Tobi(as Mende)

The 5 Processes Every Business Should Automate First Most businesses I work with know they should automate more.

Thoughts on AI, Productivity, and What We Should Do Differently In the last couple of months, I got to use Claude code a lot for software development, and I am at a point with it, where it gives me consistently high-quality results at incredible speed.

Building in Public – Part 3: How We built the Diving Nomads Partner Map This is part three of the Building Diving Nomads in Public series.

At Diving Nomads, we’re building something special for digital nomads who love scuba diving.

Building Diving Nomads in Public: How We Onboard Dive Centers and Automate Memberships with (Almost) No Code TL;DR We’re building a platform for digital nomads with a passion for scuba diving.

Creating a superior developer experience is key to motivating and streamlining engineering teams, serving as a strategic pillar for business success.

Rethinking Leadership in B2B SaaS: Lessons from Self-Managing Organizations Two months ago, I joined the Corporate Rebels Masterclass – a hands-on exploration of how pioneering companies like Buurtzorg, Haier, Viisi, and others approach leadership, struct…

With the number of daily decisions increasing significantly over the past ten years, effective decision-making is crucial.

“You don’t have a delegation problem.

Most software engineering teams operate far below their capabilities.

There’s no shortage of leadership advice out there.

Deciding Better: How to Make Faster, Smarter, and More Effective Decisions in Your Organization The quality of your decisions influences the quality of your life.

The Leadership Dilemma – When Times Change and Generations Collide Your leadership style is heavily influenced by the leadership you have experienced yourself.

Organizational Change and Leadership — Driving change effectively within organizations Many people believe that you have to be in an official leadership position with official authority and power to lead change in organizations.

Better Alternatives to Performance Reviews Traditional performance reviews often fall short of delivering the value they promise.

Performance Reviews Considered Harmful Performance reviews are widely accepted in software companies to provide feedback, justify or object to promotions, and discuss compensation increases.

Many organizations struggle with streamlining the software delivery process, resulting in slower delivery, lower quality, and decreased customer satisfaction.

Organizational Tension Processing – Driving Change in Self-Organizing Companies Newcomers to self-organization often mistake the lack of a people-hierarchy for complete chaos.

Don’t motivate people Now and then, when working with leaders, I get the question of how they could motivate their people.

How to give outstanding code reviews (if you have to) Most software companies use code reviews to ensure that at least two people check each part of the code base and maintain its quality.

Increase Engineering Productivity by 50% Through Focus and Flow Creating an environment where developers can maintain focus and achieve flow can lead to a 50% increase in productivity, as research suggests.

Value-Stream-Oriented Kanban Many teams, especially in the startup environment, move away from Scrum and use a leaner Kanban-based approach.

Things I love and hate about the state of software companies in 2024 Disclaimer: This started as a rant, not meant to be published.

11 Aspects Most Startups Get Wrong About OKRs and How to Fix it Objectives and key results (OKRs) can be a powerful tool.

Self-organizing companies don’t need managers but coaches If you are a manager or consider managing teams and organizations a significant part of your profession, the title will likely cause a feeling of rejection or a strong disagreement.

Cutting through the noise – becoming myself again In the last two years, I got tons of advice about how to start my own business, how to find clients, how to market myself, how much to charge, how to position myself, … you name it.

May the LLM be with You – On Planes and German Trains This might be the unofficial seventh part of the “AI for DevEx” series.

LLMs for General Productivity Improvements (AI for DevEx, Part 6) Welcome to part 6 of AI for DevEx.

What AI Tools Mean for Deployment, Operations and Security (AI for DevEx, Part 5) Welcome back to AI for DevEx, Part 5.

How AI Improves Collaboration and Communication (AI for DevEx, Part 4) Welcome to part 4 of AI for DevEx.

How Testing and Quality Assurance Change Through AI (AI for DevEx, Part 3) Part 3 of the AI for DevEx series examines testing and quality assurance.

Custom GPTs as a Developer Companion (AI for DevEx, Part 2) Part 2 of “AI for DevEx” focuses on the new GPTs announced by OpenAI on November 6th and how they can enhance the experience for developers.

Writing and Improving Code with AI (AI for DevEx, Part 1) Artificial intelligence (AI) is here to stay.

Collaboration for Introverts: The Myth of the solo-working Introvert Almost all the teams I met throughout my career were collaborating too little.

Benefits of Collaboration In my career, I’ve seen many “teams” that mainly collaborate only when the work gets tough or if someone has been stuck for days.

How outstanding teams form without team-building exercises Building outstanding and high-performing teams is the dream of every engineering leader.

Selling DevEx Initiatives in Purpose vs.

Why We Need to Stop Measuring (Developer) Productivity — Part 2 This is part two of my article on measuring developer productivity.

How BRYTER Achieved Increased Developer Experience, Ownership, Product Quality, and Engineering Effectiveness through Continuous Deployments BRYTER, a German LegalTech scale-up, faced challenges with its monolithic deployment process and limited understan…

Why We Need to Stop Measuring (Developer) Productivity — Part 1 Leaders are obsessed with productivity metrics.

Company Culture determines Product Quality You have probably heard the claim that improving developer experience and company culture will lead to higher product quality and satisfied customers.

Improving Developer Experience, Level 4: Optimizing Feedback Loops: Tools, Tests, and Teamwork Last week, we dove into focus, clarity, and flow.

Improving Developer Experience, Level 3: The Triad of Clarity, Focus, and Flow Last week, we delved deep into “Belonging, Collaboration, and Communication“.

Improving Developer Experience, Level 2: Belonging, Collaboration, and Communication As part of the ongoing series about improving Developer Experience (DevEx), the last article highlighted the significance of psychological safety, stability, and work-life

Improving Developer Experience: Starting with Psychological Safety, Team Stability, and Work-Life Balance As companies strive to foster an environment that promotes creativity, motivation, and productivity, they increasingly recognize the role Developer E…

Measuring Developer Experience – A Balanced Approach Developer Experience is one of the most essential factors for high-performing teams and organizations.

11 Tips to Prevent Survey Fatigue in Your Organization Surveys are a vital tool to measure and understand the perceived developer experience within a team or organization.

Ways to Decrease Performance: Daily Standups In this second article of my series, “Ways to Decrease Performance”, I will dive into the exciting topic of “daily standups.”

Ways to Decrease Performance: Velocity Tracking This is the first article of my series, “Ways to Decrease Performance”, which intends to trigger critical reflection on common “Agile” practices, that is, practices that I see many ”agile” teams doing.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs — DevEx Edition Do you know how to prioritize your developer experience investments?