Tiffine Koch

As a white male leader in tech, I'm acutely aware of the diversity issues my industry faces. This article was helpful to me in terms of unpacking it a bit more . . . . . . . . . A recent study has thrown a spotlight on employment discrimination in U.S. hiring practices. Using fictitious resumes that mirrored each other in qualifications but differed in racial and gender identifiers, economists uncovered a distressing trend: On average, presumed white applicants received 9.5% more callbacks than their black counterparts. The depth of discrimination also varied wildly across industries and companies. For example, while some sectors like retail showcased minimal bias, the auto industry displayed a stark preference for white applicants—some companies showing biases as high as 43%! 📈 So what can organizations do to shine a light on these biases and dismantle them? The study points out that one of the strongest predictors for less discrimination is: a centralized HR team that is responsible for many aspects of the source-to-hire pipeline. #Diversity #DEI #EmploymentEquality #HiringPractices #HR #PeopleOps

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Let’s get real. In the tech world, we love our rockstar engineers and visionary product managers. But what about the unsung heroes who make sure the trains run on time? Enter: Technical Program Managers (TPMs). Here’s the deal—TPMs are the connective tissue in any tech org. Without them, your next big thing is just a pipe dream. Here’s why they matter: 1. Master Planners: TPMs are the strategists who see the big picture. They map out the journey from idea to execution, ensuring every cog in the machine is working towards the endgame. 2. Diplomatic Leaders: These folks are the UN of tech. TPMs navigate cross-functional teams, aligning everyone from engineering to product, and making sure egos don’t derail progress. 3. Execution Powerhouses: Think of them as project ninjas. TPMs oversee the whole process, managing timelines, resources, and risks. They get sh*t done. 4. Tech Savvy: A TPM isn’t just a project manager with a fancy title. They understand the tech stack and can speak geek. This lets them make smart decisions and steer the ship effectively. 5. Communication Gurus: Ever been left in the dark on a project? Not with a good TPM. They keep stakeholders in the loop, ensuring transparency and trust all the way. 6. Risk Avengers: TPMs spot risks from a mile away and crush them before they become a problem. It’s like having a crystal ball and a wrecking ball in one. 7. Efficiency Experts: These pros are all about optimizing. They refine processes and drive continuous improvement, making sure your team isn’t just working hard, but smart. Bottom line: TPMs are the unsung heroes who turn chaos into order and dreams into reality. Next time you see a project succeed, know there’s probably a badass TPM behind the curtain making it all happen. To all the TPMs out there: You’re the backbone of innovation. Keep rocking.

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Comp leaders - is your equity program working? How about beyond year 4? Charlie's latest newsletter highlights the hidden factors at play in common equity programs. How do we make it a win-win?

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I've recently started as "Treasurer" of my son's mountain biking non-profit club. I'm hoping to connect with folks experienced in Quickbooks Online, Stripe, Google Workspace, or small business IT who can offer assistance. One of my initial challenges involves simplifying our money tracking process and reconciling accounts efficiently. I'm looking for guidance on how to effectively connect Quickbooks Online, Stripe, and our bank accounts. Additionally, I need insights on managing access to our accounts, such as whether to use Single Sign-On (SSO), 1Password, or neither. I'm seeking advice on the approaches and trade-offs. Familiarity with non-profits is helpful, but not a requirement.

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The holidays are coming, for those that celebrate. For this occasion, let me share one of my own family’s old holiday traditions. One that, I have to admit, was recklessly ruined by uncle Melv in the late ‘60s. We don’t speak of uncle Melv anymore in our family. We don’t speak OF him, nor do we speak WITH him. In our family he’s generally referred to as the Uncle-that-shall-not-be-named. You’ll understand why later. The family tradition I’m speaking of is a family game called OrgChartionary. In the (unlikely) event that you’re not familiar with this excellent game, here’s how it works: Everybody sits around in a circle with pencil and paper ready. Somebody is named the Org Master. The Org Master yells out the name of a company. Then, everybody fervently starts to sketch out that company’s organizational chart on their piece of paper: CEO, departments, teams — that sort of thing. Whoever gets the closest to the company’s actual org chart wins. It’s educational. You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. It’s just plain old holiday fun. At least it was, until our uncle-that-shall-not-be-named figured something out.

