The hottest Management Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
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Top Business Topics

Building CAUSL - Episode 7: Onboarding at Lightspeed

CAUSL Effect • 19 implied HN points • 02 Apr 23
💼 Business Onboarding Management Human Resources Organizational Culture Training
  1. Onboarding at a new company can be really tough. It often takes new employees months to fully understand the business and their role.
  2. It's common for new hires to feel overwhelmed, especially when they have to learn everything quickly. Having a structured process can really help ease this transition.
  3. By creating an efficient onboarding system, employees can get settled in just weeks instead of months. This makes the experience much smoother for everyone involved.

Two key areas to focus on to get promoted and do well in your job. Practical advice from Luca Rossi of Refactoring.

Askwhy: UX Research, Product Management, Design & Careers • 33 implied HN points • 28 Feb 23
💼 Business Career development Management Advice Collaboration Professional Growth
  1. Great engineers deeply understand tradeoffs and communicate well with others, not just master technical skills.
  2. Invest in talking with mentors and peers for high ROI in learning and growth.
  3. Effective collaboration involves continuous back and forth between engineering, product, and design, not following a linear pipeline.

Week 46 - 💥 Is product management going away? Why Airbnb got rid of its PMs ⁉️

The Product Channel By Sid Saladi • 23 implied HN points • 02 Jul 23
💼 Business Management Marketing Innovation Strategy Customer Experience
  1. Airbnb merged product management and marketing to create a more streamlined approach.
  2. Product management acts as a compass for the company, guiding the vision and direction of the product.
  3. Product managers and product marketers share responsibilities like product positioning and customer feedback.
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Preparing for Senior Level Leadership

DruGroup • 59 implied HN points • 02 Nov 21
💼 Business Leadership Management Career development Decision-making Time management
  1. Senior leadership comes with a lot of pressure that can be hard to escape, so preparing to share some of that pressure can help ease the transition.
  2. Making decisions as a senior leader is different because you need to own the choices you make, so it's good to practice making decisions at lower levels and learning from the outcomes.
  3. Time management is crucial for senior leaders, so getting better at saying no and focusing on important tasks can help when you reach that level of leadership.

On Keeping Score

CTOrly • 19 implied HN points • 18 Aug 22
💼 Business Management Leadership Communication Data-driven
  1. In a data-driven world, don't overlook the importance of gathering personal data from your colleagues.
  2. Use a simple question like 'What's your score?' to help understand your colleagues' feelings and improve their well-being.
  3. Asking simple questions and building trust can lead to deep, actionable insights for better leadership and communication.

The 3 key jobs of a product manager: Recognize the problem, Structure a solution, and Execute

amivora • 9 implied HN points • 28 Feb 24
💼 Business Management Strategy Execution
  1. As a product manager, it's crucial to recognize the customer's problem by understanding their struggles and spotting patterns in their experiences.
  2. To structure a solution, PMs need to frame hypotheses, identify target audiences, set milestones, define success metrics, and make consistent decisions.
  3. Executing on the solution involves creating urgency, holding the team accountable, dividing work efficiently, and being willing to fill in gaps to ensure the product ships.

Recap: October 2024

Creative Destruction • 1 implied HN point • 06 Nov 24
💼 Business Tech industry Work Culture Sustainability Management Innovation
  1. Technology should focus on making our lives more meaningful, not just convenient. By choosing better tech options, we can create a more joyful and fulfilling life.
  2. Business can be redefined to feel more human and less stressful. Embracing mindfulness and playfulness can help us find more meaning in our work.
  3. It's important to rethink our connections to the world around us. Finding balance in our lives can lead to deeper relationships and a more satisfying experience.

Rules, Rules Rules

Trying to Understand the World • 7 implied HN points • 13 Mar 24
🚌 Education Management Institutions Rules Organizations Common Sense
  1. Organizations often create more rules and regulations when they lack a clear sense of purpose and long-term goals, leading to a focus on detail rather than overall objectives.
  2. The abundance of rules and bureaucracy, especially in modern society, can hinder problem-solving and practical decision-making, as well as replace traditional customs with overly complex regulations.
  3. The Professional and Managerial Caste (PMC) proliferation of rules can result in controlling mechanisms rather than fostering productive environments, ultimately leading to dysfunctional organizations and discontent among staff.

