Slawomir Smiechura

RECORDING: Not So Extreme Programming, with Amitai Schleier https://lnkd.in/eQ627KPk Where "#agile" sounds pleasant and inclusive, "#extremeprogramming"... doesn't. But it's a differentiator: teams practicing #xp are seen to move with uncommon agility. The name has other problems, too. For one, XP is about much more than programming. For another, when compared with other ways software still gets developed, XP is much *less* extreme. This talk -- for anyone involved with Agile in any role, at any scale -- will take you through where Extreme Programming came from, where it's going, what it requires, why it remains as relevant as ever, and how to take advantage. RECORDING: Not So Extreme Programming, with Amitai Schleier https://lnkd.in/eQ627KPk #morewithless #agileengineering #organizationaldesign Frans Meuwissen Bastiaan van Hamersveld

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Me in 2019: “Hiring top product talent is hard” Me in 2024: “Keeping top talent is even harder” After five years of leading PMs, I can say that mastering managing high-performers yields the highest ROI. Nevertheless, taking high performers for granted will shutter your ‘house of cards’ in no time. In this post, I will dive into the ‘Promotion’ topic; the ‘Sacred cow’ leaders consciously try to keep vague. 1️⃣ 𝐓𝐨𝐩 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐝. - Promotion is the ultimate recognition (financial, social, and brand). - Misalignment around promotion can kill performance. - Dangling the promotion carrot quarter after quarter will break trust. 2️⃣ 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫’𝐬 𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐬𝐮𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬. - You hire top talent ( = High Performance) to do job X - Ensure the talent does job X for a long time ( = Duration) - Formula: (High Performance) X (Duration) = (Company Success). - Promotion means they no longer do job X. 3️⃣ 𝐑𝐞𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐡𝐢𝐠𝐡 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐨𝐭𝐞 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠-𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐦 𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬. - Reward performance peaks (take care of your team). - Promote a long-term performance upward trend. - Invest in building your team members’ long-term defensible careers. 4️⃣ 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐠𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐠𝐚𝐩. - Communicate promotion criteria early, starting with interviews. - Hire only those happy to do job X for at least three years. - Never use empty promotion promises as a hiring tactic. 🟢 Wrapping up with a few 𝐛𝐨𝐧𝐮𝐬 𝐭𝐢𝐩𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐏𝐌𝐬: 1. Ensuring that your work materializes in building a successful company has a higher long-term impact than a premature promotion. 2. The statement ‘Join at level Y and you will get promoted in no time’ indicates a questionable/toxic culture. Don’t take the job. 3. And a counter-argument: As a PM, avoid taking a role you are uncomfortable doing for at least three years. *** What do you love/hate about my ‘promotion’ philosophy? Share in the comments. 👉 P.S. The link to the full write-up is in the comments. #productmanagement #productleadership #productmanagers #product #promotion #leadingdown

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Over the past few months I’ve written an extensive tutorial on how to build software applications with Node.js and React. I’m sorry to tell you that this experience didn’t teach me anything about B2B sales, though. But hopefully, it’s still useful for some people out there. From the introduction: The approach of this tutorial is to teach its readers how to build a fully working software application from zero to production. This means two things: 1. You are not required to have done any kind of software development before getting started with this tutorial. It will introduce and explain everything that is needed to build applications in full detail, assuming no prior knowledge or experience. This is the “from zero” part. 2. Building on the foundational knowledge it teaches in the first half, the tutorial will then, step by step, guide you through the process of building a real, full-fledged, and completely working software application, again explaining every detail along the way, and shows how to “deploy” that application — that is, how to make that application available on the Internet for anyone to use. This is the “to production” part. Speaking of B2B sales: I’m afraid you cannot buy this tutorial. That’s because I’m making it available for free, as a series of posts on my blog. The first three parts are already published: https://lnkd.in/e2XCYm3p https://lnkd.in/eW7wUc_d https://lnkd.in/eAU6kgH9 No, you do not need to sign up to my newsletter to get access to the tutorial. That’s mainly because I don’t have a newsletter. Also, no need to follow me (although admittedly, it might help to get you notified whenever I’m publishing a new chapter). Furthermore, please don’t be disappointed if clicking on the tutorial links won’t present you with a cookie banner. That’s because my blog doesn’t use any cookies. No, not even those from Google Analytics, as I’m not using that either. This means I will have no idea how many people will read the tutorial — which makes sense because let’s face it, who is going to consume this kind of long-form, deep-dive technical content nowadays anyway. And in text-only form, of all things! Should you nevertheless decide to dive into the text, expect to learn how to program using JavaScript and TypeScript, how to use these languages to build rock-stable backend applications with Node.js as well as elegant frontend applications with React and Redux, and finally, how publish a complete and integrated software solution on Amazon AWS. Ok, that’s it. If you want to access the bonus chapters, simply subscribe to… — just kidding. There are no bonus chapters. Everything you need to learn to build useful software products is right in the… normal chapters, I guess? Happy reading!

