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Sveta B
@SBozhko
🌟 My own opinions 🌟 Director of Engineering @ computer vision 🦄 •
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alumna • Ex
@Meraki
@BuzzFeed
@DeliverooEng
• Co-host #DevZen Podcast.
Londonlinkedin.com/in/svbozhko/Joined May 2010
1,347 Following
3,152 Followers

Sveta B’s Tweets

Sveta B
@SBozhko
Sad and heartbroken 💔 Can’t believe our taxes will be directed to Barclays instead of a nonprofit.
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Tech Nation
@TechNation
After a decade transforming UK tech, Tech Nation announces it will cease operations and seek to transfer its assets, following termination of its core government grant funding hubs.ly/Q01zKxSn0 #WeAreTechNation #UKTech #scaleups
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Sveta B
@SBozhko
It’s quite unintuitive but exceptionally fast decision making when it comes to complex questions touching multiple people might be a sign of top down processes where people have to follow orders coming from the top.
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Sveta B
@SBozhko
When I manage managers, I often ask myself: “Would I be willing to report to this manager some day? If no - why? What behaviours do I need to see to change my mind?” These questions help me think through the specifics and give better and more tangible feedback.
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Sveta B
@SBozhko
While the whole FTX drama unravels, you know what fascinates me the most compared to the Theranos one? People don’t talk about the appearance of the FTX founder. With Theranos, pretty much each piece of journalism touched upon her looks. Such different standards and sentiment.
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Sveta B
@SBozhko
Having done this myself and having coached EMs to do this in a compassionate and mindful way, I’d strongly recommend the guide above ^^ Def worth a listen! Here’s another one on how to have a challenging conversation about perf issues and letting smb go
moderncto.io
#505 Hard Conversations in the Workplace with Brendan Wovchko, CTO of Ramsey Soutions
Today we’re talking to Brendan Wovchko, CTO of Ramsey Solutions; and we discuss how to have hard conversations in the workplace, the philosophy of Brendan’s “emotional firing,” and the advantage of...
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Sveta B
@SBozhko
Laying someone off is one of the hardest things we may need to do as managers. Many folks are going through this with little to no support atm. Often official HR guidelines are lacking authenticity and human to human connection. I’ve got a better guide
lennyspodcast.com
How to fire people with grace, work through fear, and nurture innovation | Matt Mochary (CEO coach)
Matt Mochary, CEO of Mochary Method, is a full-time executive coach who has worked with some of the biggest names in tech and finance, including investor…
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Sveta B
@SBozhko
Had a random conversation with a stranger in a coffee shop. They were absolutely convinced that I’m from Scotland and couldn’t believe that my first language’s Ru. Previously people were like you sound German/Nordic to me. Achievement unlocked ✅ This country is my home now ❤️
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Sveta B
@SBozhko
“a Director is senior enough that no one above asks much how you’re doing, and no one below does either” I get this question a lot: what’s the difference bw Sr EM & Director? Just saw this piece by
@uicynthia
- such a great post on what directors do ❤️
medium.com
What Should I Be Doing Right Now? The Director’s Edition
In 2016, I gave a talk at the Calibrate conference titled “What Should I be Doing Right Now?”. Shortly afterwards, I published a blog post…
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Sveta B Retweeted
Shreyas Doshi
@shreyas
Pretty much all best practices for creating group experiences (events, meetings, offsites, etc.) are exclusively catered to the preferences of extroverts. The introverts in these settings feel like they must just play along (mainly because they feel they _should_ be enjoying it).
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Sveta B
@SBozhko
Can’t agree enough! I’ve seen way too many times how “data driven” gets misused by eng leaders. Somehow in engineering we hate to admit the power of intuition.
