Volvo Cars

Working across an org of 1700 people to establish service levels, measurement tooling, and automation.
We are on a mission for our software to match the reputation of our cars. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Sr Staff Engineer

I help build the future we can't predict.
Global Omnichannel eXperience is how you can buy, lease, service and control your car.
Serving an organization of ~450 people, I help build the platform that enables retail agents serve a customer experience deserving our brand.

Warner Bros. Discovery

Oiling the machinery behind the face of Discovery plus. Leading various architecture and cloud initiatives for the DTC (direct to consumer) at the DA (developer automation) cluster.

#kubernetes #cloudFront #lambda #edgeComputing #identity #tdd #adr

Staff Site Reliability Engineer

Schibsted

BOTO (Building On Top of Others) is a small Developer Experience (DX) team which focuses to streamline best practices and improve developer productivity for the platform behind 25+ brands owned by Schibsted Media.

#dx #documentation #dxResearch #techStrategy #openSource

Staff Engineer

Core News Platform (CNP) is the while label news site platform behind some of the largest news sites in Scandinavia.
We build and run the common application platform and infrastructure. Our primary stakeholders are the site developers.

Technical Lead

The identity team is responsible for authenticating users across most Schibsted companies (Blocket, SvD, FINN, VG, Aftonbladet, ...) using OAuth 2 and OpenID standards.

We've developed the platform from the ground up to provide SSO (single sign on) while centrally controlling the user accounts and data.

#SendGrid, #Transifex, #OAuth2, #OpenID Connect, #SSR, #Jest, #MongoDB, #Docker

Sr. Software Engineer, Identity, SDK

I joined as a technical product manager (TPM) for the in-house editorial software (newsroom CMS) to do requirement analysis for dealing with pictures in newsrooms. At the time, the product was missing a feature for adding pictures to articles and the editorials were limited to drag and drop flow which lost the picture metadata (important for copyright purpose).
Due to family reasons I switched back to full stack development for flexible working hours.

#RequirementAnalysis, #CMS, #Newsroom, #UserResearch

Associate Technical Product Manager

RaySearch Laboratories

Part of the small team which started RayCare Oncology Information System (OIS) and grew it 10x and shipped it to hospitals across the world.

Sr. Software Developer

Bilitti

Co-Founded a startup that was aimed to sell public transport tickets to Swedish commuters using NFC. I implemented the PoC using Cordova & Java. Unfrotunately the Secure Element wasn't that common so we were too early to market. Today the next iteration of the idea is live in Stockholm (using contactless payment directly using the credit card)

Co-Founder, CTO

Klarna

Merchant integration (MINT) behind the SDKs and APIs that helped 18k (at the time) shops integrate to the Checkout product.

Sr. Software Engineer

Cobham

Software R&D engineer

Rebtel

UX Engineer

Mobile Life VINN Excellence Centre

Research Fellow

Philips

Scientific Researcher

Original daily inspiration: Tech Leadership | SRE | Growth

See https://www.alexewerlof.com/who or Google my name.

DISCLAIMER: ALL OPINIONS ARE MINE. WHAT I SHARE PUBLICLY IS NOT REPRESENTING MY CURRENT OR PREVIOUS EMPLOYERS OR CUSTOMERS, NOR DOES IT REPRESENT MY CURRENT CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES. THE CONTENT IS PROVIDED AS-IS FOR PUBLIC CONSUMPTION.

"Did we hire a blogger?"

Said one of my colleagues behind my back.

When I first heard it, I got upset. Sure, I do share my experience on my newsletter (https://lnkd.in/dkBZbA3J) but I felt it's a bit unfair to shrink my entire role to blogging!

If anything, blogging is a side effect of doing my job. I think it's selfish to keep all the learnings to myself. Sharing them not only may help the community, but also allows me to grow from the feedback.

💭 Then I saw a quote on LinkedIn that changed my perspective:
"Don’t take criticism from someone you wouldn’t take advice from"

But who said that? This feedback was delivered anonymously which is the worst kind of feedback: rumor! 🤫

So, I did some digging to see where it came from, and I can't say I was surprised at what I found. The source of that feedback has a reputation of incompetence, low performance, and politics —the kind of stuff I regularly criticize.

