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🍗 Managers Coding, Team vs Business Demands, OKR Retros, Distrust, Why Rewrites Fail, Chronic Pain: TMW #421

Only 5 tickets remaining for CTO Craft Con - get in quick...
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Thanks to LavinMQ for sponsoring this issue of Tech Manager Weekly - a Message Broker for high-speed communication that simplifies scaling of your system.

Hello there! It's Monday...

So, in just one week, we'll be back in London for the fourth CTO Craft Con: London, and it's looking to be the biggest one yet. There are now only 5 tickets remaining, so if you're thinking of coming along, you'll need to get in quickly.

Don't forget to use your subscriber discount - just enter the access code "Community-Spring-25" at the checkout to reveal subscriber pricing. Be there, or be square!

If you're not able to get to London next week, don't forget that Live Stream tickets are also on sale, so you can join the fun from wherever you are in the world.

CTO Craft Con: London 2025
CTO Craft Con will bring together over 500 Chief Technology Officers and other senior technology leaders from the most exciting start-ups, scale-ups, unicorns, and big tech companies to elevate their engineering culture in London, March 2025.
CTO Craft Con London 2025

That's it! See you next week, on with the links..

Andy @ CTO Craft

CTO Craft Events

Don't forget, as a TMW subscriber you have access to the Member Pricing for upcoming CTO Craft Con events.  You can unlock membership pricing by using the following access codes in the checkout when purchasing tickets:

CTO Craft Con: London 2025 - Community-Spring-25
CTO Craft Con: Toronto 2025 - Community-Toronto-25

CTO Craft Mixer: Gdańsk
Join our community of CTOs and senior tech leaders for an informal meet-up in Gdańsk.
CTO Craft
CTO Craft Mixer: Manchester 2025
Join our community of CTOs and senior tech leaders for an informal meet-up in Manchester.
CTO Craft

From our Sponsors

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Named after the forces of nature, LavinMQ is fast and powerful, shaping new landscapes for data streaming. LavinMQ distills the best features from other message brokers into one solid open-source solution.

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A huge thanks to all our sponsors and partners, who make Tech Manager Weekly and the CTO Craft community possible:

AWS, Albany Partners, Code Climate, Coherence, Damilah, DoIT, Google Cloud, Jellyfish, LavinMQ, Plandek, Skiller Whale, Softwire, Sema, Uplevel, Vention, YLD

If you're interested in sponsoring TMW or any of our events, drop us a line at partners@ctocraft.com.

Reads of the Week

Should managers still code?
Ah, the eternal question, straight from the mailbag.
The Engineering ManagerJames Stanier
RDEL #81: How does learning debt impact engineering teams?
Active learning during task ramp-up is initially high, but seen as invisible work. Code reviews saw social pressure to justify decisions, rather than knowledge share with teammates.
Research-Driven Engineering LeadershipLizzie Matusov

Leadership, Strategy & Business

Balancing Team Needs and Business Demands
How I navigated a critical team/business compromise
Level Up CodingSĂ©verin Bruhat
Defining our priorities as the CTO of a tech company
A blog about (mostly) computery things
“You need to be more strategic”
A primer on strategy for software engineers
Writing by Dan PupiusDan Pupius
How to Run an OKR Retrospective: A Step-by-Step Guide
Here is a step-by-step guide on how to run a quarterly OKR review complete with agenda, pitfalls to avoid and best practices
Jeff GothelfJeff Gothelf

Culture, People & Teams

Distrust Breeds More Distrust
When You Don’t Trust Your People, That’s THE Problem You Must Fix
Maarten’s NewsletterMaarten Dalmijn
5 lessons learned setting up a global engineering org at Google
Lessons from setting up a large global organization during the pandemic!
Engineering LeadershipGregor Ojstersek
The Post-Performance Review Guide No One Talks About, Part 2
Use this guidance to reframe and process difficult feedback, from dealing with managers who don’t understand your role to transforming frustrating feedback into opportunities for better visibility and communication.
logo-footer
Creating a Sense of Stability
How to help your team stay calm when things feel rocky
Views from the CanopyClaire Lew

Technology, Operations & Delivery

Secure-by-Design Delusions
The challenges of contrasting cyber with other industries and glaring challenges with Secure-by-Design desires
Resilient CyberChris Hughes
Sinking time into a bad product? Here’s when to pull the plug.
Product failure isn’t the biggest waste—waiting too long to walk away is. Learn when to call it quits, reclaim your resources, and refocus on what matters.
Test Double company logoDion Utt
You can’t stop the business, or why rewrites fail | Swizec Teller
Rewriting code isn’t a magic fix-all. Consider the opportunity cost, complexity of the old system, and estimation challenges. Instead of stopping all to rewrite or building new while maintaining the old, try incremental improvements and new code adoption.
Swizec Teller
Agile & Multitasking: Escape the Busyness Trap
Looking for ways to help your agile team get more done, faster? Start by examining the multitasking habits of individuals, teams, and the organization.
Mountain Goat SoftwareMike Cohn

Stress, Wellbeing & Growth

Programming With Chronic Pain | Thomas Vogelaar
The challenges of programming with chronic pain and what worked for me
Thomas VogelaarThomas Vogelaar
Feedback
How to receive it and what to do with it
Fish Food for ThoughtMike Fisher
The First 90 Days: Building Psychological Safety as a New Manager
A practical guide to creating trust and openness in your team from day one
Management MattersKevin LAI
How to Run Toward the Battle - Leadership Freak
I’ve talked with many leaders who were confused, angry, and ready to quit. Sometimes I say, “Well, isn’t this exciting.” My smile confuses them. Some disagree. Others think I don’t get it. Leaders run toward the battle, not away. Perceived capacity governs response.
Leadership FreakDan Rockwell

That’s it!

If you’d like to be considered for the free CTO Craft Community, fill in your details here, and we’ll be in touch!

https://ctocraft.com/community

Please do remember to share this link if you know of anyone who’d like to receive TMW:

https://techmanagerweekly.com

Have an amazing week!

Andy

Published by:

Andy Skipper