Category: Leadership and Management

Articles about leadership, management in a business environment.

Importance of Mentorship Article by Yujin Kim, CTO of WorkMarket

In his recent article about the importance of mentorship, Yujin Kim, Chief Technology Officer at WorkMarket (an ADP company) talks about what he learned from his mentors and how they helped shape his career and life.

Activities, Outputs, and Outcomes — A framework for your job

This is a framework for understanding, describing, and performing your job duties, roles, and responsibilities. You can use this as a template to create a useful job description that you would actually use while you are in a job. It divides a job into three categories: activities, outputs, and outcomes. To be successful in your… Continue reading Activities, Outputs, and Outcomes — A framework for your job

An Example of Respectfully Declining a Meeting at Work That is Already in Your Calendar

Here is an example of how to respectfully decline a meeting to make time to work on a higher priority. We occasionally find ourselves in meetings when our time could be better spent doing something else of greater value. I previously wrote about how to respond to and politely decline meeting invitations. This post is about… Continue reading An Example of Respectfully Declining a Meeting at Work That is Already in Your Calendar

Management & Technical Career Growth Tracks (v3)

In follow-up to earlier work on a) versions one and two of these technical and related career tracks, b) pathways for career development in product engineering, c) job titles, and d)  employee evaluation & career development, here is an updated version three of the career growth tracks. This version 3 includes software engineering & architecture,… Continue reading Management & Technical Career Growth Tracks (v3)

How to be an effective CTO

A CTO’s job combines Culture, Technology, and Operations. Each of the three is necessary; a field of knowledge, experimentation, and learning in itself; and interdependent with the other two. To be successful as a CTO, you need to work on and continually master all three areas. If you’d like to see the responsibilities of a… Continue reading How to be an effective CTO

90 Day Plan for a CTO in a New Job

This is a checklist for a new CTO, head of Product, or leader in a similar role starting in a new job. It is meant to kickstart continuous improvement in your product engineering organization. I encourage you to take a scientific test and learn approach to everything you do. You should customize this template based… Continue reading 90 Day Plan for a CTO in a New Job

7 minus 1 reasons why technology/engineering teams should work on projects

Here are 6 reasons that should be used to justify, prioritize and classify projects engineering teams work on. The 7th item is not a valid reason to be used. Deliver products, features and services as driven by business priorities (#product) Improve time to market (#speed) Improve quality of experience (#quality) Improve efficiencies and reduce costs… Continue reading 7 minus 1 reasons why technology/engineering teams should work on projects

CTO Mind Map: Culture, Technology, Operations

In the role of chief technology officer, you have to be concerned with many topics. Some relate to functions you have direct supervisory responsibility for and some in areas that are managed by others but you still need to share responsibility for. To keep all of a CTO’s concerns organized, I created this mind map using XMind. The items are classified under… Continue reading CTO Mind Map: Culture, Technology, Operations

Dear Makers, On Fridays My Office is Yours — An Experiment

Some senior leaders choose to work alongside their teams in cubicles, eschewing private office rooms. New York City’s former mayor Michael Bloomberg is an example. Facebook’s founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is another. Intel’s former CEO Andy Grove is often credited for setting this example. As I’ve worked at various news media companies, I have… Continue reading Dear Makers, On Fridays My Office is Yours — An Experiment