Advice

Whenever I need to hire someone new onto my team, I put myself through a miniature bootcamp. Here are the broad strokes. Know what you're looking for before you look for it. If you can't articulate what your expectations of this team member will be for the first 30, 60, 90 days, you're putting a low ceiling on the experience for all.

You could rephrase 'managing up' as how to work with important people so that they want to work with you more, not less. This is a key skill for career growth for obvious reasons.

Over the years, I have trained and coached hundreds of C-level leaders on their effectiveness. I’ve been surprised by how much time is wasted in boardrooms debating the details of certain decisions…

Hey there, Jordan here 👋. You’re probably familiar with most of my articles being a “how-to” guide. Those guides come from my real-world experience and lessons I learned—usually from mistakes I made. This article is going to cover the 5 biggest lessons

Wouldn’t it be nice to always be able to pick up the phone to ask for a job referral when you need one, no questions asked? Or to ask for an intro to someone? Or for support or advice on an idea?

Four questions to ask your organization.

Imposter syndrome plagues many software engineers and when I first started my career, I was no exception. I had just finished a computer science degree that was mostly based on theory and I had virtually no confidence in my abilities to develop software. Over the years I’ve managed to fully put my imposter syndrome to bed and you can too by following these three specific steps:

How to gather people and create communities in ways that are low-stress and high-payoff

When in doubt, maintainers should remember that they’re not in it alone. They have a community to help them make the right call. Read more about decision-making in open source:

A simple guide for Engineers and Leaders on how to leverage LinkedIn for Career Growth

Here are some projects I’d like to see funded, some through my own ventures, or others through alternative mechanisms. On these issues, the right person could have an enormous impact, whether through the research side or directly coming up with actionable ideas, including of course creating and building companies. More studies of super-effective people. Either […]

Vidalia Onions to be exact. They’re classified as a sweet onion, and because of their mild flavor (they don’t make your eyes tear up), some folks can eat them like an apple. Most of my customers do. During a phone order one season – 2018 I believe – a customer shared this story where he ... Read more

When working on Airbnb’s infra team, I struggled to grow from an L4 engineer to a senior/L5 eng. I came early, stayed late, and said yes to working on anything that needed help - I was as eager as a new grad could be.

Guest post by Addy Osmani, Head of Chrome at Google

Mentoring helps you grow, helps you grow others, and helps you level up. It’s a win-win-win. But, many people don’t know where or how to get started. This article will cover everything you need to know about finding someone to mentor and setting them up for success from start to finish.

My personal top 10, with drawings and a ton of resources.

Should you stick to what you know, or is it wiser to broaden your abilities? Maybe you should only take on projects that fall within your circle of competence, or maybe you should get out of your comfort zone.

Visual management is the lifeblood of a Lean production system. It provides insight across teams, departments & management.

How to use the power of narrative to engage interviewers with your design portfolio

Let’s talk about hard work. There’s a battle that happens on Twitter a lot. Should you work hard or should you not? David Heinemeier Hansson says, “It’s like you’re slave-driving people.” Keith Rabois says, “No, all the great founders worked their fingers to the bone.” They’re talking past each other. More

Understand the concept of a creative couple and how it works in practice

For the past four years, I've worked as a software developer at Google. On February 1st, I quit. It was because they refused to buy me a Christmas present.

I generated record sales by accident.

One of Product’s ever-changing artifacts

The Good The Bad and The Ugly of meeting regularly with your manager.

Mastering the Art of On-Call Management with Some Insights from My Own Experience