Plenty of tech companies tout a cultural value of “fail fast”: Accept that you will make mistakes; make those mistakes as promptly as you can; and learn from them so that you don’t make them again. It’s a liberating concept and great value. But to truly succeed at a “fail fast” culture, it’s not sufficient to simply sit back and appreciate this value. You must also identify, and then root out, the causes of slow failure....
As a people manager or team lead, you are juggling multiple responsibilities. Two responsibilities that probably come with the territory, week in and week out, are: Prioritizing your time well. Creating visibility for your boss, peers, and team. Of managers I’ve mentored and supervised, most had an innate understanding that they must prioritize their time. But very few arrived with a system for creating visibility1, or even thought about that as a necessary function....
During the growth of a tech startup, the founding technical leader will likely make an important change to their organization: They will hire or promote someone to be the VP of Engineering, and redefine their own role and duties as CTO in the process. When I went through this process, although I sought and received plenty of advice, I didn’t find a perfect playbook for this change. This post is no exception, but collects and summarizes some of the key aspects of the change that helped me....