The hottest Management Substack posts right now

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TBM 412: Institutionalized Overload (Now With AI)

The Beautiful Mess • 687 implied HN points • 27 Mar 26
đź’Ľ Business Management
  1. Workplace overload has become normalized so people adapt by treating constant busyness and juggling inputs as a sign of competence, which then gets defended and sustained.
  2. AI is mostly being used to cope with and amplify that overload, helping people process more context faster while reinforcing existing power structures instead of changing them.
  3. Changing this requires actively resisting the expansion of work and information, and deliberately designing for calmer, more focused ways of working even though that will feel uncomfortable at first.

Writing Crystalized Thinking At Amazon. Is AI Muddying It?

Big Technology • 8131 implied HN points • 20 Feb 26
đź’Ľ Business Management
  1. AI is being pushed to replace the old practice of writing to think, which risks making decisions shallower and eroding the discipline of clear, precise narratives.
  2. Internal generative tools are often unreliable and hallucinate, yet employees face heavy pressure to use them without adequate training, guidance, or measures of impact.
  3. The workforce is split between veterans who resist and newer employees who comply out of fear, producing higher volume expectations, lower-quality work, and a shift in company culture.

How An Informed Minority Took Over The World’s Biggest Firms

High ROI Data Science • 119 implied HN points • 29 Oct 24
đź’Ľ Business Management
  1. Information asymmetry is when one group knows more than another. This can create unfair advantages in social systems and businesses.
  2. The Werewolf Game illustrates how a small, informed group can control the majority. This game teaches us about strategy and deception in group dynamics.
  3. To protect ourselves from manipulation, we need to build mental firewalls. Knowing about information asymmetry helps us fight back against unfair advantages.

Don't Accomplish Everything

Software Design: Tidy First? • 1369 implied HN points • 23 Feb 26
đź•ą Technology Management
  1. Work runs in three modes — Explore, Expand, and Extract — and each mode has different goals and tradeoffs, so manage projects differently as they move between them.
  2. In Explore mode, set bold, learning-focused goals and expect to hit roughly half of them (P50); finding surprising value is more important than finishing every planned task.
  3. Keep explorations as independent as possible because they’re fragile and delay-sensitive, while extraction accepts dependencies and demands reliability, so structure teams and processes to match the phase.

9 Things Product Owners Should Stop Doing

Ageling on Agile • 99 implied HN points • 27 Oct 24
đź’Ľ Business Management
  1. Product Owners shouldn’t act like team managers. They should focus on the product goals and let Developers decide how to achieve them.
  2. It's important for Product Owners to be part of the team. They should engage with the Developers regularly and not just during official meetings.
  3. Product Owners need to avoid over-managing the details of tasks. They should trust Developers to find the best ways to reach the goals set for the product.
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If You Can’t Be a Bridge, Be a Lighthouse

The Engineering Leader • 79 implied HN points • 27 Oct 24
đź’Ľ Business Management
  1. Being a lighthouse means providing guidance and clarity when things are uncertain. Just like a lighthouse helps ships find their way, leaders should offer support to their teams during tough times.
  2. Leaders should empower their teams by encouraging autonomy and trust. This builds confidence and helps team members feel respected and capable in their roles.
  3. Consistency and integrity are key traits of a good leader. Like a lighthouse that shines every night, leaders should align their words and actions to build trust with their teams.

Part 2: Our Collective Order-Keeping Fictions

Holly’s Newsletter • 1071 implied HN points • 08 Oct 24
đź’Ľ Business Management
  1. Many companies hire foreign workers, and there is a concerning lack of effective management. This is often due to too many people being in roles that don’t have real value.
  2. It’s scary how much bad coding exists, especially from those who think they’re experts but actually know very little. This can lead to bigger problems in tech environments.
  3. Data security is often not as strong as companies claim, and relying on tools like AI without proper coding knowledge can make things worse for everyone.

White Collar Goes Blue

Working Theorys • 338 implied HN points • 06 Mar 26
đź’Ľ Business Management
  1. AI is making intelligence abundant, so the luxury rights of white‑collar work—autonomy, creative ownership, flexible schedules—are shrinking and many white‑collar roles will be rescaled into trade‑like, execution-focused jobs.
  2. Organizations are likely to split into a small elite, named team that shapes direction and keeps the perks, and a larger, anonymous team that executes defined tasks; this two-tier model turns white‑collar work more like blue‑collar structure.
  3. To keep the premium, people must make themselves scarce through distinctive skill, public influence, or trusted relationships—or embrace apprenticeship and trade pathways as white‑collar norms migrate toward physical, executional work.

