Why do developers lose 1 day a week to inefficiencies?

Why do developers lose 1 day a week to inefficiencies?

Also, insights on Gen Z in the workplace, avoiding being a bottleneck leader, and learnings from the CrowdStrike meltdown.

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The digest

Why do developers lose 1 day a week to inefficiencies? (Jennifer Riggins / The New Stack)

The dev-manager disconnect is costing companies big time. While leaders chase AI dreams, devs struggle with tech debt and poor documentation. Want to keep top talent? Start measuring what actually impacts their productivity and happiness.


Seven key insights on Gen Z in the workplace (Jean M. Twenge / Generation Tech)

If you're hiring junior devs, this article (and the book Generations) is a must-read. tl;dr:

  • Emphasize how the work helps society, not just how interesting it is
  • Be ready to provide more structure and mentoring than you expect
  • Prioritize mental health support and work-life balance
  • Set clear expectations on dress code and workplace norms

Gen Z wants to make a difference, and that includes at work.

How to avoid being a bottleneck leader (Jade Rubick)

The "Ladder of Leadership" framework is brilliant for gradually building team autonomy. I've seen leaders struggle with delegation (and have been there myself), but framing it as a step-by-step process makes it far less daunting.

If you are an information hub where everything's coming through you, you are necessarily going to be a bottleneck.

Lessons learned from CrowdStrike outages on releasing software updates (Jenna Barron / SD Times)

The CrowdStrike meltdown proves that even security giants can stumble. Smart release strategies like progressive rollouts and feature flags could've contained the damage. Remember: in software, the question isn't if bugs will happen, but how quickly you can squash them.


Dialog

Check out my interview with Jade Rubick , where he shared his insights on preparing engineering teams for scaling, addresses misconceptions about managing remote teams and offer advice on improving decision-making quality.

Dialog is the newest addition to the Exec Engineering newsletter. A series of interviews with seasoned tech leaders on the topics of tech talent, product, management and culture.


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About Exec Engineering

I’m Yassine ??. I spend a big chunk of my time digging into engineering management and talent acquisition, especially where the two overlap. I share the most interesting resources I come across in this newsletter, all curated by hand.

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Jade Rubick

Eng and product leadership at 25+ startups. Advisor, fractional, interim leader. Writes Engineering Leadership Weekly, podcasts at Decoding Leadership.

2 个月

Love Laura Tacho ‘s take. I tell people that if they don’t complain, it makes my job harder, because I have less idea of where the problems are. This is one problem with the “bring me solutions not problems” line many leaders take. It can be more nuanced than that.

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