Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Dev promoted to more strategic role in startup. What literature?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 84 posts

Re: Ask HN: Dev promoted to more strategic role in startup. What literature?

#51

Post by southflorida »

anarchitect wrote: post #25

In the last five years moved from development, to leading the development team to more of a product management role. Fully agree with that DanielBMarkham it's "the people part of things is where you'll screw up", so I'd focus on communication and team-building as much as processes. I've found a few books really useful: * The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right ( https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6667514-th…

Rework was Awesome! I would recommend The Lean Startup http://theleanstartup.com/ in addition to those above. Made to Stick was a good one too.http://heathbrothers.com/books/made-to-stick/

Re: Ask HN: Dev promoted to more strategic role in startup. What literature?

#53

Post by anarchitect »

southflorida wrote: post #51
anarchitect wrote: post #25

In the last five years moved from development, to leading the development team to more of a product management role. Fully agree with that DanielBMarkham it's "the people part of things is where you'll screw up", so I'd focus on communication and team-building as much as processes. I've found a few books really useful: * The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right ( https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6667514-th…

Rework was Awesome! I would recommend The Lean Startup http://theleanstartup.com/ in addition to those above. Made to Stick was a good one too. http://heathbrothers.com/books/made-to-stick/

The Lean Startup was a real eye-opener for me, even though I thought I understood all the key concepts (I didn't). For some reason I always assume everyone on HN has already read it!

Made to Stick looks great. Added to my wishlist, thanks.

Re: Ask HN: Dev promoted to more strategic role in startup. What literature?

#54

Post by rodh »

SloopJon wrote: post #50

Foundations of Business Strategy started last week on Coursera: https://www.coursera.org/course/strategy101 Probably not too late to catch up.

What a fantastic suggestion. I've used Coursera on technical topics in the past, but it hadn't even occurred to me to look there in this instance. Thanks.

Re: Ask HN: Dev promoted to more strategic role in startup. What literature?

#55

Post by zbravo »

anarchitect wrote: post #25

In the last five years moved from development, to leading the development team to more of a product management role. Fully agree with that DanielBMarkham it's "the people part of things is where you'll screw up", so I'd focus on communication and team-building as much as processes. I've found a few books really useful: * The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right ( https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6667514-th…

Drive Animated: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc

Re: Ask HN: Dev promoted to more strategic role in startup. What literature?

#56

Post by lifeisstillgood »

davidw wrote: post #46
kator wrote: post #11

Honestly I would get a mentor. Find someone either in your org or out of your org that has the skills and career you would like to work towards and start talking to them. If you hit it off you may have found someone who can help you through the bumpy parts of your career and help you plan your next steps. Some people charge for this as career coaching and that can also have some value but it's challenging to sort out…

> get a mentor Seems easier said than done. I wouldn't want to share details of what I do with random people. Probably not with coworkers either unless it's strictly related to the job at hand, but at that point the advice they can give you is also more limited. Also, you need to find someone with more experience than you, so you don't have much to bring to the deal. > Books are wonderful but nothing beats interactin…

I can't agree more with Kator's comment. Find a mentor - maybe pay for a business coach if you want but you would probably be able to find an experienced serial entrepreneur in your industry after one or two conferences.

I would however start today not with a book but a clean sheet of paper. Take a long hard look at you, your decisions and imagine explaining it all to a judge in five years time. What bits will you be proud of, which embarrassed by and which will land you in jail.

If I was to give five points I wish I had done more of:

- Always be hiring

- Always be filling the pipeline

- Always cut more out than you think is possible. Do less better.

- never ever lie, and stand up and speak the truth as needed

- know where the money is going

Re: Ask HN: Dev promoted to more strategic role in startup. What literature?

#58

Post by jonstewart »

If you're under 50 people, you're still too small for many processes. Read every book you can lay your hands on about people-management (not project management, not product management, not strategy) and remember to over-communicate. The best lever you have at this point is to become a great manager of people--you'll motivate them to do good work and help turn some of them into great managers as the company grows.

Re: Ask HN: Dev promoted to more strategic role in startup. What literature?

#59

Post by quarterconfig »

vellum wrote: post #2

If you're looking for a book on strategy, you can't go wrong with Peter Drucker. http://www.amazon.com/The-Essential-Drucker-Management-Essen... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Drucker

Definitely this.

The Effective Executive (Drucker) has been by far the best book on management I've ever read. No fluff. http://www.amazon.com/The-Effective-Executive-Definitive-Har...

Re: Ask HN: Dev promoted to more strategic role in startup. What literature?

#60

Post by cscharenberg »

The book Understanding Michael Porter was a good introduction to strategy for me. I used it in my EMBA program when I was struggling to grasp business strategy. That gave me a solid grounding in how to think about it and some of the basic concepts. From there I was able to branch out to other books on strategy. But that one was a good starting point for me and some classmates.
Post reply on HN