I had an interesting experience recently and as it was new to me, perhaps you too can benefit from this experience. The meeting… Myself, my direct report, a representative from human resources and an individual contributor reporting to said manager. Frankly, I was concerned that there was either an egregious performance issue…

Introduction I am a self taught developer. I had the benefit of a dad who gave me a computer and helped me write some programs. The TI-81 and TI-85 and calculators were the laptops of my school days. I spent many days staring at the manual for that calculator as I…

Introduction The journey from being an individual contributor (IC) in software engineering to taking on a management role can be both exciting and daunting. While the transition may not be as dramatic as it seems, it’s important to recognize that a front-line manager plays a crucial role in shaping the team’s…

It is certainly in vogue to use metrics to drive management decisions. This is especially true in a distributed workforce. There can be no pretending my team is working as I stroll by their desks late into the night. …

The Importance of Unallocated Blocks of Time Introduction: Protecting Individual Contributors’ Time Individual Contributors (ICs) in an organization need time to get work done. Despite this being axiomatic, ICs often find their calendars filled with meetings, leaving little time to think deeply and deliver business value. …

Introduction: Embracing Processes in a Growing Organization I spent quite a long time in my career hating processes and actively fighting against it. This is a fairly acceptable approach with a small team and as someone who likes talking and saying the same thing over and over again. This is me. …