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🥝 Employee Retention, Resume Screening, Focus Time, Ivory Tower Architects, Negotiation, Replatforming, EMM: TMW #316

🥝 Employee Retention, Resume Screening, Focus Time, Ivory Tower Architects, Negotiation, Replatforming, EMM: TMW #316

Hello, hello, hello!

If you weren't able to join us for November's CTO Craft Con, you'll be excited to hear that all session recordings are now live and available on the CTO Craft Youtube channel. The event itself was a huge success, with hundreds of people swapping experiences and insights alongside some of the best subject matter experts and technology leaders in the world, as well as our very first Unconference. We're already planning the next Con, and this time there's a big twist... Keep your eyes peeled for more information in the next week or so! (And keep your diaries clear at the end of May...)

Watch all the CTO Craft Con Winter 2022 recordings here

If you're not a member of the CTO Craft Slack community, you're missing out on some amazing conversations - there are now just under 5,000 CTOs, VPs, Heads of, Directors and more, exchanging insights and asking and answering questions. Some of the best community questions from the last couple of weeks:

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Any guidance on how we can adapt our QA process to accommodate a new B2B model? Has anyone managed to create an effective “UAT” phase (e.g. maybe getting sales to help test new features or something)?
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Does anyone have software recommendations for asset management of cloud-based resources, that can integrate with systems like AWS and Vercel for real-time updates, tracking, etc?
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What should the ratio between the salary of a lead level software engineer (principal/staff software engineer) and a (somewhat beginner - 1 year of experience) CTO be?

Each of these had 10+ responses within minutes - an amazing example of how giving and inclusive the community is.

It's free to join - just leave your details here, or drop us a reply to this email ☺️

That's it, on with the show! See you next week

Andy @ CTO Craft

Reads of the Week

Employee Retention Handbook
Employee retention is a top priority for most organizations. No-one likes seeing their talented colleague leave for a rival or, worse, burn out. As retention is such a hot topic, we decided to ask our readers why they chose to leave their jobs, how long they stayed before leaving, and what could ha…
People Managing PeoplePeople Managing People
Tech debt - the plague of digital businesses that never seems to go away - part 2 | CTO Craft
In part 1 of this blog series we reviewed the multiple challenges linked to technical debt. In part 2, we explore the alignment to quality.
CTO CraftPhilippe Guenet

About our Sponsors

Thanks as always to all the amazing sponsors helping CTO Craft bring you resources like this newsletter, our events, community and more:

AWS, Albany Partners, Code Climate, Google Cloud, iTechArt, Jellyfish, LinearB, Lohika, 101 Ways, O’Reilly, PGS Software, Pentalog, Skiller Whale, Swarmia, YLD

Culture & People

How Will Working in Tech Change in 2023?
Engineers remain in high demand, remote work is here to stay, and the best jobs might not be at #FAANG companies anymore. Other than that, this year promises uncertainty. #techjobs #techcareers #techrecruiting #DevOpsjobs #DEI
The New StackHeather Joslyn, Jennifer Riggins
What we look for in a resume
The resume evaluation process is pretty much a black box for most candidates. And it is so because few hiring managers have publicly discussed this. I thought I should start. Whether you’re interested in applying to our startup, I hope that my perspective can shed some light on what is happening on…
Chip Huyen
Three Tips To Help Software Teammates Ramp Up | 8th Light
8th LightPriya Patil
How to (Humanely) Get the Best From Your Teams in an Uncertain Climate
After high-profile layoffs last year, news of more companies reducing their tech headcount has already arrived in 2023. Within the last few…
MediumBen Cooke
Focus time for developers and everybody else
Everybody knows that focus time is important especially for individualcontributor levels. But also in a management role I value focus time a lotfor strategic work, research, analysis, and sometimes even just to be ableto process all input and reflect on what the current state and biggerpicture a…
Kore Nordmann

Leadership & Self Management

Avoid Being an “Ivory Tower” Architect: the Relationship between Architects and Their Organisation
In a recently published episode of Armchair Architects, the speakers discussed the relationship between software architects and the rest of the organisation. They detail how a successful architect can impact others by switching between going into the trenches and zooming into a tree and then being a…
InfoQEran Stiller
Women in tech: The best bet to solve Europe’s talent shortage
To remain competitive in technological growth and innovation, Europe must recruit and retain more women for the fastest-growing technology roles.
McKinsey & CompanySven Blumberg
The Importance of Empathy in Leadership
Empathy in leadership is about understanding others, acknowledging their problems, and inspiring them to go beyond their capabilities. Many companies now The Importance of Empathy in Leadership
The 6Q BlogTeam 6Q
How to negotiate over practically anything
There’s a better way to get the things you want.
VoxAllie Volpe
Internal comms for executives.
Whenever an executive joins a new company, there is an awkward merger between the executive’s preferred communication style and the norms that organization has already established. I remember a recently joined executive complaining that engineers weren’t reading his emails. He “solved” that problem…
Irrational Exuberance

Agile & Engineering

Traps that could derail your replatforming project (and how to avoid them)
Sophie Davies-Patrick, Chief Technology Officer at MPB, shares nine ways to avoid potential roadblocks while replatforming.
MPB TechSophie Davies-Patrick
No Deadlines for You! Software Development Without Estimates, Specs, or Other Lies
How to write great software for very happy business owners without telling them how long it will take you to do just about anything
Better ProgrammingDan Milstein
Platform Engineering 101: What You Need to Know About This Hot New Trend
Platform engineering is a current hot topic with a rapidly growing tooling ecosystem and landscape. This article reviews many of the important trends in Platform Engineering.
InfoQLuca Galante
Engineering Maturity Model
Layering
Fish Food for ThoughtMike Fisher
Your tech stack is not the product
Early stage technology decisions must be, uncomfortably, a means to an end.
hoho.com

That’s it!

If you’d like to be considered for the free CTO Craft Community, fill in your details here, and we’ll be in touch!

https://ctocraft.com/community

Please do remember to share this link if you know of anyone who’d like to receive TMW:

https://techmanagerweekly.com

Have an amazing week!

Andy

Published by:

Andy Skipper