Hi all!

I’m trying to be a better writer in 2019. Writing is something I’ve struggled with all my life, and I feel it’s hard for me to articulate ideas and thoughts to colleagues because of it.

Because of my background in a technical field (Software Engineering), I don’t get a lot of chances to express things that I have learned. 95+% of my job is just writing code, completing tasks my boss has asked me to do.

All my knowledge, experience, and wisdom lives in a company’s codebase, not in a public place for people to see what I’ve learned and my expertise.

This year I want to convey the skills and experience I’ve fought hard to obtain over the years to my colleagues, customers, and managers.

I also want to submit more abstracts to conference speaking roles this year, in which I think that writing every day will improve my abstract writing skills as well.

As I’ve been thinking about what are the sorts of things I want to write about, I want to write about new technology, side projects I’m working on, and what makes a great tech leader.

Brief

A few years ago a mentor had recommended I check out ‘Brief’ by Joseph McCormack, as a way to improve my speaking and writing.

Brief shows us that anyone can be a ‘lean’ communicator with practice. That in a world of constant information overload, being focused and clear isn’t just a nicety, but a necessity in the 21st century. That our attention spans are shortening as fast as we are adopting newer and newer technology.

Joseph goes over the fact that most of the time we don’t do the upfront groundwork to get the point with people. We end up wasting our colleagues and decision-makers time and become verbally sloppy.

He has four core principles he talks about in the book:

• Map it: basically condensing information
• Tell it: using storytelling to explain in a clear and concise way
• Talk it: (TALC) controlled monologues that give you control of conversations
• Show it: ‘smart’ visuals

I thought I would reread it in the next few days, as I think these concepts are not only helpful at work relaying information with managers and colleagues but also help me on my journey on becoming a better writer.

Write Together

A few days ago I found an interesting site being promoted on ProductHunt, and it has an exciting value proposition around writing.

The platform reminds you to write at least 300 words, every day and shows your writing streak to the whole community. You can write entries that are private only to you, or to just the community, or make them public.

It’s forced me to get creative on days when there’s nothing exciting to write about. It’s been a great canvas to flush out ideas on articles I want to write on Medium. Other writers give feedback and suggestions and improve your overall writing ability.

Definitely worth checking out if you’re looking to improve your own writing.

https://writetogether.space

So here’s to starting a new habit of writing, every day, about things that will make me a better engineer, leader, and writer.

Cheers!

This article is for anyone wanting to step up their team’s performance and cohesion. It discusses 4 key components to keep in mind when running teams. Great for Team Leads, Managers, Directors, and CTOs. Additionally great for engineers that are team members and not necessarily in a leadership position. The best culture shifts in a company start at the grassroots level.

Long story, short:

• Invest serious time into building real trust in your team. Embrace good conflict and discussion, don’t avoid it.
• Give your team a purpose. Measure and share the progress the team makes on themselves, the product, and the business. Ensure teams know what AND why they are building the product.
• Autonomy breeds creative problem solving. Hire the right people and set up a support structure for success. Give up control. Don’t micro-manage.
• Instill good habits in your team like a daily standup or a weekly retro. Muscle memory and discipline for your team sets the stage for a culture of continuous improvement.

As a Software Engineer that’s worked for different startups, I’ve experienced a lot of ways to lead a software team. Some were fly by the seat of your pants and break everything to eventual code completion. Others were debilitating with the amount of processes and procedures.

There is however a small minority of teams that have found the right balance of flexibility and process. These teams are able to provide business value to their stakeholders on a consistent basis.

Very few teams have achieved this balance.

Having seen such a wide spectrum of teams and their dynamics, I would sum up my philosophy on team management in a tech company around 4 key components.

Trust is the central foundation for great team dynamics and discussions. Giving your team a sense of purpose to the overall business goals will build an intrinsic motivation for your team to create great work. Great products are only going to come from a team that has a level of autonomy for creative problem solving. Good habits and processes can help your team move in a disciplined, concise way that’s easy to predict and ultimately moves your team faster.

1. Trust

“Great teams do not hold back with one another. They are unafraid to air their dirty laundry. They admit their mistakes, their weaknesses, and their concerns without fear of reprisal.”

- Patrick Lencioni, 5 Dysfunctions of a Team

Real trust in a team can lead to healthy conflict, commitment, accountability, and selflessness. There’s a direct connection with these qualities a team has and the success of a product, or even the business at large.

Do you trust your team?

Ask yourself:

• Can I trust that we can be vulnerable with each other?
• Can I depend on everyone on the team to put in great work?
• Can I trust that everyone on the team has the same passion and vision for the team (and the company as a whole) that I do?

When a team trusts one another, they can be comfortable being vulnerable in front of them. They are more willing to take risks or talk about an unpopular opinion. They feel safe contributing to an idea, even if it’s high risk. It’s exciting to see how open and honest teams are when they don’t feel judged when sharing.

