Mentoring – LOG Framework

On By Magda MiuIn 1. Leadership & Personal DevelopmentLeave a comment

Based on research, mentoring has a powerful positive impact on an individual’s professional growth and is no longer a “nice to have”. It’s essential for teams and organisations that want to thrive within a post-pandemic world. I truly believe that everyone has something to share and everyone has something to learn. Each person can maximize their potential by gaining knowledge, confidence, and skills through access to a mentoring experience.

In this series of articles, I would like to cover more about the power of mentoring and the major advantages of being a mentor and mentee. I will share practical ideas about how to be a wonderful mentor and mentee and how to use mentoring to achieve your objectives. As a bonus 🎁, I will share insights about how to build and run a successful mentoring program in your organisation.

Table of contents:
🚀 What is Mentoring
🚀 Mentor vs Sponsor vs Coach
🚀 Mentoring – Code of Conduct
🚀 The LOG Framework
🚀 Conclusion

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The Culture Map by Erin Meyer

On By Magda MiuIn 1. Leadership & Personal DevelopmentLeave a comment

“You have two eyes, two ears, but only one mouth. You should use them accordingly.”

“The Culture Map” by Erin Meyer provides a framework to understand the most common business communications challenges that are present when you are working in a global context, with colleagues or stakeholders from different cultures.

By assuming that culture does not matter, our default mechanism will be to view others through our own cultural lens and to judge or misjudge them accordingly.

To be successful in a cross-geo context we need to have an appreciation for cultural differences as well as respect for individual differences because both are essential. Cultural patterns of behavior and belief frequently impact our perceptions (what we see), cognitions (what we think), and actions (what we do).

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Prometheus for Managers – Alerting

On By Magda MiuIn 2. System EngineeringLeave a comment

This post is the last one from the series “Prometheus for Managers”. In the second article from this series, the one about Prometheus Architecture, I touched on what Alertmanager does. So to recap, Prometheus allows for setting up alerts based on defined thresholds or conditions and AlertManager handles these alerts and sends them as notifications to multiple channels like email, slack, PagerDuty, etc.

The table of contents for this article:

  • 1️⃣ Recording Rules
  • 2️⃣ Alerting Rules
  • 3️⃣ AlertManager Config
  • 📚 Resources
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Leadership Circles™ at Adobe – A Personal Journey

On By Magda MiuIn 1. Leadership & Personal DevelopmentLeave a comment

“Leadership Circles develops leaders who drive their own personal leadership, their own career and their own success at Adobe” – this was the phrase that started the amazing experience called “Leadership Circles”.

Leadership Circles offered me the opportunity to expand my perspective and think more strategically about my career and my role at Adobe. It was an exceptional experience that helped me to refresh my vision and work more intentionally so I can achieve it. I also had the privilege of meeting outstanding leaders across Adobe, engaging in an enlightening coaching experience, and participating in mindful and empathetic mastermind group sessions.

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Prometheus for Managers – PromQL

On By Magda MiuIn 2. System EngineeringLeave a comment

Welcome to the third part of our series on Prometheus for Managers. In the previous two parts, we explored the fundamentals of Prometheus, its role in system monitoring, and the various types of metrics it captures. Today, we embark on a deeper dive into PromQL, the powerful query language that unlocks the insights hidden within Prometheus data. This query language allows users to perform ad-hoc queries, filtering, aggregations, and analysis on the collected metrics.

In this article we will cover:

⛳ The main concepts relevant to effectively use PromQL
🧐 Deep dives on vectors, selectors & matchers, and functions

Let’s start this new journey! 😉

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Prometheus for Managers – Prometheus Architecture

On By Magda MiuIn 2. System EngineeringLeave a comment

This article serves as a continuation of our series dedicated to Prometheus, designed specifically for managers aiming to harness the power of Prometheus within their teams. While not delving into intricate technical details, it provides essential insights and architectural concepts necessary for managers to make informed decisions and effectively leverage Prometheus in their organizations.

In this article we will explore the following areas:

🔖 Prometheus Terminology
🧐 Prometheus Architecture Deep Dive

So, let’s begin!

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Prometheus for Managers – Intro

On By Magda MiuIn 2. System EngineeringLeave a comment

This article marks the beginning of a series dedicated to Prometheus. These articles are specifically tailored for managers who aim to leverage Prometheus within their teams. While the content will not delve into excessive technical details, it will encompass sufficient information and concepts to enable managers to effectively utilize Prometheus.

Specifically, I will cover:

  • 🧐 What is Prometheus
  • 🖥️ Operational monitoring
  • 📊 Metrics vs Events
  • 🧩 Strategies for handling large volumes of data

So let’s get started!

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Top 3 Challenges After Becoming an Engineering Manager

On By Magda MiuIn 1. Leadership & Personal DevelopmentLeave a comment

Becoming an Engineering Manager is a significant career milestone for many engineers or tech leaders. As a manager, you are responsible for leading a team of technical experts, overseeing the development of projects, and ensuring that the work is delivered on time and at the highest quality. However, the transition from an individual contributor to a manager is not without its challenges.

One of my mentees asked me about the challenges I faced after taking on my new role as an Engineering Manager, so this article will provide insights and my recommendations on how to overcome them. These challenges include balancing technical and managerial responsibilities, leading and inspiring a team, and effective communication. For each challenge I proposed 3 solutions.

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Data Models and Query Languages 

On By Magda MiuIn 2. System Engineering1 Comment

The Chapter 2 from “Designing Data-Intensive Applications” by Martin Kleppmann is covering concepts like data models and query languages.

Data models are having direct impact on how the software is written, but also define how we think about the problem we are working to solve.

There are multiple data models for data storage and querying and the most common used are relational models, document models and graph based data models.

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Reliability, Scalability & Maintainability

On By Magda MiuIn 2. System EngineeringLeave a comment

When designing systems/services is about combining functional requirements (what the system should do) with non-functional requirements (quality attributes or ilities). The challenge here is to develop software with the right quality levels. And to solve this challenge, here comes the concept of Software Architecture Methodology which helps us to build a bridge between the problem space and the solution space.

My role, as an Engineering Manager, is also about technical leadership and helping my teams making the right technical decisions based on data, best practices and current expectations from our clients. And since I just finished to read “Building a Second Brain”, I include here my notes from the book “Designing Data-Intensive Applications” by Martin Kleppmann, a must-read in the system design field.

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