Bridging the Ask vs. Guess Culture Gap at Work | Exec Engineering #111
Also: Human-centric principles for engineering teams, consumer tech team dynamics, key questions every engineering manager should answer, and cultivating sustainable innovation in tech leadership.
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Thanks for reading Exec Engineering, a weekly digest for the busy tech executive.
I hope this edition brings you value.
The Digest
Everything wrong with the product management job market. And how to fix it (James Gunaca / Mind the Product)
Hiring PMs in 2024 feels like trying to drink from a fire hose. The overwhelming number of applicants and complex vetting make it tough for both candidates and employers, creating a significant slowdown.
Entire HR Team Fired After Manager Uses His Own Resume To Prove Their System Is Auto-Rejecting All Candidates (John Sundholm / YourTango)
A typo was all it took for an HR team to lose their jobs. Trusting software too much when it comes to hiring can really backfire.
Dealing with teams with competing priorities and needs (Aleix Morgadas / Engineering Strategy)
When teams start relying too heavily on each other, no amount of restructuring can fix things. This case study shows how shifting to a platform approach can break damaging team dynamics and boost autonomy.
Can You Guess The Right Team Size? (Adrian Stanek / snackableCTO)
Teams: Keep them small. Keep them focused. Adrian Stanek highlights how small, diverse teams united by a common goal can solve tough problems with incredible teamwork and commitment.
7 questions I get asked frequently as an EM (Nitin Dhar / Medium)
Beyond bugfixes: Technical debt as business strategy. EMs translating code issues into boardroom priorities are rising as vital strategic voices.
Bridging the ask vs guess culture gap at work (Jean Hsu / Tech and Tea)
Shared context is the antidote to miscommunication.
"If there are no explicit expectations of how people should behave, work with one another, etc., ask culture people may ask for too much, while guess culture people are left guessing at what's appropriate to ask for.”
A manifesto for Human-Centric Engineering (Simon Holmes / Human-Centric Engineering)
Are we building teams for sprints or marathons? The manifesto by Simon Holmes challenges tech leaders to prioritize sustainable success over short-term velocity.
"Understanding systems and software is hard, but understanding humans and their relationships is so much harder.”
What It Takes to Build Products for Millions (Amy Mitchell & Wayne Chen / Product Management IRL)
Speed is survival in consumer products. With millions of users providing instant feedback, PMs must master the art of rapid experimentation and course correction to stay ahead.
Dialog
Read my recent interview with Mourad Zerroug, CTO of Splash (SplashThat.com), where he shared his perspectives on building teams, nurturing customer focus, and embracing failure in innovation:
Or you can enjoy this short podcast discussing the interview (courtesy of NotebookLM):
More reads
When To Do What You Love (Paul Graham)
Growth Means Choosing a Different Kind of Pain (David Cain / Raptitude)
Poets and Police (Michael Lopp / Rands in Repose)
Why intellectual humility isn’t always a virtue (Rachel Fraser / Aeon)
The real data wall is billions of years of evolution (DYNOMIGHT INTERNET NEWSLETTER)
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About Exec Engineering
I’m Yassine 👋 I spend a big chunk of my time digging into engineering management and talent acquisition, especially where the two overlap. I share the most interesting resources I come across in this newsletter, all curated by hand.