The Head of Product, Customer Service, and the CTO of Slack were sitting in the front row at an important conference. This was peak Slack; we were all the buzz, the fastest-growing enterprise software company in history. The conference speakers were singing out praises, and at that precise moment, Slack was down. Again. I wish… more
They don’t want to hear it. They don’t. It is legit good feedback. It is substantive, and it is 100% true, but they do not want to hear it. How do you know this? You’ve provided the feedback several times. Three different variants of the critical feedback, and each time, the response is one of… more
It’s hard to tell what drives each human. This is why my usual last interview question is a very blunt, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I ask everyone regardless of the amount of experience because I want to see how they improvise and, often, a hint at their motivation. I… more
I worked for each of these humans. They either hired or promoted me. I worked for them for many years. As is my way, I’ve vastly altered the details of each human, but the core issue I describe is the core issue. Also, each of these humans is very smart. No dummies. Here are their… more
I don’t like fish. “But Rands, have you tried…” Yeah, I tried that. I don’t like fish. “Wait, wait, wait, what you need to try is…” Tried that, too. A couple of times. I don’t like fish. “Rands, you haven’t had good fish.” Yeah, I’ve had good fish. Many times. Girlfriends, good friends, bad friends.… more
I wrote a piece a long time ago about The Wolf. It’s my personal take on the mythical 10x engineer, except that they aren’t a myth. They exist. I’ve seen them. Many of them. The article was popular. With hindsight, I determined two populations cared about the piece and one who did not. One was… more
Many, many years ago, at my childhood house in the Santa Cruz mountains, I grabbed a shovel and started to dig a hole. Why? Unclear. I was six or seven. I’d seen what my Dad could do with a shovel, so one afternoon…. I started digging, and by the time evening approached, my Dad walked… more
Manager at the first start-up. Solid guy. Significant experience. I know that I can learn from him. No doubt. All the correct operational 1:1 hygiene is there. We meet every week like clockwork; we fill the time, and I often leave with a healthy sense of productivity. But sometimes… he talks. And wanders. He’s a… more
Dream a Bit. Nothing innovative was created by committee. You have to stumble on that odd idea at 3:15a and recognize that you’ve never seen it before. Maybe no one has seen it. Let it bump around your head a bit. Stare at it from a couple of different angles. Do whatever you do to… more
Vanilla. Someone decided. Good. No further questions. We can make progress now. Educated. You ask why they decided, and they can clearly explain their reasoning. Not everyone might appreciate the decision, but they will be given the opportunity to understand.1 Calculated. Not only can they explain the decision, but they have math! Wow, I’m super… more
