Recruitment processes must evolve to assess candidates' critical thinking and real-world experience in a world increasingly influenced by LLMs.
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Maxim Schepelin is the author of the website 'Incremental Forgetting', which provides field notes on technical leadership, career development, and navigating complexity in tech companies. The publication is hosted on Substack and was launched 2 years ago.
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Focusing on business SLOs that reflect user needs, rather than just technical metrics, is crucial for improving user experience and aligning engineering efforts.
5.9The AI lie
2025-07-23 • technology innovation marketing secrecy ai
The article explores the concept of secrecy and exaggeration in the tech industry, drawing parallels between John Stith Pemberton's guarded approach to Coca-Cola's recipe and modern tech companies' strategies to mislead competitor...
The blog post discusses DuckLake, a lightweight data lake solution designed for engineering managers. It highlights the challenges of managing data from various sources like Jira and GitHub, and how traditional methods (CSV, datab...
5.6Exposure over theory
2025-07-08 • management experience leadership social learning
The article discusses the unique challenges of management compared to other disciplines like engineering or medicine, emphasizing that management cannot be taught through theory alone. It argues that effective management requires ...
The article emphasizes the importance of understanding one's career standing to effectively negotiate for promotions and raises. It introduces the trimodal compensation structure in the tech industry, highlighting the need to benc...
0Us and them
2025-06-17 • management engineering collaboration
The text discusses the 'us vs. them' dynamic in company settings, emphasizing the need for a sense of belonging and the negative impact of isolation. It provides strategies for engineering managers to bridge the gaps between teams...
The article discusses the pre-mortem technique for identifying risks early in a project and building more resilient plans. It explains the process of running a pre-mortem and how it helps teams anticipate challenges and avoid fail...
The article discusses the importance of giving and receiving feedback in the tech industry, highlighting various feedback models such as BIO, BOOST, 360-degree feedback, Shit Sandwich, and STAR. It introduces the 'Superpowers' met...
0Make 1:1s matter
2025-05-27 • growth feedback one-on-one
The article discusses the importance of 1:1s between engineering managers and their engineers, offering a practical framework to make these conversations impactful. It addresses the debates over the frequency, leading the session,...
0Calendar wrangler
2025-05-20 • productivity calendar time management
The article discusses the importance of designing a calendar that reflects how you want to spend your time, using concepts such as the Ideal Calendar, time blocking, and color coding. It emphasizes the need for intentionality in m...
The blog post is a lighthearted exploration of how companies evolve over time, comparing their life cycle to that of a person. It discusses the stages from newborn to senior, using examples of well-known companies to illustrate ea...
The text discusses the importance of combating bias in the hiring process by outlining a structured approach to interviews, defining candidate profiles, crafting evidence-based interview questions, and encouraging interviewers to ...
The article discusses the challenges of addressing performance issues within a team and offers practical advice on using a Personal Improvement Plan (PIP) effectively to support the team and protect the organization. It outlines t...
The text discusses Conway's Law, which states that an organization's structure influences its software architecture. It explains how teams' communication and collaboration affect the systems they build, and how to leverage Conway'...
Michael Lopp's 'The Art of Leadership' is a collection of insightful essays packed with practical tips and tricks for engineering managers. Lopp shares guidance on navigating leadership challenges, fostering team culture, and maki...
The text discusses the importance of software post-mortems in learning from failures, improving processes, building a blameless culture, and sharing knowledge. It provides tips for conducting effective post-mortems and emphasizes ...
0The Craftsman
2025-03-18 • management leadership engineering self-awareness
The text discusses the journey of becoming an effective engineering manager, emphasizing the importance of self-awareness, understanding one's strengths, and leveraging tools like DISC and Clifton Strengths to tailor one's managem...
The article discusses red flags to watch out for during job interviews, emphasizing the importance of recognizing warning signs from both the company's and the candidate's perspective. It highlights various red flags such as rigid...
The article discusses the concept of Gemba Kaizen, a Japanese philosophy of continuous improvement, and its application in various industries. It explains how the idea of Kaizen was employed in the automobile industry in Japan and...
The text discusses the importance of 'Call To Action' documents in engineering environments, providing a clear structure for creating such documents and examples of their application. It emphasizes the role of these documents in t...
The text discusses the inevitability of conflicts in the workplace and the strategy of creating a 'working agreement' to turn conflict into teamwork. It outlines the process of identifying issues, defining clear behaviors, and hol...
The text discusses the importance of recognizing the needs of team members in engineering management, drawing from Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. It emphasizes the significance of addressing physical, safety, belonging, esteem, and ...
0Challenging the status quo
2025-02-04 •
The article discusses the importance of challenging the status quo in organizations and how it can benefit both individuals and the organization. It highlights the dangers of becoming too dogmatic in beliefs and the importance of ...