Dates covered: April 29 – May 5, 2019 (week 18 of 52)
Business
What Companies Should Consider Before Investing in Smart Speakers (via Harvard Business Review)
- Avoid overly complex applications. “Today’s voice-enabled devices still struggle to grasp the difference between what customers say, mean, and really want.”
- Prepare for misinterpretations and fraud
- You’ll need a team of talent (content creators, market research, data scientists, program managers)
- Proceed in stages — we’ll need mix of tech ideas until things mature
Student Debt Is Stopping U.S. Millennials from Becoming Entrepreneurs (via Harvard Business Review)
Although I doubt I’d become an entrepreneur, student loan debt has certainly limited my financial options and made me more risk averse in the job department. This article offers a few interesting items… Treat employees as an investment rather than an expense. Some companies are offering up to $2,000 per year toward loan repayment. There are VC firms that are rethinking the model, such as revenue-based financing instead of a lump of more debt.
When Scandal Engulfs a Celebrity Endorser (via Harvard Business Review)
This is an example of why it’s important to have a crisis communication plan. Historically, companies that have stayed silent fair the worst. Three areas to consider… is the celebrity truly to blame (e.g., assault vs. nude pictures leaked), does the scandal relate to the profession (e.g., performance-enhancing drugs vs. having an affair), and is it closely tied with a brand (e.g., musician using a certain guitar vs. actress shilling for a liquor company)?
Career
Why Good Developers are Promoted into Unhappiness (via The Software Mentor)
Another example of someone who’s career path took the form of “you’re good at developing, so you need to manage.” My takeaway is that you should talk to people about where they see themselves and help them be amazing at that.
Nine Things Developers Want More Than Money (via The Software Mentor)
- Being set up to succeed
- Having excellent management
- Learning new things
- Exercising creativity, and solving the right kind of problems
- Having a voice
- Being recognized for hard work
- Building something that matters
- Building software without an act of Congress
- Having few legacy constraints
Stop! Don’t blindly take that coding challenge. (via The Software Mentor)
Today I learned that companies put out coding challenges to find candidates and pretty much don’t set up any expectations about communication, or worse, just ghost candidates altogether. The onus unfortunately seems to be on the recipient to clarify terms.
On Pain, Careers, and Doing Things the Hard Way (via Software Lead Weekly)
The tricky thing about being human is whether to demonstrate grit and push through or realize you’re pounding sand and should stop. This article is in the second camp, which is a nice change because most “success stories” fall into the former.
Communication
When You Pitch an Idea, Gestures Matter More Than Words (via Harvard Business Review)
One aspect of HBR I admire is they take a research paper and reach out to the author to defend their research with more probing questions. This article highlighted the bounds of the research about when gestures help sway investors during entrepreneur pitches. Good communicators will use non-verbal cues to help augment well-crafted rhetoric.
What to Do After an Uncomfortable Conversation with a Coworker (via Harvard Business Review)
- Acknowledge your mistake and provide space
- Apologize and be grateful
- Highlight the overall goal and seek agreement
- Create shared cues
- Contribute to the relationship bank
Culture
Keep Your Company’s Toxic Culture from Infecting Your Team (via Harvard Business Review)
- Signs: covering — hiding or downplaying aspects of yourself or identity to fit in, pressure to overwork, hyper-competitiveness
- Start with yourself (put your own oxygen mask on first), make a plan to fix work relationships that are emotionally draining, form a coalition of people that want to work on improving culture
Why We Ignore Obvious Problems and How to Act on Them (via TED)
Predictable crises catch us by surprise because we don’t want to deal with it — either because it’s uncomfortable or we’re experiencing the bystander effect. Talking about risks, planning, and seeking more information helps increase our power.
Boeing and the Importance of Encouraging Employees to Speak Up (via Harvard Business Review)
Not surprisingly, more reports are coming out that multiple people had concerns about the 737 Max jets, but didn’t speak up. Discounting the future is something people do when we overvalue maintaining report, comfort, and security in the moment and undervalue speaking up about things that may or may not happen in the far future. The solution is for managers to create an unambiguous culture of psychological safety so that people can speak up about risk.
The Stigma That Keeps Consultants from Using Flex Time (via Harvard Business Review)
For management consultant, there’s a flexibility stigma of being less committed to work if you use benefits such as extended absences, paid parental leave. When asked why… (1) consulting is incompatible with work-life balance policies, (2) people prefer to manage work-life balance on their own, not one-size-fits-all policies, (3) consultants framed decisions as “choices”, and (4) leaving the industry is always an option (up or out). Orgs can (1) broaden success metrics, (2) challenge the glorification of overwork, and (3) frame flexibility as a shared organizational value.
Leadership
Should You Try to Convince a Star Employee to Stay? (via Harvard Business Review)
- If convincing them to say, take them out for coffee and listen. You may need to problem-solve together. If it’s money (especially for a junior), fix this quickly. If not money, can you help them succeed in ways they haven’t considered (e.g., mentors, new projects, training)? They need to feel supported.
- When letting them go gracefully (they want something new, problems you can’t solve, etc.), congratulate them and build goodwill. Don’t burn bridges, as they may “boomerang” back, or can refer other candidates to you.
The 5 Whys of Organizational Design. (via Software Lead Weekly)
I don’t necessarily agree with all of this authors root causes, but there are some interesting scenarios of “if X is happening, Y is probably the cause”. (This post pertains mostly to software engineering orgs.)
How to Hold Your Team Accountable (via Software Lead Weekly)
- Ask open questions
- Weed out excuses
- Don’t Solve, Empathize
- Disagree and commit
- Outline the consequences
Productivity
How to Manage Your Perfectionism (via Harvard Business Review)
“Many perfectionists worry that if they let go of their [meticulousness and conscientiousness], it will hurt their performance and standing.” Some tips… (1) You don’t have to aim for inadequacy, but do recognize opportunity cost; is spending 3 more hours on your presentation measurably worth it? (2) Get feedback from others; you may be surprised that your “draft” is more than good enough for others. (3) Break the cycle of ruminating (mulling over the problem with no resolutions); identify what sets this off, find a mundane task to divert the cycle, think about the positives instead of “if I can’t do this well, why bother at all”. (4) Talk to others to get perspective — another form of feedback. (5) Monitor your progress.
How to Stop Worrying About What Other People Think of You (via Harvard Business Review)
“If you start paying less and less attention to what makes you you — your talents, beliefs, and values — and start conforming to what others may or may not think, you’ll harm your potential.” Focus on confidence-building statements, take deep breaths, and create a personal philosophy to define who you truly are. “Most of all, remember that growth and learning take place when you’re operating at the edge of your capacity.”
Software development
Software Project Review Checklist (via The Software Mentor)
You mileage may vary based on company size and project, but this is a solid list of things that should be in place. (I also appreciated the reference to CMMI which is a process model my current company uses.)
Technology
Your Company Needs a Strategy for Voice Technology (via Harvard Business Review)
Unfortunately the title is a bit misplaced. There are industries where not being aware of how voice technology could impact you are more relevant — health care, banking, publishing, hospitality, automotive, gaming, home automation. However, there are areas where voice technology doesn’t really make sense at the moment; additionally, there are security concerns that are typically brushed aside with this technology.