The Effective Engineer

How to Stay Happy, Healthy, and Productive During a Pandemic

I felt the tension bottled up in my chest, my entire body holding tight. I was eager to be done and to leave Whole Foods, but I kept telling myself that I just needed to power through to get the groceries I needed for the week. I could feel in my body the collective tension in the air. The signs that said to social distance and stand at least six... (more)

Help Me Celebrate My Five-Year Anniversary

“I love your book!” the stranger shouted as he ran past me with his dog. I smiled, feeling joy at the serendipity that appeared on my walk to the neighborhood coffeeshop. Most days, it’s easy to forget that I spent two years of my life bringing The Effective Engineer into existence, and the small interaction was a delightful reminder that the book continues to make its way through the world... (more)

What Does It Mean to Be an Effective Tech Lead?

The first time I took on a tech lead role early in my career, I had little clue what I was doing. Overnight, I found myself suddenly responsible for the technical and project output of a team of four engineers at an underdog startup — even though I had no more training, mentoring, or tools for my new role than the day before, when I was still just a senior... (more)

My New Adventure: Leadership Development for People in Tech

Last week, I shared with you my personal, farewell letter to Quip. This week, I’m really excited to announce my new adventure. I am partnering with Jean Hsu — a good friend and an engineering-manager-turned-coach — to embark on an ambitious quest. We’re joining forces to build a new brand, Co Leadership, into the pre-eminent, leadership development brand for engineers and other leaders in tech. Here’s why you should get... (more)

My Farewell Letter on What Working at Quip Meant to Me

Last Friday was my last day working at Quip. I joined Quip as the 13th employee over three and half years ago, and today the team has grown to over 100 employees. I’ve never grown more or felt more supported working at any other company. Before I left, I wrote a personal letter to the company that I’m sharing publicly, below. It captures the behind-the-scenes qualities of Quip that made... (more)

The Most Intense Year of Growth in My Life — What I’ve Learned

“I am jumping into new possibilities!” With those words, I threw myself out of the plane and hurtled 14,000 feet toward the ground — screaming for my life. I lost my sense of up and down as my body tumbled in the air for a few seconds. The first thing I noticed as I finally barreled earthwards face-first was that my mouth dried almost instantaneously from the wind blasting into... (more)

My Keynote Talk: What It Really Means to Be an Effective Engineer

Earlier this month, I keynoted at StartCon in Sydney, to an estimated 1,000 people on the technical track. It was the biggest and most personal talk that I’ve ever given. In the talk, I shared stories and lessons — some that I had never opened up publicly about before, even to friends and co-workers — about what it really meant to be an effective engineer. The conference organizers graciously made... (more)

Why It’s Important to Raise the Bar for Engineering Leadership

Last week, I co-led back-to-back workshops on engineering leadership. The first was with my good friend and product manager Diana Berlin for the engineering managers at Quip. The other was with another good friend and engineering-manager-turned-coach Jean Hsu for engineering leaders in the San Francisco Bay Area – people who ranged from senior individual contributors to tech leads to managers to VPs. Both workshops focused on the powerful conversations that... (more)

Share Powerful Stories to Shift the Culture Around You

A few months ago, I passed my three-year anniversary of working at Quip. It’s the longest I’ve worked at any company, and my experience here has also differed significantly from other startups I’ve worked at. Many of us are either already in leadership roles, or we’re starting to wonder what our personal path toward leadership might look like. And part of leadership – whether you’re a senior engineer, tech lead,... (more)

Breaking Out of the Stories We Make Up About Ourselves

This is a story about a box that I’ve been hiding in and how I’ve been fighting to break free. “What’s one thing you learned about yourself in the past year?,” a close friend asked during my birthday dinner. It was a well-timed question. The past year has been one of intense personal growth. I’ve become more aware of my impact on people, my limiting beliefs, and my dreams, and... (more)

“A comprehensive tour of our industry's collective wisdom written with clarity.”

— Jack Heart, Engineering Manager at Asana

“Edmond managed to distill his decade of engineering experience into crystal-clear best practices.”

— Daniel Peng, Senior Staff Engineer at Google

“I wish I had this manual to give my engineers when I was a VP of Engineering at Twitter. This summarizes and presents everything I used to tell my team.”

— Raffi Krikorian, Engineering Director at Uber

Read a sample chapter

“A comprehensive tour of our industry's collective wisdom written with clarity.”

— Jack Heart, Engineering Manager at Asana

“Edmond managed to distill his decade of engineering experience into crystal-clear best practices.”

— Daniel Peng, Senior Staff Engineer at Google

“I wish I had this manual to give my engineers when I was a VP of Engineering at Twitter. This summarizes and presents everything I used to tell my team.”

— Raffi Krikorian, Engineering Director at Uber

Get the book now

Grow Your Skills Beyond the Book

Listen to podcast interviews with top software engineers and watch master-level videos of techniques previously taught only in workshops and seminars.

Consistently deliver business value — become the key person your team trusts to ship business-critical initiatives.
Study in-depth interviews with leaders from Google, Facebook, Dropbox, Stripe, and Instagram — double down on their highest-leverage investments, and avoid their most costly mistakes.
Pick the right projects most likely to propel you up the career ladder — including the nuances of how the criteria change as you get more senior.

Get the bundle now

“A comprehensive tour of our industry's collective wisdom written with clarity.”

— Jack Heart, Engineering Manager at Asana

“Edmond managed to distill his decade of engineering experience into crystal-clear best practices.”

— Daniel Peng, Senior Staff Engineer at Google

“I wish I had this manual to give my engineers when I was a VP of Engineering at Twitter. This summarizes and presents everything I used to tell my team.”

— Raffi Krikorian, Engineering Director at Uber

Read a sample chapter

“A comprehensive tour of our industry's collective wisdom written with clarity.”

— Jack Heart, Engineering Manager at Asana

“Edmond managed to distill his decade of engineering experience into crystal-clear best practices.”

— Daniel Peng, Senior Staff Engineer at Google

“I wish I had this manual to give my engineers when I was a VP of Engineering at Twitter. This summarizes and presents everything I used to tell my team.”

— Raffi Krikorian, Engineering Director at Uber

Get the book now

Grow Your Skills Beyond the Book

Listen to podcast interviews with top software engineers and watch master-level videos of techniques previously taught only in workshops and seminars.

Consistently deliver business value — become the key person your team trusts to ship business-critical initiatives.
Study in-depth interviews with leaders from Google, Facebook, Dropbox, Stripe, and Instagram — double down on their highest-leverage investments, and avoid their most costly mistakes.
Pick the right projects most likely to propel you up the career ladder — including the nuances of how the criteria change as you get more senior.

Get the bundle now