Leadership
4 articles in Leadership.
The Principal IC Playbook Nobody Shares With You
Reaching principal is the first rung of a new ladder, not the last rung of the old one. Here is what nobody told me about the ownership-autonomy paradox, how leverage actually works at this level, and the charter model I wish I had from day one.
The Three Things Exceptional Engineering Leaders Do (And the One They Stop Doing)
Most engineering leaders excel at one of three pillars — providing direction, removing obstacles, or foreseeing change — and quietly fail at the other two. After 12 years and more management mistakes than I care to count, here's what I've learned about building strength across all three.
Agency Beats Intelligence: How I Now Hire (And Evaluate Myself)
Raw intelligence is abundant and cheap. The engineers thriving in the AI era are the ones with agency — the ability to set goals, act under uncertainty, and self-correct. Here is how I changed my interview process to find them.
The Async-First Engineering Team: What Actually Works (And What Doesn't)
I went async-first with my remote engineering team. Productivity went up. Culture took a hit. Here's the honest accounting of what changed, what broke, and the specific practices that made it worth it.