Productivity v Impact

In Engineering, quarterly OKRs (Objectives & Key Results) can feel like a duplication of product planning. Basically, they say “Ship the Roadmap.” What new information are they communicating in that case? And if the OKRs say anything else, they’re in conflict the roadmap! An example (that I made up): In Marketing, quarterly OKRs express our ......

My work does not reduce to measurable outcomes. Much of what I accomplish as an engineer and as a developer advocate amounts to creating conditions that make it more likely for the company to succeed. I resist and resent most metrics, yet I don’t mind OKRs the way Honeycomb does them. How not to OKR: ... Read moreOKRs for Evil and Good

I don’t think I’ve worked at a company whose website satisfied me. It never gives me a clear explanation of what our product does. After a few years working closely with Marketing, I finally understand why. As a developer, my goal is to provide useful capabilities to people through the software I work on. To ... Read moreWhy is every startup’s...

I think of “command and control” as one thing. Is there a difference? That common phrase notwithstanding, command and control are two alternative structures, more opposites than synonyms! Command (like in the military) allocates responsibilities to parts of the hierarchy. So a general is tasked with winning a war, and each officer under them is...

When Honeycomb was a small company, All Hands meetings had announcements and discussions. Discussions mostly took place in the meeting chat, where everyone can answer anyone’s question. Between that and the announce channel in Slack, information got out to the whole company. Or did it? It’s hard to check for understanding in that big a ... Read...