023. Startup equity: The obvious, yet often-bungled way to motivate employees

Safe For Work (SFW) • 7 implied HN points • 13 Mar 24
💼 Business Employee Motivation Leadership Compensation Management
  1. Employees often undervalue their equity in startup companies, leading to a lack of motivation and missed opportunities for potential financial gain.
  2. Startup leaders need to openly and honestly discuss equity with employees to help them understand its value and make informed decisions about their compensation.
  3. Engaging with the emotional aspects of equity and providing guidance on how to value it can lead to better employee motivation, productivity, and retention in tech startups.

Do you Really Want to Be a Development Team Leader?

kelsey’s Substack • 2 HN points • 16 Apr 24
🕹 Technology Development Leadership Software Communication Management
  1. Consider the responsibilities and changes in work-life balance when transitioning from a developer to a development team leader.
  2. As a development team leader, tasks like coding, documentation, meetings, communications, delegation, and mentoring become essential parts of the role.
  3. Having strong communication skills, enjoying the responsibility of delivering solutions, and being involved in the entire software development life cycle are crucial qualities for success as a development team leader.

#4: Strategic uncertainty

The Uncertainty Mindset (soon to become tbd) • 119 implied HN points • 27 Nov 19
💼 Business Management Strategy Innovation Leadership Entrepreneurship
  1. Recognizing and managing uncertainty is becoming a rare and valuable skill, both for individuals and organizations. Those who develop this 'uncertainty mindset' can gain a strategic advantage.
  2. To improve adaptability in uncertain environments, organizations should rethink job roles to allow for improvisation and flexibility. This means creating expectations for employees to explore and adapt their responsibilities.
  3. Real learning about managing uncertainty happens through real experiences, rather than traditional corporate training. Leaders need to create work cultures that encourage exploration to build the uncertainty mindset among employees.

Peak Performance #31 | Leading Through a Downturn

The Leadership Lab • 19 implied HN points • 17 May 22
💼 Business Startups Economy Management Investing Human Resources
  1. A recession impacts startups significantly, affecting growth, fundraising, and hiring - requiring adjustments in strategy and operations.
  2. During a downturn, funding becomes scarce and expensive for startups, necessitating better metrics and more time for fundraising.
  3. Hiring becomes easier for startups during a downturn as talent floods the market, enabling better negotiation on salary and equity demands.

Why you are frustrated by your organisation

Optimally Irrational • 13 implied HN points • 26 Sep 23
💼 Business Management Corporate culture Ethics Workplace dynamics Incentives
  1. Beneath the overly positive facade of organizations, there's often a reality of dysfunction and disillusionment.
  2. The principal-agent problem highlights the conflict of interests between individuals and the organization's goals, leading to misaligned incentives.
  3. Managers can prioritize personal gains, reputation, and short-term benefits over the organization's success, perpetuating issues like hyperactivity and micromanagement.

#17: Boris

The Uncertainty Mindset (soon to become tbd) • 99 implied HN points • 26 Feb 20
💼 Business Management Innovation Strategy Leadership Organizational Behavior
  1. In uncertain situations, traditional goal-setting doesn't work well because it assumes we can predict the right goals in advance. Instead, teams need a flexible approach that allows them to adapt to changing circumstances.
  2. The Boris method encourages teams to discuss trade-offs rather than focusing solely on specific goals. By understanding the limitations and constraints, team members can make better decisions and act more autonomously.
  3. When teams clarify what they can and can’t do through conversation, they become more effective. This practice fosters a deeper understanding of the resources available and helps everyone align their efforts toward innovation.

Can Anyone Multi-Task?

Tribal Knowledge • 19 implied HN points • 18 Sep 22
💼 Business Productivity Leadership Management Startups Workplace culture
  1. Context switching is a focus killer, it interrupts deep work and takes time to get back into the right mindset.
  2. Multi-tasking is often just quick context switching between tasks, leading to partial effort on each. Focusing on one task at a time can improve efficiency.
  3. Transitioning between different levels of thinking - task, project, and owner level - is essential in startup environments, requiring adaptability and focus.

No Shortcuts: Know Your People

Stuff on Engineering • 17 implied HN points • 08 May 23
💼 Business Management Tech industry Frameworks Team Dynamics Personal Development
  1. Before applying any management framework, talk and listen to your people to understand who they are and what they do.
  2. Using frameworks is great, but don't skip the fundamentals, especially knowing your team members deeply.
  3. Managing people is complex; take time to know your team members well, as it is crucial for any management framework.

