Overcoming information overload
I still remember my excitement when I stepped up to an engineering manager role. I will make sure my team is happy. We will roll out the framework in no time. I will touch base with our stakeholders regularly and everybody will always be up to date. I will ramp up hiring for my team. […]
How important are personal relationships and empathy in organizations?
Let’s take a look at how mutual trust, empathy, and openness will help you develop the right relationships within your team, shorten and strengthen the feedback cycle, and eventually bring your organization to a new level.
TechUncovered: Platform Engineering
After long months of waiting and streaming the events, we could hardly wait to host a real in-person (yet hybrid) event. And here we are! The 10th edition is bringing you a special issue focused on platform engineering. The lively discussion of our panelists will answer the following questions: 💬 What is and what isn’t […]
Get the best out of your candidates in the hiring process
Finding the right talent relies on the efficiency of your interview process. You need to ask the right questions to identify the best person for the job: someone who fits your culture has an always-learning mindset and brings value to the company. Moreover, it’s important to conduct the interviews in a way that makes candidates […]
From Individual Contributor to Engineering Manager: Before you start
Are you an individual contributor considering a career change? Do you think of management as the next step in your career? Not sure if it’s right for you? Don’t know where to start? Then read on, this article is just what you’re looking for! I’ve been in a similar situation, so let me share […]
TechUncovered: From MFF CUNI to CTO
The TechUncovered series is back! This time, we’ll be focusing on the transformation from a university student of MFF CUNI (Matfyz) to a CTO of a successful company. Some of the topics we’ll look at: working for a startup company and a reality check skills and abilities in the different career stages from IT guy […]
How to give your career growth a boost and unleash your resources
Investing in your career or personal growth has never been easy or straightforward, and I think many of us have faced the reality of limited resources (time, budget, head space, mentorship, etc.) when it comes to making this happen. How many times have you heard a colleague, friend, or family member complain that they are: struggling with […]
Gaining a sense of accomplishment as a manager
Do you often feel like you got nothing done by the end of the day? That you lack any sense of accomplishment, which you had as an individual contributor, but now cannot find as a manager? That you approach things reactively instead of proactively? That you are not feeling in control or on top of […]
VP of Engineering @ Mews
A look back on my 1st year 🚀 Take off Life is fun! Joining a new company in April 2020 couldn’t have been easier: The Prague HQ office got closed due to the virus whose name we shall not mention. That said, all my individual introductions with engineers, team leads, my peers, and the leadership […]
How to Make Your Teams Beat OKRs
and deliver 80%+ of key results consistently. Many tech companies have adopted the OKR system. Compared to the old-fashioned yearly SMART goals, the shorter quarterly-based objectives of OKRs are more likely to result in strategic initiative completion due to the shorter feedback loop and regular monthly updates. On the other hand, it is more challenging […]
Incident management for 10+ cross-functional teams
When scaling our tech organization, the biggest paradigm shift happened at around 20 developers. Prior to that, we had a single tech team that was taking care of everything. The only distinctions in this team were by function: backend developers, frontend developers, etc. Different functions had distinct methods of logging, error reporting, and performance monitoring. […]
Learn or die
At work, do you need to be a stronger weightlifter to outdo more senior guys? Not necessarily. The difference lies in learning. You will come to a point where knowledge gathering from more senior peers becomes less enriching. While reading, you might stumble upon an article describing an obscure tool or innovative technology which could solve […]
Connecting devs & product: Key lessons learned
In early 2020 we decided to kick off a series of events bringing insights from engineering leaders at Czech tech scaleups (as we like to call companies already past the initial startup phase). Up to now, we have organized three TechUncovered panel discussions. The previous two events focused on scaling tech teams and leading tech […]
Manage people like a boss: how to guarantee fair salaries
A few weeks ago, our founder Richard mentioned that everyone in a tech company should be striving to create intellectual property that would outlast them. The important message is that this applies to everyone. Not just tech and product where it comes naturally, but in all departments, roles or responsibilities. No matter that it gets […]
TechUncovered: Connecting devs & product
TechUncovered series aims to bring the Prague tech community insights from engineering leaders of tech companies that already passed the initial startup phase. Topics: Connecting devs & product – focus, roadmaps, team engagement, cooperation, planning & grooming, and much more. Moderator: Lukáš Putna, CTO at Heureka Group Panelists: Marián Kamenišťák , VP of Engineering at […]
How to excel in engineering management
For a Software Developer, it can feel unrealistic to think of being the Engineering Manager of, say, dozens of people in the future. Time passes by. The future turns into the present. One day you realize that being a manager has the potential to dramatically increase the influence you have. Together with your teams, you […]
How to build career framework like an RPG
The CTO role, especially for a first-timer, is sometimes tough because nobody gives you specific things to work on or tackle. Of course, there are some expectations imposed on the technical department which can be summarized as “delivering quality solutions as fast as possible”. People outside of tech or product would sum it up as […]
How to build trust with engineering teams
In engineering management, my vision is to create a productive software delivery environment that developers are proud to work in, with a focus on tangible outcomes across the company. It’s a system with the proper guidelines and the right level of automation, so standard development work gets done seamlessly. That’s why, in the engineering department, […]
Find the purpose
Three months back, I started my journey of VP of Engineering in Mews. In the following blogpost, I’d like to elaborate on my experience and discoveries so far. Build on your Experience On my path, I was fortunate to work with leaders worth following. I learned a lot from others. When I couldn’t find such […]
TechUncovered: Leading tech teams from home
The TechUncovered series is back, bringing you a fresh issue focused on leading teams from home and other current topics from the world of engineering leadership. Check a live panel discussion with: Pavel Sládek (VP of Engineering at Socialbakers), Honza Široký (CTO at Mews), Ilya Shubik (VP of Engineering at Wrike), Vojtěch Vondra (Director of […]
Scaling tech teams: Key lessons learned
The very first TechUncovered event focused on the challenges of building and scaling engineering teams, career development, and maturing processes. Scaling tech teams is not a simple task, it’s tough work. As we witness the Prague startup scene constantly growing and getting more and more into the scaleup stage, we decided to bring together some […]
TechUncovered: Scaling tech teams
TechUncovered series aims to bring the Prague tech community insights from engineering leaders of tech companies that already passed the initial startup phase. Moderator: Tomáš Řehoř, Engineering Manager at Pipedrive Panelists: Honza Široký, CTO at Mews Marián Fůsek, Head of Design & Engineering at STRV Dan Hejl, founder & CTO at Productboard Pavel Šebor, founder […]
Mews tech principles
In the year 2019, Mews tech team grew from 20 to 70 people. Leading such a big group of people (at least for me as a first time manager) brings lot of challenges, especially when the growth is as rapid as in our case. During this phase, I realized that we’re becoming a big unit […]
CI as continuous improvement
Everybody in tech world understands CI as continuous integration, but the other and maybe even more important meaning of this abbreviation is continuous improvement. It is easy to say that we encourage progress and learning, but as people get overwhelmed with daily tasks, these more abstract goals are pushed to background, unless you are super-disciplined. […]
