The Best of Will Larson
10+ most popular Will Larson articles, as voted by our community.
CTO at @cartainc. Author of Staff Engineer and An Elegant Puzzle. Currently writing The Engineer Executive's Primer w/O'Reilly.
Will Larson on Career
Grab bag of random thoughts.
A bit over a week from now, I’ll be joining a company to start a new role, and I wanted to ramble a bit to braindump the numerous loose threads in my head as I transitioned from Calm to the past month…
Will Larson on Leadership
Building your executive network.
In most of my roles, I’ve learned more from my peers than from my manager. Even when you get along well with your manager, your peers’ perspective will usually be closer to yours than your manager’s.…
Will Larson on Product Led Growth
Stripe's model of product-led, developer-centric growth.
Recently, I got an email from someone asking about Stripe’s approach to product-led, developer-centric growth. If you really want a unique insight into Stripe, you’re undoubtedly better off reading…
Will Larson on Product Management
Company, team, self.
Back when I was managing at Uber, I latched onto a thinking tool that I drilled into the teams I worked with: reach the right outcomes by prioritizing the company first, your team second, and yourself…
«Leadership is getting to the correct place quickly, it’s not necessarily about walking in the straightest line. Gleefully skipping down a haphazard path is often faster than purposeful trudging.»
Will Larson on Software Engineering
Measuring an engineering organization.
For the past several years, I’ve run a learning circle with engineering executives. The most frequent topic that comes up is career management–what should I do next? The second most frequent topic is…
How to plan as an engineering executive.
Some years back, I interviewed a senior leader for an engineering role, and asked them a question about planning. I enjoyed their response, “Ah yes, the ‘P’ word, planning.” That answer captured an…
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Downturn career decisions.
When I joined Yahoo In 2008, I received a small number of options. I don’t remember how many–it was very few–but I do know my strike price was roughly $16. I don’t remember that because my strike…
STAR method for interview questions.
Fork this template! A few weeks ago my learning circle started working through each others’ career checkups. Following that, a few folks started talking about framing their experience effectively in…
How to estimate disk space.
A few years ago while interviewing Nelson Elhage for Staff Engineer, he mentioned “estimation” as a particularly valuable skill. I hadn’t thought much about the idea of estimation as a skill, but his…
Work on what matters.
We all have a finite amount of time to live, and within that mortal countdown we devote some fraction towards our work. Even for the most career-focused, your life will be filled by many things beyond…
How to present to executives.
Have you presented to company executives about a key engineering initiative, walking into the room excited and leaving defeated? Maybe you only made it to your second slide before unrelated questions…
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