Jade Rubick
@jaderubick.bsky.social
I write the Engineering Leadership Weekly newsletter at https://www.rubick.com and host the Decoding Leadership podcast.
Human specialist. He/him. Former VPE at New Relic, Gremlin, Mode, etc.
Music at: https://bsky.app/profile/jadethree.bsky.social
Human specialist. He/him. Former VPE at New Relic, Gremlin, Mode, etc.
Music at: https://bsky.app/profile/jadethree.bsky.social
What is nice about pay equity is that it eliminates a source of bias. I've reviewed the pay of every organization I've been a part of, and almost every time, I see evidence of bias.
A practical guide to implementing pay equity in engineering | Jade Rubick - Engineering Leadership
Describes the nuts and bolts of how to implement equitable pay (and equitable stock equity) within organizations (engineering focused).
www.rubick.com
January 23, 2026 at 3:14 PM
What is nice about pay equity is that it eliminates a source of bias. I've reviewed the pay of every organization I've been a part of, and almost every time, I see evidence of bias.
**This will mean you've incurred the cost of the incident, without receiving the benefit of the incident**, which is the learning and improvements you make.
Don
I share an approach to gradually increasing the reliability of a software development organization, without over or underinvesting in reliability
www.rubick.com
January 19, 2026 at 3:14 PM
**This will mean you've incurred the cost of the incident, without receiving the benefit of the incident**, which is the learning and improvements you make.
What typically happens with _Incomplete_ Staff Work is the _Great Going Back and Forth_: Lots of questions flying around, lots of time spent figuring things out.
Completed staff work | Jade Rubick - Engineering Leadership
Describes complete staff work, a management technique that improves local autonomy, prevents going back and forth, and carves out greater responsibilities for yourself.
www.rubick.com
January 16, 2026 at 3:14 PM
What typically happens with _Incomplete_ Staff Work is the _Great Going Back and Forth_: Lots of questions flying around, lots of time spent figuring things out.
Also, be on the lookout for opportunities to reinforce the importance of the report. For a design example: when a VP complains about the usability of the product, show them the report is the solution. It might be a moment where they realize the report they are ignoring is the thing that solves th...
How security, reliability, and design teams can get other teams to do work for them -- the Objective Expert Model | Jade Rubick - Engineering Leadership
Security, reliability, and design teams can use the objective expert model to get other teams to do work for them, in a scalable way that encourages good relationships with other teams.
www.rubick.com
January 15, 2026 at 3:14 PM
Also, be on the lookout for opportunities to reinforce the importance of the report. For a design example: when a VP complains about the usability of the product, show them the report is the solution. It might be a moment where they realize the report they are ignoring is the thing that solves th...
If you feel like you don't meet all of the requirements for this role, we encourage you to apply anyway. We know the confidence gap and imposter syndrome gets in the way of meeting incredible candidates, and don't want it to get in the way of meeting you.
Write compelling and unbiased job descriptions | Jade Rubick - Engineering Leadership
Most job descriptions are boring. Write job descriptions that engage your candidates and design them to be more useful and inclusive with this guide. Includes links ot helpful tools.
www.rubick.com
January 14, 2026 at 3:14 PM
If you feel like you don't meet all of the requirements for this role, we encourage you to apply anyway. We know the confidence gap and imposter syndrome gets in the way of meeting incredible candidates, and don't want it to get in the way of meeting you.
It is not incremental at all. All the value is delivered at the end.
Great engineering teams focus on milestones instead of projects | Jade Rubick - Engineering Leadership
Programs are more complicated than projects which are more complicated than milestones. Instead of projects, focus on milestonesMost engineering organizations focus on delivering projects. You can get better results by focusing on milestones instead.
www.rubick.com
January 13, 2026 at 3:14 PM
It is not incremental at all. All the value is delivered at the end.
You get almost universal participation. It's extremely time efficient. It covers a very wide set of topics quickly. It allows for discussion of the most important topics. It often results in actionable insights.
Massively multiplayer retrospectives | Jade Rubick - Engineering Leadership
How to run a massively multiplayer retrospective
www.rubick.com
January 12, 2026 at 3:17 PM
You get almost universal participation. It's extremely time efficient. It covers a very wide set of topics quickly. It allows for discussion of the most important topics. It often results in actionable insights.
A challenge with maintaining process documentation is that the cost of making changes is often too high. The more expensive it is to suggest changes, the less participation you'll have.
