The Retrospective
by Jeremy Brown & Péter Szász
S3:E04 - Letting Someone Go
About this podcast
The Retrospective: A Podcast for Engineering Leaders
If you want to learn more about leading engineering teams, this podcast can help you improve your skills and grow in your role.
We are Péter Szász and Jeremy Brown, experienced technology leaders and your hosts.
We created this podcast to help people who manage tech teams or want to learn how to do so.
We cover principles and concepts, provide how-to guides and tools to help you meet common challenges, share stories from our experiences, and offer advice on how to be effective leaders in the tech world.
Each 20-30-minute episode discusses one topic.
We aim to cover all areas related to engineering leadership:
• How to grow your career and become an engineering manager
• Starting to manage a new team and helping new people join your team
• Delivering results that align with the business goals
• Working well with other teams in the company
• Enabling team and individual success
• Building and maintaining a strong organizational culture
• Hiring practices and growing your team
• Managing managers and scaling leadership
• Team topologies and organizational structure
The podcast is helpful for:
• Engineering managers and those who want to become engineering managers.
• Those on the technical leadership track and who want to grow their leadership skills.
• Senior managers who want to improve themselves and the managers they coach.
Episodes
The newest 20 of 23 episodes
- S3:E04 - Letting Someone Go · 35 min · Season 3 Episode 4In this episode of the ‘Retrospective’ podcast, we tackle one of the toughest challenges in engineering leadership: letting someone go. We begin by discussing the emotional…
- S3:E03 - Timeboxing · 40 min · Season 3 Episode 3In this episode of ‘The Retrospective,’ we dive into the topic of timeboxing as a method for engineering management. We start by explaining what timeboxing is and how it differs…
- S3:E02 - Should Engineering Managers Code? · 40 min · Season 3 Episode 2Should Engineering Managers Code? In this episode, we explore different perspectives, considering both current job market trends and organizational needs. We emphasize the…
- S3:E1 - Task Relevant Maturity · 31 min · Season 3 Episode 1Effective Delegation Using Task Relevant Maturity In this episode of the Retrospective podcast, Jeremy and Peter kick off the third season by discussing the concept of task…
- S2:E07 - Taking Breaks · 29 min · Season 2 Episode 7In this episode of the ‘Retrospective’ podcast, we discuss the importance of taking breaks of various lengths to maintain energy, resilience, and mental health. We explain the…
- S2:E6 - Handling Unplanned Work and Interruptions in Engineering Teams: The Firefighter Role · 31 min · Season 2 Episode 6In this episode, we explore a challenge that plagues every engineering team: the constant stream of interruptions that disrupt our workflows. Drawing from our combined…
- S2E05 - Understanding and Working With Tech Debt · 43 min · Season 2 Episode 5In this episode, we discuss the topic of technical dept. We start with the basic definition, then share techniques about measuring, arguing about and addressing tech debt. A key…
- S2:E04 - What Puts the Senior in Senior Software Engineer? · 27 min · Season 2 Episode 4In this episode of The Retrospective podcast, co-hosts Jeremy and Peter delve into the characteristics that define a senior software engineer. They explore the multifaceted…
- S2: E03 - Engineering Manager Gets a New Team · 37 min · Season 2 Episode 3In this episode of the ‘Retrospective’ podcast, Jeremy and Peter explore crucial strategies for engineering managers transitioning to new teams. Emphasizing the importance of…
- S2: E02 - Recognising and Tackling Quiet Quitting · 33 min · Season 2 Episode 2In this episode of The Retrospective, Peter and Jeremy discuss ‘quiet quitting’ in the workplace, a situation in which employees lose motivation and only do the minimum required…
- S2 E01 - A New Format · 9 min · Season 2 Episode 1Join Peter and Jeremy as they kickoff the first episode of Season 2, reflecting on their learnings from Season 1 and outlining exciting changes and plans for the new season…
- #10 The Retrospective 1st October 2024 - Getting Hired: The Recruiter's Perspective with Peter Batiz · 1 h 23 min · Season 1 Episode 10Getting Hired: The Recruiter's Perspective with special guest Peter Batiz This episode covers the challenges and opportunities engineering managers face, the importance of…
- #9 The Retrospective 24th September 2024 - The Offer (Getting Hired as an Engineering Manager) · 1 h 45 min · Season 1 Episode 9Péter and Jeremy discuss the last stage of the interviewing process: the offer. They include strategies for managing job transitions, including securing roles, negotiating…
- #8 - part 2 The Retrospective 18th September 2024 - Interviewing (Getting Hired as an Engineering Manager) · 51 min · Season 1 Episode 8In the second part of the 8th episode of the podcast, Jeremy and Péter discuss engineering manager interview strategies, focusing on Péter’s co-authored article about…
- #8 - part 1 The Retrospective 12th September 2024 - Interviewing (Getting Hired as an Engineering Manager) · 1 h 4 min · Season 1 Episode 8In this episode of 'The Retrospective' podcast, engineering leaders Jeremy and Peter discuss Peter’s series on getting hired as an engineering manager, focusing on the interview…
- #7 The Retrospective 17th June 2024:The Four Must-Have Weekly Meetings for Engineering Managers + AI Coding Experiments · 1 h 12 min · Season 1 Episode 8In this episode of the 'Retrospective' weekly podcast, Jeremy and Peter discuss key engineering leadership topics. Jeremy delves into his latest article on the four essential…
- #6 The Retrospective 10th June 2024: Career Security, Innovation, and the Tech Industry in 2024 · 1 h 10 min · Season 1 Episode 7In this episode, we discuss the critical importance of career security over job security in the changing tech landscape, highlighting strategies for sustaining and advancing…
- #5 The Retrospective 3rd of June 2024 · 1 h 28 min · Season 1 Episode 6Jeremy’s article on How to Innovate: https://www.jeremybrown.tech/how-to-innovate • Clayton Christensen’s books on Disruptive Innovation (Jeremy was referring to “The…
- #4 The Retrospective 27th of May 2024 · 1 h 50 min · Season 1 Episode 5Chapters (notes below): 00:00::00 Awkward intros 00:00:51 Reflecting on Benoit's (CPTO of Lunii) guest appearance last week and the 4 day work week 00:14:28 What correlates…
- #3 The Retrospective 20th May 2024 - Adopting the 4-Day Workweek with Benoit Terpereau CPTO @ Lunii · 1 h 6 min · Season 1 Episode 4Show Notes: • Lunii, where our guest Benoit is CPTO: https://lunii.com/ • Lunii’s LinkedIn announcement about going 4-day a week…







