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“The single most important thing we can do to write better documents and give better speeches is to write them first, and then reread them from the audience’s perspective. It seems like such an obvious thing to do, but doesn’t happen enough in practice.”
― Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
― Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
“When writing, you own the material. It’s a thinking exercise as much as a writing exercise. It forces you to work through the problem as you attempt to translate the information in your head onto paper.”
― Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
― Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
“When people talk about “good” managers, they are likely referring to people who show care and appreciation for people’s values, and also respect their boundaries.”
― Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
― Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
“Being overwhelmed with options, decisions, and meetings doesn’t happen all at once either. Typically this type of bombardment is cumulative. This means it’s pertinent to work prioritization into your everyday life.”
― Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
― Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
“A bit of technical debt is natural, particularly at smaller companies where it makes more fiscal sense to move quickly; but there are some points where technical debt becomes crippling for development and releases, and makes a codebase unstable.”
― Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
― Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
“Where you invest your time is not just about what you value, but also what you don’t value. At the very least, we want to make our time investments align with our values as much as possible, and to be intentional. This starts with looking at the big picture and then refining until we reach what we do on the day-to-day.”
― Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
― Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
“When a person feels that their work is valued, that they have a North Star purpose both for their personal growth and for wider impact with the people and industry, it’s an incredibly powerful thing. Knowing that what you’re doing day to day is meaningful, that small tasks accumulate to a larger goal, and that you have a path forward can be extremely motivating and drive us with resilience past obstacles, into a greater outcome.”
― Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
― Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
“Your job is now to align people to the outcomes instead of tactical details of how to get something done.”
― Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
― Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
“Values are the fundamental beliefs that guide us, motivate us, and drive our actions. Values describe the qualities we want most to embody. They help us determine what is important, help us understand what we essentially align with. They help us determine what kind of person we want to be.”
― Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
― Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
“Any system for metrics is going to be flawed for a few reasons: we can’t see into the future, we can only evaluate the past, and the industry shifts rapidly. So depending on the space we’re in, we may have to adjust at times. But OKRs are still valuable to understand and evaluate progress.”
― Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
― Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
“A company is composed of groups, but those groups can only be successful if they’re working together, not if they are protecting their own group at all costs.”
― Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
― Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
“People are not pure functions; they have all sorts of interesting side effects.”
― Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
― Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
“It’s important to find joy in small moments. They needn’t be an extravagant vacation or a decadent cake (though those can be amazing too!). They can be as simple as stretching in between meetings, or spending a few moments gazing out the window and looking at the light, and even as silly as making up dumb jokes to share. Every moment is an opportunity for rest and joy.”
― Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
― Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
“Working to understand values isn’t a silver bullet to solving every problem, but it affords us a deeper sense of where to start when building understanding and trust within a group. Unpacking a person’s values with them can also help us understand what drives and motivates them. And, the core of working well together is mutual understanding.”
― Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
― Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
“The very word “conflict” evokes people at battle, opposing forces. But not all conflict is negative. Conflict can illuminate risks, allow us to collaborate and improve processes, and affect positive change. The key is to continue to provide clarity, and usher folks toward productive conflict that is devoid of personal attacks, and focused on the larger goals.”
― Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
― Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
“We need to care for the team both on the individual level and by stepping back and seeing the team as an ecosystem.”
― Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
― Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
“Belonging is a core tenet of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs4 because humans are designed for connectedness and kinship.”
― Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
― Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
“Conflict is actually a very necessary and healthy part of a productive working environment. Why? Because we work best together when we’re all learning from one another, and that can’t happen without some disagreement along the way.”
― Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
― Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
“Values don’t offer something to fix, or an action to take; they provide us context so that we can be more understanding of what is happening and why.”
― Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
― Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
“Trust is built in drops and lost in buckets” —Kevin Plank, founder of Under Armour”
― Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
― Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
“to give good feedback that actually helps an individual or team grow, it’s pertinent that they don’t feel threatened and feel that it’s coming from a place of care.”
― Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
― Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
“Mastery has no fixed state or prerequisite. Your brain can literally grow and adapt with challenges. In The Happiness Advantage, Shawn Achor refers to a study that showed that London cab drivers had a larger hippocampus (the part of the brain that’s devoted to spatial memory) due to the complexity of London’s streets.”
― Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
― Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
“Our job as engineering managers is to create an environment where people can feel like they’re getting their best work done.”
― Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
― Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
“jessikovalik.com25”
― Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
― Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
“One of the most-valuable skills one can possess as a manager is to help your team scope down large, ambitious, abstract work into more manageable pieces, and often the smaller the units the better. Why the emphasis on something as seemingly trivial as size? For many reasons, but here are some of the most pertinent: It’s easier on reviewers. It’s easier to test. It’s easier to iterate.”
― Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
― Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
“In the field of psychology, the Pygmalion effect24 is the name for the concept of how high expectations from those around us lead to better performance, and low expectations lead to the opposite, becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. Surrounding yourself with people who support you is very important. There are many methods of support. Some people support by loving protectively and fiercely. Some people support by reminding you of your worth. Some people support by being available to play Fortnite and drink whiskey. Seek out folks who act without jealousy, and make sure you support them too.”
― Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
― Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
“Values provide context to a person’s mental state, needs, and motivations. In practice, understanding the values of your team members becomes a useful tool to evaluate and drive your own empathy. You may have different values, so unless you actively seek to understand another person’s point of view, it’s possible to be bound by your own context and limitations.”
― Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
― Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
“The nature of our work means that we are constantly supporting others, and it can be easy to overextend and sacrifice ourselves for other people. If you’re the kind of person who typically puts others before themselves, it can be hard to create healthy boundaries, as it can feel selfish. But setting boundaries for ourselves helps us support others.”
― Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
― Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
“Coined in 1975 by psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, flow state is the phenomenon in which a person is fully immersed in an activity that leads to focus, energized involvement, and enjoyment. A person in flow state is no longer thinking of multiple things, or even their sense of self, but is singularly focused on a task or challenge. Many people report it is the happiest feeling in their lives.”
― Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
― Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
“It can be tempting to zoom in close to each individual and try to optimize for each one. However, leadership means taking care of the wider system. Leadership means creating wider goals and strategies, and connecting the teams to the greater purpose of their work.”
― Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
― Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