Management as AI superpower

One Useful Thing • 2598 implied HN points • 27 Jan 26
đź’Ľ Business Management
  1. Agentic AI lets people build working prototypes and explore multiple startup ideas far faster and much cheaper than before, cutting months and big costs out of early-stage work.
  2. Decide when to delegate by weighing how long the task would take you, how likely the AI is to succeed, and how much time it takes to prompt and review outputs. Improving the AI's success probability or lowering review overhead makes delegation more worthwhile.
  3. Traditional management skills—clear goals, specific deliverables, limits of authority, and good feedback—are now the key to getting useful work from AI agents, and common documents like PRDs or orders make excellent prompts.

Group Technology, the Forgotten Cousin of Lean Manufacturing

Construction Physics • 24010 implied HN points • 07 Aug 25
đź’Ľ Business Management
  1. Group Technology helps factories work better by grouping similar parts together, which makes production faster and less wasteful. This method reduces the time machines spend being set up and moving parts around.
  2. Originally popular in the 1980s, Group Technology is similar to Lean methods, but it lost favor because other systems offered similar benefits with less focus on complicated paperwork. Lean became more popular and easier to understand.
  3. Despite its decline, some industries like shipbuilding still use Group Technology effectively. This shows that while trends change, good ideas can remain useful in specific contexts.

TBM 406: Seeing Everything, Understanding Nothing (The Context Trap)

The Beautiful Mess • 1163 implied HN points • 13 Feb 26
đź’Ľ Business Management
  1. Understanding is produced through interactions, not by assembling static background information. Context emerges as people engage with each other, their bodies, tools, and environment.
  2. AI and context engineering often treat context as a package you can merge, which pushes work toward solitary recombination of information. That model mistakes more data for understanding and ignores how interaction shapes meaning.
  3. Leaders should act as interaction designers, shaping dialogue, scenarios, and feedback loops so intent becomes the context for action. They must also recognize some decisions can use documented context while others require real-time coordination and emergent sensemaking.

The Corporate Life Cycle: Managing, Valuation and Investing Implications

Musings on Markets • 1438 implied HN points • 20 Aug 24
đź’Ľ Business Management
  1. Businesses, like people, go through life cycles. They start as new ideas, grow, and eventually decline if not managed properly.
  2. Companies age differently, impacting their strategies and financial health. Younger companies often focus on growth, while older ones need to defend their position or manage decline.
  3. The skills and qualities needed in leadership change with a company's age. A startup needs a visionary leader, while a declining company may require a pragmatic approach to manage its downsizing.

10 Things People Don't Realize About Scrum

Ageling on Agile • 119 implied HN points • 20 Oct 24
đź’Ľ Business Management
  1. Scrum isn't just about short-term goals; it focuses on the long-term vision for the product. The Product Owner plays a key role in setting a clear Product Goal and regularly reviews progress.
  2. The purpose of a Sprint is to learn and adapt, not just to deliver a set amount of work. Each Sprint acts as a learning cycle where teams reflect and plan the next steps based on what they've achieved and learned.
  3. The Scrum Master is more than just a facilitator; they are also responsible for helping the whole organization adopt Scrum effectively. They guide both the team and other stakeholders to understand their roles in the process.

The Bet On Juniors Just Got Better

Software Design: Tidy First? • 3645 implied HN points • 12 Dec 25
đź•ą Technology Management
  1. Manage juniors for learning, not immediate production; focus your expectations and feedback on accelerating their skills so they reach profitability sooner.
  2. AI coding assistants can dramatically compress the learning curve by surfacing options and collapsing search time, letting juniors complete tasks faster and use freed time to learn deeper tradeoffs.
  3. Those gains only happen with intentional investment in tooling, coaching, and an "augmented coding" culture, and faster ramps multiply value because ramped developers mentor others and create leverage across the team.

5 Ways Agile Coaches Undermine Agility

Ageling on Agile • 159 implied HN points • 13 Oct 24
đź’Ľ Business Management
  1. Agile is not a goal; it's a tool to achieve bigger goals like better teamwork and faster delivery. Coaches should focus on the benefits of Agile instead of just promoting the process itself.
  2. Some Agile Coaches act like salespeople, pushing their one-size-fits-all solution instead of customizing their approach to meet each organization's unique needs. Good coaches listen to what the company really needs first.
  3. Many Agile Coaches focus only on the teams without considering the rest of the organization. Everyone needs to understand how Agile impacts their work to truly benefit from it.

