Accountability for Effective Teams

Accountability for measurable outcomes is “not the most important kind.” It’s the easy kind.

Last week, I've stumbled upon a pitch for a role-playing game from 1994. That game turned out to be one of the most successful games in history. And recently got its fourth title in the series.

Diablo turned out to be extremely influential part of my life. Not because I've spent countless hours grinding the medieval catacombs but because I've built a website about it.

It wasn't the best website. It had yellow text on black background. Bleeding title. Clipart designed headers. The obligatory marquee. Burning flames. It wasn't popular – only a few friends reading and writing about their virtual adventures.

But I've built a website. And after that, I've made another one. And then another one for a business.

Diablo got me started in tech. From a simple website with burning flames 25 years ago to running teams and building amazing products today.

How did you get into tech? Would you like to share your story? Reply to this email and I’ll share the best ones in future issue.

I’m in the process of migrating everyone from Tech Lead Digest to Leadership in Tech. I have to take it slowly and warm up the domain first. But in the next few weeks you should be on the new list. Wish me luck! 🤞

Top reads

Accountability for measurable outcomes is “not the most important kind.” It’s the easy kind.

People love Snowflake, but….
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Delivering sub-second analytics over large datasets can get pricey. When it comes to optimizing performance and cost, there are many great players. See how Snowflake compares to Firebolt, Clickhouse, Databricks, and more in the 2023 Cloud Data Warehouse Comparison Guide.

Estimation Isn’t for Everyone
10 minutes by The NYT Open Team

Reduce overhead by removing one of them: estimation. We believe that mature Agile teams can evolve beyond the tedium of debating Fibonacci scores and operate better without them. Once your team turns its focus to breaking problems down to their component parts, all you need is a little math to plan your next project.

The process I describe below is intended to be short and sharp. It will give you a systems architecture that you can pressure test and refine. It will also guide on how to carve out the first meaningful slice.

Can a modular architecture improve software delivery? Yes! -but with some caveats. This article charts the journey of an enterprise who set out to shift their architecture to a more modular one in order to ease their growing pains.

Why software fails and how you can practically address it with a 6-step plan.

Losing control of your time? Here is how to break free from the chaos, prioritise and get stuff done.

When the output of software engineers goes up, what happens to the companies they work for?

What Strategy Questions are You Asking?
9 minutes by Roger Martin

The most popular view of the nature of competitive advantage is that it is represented by a moat. The person who popularized this view is Warren Buffett who famously spoke on the subject during the 1995 Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting.

The dark side of the leadership
3 minutes by Elena Verna

That nobody talks about.

Tiny bits

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