Fabio Cicerchia - Issue #133
👋 Hi, this is Fabio with the biweekly issue of the DevPath Newsletter.
Each issue delivers curated content for engineers and leaders in tech,
ideal for busy people as it gives an extract of the latest news and trends.
You can’t teach people everything they need to know. The best you can do is position them where they can find what they need to know when they need to know it.
— Seymour Papert
Architecture
Minimum Viable Architecture
Reading time: 5 mins
Minimum Viable Architecture is the architecture that’s good enough for the product to be released and needs to be continually improved during the lifetime of the product.
Many software architects try to design the entire product upfront and have persistent issues of over-architecture. They try to think about what might be needed in one year, and in most cases, it ends up in the bin because their work was based on assumptions and not actual requirements.
Career
When and How to Resign from a Management Position
Reading time: 14 mins
Quitting as a manager is always difficult, and it's not an easy decision. However, it's one of the many questions we've heard before.
In the process of growing Lighthouse and writing this blog, we have talked to a lot of leaders. Often, they share a challenge their facing. Many of our posts are inspired by those conversations.
While many of the questions are innocent ("How do I grow my people when there is lack of promotion opportunities?" or "What do I talk about in a 1 on 1?") Some of these challenges are much more sensitive, like the one above.
Health
37 Algorithms For Life
Reading time: 6 mins
Life is full of decisions, big and small.
Algorithms help us make better choices. They are rules or principles that can be followed to achieve a desired outcome.
In our daily lives, we follow many algorithms. For example, when we plan our daily schedule or make a to-do list, we use an algorithm to manage our time effectively.
We use algorithms to manage our finances by creating and sticking to a budget. We use decision-making tools to analyse our options and make informed choices.
Methodologies
How to make an Impact as a Platform Product Manager
Reading time: 7 mins
I thought about what I enjoyed the most and my achievements. I also thought about my failures and what I learned from them, the organisations I worked in, their culture, and their context. More thinking and less writing, because I wanted this to be a very transparent and actionable piece of content.
As much as I kept my advice generic, some parts might only resonate with some Platform PMs and might only apply to some. After all, in product management, one size does not fit all.
Productivity
The More Senior Your Job Title, the More You Need to Keep a Journal
Reading time: 7 mins
Being a CEO can be a lonely job–there is no obvious person in whom to confide. Keeping a journal can fill that void, by giving a new leader a chance for structured reflection of recent past events and decisions, and mental rehearsal for future ones. Despite the time and discipline it takes to keep a journal, it should be part of every new leader’s toolkit.
Mix
Top 10 Engineering KPIs Technical Leaders Should Know
Reading time: 8 mins
Engineering success inevitably translates into product success. But how can engineering success be measured? How do teams introspect on the project's progress and find ways to steer through deadlines with software quality intact? The answer is Engineering KPIs. Most managers track engineering KPIs within a specific, contextual framework like the SPACE research. But the model is not omnipresent, and most teams want to evolve further and have personalized goals and trackers in place.
Using specific measurement frameworks becomes crucial with constantly evolving engineering teams’ work processes —effort alignment, improving work processes, and maximizing efficiency. But why spend so much time tracking some metrics? Today, we will cover the importance of engineering KPIs and which 10 KPIs you should look for.
Resources
Articles, Spreadsheets and Tools
Here is a set of online articles that help understand the mathematics behind Agile. We add to these all the time and would like to hear ideas you have for more.
Thank you for making it to the end! 🤗
If you enjoyed this newsletter, please send me feedback, fill out a quick survey or share it with others!
If you were forwarded this newsletter and liked it, subscribe here.
Have a great week 😉