As a leader, you should admit weaknesses and limitations, showing that you can be vulnerable with your team. Your team will feel more at ease with their own limitations, thus these habits will start to build the first foundation of a great team.

🚀 Pro tips to help get you started:

• Do an offsite somewhere with your team where you can do excerises like a Personal Histories and/or Team Effectiveness. These conversations can start to break down barriers needed to build trust, deal with conflict, commit to each other and your goals as a team.
• Peer code review for pull requests helps to build a mindset of being comfortable with vulnerability.

2. Purpose

“Greatness and nearsightedness are incompatible. Meaningful achievement depends on lifting one’s sights and pushing toward the horizon.”

- Daniel Pink, Drive

Have you ever seen the engineer that just wants the specs to a feature to then be left alone? Have you ever been that person?

I’ve been that person several times in my career, and every time I burn myself because I didn’t properly understand the purpose behind my work. I was too focused on getting my unit tests to pass that I didn’t even understand the product requirements.

When I didn’t understand the product, why it we were building, and most importantly the customer, the stage was set for eventual burnout.

We get up each and every day, do our work, and go home. Because of this repetitive nature, we can easily slip into taking our purpose and customers for granted.

A team can find a deeper motivation than just $$ when they understand the value of how their work contributes to a specific business outcome.

Your team can be motivated by building x backend system, then motivated by y new customers, then motivated by disrupting z industry.

This creates an intrinsic motivation that your team will see how their work will ultimately change the market.

Ask your team these questions to see if they know “Whose Purpose is it anyway?”

• What is my purpose at the company?
• What is the purpose of my team?
• What is our company’s purpose?

🚀 Pro tips to help get you started:

• Depending on the type of product your team is working on, have them run a mile in the customer or user’s shoes. Have them experience the exact UX the user would experience.
• Try out Reich’s Pronoun Test, does your team refer to their company as “they” or as “we”?
• Be open and honest about how the company is doing. Metrics reporting software like Metabase allow any employee to see the company’s KPIs (Key Performance Metrics)/burn rate.

3. Autonomy

When you treat people like children, you get children’s work.

- Jason Fried, ReWork

Now that there’s a cohesive team that trusts one another, it’s time for you to empower your team to push their creative and entrepreneurial limits.

Instead of ad-hoc decision making on the technology stack and architecture as a Tech Leader, ask your team. Let them come up with a consensus on software design decisions (within a reasonable amount of time)

More heads are better than one, right?

You’ll start to see more elegant solutions to technical and business problems.

Granted you’ve hired the right people, your team will take this new control and responsibility seriously. They’ll have the best interests of the product and the business during those discussions.

While many struggle to keep a team motivated, using autonomy as a strategy will actually make it pretty straight forward.

When charging ahead with letting go of control with your team, ask yourself these questions:

• Am I giving my team direction and intent, and room to solve problems in their own way?
• Is my team excited about how creative problem solving helps the business?
• Am I involving my team in goal-setting for our team and company KPIs?

By giving enough room for creative problem solving without saying exactly how to solve it, you will motivate people with more than a paycheck.

If you place realistic goals in front of your team, the tools to do it, and a sense of purpose for why they should, they will impress you every time.

🚀 Pro tips to help get you started:

• The next time there’s an issue that needs resolved, instead of telling your team what needs to happen, have them come up with a solution.
• Gather your team and conduct an “Autonomy Audit”
• Allow your team to work on other projects for a specified time consistently each week/Sprint/month. Whatever is comfortable for your team. More often than not they’ll be working on something that benefits the business.

4. Good Habits

“Although discipline demands control and asceticism, it actually results in more freedom. When you have the discipline to get up early, you are rewarded with more freedom.”

- Jocko Willink, Extreme Ownership

With the pace of technology in today’s world, it’s tough to see what’s around the next corner. Figuring out the next move in the product or the business can become overwhelming and stressful.

Many teams differ process and structure in their work flow in the attempt to stay flexible with the changing market.

What they often don’t realize is how ambiguity and lack of process will actually hurt a team’s ability to deliver code. It doesn’t give a team more freedom, it bogs the team down with no systematic way to work.

The flexibility teams want to achieve will ultimately improve through disciplined procedures.

A disciplined software team will create processes, and adhere to those processes. This allows them to provide business value in a sustained and predictable way. When teams become predictable, it provides a great atmosphere for experimenting with innovative ideas and features.

A software team that has good habits will also be very disciplined.

This discipline will free up time to automate those systems as much as possible to ensure they keep up with team/company growth.

Cory House 🏠 on Twitter

It's baffling how many teams lack the habit of capturing knowledge. Just learned something? Document the solution or automate it away.

Cory House 🏠 on Twitter

Examples: Code review checklist Machine configuration Definition of done Release process All should be documented or automated.