7 Estimation blunders

Ageling on Agile • 39 implied HN points • 24 Oct 24
đź’Ľ Business Management
  1. Estimating work is hard, especially for complex tasks. It's okay to acknowledge that some work can't be easily estimated and to focus on learning instead.
  2. Teams often have different opinions on estimates, which can lead to valuable discussions. These conversations help everyone align on the work and understand each other's perspectives.
  3. Estimates shouldn't be treated as strict commitments. If people outside the team are pushing for deadlines based on estimates, it's important to push back and clarify that estimates are just rough calculations.

TBM 407: The Three Juggling Acts (Strategic, Lazy, and Survival)

The Beautiful Mess • 476 implied HN points • 16 Feb 26
đź’Ľ Business Management
  1. Teams juggle work in three modes: strategic (intentionally keeping and pruning options), lazy (scattered, novelty-driven work without discipline), and survival (forced triage where dropping anything has immediate costs).
  2. Without clear pruning, learning, and prioritization, strategic juggling can drift into lazy juggling, and accumulated drift can suddenly collapse into hard-to-escape survival mode.
  3. Regularly diagnose where you are, choose constraints on purpose, create breathing room, and set clear criteria for focus so you can move back toward strategic, compounding work.

"There is no room for small dreams"

The Future Does Not Fit In The Containers Of The Past • 72 implied HN points • 01 Mar 26
đź’Ľ Business Management
  1. Break down silos and work as teams across functions; collaborate, orchestrate efforts, and hold everyone accountable so no one acts above the group.
  2. Keep a start-up mindset and stay forever young by continually reinventing, launching new ideas, and treating failure as a learning step.
  3. Trust quickly and be optimistic; trust is binary and enables speed and high performance, and bold optimism pushes you to aim high rather than settle for small dreams.

Methods and Outcomes

The Breaking Point • 159 implied HN points • 08 Oct 24
đź’Ľ Business Management
  1. When making decisions, it's important to separate methods from outcomes. If you mix them up, it can lead to confusion and endless debates.
  2. You can plan in two ways: starting with methods to estimate outcomes or starting with outcomes to figure out the methods needed. Both ways can work depending on the situation.
  3. To empower your team, give them clear outcomes and let them choose their own methods. This way, they feel involved and motivated to succeed.

What The Best Engineers Do—and What Actually Got Them Promoted, from an Amazon VP

High Growth Engineer • 1164 implied HN points • 04 Jan 26
đź’Ľ Business Management
  1. Executives promote engineers who deliver clear business impact, not just technically elegant code.
  2. Finish work end-to-end: ship customer-ready products, build tools that speed the team, take on the operational "dirty work," and anticipate problems before they happen.
  3. Grow and lead others by mentoring, setting standards, and training teams — that influence gets noticed and accelerates promotion.

How Do You Know If You’re a Good Leader?

Fish Food for Thought • 42 implied HN points • 11 Mar 26
đź’Ľ Business Management
  1. Doubt and introspection are part of good leadership, not proof you're failing. Managing uncertainty and reflecting privately helps you make clearer public decisions.
  2. You're judged differently by your boss, peers, and team, so evaluate yourself from all those angles. Combine those perspectives to get a more accurate picture of your leadership.
  3. Seek real feedback and take ownership of perceptions by doing a 360-style review and looking for patterns. If feedback is valid, acknowledge it and make a plan; if you disagree, still address the impact rather than arguing intent.

Use the power of storytelling in tech to get promoted faster

High Growth Engineer • 735 implied HN points • 18 Jan 26
đź’Ľ Business Management
  1. Storytelling is essential to move into leadership in tech; technical skill alone won’t show your executive presence, but a well-told story shapes how decision-makers feel and helps you get buy-in and promotions.
  2. Use the 4S framework — Substance (focus on the listener’s top priorities), Surplus (cut irrelevant process details), Sequence (start with the answer to create curiosity), and Style (use metaphors, pronouns, tense, and wake words to connect).
  3. Apply storytelling in presentations, interviews, and promotion talks: lead with a clear recommendation (BLUF), trim long setups, create an open loop to hold attention, and use relatable analogies and language to be memorable and likable.

No one else will manage your career for you.

Tech and Tea • 98 implied HN points • 27 Feb 26
đź’Ľ Business Management
  1. You are responsible for your own growth and career; you can’t outsource that responsibility to a manager or wait for someone else to steer you.
  2. A manager’s real job is the team’s output over time — to be a force multiplier, not just run meetings; that means being deliberate about when to unblock, coach, advocate, or step back and creating space to think strategically.
  3. There are practical courses and previews that teach these skills in audio-only, asynchronous formats to fit busy schedules, and early-bird pricing ends tomorrow.

