"Conference season" This time of year would typically be peak conference season in Europe, but unders
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September 27 · Issue #59 · View online
Level Up delivers a curated newsletter for leaders in tech. A project by http://patkua.com. Ideal for busy people such as Tech Leads, Engineering Managers, VPs of Engineering, CTOs and more.
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“Conference season” This time of year would typically be peak conference season in Europe, but understandably many have been cancelled or transitioned to an online format. One of the events I took part in this week was a panel called “ The future of delivery: Taking advantage of the global talent pool” excellently moderated by Nigel Dalton (@nxdnz), Social Scientist @ ThoughtWorks Australia. Other than the excellent themes discussed, it made me think about how I wouldn’t have had an opportunity to take part in a panel hosted in the APAC region had it all been in-person. At least not as easily or would have had a more significant carbon footprint. I’ll be honest though. I do miss the interaction and energy from in-person events. I know many other people do too. It’s also one of the topics we discussed in the panel where some people prefer coming into to the office, where it is safe to do so, because those human connections, particularly newer ones, are much harder to build over a screen. It also reminded me that where change might bring positive benefits, there are also downsides. This is an important lesson for leaders at all levels. You’ll have change you can’t control. Where you can’t do anything about it, your best approach is to adapt to it, see what can be done to minimise or cushion adverse effects and find ways to benefit from any advantages the change brings. There’s rarely use in being stuck in “complaining mode”. This week I also delivered the new keynote I mentioned in last week’s newsletter, “ The Evolution of Engineering Excellence” which was also well-received. Thanks to those who responded who wanted to read an article on this. I’ve added it to my writing backlog. It won’t appear in the next couple of weeks but watch out for it in the newsletter when I do publish it. Finally, the newsletter platform I use also enabled HTTPS support on custom domains, so you’ll be able to read back issues or this issue via https://levelup.patkua.com 🎉 I hope you enjoy this week’s content. If you find it useful, please forward to someone else and send me feedback. Stay safe and healthy 🙏
Join the virtual 3-hour workshop, “Shortcut to Tech Leadership” on Oct 28 (only 6 tickets left) or Nov 18. Each course has a limited number of tickets, so book now.
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Director of Engineering @ Phorest Salon Software [Dublin/Remote] This opportunity is to join Phorest as a senior member of our development team to support the CTO to create and sustain a high performing, high output, world-class team. Learn more here.
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The Management Flywheel
Reading time: 8mins Author of “ The Manager’s Path”, Camille Fournier (@skamille) covers the topic about change. It’s definitely one of the patterns I’ve seen during consulting about the positive accumulation of small improvements as a way of introducing change. |
60 Engineering Leaders To Watch: The Next FORTUNE 500 CTOs
Reading time: 16mins I’m always shocked at conferences who say they can’t find diverse speakers, particularly at a leadership level. All it takes is a little bit of effort to find some. Bookmark this page from Girl Geek X (@girlgeekx) and follow all of these wonderful technical leaders on twitter or LinkedIn to broaden your own perspectives. |
My First 100 Days as an Engineering Manager — in a Pandemic
Reading time: 52 mins (yes, a long read) It’s not every day you get to start a new role. This is why I love reading about stories like this and Nara Kasbergen (@xiehan) shares her transition to an Engineering Manager role, all during this time. It’s very detailed and I recognise a number of the surprises/challenges Nara encountered along the way (including trying to get married amidst the pandemic). 🎉👏 |
Level up your technical leadership skills on Oct 28, 2020 (click the image above)
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From YAGNI to YDNIY
Reading time: 4mins In a lot of agile teams, you often talk about YAGNI (You Ain’t Gonna Need It) as a reminder to prevent adding in accidental complexity. The principle wrongly applied leads to poor long-term decisions. In this article Itamar Turner-Trauring (@itamarst) shares another acronym, YDNIY (You Don’t Need It Yet), showing an example of how both of these principles apply and differ. |
German Hospital Hacked, Patient Taken to Another City Dies
Reading time: 3mins Many software teams don’t think through how their software can be abused, or what real world consequences there could be. This article is a stark reminder that technical leaders need to champion and prioritise updates and patching vulnerabilities or there can be consequences like in this article 😔
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Adidas now stands for All Day I'm Disconnecting All Servers as owners of 'smart' Libra scales furious over bricked kit
Reading time: 5mins As tech infuses everyday devices (i.e. the IoT hype), there are some interesting unanticipated consequences. Last year, there was the controversy over the very expensive Sonos speakers effectively bricking their devices although they apparently back-tracked on this poor decision. I don’t know as I don’t have any 🤷♂️. In the latest IoT fiasco, Adidas is doing something similar with their Libra “smart” scales (formerly Runtastic) by discontinuing support and removing the app, turning the product into very expensive scales. |
Very short functions are a code smell – an overview of the science on function length
Reading time: 24mins This is a very super interesting and accessible article looking at the research available over the pros and cons of very short functions. If you’re a dogmatic user of the Clean Code approach, this will make you double-think your approach. A great article by Jani.
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🌟🌟🌟 Want to reach thousands of engineering leaders around the world? Maybe you want to share a leadership role you’re looking to fill? Interested in becoming a sponsor? Get in touch for details. 🌟🌟🌟 |
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ThoughtWorks Social change report, Edition II — Tech, society and COVID-19
Reading time: 43mins This set of articles from ThoughtWorks (@thoughtworks) is essential reading for all leaders, and related to some of the articles I linked to above. ThoughtWorks has always had social impact as part of its core values and its intersection with tech is rarely talked or written about. These articles offer some challenging perspectives, great insight and some examples about what actions companies and people can take. |
Meeting everyone on a new team
Reading time: 12mins Imagine you’re starting as a Head of Engineering, Director or other role with a 50+ person team. You want to learn more about the people you’re leading and learn more about your new environment. A good way to do this is a set of 1-1s. Technical Director for FT.com, Anna Shipman (@annashipman) shares her approach on how she did this when she first started in her role. |
Not Very Productive
Reading time: 7mins (Medium paywall) CTO at RVU/USwitch Paul Ingles (@pingles) shares a script of a nice talk he presented at an internal company event where covers productivity, the issues of multi-tasking and a solution to the problem of focusing too much on time and effort. You’ll have to read the article to find out the answer 😉. |
Lessons interviewing 200+ engineers: the perfect process to manage tech debt
Reading time: 5mins I always argue that successful companies always have some level of tech debt. We are constantly learning (which involves mistakes) and if we’re busy perfecting software, we’re often doing so with diminishing returns. Alexandre Omeyer (@AlexOmeyer) shares some reflections on how teams manage tech debt after talking to 200+ engineers. |
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Check out @'s post on her Four Keys project: https://t.co/46lktvW2Kp.
This open source project lets you process your system data and visualize the four DORA metrics: lead time, deploy frequency, time to restore, and change fail rate. It's very cool, take a look! https://t.co/JtL8V9EgXL
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DEI = Diversity, Equity, Inclusion 👏
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DEI tip of the day: pause on the roadmaps and OKRs and check on people
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Something light hearted to end the newsletter with
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Developer: We have a problem.
Manager: Remember, there are no such things as problems, only opportunities.
Developer: Well then, we have a DDoS opportunity.
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If you enjoyed this newsletter, please send me feedback and share with others! |
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Patrick Kua, Postfach 58 04 40, 10314, Berlin, Germany
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