🦾 Tech DD, Age of Automation, Flat Orgs, Meeting Overload, Feedback Magnets, Momentum: TMW #243 by CTO Craft
Howdy! Welcome to the week
This week we'll be recapping some of the amazing Spotlight interviews some of CTO Craft Con's keynote speakers gave us - there's some real gold in here, so well worth a look if you haven't seen them yet.
Our CTO Craft Bytes event this Friday will be on the topic of Tech Due Diligence in the lead up to an exit - if you're in the process of preparing for an investment, IPO or exit, this is going to be a must-see.
I came across a brilliant, thought-provoking LinkedIn post by Dan McNeil over the weekend, which discussed the inclusivity of Christmas parties, drinks and other social excursions. Many of us are just not energised by this, and can feel excluded and embarrassed when they become part of the culture. If you're planning Holiday celebrations, spare a thought for the introverts and socially anxious in your team, please!
Until next week,
Andy @ CTO Craft
Spotlight Q&A with Consultant and Founder of Wise Noodles, John Le Drew
Wise Noodles' founder John Le Drew discusses avoiding collective burnout, why autonomy is key and the podcast that will have you in stitches
Spotlight Q&A with Mailchimp's Senior Director of Engineering, Tanisha Barnett
Mailchimp's Tanisha Barnett talks nurturing potential, advocating for yourself when no-one else will and how learning equals innovation
Spotlight Q&A with Wardley Maps Creator, Simon Wardley
Creator of Wardley Maps, Simon Wardley shares how to plan and implement successful organisational strategy by understanding your environment
CTO Craft Bytes
Preparing an Exit: Technical Due Diligence for Tech Companies, Fri 26 Nov 2021 at 12:30 GMT
The need to include an IT review during M&A due diligence is more significant than ever on both sides of a transaction. VC/PE firms, on the buy side, are looking to maximise the value of their investment. Tech companies, on the sell side, are eager to maximise the valuations.
Reads of the Week
Futureproof: 9 rules for humans in the age of automation
Do artificial intelligence and automation destroy jobs? This question has fuelled a debate between techno-pessimists and techno-optimists for centuries.
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Culture & People
Flat Organizational Structure? It’s a TRAP!
There are many change advocates that promote eliminating the hierarchy, including Pflaeging, Laloux, and Gill. It sounds promising, since many of the problems of low performance seem to stem from the hierarchy and the oppression that accompanies it.
The Psychology Behind Meeting Overload
Everyone hates meetings. Attending too many can be highly stressful and tiring, and both productivity and quality take a hit when employees tune out, become demotivated, and lose valuable heads-down work time.
Exit Interviews: 7 Best Practices and Precautions for Leaders
There’s always a reason for an employee leaving their job. Maybe it was due to an abrasive or under-trained manager. Or perhaps it was because they were looking for a role that offered more work-from-home opportunities. And of course, it could have been simply for a higher paying salary.
Leadership & Self-management
The Best Leaders are Feedback Magnets — Here’s How to Become One
Drawing from her career at PayPal, Intercom, GetYourGuide, and now as founder/CEO of Ascend (an online leadership program that empowers women) Shivani Berry shares her playbook for attracting more feedback.
Should we use OKRs for everything?
One of the most common questions I get about Objectives and Key Results is, “Should we use OKRs for everything?” If you read the most popular books on this topic you get a fairly consistent point of view: No, you shouldn’t use OKRs for everything, They are for the most important things you are
Would Your Business or Team Fall Apart If You Took a Month Off?
Bottom line up front — if you can’t take a month off without your business or team falling apart, you don’t have a business and you don’t have a team. “If you want to do a few small things right, do them yourself. If you want to do great things and make a big impact, learn to delegate.
Agile, Engineering & Product
20 Product Prioritization Techniques: A Map and Guided Tour
When I started working on this guide, I immediately felt the need to visually organize all of these techniques in a way that made sense and showed the context in which each of them is valuable.
Planning for momentum
For many engineers, planning represents the antithesis of what we love about building software. We relish exploring new problems, researching and designing solutions, and delivering code we’re proud of.
Campbell’s Law: The Dark Side of Metric Fixation
Summary: When organizations optimize metrics at the cost of all else, they expose themselves to metric corruption. Ultimately, as the Facebook scandal illustrates, they may fail their users and their business goals.
How product engineering teams avoid dependencies -- the independent executor model
What is the Independent Executor model? It is natural to need things from other teams. It can be tempting to wait for them or depend on them to provide something for you. This happens because they own the area you need to do work in. For example, you might need a team to add a field into their API.
That’s it!
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Have an amazing week!
Andy