The Unreachable Engineering Managers

Leading Developers • 141 implied HN points • 17 Feb 26
đź’Ľ Business Management
  1. Managers who are hard to reach become real bottlenecks because they hoard context and decisions, which delays work or forces suboptimal choices.
  2. Being responsive is part of the engineering manager job — prioritize unblocking others by answering quickly and checking key channels regularly.
  3. Use systems and delegation to scale availability: mute or reorganize channels, create focused discussion groups, and give engineers ownership so you aren’t the sole decision source.

So You Want To Become an Engineering Manager

Diary of an Engineering Manager • 539 implied HN points • 08 Aug 24
đź’Ľ Business Management
  1. Make your career goals clear by sharing your intent with your manager. Talking about your desire to become an engineering manager will help you get guidance and support.
  2. Focus on developing crucial skills like self-awareness, people skills, and project management. These skills are essential for leading a team effectively.
  3. Look for growth opportunities within your current company or elsewhere. Being prepared is important, but finding the right chance to step into an EM role is key.

Taking just one step too far

Leading Developers • 84 implied HN points • 24 Feb 26
đź’Ľ Business Management
  1. Pushing a little beyond normal social or organizational boundaries often gets things done and can lead to better outcomes than staying overly timid.
  2. Deliberately testing that extra step helps you learn where the real limits are, because different people and orgs tolerate different levels of push.
  3. Keep it to just one extra step, watch reactions, learn from feedback, and preface risky moves so you can dial back quickly if needed.

You just don't understand

Respectful Leadership • 326 implied HN points • 23 Jan 26
đź’Ľ Business Management
  1. People can seem to be talking to each other while actually talking to different people, so their words line up but there’s no real understanding.
  2. Meetings can create a false sense of agreement when participants use the same words but mean different things.
  3. Superficial or misaligned communication leads to awkward, partial results and leaves people frustrated.

On ne te virera pas

L'Atelier Galita • 79 implied HN points • 10 Oct 24
đź’Ľ Business Management
  1. Most people worry too much about getting fired when they actually have a lot of protection once they are in a permanent job. Employers need a real reason to let someone go after the trial period.
  2. Don't rush to resign without a good reason. Being fired can give you unemployment benefits, while quitting usually won't. You're safer in a job than you might think.
  3. Your worth in the job market matters a lot. The more skills you have, the less likely you'll be fired, and the better conditions you can negotiate.

The Nationalization of Boeing Begins

BIG by Matt Stoller • 43431 implied HN points • 26 Jan 24
đź’Ľ Business Management
  1. There is growing discontent and criticism towards Boeing's management from various stakeholders like Wall Street, labor unions, customers, and regulators.
  2. Major Boeing customers like Alaska Airlines and United Airlines are publicly holding Boeing accountable for quality issues and demanding reimbursement, indicating a significant shift in the industry's code of silence about problems.
  3. The government, particularly the FAA, has taken actions against Boeing and is showing signs of increasing regulation, potentially leading towards a moment where Boeing's management structure may face significant changes.

THRIVE: My Guiding Leadership Principles

The Engineering Leader • 99 implied HN points • 06 Oct 24
đź’Ľ Business Management
  1. Transformational leadership is about inspiring your team by sharing a clear vision. It helps create a motivated and engaged work environment where everyone strives for excellence.
  2. Adapting your leadership style to fit different teams and situations is crucial. Being flexible helps address unique challenges and fosters team success.
  3. Empowerment is key to growth. When you give your team the resources and autonomy to lead, you help them develop their skills and confidence.

TBM 393: Why Labeling Relationships Is So Important

The Beautiful Mess • 1190 implied HN points • 07 Dec 25
đź’Ľ Business Management
  1. Labeling relationships in work systems helps clarify how things are connected. This understanding can improve strategy and execution in organizations.
  2. Different mental models for goals and initiatives impact how teams operate. Each model assumes different relationships, affecting overall effectiveness.
  3. Many companies still rely on simple hierarchies, but real work often functions as a complex network. Mapping out these relationships can lead to better insights.

TBM 401: Solving Problems the Hard Way

The Beautiful Mess • 528 implied HN points • 16 Jan 26
đź’Ľ Business Management
  1. Break work into a small set (3–5) of clear but flexible lanes with a one- or two-line intent; make them stable enough to get a groove but easy to reshape or retire as reality changes.
  2. Put real ownership on each lane (one to three people) and run simple routines—copy lanes forward and review weekly or biweekly—to surface what moved, what stalled, and where to course-correct.
  3. Work small and think big: focus on near-term actions you can influence while keeping longer-term direction soft, and treat lanes as a collaborative, iterative learning practice rather than a rigid framework.

