people to live out the key company values."Click here to read the full interview!

Interview with Greg Sabo, Engineering Manager at Asana. Learn how Asana is overcoming the lack of developers on the workforce market, and get your recruitment process to the next level!In this interview we're covering:  How to build your employer brand?  Asana's steps to recruiting engineers  How to make the final decision?  Key elements to recruiting engineers  Top channels to recruiting engineers  Intern program  What skills and traits do you need to recruit developers?  How do you evolve your recruitment process?Excerpt from the interview:"We do what we call a huddle-meeting, where everyone who has interviewed the candidate gets in a room. Each interviewer has an impression to start with, whether they think the person would be a fit for the rule, and we all discuss it.The final decision comes down to the facilitator of the huddle based on the interviewers opinions. The facilitator hasn’t interviewed the candidate, so they bring a fresh mindset to the discussion. We train our engineers to facilitate meetings and make decisions collaboratively with a group.It doesn't have to be a complete consensus."Click here to read the full interview!

Handling conflicts and giving feedback are two of the most important things a manager needs to do. It has to be a given to lead a productive developer team. So we interviewed Tom Bartel, Engineering Team Leader at trivago to share some of the tips he picked up over the years he spent as a manager.In this interview we're covering:  Common conflicts in an engineering team  How to step in and handle conficts as a manager?  Steps to prevent conflicts  Rules for giving feedback  How to give feedback to help improvement?  Common mistakes at giving feedback  Bonus advice  How to get feedback as an engineering manager?Excerpt from the interview:"At one point I had a new developer join a team of senior developers. The new guy was a junior both in skill level and age. The senior team members were used to each other and worked very well together, but the new guy didn't fit in well.It was partly the new developer’s fault. Sometimes he joked around in ways that would annoy the others, and didn't take the learning opportunities seriously enough. When his first round of feedback came, it was mostly bad. He didn't see it coming and he was devastated.I did what I talked about earlier, and got them all in the same room. We had a painful and awkward but ultimately healthy conversation. Everybody got to name what they didn't like about the situation, let it be behaviors or anything else. It resolved some misunderstandings too, because often problems are just that.I also had a one on one conversation with the new engineer. My expectations were clear: he had to stop with certain behaviors, and he had to take some things more seriously.To my surprise, he did everything I asked, and turned himself around. He applied himself, and improved the situation dramatically..."Click here to read the full interview!

In software development when capacity is the problem, most managers think they need to hire more developers. But you can push engineering productivity higher by creating the right context for your existing developers.We interviewed Camille Fournier on the topic of productivity, to learn what she's been doing as a tech leader to keep it high in her developer teams.In this interview we're covering:Defining engineering productivityHow to measure engineering productivityChallenges for managers with engineering productivityOn-boarding for maximum engineering productivityEffects of mentoring on engineering productivityKeeping engineering productivity highHow to improve engineering productivityExcerpt from the interview:"Many engineering managers struggle with setting goals. They think about goal setting in a way that’s inspiring to their team without making it easy or pushing too hard.Some managers say the way to build a productive team is to hire smart people and get out of their way. I have never seen that work. It might work in theory if you have clear goals and if you motivate people to achieve those goals.Most managers aren’t good at setting clear goals. When you're always adjusting your goals, you can’t expect to just hire smart people, get out of their way, and watch them be productive.Most engineers don't learn how to be productive on a team without having experienced it. If you've never been an engineer on a hyper-productive team, you won’t know what it’s like or what you could do to make a productive team happen."Click here to read the full interview!

Scaling is a massive challenge for an engineering manager to overcome, let alone scaling in a distributed environment. Juan Pablo Buriticá had done it, and in this interview he shares how he managed to pull it off. You'll get his insights and actionable tips to overcome all the issues a tech leader will face when scaling distributed engineering teams.In this interview we're covering:Challenges of scaling distributed engineering teamsSteps of scaling distributed engineering teamsDifference between scaling from small to medium, and medium to large sizeHow did you scale distributed engineering teams at Splice?How to change a process while scaling distributed engineering teams?Your key takeaways from scaling distributed engineering teamsBonus advice for scaling distributed engineering teamsExcerpt from the interview:"Scaling an organization requires a lot of work with no tangible output. It’s about building a culture and processes; it requires a lot of attention, moderation, curation, and loads of conversations with humans. Humans can be exhausting with insecurities and all the stuff we bring with ourselves, because we're not machines.As a leader, that falls on you. I’ve done it twice, and if I had to do it again, I may use some shortcuts, but it's going to be different, and still a lot of work. That’s the first takeaway. Looking back, it was worth it, because it was exciting. It’s rewarding when you get it to work well, and I'm proud of our team.When scaling distributed engineering teams, be ready for a lot of work, repetition, communication, convincing and loads of complaints. Some people have followed me through teams. We agreed that when they complain, I ask, “Do you want me to solve this?” If they say yes, I do, but then they have to look for something else to complain about. We just laugh at that.I like complaints, because it's feedback as we're scaling. I've seen other leaders who can't deal with it."Follow Juan on his Twitter!Click here to read the full interview!

