Leadership
91 articles · all categories
Teams, mentoring, feedback, hiring — the people skills that turn a strong engineer into a force multiplier. No MBA required.
Latest Leadership articles
July 2026
How to be useful as a software architect
Software architects have a weird role: Think about the code _tomorrow_. Today's code is what it is, how do we make it good tomorrow? Without slowing down, losing business, or falling off a cliff.
The one thing every experienced engineer gets wrong
In the last few months every engineer I hired stumbled in exactly the same way: Project management. They learned quickly, but that first big project has become a rite of passage.
Theory of constraints, AI, and code review
Feedback from an expert is how you learn taste. Your code doesn't matter until it's shipped.
June 2026
You get what you hire
Hiring engineers is like deciding what kind of system you'll have. This seems obvious but surprised me to see first-hand.
Code is the easy part, or how we refactored half the business to fix a janky script
This is a classic startup war story: Someone had built a leaky rowboat. It worked! Then we started flying the rowboat as a Cessna. What we needed was an aircraft carrier.
May 2026
Relentlessly focus on the outcomes
AI makes it easy to focus inwards and feel impressed with all the churn and motion and output you're producing. But your users don't care.
Engineering levels aren't about skill anymore
Traditional engineering levels were about skill progression. I think this has changed. Everyone now is a mini staff engineer.
Just fix their PR
You know what's better than a code review comment? A fix.
April 2026
Watch people work
We talk a lot about outcomes over outputs and how engineers are supposed to get us over the water, not blindly build a bridge because someone asked for a bridge. But how do you do that in practice?
March 2026
The best engineers just get shit done, sometimes with AI
The best engineers I know never talk about their AI setup. The worst engineers I know only talk about their AI setup.
February 2026
In praise of the stacked pull request
How fast you do code review is how fast you do everything. Your PR queue is the leading indicator of team velocity. Stacked PRs can help.
January 2026
Small projects, clear scope
Minutes of planning save you days of programming. It is shocking how little planning it takes to make a big difference.
November 2025
How to lead a project
you were asked to lead or own a project. Now what? Here are a few practical steps to help you succeed.
*People* detangle a ball of mud
Ball of mud is the world's most popular software architecture. The one we all use at work. But it sucks to work with. So what do you do?
The unreasonable effectiveness of stack ranking
Stakeholders are silly people. Everything feels important and urgent. Stack ranking helps
October 2025
The job behind the job [of a high level IC]
Advancing big goals while you stay on top of operational day-to-day fires _is the job_. This is hard. Here are a few tips I've found helpful.
September 2025
Leadership lessons from growing 3x in 1 year
So this talk is my attempt to step back and write down some of the things I've learned. Hope you find something to apply in your team.
August 2025
Pair programming
Great for learning those little tricks of the trade you forgot you even learned
July 2025
What makes a senior engineer
The base expectation for engineers is that you don't just build whatever you're asked.
A few more thoughts on mentoring
Wanted to share a few more thoughts on my mentoring philosophy and answer questions that readers asked
June 2025
My mentoring philosophy
Yesterday I had lunch with a newly promoted lead and realized I have opinions on mentoring engineers. Here they are.
3 sticky insights from 3 eng management books
Ever feel like your brain is blended and you can't even keep up with the things you're learning? Me too. But the good shit stays.
May 2025
Software architecture IS Conway's Law
Can you even have architecture before there's a team?
Stateless decision making
Do you ever feel like your brain is full and there's so much going on you can barely keep up? Me too.
How do you find time for cleanup work
A reader asks how do you find time for technical cleanup work. If OKRs and bugs take priority, when will you make improvements?
April 2025
re: The Industrialization of IT
I guess if AI is what it takes to finally get people to care about architecture and team structure then mission accomplished?
What to work on next?
Younger engineers keep asking how I prioritize in a chaotic environment. Here's my approach.
Always deploy at peak traffic
A hard-won lesson for ya: Always deploy when you've got lots of traffic.
The difference between a product and a project
A project is something you do, a product is something you own.
March 2025
Sprint vs Shape Up vs Kanban
Whenever I talk about sprints, someone mentions Shape Up. So you have 9 week sprints – what's the difference?