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Is anyone willing to meet with an SF Professional for 30 minutes and help out a nonprofit organization that's stuck debugging some DLRS issues? Consider it 30 minutes of advice-giving that will leave you feeling better about building a community and helping someone out. Plus, you never know where that connection can take you. #salesforce #npsp #communitycommons #dlrs

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Product is fun, complex, messy, and there are no shortcuts. Once you accept that—and embrace it—amazing things happen to your career. Cat Hicks, PhD puts this better than anyone: "Doing research with developer teams, something that really strikes me is how much people look for ways to make complex problems easy rather than make it easy to work on complex problems What I mean is, sometimes it's really useful to admit we just are trying to accomplish tough things. Asking how we can support our teams who NEED the time and space to work through that, it's often a much more tractable lever than trying to change the inherent nature of the work I think it behooves me to say as a psychologist here that I think people are actually really excellent at working on complex problems! It's one of the reasons research with developers is so great. Overall devs love to learn, love to be curious, love to innovate. It is core stuff. What would it look like if we could ask, "how do I make this the absolute best environment for complex problem-solving" instead of "how do I take away all these annoying hard problems." The stuff we want to accomplish in the world is hard. But can be joyful to accomplish."

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Every Thursday I post a new job list in product management for social impact. For transparency, here are some principles I'm following when searching: I use the following job boards to help me curate this list: LinkedIn, Tech Jobs for Good, Built In, and edtechjobs.io. I do not add reposted jobs from LinkedIn. (Disclaimer: There may be reposted jobs from older lists) I link directly to the job application I share work type and location like (remote | US) or (remote | work from anywhere in the world) This week I'm digging into Nick Martin's job board list here https://lnkd.in/eNDcmKw7 to find more opportunities! See my comment below for a full list of my weekly posts so far. 🚀 Tomorrow I will launch a new list.

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Cool to see one of our accounting ecosystem apps, Gusto, featured explaining how they are leveraging AI via their knowledge workers, rather than IT team. This is definitely a model that I think will provide much more scalable competitive advantage to all types of knowledge work. #accelerateinnovation https://lnkd.in/gMT8ydi7

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Interview questions for a Senior SRE Manager role: *Leadership and Management:* 1. Can you share your experience in leading high-performing SRE teams? 2. How do you approach talent development and growth within your team? 3. How do you prioritize and manage competing demands and stakeholder expectations? 4. Describe your experience with budgeting and resource allocation for SRE teams. 5. How do you foster a culture of innovation, collaboration, and continuous learning? *Technical Expertise:* 1. What is your experience with cloud computing platforms (e.g., AWS, GCP, Azure)? 2. Can you describe your knowledge of containerization (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes)? 3. How do you approach monitoring, logging, and observability in distributed systems? 4. What is your experience with automation tools (e.g., Ansible, Terraform)? 5. Can you explain your understanding of reliability engineering principles and practices? *Reliability and Performance:* 1. Can you share an example of a complex reliability issue you've solved? 2. How do you approach capacity planning and performance optimization? 3. Describe your experience with incident management and postmortem analysis. 4. How do you ensure compliance with SLAs and SLOs? 5. Can you explain your approach to testing and validation for reliability? *Communication and Collaboration:* 1. Can you describe your experience working with cross-functional teams (e.g., dev, ops, product)? 2. How do you communicate technical information to non-technical stakeholders? 3. How do you build and maintain relationships with vendors and partners? 4. Can you share an example of a successful collaboration with a development team? 5. How do you handle conflicting priorities and stakeholder expectations? *Strategy and Vision:* 1. Can you describe your vision for the future of SRE in our organization? 2. How do you stay current with industry trends and emerging technologies? 3. Can you share an example of a strategic initiative you've led or contributed to? 4. How do you prioritize and manage technical debt? 5. Can you explain your approach to measuring and demonstrating the value of SRE? check this space for answers in the coming week...

