Steps you need to take now to prepare your company and team
Bloomberg Economics estimates there is a 53% chance the United States will start a recession in the next 12 months.
There are 4 major factors driving US economic uncertainty:
- The current and future impact of COVID-19
- Russia and Saudi Arabia oil price feud
- Uncertainty of Brexit and its impact
- US economic policy is highly uncertain given its political environment
Whatever your opinion is about the state of the US economy, there is a high degree of market uncertainty across the world right now.
“In times of uncertainty, employees crave clarity…. Once you understand a particular challenge and outline the options, you have to be confident in making bold and…
What low-code means, why it is important, who the audience is, and common use cases
A GUIDE FOR ENGINEERING MANAGERS AND TECH LEADERS
Navigating the murky waters of debating and selecting tech
For the past ten years I’ve led software development teams. Some of the biggest debates I’ve been a part of involved the frameworks, languages, processes, and platforms used to create, deliver, and manage software.
And How to Get Over Them
I’ve led software engineers for the last ten years. I have mentored or promoted around a dozen developers to team lead, management, and leadership roles.
In my experience, there are a few common pitfalls with new managers.
Pitfall #1: Failing to treat management like a technical skill you must learn
As with software development — in management there are frameworks, practices, even languages. Often new managers fail to dive into studying management the way they might learn a new framework or language.
You are effectively an apprentice manager. Even though you may be senior or experienced to others — your skills are the equivalent of a junior in your role.
The activities to…
An innovation framework for startups and mid-size companies
Last year I was sitting in front of a CMO asking him what his top priority was. His response, “More than anything I need to innovate.” He felt that the future of his company rested on his ability to create and execute a breakthrough idea.
Sustainable growth requires constant innovation — 80% of executives consider future success to be very dependent on innovation.
But at the same time, 95% of product innovations fail.
How can you consistently innovate when you fail 95% of the time?
Use a framework to reduce the cost of failure, while validating success.
“Innovation is a bottoms-up, decentralized, and unpredictable thing, but that doesn’t mean it cannot…
Guide for Startups and Small Businesses
Create meaningful customer experiences without code
Recently, Tiffany Zhong posed a question to a few no-code maker leaders:
Marketers are powerhouses of the low-code movement. Scott Brinker, a VP at Hubspot and an expert in the Martech ecosystem, says:
It’s about giving non-technical marketers the tools and empowerment to build apps, analyze data sets, and route data between different cloud services on their own, without having to take a ticket and wait (and wait and wait) for an expert in IT — or even in marketing ops — to do the work for them.
No-code solutions are giving marketers a way to solve their…
Focusing on what really matters: personality traits
The goal of this article is to help anyone better interview software developers.
I’ve spent the last nine years leading web application development teams. I have been a VP of Operations, Director of Software Development, Manager of DevOps, Project Manager, and Web Developer.
A Big Mistake
In 2014, I attended a Scrum Master Certification course run by Braintrust. I got into a hearty debate with the instructor around hiring practices. Brian Rabon, the instructor, argued personality and the ability to work well with a team are more valuable than technical skill. …
Google studied their teams to find out what makes them great
“Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.” — Michael Jordan
What makes a team good? What makes that team perform over time?
In 2015, Google conducted a study to find out what made their top performing teams. They conducted more than 200 interviews with their employees.
Google was openly surprised by the results, as they said in their report.
“We were pretty confident that we’d find the perfect mix of individual traits and skills necessary for a stellar team — take one Rhodes Scholar, two extroverts, one engineer who rocks at AngularJS, and a PhD. Voila. Dream…
The next four years will remake software development.
Low-code is taking over large companies.
The market for low-code platforms was $4.3 billion in 2017. It is predicted to grow to more than $27 billion by 2022.
Large companies are moving to low-code to reduce cost and increase speed.
“By 2024, three-quarters of large enterprises will be using at least four low-code development tools for both IT application development and citizen development initiatives.” — Gartner
What is low-code development?
The simplest definition is a visual approach to software development.
For Executives, Leaders, and Managers
Teaching people the skills of leadership
“The single biggest way to impact an organization is to focus on leadership development. There is almost no limit to the potential of an organization that recruits good people, raises them up as leaders and continually develops them.”
— John Maxwell
My experience has taught me that nothing is more valuable in a leader or mentor than the skills needed to motivate, develop, and engage people.
I’ve spent the last ten years of my life building software.
Over the past decade I’ve held a lot of titles: Project Coordinator, Project Manager, Build Manager, Manager of DevOps, Director of Software…
Matt Nigh
Tech leader in Seattle. PMO Manager at UW Medicine. Autism @ Work Advocate. Visit me: www.mattnigh.net
