Since the reorg last October, I’ve been trying to define my team’s mission but couldn’t make satisfactory progress. I’d love to be able to tell a story of how all of us are building towards a single vision, unlocking unique values for Square sellers, but I don’t have that narrative yet. I can pull something out of thin air based on what we are doing now, but I am afraid it will not stand the test of time. Without this narrative, I find it challenging to hire the right people, motivate the team, make a trade-off between projects, and build towards the future-proof architecture. It’s a bit frustrating.
Software Engineering ⚙️
Roblox Return to Service 10/28-10/31 2021
Roblox posted a postmortem on its historic outage last October. It attributes the outage to two issues in its single-point-of-failure (the service discovery service) and will spread the load across multiple service discovery services. That solution will protect against similar outages but also add operational complexity. It makes me wonder how a team can prevent over-indexing from a recency bias.
From experiment to launch: how data shaped a new comments experience
This article explains how data analytics fits into product development, from setting goal metrics to guiding the design direction. It’d be interesting to see how it compares to your team’s process.
People ❤️
Setting Goals for a Life Worth Living
When the pandemic started, I felt like my life was on probation. While grateful that I had a good job, I couldn’t feel any sense of progress. I couldn’t go to a gym and beat my lifting records, nor travel and experience new things. After reading this article, I suspect this lack of progress outside work contributed to my burnout. What can I do to feel a sense of achievement in my life?
Cost of Attrition
Whenever there is a personnel change (either attrition or addition), it creates a whole new dynamic in the team. While a team competency matrix is a valuable tool, managers need to look at how the individuals are connected.
How to Write a Strategy Statement Your Team Will Actually Remember
To have and follow a strategy is to make hard choices consistently.
Tech’s big new ideas about work
Four-day work week and company-wide shutdowns are trending.
Business 💰
Welcoming the Incredible Teams and Legendary Franchises of Activision Blizzard to Microsoft Gaming
Microsoft agreed to acquire Activision Blizzard for $70B. The announcement says that this move is to bolster Microsoft’s metaverse, but I am not convinced as Microsoft’s metaverse concept focuses on the work environment. As a big fan of Blizzard IPs who’ve been disappointed by their recent work, I look forward to the changes they will bring.
youngk.im 