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🇪🇺 Be part of the conversation on July 11th at 3:00 PM CEST! Our #NonprofitPulse2024 webinar features a rockstar panel discussing the latest nonprofit trends across fundraising, data security, and the development of AI. Save your spot today! #Fundraising #AIforGood #NonprofitTrends

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Monday lunches hit different during the holidays. Whether you’re spicing up your tech career or just avoiding another awkward office potluck, these companies are serving piping hot opportunities. No small talk required—let’s dig into the good stuff. Openlayer: Ship airtight AI, fast (San Francisco, CA, US) Sphere: AI-powered cross-border compliance (San Francisco, CA, US) Two Dots: AI underwriting and fraud prevention (Los Angeles, CA, US) Accord: Driving execution for B2B sales and onboarding (San Francisco, CA, US) Pincites: AI for contract negotiation (Menlo Park, CA, US) Truewind: AI-powered bookkeeping and finance software (San Francisco, CA, US) Response: Control indirect spend from end to end (San Francisco, CA, US) Probably Genetic: Patient intelligence platform for genetic diseases (San Francisco, CA, US) Entangl (YC S24): Automating hardware design end-to-end (San Francisco, CA, US) Mentum: Automate supply chain workflows with Gen AI (San Francisco, CA, US) Qventus, Inc: Automating hospital operations (Remote, US) Assembly HOA: AI-enabled HOA management (San Francisco, CA, US) Truss: Banking for construction (Canada / US) Trellis: AI-powered workflows for unstructured data (San Francisco, CA, US) Dioptra: Automated contract review with AI (San Francisco, CA, US) Meticulate (YC W24): The most powerful way to track companies (San Francisco, CA, US) Etleap: Perfect data pipelines, simplified (San Francisco, CA, US) Stacksync (YC W24): Real-time CRM and database sync (San Francisco, CA, US) Viva Labs (YC W22): AI videos that connect with people (San Francisco, CA, US) Reworkd (YC S23): Simplest way to extract web data at scale (San Francisco, CA, US) Hatchet: Background task orchestration (New York, NY, US) Legacy: Helping you test, improve, and freeze your sperm (New York, NY, US) OneSignal: Personalized omnichannel messaging (San Mateo, CA, US) #Startups #StartupsHiring #TechJobs #SalesJobs #JobsinTech #SaaSJobs #YCombinatorJobs #AIJobs #HealthTechJobs #FinTechJobs #LogisticsTech Let’s connect and keep the momentum going across the tech ecosystem. Whether you’re a founder shaping the future, a leader driving change, a VC backing bold ideas, or an investor spotting the next big thing—together, we’re pushing boundaries. Proud to be building the future with you.

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Being able to balance the polarities like clarity with complexity, change and stability, are key when driving change to turn organisations around. Common gaps in organisations looking to create shifts: 1. Lack of an in-depth understanding of the problem where the value is created - Talk to the people in a trusted and trusting manner 2. Rushing to solve an unclear problem - See #1 and map out the connects to see the disconnects 3. Clear framework for problem-solving to make the shift - Communicate this widely, not just in paragraphs of words in a mass email to staff, have the digestible visuals. Now, time to experiment with this 💫 #changemanagement #leadership

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Switching up the newsletter to a monthly cadence. This month I was inspired by a peer of mine who is searching for a new role in this crazy market. When you don't know if another opportunity will come along, how can you assess the fit for your next product leadership gig? 👀 I shared my approach to sticking to your guns while maintaining a balanced view during the interview cycle. #productleadership #interviewingforleadershiproles

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There are a lot of changes happening across orgs of all sizes right now, but the outcomes aren't what business leaders expect. Why? Because the change ripples across the entire experience. Teams are supposed to turn on a dime. Users are supposed to understand that their daily flows are disrupted. Customers suddenly can't find how they always logged in. Disruption, which innovation considers good, does that. But human-centered design says that change needs to account for all the ripples. It's not just about the change itself, but the behaviors that get absorb in the shockwave. That's what popped out to me when I read this article. Sure, KPIs for ROI are great, but let's not forget that all of them depend on human behaviors both internal and external to the business. https://lnkd.in/gNHnyNdY

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I’ve been doing a lot more recruiting and one trend I’ve noticed is a tendency to talk about using a framework when really describing a process. There are two key differences: Frameworks are structured but open ended and are not prescriptive. Processes are prescriptive sequential steps. It’s important to identify when you want to use one or the other: - Coaching an engineer: Framework - Planning: Probably framework with a tiny bit of process for scheduling - Recovery of a data center: Process A more engineering centric / systems view would be to look at frameworks as the interfaces in engineering and process as the implementation behind the interface. Too often we’re focused on the implementation of the process before we’ve established what the framework is we want to use.

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