Laura Stone

Yesterday someone said to me that the true Engineering Managers job description is: To enable really smart people to make them look good. I think in truth there is a bit more to it than that phrase. I like that they have included the word 'enable' and that they are highlighting really smart people. If I had to try and rewrite this in the same vain perhaps: To empower and enable really smart people to achieve business outcomes and deliver business value. How you empower and enable those is the art of Engineering Management.

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🌟 Attention Engineering Managers and Technical Leaders! 🌟 In just two weeks, on June 28th at 10 AM PDT, I’m excited to host an interactive roundtable on Feature Flags and Delivery in conjunction with ELC! 🚀 Why Attend? This is a collaborative discussion where your expertise and curiosity are key! Whether you're experienced or eager to learn, your contributions are invaluable. 🔍 Discussion Points: - Decoupling Processes - Boosting Team Efficiency - Optimizing Feature Delivery - Tracking Platform Usage Expect rich conversations on best practices, unique implementations, methodologies, and the latest tools enhancing feature flagging and delivery. Who Should Join? - Engineering Managers - Technical Leads - DevOps Engineers - Software Developers This roundtable is your chance to: - Share your experiences - Gain new insights - Network with peers - Discover practical recommendations RSVP Now and mark your calendars for June 28th at 10 AM PDT! Let’s collaborate and elevate our skills together! #EngineeringManagement #TechLeaders #FeatureFlags #DevOps #SoftwareDevelopment #TeamEfficiency #TechRoundtable

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Project update! My application tracking extension is now doing fuzzier matching and injecting new information into LinkedIn (and other sites) to keep me from doubling up on applications. Next up: local storage and bulk import/export operations...

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Friendly reminder that if you Typescript, your types are a lie. No type checking at runtime. If you call an external system there is ZERO guarantee on type accuracy. You STILL need some form of contract checking at runtime. I use jo for all incoming and outgoing data.

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Does anyone else remember sitting in class thinking, "Am I ever going to actually use this?" 🤦‍♂️ I still ask myself this weekly when reading blog posts, listening to podcasts, catching up on massive Slack threads, or diving into documentation and feature listings. I don't always use the info, but it feels great when a memory from six months ago suddenly becomes relevant. I always think of that original Jurassic Park Unix scene. This often happens when discussing DevOps and Serverless, where boundaries blur already. Trying to keep all of the AWS documentation in my head while discussing the design of new features and optimizations feels like a superhuman task. What are some things you wish you had remembered when solving an issue or problem? For me, we designed a Lambda function to fail purposefully instead of attempting to recover for efficiency. Unfortunately, the Lambda control plane self-throttles a function once a failure threshold is reached... slowing our processing to a crawl and forcing some quick code changes. 😅 #AWS #lambda #serverless #learninginpublic #hugops

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I’ve been doing a ton of interviewing lately, and I’ve come to remember how much I appreciate it as a time to meet colleagues that I genuinely want to work with in some capacity: even if I don’t recommend we hire them. While this industry is huge, the professional circles we end up running in per domain are small worlds. Everyone I meet is a chance to make professional connections with people that turns into a chance to work together in the future—be it collaboration on a paper, peer-reviews of each others’ work, a customer using my products, or a coworker on my team. I love hearing about the work people are proud of and what they’ve built. So, I’ve started closing my interviews with “Thank you for taking the time to tell me about your work and passions, I am inspired, and I really hope we get to work together in the future.” I hire for my company, but the interview? It’s more than my job; it’s part of my career and professional network, and I genuinely look forward to making the connection. I’ve rarely met someone that didn’t inspire me, and I’m grateful I get paid to do it. Humans that build things are amazing, and you don’t have to look very hard to see it if you just slow down and see the spectacularly complex and gifted human sitting across the table from you. I hate that we’ve created this environment where people are so anxious coming in the door because we attach so much of our self worth to getting the “hire” nod from the team. It can be so much more than this. There’s an abundance of what we can all learn from each other, and the competitive nature of it does not serve the interests or well-being of builders, or even the long-term interests of the companies to which we belong.

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I've never understood companies that limit themselves to hiring only folks who've already worked on their stack. Sure, if you can hire somebody who's a real expert in part of your stack, then you should; but otherwise, any good developer is going to learn the language/framework faster than they'll learn how your code actually works. Understanding your unique problems and how you've uniquely addressed them inside your application's code takes many months longer than learning a language or framework, and there's no better way to learn that language or framework than by working on actual production code written in it.

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Some no-thoughts-only-vibes ruminations on a Friday evening: one of the most difficult things about transitioning from senior individual contributor to engineering leader is that the duration of the feedback loop increases, and the hard signals that you're used to from engineering take forever to manifest. Writing, compiling, and testing code is so much more faster and immediately reinforcing than meeting after meeting to then produce a proof of concept to then turn over to an engineering team to execute. But even that provides substantially more immediate feedback than trying to grow a team. There are no compile-time errors and really very few obvious run-time errors when it comes to the black boxes that are human beings.