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99% of CTOs I speak to avoid hiring software engineers for this reason: If you can’t: > Accept constructive feedback > Talk about a project that went wrong > Take accountability for mistakes > Acknowledge contribution of others It’s time to reassess- fast Less ego, more modesty

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How to get the best out of your Senior Engineering Managers Be clear on performance expectations. Tell them how their performance will be judged. For Senior Engineering Managers, managers of managers, I favour a balance scorecard across people, business impact and technical excellence. It all starts with 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘀𝘁. → Run your teams as you see fit with an ownership mindset → Operating constraints → Strategic context Now lets move on to the measures: 𝗣𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 Engaged as measured by • Employee satisfaction surveys    • Team health surveys    • 360 feedback    • Skip level 1:1s 𝗕𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁 Are teams: • Driving revenue growth    • Controlling costs 𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗘𝘅𝗰𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 • Systems are stage appropriate and conform to the required levels of stability, scalability and performance.    • Technical risk/debt is actively managed and within appetite    • Close partnering with product. Technical innovation helps inform product direction. However you decide to judge performance remember... 𝗧𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝗺𝗲 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗺𝗲, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗜 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝗜 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗯𝗲𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 -- 𝘌𝘭𝘪 𝘎𝘰𝘭𝘥𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘵 P.S beware of unintended consequences of the measures you choose.  How do you measure the success of your Senior Engineering Managers?

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Systems > SMART goals - especially in software development In April, I participated in the Berlin company run for the second time. So I was interested to see how I did compared to last year. I don't use Strava or heart rate monitors much, so I didn't know what to expect. Still, I was pretty sure I could beat last year's performance. That's because I've been doing a variety of workouts 5 times a week for the past few months. 📌 Set up a good system and the score takes care of itself The same goes for software development. If you want to increase your test coverage, start pair or ensemble programming on tests. If you want to get better at public speaking, find ways to practice in meetups and team all-hands. If you want to make progress on your project, start with a workshop and have regular discussions on Slack and in meetings. SMART goals makes sense when you have predictable processes. I don't find that useful in software development or in my personal life. And not motivating either.

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If LinkedIn post trending I've seen is to be believed: TDD seems to be making a HUGE comeback. It reminds me of when JS came back into fashion (a long time ago, kids) after being relegated to the pile of joke languages (an even bigger joke back then, JS-haters). For the longest time, it was "TDD solves everything and any opinions to the contrary are wrong". Then you heard nothing about TDD, not a peep. I think it was right around the time of DHH's post about TDD (below). Now, tada, it's back, and just like before, you're wrong if you don't have `I ❤️ TDD 4-EVA` tattooed on your lower back. Me and my team break all the rules and it would be hard (but not impossible) to convince me otherwise: - We only test end-user facing UX, full-stack/integration level. I'm not maintaining a test for MyServiceObject#convert_this if the method signature changes. I only care about the user experience. - Each daily PR must include coverage but big features behind a flag get coverage near the end. Each team member can do what they want but I'm not burning a day of complex mocking just so Product can say "whoops, that's not needed now". Coverage when it's showtime before the curtains go up. We are currently on Playwright + axe-core (for a11y compliance) and we love it. Migrating away from rspec + capybara (flakier than a bowl of frosted flakes). More on Playwright in another post (it's amazing). I don't think TDD is bad. I just want to mock things as few times as possible before a release, because test env data bootstrapping is a giant pain. To each their own, as long as your UX is protected.

