The Manager's Path: A Guide for Tech Leaders Navigating Growth and Change

by Camille Fournier

Instead of talking about structure, I talk about learning. Instead of talking about process, I talk about transparency.

Pretending to lack structure tends to create hidden power structures resulting from the nature of human communication and the challenges of trying to scale that communication.

A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have to start over with a working simple system.

My advice to leaders is simple: when failures occur, examine all aspects of reality that are contributing to those failures.

product/business versus technology focus and apply it where it makes sense. What is truly important to the success of your company or your organization? If the most important thing is evolving a product that is a function of many different business areas coming together, you probably want leaders who have that business sense. On the other hand, in the areas where the technology must be rock-solid or exceptionally innovative and cutting-edge, you probably want teams that have more of an engineering focus

Think of process as risk management.

The second implication is that you need to be on the lookout for places where there is hidden risk, and draw those hidden risks out into the open.

Be clear about code review expectations. For the most part, code reviews don’t catch bugs; tests catch bugs.

The value of architecture review is in preparing for the review.

Great managers are masters of working through conflict. Getting good at working through conflict means getting good at taking your ego out of the conversation.