After more than a year of working on critical projects under lockdown people feel strained. It’s great to get the trust of the business to grow further. But I felt that the way we usually do that would create too much pressure on engineering teams. …

First line managers mostly get their team assigned to them. When they step up to become senior manager we expect them to design their organization. For many this is a new problem . The balance between Scope, Dependencies and Span of Control can be used to think it through. What to optimize for There…

Change management is a core skill for senior managers, but one they may not get to practice before their first senior management role. This short overview gives some guidance. Why we manage change In most people change triggers anxiety. That anxiety can range from small: “I wonder how this is going to work out”…

The big engineering teams we created in my department after a reorganization did not work as well as I hoped. I always liked Larsons writing on Sizing Engineering Teams, but felt I needed a broader framework to reason about team size. The magic number Team size is a trade off between interests. How…

Systems don’t live forever. But why do some last decades while others are seen as legacy after just a few years? Looking at the aging of systems gives insight into the nature of technical debt. Context and health Systems safely carry business logic through time; but they don’t carry well the context under…

How to pick topics as a manager or staff engineer I wrote this down because I find that sooner or later I have this conversation with every manager, senior manager, or staff engineer that reports to me: How to pick what topics to work on. Of course you can follow…

Organization design for craft reporting Craft reporting — the practice of letting individual contributors report to managers with the same craft — has many advantages. It comes at the cost of increasing complexity. What organizational structures help reduce overhead to make craft reporting effective? Introduction In smaller organizations managers end up with a portfolio covering many…

How setting SMART objectives creates safety and supports employee growth. — Expectations versus Objectives Expectations for a role are defined in the Job Descriptions and company Values; but those are quite generic. Objectives extend role expectations by making them relevant to the person, their place in the organization and a specific point in time. Safety Managers are not as clear as they think. The residue…

A short, hands-on guide for setting SMART objectives with your direct reports. — Planning Plan 2 1-hour sessions to set goals. It is good to have some time in between sessions to reflect. For the first hour aim to identify the set of goals (steps 1 and 2) and complete at least one (up to step 6). Step 1: Discovery The first step is to identify possible…