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Let's face it: "software engineers" and "software developers" are *not* craftspeople. We are usually a business cost-center that converts business requirements into customer dollars. Setting aside the political baggage of the Software Craftsperson (nee "Craftsman") movement (and those original words alone convey some of the baggage), I find now that I regret the entire movement itself. Paid software development is about serving a business need and rarely about crafting software that is optimized for flexibility, reliability, and understandability. When businesses seek to turn a need into software, they are often concretely planning for a quarter, loosely planning for a year, and pipe-dreaming when they "plan" for anything over three years. This has an impact on software developers. The cost of converting ideas into software usually scales something like logarithmically to exponentially with the complexity of the business. Software is usually developed with an eye toward achieving a quarterly or annual goal or an investment round--so let's say 3 to 12 month window. Management expects to be able to measure results. And, so, in most environments, you need deliverables that can be demonstrated to management in order to show progress. Except for those ideal cases where eXtreme Programming actually works (e.g., customer is always onhand for clarification, no artifacts other than code and test code, team of up to maybe 8 people, often working in pairs, etc.), the complexity of converting business needs into code is complicated bordering on complex because businesses are complicated bordering on complex. (I use the Cynefin definitions of "complicated" and "complex" where "Complicated" means something like"with a reasonable amount of effort, you can somewhat reliably predict outcomes" and "Complex" means that "this system/business is so complicated that you cannot reliably reason about its properties and so properties and outcomes are emergent) Given anything but a project or business with an exceedingly clearly bounded minimum viable product, we're rarely crafting but instead struggling to meet quarterly/annual/funding round deliverables. But wouldn't it be wonderful if we could find our way back to when software developers were able to ship software they could be proud of and businesses were better for it? Perhaps it's still possible. But we all have to be playing a long game, business and developer.

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On Office Hours this morning: * I answered a question about whether it's worth it to look for Clojure jobs. Short answer: Clojure is a decent selection criterion. But if you find a good JS job, take it! https://lnkd.in/gUUxHYeV * I ramble on about the current chapter of my upcoming book because there were no questions. https://lnkd.in/gw99netY * Then Drew hops on and we get into a discussion of the challenges of REPL-Driven Development. https://lnkd.in/gy5xgRKZ You can always join! https://lnkd.in/gME3H3Kp

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I received 50ish resumes of women and BIPOC applicants from entry to senior levels in Germany. 🚀 Are you a hiring manager and can open up new entry level or junior jobs? From what I can tell, you can confidently hire from a diverse pool of smart applicants who can adapt and grow quickly. 🙌🏽 Here's an article I wrote to convince you - why hiring juniors is a great idea for you and your team. 🤓 https://lnkd.in/eihVSkGa Secondly, I want to invite HRs, recruiters and TA's to take a look and help the following applicants if you know of any jobs already. 🙏🏽 Please tag, repost and mention recruiters you might know! 🥰 Roberto Bigolin Navdeep Chana https://lnkd.in/e2EhE6Ej #DEI #Immigrants #Jobseekers #WomenInTech

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👉We have been chatting to a couple of new clients in Germany this week, about using freelance Developers/Engineers outside of Germany (Nearshore), the same questions pop up; ✔How do we know if they are good or not? ✔How much can we save? ✔How quickly can they start? 👀Like anything, there is pros and cons to everywhere, but we have built a network of Freelance Nearshore Engineers who have been rigorously vetted with technical expertise guaranteed, that could save you a 50% reduction on your current freelance rates. If you are interested to understand more about this option and how this could help your business. 🚨Feel free to book a call in my Calendly and let’s see if we can help - https://lnkd.in/eygXyhaz

