Jack Reichert

Fullstack Philosopher

Tag: management

  • Lead your team like a Jazz band

    Lead your team like a Jazz band

    I can’t stay away from New Orleans for very long. It’s a city that gets under your skin — it drips with creativity. It’s a city where music and art is everywhere. There are music venues on almost every block; there are art galleries, and art fairs everywhere. The food is creative in New Orleans,…

  • Technical Interviews

    Technical Interviews

    I’ve gotten compliments on the technical challenges I’ve set up for applicants interviewing to join my team… from the applicants themselves. People don’t always perform well with an audience, and rarely do we code in front of others during our day-to-day. Pair Programing is an over-looked powerful practice, it helps a ton with these anxieties,…

  • On “Rockstar” Developers

    On “Rockstar” Developers

    Some teams have “rockstar” developers who only work on “spikes.” A spike is a story where a developer is assigned the task of figuring out how to accomplish something. The outcome of a spike is a prototype, or roadmap for reaching a prototype. Included in the task might be to evaluate different methods of accomplishing…

  • Implementing Agile – Part II – WIP

    Implementing Agile – Part II – WIP

    The first big “Agile” change I implemented was standup. Without it you can’t even begin to know what’s going on in your team, let alone help accomplish all it needs. But all standup is, is a daily window into what everyone is doing. That helps you know what’s going on, on a day-to-day bases. But…

  • Implementing Agile – Part I – Standup

    Implementing Agile – Part I – Standup

    Early on as a manager, I came across Agile methodologies, but wasn’t able to get training in it, so I had to figure out how to implement it myself. After reading countless books and immersing myself in whatever I could find online, I was able to implement several key elements. But I still was missing…

  • Make Yourself Dispensable

    Make Yourself Dispensable

    Originally published on forbes.com. “If you want to keep your job, you have to make yourself indispensable.” I’m sure you’ve heard that before. Here’s the truth – you will never get great work done if you are indispensable. If your tech company relies upon you so much that if you were hit by a bus the…

  • Developers Are Lazy, And That’s A Good Thing

    Developers Are Lazy, And That’s A Good Thing

    Originally published on forbes.com. I’m lazy, and most great developers I know are lazy too. I would much rather spend a day developing an import script to import 2,000-3,000 pieces of content than spend that day manually importing that content. Sure, I could put on a podcast or book in the background while I manually…

  • Play To Your Strengths (The Leader’s Serenity Prayer)

    Play To Your Strengths (The Leader’s Serenity Prayer)

    Originally published on forbes.com. The role of stretching is often overlooked in the process of growth. When you’re strength training and you lift weights, it stresses your muscles, which triggers the growth process. But if you neglect to stretch afterward, your muscles shorten and become tight, which leads to them becoming weaker, not stronger, and…

  • On Assholes and Leaders

    On Assholes and Leaders

    The asshole doesn’t see that he is one — that is the true nature of being an asshole. Ultimately being one is truly just a manifestation of selfishness. If you don’t care how your actions affect the people around you, the people around you will see you as an asshole. If the actions of everyone…

  • Thoughts about “Who” and Hiring

    Thoughts about “Who” and Hiring

    Finished reading “Who” this week. I found it an interesting approach to hiring. I’d read it if I were looking for a job as well to prepare for interviews, though it’s not designed for that. Takeaways: Take hiring seriously, this should be obvious but it’s easy to let it get lost in all the other…