I went from being a bad writer to a good writer after taking a one-day course in “business writing.” I couldn’t believe how simple it was. I’ll tell you the main tricks here so you don’t have to waste a day in class. Business writing is about clarity and persuasion. The main technique is keeping…

published February 10th, 2019 This week’s essay is on on how to interview an executive, though it may also be helpful to read when preparing to be interviewed. From day 1, one of the most important jobs of a CEO is to hire incredible talent to your team. Hiring the right executive is one of the most…

Advice for a new executive Originally posted Aug 30, 2018 When I was getting ready to join Kickstarter as VP of Engineering, Chad Dickerson (who was the CEO of Etsy when I worked there) offered to sen

How to Run Inclusive Meetings 22 Feb 2018 Peer review and feedback season is well upon us, and one of the mostfrustrating pieces of feedback I’ve received (and regrettably given) is“you should talk mo

4 min read · Feb 22, 2018 -- I work at GitHub, as a senior engineer. I’m not looking for a job. But I have been thinking about leadership and what I’ve appreciated most from various bosses over the ye

In this model the engineering manager leads engineers across different technology stacks and different product areas. They often act more as facilitators and rely heavily on tech leads on the different teams to drive most of the decision making, hiring efforts and cross-functional interaction with…

My management career began with a misunderstanding. “Rands, you’re doing a great job on tools development and I’d really like you to Lead the effort.” It sounded liked your standard professional compl

Much has been written about employee motivation and retention. It’s written by folks who actively use words like motivation and retention and generally don’t have a clue about the daily necessity of k

Resignations happen in a moment, and it’s not when you declare, “I’m resigning.” The moment happened a long time ago when you received a random email from a good friend who asked, “I know you’re reall