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Engineering Metrics tip: don't loose sight of the product by measuring isolated metrics. ❌ PR Review Time ❌ Code Coverage ❌ Nr of Defects ❌ Response time on support tickets It makes everyone miserable and fight each other on pesky optimisations. Instead, focus on the holistic overview for what the team is building: ✅ The quality of the software (agreed definitions per product/feature) ✅ The rate at which we can deliver at *that level of quality* ✅ SLI target on deployed feature (e.g. improved perf, conversation rate over 14d) ✅ How quickly we respond to getting things wrong Small change in focus, big change in confidence.

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From: CEO, To: CPTO Subject: Headcount Freeze... Your mind races as you consider how you are going to hit targets. A sense of panic sets in. What about my open VP Engineering (VPE) vacancy? That one can't be frozen. Surely not... You call your CEO. → 𝗖𝗣𝗧𝗢: Hi Charlotte, Just got your message. I intend to progress with the VPE hire as agreed last week. → 𝗖𝗘𝗢: I'm glad you called. I wanted to discuss that role in person. The VPE is included in the freeze. -- 😱 You are speechless You are from a product background A small "t" CPTO You 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 a VPE to help mature engineering and ensure technology is having as much 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁 as possible. You have enough challenges to deal with in product. This was acknowledged and agreed with the board You are not sure how much longer you can cope without a VPE -- → 𝗖𝗘𝗢: Can the Engineering Managers help? → 𝗖𝗣𝗧𝗢: I don't think so. We did not expand this layer as our team grew. We should have but we didn't get budget approval. This has left Engineering Managers with large remits and workloads are becoming unmanageable. Furthermore, Tech Leads are now expected to line manage, many of them doing this for the first time. Engineering Managers are spending the vast majority of time supporting first time managers. They are operational I need strategic. Hence the VPE. → 𝗖𝗘𝗢: Do you have any other suggestions? → 𝗖𝗣𝗧𝗢: I'll have a think and get back to you. -- 🌟 Hi CPtO 👋 I'm Ryan, The Product Minded CTO and I am going to take your pain away. Budgets are tight. I get it. What if I told you that access to 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗻, 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗳𝘂𝗹, 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗰 engineering 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 can be achieved for a 𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 of the 𝗰𝗼𝘀𝘁 of your proposed perm VPE? 𝗜𝘁'𝘀 𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝗙𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 → 𝗖𝗣𝗧𝗢 How does it work? I'll come into your organisation several times a week and lead engineering for you. • I'll seek to understand your business goals and assess current state of engineering • Work with the engineering managers to create an engineering strategy that unlocks your desired outcomes • Train your Tech Leads how to be great people managers and team leaders 𝗜𝗺𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗮 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲… → 𝗣𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 are inspired, aligned and performing to a high standard → 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 right sized enabling you to work effectively at scale → 𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆 an asset rather than a liability. 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻... • Innovation driving top line growth • Costs actively managed • Risk within appetite. 𝗕𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗳𝗶𝘁𝘀 • Flexible (I'll stay as long as you are getting value) • Affordable (No bonus, equity, benefits) • No long term headcount commitment • Outcome focussed • Can start tomorrow! 𝗗𝗠 "𝗛𝗘𝗟𝗣" to continue the conversation

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The buzz around TDD sucks. 😱 My take: ➡ Tests are essential, but WRITING TESTS FIRST is NOT ESSENTIAL ➡ TDD is ESSENTIAL for REGRESSION TESTS - first reproduce the bug - then fix it ➡ In regular software development I rarely do TDD - and I also don't care much. More on the topic: https://lnkd.in/gMgfkc5f YMMV - What do you think? #qa #software #tdd #development #quality #cto #tech Thanks Dmitryi Serebrich for the nice discussion yesterday!

