Marshall Shen

Prioritize Patiently

With the help of tools like AI, productivity has increased in various aspects such as writing articles, planning and executing tasks at work, and writing software. While this allows me to accomplish more, it also...

26 Dec 2023

CAPE - the "ikigai" of buiness onboarding

The Japanese philosophy of Ikigai embodies the idea of discovering purpose, meaning, and fulfillment in life. It is frequently characterized as the convergence of four elements: passion, competence, societal need, and financial viability. When we...

18 Sep 2023

参与感读后感

读完这本书受益匪浅。作者的很多观点非常适用于做互联网产品。互联网思维就是口碑为王。如果没有好产品，一切都会变得没有意义。而如果产品给力，哪怕营销做得差一点，也不会太难看。互联网创业：第一是和用户互动来做好产品，第二是靠用户的口碑来做传播和营销。只关注一点：口碑。互联网七字诀：“专注、极致、口碑、快”，专注和极致，是产品目标；快，是行动准则；而口碑，则是整个互联网思维的核心。用户关系指导思想就是——和用户做朋友—做企业就像做人一样，朋友才会真心去为你传播、维护你的口碑，朋友是信任度最强的用户关系。做出有爱的产品，用户就会回报予爱。用户的爱会持续激励团队。做品牌传播，要少花钱办大事，就是说要善用巧劲，四两拨千斤——就是要有幽默感，勇于自嘲，甚至自黑。企业要花精力让自己成为能持续提供优质内容的自媒体，同时，也应该发动用户来产生内容。创业如创作，从开始第一步到最后冲刺，掌声与关注之外，更多的是寂寞的长跑。能支撑你咬牙坚持的，除了热爱，别无他途。

12 Jan 2022

Time, expectation, and emotion

For everyone, time is the one true limited resource. For everyone, expectation leads to how we spend our time. How we spend time is manifested through actions. Our actions, together with our expectation, impact our...

27 Sep 2021

Principles as compass

Imagine a group of people going on a journey to pursue a guiding star across a mountain range. As the time goes on, that guiding star is always out there on the horizon, never attainable,...

21 Feb 2021

Production is on fire, and we are all remote

All of a sudden, things start to go badly. Support tickets begin to flood in with the same complaints - the app stops working. The engineers start to investigate in their own homes. The production...

14 Feb 2021

Tech lead and engineering manager

Tech leads and engineering managers are instrumental in engineering organizations. Why are they necessary? What is the difference between these two roles? Both tech lead and engineer manager are responsible for the outcome of a...

12 Feb 2021

Feedback with a growth mindset

Everyone can grow, and that’s why we ask, give, and receive feedback. Practicing feedback is an art that requires us to ask the right questions and set proper expectations. fixed vs. growth mindset A fixed...

23 Jan 2021

Squads, chapters, and tour of duty

People and organization structure must scale closely together. When we scale from one engineering team to multiple teams, it’s more than just splitting one group into many groups. New communication patterns emerge, and new concepts...

17 Jan 2021

Build effective engineer career framework

At the beginning of a startup, the team is small and scrappy, and there’s litte structure on career growth. As a startup grows, more engineers join, and each engineer has different expectations and needs. To...

03 Jan 2021

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

Just-in-time optimization

In any startups we have too many things that need to get done. Whenever we take on a task, we do the best we can to accomplish that task, and we embed repeatable, best practices...

10 Aug 2020

Build a strong startup core

The success of a startup depends on its people, culture, and product-market fit. As a startup grows, culture evolves. At an early stage of a startup, it’s vital to have a strong cultural foundation and...

29 Jul 2020

Zooming in and out

The mind is like a telescope. It can zoom in to an idea for details or zoom out and see a big picture. We unconsciously do these two actions all the time, and our quality...

12 Jul 2020

Manage tight timelines

Tight timelines are common in the technology industry. In a world where technology is everywhere, speed and quality are essential elements of a successful company. Delivering sophisticated products with speed and quality requires collaboration and...

11 Jun 2020

Yes, and..

Comedy improvisation (improv) is a popular art form in Chicago. During an improv show, actors take a random suggestion and develop a story on the spot. A master improviser has an extraordinary ability to listen...

30 May 2020

On pursuit

The idea of pursuit dominates the psyche of modern society. Countries pursue GDP, which should always increase. Companies pursue revenue and profit, which should ever grow. Driven individuals want to maximize their potentials, and we...

19 May 2020

Compound knowledge

Compound interest is the 8th wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it; he who doesn’t, pays it. Albert Einstein In finance, the essential concept is the power of compound interest. It states...

10 May 2020

Embrace cycles

Cycles are all around us. Only when we are aware of them and seek to understand them, can we thrive with them. Cycles are the foundation of nature: climate has four seasons; oceans raise tides...

03 May 2020

Commit a lot while young

Time is the ultimate limited resource. When we are young - graduated from school, don’t have kids, and early in our careers - we have an abundance of time. It’s crucial to treasure that abundance...

27 Apr 2020

A roadmap of learning

古之欲明德于天下者，先治其国；欲治其国者，先齐其家；欲齐其家者，先修其身；欲修其身者，先正其心. 大学 To prosper the world, one must guide a nation. To guide a nation, one must nurture a community. To nurture a community, one must improve herself. To improve herself, one must follow her...

20 Apr 2020

Cultivate habits

As we go through a global pandemic, we need new life habits in facing a changing environment. It’s helpful to take a step back to think about how we form habits and reflect on how...

17 Apr 2020

Internet as a medium

We use the Internet to exchange countless amounts of information every day. For most of us, the Internet is a product to consume. Amazon. Instagram. Netflix. Spotify. Snapchat. Facebook. Twitter. Youtube. Gmail. Slack. We consume...

11 Apr 2020

Thinking and Experiencing

Our mind thinks and experiences, but often we are not aware of the difference between them. Thinking is a mental process that consists of ingesting information, analyzing of the ingested information, and responding based on...

31 Mar 2020

Operator, Manager, and Leader

Any business organization has three people roles: operator, manager, and leader. These three roles are not mutually exclusive but emphasize different mindset and sets of actions. When we think about individual growth in business, it’s...

29 Mar 2020

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