Mathias Meyer's Blog, page 2

Dear Founder: Things To Consider When Building a Remote Team

Every now and then a fellow founder approaches me looking for advice. The topics range from pricing, positioning products, to building and growing teams. Or in this case, they are questions about what to consider when youre looking to go remote.

A founder building a startup in Europe recently asked me for advice on building a remote team.

Ive been working in distributed teams for ten years now. Those teams have spanned from Europe to the US west coast. Sometimes they went beyond that,...

On Drafting an Engineering Strategy

During the first weeks in a new role, one of the things Ive most recently focused on is to assess the direction of the engineering department as a whole. Will Larson has written at length about the first ninety days in a senior engineering leadership role. He also mentions documenting the existing strategy as one of the key milestones to take care of.

At the time I started there was no explicit strategy in place. Which is also not an unusual thing for a young company, just to be clear. So I...

The Feedback Log

One thing I wanted to a better job at as I took on a new role last year is to be more deliberate in giving feedback. As a German, I tend to fall on the side of only focusing on negative, or constructive feedback. I tend to focus on pointing out what I think should be improved, or what isn���t conclusive. This is quite ingrained in the German work culture.

Over the years I���ve come to appreciate positive feedback more and more. Getting affirmation or appreciation shows us that we���re doing s...

Why is my team not doing what I expect from them?

A question that I���ve come across frequently is why a team is not doing what their manager expects them to do. The flip side of this question could be phrased as:

���How can I remove myself from all the discussions I���m constantly being pulled in?���

And also:

���How can I get my team to take on more responsibility?���

Leaders who find themselves wondering why their teams aren���t making important decisions on their own tend to be leaders who are constantly pulled into many different di...

Workflows That Help Me Stay (and Feel) Productive as a Manager

One of the greatest challenges for a manager is finding ways to channel the constant pulling into different directions. These days, that pull is likely also true, especially in a distributed team where it���s easy to get pulled into Slack discussions and lose track of priorities. At least that���s been my experience in the past and in the presence too, amplified further by now having a management role.

As a manager, trying to balance being there for your team (both for individual team members...

Reading List 2015

Its the end of 2015, and in the tradition of 2013 and 2014, heres my reading list, clocking in at 36 books Ive read this year. Ive been enjoying reading more and more with every year, and Ill set the bar at reading at least 40 books in 2016.

A lot of these books are focused on leadership and organizational topics, which have become more and more interesting to me, so theres not a lot of technical books in the list, theyre more focused at management, people, growth, organizational health and b...

The Most Important Thing About 1:1s (and Building Trust)

Slightly more than a year ago, I had no idea what a 1:1 is let alone what purpose its serves. The idea of talking to one of our team member seemed so foreign at a time when we structured our team around individual autonomy and the assumption that people will speak up when somethings up.

What I quickly learned is that unless you give them a forum and safe space for it, they wont. Theyll keep their unhappiness, grievances and issues to themselves until its too late, and thats to no fault of the...

The Fear of Failure Can Be Paralyzing

A friend recently approached me, asking how he could overcome a feeling of paralysis. He felt stuck figuring out what the next steps are in getting his product out and front of customers.

I can very much relate to that feeling, its been a continuous companion over the last 3+ years in building out Travis CI. While I didnt have any good advice, I had a few stories of my own to share.

In 2012 I was working on our billing app. It didn't feel that important, but when you think about it, it...

To Be a Better Listener, Embrace the Awkward Pause

About a year ago I met one of our team members in person for the first time. We hung out for the entire day, talking about all kinds of things, problems we were facing with our company at the time were amongst them.

During those conversations he taught me a simple yet rather powerful conversation technique: the awkward pause. Its since become an important tool for me in 1:1s and conversations with other people.

When you talk about a problematic topic, there tends to be that moment when the ot...

Five Habits of an Introverted Leader

Being an introverted person in a leadership position is challenging. The one thing that exhaust you the most is now your main focus, interacting with people.

Personally, I didnt fully realize that I have introverted tendencies until I read the book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking. Id considered myself shy before then, feeling awkward trying to strike up smalltalk conversations, even just talking to other people, and constantly feeling a need to hide in qu...