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How to Choose Your Dream Company. A very useful exercise that makes sense to do at the very beginning of your job search is to define for yourself the criteria a company should meet for you to want to work there. Here’s what my description of an ideal company looked like. 1️⃣ Location - either Munich or another city in Germany with full remote work, so I can settle in Munich. 2️⃣ Size - not a startup, not an enterprise, but rather a scale-up, meaning a company that is in the phase of actively scaling an already validated business model. 3️⃣ Industry - not tobacco, not gambling. 4️⃣ Financially stable, ideally operationally profitable. 5️⃣ No requirements to be in the office five days a week. 6️⃣ Reasonable leadership. 7️⃣ A corporate culture that encourages collaboration rather than internal competition. Just by reading the description of a company that has posted a job opening and looking at their website, I quickly learned to understand whether this looks like a dream company or if I will only interact with them to boost my "interviewing muscles." However, aspects like leadership or corporate culture are difficult to clarify without more detailed research. The good news is that there are at least two tools for this - interviews and reviews/recommendations. It's important to understand that during an interview, it's not just you being interviewed. You are also assessing the interviewer, including your potential future boss, and through their experience, the company. The more questions you ask aimed at clarifying the management's approach to processes and overall governance, the easier it is to understand if the company meets your criteria. Here are examples of questions you can ask in interviews to get an impression of the company and its management style: 1️⃣ How do you prioritize tasks? 2️⃣ Why do you like working at this company? 3️⃣ Tell me about the company’s corporate culture. 4️⃣ Why is this position open? 5️⃣ How is performance evaluation structured in the company? 6️⃣ What corporate events are there in your company? 7️⃣ Is there a budget for employee training? What expenses are covered by this budget? It's fantastic if you get a chance to talk not only with HR and your future manager but also with someone from top management or even the founders - this is common practice for small companies. It's interesting to ask top executives about their ambitions, for instance, what the company aims to achieve in 3-5 years, and about financial stability.

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Embedded developers with niche skills are like gold dust. If you find one, don’t hesitate... hire them quickly. I see over and over that these specialists are often snapped up by companies that understand their value. That means your hiring process needs to be not just fast, but also enticing. Competitive salaries, interesting projects, and a clear path for career growth are essential if you want to attract and retain this top talent. Speed and flexibility in hiring can make all the difference 🙏 The companies that adapt their recruitment strategies to move quickly are the ones that will come out on top.

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🌐 What’s Going On in the Product Management Job Market? 🌐 At a conference in Munich last week, I came across a job board that really made me stop and think. It had two sections: "Looking for a job?" and "Hiring?"—and the results were eye-opening. The job seekers’ side had all the sticky notes, and the hiring side was completely empty (check out the picture below). It left me wondering: Is this the reality right now for product managers? I’ve been hearing from both full-time job seekers and freelancers, and the feedback is pretty similar: times are tough. 🔹 Full-time roles seem harder to come by, with companies being incredibly selective. Many are only looking for highly specialized PMs—those with skills in AI, data, or deep tech. 🔹 Freelancers, on the other hand, are telling me that things have slowed down significantly. Budgets are tighter, and finding steady work has become a real challenge. So, I want to hear from my network: Freelancers: What are you experiencing right now? Full-time job seekers: How are you navigating the current market? Hiring managers: Are you still searching for talent, or has hiring slowed down? I’m genuinely curious—what’s the vibe in your corner of the job market? #ProductManagement #Freelancers #JobSearch #HiringTrends #CareerInsights

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Agile is dead! You are an idiot if... There, now that I have LinkedIn's attention. You should know that we are a few years, if not months away from creating superintelligent AIs (maybe "we" already have, but us regular folks don't know it yet). All this talk about existential threats to humanity is really about alignment. As a business consultant who has worked with hundreds of (maybe over 1000) companies, I know that alignment is really hard. People often don't have a common understanding of basic terms and conditions, let alone all the other operating parameters of a business. That's just business. Don't get me started on ethics, politics, social order...the list goes on. We are not aligned on much of anything. Yet, we want a superintelligent AI to align on doing what's best for humanity. What? Me worry? I'll keep shouting about this until more people start listening. This is serious shtuff.

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