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Aditya Agarwal
@adityaag
A common question from VPEs: What metrics/data can I use to evaluate an engineering team's performance? This a classic "How can I justify my intuition question". A thread on having conviction 🧵 (1/)
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Sveta B Retweeted
Bandan
@bandanjot
Being data-driven is better in environments where you want to consistently make safe bets. Being data-informed is better in conditions where you want to maximize your chance of making winning bets (Play risk against varying degrees of rewards)
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Sveta B
@SBozhko
Found this fantastic podcast episode on how to onboard into a new team if you’re an engineer. Note for managers: just turn this into an onboarding plan — and that’s your expectations doc, clearly articulated and actually useful
buzzsprout.com
#46- How to Learn a New Codebase, Quickly - Develop Yourself
One of the most intimated parts of being a Software Engineer, at any level, is onboarding to a new team and having to learn a new codebase.In this episode, Aaron walks through 5 steps to take to...
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Sveta B
@SBozhko
Wish there was a tool to plan staffing needs and do org design at the same time! Most HR tools suck at it. They miss the point only focusing on your current org hierarchy which is rarely enough. While headcount planning & org design is still such a painful process everywhere.
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Sveta B
@SBozhko
Over time I’ve learned how to deal with that in a 1-1 setting. Yet need to learn how to stop that effectively in larger groups without derailing discussions. Some day I won’t need to deal with that anymore. Some day!
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Sveta B
@SBozhko
I run a platform engineering org and still experience cases when some folks (esp those who haven’t worked with me long enough) assume I don’t understand the difference b/w the services my teams own and jump into over explaining. Annoying as hell.
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Sveta B Retweeted
Gergely Orosz
@GergelyOrosz
So much of the dev productivity tooling industry reminds me of the Silicon Valley episode where Sales is hired first. They then tell eng what to build. This stuff is built for the non-technical CEO & CFO to sign off on buying it. Take a look at how Jellyfish defines itself 🤯
Think in code, speak in profit
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Sveta B
@SBozhko
So if you see a certain behaviour from someone in a position of power, it doesn’t mean this behaviour is great and needs to be mimicked. You don’t know but they might be actively trying and struggling to improve it!
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Sveta B
@SBozhko
People in a position of authority often perceived as role models. Rarely do they openly talk about their own weaknesses/struggles with their teams. But people (other unconsciously!) tend to replicate the behaviours and traits they see among leaders.
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Sveta B
@SBozhko
Getting a watch that tracks laps automatically has been game changing for my swimming results! I’ve tried Apple Watch, then Garmin, but went back to Apple. Beyond impressed with the tracking quality! Seen in practice how a simple act of measuring accelerates the pace of progress.
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Sveta B
@SBozhko
I’m actually glad I decided to accept my current role back in February! Well done, Sveta 🙌🏻 Back than I was struggling with making this decision. Now I’m about 4 months in and feel much happier with my career, learning, growth and development!
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Sveta B
@SBozhko
This week I was acting VP of Engineering while my manager was on holiday. What a week! It was a great experience overall. I feel like I’ve learned so much during these days and uncovered one more layer of context 🤓 This experience has certainly made me a much better director!
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Sveta B
@SBozhko
Often it comes with tricky tradeoffs. I can’t optimise for the happiness of one team or one individual. Which means making really tough calls sometimes. I haven’t thought about it this way while being a Sr EM. It puts things in perspective. My perspective was certainly narrower.
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Sveta B
@SBozhko
One of the key differences b/w being a manager vs being a director is the scope I’m optimising for. Now I need to balance out much more things to make the whole organisation successful and well functioning.
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Sveta B
@SBozhko
Taking my family history into account, with my father passing away after being v sick, my condition ain’t looking that bad anymore. wondering what the heck in my DNA makes me so sensitive to this plaque.
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Sveta B
@SBozhko
That moment when you get invited to three major engineering leadership events in just one week. boy was I looking forward to going there! But…. freaking covid 😢 I’m two weeks in and not yet recovered. Still tested positive. 3x vaccinated and could barely get through it. WTF.
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Sveta B
@SBozhko
On a related note. I was catching up with a friend of mine who’s a new EM at faang. So they told me that in almost every 1-1 the engineers on their team ask “if I do project X, how would that impact my perf review” 😬
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