More specifically, he belongs to the category I call "organizational fat" (https://lnkd.in/dBckG2wG). He couldn't argue with the content, so he mocked the practice. And he didn't dare to say it in my face. He actually acts pretty nice when he talks to me! 😄

I felt silly for getting upset! Of course he would say something like that. 🤦‍♂️

🔉If you're doing anything even slightly significant, you are bound to attract attention, some of which is negative.

Regardless of what you share, there's always a group of prevailed individuals who feel entitled to get offended and come after you. Don't optimize your impact for that minority or you'll cap your growth.

🚫🤐 As I always say: the worst kind of censorship is self-censorship.

Shine in your full glory and as long as you're true to yourself and have an open mind, you don't have to worry.

Even if politics costs your job, you can be thankful to be kicked out of the wrong environment. If the decision makers are dumb enough to act on backstabbing and negative feedback without validating and giving you a chance to tell your side of a story, do you really want to work there? I bet the same decision makers take a lot of other wrong decisions which hurts others.

Artwork by Pejman Milani.

#growth #growthMindset #politics #feedback #contentCreation

Alex Ewerlöf

😁 There a few types of people who talk too much in meetings and take up too much air time:

1. Those who try to build a facade with words to hide their insecurities 

2. The narcissists who love their own voice more than their personal growth via listening to others

3. The manipulators who want to influence you

4. Those who have nothing to say but hope that if they shoot you with the metaphorical word-machine-gun you'll pick something up.

5. Those who assume others have nothing interesting to say and feel obliged to fill the silence.

6. Those who are not comfortable with silence and the only way they can think is "outloud": after the words have left their mouth

Those who know a lot are often thrifty with words. They don't feel the necessity to shower you in words to make a point.

Don't confuse coordination with leadership.

😡 "I'm going to report you to HR; if I was your boss, I'd fire you"

He said that in response to a comment I shared on the internal Slack channel.

What was the message?

An engineering manager who was frustrated with Staff Engineers acting as "retired developers" told that in private. "They emit standards and rulebooks without lending a helping hand", she said.

I thought this insight was too good to stay in my DM. So I shared it anonymously on a channel dedicated to the role of Staff Engineers.

One particular Staff Engineer however didn't receive it well. Maybe he felt threatened or exposed?🤷‍♂️

I also got a lecture about how to deliver feedback:
- Good feedback is specific
- It is timely & insightful
- It is constructive and encourages collaboration
- It is actionable

Below is a copy/paste of my full message. Let me know if you feel offended by it and WHY:

---

"Staff Engineers act like retired devs; done with learning new things, only spreading the 'wisdom' they already have" --an EM

This feedback is not specific to any one individual but goes to show that as a role, we have space for improvement. Now, it's easy to go to defense and question the one who gave this feedback but remember that it takes a lot of courage to speak up and if one person dares to say it to a staff engineer's face, there's probably more who don't.

So, what can we do about it?

🔵 One of the key differentiations between staff and the ivory tower technical roles is being hands on. i.e., there is no such thing as a "retired-dev-acting-staff". One of the best ways to build trust and earn respect is to roll up the sleeves and contribute to the code to demonstrate that the dev inside is alive and kicking.

🔵 Staffs don't have any direct reports. I think it's one of the perks of the job because one has to learn leadership the hard way. If we fail to influence our software engineer colleagues in a positive way, we've failed in our role. If the developers don't listen to you, it's time to step back and reevaluate. I'll be happy to be your rubber duck if needed but often the answer is within: put yourself in their shoes and remember what kind of technical leader you respected most. Try to be that.

🔵 Most staff that joined recently, have a lot of experience under their belt. The problem starts when we get in the way and try to shove that wisdom into people's throat. Please work WITH other engineers, not AGAINST them.

🔵 No one has all the answers. That's not what this role is about. It is important to collaborate with others to deliver faster and better results but even more important is to acknowledge what we don't know and be willing to learn. Staff might be a bit higher on the career ladder, but even all the way up, there's unknown. What's key is to be comfortable with the unknown and reach clarity methodically and collaboratively.

---

Share if it resonates with you. Comment if I missed something or you have a counter-argument.

#techlead #stafengineer #leadership

🚫 STOP glorifying psychopaths for the money they make.

