Running Engineering Teams Series | Yusuf Aytas
Running Engineering Teams Series<br>How to run an engineering team: structure, delivery systems, onboarding engineers, building culture, and the mechanics that make organizations work.<br>March 20, 2022·8 min read<br>Engineering Roles and Responsibilities<br>Engineering roles exist whether you define them or not. In some teams, ownership is explicit. People know who drives incident management, who keeps an eye on risk, who pushes on...
November 11, 2023·10 min read<br>Leading Self Managing Teams<br>When I first started leading teams, I thought being a good manager meant being everywhere. I felt like checking every ticket, joining every status update and so on. I got exhaus...
January 13, 2024·10 min read<br>Engineering Health Essentials<br>Engineering health is a term that deserves far more attention than it receives. Sustainable software development is not only about the features we ship or the speed at which we...
April 24, 2022·12 min read<br>Engineering Strategy and Planning<br>Strategy is a word that's often used but rarely understood. Ask ten people what it means, and you'll get ten different answers. I often see people confuse it with , a quarterly...
November 7, 2024·6 min read<br>Subteam Tenets<br>Over the years, working across multiple organizations, I developed the concept of subteam tenets. I’ve tweaked it along the way to fit each company's unique quirks, but I still...
January 14, 2026·15 min read<br>How to Work with Me<br>In 1935, Boeing had a new bomber prototype, the Model 299, which later became the B17. It was impressive, and it was also easy to mess up because it had more switches and steps...
September 13, 2025·8 min read<br>The Weekly Win<br>If you happen to work for a large organization, you’ve probably heard of quarterly checkins or some similar corporate buzzword to describe what you’ve done and what you could ha...
July 26, 2025·12 min read<br>Building Remote Teams<br>You've probably heard stories of big tech companies in US and hiring double that number in India, blaming AI for the shift. Everyone's first thought is likely cheap labor. While...
August 9, 2025·19 min read<br>Onboarding Your Engineering Manager<br>Bringing on a new leader to your organization is always tricky. It starts with . Then comes the real part. Onboarding! I always think bringing in a new leader without context is...
April 2, 2026·9 min read<br>Trial By Fire<br>Teams spend months hiring a strong candidate. Sourcing, interviews, debriefs, approvals, compensation, notice period. Everyone treats the hire like a serious investment. Then th...
February 12, 2026·10 min read<br>Scaling Culture Without Dilution<br>As organizations grow across geographies, one thing becomes disproportionately important. Culture. We, engineers, often dismiss culture as soft and cushy. This is until you see...
February 10, 2026·12 min read<br>What Good Looks Like<br>A few companies back, my manager and I inherited a group of teams after layoffs. Confidence was already low. People didn't believe in the systems we maintained. Stakeholders los...
November 18, 2025·11 min read<br>What Good Execution Looks Like<br>The other day I was talking with one of my directs. We ended up discussing something we’ve both learned over the years. When execution works, the environment is quiet. Not slow....
November 30, 2025·8 min read<br>Multi-Horizon Delivery Framework<br>If you’ve been in leadership for a while, you know the drill: a line manager reports team progress along with the PM, anyone above reviews it in cadence and sees how things are...
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