Articles by Lara Hogan
- Advice for a New Executive
Lara wrote up the advice she received from Etsy's CTO / CEO, Chad Dickerson, on how to perform well as a VP of Engineering, which covers 9 sections: • Find/create a peer support group • Partner absurdly closely with product and make sure you understand priorities and the head of product understands tradeoffs • Focus on delivery of the roadmap and everything else will follow • Ask your executive peers regularly what you can do to make their jobs easier – particularly the CEO • Take a stand when you need to • Always have a story • Read widely – offline! – about management and leadership • Realize the impact your mood and demeanor has on people • Develop the right relationship with members of your company’s board
- What does sponsorship look like?
Lara defines sponsorship as "being on the hook to help get someone promoted." She covers these steps to do that: • When do we raise up names? • Examples of sponsorship • Be a better mentor by listening more • Explore why this might feel icky to you
- Is Managing Up a Bad Thing?
Lara polled her community on Twitter, and collated the results across: • Is managing up a bad thing? • What do execs think about managing up?
- Managering in Terrible Times
Lara covers two areas of crisis leadership. The first is how to create a supportive and safe environment, which breaks out into: • Formal support • Informal support • Support in 1:1s She then cover how to respond to individual needs, which includes: • Be patient with decreased productivity • If your report is directly affected
- Resilient Management
Lara covers: 1. Meet Your Team 2. Grow Your Teammates 3. Set Clear Expectations 4. Communicate Effectively 5. Build Resiliency
- When Your Manager Isn't Supporting You, Build a Voltron
When your manager doesn't give you enough feedback or support, Lara advises you to think about our resources that can help you: • Build a diverse mentor crew • Do your homework • Find a coach • Tailor your work with your manager
- Meetup Architecture Principles
A VP of engineering describes Meetup's process of identifying their architecture principles: build for change, build for understanding, and build Meetup.
- Onsite Interview Loop Template
A Meetup VP of Engineering shares a template to help hiring managers identify and assess signals for a hiring decision.
- Advice for a New Executive
Lara wrote up the advice she received from Etsy's CTO / CEO, Chad Dickerson, on how to perform well as a VP of Engineering, which covers 9 sections: • Find/create a peer support group • Partner absurdly closely with product and make sure you understand priorities and the head of product understands tradeoffs • Focus on delivery of the roadmap and everything else will follow • Ask your executive peers regularly what you can do to make their jobs easier – particularly the CEO • Take a stand when you need to • Always have a story • Read widely – offline! – about management and leadership • Realize the impact your mood and demeanor has on people • Develop the right relationship with members of your company’s board
- Questions for Our First 1:1
Lara provides with sections and question for what to cover in your first 1:1 with a new direct report. She covers topics such as Grumpiness, Feedback & Recognition, and Goals and Support.
- Feedback Equation
Lara provides a clear framework to structure specific and actionable feedback: provide an observation of a behavior, explain how it impacted you, and then ask questions and make requests.
- What does sponsorship look like?
Lara defines sponsorship as "being on the hook to help get someone promoted." She covers these steps to do that: • When do we raise up names? • Examples of sponsorship • Be a better mentor by listening more • Explore why this might feel icky to you
- Delegation is an art, not a science
Lara Hogan provides a simple, three-part template for delegating to a teammate and walks through an example scenario.
- Questions for Our First 1:1
Lara provides with sections and question for what to cover in your first 1:1 with a new direct report. She covers topics such as Grumpiness, Feedback & Recognition, and Goals and Support.
- Work at Different Management Levels
Lara uses her own experience to explain IC work, differences in 1:1s, and skills acquired across: • Managing a team of ICs • Managing ICs and managers • Managing just managers