Measure engineering leadership beyond headcount: leverage, clarity, and ownership
Headcount isn’t leadership. This piece shows how to measure engineering leadership beyond headcount by designing clarity, systems, and ownership that multiply output.
Optimize founder ROI: Make freedom per dollar your metric
Stop chasing ARR at the expense of your energy. Optimize founder ROI by measuring freedom per dollar and using margin-focused levers to cut recurring work.
How to Lead with Questions: First-Principles Scripts for Better Decisions
Trading quick answers for sharp, first-principles questions turns teams into problem-solvers. Learn how to lead with questions to raise decision quality and reduce costly mistakes.
Leading Through AI Ambiguity: When Automation Makes Management Disappear
Automation devours the explicit; your advantage is leadership. Learn how leading through AI ambiguity with outcome briefs, guardrails, and a weekly leadership hour creates clarity and momentum.
Build Engineering Team Culture with Small, Consistent Rituals
Don’t wait for company values—shape the micro-moments your team lives each day. Learn how to build engineering team culture with listening, clear norms, and visible fairness.
The Tie-Breaker: Storytelling for Leadership Decisions
When choices are equally viable, use storytelling for leadership decisions as a tie-breaker. Choose the path that creates a durable narrative to rally teams and turn misses into momentum.
Make Engineering Requests Actionable: Structured, Reason-Backed Asks That Build Ownership
Treat language like code to make engineering requests actionable. Lead with a reason-backed recommendation, strip hedging, and anchor asks to identity so teams move.
Prevent Performance Review Surprises with a No‑Surprise System
Turn performance reviews into predictable summaries by building a continuous feedback loop that keeps expectations aligned. Prevent performance review surprises and lower anxiety.
Align incentives with values so impact beats appeasement
When leaders align incentives with values, bold bets and principled dissent are protected—so trust and innovation grow. This piece shows how to encode clarity, courage, and impact into reviews, promotions, and praise.
Ready by Moving: Lead Engineering Teams Under Uncertainty
In ambiguous work, movement creates readiness. Ship thin, reversible slices to speed feedback, reduce risk, and sustain momentum when leading engineering teams under uncertainty.