Jamie Crowley’s Post

Have you ever been in a situation where different teams working on different projects find it hard to share their ideas, experiences, or daily challenges? 😬 At Mirumee, we understand this struggle all too well. That's why we came up with a simple solution for our team. 💡 We initiated a quarterly, on-site Engineering Meetup that allows team members to share their case studies, solved problems, or unusual challenges their team encountered. Recently, we discussed a range of topics, including: ▶ blue-green deployment in action,  ▶ how to secure copyrights and text duplication in global book distribution,  ▶ lessons learned from refactoring the whole platform of one of our clients. 🤓 But that's not all! The real magic happens during the Q&A sessions which often turn into a lively discussion or a whiteboarding session. As our Principal Engineer, Artur Smęt, summed it up: "Engineering Meetup gives an even better chance to exchange insights and ideas with the team". 💫 We've already held three Engineering Meetups in 2023, and we're excited to continue this initiative in 2024. This is an excellent opportunity to exchange knowledge and experience within our team, and it's always a great time. Do you have such meet-ups in your team?

I found this piece of advice from Will Larson in an interview by Gergely Orosz one of the most insightful I've ever read: What’s your advice for software engineers ambitious to be a Head of Engineering, VP of Engineering, or CTO? ‘Spend more time understanding why people’s perspectives are “right,” rather than why they’re “wrong.” I think of this as extracting the core of what people say.

Attended the Product Design & Engineering meetup last night. Thanks for hosting Wave Talent it was a great night and fantastic to be around professionals all experiencing similar challenges (and wins!) Some key takeaways for me - As we head into the next quarter of our OKRs it's important, regardless of the discipline, to measure the impact of your work. Especially in Engineering it's easy to say "move to X technology/stack/local environment" but unless you're really getting into the nuance of what that unlocks and benefit it brings, its largely a fruitless exercise. For these pure engineering efforts, you could start to measure Development Experience (DX) or velocity as a marker of success. - In a similar vein getting engineers to engage with users of the products we build needs to have some science to it. Simply putting teams in front of customers or sharing raw data is no longer enough. We need targeted insights that fit a wider narratives to give engineering teams, who don't usually get a lot of exposure to customers, the clearest picture possible of what successes and challenges customers face. - One of the final talking points pertained to the increasing prevalence of the CPTO role and what that means for businesses moving forwards now we're way beyond ZIRP era. It's clear it can be a valuable role, but it's certainly not a "buy one get one free" title. Managing expectations of what area (either product or technology) needs additional leadership support should be an explicit discussion. Thanks to Megan Wood for the invite, looking forward to the next one already.

I posted about our CTO Roundtable earlier this week. “Connect Engineers to the cause. Expose them to the reality that we need to do more with less, create a sense of achievement.” “We haven’t hired you to code, we have hired you to build incredible products.” “Be hyper-focused on what makes people tick.” One of our topics of discussion were to speak about retaining great software engineering talent. We have more notes to come to share but I love these three snippets from our discussions.

Engineers, think about it. 🤔 A small distraction - even a slight one - can disrupt your productivity like a tempest. 🌪️ Diving into the flow? That's an uphill battle. 😅But slipping out of it? That's as simple as a feather's flight. 🕊️ So, here's an idea worth exploring: If a long, drawn-out meeting could be swapped with a succinct, precise message... Why not? 📝 Less disruption, more innovation. 🚀 No hashtags, just real talk about software engineering. 🔄💼 Also, I think meetings after 2:00 on Fridays should be banned.

Up-Level Your Software Engineering Mindset! - Interview With Richard Donovan In this video, I was joined by Richard Donovan who shared his interesting career journey and transition to focusing on mindset! One of the key takeaways that I had from this discussion was that it takes a level of self-awareness and reflection to realize that shifting your mindset can drive positive change. Rich shares some of his ups and downs in his career, the different changes he pursued, and the realization that he had to change things about himself in order to grow. Turns out, having the right mindset and focus on mindset allowed him to do just that. Thanks for the awesome chat, Rich! If you enjoy content like this, remember to subscribe to my channel!

For the past four months, I've been thrilled to share my insights and experiences on various aspects of a software engineering career, exploring themes such as challenging projects, innovation, effective collaboration, and strategic problem-solving. As we walk this path of mutual learning and development, I'm eager to hear from you. Which discussions have resonated with you the most? Are there specific areas within engineering you're curious about and would like us to explore together in greater depth? 💭 Your input is invaluable as it helps me create content that benefits and empowers us all. Looking forward to hearing your ideas and to fostering a deeper, more engaging dialogue. Together, let's navigate the complexities of engineering, learn from each other, and continue to grow.

A set of principles from Antonio M.. You may think there are more, or less, or you may agree or disagree, but for enterprises, who have to rebuild the platform easily for disaster recovery, these are a good starting point. More generally, across the community, the standards for platform engineering are improving and that is reflected in these principles.

Engineering practices can vary per team or department in big organizations. So as a new hire what would you do when the team that you are joining has lower engineering culture than you expected? I truly enjoyed reading this post on the topic. It was written targeting specifically new hires of big tech companies but I think it is really valid in any big company. The post explains why there are various different levels of engineering culture in a big company; what are the typical reasons for lower engineering culture; how to deal with lack of engineering practices as a new hire and lastly how to avoid joining such teams in the first place. I think there is no prefect team and even with outmost due deligence, the chance of ending up in a team with less satisfactory engineering culture is quite high. So, understanding why a team ended up in certain situation, combined by proper autonomy and trust can actually create great opportunities for change.

Most software engineers are not good at influencing others because they play in the rational field, when they should be playing in the emotional field. We’re trained to focus on data and logic, but that doesn't always get through to everyone. It’s the emotional side that really grabs people. So how can you connect with the emotional side of others? 1/ Show concern and understanding about the issues your listener is facing — in other words don’t focus only on you and what you want to get out of the situation 2/ Explain how your idea directly benefits or improves the other person’s situation — aka what’s in it for them 3/ Share your personal anecdotes or customer stories to make a point more relatable 4/ Paint a vivid picture of what the future could look like with your idea implemented, aiming to inspire possibility That way, you’ll balance the rational with the emotional and maximize your chances for your ideas to get support. What else would you add? ♻️ If you enjoyed this post, please reshare it. ---------------- To learn how to become influential at work, join the next cohort of “Impact through Influence in Engineering Teams”. For more details: https://lnkd.in/gzhs2Fhe