Low hanging fruits kill innovation

A great topic to mention when identifying what makes a great product is the people who build your product.

This point is most likely the most discussed topic between engineers and the managers behind every product — the biggest friction point — what is a healthy level of tech debt which is acceptable for any product?

I had a pleasure of participating in the first Vilnius Tech Leads Meetup where the topic for ‘The First One’ was ‘Leadership is something you learn, not something you’re born with’. I shared some of my thoughts about this topic.

Identify it and make sure that is your core competency — invest the majority of time bullet proofing the core.

They are very special kind of users — they are hungry for new products, they are hungry for innovations and see the fact that some part of their life is going to change (for the better) as a welcoming challenge.

It’s very important to be able to spot problems a lot of people have in the market and put your product in the middle of it as a solution.

I thought I’d share similar ideas about some founders of startups I worked in, or met over the years. Over time some or all of those traits lead to failures and good people leaving their companies. So, let’s talk about Dysfunctional Founders (and CEOs).

Results Only Work Environment or ROWE is a term which I have seen being mentioned in some articles and it got me thinking about a lot of situations where I have been in an anti-ROWE environment.

I constantly had situations where people’s expectations for me were met, but I felt like I could have performed better and quicker with less. I challenged myself to perform better, but with not much in the way of results.

One of those keywords, and topics, following Agile, has been stuck in my head for quite some time now — the dysfunctional team.