Rubick
rubick.com · Personal blog · on HN since 2021
Rubick is a blog on engineering management, covering team coordination, project management, and how tech leaders get accurate information.
What HN saysHN commenters link 'Everyone Lies to Leaders' and discuss it alongside organizational models such as Amazon's single-threaded owner; the author joins in on retention.
24HN people shared it
3linked it in comments
63stories submitted
957story points
3 months agolast shared
2021people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1How to build silos and decrease collaboration on purpose4 people · 258 points · first shared 2021 · 54 comments on HN
- 2Everyone Lies to Tech Leaders3 people · 21 points · first shared 2021 · 8 comments on HN
- 3Unusual tips to keep Slack from becoming a nightmare3 people · 8 points · first shared 2021 · 1 comments on HN
- 4Great engineering teams focus on milestones instead of projects2 people · 272 points · first shared 2021 · 89 comments on HN
- 5Demo-Driven Development2 people · 30 points · first shared 2021 · 11 comments on HN
- 6Product engineering teams avoid dependencies: the independent executor model2 people · 10 points · first shared 2021 · discussion on HN
- 7The three most common anti-patterns for managing projects2 people · 7 points · first shared 2021 · discussion on HN
- 8Coordination Models2 people · 6 points · first shared 2021 · discussion on HN
- 9Secret tips for effective startup hiring and recruiting2 people · 4 points · first shared 2021 · 1 comments on HN
- 10Managing a Bottleneck Team2 people · 3 points · first shared 2024 · discussion on HN
- 11Implementing Amazons single threaded owner model a retrospective2 people · 3 points · first shared 2021 · discussion on HN
- 12What do great engineering managers need to know about compensation and equity?1 people · 123 points · first shared 2022 · 85 comments on HN
- 13No-bullshit tenets for faster decision-making1 people · 80 points · first shared 2021 · 46 comments on HN
- 14What are the problems with process gates?1 people · 56 points · first shared 2022 · 50 comments on HN
- 15Should QA Exist1 people · 9 points · first shared 2026 · 9 comments on HN
What HN people wrote when they linked it
cpeterso · 2024-04-13
An organizational solution to this problem is (Amazon’s) “single-threaded owner” model: all the disciplines report to (perhaps with a dotted line in a matrix org) one directly-responsible manager. The manager sees the big picture and can break down roadblocks, though they still may be building their own empire and reluctant to pivot or shut down their big project.
https://www.rubick.com/implementing-amazons-single-threaded-owner-mode…
thelastgallon · 2023-09-13
This is the right way to lead.
Everyone lies to leaders: https://www.rubick.com/everyone-lies-to-leaders/
jadeforrest · 2022-05-15
I'm the author of the original piece. Totally agree with this -- it can be quite simple to implement. Increasing retention makes a big difference. Unfortunately, there are more incentives to hire than to retain, so many companies do a poor job of it.
I've been at three companies that have implemented pay equity (and one of those I was the one implementing it). I wrote up a guide to implementing pay equity here: https://www.rubick.com/implementing-pay-equity/ and it's basically as you describe -- have new and existing employees get paid the same rate, with no manager or recruiter discretion.