Having a tech career as a minority is challenging. It could mean being the only one to speak against the popular opinion, or becoming more visible to get the same level of recognition.
Documentation can make a big difference. Internal documentation can speed your team up and makes it easier for new engineers to get up and running. External documentation reduces time spent on support questions, and makes your product more usable.
We live in a world of technology and engineering. Almost everything around us requires software. Unfortunately, the software we use or build has bugs. While most bugs can be fixed, there are these other types of bugs, called vulnerabilities, that cause headaches and haunt us at night.
Sometimes, we want to make changes to processes and habits our team has, but it’s not around the code itself. How can we do that? How do we make changes to the habits of hundreds? Moreover, how can we do this work as individual contributors?
When you're a first-time leader it's hard to transition from being a problem solver to leading a team to solve problems. It's often tempting to step in and solve problems for your team.
Investing in your customer success team is high leverage. The more knowledgeable your team is, the more effective it can be at investigating, diagnosing and triaging customer issues.
In a fast-growing, agile organization, teams are usually encouraged to self-organize. Equipped with the guiding principles such as fast iteration and frequent feedback loop with the customers, we entrust the most valuable asset, people, to make informed decisions.
Navigating any new personal scenario while leading a team can be extremely challenging, but last summer I found myself nine months pregnant and leading our engineering organization through an acquisition while preparing for the birth of my son. On the day he was born, I got the news that the acquisition had been finalized.