How Halloween teaches us good teamwork
October 29, 2026Trick-or-treating works because a neighborhood agrees to participate. Some people put on costumes and go door to door. Others turn on their…
Written by Luke Dodge who lives and works in Kansas City building useful things and leading cool people. You should connect with him on LinkedIn!
Curiosity is an effective form of urgency
September 09, 2026Curiosity is a form of urgency. It gives us a reason to move before we're forced to. It's easy to keep digging when something is obviously…
Knowing how to pause is your competitive advantage
July 01, 2026The more I work with AI as an engineering manager, the more I find one skill has become dramatically more valuable: the deliberate pause. I…
Nobody knows what they're doing with AI yet (and that's okay)
April 29, 2026As an engineering manager, I spend a lot of time talking about AI. Mostly answering questions. What's the best way to use it? What does…
Your first 90 days are about trust, not productivity
August 20, 2025The first 90 days at a new company are a brutal learning curve. You're learning new systems, names, acronyms, team dynamics, priorities, and…
How to identify successful vs. high-performing teams
January 26, 2024It's crucial to recognize that not all successful teams are inherently high-performing. While success revolves around meeting user needs and…
There is great power in a descriptive project name
December 29, 2023Where efficiency and clarity reign supreme, the choice of project names plays a crucial role. While version numbering remains a steadfast…
Documentation is the cornerstone of alignment
December 07, 2023Effective communication is the bedrock upon which successful teams are built. The ability of a team to align, collaborate, and execute…
Define your team's success to always win
November 20, 2023Crunch time. We’ve all been there, but everything is wrong. You can feel your goals slipping further and further away every day. It seems…
Best practices for promoting managers from within (and why you should)
September 22, 2023The importance of nurturing talent from within cannot be overstated. Promoting employees to new roles, especially within the engineering…