Oct 24, 2022Member-onlyScrum isn’t agile and is a waste of timeWarning: This is a highly opinionated post. Here be dragons. Agile and scrum, two interchangeable terms that have come to dominate how software is built. They are, however, quite different. Agile is a philosophical approach to building software, whilst Scrum is a process that software development teams can use to…Agile5 min readAgile5 min read
Sep 5, 2022Member-onlyThe one question to ask your sales teamPlayful, magical and highly insightful Two weeks ago I had the rare opportunity to meet members of the sales leadership in person. I do get excited whenever an opportunity like this arises, because I tend to learn a lot from what our sales team has to say about the product…Leaders5 min readLeaders5 min read
Aug 15, 2022Member-onlyQuestions you should ask when interviewing for a VP Engineering positionIn my previous post, I wrote about what to expect as a candidate during an interview for a VP of Engineering position. This post covers what you, as a candidate, should be asking during the interview. An interview is a two-way street, the company is trying to assess if you…Startup6 min readStartup6 min read
Aug 13, 2022How to hire your first VP Engineering2271Basis Set VenturesVery well written article!Very well written article! I actually just published the interview structure for a VPE position, based on my own experiences at early stage startups. Sharing here for relevancy: https://medium.com/geekculture/how-do-you-interview-a-vp-of-engineering-81deddf6daa21 min read1 min read
Aug 8, 2022Member-onlyHow do you interview a VP of Engineering?25 questions I’ve been asked in previous interviews — One of my interviewing habits is to write down questions I was asked alongside my responses to them. I do this as a way to self debrief and reflect on how well I think I did. Over the years, I have collected quite a few questions from interviewing for VP…Programming9 min readProgramming9 min read
Published inGeek Culture·Jul 5, 2022Member-onlyGrowth at all costs: Was that the cause of the recent tech downturn?Over the past few weeks tech stocks have been in meltdown mode with many seeing their valuation drop by 70% or more. The main driver of this steep decline is the raise in interest rates and the subsequent increase in the cost of capital. This in turn has resulted in…8 min read8 min read
Published inGeek Culture·Jun 7, 2022Member-onlyTech downturn: What should an engineering leader do?We’re in the middle of another tech driven down-turn — the third one in my career thus far. While it’s too early to say how hard and long this downturn will last, it is prudent to plan for the worst and hope for the best. The planning and actions that…Technology6 min readTechnology6 min read
Published inGeek Culture·Apr 22, 2022Member-onlyThe VPE & CTO rolesThe intertwining and evolution of both The VP of Engineering (VPE) and Chief Technical Officer (CTO) titles are ones which, I have found, oftentimes to be used interchangeably. The reality, again based on my own experience, is that they are different roles. While they do overlap, they each have distinct…Startup4 min readStartup4 min read
Published inCodeX·Apr 4, 2022Member-onlyTeam building: Galácticos or La Masia?What can Real Madrid and Barcelona teach us about recruiting strategies? This post will require a bit of a preamble, especially for readers unfamiliar with soccer, more specifically with Real Madrid and Barcelona: two of the most successful clubs in world soccer. These two clubs have a lot in common…Management6 min readManagement6 min read
Published inGeek Culture·Mar 14, 2022Member-onlyINT3: On how to handle unplanned feature requestsIn my previous post I described how as a startup scales, it will start seeing more deals contingent on some feature requests, especially in the enterprise software space. The previous post outlined a simple framework that assesses which of these features to build and why. …Engineering Mangement5 min readEngineering Mangement5 min read
