In this episode of the 'Retrospective' weekly podcast, Jeremy and Peter discuss key engineering leadership topics. Jeremy delves into his latest article on the four essential weekly ceremonies for engineering managers to ensure smooth and predictable execution. The ceremonies include the weekly kickoff, daily sync, one-on-one meetings, and the weekly review.

Peter shares his recent experiment with AI-assisted coding, using ChatGPT for a Google Apps Script project, highlighting the benefits and challenges of leveraging AI in software development.

Show notes:

• Jeremy’s article on the Four Must-Have Weekly Meetings for Engineering Managers: https://www.jeremybrown.tech/the-four-must-have-weekly-meetings-for-engineering-managers/
• Jeremy’s earlier article about sharing at 20%: https://www.jeremybrown.tech/the-20-percent-rule/
• Explainer on Task Relevant Maturity: https://getlighthouse.com/blog/management-concept/
• John Cutler on Troubleshooting Status Updates: [https://cutlefish.substack.com/p/tbm-252-how-to-troubleshoot-status](https://cutlefish.substack.com/p/tbm-252-how-to-troubleshoot-status?ref=jeremybrown.tech)
• Peter’s updates including AI-assisted coding experiences: https://peterszasz.com/week-24-2024-ai-coding-search-and-creativity/
• BI dashboard and tools article Jeremy mentioned: https://briefer.cloud/blog/posts/self-serve-bi-myth/ - AI Summary “Sales pitches often oversell the idea of "self-serve dashboards," but in reality, it often falls short as non-technical users lack the context to interpret data accurately. The key to successful self-serve BI lies in technical support for business stakeholders using flexible tools that cater to their needs efficiently. Providing technical people with tools like LLMs, Python, and easy data sharing capabilities can bridge the gap between technical complexity and business user needs.”

00:00 Intros

00:37 4 Weekly Meetings for Engineering Managers

01:59 Why Work to a Weekly Cadence?

03:30 Projects and Milestones

09:03 The Weekly Team Kick-off / Planning Meeting

20:06 Daily Sync (Standup) and Team Connection

33:21 One-on-One Meetings

37:16 Monthly Career Focus and Continuous Feedback and Coaching

38:11 One-to-One Frequency

40:15 Task Relevance Maturity Framework

41:35 The Weekly Review Meeting

46:04 Stakeholder Communication and Status Updates

58:02 Retrospectives and Team Health

01:03:23 Using AI for Coding Projects

01:12:14 Wrapping up!

In this episode, we discuss the critical importance of career security over job security in the changing tech landscape, highlighting strategies for sustaining and advancing one's career in 2024. Then, we explore the Innovation Framework based on the Möbius Loop for balancing discovery, delivery, and options in the software development life cycle. We also urge organisations to consider capturing structured practices with the Open Practice Library. Additionally, we discuss the value of pair programming and mob programming for strengthening collaboration, learning, and problem-solving.

00:00 Hey!

00:25 We Are Slowing Figuring Out The Show Format and Target Audience

02:09 Politics - The Morning After The Night Before - EU and Hungarian Election Results

04:21 Artistic Pairing - The Twin Peaks Soundtrack

12:30 Pair Programming and Collaboration

24:08 What's Old Is New in Tech

30:36 How to maintain career security in the 2024 tech climate?

46:22 A Framework for Innovation

50:37 Implementing Standard Practices

01:08:47 Wrapping Up

Jeremy’s article on How to Innovate: https://www.jeremybrown.tech/how-to-innovate

• Clayton Christensen’s books on Disruptive Innovation (Jeremy was referring to “The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail”): https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19203217-disruptive-innovation
• Lex Fridman and Mark Zuckerberg interview in the Metaverse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EohIA7QPmmE
• Perplexity, an AI search engine: https://www.perplexity.ai/
• Kagi, the search engine Jeremy uses: https://kagi.com/
• Tom Demarco’s book about slack: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/123715.Slack
• 2018 study on slack and innovation: https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/full/10.1287/orsc.2018.1215

Peter’s article about Getting hired as an EM / Searching and applying: https://peterszasz.com/get-hired-as-an-engineering-manager-part-3-searching-and-applying/

• Craft Conference: https://craft-conf.com/
• Book on Platform Strategy: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/208871782-platform-strategy
• Search Engine podcast episode on the media apocalypse and how to survive it, part 1: https://overcast.fm/+BBVQRBOVak part2: https://overcast.fm/+BBVQTfeXl4
• Example of a hyper-local website: Les Pépites du 19e - https://www.lespepitesdu19e.fr/ and Instagram (@lespepitesdu19e)

00:00 Introduction and Greetings

00:34 What the hell is this show?

02:47 Jeremy's article on "How to Innovate"

07:25 Do you need a healthy Culture to Innovate

09:55 Can big companies innovate?

18:53 Is slack (time) needed to innovate?

28:57 Peter - Getting hired as an EM / Searching and applying

44:55 Get ahead of the crowd strategies for job seekers

47:08 An example of a great cold outreach

48:54 Can networking at conferences help me get a job?

50:54 Experiences at Craft Conf

52:21 Emerging trends from the talks at Craft Conf?

55:17 AI will replace developers!

01:01:19 Supporting Conference Attendance as a leader

01:05:13 The Media Apocalypse and Ethical Consumption

01:07:44 The Role of AI in Content Creation

01:14:16 The Importance of Local News and Media

01:25:35 Reflections and Closing Thoughts​