BuildTV

A collection of 60 posts

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3 Simple Actions to Be a Better Ally and Create an Inclusive Workplace

Last week on Build, we shared what allyship is and why it can help build inclusive workplaces. Anytime new approaches like these come out, our defenses go up because it can be challenging to change mindsets and best practices. Plus there’s some fear around what the unintended consequences will

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How Being an Ally Can Help You Create an Inclusive Workplace

As the year comes to a close, you’re probably getting ready to attend a holiday party, maybe your company’s. And maybe you’re concerned about what to talk about with your teammates and boss. Diversity and inclusion may be hot buttons to stay clear of, especially with people

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5 Best Practices for Keeping a New Product On Track

Last week on Build, we shared why instead of rebuilding or redesigning an existing product, it might make sense to build a brand-new product, and we walked you through how some folks on the Lite Tracker team arrived at their decision. When you start building a new product, you have

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Why You Should Build a Brand-New Product Instead of Rebuilding or Redesigning One

Happy November! November is one of my favorite months mostly because I love Thanksgiving. Last year I had a wonderful time celebrating it with Meghan Burgain, Femgineer’s Community Manager in Bordeaux, France. We had a Frenchgiving, and had the opportunity to share how Meghan works remotely. This November, we’

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Three Techniques to Improve How You Explain Technical Concepts to a Lay Audience and Be Understood

In last week’s Build episode, we talked about why if somebody doesn’t understand your explanation for a technical concept, it’s not OK to just tell them to look it up or Google it. We also covered the effects of doing this, the main one being that you

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Why Doing a Bad Job of Explaining Technical Concepts Hurts Our Credibility

Confession time… A few years ago when someone asked me to explain a technical concept and I couldn’t successfully get through to them or didn’t have time, I would send them this link. ;) And it seemed funny the first couple of times I did it. It wasn’t

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How to Train and Retain Product Managers

All this month, we’ve been sharing best practices around hiring and interviewing product managers. If you checked out both episodes, you might be thinking: “This is a lot of work! How can we be sure we’ll end up with a stellar product manager, and that they won’t

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How to Interview Product Managers

Last week, we dug into the various product manager personas, and how to go about sourcing candidates. If you missed the episode, you can check it out here. This week, we’re going to talk about another critical step when it comes to hiring product managers: interviewing. Unlike interviewing engineers

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How to Hire Product Managers

To build a product, you need a team of engineers, designers, and the glue that keeps them together: product managers! The role of the product manager has dramatically changed over the past decade, and because it’s still a relatively new field that’s in flux, companies often struggle to

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How Bitcoin, Blockchain, and Cryptocurrencies Are Being Incorporated Into Valuable Applications That Are Making an Impact in the Market

In the last episode of Build, we debunked a number of myths related to Bitcoin, blockchain, and other cryptocurrencies. Despite all the myths and hype, these technologies have staying power in the market. But we get that you might be skeptical. So we’re dedicating today’s episode to showcasing

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The Real Deal Behind Blockchain, Bitcoin, and Cryptocurrencies

Got a laundry list of questions that have gone unanswered when it comes to blockchain, Bitcoin, and the myriad of cryptocurrencies out there? Questions like the following: What’s going on with the boom and bust cycles? Are cryptocurrencies really here to stay? Are there really a myriad of applications

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Femgineer’s Design Roundup

Design often takes a backseat to engineering because people just want to get things to work and then ship it! It’s not until after a product is in the market that the lack of design thinking and its importance becomes obvious. Design can give a product a competitive edge

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Applications and Resources to Help You Get Started with Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality

In the last episode of Build, we exposed a number of myths about current augmented reality and virtual reality trends, and how new products are evolving by learning from predecessors like Google Glass. If the episode piqued your curiosity and left you wondering how you can get started or where

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Is There Really a Market for Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality Products?

Remember Google Glass? Yeah, it didn’t quite take off, did it. It was just one example of a failed attempt to productize virtual reality. Its short lifespan, along with a number of other products since the 90s, has probably got you thinking that there is just a lot of

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Femgineer’s Resources for Remote Jobs for Employees and Employers

This month on Build, we’ve been exploring the themes of hiring, onboarding, and managing remote teams with the Founder of Pixc, Holly Cardew. We started out by talking about how to recruit remote workers across job functions, gauging if they are a culture fit, and how to test for

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What a Remote Team Needs to be Successful When Working on a Mission-Critical Project

All this month, we’ve been talking about remote working as it relates to recruiting, training, and retaining remote workers. We started out by tackling how to recruit remote workers for people who may be new to it. Then we discussed how to train, hold accountable, and retain remote workers.

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Proven Strategies for Training and Retaining Remote Workers

In last week’s episode of Build, we dove into the benefits and best practices of recruiting remote workers. But as you’ve learned from last month’s Build episodes, it’s not enough to hire talent—you also need to onboard new hires by training them! Training someone to

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How to Recruit Remote Workers

Remember our fun live pilot episode back in January 2015? In case you forgot about it or missed it, it was on How to Build a Happy and Productive Remote Team with Ben Congleton, CEO and Co-Founder of Olark. In it, we debunked a number of remote working myths such

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When Does It Make Sense to Give a Newly Hired Software Engineer a Meaty Project?

Giving a new hire a meaty project can seem like a big risk. It’s easier just to keep them fixing bugs while they ramp up on the code base. But endlessly fixing bugs can be demotivating. If you’re not sure when the right time is to give your

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How Pair Programming and Mob Programming Help Quickly Onboard New Software Engineers

In last week’s Build Tip, we dove into the importance of onboarding new hires, and the benefits your team and company will experience if you invest the time into doing it. Next, you might be wondering what to do if you have more than one hire? Or if you

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Why You Need to Invest in Onboarding a New Software Engineer and Not Expect Them to Ship Code on Their First Day

Have you recently hired a software engineer or maybe a few? Congratulations! Are you starting to worry that they haven’t shipped any code yet? Maybe they’re a bad hire… Seems kinda harsh to think someone is a bad hire if they haven’t shipped code in their first

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Product Estimates: Think Doing Hourly Estimates For User Stories Is Crazy?

We began this month with a Build episode where we exposed all the aftershocks of using current product management methodologies to estimate user stories. Then in last week’s episode, we dove into Hiten Shah’s new EAT approach, which boils down to doing hourly estimates. Don’t worry if

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Product Estimates: Why You Should Try Estimating User Stories Using Hiten Shah’s New EAT Method

I don’t know about you but I hate kale—that stupid leafy green vegetable with the ANDI score of 1000. It’s really hard to chew, and any time I see it on a menu, I skip it! But I get there are a lot of kale converts who

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Product Estimates: Why It’s Hard to Provide Accurate Product Estimates Under Most Popular Product Management Methodologies

What’s probably the most popular and frustrating question you’ve come across when building a product: “How long do you think it will take to do task x?” It’s frustrating on so many levels. First, we need to produce an “accurate” estimate. If it’s off, there goes

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Diversity and Inclusion: Why You Need to Rethink Your Approach to Diversity And Inclusion

We’re probably all aware of the famous proverb, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” I think it’s very apropos when it comes to diversity and inclusion efforts. Too many of us think that having a diversity and inclusion initiative within our company will produce the