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Yusuf Aytas Posts

Balancing Act of Reliability

Software development involves both creating and maintaining systems. Once you put anything into production, reliability becomes critical. When your systems aren’t reliable, you face issues in various ways. If you’re a SaaS company, you could lose customers. Nobody wants their business to stop because of your reliability problems. They will go to the competition. In B2C, customers can’t search, book, or use your service. They get frustrated.…

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Building Trust in Engineering Teams

We all know that transparency builds trust. The lack of it? Well, that can lead to major issues. Engineers sometimes join teams and, from the start, struggle with trust. It’s as if information is being kept from them. Have you experienced that? I have seen examples of that throughout my career. I’ve often been asked, “Why does X do that?” or “Why is Y hiding this?” It’s…

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Ideal Number of Direct Reports

Amazon’s decision to cut 15% of its managers likely comes from a closer look at ratios. Were there too many managers with only 2-3 direct reports? That’s entirely possible. From my time at AWS, I didn’t see this much in engineering, so I doubt those teams will feel it as hard. But other departments with too many managers overseeing too few people were probably more bloated. It’s…

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Overriding a People Leader’s Decision

When managing managers or leaders, there will be times when you feel that the right course of action differs from their opinion. It could be related to rating an employee, deciding whether to give someone a second chance, or focusing on a particular business area. You see the situation differently, yet your people leader holds a contrary view. After all, we hire smart people to make the…

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From Misperception to Promotion

If you are in the realm of management, sooner or later, you will encounter someone who wants a promotion but isn’t quite ready for it. In fact, I have seen many cases where the person isn’t even close. Naturally, we all desire growth and advancement, and it’s great to have professional aspirations. However, promotions are earned through consistent effort, demonstrated skills, and tangible contributions over time. If…

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