Some great takeaways from this! Was a good one to reflect on my own style of 'management' as I'm trying to navigate keeping a foot in the technical details while taking on more senior managerial type work at the startup I'm at. I think Clarity + Trust is a really great lens to use to decide how to get involved. I don't have the time or energy to micromanage, but I can sometimes be a little too hands-off. I've seen how people, particularly Engineers, can get caught on certain ideas and head down paths that don't really make practical sense to do. I'm not sure if you've covered it in a past episode, but I'd love to hear more about how Oxide manages to set the direction for individuals and how you make sure you're building the right thing, and delivering the right work, on a day to day basis. Like RFDs obviously seem fairly core to setting the direction, but how do you then make plans around that and deliver on it? At my startup we're basically mandated from up-high to be doing sprints and planning in Jira and all that. I try and keep it as low touch as possible while still giving the visibility that the execs need, but I find myself more and more saying "Can you make a ticket for that?" "Is there a ticket for that?" It's our only method for tracking the ridiculous amount of work we need to deliver on, without dropping it all. Also, I loved the detour into the elaborate prank on Dave Hitz
Was really hoping you would cover this. Thanks!
Some great takeaways from this! Was a good one to reflect on my own style of 'management' as I'm trying to navigate keeping a foot in the technical details while taking on more senior managerial type work at the startup I'm at. I think Clarity + Trust is a really great lens to use to decide how to get involved. I don't have the time or energy to micromanage, but I can sometimes be a little too hands-off. I've seen how people, particularly Engineers, can get caught on certain ideas and head down paths that don't really make practical sense to do.
I'm not sure if you've covered it in a past episode, but I'd love to hear more about how Oxide manages to set the direction for individuals and how you make sure you're building the right thing, and delivering the right work, on a day to day basis. Like RFDs obviously seem fairly core to setting the direction, but how do you then make plans around that and deliver on it? At my startup we're basically mandated from up-high to be doing sprints and planning in Jira and all that. I try and keep it as low touch as possible while still giving the visibility that the execs need, but I find myself more and more saying "Can you make a ticket for that?" "Is there a ticket for that?" It's our only method for tracking the ridiculous amount of work we need to deliver on, without dropping it all.
Also, I loved the detour into the elaborate prank on Dave Hitz
If I ever start a business, I'll probably be in Flounder Mode. Lying at the bottom, both eyes fixed in the same direction. 🐠