Why writing is important in #EngineeringManagement and how to improve it? Tips from Erica Greene at @Etsy@codeascraft to improve your team’s and your own writing skills.
Make sure everyone in your team has a clear understanding of the different types of documents you regularly work with. This puts you all on the same page.
2. Provide templates
Provide templates for the different documents you expect your team members to write. A high level overview of the necessary contents, and a clear structure to follow can fit on just one page. Use it as a learning material and a reference point for your team.
3. Show your team: writing is real work
Engineers often treat writing as if it was an unnecessary task to get out of the way before they can get to coding.
Make sure your team understands that writing documents is just as important as writing code; at times even more so.
Do you want more tips to help your team or to improve your own writing skills as a leader?
New podcast with @patkua 🔥
Some key concepts of systems thinking:
1. Emergent behavior
The main point of systems thinking is finding emergent behavior in systems; properties that no one part possesses alone. Understanding this can help you work better with complex systems.
2. Feedback loops
Feedback loops are basically the communication channels of any system. You need to be aware of the ones that are present, their speed, and that you can often adjust them or create new ones. They’re a key element when it comes to influencing a system.
3. Applying systems thinking to leadership
Teams are systems. Organizations are even bigger systems. Systems thinking can be extremely useful when it comes to figuring out leadership challenges. You can be a great leader without it, but it can be a powerful tool in your arsenal.
@ProductHunt’s unbelievable journey shared by the one and only @rstankov who has been successfully scaling teams and products since the very beginning🤙🤙
When you make the switch to management, you need to start from scratch. It’s a new career, and you need to use all your previous experiences in a new context. Rado tells some of his stories about facing this problem.
Write a journal to track your progress
You can write a manager journal to track your effectiveness as a leader. Note all your thoughts and important events. You can go through it weekly, as you plan the next week, and review it monthly, to see if there are recurring problems.
Set clear goals for everyone
Including the program and the interns. Do you want to provide industry insight to your interns, or are you scouting the next Elon Musk? What do they have to do to get hired? Find these answers before moving forward.
Set the bar going in
Most companies can support interns who are fresh out of college, bootcamp, or have real coding experience. Many companies can’t support interns who have never seen code. There’s a wide range in-between, make sure to find the sweet spot for your company.
Remote engineers are cut off from their team. It’s even worse when the rest of the team is in an office together. The remote person misses out on a lot of interactions, and the team isn’t motivated to include them because they have each other at hand.
Here are some takeaways from the interview:
1. Move conversations to Slack
You might think, “Sounds great, but GL pulling it off.” There is a way, but you need to be very intentional about it. Start by moving professional conversations to Slack, and go from there.
It’s not a sexy story. Once you’re a VP, you’re a VP, right? Well, it takes time to learn to be an executive. It took Rands about 3 years, so you likely won’t be able to figure out a completely new role in 3 hours.
2. Tell the truth ASAP
Always tell the truth quickly. However, handing out random facts isn’t helpful. You need to examine them, put them into context, and tell a story about what you can learn from them.
Always tell the truth asap, but don’t “YOLO the comms.”
1. Entrepreneurial engineering is built on tech expertise
Business-minded engineers need strong technical skills to be able to find and build the right solutions. Mid- to senior level is a must. Let junior engineers focus on the technical side.
2. Creativity and collaboration are must-haves
They need creative and critical thinking to come up with technical solutions to complex customer and business problems. Collaboration is equally important, as they need to work with people focusing on different areas of the problem.