How do you know if you’re ready to switch careers and become an engineering manager? That question has been asked often since I made the switch several years ago. I’ve written previously about how I trained engineers to be managers, but that’s only part of the problem. The better question is are you ready for […]
Recently, I had a small debate with other leaders on the impact of communication and its role across the team. We debated that repeating material in the town hall format adds no value and that they would prefer smaller more personal modes of communication. I believe that we need to communicate widely and personally. The […]
Essay Leadership Management Strategy
An engineering strategy goes beyond your OKRs (if that’s what you use for goal setting). It goes into where you want the organization to be in the next few years. As a leader, you need to decide the short-term tactics you wish to use and your long-term plays. A strategy doesn’t necessarily need to be […]
It’s been a long time since I sat down to write out my thoughts. Over the past couple of years, I’ve been working on my MBA. I successfully graduated and learned a lot about business in the process. Today, I want to write about something I’ve been working on over the past few years. I […]
When I first started at Traveloka, I realised that there are some good engineering practices, but other practices could be improved. It’s only through this crisis that we could discover how to embrace our inner engineers through working from home. One of the first things I noticed was missing was a lack of centralised documentation. […]
Recently I had a roundtable discussion with my engineers on what makes a great engineer. What are the traits that you would like to see in yourself or your peers? What was interesting is that there is no standard accepted definition or trait. Everyone had their own unique perspective and thoughts on who they would […]
Unfortunately, the world has gone a bit upside down over the last few months. We’ve seen countless layoffs across many different industries and countries. Now, more than ever, we’re also seeing leaders truly emerge and help their people navigate through the choppy waters. Be Clear One thing I’ve now noticed that great leaders like Jacinda […]
Last year, I wrote a post after about 6 months being a manager of a rather large team (two pizzas would definitely not be enough to feed them). I wrote about the types of questions I ask during 1:1s. Here’s a little update as to why you shouldn’t really follow my advice anymore. Following a […]
I was recently given the opportunity to train an engineer in my team to take over my role. This engineer volunteered to become a people manager. Now, obviously, not everyone is cut out for people management. This is just a few of the steps I took to help transition the engineer. 1. Determine their motivations […]
