Read on Twitter
<CTO> I don't know why, but I can't seem to get my folks to even WANT to stop firefighting all the time.
<me> what kinds of things get them praise and recognition, or the admiration of their peers?
<CTO> :badpokerface: https://twitter.com/paul_ipv6/status/1340482869794275328
<me> what kinds of things get them praise and recognition, or the admiration of their peers?
<CTO> :badpokerface: https://twitter.com/paul_ipv6/status/1340482869794275328
I mean, I talk like it's easy; it is profoundly not. We *want* to thank people and reward them for their hard work and suffering on behalf of the org and their team. It feels unnatural not to.
It is a rare leadership team that has the discipline to celebrate the team that brought avg deploy lead time down from 5h to 15min -- thereby preventing 80% of outages and cutting recovery time in half -- instead of the person who was getting paged all night with a scary bug.
First, most teams aren't even gathering these metrics on their own performance -- managers are just guessing based on gut and anecdotes.
Second, it takes concerted effort to look for the things that *don't* fail, or fail less badly, esp when you compound it over time.
Second, it takes concerted effort to look for the things that *don't* fail, or fail less badly, esp when you compound it over time.
Sometimes this is true. Sometimes a stronger kick is needed to make the ship change course.
In general, I think thanks+reward for firefighting are fine **in private**. Not in public. Never hold it up as an example to follow (unless your team doesn't do *enough* firefighting!). https://twitter.com/tommyjowitt/status/1340529796523028481
In general, I think thanks+reward for firefighting are fine **in private**. Not in public. Never hold it up as an example to follow (unless your team doesn't do *enough* firefighting!). https://twitter.com/tommyjowitt/status/1340529796523028481
If you can't get your team to stop firefighting, then everyone needs to stop praising it in private too. Cut the pipe.
Make sure your senior engineers are singing the same tune as your managers, not accidentally overwriting each other
Make sure your senior engineers are singing the same tune as your managers, not accidentally overwriting each other
And scrutinize your job ladder, review process, and promotion history to make sure you are actually rewarding people for doing the things that will make the company successful at this stage.
Not the last stage. Not for absolute pain. And not for pure technical wizardry, either.
Not the last stage. Not for absolute pain. And not for pure technical wizardry, either.