Human logic: that S-curve is too tall for me to understand. I'm just gonna pretend it doesn't exist.

Nature: "hold my beer" 🤣

VISION is rocket fuel.

You may have heard this quote:

🤩 Strong minds discuss ideas,
😐 Average minds discuss things,
😵 Weak minds discuss people.

I belive in a variation of the quote that goes like this:

🤩 Strong minds follow ideas,
😐 Average minds follow things,
😵 Weak minds follow people.

☯️ Every person has good AND bad in them.

It's naive to follow people unconditionally and assume everything they say or do is the best.

It's greedy to follow things like money and positions.

Visionionary leaders enrich ideas.

🤩 Strong leaders have vision,
😐 Average leaders recruit or pay you to follow them,
😵 Weak leaders play politics and go up by pushing others down.

Focus on the vision, not the people. People come and go, but the vision --when strong-- stays, and eventually people will come.

#leadership #vision #politics



"Cut their wings and they'll walk away".

One of the most common ways to manage ambitious people out is to put them in a corner where they can't make an impact. The hypothesis is that once their professional life loses meaning, they'll voluntarily leave.

I've seen it many times in my career in the past 2 decades and it usually works like clock work: demote a manager, put an engineer on fake work, etc. The goal is to make them quit so the company doesn't have to pay unemployment or face consequences.

While it's true that ambitious and skilled professionals lose interest once they're put on fake work, there are a few ways you can manage:

1. Canary in the coal mine: sh*t is real long before it hits the fan. It's never a good signal when respected high level leaders leave the door. Keep an eye on the people who act as organizational truth-tellers. When they leave, you know that it's gotten bad beyond repair. Start doing interviews and build OPTIONS. Options put YOU in power so your career is not decided by some random person later on.

2. Have side projects: Ideally your job is so fulfilling that you enjoy every single day and you spend 100% of your energy (and more) on the job. You're shaped by what you are exposed to. Take control by voluntarily exposing yourself to things outside your comfort zone: have a hobby project and ship it to production. Own the entire lifecycle of the product, marketing, documentation, etc. Expose yourself to choices about technology, architecture, and implementation. Any professional I respect spends 5-20% of their productive time and energy on a personal learning plan (PLP) that helps them keep their axe sharp for when the time comes to use it.

3. Don't be irrelevant. If all you do is your job, at best you become a golden cog that fits one machine. Disposable! Widen your skill range. Learn a new technology, pick up a book outside your domain. The point is to diversify your skillset so when the time comes, you can assume a different role. Don't put all your metaphorical eggs in one basket. Our industry is going through accelerated change (thanks to AI, recession, war, etc.) so it's foolish to think that what paid the bills yesterday will pay the bills tomorrow.

4. Build your network: no one likes that person who reaches out when they need you. Keep your contacts live without having an ask. Give before taking. And not everything is about give and take. Just help others and the karma will come back. The point is to diversify your investment and don't put all your eggs in one company's basket. You have contacts in other countries? Reach out. Do you have ex-colleagues you haven't met in years? Time to hit refresh. It's much easier to get a job when you know people. The reality of modern life gives the illusion that digital messages can replace face-to-face interaction. It doesn't. Have a lunch with an ex-colleague, go to meetups and conferences. Meet people.

#resilience #growthMindset

The webcast is out. I talked about:

🟢 Advice for interviewing for Staff Engineering

🟢 Importance of diversity for leadership positions

🟢 My open TODO list to crowdsource accountably (I’ll write about it in another post)

🟢 Balancing soft skills and hard skills (referring to T-POP)

##staffengineer #interview LeadDev 

https://lnkd.in/gW4Bftvv 

blog.alexewerlof.com • 1 min read

Webcast: How to become a Staff+ engineer

There are tons of newsletters out there but here are a few focused themes:

1. The Hybrid Hacker by Nicola Ballotta: https://lnkd.in/d_dcgfc6

2. Techlead Mentor by Raviraj Achar: https://lnkd.in/d4D_sm62

3. High Growth Engineer by Jordan Cutler: https://lnkd.in/dMhj2PHU

4. Refactoring by 🌀 Luca Rossi: https://lnkd.in/dj5uw-ih

5. Untrapping Product Teams by David Pereira: https://lnkd.in/drPdYytK

6. sudo make me CTO by Sergio Visinoni: https://lnkd.in/dgXR4KCE

7. System design by Neo K. https://lnkd.in/dGdJanQX

#newsletter #learning #engineering #engineeringLeadership

What are non-functional requirements (NFR) and how do they differ from functional requirements?

