The Best Management Books
Being a good manager requires a wide range of skills that often take years to...
Writing on Engineering Management
Building a Great Startup Culture
I once shared office space with a quickly-growing startup in downtown Chicago. This company seemed...
Startup Working Hours: Burnout, Pacing, and Hustle Culture
When I joined my first startup almost ten years ago, most of the prevailing wisdom...
24 Startup CTO Interview Questions
Hiring a Chief Technology Officer (CTO) is a difficult feat at the best of times....
The Best Startup Books for Founders
As a startup founder, you get pulled in a million different directions from the moment...
Recruiting and Hiring Software Engineers
When I took my first real management role as Packback’s Head of Engineering back in...
Essential Reading for Startup CTOs
Being a great CTO requires insight and vision in both technology and business. You have...
A Day in the Life of an Engineering Manager
During the eight years I spent as an engineering manager, I regularly tracked how I...
Managing a Remote Engineering Team
Coronavirus has forced the majority of software engineering teams across the world into remote work...
The Evolution of Our Product Management Process
In 2016 when I joined The Graide Network, I was the first developer. With the...
Developing New Engineers
I’ve gone through a couple iterations of my hiring process here on the blog, but...
Essential Reading for Software Engineering Managers
Software engineering management is an evolving field with a growing body of knowledge, and thousands...
Employees Who Say vs. Employees Who Show
In the past few years, I’ve had the opportunity to work with several employees who...
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...
Knowing Your Startup's Technical Maturity Level
As a startup developer I’m always trying to strike a balance between pragmatism and optimization....
Roadblocks to Project Estimation
When I first published this in April, 2015, we were trying to obsessively estimate our...
Peopleware: All Technology Problems are Really People Problems
Two years ago I read Peopleware for the first time and wrote this blog post....
Trello as a Reading List
I first started using Trello and published this post in January, 2015, and since then...
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 Key to Networking: Keeping in Touch
I first started using a system for keeping in touch with important people in my...
The Myth of the Hero
When I first published this post in June, 2014, I was just starting to manage...
Dealing with Fear and Uncertainty
I remember vividly the feeling I got when I was put in charge of my...
Joining The Graide Network as Chief Technology Officer
After over 2 and a half years at Packback, I’ve decided to move on and...
Building an Agile Sprint Tracking System
I’ve found Agile to be a great tool for helping startups build software at a...