Find resources to solve your technical leadership challenges
Dan North's story of defending a 'zero-productivity' programmer who delivered immeasurable team value through mentoring and pairing
Tim Dellinger's analysis challenging the assumption that employee performance follows a normal distribution, arguing for a Pareto model instead
Matan Kubovsky's 'engineering boost' framework for measuring team performance through results and behaviors in growing startups
Ro Fernandez's structured five-step framework for transforming low-performing team members into key contributors through empathy and systematic support
AIHR's practical guide to using the 9-box grid for talent management, categorizing employees by performance and potential for strategic decisions
Lattice's comprehensive guide to standardizing performance ratings across teams through calibration processes and bias mitigation
Xavier Shay's case against traditional performance reviews and alternative self-evaluation approaches for engineering teams
Moxie Marlinspike's exploration of how curiosity, deep understanding, and vision-engineering synergy define both good engineers and organizations
Aviv Ben-Yosef's six contrarian organizational practices that high-performing tech teams use to avoid common mediocrity traps
Jack Danger's framework for understanding three-layer engineering organizations and the neglected domain engineering layer
PostHog's handbook entry on their small team philosophy and organizational structure for maintaining startup agility
Jason Yip's analysis of why platforms don't automatically improve productivity and the 'platform as product' mindset needed
PostHog's strategy for maintaining startup culture through autonomous 2-6 person teams while scaling
Elizabeth Ayer's analysis of how open cultures can create exclusion through unlimited participation and the need for intentional structure
Critical analysis of holacracy and self-management organizational experiments, advocating for selective implementation
Martin Fowler's guide to the four fundamental team types for optimizing software delivery and reducing cognitive load
Charity Majors on why architecture should be an engineering skill, not a separate role
Analysis of infrastructure platform team organizational models and when costly re-orgs aren't needed
Why organizational structure often prevents companies from executing their intended strategy
Team Topologies book summary on sociotechnical systems and human-centric team architecture
Why excessive team fragmentation undermines autonomy and how to organize for customer value
Critical analysis of why Spotify's famous squad model failed and key lessons for organizations
How to leverage Conway's Law through the Reverse Conway Maneuver to design team structures that enable desired software architecture
Practical strategies from engineers for rapidly learning new domains through strategic meetings, hands-on product use, and structured knowledge acquisition
Martin Fowler's analysis of onboarding bottlenecks that prevent scaleups from growing effectively
Systematic approach for quickly understanding new teams through structured 30-minute meetings
Medium's evolution of remote-friendly engineering onboarding with feedback loops
GitLab's comprehensive engineering onboarding checklist template
Mattermost's structured 30/60/90-day onboarding framework for remote teams
GitLab's proven strategies for rapid and effective engineer onboarding
Joel Spolsky's framework for shielding developers from organizational complexity
Jensen Huang's philosophy on humble leadership and doing necessary work regardless of status
Twitter thread on characteristics and behaviors of effective engineering managers
How extreme ownership mindset empowers engineers to achieve their goals
Car metaphor for understanding different types of engineers and their optimal environments
Strategies for channeling big egos and strong personalities in engineering teams
How engineering strengths and weaknesses are two sides of the same coin
Gergely Orosz's comprehensive guide to effective developer mentorship based on real-world experience at scale
Hiten Shah's insights on the art of giving and receiving meaningful advice through contextual understanding
Strategic collection of targeted questions for maximizing mentorship conversations across career domains
Framework for understanding the interconnected skills required for senior-level software development roles
Robert Galford's guide to identifying and preventing organizational behaviors that undermine team effectiveness
Pavel Brodsky's guide to using strategic silence to break team dependency dynamics and empower autonomous decision-making
Reframing meetings as essential work rather than interruptions to real productivity
Innovative leadership ritual using structured conflict to surface disagreements and improve team decision-making
Andy Grunwald's pragmatic approach to reclaiming productivity by strategically canceling unnecessary meetings
Justin Garrison's insider view of Amazon's unique document-based meeting culture and decision-making process
Practical blueprint for transforming engineering team meetings into engaging knowledge-sharing sessions
The stdlib collection is a community-curated library of practical, immediately useful, battle-tested resources for technical leadership. Each resource is designed to be immediately applicable to your role. New resources are added based on community feedback and emerging best practices.