How do you lead?
A reflection on the question I get asked most often, and what I've learnt about leadership across 20+ years of building engineering teams.
Read on SubstackThinking on engineering leadership, culture, and delivery.
I've been writing and speaking about engineering leadership for a while. Here's a collection of articles, videos, and slide decks organised by topic. If you find it useful, you can subscribe to get new writing delivered to your inbox.
Engineering culture
The topic I've written most about, and the one I care most about. Building a great engineering culture is harder than most people think, and more important than most people realise.
Article series
How to build a great engineering culture
A four-part series (with a fifth on the way) covering the full arc of building engineering culture intentionally — from defining what you want, through to embedding it, embodying it as a leader, and measuring whether it's actually working.
- Part 1 An overview — the case for building culture deliberately rather than letting it happen by default
- Part 2 Defining a great engineering culture — how to articulate the values, behaviours, and expectations that define the culture you want
- Part 3 Embedding a great engineering culture — building the rituals, processes, and structures that reinforce the culture day to day
- Part 4 Embodying a great engineering culture — why leadership behaviour is the primary culture signal, and how to live the culture rather than just document it
- Part 5 Getting feedback on your culture — coming soon
How to map pathways to improve DevOps maturity
A talk on how to assess where your engineering team sits on the DevOps maturity curve, and how to map a practical path forward.
Watch on YouTubeBuilding high-performing teams that deliver
High-performing software engineering teams — how to grow them and how to slow them
A close look at what makes software engineering teams perform at their best, and the patterns that get in the way. One of my most-read pieces.
Read on SubstackThe EstimateOne Engineering Growth Framework
How we built a growth framework that gave every engineer at EstimateOne a clear picture of what progression looked like, and how it became a cornerstone of engineering culture.
Read on SubstackAgile estimation — all your questions answered
Everything I've learnt about estimation in agile software development: why it's hard, what the common mistakes are, and how to do it in a way that's actually useful.
Read on SubstackUnderstanding the principles of agile development and focusing on flow to deliver value faster
A video on how to think about agile development as a system focused on flow, rather than a set of ceremonies to follow.
Watch on YouTubeLearning and growth
How to improve how you learn
A talk on the science and practice of learning more effectively, particularly relevant for engineers and engineering leaders who need to keep growing in a fast-moving field.
Watch on YouTubeHow to improve learning in disruptive environments — the neuroscience of learning and change
The slides from a talk on how the brain learns and what that means for how we should approach learning and change in organisations.
View on SlideShareLearn like a boss
A more practical companion to the neuroscience talk, focused on concrete techniques for learning more effectively.
View on SlideShare