The Retrospective

In this episode of the 'Retrospective' weekly podcast, Jeremy and Peter discuss key engineering leadership topics. Jeremy delves into his latest article on the four essential weekly ceremonies for engineering managers to ensure smooth and predictable execution. The ceremonies include the weekly kickoff, daily sync, one-on-one meetings, and the weekly review. Peter shares his recent experiment with AI-assisted coding, using ChatGPT for a Google Apps Script project, highlighting the benefits and challenges of leveraging AI in software development. Show notes: Jeremy’s article on the Four Must-Have Weekly Meetings for Engineering Managers: https://www.jeremybrown.tech/the-four-must-have-weekly-meetings-for-engineering-managers/ Jeremy’s earlier article about sharing at 20%: https://www.jeremybrown.tech/the-20-percent-rule/ Explainer on Task Relevant Maturity: https://getlighthouse.com/blog/management-concept/ John Cutler on Troubleshooting Status Updates: [https://cutlefish.substack.com/p/tbm-252-how-to-troubleshoot-status](https://cutlefish.substack.com/p/tbm-252-how-to-troubleshoot-status?ref=jeremybrown.tech) Peter’s updates including AI-assisted coding experiences: https://peterszasz.com/week-24-2024-ai-coding-search-and-creativity/ BI dashboard and tools article Jeremy mentioned: https://briefer.cloud/blog/posts/self-serve-bi-myth/ - AI Summary “Sales pitches often oversell the idea of "self-serve dashboards," but in reality, it often falls short as non-technical users lack the context to interpret data accurately. The key to successful self-serve BI lies in technical support for business stakeholders using flexible tools that cater to their needs efficiently. Providing technical people with tools like LLMs, Python, and easy data sharing capabilities can bridge the gap between technical complexity and business user needs.” 00:00 Intros 00:37 4 Weekly Meetings for Engineering Managers 01:59 Why Work to a Weekly Cadence? 03:30 Projects and Milestones 09:03 The Weekly Team Kick-off / Planning Meeting 20:06 Daily Sync (Standup) and Team Connection 33:21 One-on-One Meetings 37:16 Monthly Career Focus and Continuous Feedback and Coaching 38:11 One-to-One Frequency 40:15 Task Relevance Maturity Framework 41:35 The Weekly Review Meeting 46:04 Stakeholder Communication and Status Updates 58:02 Retrospectives and Team Health 01:03:23 Using AI for Coding Projects 01:12:14 Wrapping up!

In this episode, we discuss the critical importance of career security over job security in the changing tech landscape, highlighting strategies for sustaining and advancing one's career in 2024. Then, we explore the Innovation Framework based on the Möbius Loop for balancing discovery, delivery, and options in the software development life cycle. We also urge organisations to consider capturing structured practices with the Open Practice Library. Additionally, we discuss the value of pair programming and mob programming for strengthening collaboration, learning, and problem-solving. 00:00 Hey! 00:25 We Are Slowing Figuring Out The Show Format and Target Audience 02:09 Politics - The Morning After The Night Before - EU and Hungarian Election Results 04:21 Artistic Pairing - The Twin Peaks Soundtrack 12:30 Pair Programming and Collaboration 24:08 What's Old Is New in Tech 30:36 How to maintain career security in the 2024 tech climate? 46:22 A Framework for Innovation 50:37 Implementing Standard Practices 01:08:47 Wrapping Up

Jeremy’s article on How to Innovate: https://www.jeremybrown.tech/how-to-innovate Clayton Christensen’s books on Disruptive Innovation (Jeremy was referring to “The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail”): https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19203217-disruptive-innovation Lex Fridman and Mark Zuckerberg interview in the Metaverse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EohIA7QPmmE Perplexity, an AI search engine: https://www.perplexity.ai/ Kagi, the search engine Jeremy uses: https://kagi.com/ Tom Demarco’s book about slack: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/123715.Slack 2018 study on slack and innovation: https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/full/10.1287/orsc.2018.1215 Peter’s article about Getting hired as an EM / Searching and applying: https://peterszasz.com/get-hired-as-an-engineering-manager-part-3-searching-and-applying/ Craft Conference: https://craft-conf.com/ Book on Platform Strategy: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/208871782-platform-strategy Search Engine podcast episode on the media apocalypse and how to survive it, part 1: https://overcast.fm/+BBVQRBOVak part2: https://overcast.fm/+BBVQTfeXl4 Example of a hyper-local website: Les Pépites du 19e - https://www.lespepitesdu19e.fr/ and Instagram (@lespepitesdu19e) 00:00 Introduction and Greetings 00:34 What the hell is this show? 02:47 Jeremy's article on "How to Innovate" 07:25 Do you need a healthy Culture to Innovate 09:55 Can big companies innovate? 18:53 Is slack (time) needed to innovate? 28:57 Peter - Getting hired as an EM / Searching and applying 44:55 Get ahead of the crowd strategies for job seekers 47:08 An example of a great cold outreach 48:54 Can networking at conferences help me get a job? 50:54 Experiences at Craft Conf 52:21 Emerging trends from the talks at Craft Conf? 55:17 AI will replace developers! 01:01:19 Supporting Conference Attendance as a leader 01:05:13 The Media Apocalypse and Ethical Consumption 01:07:44 The Role of AI in Content Creation 01:14:16 The Importance of Local News and Media 01:25:35 Reflections and Closing Thoughts​