In software development it's more likely now than ever, that as a manager, you'll face the challenge of leading a fully or at least partially distributed developer team. It's a brand new thing for everyone, but Tim Olshansky, current VP of Engineering at Zenput has faced this already. In this interview he shares what he learned on managing distributed developer teams over the years, and gives you actionable tips on making it work as well as possible.In this episode, we're covering:Challenges of managing a distributed developer teamOn-boarding remote engineersBalancing synchronous and asynchronous workManaging distributed developer teamsMeasuring productivity at distributed developer teamsGiving feedback in distributed developer teamsRunning meetings in distributed developer teamsManagement tools at distributed developer teamsExcerpt from the interview:"I don't measure productivity specifically. It’s been a struggle, because the definition of productivity is a difficult one, particularly in the software engineering world. Is fixing a hundred bugs or implementing ten features better? What if none of those features affect the company positively?Firstly, I start by making sure we're working on the right things. If not, I try to fix that, because all the productivity in the world working on the wrong things is not going to get us where we need to be.The next question: are we working the right way? Are we doing things that are going to cost us in the long run? This is a classic technical debt conversation.Do we have the infrastructure to support the team to be productive? Does the team have to overcome difficulties to demonstrate what they've done? I try to assess those things and remove the impediments. Then the team can focus on doing what they like, which is problem-solving, and building new things.When all this is sorted, I look at the individual level. There, I see that if they say they're going to do something , do they get it done? If not, why not? Sometimes, folks need to be held accountable for what they commit to..."Click here to read the full interview!

Training engineering managers doesn't get the attention it deserves. It's extremely valuable to keep and grow your own talent, rather than get all your tech leaders from a competitive workforce market. We interviewed Matt Greenberg, who has gained years of experience training new engineering managers.In this episode, we're covering:How to make sure an engineering manager prospect is ready?Challenges of training engineering managersChallenges of transitioning to engineering managementCommon mistakes in training engineering managersHow to build a system for training engineering managersExcerpt from the interview:"People tend to think of engineering management as an opportunity to become a leader.In reality, accomplished engineers are also leaders; they’re involved in everything. You get opportunities to mentor and you have a say in project leadership decisions and technical decisions, whether you're an individual contributor or a people manager.Being a people manager entails all the administrative aspects of leadership. So, a lot of it comes down to hiring and firing people, performance management, dealing with HR or legal issues, finance, budgets and all these other things.I think a lot of people want to become software engineering managers for the wrong reason. Also, many people get out of it once they realize what they're doing. You should look at the end goal. Do you want to be a senior leader managing hundreds of people, or do you want to be an accomplished person on a small team?"Click here to read the full interview!

How do you build psychological safety in your team? Why is it important?We sat down for an interview with Dan Rummel. He is currently the Senior Director of Engineering at One Medical, and he’s held engineering and leadership positions at various Bay Area startups. He shares this invaluable insight with you on creating a workplace with psychological safety, so you get to understand his way of thinking and pick up actionable tips you can apply at your company.In the interview we're covering:Why is psychological safety important?The difference between psychological safety and the comfort zoneRequirements for psychological safetyHow did Dan build psychological safety?How to promote psychological safety as a leader?Excerpt from the interview:Leading by example"Leading by example is often neglected. It’s a real challenge for leaders and managers because their typical personality types can take up a lot of space in the room. I think leading by example means making space for others.We need to actively make space for others to chime in during meetings. It also helps a lot to show vulnerability, talk about some of your challenges, or throw out the occasional wild or even silly idea. Even if you know it will likely be shot down, this lets your team know you’re fair game for debate as well.Perhaps the most important thing to do is to admit when you're wrong, and not make it a big deal. Just saying, “I was wrong; you've got it,” helps the healthy debate and makes it comfortable to rumble through ideas and to find the best outcomes.The reason healthy teams produce better outcomes is that there's a diversity of experiences and perspectives that come to the table. When people can build mental models with everyone else's experiences, your outcomes get exponentially better, and you get beautiful results from those debates."Click here to read the full interview!