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After an absolutely amazing 3 years (to the day quite literally), I am leaving Retool for my next adventure. It’s been a wild (and fun) ride of growing and scaling engineering from a group of 13 to an org of 100+, building 4 net-new product lines, and expanding the business. The thing I’ve always held strongly is that the team here *just ships*, and reflecting on my time, it’s heartwarming to think about how much landed: not just our new products in Workflows, External, Mobile, and RetoolDB, but everything ranging from runtime rewrites, to new component libraries, multiplayer, debug tools, our AI suite, new source control systems, a new IDE — the list just goes on and on. Retool is an incredibly special product, company, and organization to me — not just because of my time and experience there, but because of what we are trying to do: bring more good software into the world, especially when most internal tools don’t get the TLC they would otherwise need to be good. It spoke to me from first principles as a builder (both software and orgs) when I first joined, and continues to do so today all the same. It’s an incredible group, and one that I’ll miss so dearly. David Hsu and Anthony, thanks for bringing me in several years back and leading this charge. And for those reading who aren’t familiar with Retool, you should absolutely check it out; it’ll accelerate your eng team, but more importantly, your business overall. As for me, in terms of what’s next: I’m excited to build again. More to come there, but after a 10 year hiatus, I'm back to the startup-founding days!

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Do you think you need to hire developers as w2 employees to build a highly-skilled, devoted and culturally aligned team? Let Blueprint show you otherwise. Here's how we're changing the game: 1️⃣ Unmatched Quality: Quality is our creed. Our vetting process includes interviewing with former CTOs and senior software engineers, ensuring only top-tier talent makes it to your team. 2️⃣ Long-Term Commitment: Forget the turnover and churn worries! Our developers stay longer than industry norms for W2 developers (average tenure of 2.2 years), providing stability and continued expertise to your projects. 3️⃣ Cultural Integration: Culture isn't just an add-on for us. We dive deep to understand your core values and ensure every developer we match with your team enhances and embraces your company culture. 4️⃣ Equity is Optional: Save your cap table for your growing startup! We ensure that our developers are passionate believers in your product right from the start - without incentivizing them with equity. We rigorously test for craftsmanship, ensuring they value not just a quality end result but also the journey of creation. 🌟 Shoot us a DM to connect and see how we can improve your staffing strategy. #StaffAugmentation #InnovationInStaffing #TechTalent #CultureFit #LongTermGrowth

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🚀 Tired of flying blind when it comes to company spending? I’ve got great news! Airbase just launched spend analytics to give you high-definition on-demand visibility into company spend. You’ll see spend by vendor, department, subsidiary, project, and more to surface savings opportunities and areas for process improvement. Make smarter decisions faster with better analytics. We’ve also enhanced our Vendor Management capabilities to build better relationships with vendors. DM me if you’d like to learn more. 📊

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What was the last customer conversation you were part of? At Mish Guru we gave all of our engineers a challenge - go and watch 10 customer calls and write down something you noticed. The results weren’t what we expected. Engineers by and large are shielded from customers by layers of other people. Their main interaction is through second hand data in tickets and they often aren’t privy to the conversations that happen before features are decided on. The biggest shock to engineers when they watched sales or discovery calls was this: People actually like our product… That was when we realized the obvious. Engineers deal with failure each and every day. Bug reports, missing features, slow performance. They don’t think about the wins, they aren’t important to the job. They only see the flaws. If you only look at flaws day after day, you start to form a negative opinion of the product that you’re building. We started this experiment looking for product insights, but by breaking engineers out of the typical roles that we’d previously placed them in, we learned so much more about our own company. We actually got a heap of product insights as well, and I’ll write about those some other time. #productmanagement #engineeringmanagement #shapeup #agile

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Absolutely resonate with this insightful post. Having been through a couple of layoffs myself, I understand the profound impact it can have, not just professionally but personally, especially for those whose residency status might depend on their employment. The point about the fear leading to less engagement and potentially self-sabotaging behaviors is particularly poignant. It's a vicious cycle where fear diminishes productivity, increasing the likelihood of the feared event occurring. We must find ways to live with these concerns without letting them control us. I'm eager to see your strategies for turning this anxiety into something constructive. Looking forward to your next post!