What tools to use for an engineering handbook | Jade Rubick - Engineering Leadership
Reviews the various tools you can use for an engineering handbook and process documentation in general.
www.rubick.com
January 8, 2026 at 3:14 PM
A challenge with maintaining process documentation is that the cost of making changes is often too high. The more expensive it is to suggest changes, the less participation you'll have.
Once you've done the compensation review, you'll probably notice a few things that seem off. Your next job is to dig into that. Are there legitimate reasons for those anomolies? Or are they something that needs to be fixed? Make these changes as quickly as possible.
What do great engineering managers need to know about compensation and equity? | Jade Rubick - Engineering Leadership
Understanding how companies go about figuring out compensation. And an exercise to do for your team.
www.rubick.com
January 7, 2026 at 3:14 PM
Once you've done the compensation review, you'll probably notice a few things that seem off. Your next job is to dig into that. Are there legitimate reasons for those anomolies? Or are they something that needs to be fixed? Make these changes as quickly as possible.
Practice questioning constraints. When faced with a new obstacle, explicitly list out the constraints you believe you're operating under. Consciously go through each of them and question whether they are necessary or true.
Velocity role 3 - the Dodger | Jade Rubick - Engineering Leadership
This post explores an archetype that makes teams faster -- the Dodger. They dodge obstacles.
www.rubick.com
January 5, 2026 at 3:14 PM
Practice questioning constraints. When faced with a new obstacle, explicitly list out the constraints you believe you're operating under. Consciously go through each of them and question whether they are necessary or true.
Product teams were forced to make realistic plans without excessive dependencies, unless they were near the top of the priority list. This is where the independent executor model comes from: make plans, but any dependency on another team needed to either be a Product Council priority, or it neede...
Solving cross-team priorities with a Product Council - an experience report | Jade Rubick - Engineering Leadership
Jade shares an experience report on the use of a Product Council to solve executive alignment on product direction, and cross-team execution challenges.
www.rubick.com
January 2, 2026 at 3:14 PM
Product teams were forced to make realistic plans without excessive dependencies, unless they were near the top of the priority list. This is where the independent executor model comes from: make plans, but any dependency on another team needed to either be a Product Council priority, or it neede...
Your first job is your first job, and organizational work, while important, is something you do if you're doing well at your first job.
Organizational work and the second job | Jade Rubick - Engineering Leadership
Organizational work is how to make an organization get better over time, instead of the opposite.
www.rubick.com
January 1, 2026 at 3:14 PM
Your first job is your first job, and organizational work, while important, is something you do if you're doing well at your first job.
Do a sanity-checking exercise. Go through a representative sample of your team, and rate where each person is with the criteria. I like to take the criteria, make a copy for each person, and highlight the criteria that apply to each person.
https://www.rubick.com/engineering-levels/
www.rubick.com
December 31, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Do a sanity-checking exercise. Go through a representative sample of your team, and rate where each person is with the criteria. I like to take the criteria, make a copy for each person, and highlight the criteria that apply to each person.
Just doing this initial exercise has already been valuable. You've aligned on a lot about your roles, and you've made it explicit what conversations you still need to have.
Can this ownership exercise improve how you work with others? | Jade Rubick - Engineering Leadership
Learn a handy exercise you can use to define boundaries between roles (and teams)
www.rubick.com
December 30, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Just doing this initial exercise has already been valuable. You've aligned on a lot about your roles, and you've made it explicit what conversations you still need to have.
Successful engineering organizations are disciplined about both Exploration and Exploitation, engage in a low level of constant Exploration, but are ruthless about cutting off experiments that aren't successful, and bias towards standardization, because introducing something new immediately intro...
Exploration and exploitation in technical standards | Jade Rubick - Engineering Leadership
Standards are a contentious topic for engineering organizations. Describes how to put in place the right amount of standards, but have a process that allows for useful exploration outside of standards.
www.rubick.com
December 26, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Successful engineering organizations are disciplined about both Exploration and Exploitation, engage in a low level of constant Exploration, but are ruthless about cutting off experiments that aren't successful, and bias towards standardization, because introducing something new immediately intro...
I thought this was a rare thing, but it kept happening to me. Over and over in my career, I've hit thrash mode and had to deal with it.
Getting out of thrash mode | Jade Rubick - Engineering Leadership
What do you do when you are too busy to do anything?
www.rubick.com
December 25, 2025 at 3:14 PM
I thought this was a rare thing, but it kept happening to me. Over and over in my career, I've hit thrash mode and had to deal with it.
How bizarre is it that your hiring manager is expected to advocate for and win the trust of their team member once they're hired, but they're expected to negotiate against their best interests during the hiring process?
