Overview

Managing an engineering team is hard, managing a remote engineering team is even harder—but dedicating effort to setting up a proper remote-first environment will allow for your team to thrive. This book breaks down the most important processes in engineering teams, and demonstrates how to make them work effectively in a remote organization.   How do you organize code deployments, onboard new hires, give feedback, and stay up to date with your team when you can’t see each other in person every day? This book looks at how building connections and working together to solve problems comes naturally when a team is co-located, but can feel almost impossible when everyone is working remotely and communicating over video calls and messages.   Whether you’re an experienced engineering manager or just getting started, you’ll learn why copying in-office practices to the remote office doesn’t work, the communication issues behind the scenes you may not even realize are happening, and how to make every aspect of remote work better for your team. From learning about how to remove new remote-specific biases from your interview process, to understanding what the team really thinks about those daily status update meetings, this book will be your guide in creating the best and most inclusive version of your engineering team.  What You’ll Learn  Recognize where current remote processes are falling short Build up best practices to lead a team with a people-first and empathetic approach Communicate effectively in a remote organization  Who This Book is For Engineering managers, team leads, directors, and those hoping to move into a lead role, will get the most value out of the book. Many of the learnings around communication will be applicable to any position in an organization, but there’s a focus on processes and job duties most relevant to engineers.

Full Product Details

Author:   Alexandra Sunderland
Publisher:   APress
Imprint:   APress
Edition:   1st ed.
Weight:   0.355kg
ISBN:  

9781484285831

ISBN 10:   1484285832
Pages:   209
Publication Date:   04 August 2022
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: ​Defining “remote”To set a base of understanding across all readers, we’ll start by explaining what hybrid and remote setups are,how they differ, and the different variations of both environments.• Hybrid• Remote Chapter 2: HiringWe’re starting off with hiring because that’s the first part of the new employee lifecycle (engaging with thecompany before they work there). This is something that’s tricky to get right no matter what the environment,but there are a lot of nuances specific to remote work that are incredibly important to know about in order tobe successful with it.• The screening call• The panel interview• What to do when technology fails• A new set of biases Chapter 3: OnboardingThis is the next step in the employee lifecycle, so a logical follow-up to hiring in the previous chapter.Onboarding is something I care deeply about, and I talk about all of the thought and care required to make it agood experience for new hires.• Preparing before the first week• The first week• Going forward Chapter 4: MeetingsWe go over how to run great meetings in a remote setting, and specifically go over certain types of meetingswhere the techniques can be carried over to any other type of meeting. These are the most expensive toolsavailable for managers to communicate, so they’re very important to get right.• How to run a virtual meeting• Running retrospectives• Team building• One-on-ones• The “stand-up” Chapter 5: DeploysDeploying code is one of those highly process-oriented tasks that all engineers run through often, but littlethought is put into anything other than the technical aspect of it. This chapter covers the human emotionsinvolved in deploys, and how to manage them to make sure each deploy goes smoothly.• Making sure everyone is on the same page• Managing the emotional chaos of deploys Chapter 6: Communication strategiesOne of the most questioned part of remote work, is how will you stay in touch with your team and knowwhat’s going on? It must be impossible without sitting next to them! That’s not the case, and this chapterexplains how to go about communication as a team to make sure everyone’s always on the same page.• Staying updated• Types of calls• Video on or off?• The benefits of voice-only• Embracing async Chapter 7: Feedback & promotionsAt least once a year, giving thoughtful feedback and putting people up for promotions is a manager’s full-timejob. If you aren’t paying attention throughout the year, this can be really tough. This covers the strategies toemploy to make sure that you’re giving great (and relevant) feedback, and not falling victim to certain biaseswhich result in some people not getting the promotions they deserve.• Giving feedback that matters• Ensuring that promotions are fair Chapter 8: Diversity & inclusionIt’s so important to make sure that everyone feels comfortable on the team and that their work is valued.Remote work introduces a lot of new ways of putting people at a disadvantage (for example, lower internetquality from poor infrastructure making it more difficult to join meetings from home) and it’s critical thatmanagers are aware of these things to make work more accessible to all.• Biases introduced by remote work• Setting everyone up for success Chapter 9: Warning signsOne of the difficulties of not being co-located with your team, is that it’s trickier to pick up on a change ingeneral wellbeing and day-to-day emotions that may help signal burnout. This goes over ways of picking up onthose signs, and similarly, how to properly figure out when projects aren’t going the way they should be.• How to spot burnout on your team• How to spot projects veering off track Chapter 10: Saying goodbyeAs a final chapter it felt appropriate to close off with the end of the employee lifecycle: leaving the company.This talks about how to terminate employees with empathy, how to announce when someone is leaving, andhow to manage off-boarding.• Employee termination• Announcing departures• Off-boarding

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Author Information

Alexandra Sunderland is an engineering leader with over a decade of experience working in both hybrid and remote roles, at companies ranging from 10-person startups to public corporations. She is currently a Senior Engineering Manager at Fellow.app, where she is helping to build the future of work. She prides herself on building emotionally-intelligent processes for teams, and sharing her knowledge of management through conference talks and written works. This book is a collection of best practices and lessons that Alexandra has developed throughout her career, meant to help engineering managers new to remote work adapt and become the best leader that they can be—without having to go through the same failures and learnings that she did.

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