To see these in your inbox every week, subscribe to Engineering Impact.
This week: Why soft skills are more important than technical skills, Why aren't my engineers taking initiative?, How PMs and developers can give realistic ship dates, Feedback that gives focus.
HIRING
Why soft skills are more important than technical skills
Alida Miranda-Wolff, Director of Platform at Hyde Park Angels, breaks down why the current shortage of soft skills is bad news for leadership, and explains how to ‘hire the heart and train the brain.’
LEADERSHIP
Why aren't my engineers taking initiative?
Introducing process is tough when your team doesn’t understand why. Here’s Jean Hsu, Engineering Leadership Coach, on how to get everyone onboard.
ESTIMATION
How PMs and developers can both (happily!) give realistic ship dates
Roy Yuen, Lead Project Manager at Oursky, and his team have been experimenting with ‘evidence-based scheduling’ to improve the consistency and accuracy of their estimations. Here’s what that process looks like (and why it works).
COMMUNICATION
Feedback that gives focus
"Like a good story, good feedback can take us out of ourselves, allowing us to see the work more clearly.” Here’s Dave Peth, Digital Consultant, with an insightful take on how to practice better feedback.
Ben Thompson is a co-founder at GitPrime where he leads design and customer experience. He is a Y Combinator alumni, with a background in product design, branding, and UX design. Follow @thebent on Twitter.
Get Engineering Impact: the weekly newsletter for managers of software teams
Keep current with trends in engineering leadership, productivity, culture, and scaling development teams.
5 keys to successful organizational design
How do you create an organization that is nimble, flexible and takes a fresh view of team structure? These are the keys to creating and maintaining a successful business that will last the test of time.
Read moreWhy your best tech talent quits
Your best developers and IT pros receive recruiting offers in their InMail and inboxes daily. Because the competition for the top tech talent is so fierce, how do you keep your best employees in house?
Read moreTechnology in 2025: Prepare your workforce
The key to surviving this new industrial revolution is leading it. That requires two key elements of agile businesses: awareness of disruptive technology and a plan to develop talent that can make the most of it.
Read more