9 min
The Middle Management Trap
Engineering managers are measured on delivery and paid in context. The trap is that context does not compound unless somebody writes it down.
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WritingVuyo Nkadimeng
Essays
On engineering leadership and data sovereignty, written in conversation with other people's work — a running argument rather than a broadcast.
Figure 7
How these connect
8 min
Two-Way Doors, and the Ones That Only Look Reversible
Amazon gave us a good heuristic and a bad habit. Most decisions teams call reversible are reversible in theory and permanent in practice.
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10 min
Org Design for Teams That Actually Ship
Structure is a bet about what will be hard next quarter. Most reorgs re-bet on last quarter.
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7 min
The Work Nobody Writes Down
Senior engineers are promoted for the artefacts and kept for the judgement. Only one of those shows up in a performance review.
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11 min
The Platform Shift Nobody Budgeted For
Every platform transition arrives as a line item in somebody else’s budget first. By the time it is in yours, the terms are set.
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8 min
Hiring for Slope
You are not hiring the engineer in front of you. You are hiring the one they will be in eighteen months, and you get to choose which curve you are reading.
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6 min
The Cost of a Second Opinion
Review is not free, and treating it as free is how organisations end up with a queue instead of a standard.
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