One area I work on with engineers and new managers is how to "manage up". Before we dig into managing up, it's worth covering "managing down" as this will help us compare and contrast these two functions. Managing down is traditionally what we think of when we describe managing a…
There is considerable overlap between the roles and responsibilities of a CEO and any other leader. These roles and responsibilities include: Setting Strategic ObjectivesImplementing plansBudget and ForecastingPublic relationsBoard CommunicationsPerformance TrackingEstablishing the CultureOne mental hack I've used in my corporate life to ensure high performance is to pretend I'm the CEO…
As you advance in your career you'll find you are increasingly "in demand", both internally and externally. If left unchecked this work will consume your entire week; it's important to prioritize accordingly. The Eisenhower Matrix is a system by which you can bucket different kinds of work so that you…
When I started my first Software Engineering job, a combination of technical insecurity (I didn't have a Computer Science degree) and a naive understanding of professional development (this was my first real job) led me to believe that my career advancement would be pretty straight forward: Accrue as much programming…
Those following along know that my wife and I relocated from Portland, to San Francisco, then to Denver. Well, we recently moved BACK to San Francisco after realizing we're West Coast folks at heart. The first time we moved to SF, it took me 5-6 weeks to receive two job…
In prepping for a new Engineering Manager role I'll be starting in the next several weeks, I stumbled on a great video featuring David Loftesness (former Director of Eng at Twitter, now at eero) talking about the transition from Engineer to Manager. I liked this matrix enough that I turned…
It’s been awhile since my last update but I’ll do my best to bring everyone up to speed. When I last posted, I was building a software consulting business, Epsilon Eight. In Feb 2017 I hit an extended period of reduced dealflow that tested my abilities…
Q4 2016 started off dire. A much needed vacation unfortunately meant no revenue for the entire month of October. But we finished strong. Read on to find out more. October October was a very rough month. Two vacations, one in September, another in October, meant that I wasn’t…
Reports for Epsilon Eight will now be posted on our blog. I’m reposting our latest report here for convenience. Report Things have been busy this quarter…so busy in fact that I’ve hardly had time to blog at all, which is why you’re…
Epsilon Eight is always looking for customer problems to solve. One such problem we’ve identified is that many services only allow you to deliver webhooks to a single destination. This is particularly frustrating if you want to sync, for instance, payment notifications to both your CRM, an analytics…