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Tag: staff retention

  • My Personal and Professional Values: Keys to Collaborative Success

    Shared values and principles are the driving force behind any successful team. I hold certain values dear, not only in my professional life but also in my personal interactions. These are not attributes that I always embody perfectly, but they are principles that I constantly strive to uphold. 5 of My Values Victory Through Unity…

  • 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,…

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

    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…

  • 3 Dimensions of a Technology Team

    Organizing Software Engineering Teams to Balance Products, Partners & Professions This organizational design for a technology department aims to optimally blend the need for the technology team to be an engine of innovation, a customer-service organization and technically excellent. It views the staff, roles and responsibilities in three dimensions: products, partnerships, and professions. Organization by…

  • 3 Roles of a CTO: Culture. Technology. Operations.

    This is a guide for CTOs, VPs of Software Engineering and other technology managers responsible for a software engineering organization. The purpose of this checklist is to help the CTO cover the areas of culture, technology and operations in their teams. It is presented in the form of a memo to direct reports. Dear Tech…

  • HR Classification and Discretionary/Business Job Titles for Makers, Managers and Leaders in Technology

    This article presents an organization system and policy for job titles of maker, manager and leader roles in technology staffs. Separate job titles for HR classification and discretionary/business use are used at many technology organizations, ranging from medium-sized, innovative and fast-moving companies to large, established and enterprise technology companies.1 This is a well-established practice that balances HR requirements with the rapid pace of innovation and change in job…

  • Case for a Consistent, Comprehensible & Cost-Effective Vacation Policy

    Case for a Consistent, Comprehensible & Cost-Effective Vacation Policy

    This article makes a case for having a vacation policy that is simple, sane and standard across the organization. Some organizations have unnecessarily complicated vacation policies that require a lot of labor and time to implement, manage and support exceptions for. That is substandard because such vacation policies are costly for the organization, they distract from…

  • Product Maintenance vs. New Development on Web Sites, Mobile Apps and Other Digital Products

    Maintenance of a digital business product (e.g. a Web site, mobile app, or software) refers to the work that includes modifications made after delivery to production to fix bugs, address compliance/security issues, or improve scalability/performance These modifications can be to the product’s software code, configuration, documentation, hardware, or surrounding network. Maintenance is often contrasted with…

  • Management & Technical Career Growth Tracks (v2)

    This second version of the diagram illustrating technical career tracks reflects the following updates since version one: A product management track is now included. (Future updates may include other tracks like design, editorial and marketing.) There is no longer a contributor-level position on the people-management track. This is because most organizations do not have an…

  • Organizing a Digital Technology Department in a Media Company By Functional Areas

    This article presents a system to organize your digital technology department in a media company. It is written for a CTO, CIO or EVP Technology looking for suggestions on organizing or reorganizing your Digital (Web, Mobile) technology department. It is best suited for you if your organization has the following characteristics: You manage all aspects…

  • Organizing a Digital Technology Department of Medium Size in a Media Company

    There are many good ways to organize your technology department. This article presents some of them. It is written for a CTO or VP Technology leading a medium size department looking for suggestions on organizing or reorganizing your Digital (Web, Mobile) technology department. It is best suited for you if your organization has the following…

  • Management Tip: Thank Your Employees For Jobs Well Done

    If you supervise employees or are in a senior position relative to some others, make it a habit to thank employees when they do a good job. Here are some tips for effective appreciation of employees’ work: Appreciation is good even when it is an expected part of their duties. If the work is good…