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Michael Lopp Books

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“The key with a question offense is to move your freak from the emotional state to the rational one. I know I know and I know how good it feels when you’re stressed out to attack the source of that stress in what looks like a rational manner, but, um, you’re yelling, pointing your finger at me, and jumping up and down. Do you want me to react to the yelling or to the facts?”

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Book:Managing Humans: Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager
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“The sound that surrounds a successful regimen of one-on-ones is silence. All of the listening, questioning, and discussion that happens during a one-on-one is managerial preventative maintenance. You’ll see when interest in a project begins to wane and take action before it becomes job dissatisfaction. You’ll hear about tension between two employees and moderate a discussion before it becomes a yelling match in a meeting. Your reward for a culture of healthy one-on-ones is a distinct lack of drama.”

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“The opportunity lies in the fact that a reorg makes an organization very limber. Managers across the organization are thinking the same thing as you: “Well, if we’re going to solve problem A right now, we should take a stab at problem B since we’re going to be mucking with everything anyway.” If you’ve got an agenda, if you’ve got a change in mind, it’s time to consider pushing it because the chances that you can effect change are vastly higher in the midst of a reorg.”

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“Just like delegation, the act of navigating politics in an organization is slippery. The difference between a manager who knows what’s going on in an organization and one who is a purely politically driven slimeball is thin. But I would take either of those over some passive manager who lets the organization happen to him. Politically active managers are informed managers. They know when change is afoot and they know what action to take to best represent their organization in that change.”

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“The Wolf. The single most productive engineer you’ll meet. You’ve heard of the 10x engineer, but I am here to tell you about the Wolf. They are engineers, and they consistently exhibit the following characteristics: They appear to exist outside of the well-defined process that we’ve defined to get things done, but they appear to suffer no consequences for not following these rules. Everyone knows they’re the Wolf, but no one ever calls them the Wolf. They have a manager, but no one really knows who it is. They have a lot of meetings, but none of them are scheduled. Inviting them to your meeting is a crap shoot. They understand how “the system” works, they understand how to use “the system” to their advantage, and they understand why “the system” exists, but they think “the system” is a bit of a joke. You can ask a Wolf to become a manager, but they’ll resist it. If you happen to convince them to do it, they will do a fine job, but they won’t stay in that role long. In fact, they’ll likely quit managing when you least expect it. Lastly, and most importantly, the Wolf generates disproportionate value for the company with their unparalleled ability to identify and rapidly work on projects essential to the future of the company.”

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“My gig is the care and feeding of engineers, and their productivity is my productivity. If they all leave, I have exactly no job. Part of your credibility as a leader is your public and repeated declaration that it’s your job to help your team succeed.”

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“There are, at least, three people you’ll need to make sure are aware that you want to stay in touch with them. I don’t know who these people are because I don’t know who you are or what you do, but I know that if you don’t carefully handle this transition, you’re going to lose them. If you’re looking for a way to identify these people, stare at your lunch crowd. Pick the ones whose meetings you care about. If you’ve got a folder in your inbox just for this person, you’re going to want to make sure they know you care.”

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“Facebook is worried about the growth paradox, which goes something like this: the end result of successful hacking is product, and that product needs to grow by building more things. The more you grow, the more things you have, and the more you need people whose job is simply to coordinate the increasingly interdependent building activities. These people, called managers, don’t create product. They create process.”

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“What’s important is, who needs to move where? Does the incrementalist need to move closer to the completionist’s view or vice versa? In either case, you’ve got to use the simplest trick in the conflict resolution book : finding common ground. A better way to think about this is, “What do these disparate philosophies need from each other?”

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“Remember, managers are hubs of communication (see Chapter 12). The better they communicate across these sphere boundaries, the more people they can communicate with, and the more data they have. This consequently leads to better decision making. Ultimately, stronger communicators make better-informed decisions, and hopefully they are more successful because they waste less time wondering what to do.”

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“The Leads of Leads are switch hitters. Their day is equal parts tactics and strategy. While they have developed true distance from the day-to-day work, they still know how the work is done and can have an informed opinion about tactics relative to the work. They also have a more complete picture of the state of the company, which enables them to make better decisions and define better strategy. They see the complete game board. They see all the pieces, so they can be credible strategists.”

