Marshall Shen

Masterclass review - Sales and Persuasion

ABC: Attunement, Buoyancy, Clarity The old salesmanship model of ABC is “always be closing.” Salesmanship has changed over time. Daniel Pink’s ABC sales is about “Attunement, Buoyancy, and Clarity.” Attunement is an ability to get...

01 Jan 2021

Reading review - The making of a manager

For early managers and leaders, this book is approachable and lays out foundational skill and mindsets for becoming successful leaders. Being a great leader is about setting clear vision, and building a great team that...

27 Dec 2020

Reading review - The coaching habit

I read this book back in 2016 and I needed a refresher on asking more and talking less. It boils down to these essential questions: kickstart question - “What’s on your mind?” An almost fail-safe...

26 Dec 2020

Reading review - Accelerate

Measure engineering productivity Know what to measure is important building a great engineering culture. One aspect to measure is engineering productivity. And the authors proposes 4 useful metrics: delivery lead time, deployment frequence, time to...

24 Dec 2020

Reading review - Why are all the black kids sitting together in the cafeteria

Why all the black kids sitting together in the cafeteria is a great book in understanding systemic racism. Before we were born, human society exists with its own cultural debt. We come to this society...

12 Dec 2020

On work expectations

Setting expectations is the one core goal of clear communication. From the perspective of a manager to a direct report, it’s about “what I expect from you” and “what you can expect from me”. And...

06 Dec 2020

Comfortable being uncomfortable

It’s my first engineering staff meeting. I am presenting a new sprint planning process. The small engineering team looks at me for direction. I have a vision on how to plan engineering work. However, whether...

30 Nov 2020

Minimize context switching

In a small startup, everyone is wearing multiple hats. On a typical working day, I have many tasks. Some require coding; others require writing or having meetings and take actions item. In the beginning, my...

11 Oct 2020

Mentorship pattern

Learning is important, and if we find effective ways to learn, learning becomes fun. In addition to a common, solitary perception where learning involves us sitting in a library cafe thinking alone, learning can be...

04 Sep 2020

Lessons from Chinese caligraphy

Chinese characters are expressive and composite. There are 3000 plus characters, and much of those characters come from the composition of other characters. The way some characters are composed serves as an elegant, small lesson...

01 Sep 2020