Working with a remote team has many upsides, but managing a remote developer team is one tough job to have. There are loads of challenges you wouldn’t have to worry about in an office, like possible time zone differences or making sure people feel part of the company. It requires a lot of attention to keep everything on track.We sat down with Katie Womersley, the VP of Engineering at Buffer. She’s managing many remote engineering teams, and she shared a lot of invaluable experience she picked up over the years in dealing with all the obstacles of working with distributed teams.In this episode, we're covering:Usual challenges remote developer teams faceKey elements to make a remote team workDOs and DONTs of managing a remote teamHandling time zone differencesOn-boarding people new to remote workRemote rewardsExcerpt from the interview:The dark side of managing a remote developer team:“Remote developer teams often have mental health issues that people don't talk about. It could make your teammates less productive, less healthy, and more likely to quit and go work somewhere in an office where they feel better. Anxiety and depression correlate with feeling lonely or being isolated. Naturally, when working remotely, people often work from home most of the time.Many but not all developers find themselves a bit more introverted, a bit more on the quiet side, so they’re not going out every day with a ton of friends. One thing we see is that the rate of anxiety and depression is higher with remote workers, so the most practical advice is to be very open in talking about mental health with people, because it really affects their work and their ability to be a successful teammate on the job.Remember, a manager is not a therapist; it's not your job to solve the issue, but it’s your job to be aware of it and to make sure your teammate gets proper help. Make sure they go see a doctor, go to a co-working space, get out and do some exercise, or get an actual therapist before it ends up becoming a real health problem.”Click here to read the full interview!

Mentoring is underutilized in the software development industry today. So, we did an interview with Gergely Orosz, currently an engineering manager at Uber, who has gained a lot of experience with mentoring over his years as a developer/manager.In this episode, we're covering:Mentoring in tech todayHis approach to mentoringChallenges in mentoringHow to build a mentoring programExcerpt from the interview:How do you think a company could implement a mentoring program?"I've not seen many companies with good mentorship programs and this includes Uber. It's a work in progress, but at least there's something. On the other hand, despite the fact that there's not much structure or best practices, I hear people talk about mentorship all the time, so somehow it’s working. It means that people really want mentoring and it has real value, but I think companies have a long way to go.At companies, there are two ways a process can go: from the bottom up, or from the top down. Mentoring has to be voluntary, so neither of them will fully work. It cannot just be fully organic, because you might have some teams where people mentor each other, but it will not spread to other parts of the company. You surely can’t make it mandatory.The number one thing that helps a lot is tying mentoring into performance. Good mentoring happens in a lot of places, but often it’s left unrecognized. The most obvious place to recognize it is when you have your performance review or promotion conversation. That makes it tangible. If mentoring doesn’t come up there, it turns into a side project some people will do and others won’t."Click here to read the full interview!

Software companies often grow quickly, which means developer teams often suffer to manage scaling at the pace of growth and necessary workload. We sat down with Rich Archbold to pick his brain on how they scaled developer teams at Amazon, Facebook and Intercom.In this episode we’ll be covering:Biggest challenges when scaling a developer teamHow he overcame these challengesFirst steps to scaling teamsHow to get hiring rightExcerpt from the interview:Common mistakes when scaling engineering teams..."I would say the biggest one is not putting enough emphasis on hiring for behavior and attitude. It’s the most expensive one too. Understand the team you're hiring for, and what's the balance you need to have in there.The mistake we made in the past is hiring too many juniors. Unless you've got two seniors to match every eight juniors, you don't have a viable team. I call it guns and bullets. There's no point having a lot of bullets, if you don't have any guns to fire them, or the other way around.Hiring 10 junior engineers can reduce the capacity in your organization, because your best people who were executing at a high rate, now have to mentor juniors. It takes a lot of their time for about six to nine months, and the overall capacity takes a hit. Make sure you understand the balance of strengths in your organization, and you're not just thinking about adding people, but strengthening the team."Click here to read the full interview!