25/36 : 🛠️ McKinsey's Problem-solving Process

Product Mindset's Newsletter • 19 implied HN points • 16 Jul 23
💼 Business Problem Solving Analysis Presentation Management Implementation
  1. Problem-solving for Product Managers involves analytical thinking, creative ideation, and data-driven insights to address challenges and meet customer demands.
  2. Problems can be categorized as simple, well-structured, or ill-structured, with ill-structured problems being complex, having multiple solutions, and requiring higher-order thinking skills.
  3. McKinsey's Problem-solving Process focuses on starting with a hypothesis, leveraging intuition, doing efficient research, storytelling with data, prewiring for buy-in, hitting singles, and respecting time.

An Investor's Perspective on the Value of Regular Check-Ins

Venture Reflections • 13 implied HN points • 05 Aug 23
💼 Business Investing Startups Entrepreneurship Venture Capital Management
  1. Investors find regular check-ins with portfolio companies valuable for building trust and understanding
  2. Product velocity is a significant predictor of a company's future success for investors
  3. Investors use frequent touch points to learn about how founders solve problems and offer feedback on the business

Welcome to TeamCraft

TeamCraft • 19 implied HN points • 12 Jun 23
💼 Business Management Leadership Books Blogging Newsletter
  1. TeamCraft is a weekly newsletter on technical team management.
  2. Transitioning to a manager involves setting baselines and exceeding low expectations by simply being a normal human being.
  3. Starting a newsletter offers opportunities to understand the audience, share content sooner, and serve as a potential book precursor.

#23: Undeniable uncertainty

The Uncertainty Mindset (soon to become tbd) • 79 implied HN points • 08 Apr 20
💼 Business Management Strategy Finance Operations Marketing
  1. Uncertainty is always present in business, and it can catch you off guard when you least expect it. It’s important to prepare in advance, even if it seems like a waste during stable times.
  2. When facing uncertain situations, businesses should take small, immediate actions instead of waiting for a perfect plan. This helps them learn and adapt quickly to changing circumstances.
  3. Having a clear understanding of goals and trade-offs is essential during times of uncertainty. This allows employees to make effective decisions and take necessary actions without getting stuck.

Impact of AI on organizations

Fish Food for Thought • 5 implied HN points • 13 Mar 24
🕹 Technology AI Organizations Leadership Management Innovation
  1. Technological advancements, like AI, are reshaping organizational structures by influencing how tasks are divided, management roles are designed, and leadership is approached.
  2. The integration of AI in teams could lead to a future where individual contributors are not only expected to showcase leadership but also to take on managerial responsibilities, overseeing AI counterparts to effectively manage tasks.
  3. Offloading routine tasks to AI can boost the creative and strategic capacity of team members, allowing for a focus on innovation and problem-solving to drive project objectives efficiently.

Your Only Limited Resource

DruGroup • 39 implied HN points • 03 Aug 21
💼 Business Leadership Management Decision-making Productivity Time management
  1. Time is the most valuable resource we all have, and it cannot be replaced or made more of. It's important to be intentional about how we spend it.
  2. The Opportunity Filter helps you decide which opportunities to take on and which to ignore. This way, you can manage your energy and time more effectively.
  3. There are different ways to handle opportunities: dodging unimportant ones, blessing others for their efforts, warning colleagues about risks, launching important projects, and owning responsibilities that truly matter.

On organizational structures — the QRF team model to crush interruptions

Joseph Gefroh • 19 implied HN points • 15 Feb 22
💼 Business Management Operations Agility
  1. Implementing a QRF team model can help prevent interruptions in engineering teams, allowing them to focus on high-priority tasks.
  2. The QRF model works effectively by splitting an engineering unit into two teams - one focused on the roadmap and the other on handling interruptions.
  3. QRF solves problems found in other agile approaches by prioritizing interruptions and preventing operational issues from being undervalued.

The Bradford Factor

Luddite with a keyboard • 2 HN points • 06 Mar 24
💼 Business Management Employee Satisfaction Workforce management
  1. The Bradford Factor is a method to quantify the impact of sick days, focusing on frequency of absences over their total duration.
  2. The scores in the Bradford Factor system can be influenced significantly by how many separate instances of absence there are, leading to potential anomalies.
  3. The Bradford Factor can create perverse incentives encouraging employees to manipulate their absences and can penalize those with chronic conditions unfairly.