The Engineering Leadership & Wellbeing Newsletter 🌱 #16
“HAY” there 👋🏼
Can you feel it? 🥵 I know, I shouldn’t be complaining because we only get a couple of weeks of it…but…damn, it’s hot. 😆
Here’s a short but sweet newsletter packed with some insightful articles. But first…
We’d love to get your feedback on our DX platform. Our goal with HAY is to turn the invisible into visible, giving engineering managers better insights into their team's wellbeing, work output, and teamwork. So, go ahead and give it a poke, make use of the FREE trial, and let us know what you think. We really want to make it better!
Topics for the day: 1:1 meetings, Training juniors, Team dynamics, Buildifier, Useful and overlooked skills, Experimentation and growth, Software design.
Running 1:1s the Right Way
Effective one-on-one meetings in software development are essential. Beyond feedback, they bridge contextual data with individual perspectives, fostering growth and enhancing productivity.
Read more: How To Run Effective One-On-One Meetings With Your Software Developers
Why Training Junior Engineers is Better Than Generative AI
While generative AI tools are helpful, they cannot replace the need for junior engineers. We need to stop relying on AI to replace entry-level roles and instead invest in training the next generation to sustain the industry’s future.
Read more: Generative AI Is Not Going To Build Your Engineering Team For You
The Essentials of Effective Team Dynamics
Effective group dynamics foster trust, care, and love within teams, crucial for both co-located and remote settings. Good teamwork is rare, but essential for success in complex challenges.
Read more: Trust, Care, and Love
The Impact of Buildifier on Google's Bazel Build Files
In 2012, as a junior engineer at Google, Laurent saw Rob Pike and Russ Cox introduce Buildifier to standardize Bazel BUILD file formatting. Despite concerns about disruption, the rollout was smooth and well-received. This initiative underscored the importance of uniformity and automation, boosting productivity and enabling major codebase improvements, including enhancements to Bazel.
Read more: The Story of Reformatting 100k Files at Google in 2012
“Useful and Overlooked Skills”
Housel states that accepting minor inconveniences and adapting to reality is a useful and often overlooked skill, illustrated by Roosevelt's ability to accept his paralysis and adapt to difficult situations. Here are some other important skills he describes in his article:
🤷♂️ Accepting Hassle and Nonsense: Embrace minor inconveniences and adapt when reality doesn't align with expectations. This often-overlooked skill is crucial for maintaining composure and resilience.
🔍 Calibrating Expectations: Distinguish between wanting something to be true and its actual truth, especially in high-stakes situations like investing. Skepticism of your reasoning is vital when potential rewards are significant.
🤝 Respectful Disagreement: Engage respectfully with those you disagree with. This requires open-mindedness and the ability to debate differing views without dismissing them outright.
🗣️ Conversational Skills: The ability to have meaningful conversations with anyone from any background is a valuable skill, increasingly rare in the age of digital communication.
✂️ Concise Communication: Get to the point quickly and clearly. Respect others' time by making your points succinctly.
🚫 Diplomatic “No”: Say “no” clearly but empathetically to avoid misunderstandings and maintain good relationships. This is crucial in fields like venture capital where rejection is common.
🎲 Respecting Luck and Risk: Recognize the role of luck and risk in outcomes. Understand that success might not always be due to your actions, just as failures may not be due to your mistakes. This perspective is essential for learning and growth.
Read more: Useful and Overlooked Skills
How Notion Uses Statsig to Enhance Experimentation and Growth
Notion prioritizes design and user experience, focusing on rapid feature deployment and continuous learning. Challenges with their in-house experimentation tools led them to adopt Statsig, which improved their capacity to run hundreds of experiments and launch over 600 features efficiently. This shift has enhanced their core growth metrics and fostered a thriving experimentation culture across the organization.
Read more: Notion drives product-led growth, empowering users to do their best work
Navigating the Software Design “Trough”
Did you like this edition of ENGINEERING LEADERSHIP & WELLBEING 🌱?
If you're looking for a specific subject to read about or maybe would like to collaborate on a project, reach out to me at tomek@howareyou.work.