Brendan's Reflections

  • 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 call ‘s––– work.’ We prefer to solve repetitive sorts of jobs with technology.” As for…

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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 experience will tell you that they make the right calls 75% of the time at…

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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 earn the title Best outcome of an interview: the interviewer learned something new

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  • 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, a tour of duty should offer an employee the possibility of a breakout entrepreneurial opportunity.…

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  • 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 show that most product ideas fail to show value, and many even remove value. If…

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  • 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 and timely feedback about your performance and work with you to establish and achieve your…

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  • 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 a web developer, and there has never been a better time to do what I…

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  • 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 for two minutes. Do what you can to spend your time on projects you love,…

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  • 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 on how Google does goal setting and tracking: “How Google sets goals: OKRs” Some takeaways:…

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  • 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 business sustainably through passionate and loyal customers. I will never pass up an opportunity to…

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