Productivity Is Not Speed
9 min read
A fast engineering team is not automatically a productive one. The real test is whether the work changes anything that matters.
Read articleTopic Hub
Influence & Organizations
For managers, directors, and staff-plus leaders moving work through larger organizations.
Management, communication, accountability, politics, and how to move work through larger systems.
← All topics
80 posts
Start With This
Featured
Editorial pick
Don’t Fear Power
Updated:
22 min readWhy good leaders should stop avoiding power and learn to use influence responsibly inside real organizations.
Read guide
Then Continue With
Communication skills for successful software engineers
Updated:4 min readUnderstand how communication is an essential skill area for successful software developers on all levels.
Bad Managers Hide From Accountability
Updated:3 min readWhat accountability looks like in management, and why avoiding it quietly corrodes trust and performance.
The Art of Calling Out Room Dynamics
Updated:9 min readA practical guide to naming what is happening in tense meetings so teams can move past avoidance and get honest.
More in this topic
Engineering Burnout Has Five Faces, and Your Career Ladder Walks You Through All of Them
Updated:21 min readBurnout has a different shape at every rung of the engineering ladder, and promotion doesn't cure it: it just trades one variant for another.
Read articleWhy Your 360 Feedback Isn't Working
Updated:14 min readMost 360 feedback fails not because leaders don't try to change, but because changed behavior doesn't automatically update other people's mental models.
Read articleAI Is an Amplifier. What Are You Amplifying?
Updated:9 min readAI doesn't care about quality. It accelerates whatever direction your team was already heading. Here's what engineering leaders need to change.
Read articleThere Is No Standard EM Role
Updated:4 min readThere is no standard Engineering Manager role. The job is defined by your team's biggest bottleneck - and it shifts constantly. Here's what that actually looks like.
Read articleThe Finger Is Not the Moon
Updated:11 min readThe finger is not the moon. A guide for engineering leaders on recognizing when your ceremonies, OKRs, and 1:1s have become performance instead of practice.
Read articleWhat Actually Breaks at 30 People
Updated:6 min readWhen your engineering team grows past 15-20, what breaks first isn't documentation. It's that you were the routing layer and nobody knew it.
Read articleWhy Estimates Fail (And Why You Still Need Them)
Updated:16 min readWhy refusing to estimate doesn't solve your team's coordination problems - and what to do instead. For engineering leaders who are tired of broken planning.
Read articleYou're Coaching Too Much
Updated:13 min readMost engineering managers coach too much, not too little, and they often do it for themselves, not their reports. Here's when managing is the more generous act.
Read articleChaos vs. Bureaucracy: Pick Your Poison
Updated:17 min readMost software engineering teams swing between chaos and bureaucracy. Here's a framework to find the edge where scaling actually happens.
Read articleThe Work Moved: What the AI Coding Debate Actually Agrees On
Updated:11 min readAI agents generate 98% more PRs but reviews take 91% longer. The work didn't disappear — it moved. A synthesis of eight perspectives on where it actually went.
Read articleFalse Consensus: Why We Think We're The Baseline
Updated:6 min readWhy do we assume everyone agrees with us? A deep dive into the False Consensus Effect, the Availability Heuristic, and how to fix cognitive bias in tech leadership.
Read article
