Insights
Field notes on engineering leadership.
Practical thinking from the chair, on building teams, making hard calls, and leading calmly when the pressure is real.
Writing
The five abilities
How I build infrastructure teams around developer productivity, cost, and five foundations that go beyond Google's SRE.
Read →How I build engineering teams
My evolving leadership ethos: culture and morale as engines of productivity, and engineering as a service to product.
Read →Professional plate spinning
How I keep many projects in the air at once without dropping the ball, and a method you can use to do the same.
Read →The $1.5M engineering department
How two years of financial discipline turned an engineering org from a cost centre into a self-funding business unit.
Coming soonWhat an AI-enabled SDLC actually looks like
Everyone is talking about AI transforming software development. Here is what it looks like when you are actually running it.
Coming soonCalendar reset
Something I'd recommend every January, every time you start a new role, or any time you feel significantly burnt out.
Coming soonCritical non-essentials
The small things that are not essential but change everything. From a dentist in Brisbane to winning the Rugby World Cup.
Coming soonCulture erosion is not because people aren’t in an office
Everyone blames remote work for broken culture. I don't buy it.
Coming soonCutting out the dead wood
Rot spreads. The obvious and not-so-obvious signs, and how to act on them without poisoning morale.
Coming soonManaging the end of the runway
When there's no money left and no promises to make, what does a leader actually owe their team?
Coming soonThe first 90 days as a fractional CTO
What to change, what to leave alone, and how to earn a team's trust before you touch the roadmap.
Coming soonHow I manage flight risk
How I assess employee flight risk and respond to it, using a spreadsheet, a few signals, and a clear sense of when to act and when to let someone fly.
Coming soonI repeatedly build high-performing, motivated teams
My leadership philosophy, where it came from, and what I've learned about what actually drives engineering productivity.
Coming soonLeveling frameworks and bell curves
I genuinely made a career decision that I will never work at a firm again that deploys a bell curve methodology.
Coming soonManagement capital
Leadership isn't a step-by-step guide. It's more like a choose your own adventure book, and you start with a limited number of cards.
Coming soonManagement debt
Why delayed decisions compound like technical debt, and the cost of putting off the hard conversation.
Coming soonWhat if we are just doing meetings wrong?
Meetings mostly stayed the same through a pandemic that changed everything else. Maybe it's time to look at the rules.
Coming soonLeading effective 1:1s at all levels
What 1:1s are for, why they exist, how they can be valuable, and how to make them effective at every level.
Coming soonSomehow I manage
Taking imposter syndrome head on and taking a magnifying glass to my own leadership style.
Coming soonBuilding trust with a new team
Practical things I do when I take on a new team, from day one through to the long game.
Coming soonWhat’s in a name?
You've launched a new thing. Should you call it Darkseid, or something that people can actually find in three years?
Coming soonLet’s talk about where you’re headed.
Tell me what you’re building and where it hurts. A short conversation is the best place to start.
Currently taking a limited number of new clients.