Director of Engineering

Hiring for a Director of Engineering

Hiring a Director of Engineering is a difficult task for any tech leader. Before beginning the process, they should have a thorough understanding of how the candidate would fit into the larger picture. During the interview, technical and soft skills should be assessed. Technical skills should include expertise in the development process, technical competency, and the ability to conform to industry best practices. Soft skills should include a bias for action, drive and ambition, and the ability to collaborate with product management. A 90-day plan should be written for each director hire to ensure success.

Building an International Organization

This article discusses the challenges of starting a business in Belarus, a small country with limited access to sales and marketing talent. It outlines the steps taken to overcome these challenges, such as focusing on the international market, establishing a sales function, growing in the local market, creating a communication channel between two offices, and hiring people early on. It also emphasizes the importance of team building and hiring the right people in order to scale and move forward.

Developing a One-Year Execution Strategy

A new company mission and strategic direction had been announced, but the one-year execution strategy was unclear. To remedy this, the CEO and executive leadership greenlighted a plan to create a one-year execution strategy. Through conversations with the CEO, CFO, and cross-functional team, assumptions and open questions were identified and documented. These were then narrowed down to three objectives and communicated to the team. The strategy was socialized and used for quarterly planning. Lessons learned included the importance of including various people early, staying outside of the weeds, addressing focus issues head-on, overcommunicating, and understanding how different departments use the strategy.

Defining Roles as a Company Transitions out of the Startup Environment

Huli started as a flat organization without roles or competencies, but as it grew, it became necessary to create structure and responsibilities. To do this, Huli adopted a strategy from Spotify to define steps, disciplines, roles, and competencies. They also used a 360 review exercise to get feedback from the team and create a career path for each position. This process taught them the importance of having roles and competencies for clarity and to help people grow in their roles.

The Move From Manager to Senior Manager

The author was tasked with developing a product from scratch and was successful in doing so. However, when they were promoted to a senior product manager role, they faced challenges such as time management, switching contexts, and leaving the product they had developed. To overcome these challenges, the author managed their time wisely, held thorough discussions with product people, and held weekly meetings with direct reports. Through this, they learned the importance of communication and increasing pressure taking capacity of team members.

Establishing Annual OKRs For Your Team

This article outlines the process of setting annual OKRs for a team that lacked a clear direction. The author held a group session to identify key work streams and then established specific objectives and key results. The team felt invested in the goals and the OKRs acted as a self-alignment tool. The author also learned that three is a good number to stick to when establishing annual OKRs and that it gives the team clarity on priorities.