New company, old playbook?

The Engineering Manager • 5 implied HN points • 20 Mar 26
đź•ą Technology Management
  1. You arrive as both an expert and a beginner, so hold your experience lightly and adopt a beginner's mind to stay curious and open to how things actually work here.
  2. Use the first 30 days for a listening tour and simple assessments—listen more than you act, resist quick fixes, and learn who and why things are the way they are.
  3. In days 30–90 pick your battles, steer without doing, and land visible results that set the right tone; bring guiding principles with you but leave behind one-size-fits-all prescriptions.

Scrum Is No Excuse To Avoid Accountabilities

Ageling on Agile • 99 implied HN points • 03 Oct 24
đź’Ľ Business Management
  1. Scrum helps teams work better, but it doesn't mean people can ignore their responsibilities. Everyone needs to step up and be accountable.
  2. Self-management in Scrum isn't just about freedoms; it also includes taking on duties and being responsible for their work.
  3. It's important for everyone in a Scrum team to communicate clearly and understand what is needed to succeed, especially regarding project timelines.

The Essential Intangibles

DruGroup • 139 implied HN points • 03 Sep 24
đź’Ľ Business Management
  1. Being a skilled leader isn't enough; you also need certain qualities called intangibles. These qualities may not be easy to measure, but they are essential for effective leadership.
  2. Leadership intangibles include selflessness, risk-taking, and transparency. Focusing on these traits can help leaders build better relationships with their teams.
  3. You can learn and improve these intangibles through your everyday experiences, rather than needing special training. Recognizing and addressing your blind spots can make a big difference.

How To Give Yourself A Promotion And Grow Your Business Beyond Solo Freelancing

VERY GOOD PRODUCTIZED GUIDES • 99 implied HN points • 09 Sep 24
đź’Ľ Business Management
  1. To grow beyond solo freelancing, you need to stop doing everything yourself. Focus on what you do best and outsource the tasks that take up too much of your time.
  2. It's important to package your services in a way that clients understand and can buy easily. This means creating fixed-fee services that have clear pricing and deliverables.
  3. You should regularly audit how you spend your time to figure out what tasks can be delegated. This helps free up your schedule for the high-value work that you enjoy.

Close the Umbrella

The Engineering Leader • 159 implied HN points • 22 Sep 24
đź’Ľ Business Management
  1. Managers should be honest and transparent with their teams. Hiding difficult information can backfire and leave everyone unprepared.
  2. Overprotecting a team can create dependence and limit their growth. It's important for team members to face challenges to develop their skills.
  3. A balanced approach is best. Managers can help their teams focus by filtering out unnecessary distractions while still being transparent about real issues.

What Is Being An Engineering Manager Like

Diary of an Engineering Manager • 119 implied HN points • 05 Sep 24
đź’Ľ Business Management
  1. An engineering manager's role is more about teamwork than just giving orders. It's important to work together and support each other.
  2. The manager's job is like being a driver on a road trip. They navigate and ensure everyone is comfortable and safe along the journey.
  3. Being an engineering manager doesn't mean being smarter than everyone else. It means having different responsibilities while being part of the team.

How AI Will Reshape the World of Work

The Algorithmic Bridge • 392 implied HN points • 12 Jan 26
đź’Ľ Business Management
  1. AI is rapidly eliminating many entry-level roles as firms replace junior workers with automation, producing immediate cost savings but fewer pathways for new graduates into careers.
  2. The hardest parts of knowledge work are tacit—judgment, taste, coordination—and AI handles explicit tasks well but can’t learn those embodied skills, leading to low-quality output and hidden long-term costs.
  3. A viable path is a hybrid apprenticeship model: keep AI for grunt work while hiring fewer apprentices who learn tacit know-how from seniors, preserving knowledge transfer and long-term organizational resilience.

Issue #17 - Unpacking the People, Process, Technology & Data Framework

The Data Ecosystem • 339 implied HN points • 04 Aug 24
đź’Ľ Business Management
  1. The People, Process, Technology framework helps organizations balance these three key areas but often misses the importance of data. Companies should not just focus on technology but also consider how people and processes interact.
  2. A new framework that includes data is called People, Process, Technology & Data. This approach shows how these four components work together, helping organizations make better decisions and manage change more effectively.
  3. Using structured questions and understanding the roles of each component can enhance planning and execution in businesses. It's essential to revisit these elements regularly to stay aligned with goals and adapt as needed.