Teams are usually so overwhelmed chasing their (never-ending) priorities, OKRs, goals, numbers, product releases etc., that when things start to slow down, and people are wondering, “Okay, what am I onto, today?” the little things are being taken care of. Sometimes, with a big, unseen impact. I’ve witnessed software engineers having th...

One of the common struggles software companies face is the continuous battle between product and engineering teams over predictable delivery and estimation. On one side, product managers, the board, customers, and other various stakeholders need to know when things are going to get done. And what is to blame? They need to know when tha...

As an Engineering Manager in a Software company, you will most likely want to answer the following crucial question: “How are we doing?” Setting Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) is a crucial component to get the answers rolling on a weekly, monthly or quarterly basis. You want to set a recurring process for continuous improvement, cel...

Engaging into conversations with fellow colleagues, I’ve quite often encountered discussions falling into weird deadlocks. This could be happening in 1-1s with direct reports, or during more wide meetings, planning for the future. The awkward state I might have strong opinion over several topics, but I push myself into not jumping to s...

Many people are infusing physical exercise and healthy habits as part of their lifestyle. I am not one of those people. Although I try to be careful around my diet, I always placed physical exercise as something you must do, and not something I could truly embrace, enjoy, and make part of my life. The struggle I was facing over keeping...

Let’s talk UI/UX in web design. When you start building a new product, things are pretty simple. You launch something with a, probably well thought, small set of features. As the product matures, new shiny things come to the table. Or new customer requests and user feedback is pouring in, and the team is taking action. And all of a sud...

I’ve been thinking lately about compensation, monetization, and in general… money related things. And I wonder, how much is plenty enough? For an investor (VCs, Angels etc.), plenty enough is usually a 2x, 5x or a 10x return of investment. This is often the turning point. When such an opportunity comes forth, this is where the exit hap...

“Dad, look! Μy tooth is about to fall. The Tooth Fairy is visiting my bed tonight”, said my 7-year-old son the other day. “Son, ever wondered what the Tooth Fairy does, with all the teeth she collects?”, I replied. “She must be making furniture”, he said. “Still, what does she do with all this furniture she makes? They must be thousand...

I remember my old days, when I was programming 3D engines in C++. Working with complex structures, memory management, vector math and obscure algorithms. Trying to squeeze every computing bit available, to keep the frame-rate at a sane level. I remember staying awake at night, lost in my thoughts on how to get the rendering speed of a ...

As a recruiter, I'd surely have a hard time evaluating software engineering positions. Engineering is in constant growth in terms of complexity, spectrum and roles. Head hunting, sorting CVs, or doing screen calls for the next best hire, is usually focused around scanning profiles for certain keywords. Keywords that might be difficult ...

Hustling is the most effective type of marketing. Talking to other people about products and services you love. Becoming passionate and spreading the word around. Surfacing products in the competitive landscape by gradually building trust and bias around choices. All that for free. Great products and user experiences inevitably lead to...

I’ve been thinking about my email lately. And I have the feeling that my inbox has been harassed. It’s being harassed by the global sales effort. Sales people all around the world, trying to capture my attention to get their precious sales through. You are a sales machine What is annoying, is the observable pattern of how this is done....

I have a confession to make. I barely read any books. As a matter of fact, I am onto reading a book every couple of years, during summer vacations or while flying abroad. Who has the time to read when information is flowing so massively around us? Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Medium, Hackernews, Reddit and so many other online sources....

Let’s talk about… priority management. You are in a meeting, the conversation is heating up. And you can sense it. You can feel it. You can see it coming… And then the bomb drops: “This is very important, let’s make it a priority” And you leave the meeting with more things on the table. Another super important thing to do, in a checkli...

Ever found yourself caught up in a chain of meaningless bureaucracy at work? I am sure you are, we’ve all been there. For example: “Update that progress report nobody ever reads.” “Request a small budget to get your team on a bonding activity, only to get stuck at a financial approval chain that takes weeks or months to get green lit.”...

In a previous post, I wrote about Slack fatigue, unfolding my thoughts on how using a chat application as the main medium of collaboration can turn into an energy and productivity drainer, while working remote. On this post I am drawing a plan, taking action and finally committing to make it work. Leaning back and observing how a day’s...

Forced lockdowns and teleworking, as a counter measure to tackle the Covid pandemic, transitioned Transifex, the company I work for, to the remote-first model, in a “here to stay” policy. Physical interactions and hall-way chit chatting is now all about text chat and video calls, with Slack being the king of all communication and inter...

Reading all about the recent “Changes at Basecamp” announcement, and the follow-up news on the mass exodus escalation on various media, I felt like sharing my take on this, as someone in both a leadership role at a SaaS company of the same scale, and as a Basecamp customer myself. I am not here to judge, point fingers or take sides on ...

Working with apps in dark mode is a great trend and I love it! On this post, I am going to explore how nicely it plays with the email user experience, and more specifically iOS email clients, where marketing email content is usually designed around white themes. Test subjects are the 3 email clients I have been using in the past few ye...

Two and a half decades have passed since my first email, marking my first digital footprint into this world. So many years later, I finally managed to properly sanitize my digital identity. Here is my story. 1996 —————— The year I join Computer Engineering & Informatics Department (CEID) at University of Patras. Primitive internet, Net...

The importance of maintaining a healthy work life balance is a hot topic for modern businesses. What I am challenging on this post is the terminology around it. Reading all around topics on “Work-Life Balance” I cannot help imagining a balance scale, where on one side we have “Work” and on the other side we have “Life”, competing each ...