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I lead an informal 15 minute pre-standup meeting with my team (which we call Coffee-n-tix). It's a great tool for being an effective leader and for bringing psychological safety to my team. Engineers hate meetings, especially ones that _seem_ redundant, but below is why I keep it to this day. Reason 1: Recognition and reward > The normal standup is usually time-constrained. They're scheduled back-to-back across teams, so people usually have to be succinct to wrap up on time. > But on the pre-standup time, we can take our time to thank people for something they did. > We can go into details. We can be specific. We can share exactly what was done, how, and why it's appreciated. > This is a great mechanism for building team morale, preventing burnout, and rewarding laudable behavior. Reason 2: Preparing for the day > The standup meeting is all about what you're working on and your current blockers. It usually doesn't allow a lot of time to be strategic about how to use your time. > In the pre-standup meeting, we look at capacity and demand. We try to anticipate issues, and develop contingency plans for what to do when those issues come up. For example, we might decide that we need a person to not be overloaded with work because they need to be ready to provide production support, or we might decide that a brainstorming or pair programming session is needed. > This lets us be prepared ahead of time, instead of getting caught with our pants down. Reason 3: Tracking metrics. > During our pre-standup meeting, we look at our current metrics (usually just staring at the Jira board). > This is a great time to have honest, frank conversations about tickets that are taking too long, were not properly thought through, or have challenges that we didn't anticipate. > Then when we join the normal standup meeting, we can present a united front to the wider audience and we have a plan to tackle whatever the issue might be. Reason 4: Problem solving. > There isn't a single day where we don't confront problems or challenges. > And surprisingly, most times the problems are incredibly dumb like someone doesn't know how to deploy or test a change. > The pre-standup meeting gives us time to talk about those issues directly and resolve them. We can choose to just talk about them, do a quick diagramming session, or maybe even do a Code with me session. > Then when we join the standup meeting, we can go over those problems super briefly but also explain how we are already a step ahead and we have a solution in mind. > Or, if we have a big, scary problem that we can't figure out before standup, we've already ruled out all the easy stuff and we can focus the energies of the larger audience on resolving this issue, thereby saving everybody time. #engineeringmanagement #softwareengineering

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Dear recruiters, I'm genuinely curious about your logic and would love for someone to explain this to me! 1. I put up multiple posts saying I am HIRING Senior and Lead engineers. 2. Recruiter likes my post and messages me privately 3. Said recruiter asks if I would be interested in APPLYING to a junior engineering role. If I'm hiring for leads, and my title it engineering manager, what suggests I would apply to a junior role? Maybe I've set something up wrong in LinkedIn but I am really bored of my inbox being filled by utterly irrelevant messages! Especially when there are so many talented junior engineers not getting the same messages :( #recruiters #jobhunting #hiring #confused

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It’s incredibly hard to land a Product Manager role right now 😔 This is what I tell those not hearing back despite numerous applications: 𝟏. 𝐒𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐟𝐮𝐥𝐥𝐲 Focus on positions where you're a strong fit rather than applying broadly. This approach prevents burnout and frees up time to improve the quality of your applications. 𝟐. 𝐍𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐚 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐞 Tailor your resume for each role, make your summary include 4-5 bullet points that correspond to the key requirements and distinctive features of the job. 𝟑. 𝐎𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐳𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 Keep your resume concise. Use one-line bullet points and emphasize impact over responsibilities. Avoid unnecessary fluff, graphics, and photos. Remember, you have 30 seconds to convince someone that you’re a great fit. Make every word count.

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I recently wrote a PRD with AI and it worked out surprisingly well. Tomorrow, I'm sharing a new post with: - My personal PRD template - My AI prompt to fill in the template with real customer feedback - My favorite PRD examples and AI tools 📌 Sign up to get my PRD template, AI prompt, and examples in your inbox: https://creatoreconomy.so/

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My Recharge side project right now? Overhauling the automated E2E tests in our CI/CD pipelines. It's taught me a ton about our environment. Like a lot of fast-growing software companies, we built a ton of E2E stuff when we didn't have a whole lot of solid unit and integration testing. Over time, that's all gotten a little crufty, and it takes us longer than it should to execute individual deploys. Our objective is to get this down to a level where the whole suite can comfortably be executed by any engineer, and it can serve as a training ground for new engineers to learn the business. In doing this, I've discovered tons of inefficient code through long-running tests, features I didn't even know existed, and a whole lot of solid work that's been done over the years and flying under my radar. Totally recommend digging in here for anyone trying to learn more about the code they support.

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Fix this red flag and you'll 10x improve every step in landing your next remote role: When asked why you're interested in this company or role... Your answer cannot be: • "I want to be creative." • "I want to be someplace I can grow." • "I want to go remote so I have more freedom." What's the problem with these answers? It's all about you. Focus on the company or the job itself. • What about the work makes it interesting? • What about this type of company excites you? • Why are you a better fit than others who apply? Stop thinking about your passions. Start thinking about how you'll create value. Once you've done this mental reframe, start back at the top of your process. Practice this in your: • Resume • Cover letter • LinkedIn profile • Every job application • Every interview you do Then, the opportunities will come. For more tips on landing your next remote job, subscribe to The Connection. Link in the comments. -- My name is Chris Ming. Follow for tips to land a remote job, go remote, and how to move your family abroad. #remotework #jobsearch #remoteworking

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