Rethink your hiring strategy to stand out and delight the best candidates | Jade Rubick - Engineering Leadership
Practical questions to guide you to a strong answer to the question:
www.rubick.com
December 24, 2025 at 3:14 PM
How bizarre is it that your hiring manager is expected to advocate for and win the trust of their team member once they're hired, but they're expected to negotiate against their best interests during the hiring process?
You can implement FaST Agile on one team as an experiment, and then use a blob approach where you swallow additional teams over time. If it goes well, continue to swallow additional teams. If it doesn't, abort the experiment.
A detailed look at FaST agile -- a practice well worth your time | Jade Rubick - Engineering Leadership
An introduction to FaST, describing how it works and what the tradeoffs of adopting it are
www.rubick.com
December 23, 2025 at 3:14 PM
You can implement FaST Agile on one team as an experiment, and then use a blob approach where you swallow additional teams over time. If it goes well, continue to swallow additional teams. If it doesn't, abort the experiment.
And Marta says, "I'm going to go find who's throwing them in the water."
Increase your impact with upstream thinking | Jade Rubick - Engineering Leadership
Upstream thinking helps you prevent future problems. Describes the patterns behind this style of thinking and how to identify what blocks it.
www.rubick.com
December 19, 2025 at 3:14 PM
And Marta says, "I'm going to go find who's throwing them in the water."
The most important thing when communicating the plan is to say it is the plan, and that you'd appreciate any feedback on it if people have ways to improve on the plan. This may seem like a dangerous thing to do. But people don't like to have things imposed on them.
Make changes that people will embrace | Jade Rubick - Engineering Leadership
How managers can make changes that people will embrace.
www.rubick.com
December 18, 2025 at 3:14 PM
The most important thing when communicating the plan is to say it is the plan, and that you'd appreciate any feedback on it if people have ways to improve on the plan. This may seem like a dangerous thing to do. But people don't like to have things imposed on them.
The Engineering Manager runs projects: project breakdown, sequencing, risk management, and project communication. This gives them a day to day view of the team's work, and helps them be effective coaches for their team.
Engineering manager vs. tech lead -- which is better? | Jade Rubick - Engineering Leadership
This post outlines the various ways people break up the leadership roles on engineering teams: engineering manager, tech lead, and single-threaded owner. It also outlines how some responsibilities are broken up between engineering leader and other functions.
www.rubick.com
December 17, 2025 at 3:14 PM
The Engineering Manager runs projects: project breakdown, sequencing, risk management, and project communication. This gives them a day to day view of the team's work, and helps them be effective coaches for their team.
The advantage of this is that it makes all your new services reliable by default. But you would have to be careful you don't make it so onerous that people want to avoid creating new services!
Evil staging and gauntlet programs, tools to increase your software reliability | Jade Rubick - Engineering Leadership
Evil staging and gauntlet programs are chaos engineering inspired, systemic approaches to improve software reliability.
www.rubick.com
December 16, 2025 at 3:14 PM
The advantage of this is that it makes all your new services reliable by default. But you would have to be careful you don't make it so onerous that people want to avoid creating new services!
You can use that context to give you a better ability to adapt practices to your local situation. And you can learn from the history about the environment from which the practice emerged, helping you to create a similarly fertile place for other practices to grow.
A history of Mini-Ms | Jade Rubick - Engineering Leadership
A history of Mini-Ms -- how this innovative practice came to be.
www.rubick.com
December 15, 2025 at 3:14 PM
You can use that context to give you a better ability to adapt practices to your local situation. And you can learn from the history about the environment from which the practice emerged, helping you to create a similarly fertile place for other practices to grow.
"Support tickets are rising at an unsustainable rate. At the current trend, engineering will be completely focused on support within 18 months, and not delivering any new value to the business".
How to develop a sixth sense for the long-term | Jade Rubick - Engineering Leadership
We talk about some simple techniques to judge the long term trends of a situation.
www.rubick.com
December 12, 2025 at 3:14 PM
"Support tickets are rising at an unsustainable rate. At the current trend, engineering will be completely focused on support within 18 months, and not delivering any new value to the business".
My suggestion is to always be operating at two levels: solving both the immediate problem, and looking at the level of abstraction above that.
Advice for new directors | Jade Rubick - Engineering Leadership
Jade Rubick shares his advice for new directors. All the surprises you may encounter, and tips for navigating the new skills of managing managers.
www.rubick.com
December 11, 2025 at 3:14 PM
My suggestion is to always be operating at two levels: solving both the immediate problem, and looking at the level of abstraction above that.