Karl Hughes

Karl Hughes

Writing on Engineering Management

Sayers vs. Showers

I’ve had the opportunity to work with many employees who struggled for one reason or...

Delegation 101

When I was first put in charge of a small engineering team, I loved being...

The Best Project Management Books

Being a project manager is not for everyone. The wide range of planning, financial, execution,...

The Best Management Books

Being a good manager requires a wide range of skills that often take years to...

Building a Great Startup Culture

I once shared office space with a quickly-growing startup in downtown Chicago. This company seemed...

Managing a Remote Engineering Team

Coronavirus has forced the majority of software engineering teams across the world into remote work...

Developing New Engineers

I’ve gone through a couple iterations of my hiring process here on the blog, but...

The Many Roles of a Startup CTO

“Chief Technology Officer” (or “CTO”) sounds like a glamorous title. It’s right up there with...

Say No

People will continue to request more of your time until you say no. I was...

Prioritization is Always Relative

When asking non-technical team members to prioritize their issues on an absolute scale I’ve noticed...

Roadblocks to Project Estimation

When I first published this in April, 2015, we were trying to obsessively estimate our...

Keeping Goals Manageable

It’s time for New Year’s Resolutions, which means it’s time for at least 127,000,000 people in...

The Myth of the Hero

When I first published this post in June, 2014, I was just starting to manage...