Chapters (notes below): 00:00::00 Awkward intros 00:00:51 Reflecting on Benoit's (CPTO of Lunii) guest appearance last week and the 4 day work week 00:14:28 What correlates with happiness? 00:28:59 Peter's articles on getting hired as an EM - part 1 & 2 00:32:32 Hands on/Hands off Engineering Managers 00:39:02 You need to have multiple CVs! 00:44:07 Drop some nuggets in your CV 00:46:34 Is AI being used to screen me? 00:51:16 Should I use AI to write my CV? 00:53:01 Hot tips for how to use AI 00:58:08 Clickbaity AI 01:01:59 Four Key Questions for Managers That Boost Team Performance 01:09:32 Trust and performance management 01:15:26 Should I share my answers? 01:18:11 Layoffs and low performers 01:22:58 Low performers, the vampire in your team 01:24:25 Retention risk and tracking over time 01:25:40 Give it three months 01:26:23 How to get started 01:28:09 Share your work at 20% done 01:31:55 Being right the first time and the Ikea Effect 01:34:09 Jeremy's pivot 01:36:48 Should our newsletters be perfect? 01:39:49 Homelabbing woes 01:48:44 Looking forward to next week Show notes Our previous show about Lunii’s 4-day workweek experiment: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7199358260410245121/ Peter’s earlier article about a Hungarian company trying the same: https://peterszasz.com/the-end-of-a-4-day-workweek-experiment/ Timsons, a family-owned business focusing on employee happiness: https://www.timpson.co.uk/ you can read more about how they are run here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/1J7x50pDt5DrcPJ57B7kkM9/6-things-we-learnt-from-the-ceo-of-timpson-s The History of Guinness and it’s social impact - https://faithandleadership.com/stephen-mansfield-god-and-guinness Peter’s newsletter including the activities / happiness correlation research: https://peterszasz.com/week-21-2024-frustration-and-happiness/ Not the article Peter mentioned, but a great talk on why we should not send money to Africa: https://www.carnegiecouncil.org/media/series/39/20090409-dead-aid-why-aid-is-not-working-and-how-there-is-a-better-way-for-africa Hungarian charity giving targeted help to specific homeless people: https://vanesely.hu/english/ Peter’s articles about Getting Hired as an EM: Women less likely to apply for jobs they don’t feel fully qualified for: https://hbr.org/2014/08/why-women-dont-apply-for-jobs-unless-theyre-100-qualified Jeremy: AI prompting article to ask for clarifying questions: https://www.descript.com/blog/article/11-best-chatgpt-prompts Growth design website to give tips in design experiences: https://growth.design/ Jeremy’s recent Performance Questions article: https://www.jeremybrown.tech/four-key-questions-for-managers-that-boost-team-performance/ …and the original one about debunking performance rating myths: https://www.jeremybrown.tech/17-debunking-performance-rating-myths/ Nine Lies about Work book: https://goodreads.com/book/show/40086702-nine-lies-about-work Jeremy’s article about the Baseline Principles for Teams: https://www.jeremybrown.tech/21-baseline-principles-for-teams/ The Five Dysfunctions of a Team book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21343.The_Five_Dysfunctions_of_a_Team The 9-Box Performance Evaluation Model: https://www.bamboohr.com/blog/9-box-grid Jeremy’s article about sharing your work early: https://www.jeremybrown.tech/the-20-percent-rule/ …and his earlier one about the IKEA Effect: https://www.jeremybrown.tech/the-ikea-effect/ Peter’s article about Homelabbing for Engineering Leaders: https://peterszasz.com/homelabbing-for-engineering-leaders/ Craft Conference 10: https://craft-conf.com/2024

Show Notes: Lunii, where our guest Benoit is CPTO: https://lunii.com/ Lunii’s LinkedIn announcement about going 4-day a week: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7196425731042693121/ Two other French companies mentioned who do 4-day a week: https://www.ldlc.com/ and https://www.welcometothejungle.com/ Péter’s article about a 4-day workweek experiment at Magyar Telekom: https://peterszasz.com/the-end-of-a-4-day-workweek-experiment/ 00:00:00 show intro 00:02:06 Benoit joins us 00:06:34 4-day workweek and Peter's article 00:09:52 Lunii's journey to the 4-day workweek 00:13:33 Why did it take a year to implement? 00:15:27 Lunii's model - 80 100 100 00:16:11 How have you started to adapt? 00:18:27 Async 00:20:39 Monday is not the same 00:21:36 Time to learn 00:32:12 What about Customer Support? 00:36:29 Early responses 00:43:19 Performance management 00:46:55 Levelling Up Individual productivity 00:51:37 Lunii is hiring 00:54:12 Screentime and kids 00:56:42 AI, Storytelling and translation 01:05:18 The person using AI will take your job 01:06:26 bye!