Continuous Learning

OKRs OKR - the acronym stands for “ Objectives and Key Results ”. Objective (O): (the O in OKR) are qualitative, inspirational, time-bound goals to be executed by a team or an individual. Clear and Easy to understand a statement of a goal. Key result (KR): (the KR in OKR) quantifies the Objective and breaks it into specific metrics that can be used to measure the achievement of the desired Objective. It is a framework for implementing growth plans and achieving goals. It aligns and connects your employees for faster growth. Objective defines - What do you want to accomplish? Key Results define - How are you going to achieve your objective? Benefits of OKRs Focus: OKRs create focus on what matters. Alignment: OKRs align teams to a common goal Commitment: OKRs to engage and motivate employees Tracking: OKRs enable measurement and tracking of key results Stretching: OKRs drive and build a high-performance culture Companies using OKRs Amazon Netflix Google Linkedin Uber OKR Softwares OKR s...

Let us start with the complete form of this word, before going into the details. MBR Meeting: Monthly Business Review Meeting Similar to MBR there are Weekly and Quarterly meetings.  WBR Meeting: Weekly Business Review Meeting QBR Meeting: Quarterly Business Review Meeting These meetings are famed mechanisms used within Amazon. A mechanism is a process that converts inputs into desired outputs on an ongoing basis. Mechanisms allow us to learn and improve from mistakes/defects, enable scalable process-based solutions, and prevent institutional knowledge through documentation. The three components of a mechanism are the tool, the adoption, and the inspection . The tool transforms inputs to outputs,  the adoption sets incentives for stakeholders the inspection ensures continuous delivery of desired outputs. For example in MBR meetings:  Inputs include monthly meetings, attendance from team members, and key performance indicators from the business.  The output is a caden...

I have recently joined a new company as a Staff Software Engineer. Before that, I worked as a Principal Software Engineer, Backend Engineer, and Senior Software Engineer. It is easy to understand the expectation from a role if it contains job-specific words like "Frontend Engineer", "Backend Engineer", "FullStack Developer" or "Java Engineer". This role was new to me so I tried to understand the roles and responsibilities from this role. Staff Engineer Archetypes 1. Tech Lead Tech Leads are the most common archetype. They're comfortable scoping complex tasks, coordinating their team towards solving them and unblocking them along the way.  2. Architect Architects are responsible for the success of a specific technical domain within their company. For a domain to merit an architect, it must be both complex and enduringly central to the company's success. 3. Solver The Solver is a trusted agent of the company who goes deep into knotty proble...

  At Amazon, there are no slides or PowerPoint presentations, all documents are written in prose. Jeff Bezos believes this forces a clarity of thinking that can be masked if one uses bullet points in slides. It’s not easy to follow these rules, but if you do, your communication in the workplace will be better understood and received. Top 5 tips for ‘Writing like an Amazonian’: Tip 1: Use less than 30 words per sentence:  To achieve this e liminate clutter words. Examples: Due to the fact → Because During the course of → During Came in contact with → Met During the time that → While We’re in the process of learning → We’re learning Tip 2:  Replace adjectives with data:  Examples: We made the performance much faster  →  We reduced server-side tp90 latency from 10 ms to 1 ms Nearly all customers  →  90% of our customers Tip 3: Does your writing p ass the “so what” test?: Has the reader learned anything to help them make a better decision at the end o...