Diversity & Inclusion

Dealing With Manager Who Is in a Different Country

This article discusses the challenges of managing up and understanding one's boss and team members. It describes how the author's team was able to make changes to their processes and introduce new ways of thinking in order to better motivate their team. The article also provides lessons learned, such as not assuming that the manager knows everything, not being scared to challenge the way things are being done, and being open to learning new technologies.

Why You Should Encourage Criticism

In 2004, the company I worked for wanted to rewrite their UI using Struts, but the existing XSL-based UI wouldn't work with the framework. I was open and honest about the preconditions that needed to be met, and the company was open to hearing my feedback regardless of my position. I learned that it's important to build trust and rapport with colleagues so that they feel comfortable speaking their mind and providing constructive criticism.

How Meeting Face-to-face Improved A Remote Team’s Output

In order to increase the productivity of an offsite team of 80 engineers, who were equally skilled as the onsite team, a series of actions were taken. These included sending senior engineers to visit the offsite team, changing team leaders, sending whole teams across, increasing communication through Skype, and blending teams. Ultimately, it was found that sending whole teams across and having them co-locate in each location for a week or two worked best. It was also found that people enjoyed traveling and that trust was built when people saw each other face-to-face.

Play to Their Strengths: Effectively Utilizing Offshore Resources in the Face of Deep-Rooted Prejudice

A developer on a team with offshore resources in Hyderabad was tasked with salvaging the situation before the resources were dropped due to poor output and utilization. After careful evaluation, the developer identified the core of the problem as a combination of poor communication, excessive "blockers", and racial bias. The developer took steps to address the time zone difference, identified an individual with exceptional intelligence, and made him the technical lead. This resulted in improved code quality, increased confidence, and better job satisfaction. The developer learned lessons about recognizing racial bias, evaluating dysfunctional team dynamics, and making changes to solve problems.

Reorganizing the engineering department for more agility

A manager at Square led a successful reorganization of teams from engineering disciplines to products. The manager was transparent with the team and allowed them to provide preferences for where they wanted to transfer. The reorganization took more time and effort, but enabled more agility in product development. The main lesson learned was to consider both the immediate and long-term effects of a reorganization.

Starting a Personal Mentoring Program at Work

This article discusses the experience of a Principal Engineer at Auth0 who was tasked with mentoring junior engineers from multiple teams. The engineer identified three types of conversations they had with mentees: concrete, day-to-day topics; specific, but more general topics; and general career council/advise. The engineer also discussed the importance of being prepared for every session, determining a mentoring time capacity in advance, and keeping an internal network up-to-date.