Find resources to solve your technical leadership challenges
A practical framework that extends the classic Rocks-Pebbles-Sand analogy to help leaders prioritize work by impact, ROI, and throughput, ensuring strategic projects get the time they need while keeping tactical work flowing.
SharedPhysics' framework for diagnosing and solving organizational overwhelm through strict prioritization and sequential execution
Strategic framework for adapting agile methodology to enterprise B2B startups with dual-track roadmapping
YouTube's hypergrowth was powered by disciplined rituals-daily stand-ups, weekly metrics reviews, and blameless post-mortems-that kept alignment and speed as the team ballooned.
Chuck Groom's argument for milestone-focused sprint planning over story backlogs to maintain focus on delivered value
Pick one key KPI, set a time-bound goal, and give your team ownership so progress is visible daily and actions stay focused.
Roadmapping turns strategic ambition into a 12-18 month vision broken into quarterly OKRs, giving leaders a clear north while preventing micromanagement and aligning cross-functional teams.
DARPA's eight strategic questions for evaluating research proposals, forcing clear articulation of objectives, approach, impact, and success metrics
Identifies the ten most common causes of slow product velocity-from weak product ownership to technical debt-and shows how addressing each can dramatically boost team throughput.
Strategies for engineering leaders to reduce excessive online activity and manage digital distractions effectively
Ben Kuhn's practical strategies for managerial time management, emphasizing delegation, prioritization, and managing the shift from IC to leadership
John Cutler's insights on how calendars reveal true organizational priorities versus claimed importance
Jason Cohen's analysis of why high utilization creates system brittleness, context switching overhead, and cascading failures in teams and organizations
Makers thrive on half-day blocks of uninterrupted time; forced manager-style interruptions shred productivity, so leaders must carve dedicated deep-work windows and use office-hours or async communication to protect them.
Barry O'Reilly's examination of how constant busyness undermines productivity and strategic thinking in leadership
Cal Newport's analysis of why maker schedules requiring deep, uninterrupted work blocks are rare despite their necessity for productivity
Paul Graham's influential essay on two fundamental scheduling approaches and why makers need uninterrupted time blocks while managers work in meeting intervals
Simplified GTD alternative focusing on habit change, essential tasks, and structured routines for sustainable productivity
Leo Babauta's mindful approach to productivity through intentional living and sustainable habit formation
Simplify Getting Things Done by focusing on its five pillars-capture, clarify, organize, reflect, engage-using any tool you already have, so you spend less time managing tasks and more time doing work.
Automation frees mental energy, letting engineers stay in flow; mastering tools, organization, and typing cuts distractions and boosts productivity.
Greatness is earned through consistent, repeatable habits and deliberate iteration, not fleeting wins or luck.
Asking the right questions saves time, uncovers hidden issues, and aligns teams, turning vague problems into clear, actionable solutions.
A 13-point creative manifesto that champions action over perfection and completion as a catalyst for momentum
Best practices are provisional guidelines, not universal truths; treating them as fixed rules can blind leaders to context and lead to poor decisions.
Linus Lee's philosophy on designing personalized tools that adapt to individual mental models rather than forcing workflows to conform to generic software
Todoist's debunking of common productivity misconceptions including copying successful habits, maximizing every moment, and willpower limitations
A concise list of practical life hacks that sharpen decision-making, boost daily productivity, and reduce burnout, giving technical leaders quick actions to improve personal effectiveness.
Alexey Guzey's comprehensive collection of productivity insights emphasizing flexible systems, intentional environments, and psychological self-awareness
Todoist's comprehensive guide to Cal Newport's deep work methodology for achieving distraction-free concentration and cognitive peak performance
Nicole Bandes' productivity method where you immediately act on tasks when first encountered to avoid mental debt and repeated handling
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
Use the 9-box grid to map employees on performance and potential, then apply specific talent actions for each segment and download a ready-made Excel template for quick reporting.
Performance review calibration aligns managers on rating criteria, reduces bias, and creates consistent, fair employee scores across teams.
Xavier Shay's case against traditional performance reviews and alternative self-evaluation approaches for engineering teams
Software engineering's vision and engineering are bidirectional; deep tool understanding fuels new ideas, while black-box abstractions choke innovation and team performance.
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
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.