🚀 Pro tips to help get you started:

• Start your own morning routines and build great habits. Use this framework to help get you started. Once you experience the power and freedom you get from routines, discuss with your team what good habits they would like as part of normal routines.
• Discuss with your team what ‘Done’ means in regards to a full product, feature, update, or bug. Come up with a consensus, document and/or automate the procedure.
• Create a Pull Request Template with your team that everyone agrees to. Have the team hold each other accountable to it.

Long story, short:

• Invest serious time into building real trust in your team. Embrace good conflict and discussion, don’t avoid it.
• Give your team a purpose. Measure and share the progress the team makes on themselves, the product, and the business. Ensure teams know what AND why they are building the product.
• Autonomy breeds creative problem solving. Hire the right people and set up a support structure for success. Give up control. Don’t micro-manage.
• Instill good habits in your team like a daily standup or a weekly retro. Muscle memory and discipline for your team sets the stage for a culture of continuous improvement.

📖 Looking for more inspiration on running a great software team?

• The Phoenix Project
• The Goal
• The Advantage
• The Power of Habit
• The One Thing
• Drive
• Do More Faster
• Accelerate
• The Hard Thing About Hard Things
• Brief

Four Ways to Lead Your Software Team to Success 💪 was originally published in HackerNoon.com on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Having done a few Startup Weekends now, I’d say that 54 hours of working with a team to validate and pitch a business idea is hands down my favorite thing to do.

If you haven’t yet, I’m serious it will change your life.

You might be thinking,

“Are you sure I’m the right type of person to do Startup Weekend?”

YES.

You could be an aspiring or established entrepreneur. Or maybe an amateur or professional developer, designers, makers, sales, marketer, or manager. Anyone that wants to experience the roller coaster of an early stage idea coming together in a single weekend is in the right place.

1. Best networking you’ll ever do. Period.

Doing Startup Weekends I’ve met my next employer, several co-founders, business partners, a long time personal mentor, and several of my best friends. The type of person that goes to Startup Weekend is a person that cares about the tech and startup community and giving back. Whether you’re learning how to enter the space, or have had a very successful career, Startup Weekend is a great place to meet like minds.

2. Validate an actual idea.

We’ve all laid in bed thinking at night about an idea of some product that we think should be in the marketplace. Well, Startup Weekend provides the best place to not only see if the idea is viable, but helps you move on it SUPER quickly. You’ll learn about customer discovery, product market fit, and how to pitch to potential investors on your business model canvas.

3. Learn to work with a team on a limited timetable.

Imagine for a moment working with half a dozen people you’ve never met before.

You have to build your team, do introductions, find out everyone’s skill set, create team cohesion, and ultimately build a business in a weekend.

Crazy huh?

I’d say that experience has taught me where my weaknesses lie and how to improve myself. Figuring out those gaps as a technical professional, leader, and entrepreneur was priceless. I’m still great friends with many of my teammates (and competitors).

4. Pick up a new skill.

My first Startup Weekend I was particularly naive as to what to get out of it. As a Software Engineer I went in thinking:

“I’m going to build the best app this weekend and win”

I was quickly humbled and I ended up not building the best product. One of the biggest lessons was figuring out whether you should even build that app in the first place.

Try going into Startup Weekend in a role you’ve never done before. If you’re technical, join a team and be it’s marketer. If you’re a designer, try making the website for the team. It’s a great way to learn a new skill set under time and pressure.

5. It’s actually cheaper than eating out all weekend.

The cost of attending Startup Weekend is about the cost of eating out at a restaurant for two. Not only is it an amazing experience, meet great mentors, receive a ton of free startup resources, but then also get fed the whole the weekend.

🍕🌮🙌

PLUS unlimited drinks and snacks the whole weekend.

😁☕️🍪🍌

Louisville is having it’s 11th Startup Weekend this Fall and tickets are on sale! It’s an amazing experience and I wouldn’t trade it in for anything.

Join us October 13th — 15th :)

I’m also giving out discounts so feel free to contact me.

The acceleration of startup businesses and new products to try has become increasingly dizzying. Everyone wants to become another “Silicon Valley” startup. We live in such an exciting time where anyone’s idea or concept can be materialized into full businesses within hours.

This has been a particularly exciting time for me, as a Software Engineer, seeing how binary data of ones and zeros gets converted into exciting innovation for society.

With all this excitement, it’s been frustrating for me to figure out how I can exactly fit an idea that I have into the market. I’ve built several interesting products with vigor, only to fall short on getting my leads to convert.

Heck, forget converting, I have trouble getting people to even check out my product.

I’ve been searching for a way to bridge the gap between my product and my customers. Since there’s also a dizzying amount of courseware, it’s difficult to decide the right instructors and curriculum.

From free to paid courses, what’s the right path to understand product/market fit?