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“They were designed to appease the folks who had just yelled at us, and while my confidence was shaky, I knew it was time to say no again—to them and to the executive team that wanted a quick turnaround. “No, we’re not going for mediocre. No, no one wants us to do me-too design. And, no, we’re not done with this roadmap until it’s something that inspires everyone in the room.” Now, the difference between me standing up in my office and giving a speech on inspirational product roadmaps and a manager who’s flirting with Crazy Town because of an executive beat-down is slim, but therein lies the art. Saying no is saying “stop,” and in a valley full of people who thrive on endless movement, the ability to strategically choose when it’s time to stop is the sign of a manager willing to defy convention.”

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“The Lead is tactical, but is showing the first glimmers of strategy. They are beginning to understand the power of delegation, and they are still wrestling with the idea that they have authority. What is familiar to them is the work and the types of people doing the work. When a situation arises relative to these areas, The Lead acts authoritatively and quickly because they understand deeply.”

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“The Director’s primary focus is outward. The Director’s job is to figure out how the company fits into and interacts with the rest of the world. Yes, the Director is often the face of the company, but, more important, they are the interface between the company and the world. They are the curator of the vision, because they understand the game board is really just one game board sitting in a world of infinite game boards. Ideally, they are purely strategic. It’s likely they are strong tactically, but they lead with compelling strategy, not efficient tactics. In my experience, Directors tend to be viewed as being a little nuts, and explaining why is one of the reasons I wanted to write this piece. See, pure strategy doesn’t look or feel anything like raw tactics.”

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“You might very well have the requisite players, pros, and cons , but then again, you might have too many. If it’s 30 minutes in and you still can’t figure out what the issue is, it’s time to go: too many issues. Someone who cares more than you needs to distill this chaos down to a coherent statement so the pros and cons can argue about one thing.”

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“The pros are the players who are currently on the winning side of the issue. They’re getting what they want and are not incented to negotiate. They don’t even have to be here, and yet, they’re here and appear willing to listen to the cons, right? Maybe. Maybe they’re just here to watch the cons squirm.”

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“No matter where you are in your career, you need to continually develop your network of people because it’s likely that one of these three people will assist in future employment or opportunity. I’ve been in high tech for coming up on two decades, and every single job I’ve had has either been a direct or indirect result of knowing someone from a prior job. You’ll hear the phrase, “It’s a small valley.” It’s a small world.”

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“The best move here is to simply listen and maintain eye contact. Your calmness is a primal attempt to telepathically reflect the insanity back to the freak so they’ll realize they’ve gone off the deep end. This can be rough because the freakout may be pointed directly at you, but even under attack, your job is the same: Listen. Nod. Repeat”

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“Reorganizations represent opportunity to those who are unhappy with the state of the current organization. As mentioned above, the moment stakeholders hear that there is a reorg brewing, they start working the grapevine to steer the course of the reorg in their favor. When you combine this fact with people’s love of gossip, you’re guaranteed a big, juicy, drawn-out reorganization.”

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“You’ll likely need to assess the magnitude of the reorg before you choose. You’re especially interested in whatever machinations are in play for your part of the building, but the key to remember is that reorgs represent opportunity. Even if this particular reorg doesn’t involve your team, it doesn’t mean that you can’t pitch your boss on fixing a long-standing organization problem in your group.”

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“Even if you haven’t successfully predicted a freakout, you can still use your experience as a means of exploring the freak’s understanding of whatever the issue might be. Heck, you don’t even need experience; all you need is the desire to understand what this person is freaking out about.”

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“All active participants in a meeting can instinctively sense progress, and when progress isn’t being made, they get cranky and start looking for the exit. A referee’s job is to shape the meeting to meet the requirements of the agenda and the expectations of the participants. Style and execution vary wildly from referee to referee, but the defining characteristics are the perceptions of the meeting participants. A good referee not only makes sure the majority of the attendees believe progress is being made, but they’re aware of anyone who doesn’t believe that progress is being made at any given moment. And they’re looking for one thing . . . people checked out.”

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