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Brendan on the web
Author Archives: brendansterne
All Those Other Products Suck
Interesting perspective on the eternal build vs buy dilemma by the folks at Github (in Inc article): “Our finance people should have their own developers to automate the things that finance people do,” says Preston-Werner. “People shouldn’t be responsible for what we … Continue reading
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Don’t have a black hole in your team where a star should be
Jack Welsh makes the case that managers should expect to bat .750 or worse on hiring. Look, hiring great people is brutally hard. New managers are lucky to get it right half the time. And even executives with decades of … Continue reading
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How To Get That Product Manager Job
Interested in becoming a Product Manager? Check out this informative and entertaining presentation by Google Product Manager Shreyas Doshi on How To Get That Next PM Job: Some Highlights: Go ahead and do the job at your current company, before you … Continue reading
Tours of Duty: The New Employer-Employee Compact
Is there an alternative balanced between between permanent employment and contract employment? Reid Hoffman (CEO of LinkedIn) proposes the tour of duty in this month’s Harvard Business Review: “firm but time-limited mutual commitment with focused goals and clear expectations.” When possible, … Continue reading
The one cost engineers and product managers don’t consider
I love this article from Chris Gale, VP of Engineering at Yammer – The one cost engineers and product managers don’t consider – which is about reducing complexity… On the product side, your best tool for eliminating complexity cost is data. Studies … Continue reading
Getting Actionable Manager Feedback
At Bazaarvoice R&D we have a peer feedback system that we use every six months. Since it’s mostly focused on individual contributors, the questions relevant to management are too few and too broad (IMHO). e.g. … Do they provide effective … Continue reading
Are coders worth it?
An interesting long form piece in Aeon Magazine by James Somers – titled “Are coders worth it?” – aims to examine whether web developers are worth the six figure salaries that they currently command in their first year of employment. I am … Continue reading
How to be happy
Stumbled upon a great article on Happiness by Steve Camb. Summary: Here’s how to build the habit of making yourself happier: When you wake up, try meditating before checking your phone or turning on your computer. Even if it’s only … Continue reading
How Google Sets Goals
There’s a surprising lack of public information on OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) – the goal setting and tracking philosophy used by Intel, Google and others. This past month Google Ventures Startup Lab released a great presentation video by Rick Klau … Continue reading
The Automattic Creed
I’m a sucker for a good creed. Check out Automattic’s: I will never stop learning. I won’t just work on things that are assigned to me. I know there’s no such thing as a status quo. I will build our … Continue reading
Brendan Sterne 