Marshall Shen

Production is on fire, and we are all remote

All of a sudden, things start to go badly. Support tickets begin to flood in with the same complaints - the app stops working. The engineers start to investigate in their own homes. The production...

14 Feb 2021

Tech lead and engineering manager

Tech leads and engineering managers are instrumental in engineering organizations. Why are they necessary? What is the difference between these two roles? Both tech lead and engineer manager are responsible for the outcome of a...

12 Feb 2021

Feedback with a growth mindset

Everyone can grow, and that’s why we ask, give, and receive feedback. Practicing feedback is an art that requires us to ask the right questions and set proper expectations. fixed vs. growth mindset A fixed...

23 Jan 2021

Squads, chapters, and tour of duty

People and organization structure must scale closely together. When we scale from one engineering team to multiple teams, it’s more than just splitting one group into many groups. New communication patterns emerge, and new concepts...

17 Jan 2021

Build effective engineer career framework

At the beginning of a startup, the team is small and scrappy, and there’s litte structure on career growth. As a startup grows, more engineers join, and each engineer has different expectations and needs. To...

03 Jan 2021

Masterclass review - Sales and Persuasion

ABC: Attunement, Buoyancy, Clarity The old salesmanship model of ABC is “always be closing.” Salesmanship has changed over time. Daniel Pink’s ABC sales is about “Attunement, Buoyancy, and Clarity.” Attunement is an ability to get...

01 Jan 2021

Reading review - The making of a manager

For early managers and leaders, this book is approachable and lays out foundational skill and mindsets for becoming successful leaders. Being a great leader is about setting clear vision, and building a great team that...

27 Dec 2020

Reading review - The coaching habit

I read this book back in 2016 and I needed a refresher on asking more and talking less. It boils down to these essential questions: kickstart question - “What’s on your mind?” An almost fail-safe...

26 Dec 2020

Reading review - Accelerate

Measure engineering productivity Know what to measure is important building a great engineering culture. One aspect to measure is engineering productivity. And the authors proposes 4 useful metrics: delivery lead time, deployment frequence, time to...

24 Dec 2020

Reading review - Why are all the black kids sitting together in the cafeteria

Why all the black kids sitting together in the cafeteria is a great book in understanding systemic racism. Before we were born, human society exists with its own cultural debt. We come to this society...

12 Dec 2020