#engineeringmgmt

Published 2019/12/08

Can I Be A Superhero Manager?

Look, there in the sky! Is it a plane? Is it a new tower or bridge? Or is it … the Engineering Manager?!

While reflecting on the reasons for pursuing a management path in Engineering, it is clear that the drive to ascend to this role did not include an objective of wearing a cape. It is my earnest opinion that it can be said with reasonable confidence that not many people wake up and say to themselves: ‘I am going to go out and try and be a superhero today’. Specifically, not many Engineering Managers.

Forget 10X – What about a 1000X Engineer?

Published 2019/11/26

Forget 10X – What about a 1000X Engineer?

Some recent reading brought the concept of a 10X Engineer to my attention, specifically an article titled: “The 100x Engineer”. This is a concept that I had no knowledge of prior to this revelation but after digging deeper there is quite a large amount of information regarding this philosophy out there on the web. Think about all of the things in your life that would change if some of them were 10X. Sure, we would all love a 10X bigger paycheck. What if your internet was 10X faster? Or your car was 10X more fuel efficient? What if you worked out so much that you needed to eat 10X the calories to balance out the workouts?

Published 2019/11/12

The Lean Startup (Review Part 2)

Author: Eric Reis First Published: 2011 Amazon Referral Link: The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses Review Part 1: The Lean Startup (Part 1) This book is highly recommended for anyone that wants to explore more ways to grow and evaluate their own methodologies for development and successful processes. There are a lot of awesome ideas in this book that can strengthen methodologies and provide value to any organization. The following is an attempt to capture some thoughts on some of the big ticket topics of the book but this should not prevent you from reading it and seeing which ideas have the most relevance to you in your situation. Validated Learning – Build-Measure-Learn Having experienced the results of Validated Learning without having the words to describe it well, reading through this approach in the book provided a great sense of completion to…

Secret Weapons – Mirrored Monitors

Published 2019/10/29

Secret Weapons – Mirrored Monitors

While this could easily devolve into a discussion regarding Engineering Management and people putting mirrors on their monitors, that is not the point of this post. I have actually directly observed this practice – come on – who wants someone looking over their shoulder at work? The original post idea title was “Monitor Mirrors” until I realized that that was definitely not the intent of this topic.

Rules for Engineers #9 – Never Present A Problem Without Presenting At Least One Possible Solution

Published 2019/10/23

Rules for Engineers #9 – Never Present A Problem Without Presenting At Least One Possible Solution

One of my most important goals with this site is to provide advice to all Engineers. One of the ways that I have decided to do this is to maintain a list of Rules for Engineers however, the plain rules list on that page simply states the text of the rule, not the context behind it. I would like to take the time to explain each rule and why it is important for success to give people the context behind it and how they might be able to use it in their daily lives. So to start, I decided to pick one at random. I would like to take a tiny aside here and let you know about an awesome function, let’s call it an easter egg, in good search. If you need a quick random number you can get one through search by rolling dice. For those familiar with…

Published 2019/10/03

Secret Weapons: Candy Edition

Like I have said before, one of the reasons I started this blog is to try and share experience and wisdom with other people. While the topic for today is something that I have definitely thought about before, it is not something that was on my radar as a topic until I was walking back to my desk earlier today. So let’s digress for a moment as it is so easy, and for me at least, fun to do. Today’s rabbit hole that we are jumping down is brought to you by candy! Yummy, sweet, sugary candy. If you are one of the lucky ones like me, you will agree that the best, most perfect, and most amazing all-around candy is…. Reeses Pieces. The crunchy candy shell. The smooth peanut butter taste. The colors that remind us of cornucopias in the fall… *drool*. I mean come on, the perfect candy.…

Published 2019/09/25

#EngineeringMgmt

The next topic to tackle from a post category standpoint is in regards to Engineer Management. This is an important topic for me as it describes what I do every day. My current role has a title of “Director of Engineering”. As someone who leads and manages others, especially Engineers, the role can be fun, exciting, challenging, and sometimes frustrating. I would like to use posts in this category to talk about this role, the methods used, and most likely the many ways that I get things wrong. While looking on Unsplash for a good image to use for this post I came across the puzzle picture above and it jumped out at me as a good talking point. Sometimes managing people and projects can feel like you are trying to complete a puzzle while blindfolded in a dark room and the pile in front of you contains a dozen…

Category: #engineeringmgmt

Can I Be A Superhero Manager?

Forget 10X – What about a 1000X Engineer?

The Lean Startup (Review Part 2)

Secret Weapons – Mirrored Monitors

Rules for Engineers #9 – Never Present A Problem Without Presenting At Least One Possible Solution

Secret Weapons: Candy Edition

#EngineeringMgmt