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Leadership & Management
What I wish I knew when I became CTO
When you work at a startup, it's common to advance rapidly into roles that you're not fully prepared for. In this thoughtful article, David Mack reflects back on his time as CTO of SketchDeck. Learn what he wishes he knew when he started, from picking technologies to hiring and firing. It's a great read for anyone currently, or soon-to-be, in a leadership role at an early stage company.
3 Steps to Avoid Giving Biased Feedback
In a recent study, it was found that 76% of feedback given to women included some kind of personality criticism while only 2% of feedback given to men did. In this New York Times article, Steph Mitesser teaches us how to go beyond our biases to make sure we give feedback that is helpful and constructive to everyone. Giving feedback is hard. It's even more difficult when unconscious biases get in the middle.
Getting Started with Agile: Growing Great Agile Teams
Agile coach Jeremy Jarrell unpacks the four foundational elements of the agile manifesto, exploring the reasoning behind them and what they mean for you and your team. Whether you're an agile newbie or have years of experience, this article is a helpful refresher to ground you on its core tenets.
Best books for new, first-time managers
Chad Dickerson recently asked on Twitter “what book would you recommend most for new, first-time managers?” Check out the article to see the list of over 35 books that were recommended to him, covering topics like communication, culture, and prioritization.
Productivity & Estimation
On Meetings and Wasting Time
In our latest Productivity & Estimation article, Henry explains that meetings aren't inherently problematic — wasting time is. In fact, to work collaboratively as a team and achieve the best results, meetings are necessary. The key is to set standards for when a meeting is needed and scheduling them at times that limit disruption of deep, uninterrupted blocks of work.
Only Slightly Off-Topic
How To Work With Developers - A Guide for Non-Developers
If you're not a developer, we can seem, well, different. That's because we are. And if you've ever felt misunderstood by your non-developer teammates, you're not alone. That's why Kate Travers of Learn.co put together this handy guide to help non-developers understand, communicate, and work with us more effectively.
Less Than Serious
7 Tips to Successfully Micromanage Programmers
Marcus Blankenship takes a hilariously satirical look at the best ways to micromanage your development team. Because after all, they are your programmers and you are their boss, so they better just do what you tell them.
Have you tried Status Hero yet?
Status Hero is a lightweight tool for tracking daily goals, activity, and status updates from your team. It works with your existing tools, like email, Jira, GitHub, Trello, and Slack. Skip costly meetings, map goals to accomplishments, and unearth blocking issues quickly. Status Hero helps you and your team get more done with fast access to the big picture. Check out a live demo).