🧶 Calendar Sanity, Role Conflict, Daniel Kahneman, Hiring Well, Self-Selection Reteaming, Performance Reviews: TMW #245 by CTO Craft
Howdy everyone!
For those of you knee-deep in strategy and planning for 2022, as well as end-of-year performance reviews, stay strong.. There are a number of posts in today's issue to take a look at around these topics, as well as plenty of other posts to spark some critical thought.
Until we meet again!
Andy @ CTO Craft
CTO Craft Bytes
How to Avoid Failure With an Outsourcing Agency, Fri 10 Dec 2021 at 12:30 GMT
Glyn will be discussing common mistakes that both agencies and companies make when running staff augmentation or projects. He will also discuss how to identify and correct issues when they occur.
Reads of the Week
Your Calendar = Your Priorities
Share your calendar(s), and the world will know what you (and your company) values. Where does your time go?
How Daniel Kahneman’s Latest Book Can Help You Make Better Decisions | CTO Craft
Equal Experts' David Cox breaks down Daniel Kahneman's 'Noise' into 5 key lessons so you can improve team decision-making
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Culture & People
Learn To Hire Well And You’ll Never Lose
Show me the first 20 employees of a startup and I’ll tell you whether it’s going to be successful or not. In my mind there’s no greater indicator of success than the quality and characteristics of the individuals you’re able to bring on board.
Lessons Learned from Self-Selection Reteaming at Redgate
Redgate Software runs a deliberate reteaming process to respond to new and changing needs of their business each year.
The Product-Led Organization vs. the Engineering-Led Organization
The "value mindset." It is a concept I wrote about earlier this year. At its core, a value mindset is about expanding your perspective of what great product development entails.
Process People
For many years I’ve subscribed to the idea that in a product organization, there are essentially two types of contributors: makers and managers. Makers definitely include your designers and your engineers, and supporting roles like user research and data analysts.
Leadership & Self-management
We Need to Talk: The Science of Productive Role Conflict
My first major encounter with a role conflict occurred when I took on a team lead role. It was a critical project that required integration across multiple teams and functions and consisted of a few senior people who were pulled in temporarily from other teams to help meet the delivery timelines.
When Your Authority Fluctuates Throughout the Day
Most of us have answered the following question countless times: “What do you do for work?” If you’re like most people, you would probably respond with something like “project manager,” “IT support specialist,” or “vice president of sales.” But job titles are not verbs.
5 most meaningful questions to ask in a performance review as a leader
Meaningful feedback can come when we focus on these five questions to ask in a performance review. With performance review season upon us, a frequent question I receive is: “What questions to ask in a performance review?” I won’t lie.
The Round Table
Last week in a post about asking more questions, I mentioned my “round table of advisors”. A few of you asked me about this so I thought I’d give you a quick rundown on choosing advisors.
Agile, Engineering & Product
Product Sprawl
There’s a pattern I sometimes see at software companies, particularly those targeting enterprises or on the long march moving their installed base from on-premise to SaaS.
Road to somewhere
Leading a group of engineers toward a strategic goal is like planning a road trip.
Demos Over Deadlines
As an engineer, I served on many teams: some very efficient and functional, some less so. One predictive factor in the health of the development teams was time pressure. Too much time pressure inevitably led to burnout, poor morale, poor employee retention, and poor team performance.
That’s it!
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Have an amazing week!
Andy