What makes NFRs so complicated and risky to define?

Why most university curriculum is focused on functional requirements?

And why NFRs require more experience?

#systemDesign #softwareArchitecture #nfr #sre

https://lnkd.in/ddgeQzhU 

blog.alexewerlof.com • 2 min read

Language matters - the way we talk about failures shapes how we view them, investigate them, and learn from them (or fail to) -- Courtney Nash

#communication #operation #devops #sre #incident

Why does diversity matter when hiring leadership positions like Staff?

I'm very proud of talking about this important topic at LeadDev (if you don't have time, skip to 15:10):

https://lnkd.in/dhkvpVVm 

Process sets the minimum bar not the best practice.

There's always a good reason for the process and it's never about empowering human ingenuity but rather protecting against human error, inconsistency and incompetence.

Process is heavy on WHAT and HOW.

Start with WHY to rip the benefits of aligned autonomy of a diverse workforce. 

😂 State of #GDPR in 2024!

You're left with two choices: lose time or privacy (and the dialogue is designed for both!)

Legitimate interests is not something the user should have to select.

Vanity productivity metrics!

Not everyone is working towards improving a metric.
Those who do, may be optimizing the wrong thing.

How do you ensure that:
1. Everyone is working towards a measurable impact
2. The impact is something that matters

Many companies use OKR or other frameworks, but the problem is that those metrics are arcane and as much as we love them to be part of day-to-day tasks, they're not!

One solution is to hold everyone accountable to formalize a metric they're trying to optimize. And in 1:1 the impact of that metric should be evaluated on an ongoing basis. The manager's task is to support their directs to:
1. Measure the right thing (by tying it to higher level metrics)
2. Deliver impact (by unblocking them)

This is not a framework. This is just a razor-sharp focus on impact.

Is it for everybody? No! There are people who don't feel comfortable with transparency or measuring impact. There may be objections to even if you can measure impact. Maybe the top-level metrics don't make too much sense as in they're not part of a cohesive strategy.

There are a lot of "if" and "but" and pitfalls but the companies that get this right, win:
1. Define impact with the vision and mission at the top
2. Find the best way to measure impact
3. Communicate 1&2 across the organization
4. Hold each individual accountable to communicate their impact to those metrics

The biggest risks with this approach are:
1. Data bias: metrics can lie, and they can be abused to tell the wrong story
2. The intent of a metric can get lost in translation across different levels
3. Too much investment in a metric makes the organization slow. The expected impact may change overnight due to competition, regulations, etc. That requires redefining the metric, and it takes time to trickle down the new metric
4. Not every impact is measurable
5. There's a risk to reduce an entire person's contribution to a raw number

What's the best way to align impacts across a large organization in your experience?

"Media lies all the time"

Not so fast cowboy. Media's main product is trust. Sure that trust is for sale but it first needs to be built.

There are genuine journalists who do a great job reporting important event. There may be many articles that are lie-free and unbiased. The trust needs to be built before it is monetized.

Without trust there's no product. There's no audience. The media corporation goes down (unless it has a cashcow, or is part of a media conglomerate that acts as an insurance, or is directly funded by the government).

When it's time to betray that trust, you'll rarely find an article that's completely lies. Usually, some believable story is fabricated by attaching multiple truths from different angles, a dash of fiction and speculation.

Most articles don't make money but every now and then, a generous ad will hit the media corporation that makes it all worth it.

"if it's free, you're the product" is as true about social media as traditional ones.

#media #mediaCorporations #democracy

Recently there was a long discussion on Rands about whether one can share the technical opinions of technical figures regardless of their opinions in non-technical matters or not.

My stance is that my audience is mature enough to decide for themselves. Sharing someone's technical work doesn't mean that I agree with their entire character and opinions in the past or future.

You already know my opinion about self-censorship, freedom of expression, and the price of freedom.

This poll is for me to get a gauge of my audience.

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