One platform that I hadn’t considered using for this skill set was Udacity. I became familiar with them a few years ago taking their free Android courses. Having seen content from their other courses like Artificial Intelligence and iOS development, I was extremely impressed with how comprehensive but cutting-edge their content is.

To then find out that Udacity announced a Digital Marketing Nanodegree, I knew I found the right avenue to solve my skill set challenge.

I like the fact that’s it’s a paid course, which sets enough barrier to entry to ensure I take the course seriously.

In this unique program, I’m able to run live campaigns on major marketing platforms. I’m learning and applying new techniques, analyze results, produce actionable insights, which then allows me to build a portfolio of work.

In addition to the great content, there’s supportive mentoring and a rigorous project review with expert partners. Udacity’s partners are all on the cutting-edge of digital marketing expertise, which is really helpful to ensure the course content is up to date.

This piece is part of an assignment from Udacity’s Digital Marketing Nanodegree

This was an exciting year at Google I/O 2017. Pichai announced Google Lens, updated Google Assistant, Cloud Tensor Processing Units, and AutoML. AI is definitely Google’s new focus as a company.

Machine Learning has proven that we can solve complex business problems and predict customer experience with relative ease.

What is Machine Learning you ask?

Machine Learning is a subset of Artificial Intelligence that uses large sets of data to infer patterns, and then make predictions based on that data. It’s become so powerful that we can apply that data analysis to every field or industry. We can improve the work of radiologists and help them identify small changes in imaging scans for more accurate diagnosis. We can improve on fraud detection using predictive modeling.

We can even predict when a customer is pregnant before her friends or family are even aware.

You might think “My team isn’t big/experienced enough to implement AI” or “My business doesn’t need Artificial Intelligence”, well before you make those assumptions ask yourself these questions:

1. Is there a way I can remove barriers in customer flow to improve conversion?
2. Is there a way I can get smarter about how I track and contact customer leads?
3. Is there a way I can use my historical data to suggest better and more personalized customer experiences?
4. Is there a way I can automate or augment/improve internal operations?

If you answered yes to any these questions, then Machine Learning is for your business and you should look into getting started right away.

What’s really exciting about the space is that we’re at a point now in Artificial Intelligence and more specifically Machine Learning that’s made it so easy to implement that any code monkey has access to an incredible amount of technical power that can solve hard problems. Before that type of technology required dozens of scientists and engineers.

How should you get started?

If you are a developer yourself, then there’s a good series of online resources from Google’s TensorFlow, Udacity, and the community on the fundamentals and concepts.

If you are in business, there are managed services and tools out there that can provide a lot of intelligence for you, but they may not be as customizable as your company needs.

There’s also no substitute for local or online communities. Find mentors and experts in the space and pick their brain.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — George Zimmer, former CEO of Men’s Warehouse has released a new fitting platform with his rental tuxedo company, Generation Tux. Generation Tux can now perfectly fit anyone into a tuxedo or suit with just a few questions about general body type and zero measurements.

“Since I started in mens wear in 1973, the biggest problem I’ve had to deal with is consistently and properly measuring men with the tape measure. With our new platform we have eliminated the need for taking measurements and customers looking to rent a high-quality suit or tuxedo can complete the process in less than 5 minutes,” said Zimmer.

The Generation Tux team has created a proprietary Machine Learning algorithm that can predict the usual tailor measurements like neck size, outseam, and arm length, by just asking customers for height, weight, age, shoe size, and build profile. The algorithm is based on a neural network, a type of algorithm designed to mimic the functions of the human brain.

It’s become so good that it can accurately predict measurements of customers within fractions of an inch, and do it at economies of scale.

Brian Webb, Generation Tux’s Chief Technology Officer has been leading the charge to remove the measuring tape.

“This is a really exciting time in fashion and technology using approaches like Machine Learning. This is the tip of the iceberg imagine a world where this can be used to fit anyone into any garment. Whether it’s rental or retail, we can fit custom shirts, jeans, and jackets without ever getting measured,” Webb said.

Generation Tux even provides a free home try-on program for anyone that needs a hassle-free, quick and cost effective tuxedo rental for special occasions of all kinds including weddings, black-tie events, proms and formal parties.

The new fitting system is now live at www.GenerationTux.com.

About Generation Tux

Generation Tux is an online tuxedo and suit rental platform founded by menswear legend, George Zimmer. He created the company in 2014 to provide high quality tuxedo and suit rentals at competitive pricing and in the most convenient way possible — shipped directly to your door. Generation Tux has a wide selection of tuxedo and suit styles and over 200+ color combinations to match the most current fashion trends. Using the highest quality fabrics and materials, suits are made from high quality Super 130s wool, leather and silk. Generation Tux was founded with today’s modern man in mind, someone who wants to look their best but has a full and busy life, we are making quality tuxedo rental and purchases as simple as possible.