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7 min read

🌽 Good Micromanagement, Word Vomit, Two-Way Doors, Managing B-Players, Guilds, AI-Driven Docs, Illusory Correlation: TMW #436

Should you centralise code ownership?
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Thanks to Softwire for sponsoring this week's TMW - a full service technology transformation partner for fast-moving organisations around the world.

Hello again, it's Monday!

Managing Code Ownership and Quality Control

There was a great discussion in the community last week in which a member spoke about how they'd planned on establishing a code ownership group to improve code quality, and had faced resistance from some of the other engineers who felt it threatened their autonomy. The team had fed back that it had increase their anxiety that the group would become a bottleneck, face increased scrutiny, and that they felt it was an indication that trust in them would be reduced.

Suggestions from other members included piloting the initiative with a few teams, framing it as an experiment, and ensuring clear communication about the purpose and expectations of the new governance structure.

  • Introduce changes gradually and seek buy-in from teams to reduce resistance.
  • Frame new processes as experiments to encourage acceptance and allow for adjustments.
  • Maintain open communication about the goals and benefits of the changes to alleviate concerns.

Have you been in a position like this? How did you experience rolling out this kind of change, and was it successful?

The first of our Deep Dives events is coming up fast - grab your ticket while you can, and remember Campus members get in free!

Deep Dives: Managing Upwards and Sideways - July 1 2025
Learn how some of the best leaders build and maintain cross-functional relationships, influence and productivity with an afternoon of high-impact talks with practical, workshop-style elements - giving you tools you can apply immediately.
CTO Craft: Deep Dives

On with the links - see you next time!

Andy @ CTO Craft

Debugging the Future: Code Quality in the Age of AI | CTO Craft
Is AI a facilitator or disruptor in coding tasks? Glyn Roberts, CTO at Vention, shares his thoughts on the topic.
CTO CraftGlyn Roberts

CTO Craft Events

Join us in London on June 19th for an in-person Bytes session hosted by our friends at Softwire

Whether you’re setting a strategy or avoiding the latest hype cycle, this session is designed to help you focus on what truly moves the needle. Sessions include;

  • Luke Williams, Head of Engineering at loveholidays, will reveal insights on
    “Scaling Experiments and Customer Learning at loveholidays”
  • Yemi Olagbaiye, Business Development Executive at Softwire, will explore
    “Tech on the Radar: Balancing Big Bets with Small Wins”

Expect great conversations, drinks, and food - all thanks to the fine folks at Softwire. Secure your spot now – register here!

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CTO Craft Con - coming soon!

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Reads of the Week

Is All Micromanagement Bad? Here’s How the Best Founders and Operators Balance Details and Delegation
Founders and execs from Apple, Rippling, Carta and more share their strategies for altitude shifting as a manager.
First Round ReviewFirst Round Staff
The Platinum Rule
Not just great leadership, great business
Fish Food for ThoughtMike Fisher

Leadership, Strategy & Business

AI-Native Leadership: Traits, Tasks, and Tools for the New Era of Decision-Making - Barry O’Reilly
Explore AI-native leadership traits, tasks, and tools to improve decisions and lead effectively in an AI-driven world.
Barry O'ReillyTrisha Famor
Word vomit, second chances, and karate metaphors
A story about the trader who helped me recognize my communication gap and what I’ve learned since then.
Nuts and BoltsNatasha Jaffe
On Leading Friends
How to be a good leader when you’re also friends with the person
The HeartbeatClaire Lew
From One-Way to Two-Way Doors: Rethinking How We Make Big Decisions
How to recognize the differences between one-way and two-way doors. A way to think about risk and decision-making.
Scarlet InkDave Anderson

Culture, People & Teams

The Hidden Reason Great Engineers Quit
And How to Give Them What Money Can’t Buy
Growth AlgorithmDaniil Shykhov
How To Manage B Players | David Burkus
It’s the B Players who really keep a team running, here’s how to keep them performing.
David BurkusDavid Burkus
Building Our Engineering Guild: A Story of Growth and Evolution
Why investing in an Engineering Guild can help your org scale better, move faster, and stay aligned.
HoneyBook EngineeringBoaz Adato

Technology, Operations & Delivery

AI is going to improve your documentation... but not the way you expect
“AI can read the code” feels like the new “code documents itself”. It’s wrong. Very very wrong.
acmConsultingAlex McFadyen
Status ≠ Substance: The Dangers of Fake Agile Progress
Explore how developer burnout and ineffective retrospectives derail Agile teams—and what practical strategies can prevent long-term delivery damage.
DZoneElla Mitkin
Is Documentation Like Pineapple on Pizza?
Most Common Problems with Documentation and How to Overcome Them
Tech Lead ToolkitDaniel Idaszak
Avoiding failure before it happens
The power of pre-mortems
Incremental forgettingDunya Kirkali

Stress, Wellbeing & Growth

Illusory correlation: how to identify your hidden assumptions
The term “illusory correlation” describes our tendency to overestimate relationships between two variables even when no such relationship exists. Why do we do this?
Ness LabsAnne-Laure Le Cunff
In defense of shallow technical knowledge
Whenever a new piece of technology comes out (these days, mostly AI) I go to some effort to understand it. Usually I end up writing a post about it, so I can be…
sean goedecke
Burnout Is Real. Here’s How to Feel Better Without Quitting Everything
Have you ever been so tired you can’t even catch up on sleep? Like your mind’s full of fog, your gut’s running on fumes, and everything you…
MediumKashyap Joshi
Fundamental skills will always serve you well
Fundamental skills remain constant while tools and technologies rapidly change.
tsoonEsko Lehtme

That’s it!

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Have an amazing week!

Andy

Published by:

Andy Skipper