Previously: 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017 After the past two years, it’s odd to write an annual reflection where my first thoughts are happy rather than bleak. The truth is that there is a lot of bleak out there right now–just look at the layoffs and the funding environment–but while last year was an unusual and challenging one for me, this one was relatively quiet for me and my family. That said, even a quiet year is worth a bit of introspection, so here is my annual note.| lethain.com
Fork this template on Google Docs It’s impossible to avoid headcount planning when running a large team within an engineering organization. On the other hand, many folks find it’s impossible to be usefully involved in headcount planning when the folks running the process aren’t closely involved with your work: Infrastructure? Oh, that’s going great: no crashes or breaches lately, we don’t need to invest here!| Infrastructure Engineering
TODO: Find better vocabulary to distinguish between “leadership team” in your org (that you manage) and “leadership team” that you’re a member of or report to I once walked into an annual headcount planning session to learn that the other engineering managers in the room had already decided together how they would reallocate the senior members from the infrastructure organization that I supported to the teams that they ran. This was, they assured me, optimal for their roadmaps.| Infrastructure Engineering