sofiakodar.github.io

I vividly remember most of my own journey into engineering management over the years. Throughout my career, I’ve also mentored several people taking the step from engineer to engineering manager. It’s a challenging and often lonely journey, and here are a few truths most new managers realize the hard way. (If you aren’t a manager yourself, you might just learn a bit about your manager’s situation.) ### The things no one tells you about being a manager: You’ll bring work home with you more often than not. The difficult conversation you’re dreading, the “stupid” business decision you will need to explain to your team, the office politics you need to handle, or the team member struggling silently with a personal crises. You will need to learn how to manage stress and rumination – and you’ll need to learn it fast.

A few days ago (May 19) I attended the AI fokus conference. I attended last year as well, and I think this year’s version was improved with even better talks. It was a great venue, very well planned with good breaks for coffee and lunch and I had lots of interesting conversations with different people during the breaks. Always fun to meet people you haven’t seen in a few years.

A few days ago (May 19) I attended the AI fokus conference. I attended last year as well, and I think this year’s version was improved with even better talks. It was a great venue, very well planned with good breaks for coffee and lunch and I had lots of interesting conversations with different people during the breaks. Always fun to meet people you haven’t seen in a few years.

We need to talk about feedback loops. Short feedback loops are the heartbeat of Agile. Once, cutting development cycles to two weeks was a massive achievement (and for many, it still is). But the core principle, learning quickly from what we build, seems to have been lost, even though the tools to do it are better than ever. Continuous delivery, continuous discovery, and releasing features to users early and often are now standard for many web-based products. Some ship dozens of times a day, others test with users early and often. Even for teams dealing with hardware or complex deployment cycles, the potential for rapid feedback exists.

We need to talk about feedback loops. Short feedback loops are the heartbeat of Agile. Once, cutting development cycles to two weeks was a massive achievement (and for many, it still is). But the core principle, learning quickly from what we build, seems to have been lost, even though the tools to do it are better than ever. Continuous delivery, continuous discovery, and releasing features to users early and often are now standard for many web-based products. Some ship dozens of times a day, others test with users early and often. Even for teams dealing with hardware or complex deployment cycles, the potential for rapid feedback exists.