Hey, I'm Diego.
I work at Spotify as a software engineering leader, and some of my previous professional experiences include leading engineering organisations at Spotify, WhatsApp, Toptal and a few startups.
I started writing in this website as a way of learning in public and digesting some of my own thoughts. You'll find here some of my views on engineering management, software engineering, product development, and whatever is on my mind.
Occasionally, I offer consulting sessions for software engineers and engineering managers.
You can read more about me on my social media profiles which are listed below and you're always welcome to reach out.
Latest notes
Outro and optimism
I'm leaving Spotify and joining Intercom. This is a note of gratitude for what I've experienced at the band and my optimism for what is to come. Continue reading
Just enough
It's easy to fall in love with complexity, but just enough is the closest to perfect as it gets. Continue reading
The other side of patience
A reminder that patience should be much beyond enduring challenges. In practical terms, patience is about engaging with time and finding joy in the present. Continue reading
Navigating the transition to management
My take on a change that can feel like 'a fork in the road': going from a software engineering role to a software engineering management role. Continue reading
Trust is antifragile
After reading about 'anti-fragility', I wrote a brief reflection on how relationships built on trust can get better through unavoidable volatility, randomness, disorder and stressors. Continue reading
Out of bounds
While good software engineering is universal across disciplines, managing teams where you lack technical depth can be challenging. In this article I talk a bit about what has worked for me. Continue reading
Performance enablement
Performance management is the means to plan, review, and reward people for their contributions. My view is that as a manager you should focus more on enablement rather than control. Continue reading
Alignment across organisations
Finding alignment across orgs with different priorities can be hard. It's also an invaluable skill for senior leaders. Here are a few ways to get to a shared understanding to ship your product. Continue reading
Three simple principles for delegation
Delegation is a cornerstone in leadership, and fundamental to scale yourself as a leader. I've tried to synthesise what I believe to be good delegation into three simple principles. Continue reading
Composition for teams
Similarly to software, teams can benefit from composition. A common org design pattern is defining a platform team and leveraging it through many application teams. Continue reading
System Design: Capacity Planning basics
Capacity planning is an underemphasized subject in system design. Approaching it as part of the design process can be tremendously helpful. Here are some of the basics. Continue reading
Reorganising teams through experimentation
Engineering teams can grow in unexpected ways like systems do. Utilising experimentation concepts can help find the right design before you fully commit to org changes. Continue reading
Calibrations for software engineering interviews
Assessing candidates for a role is not a straightforward task, and sometimes there are conflicting interests. Here's my take on how to the process more consistent. Continue reading
Posture in system design interviews
System Design interviews are my favourite interview type, given beyond the technical parts there is a large behavioural component. Here are ideas on how to o well in the more subjective bits. Continue reading
Review: The Making of a Manager
Prior to joining Facebook I read "The Making of a Manager" by Julie Zhuo, who joined the team as an intern and grew into a VP Design role. I summarised what impacted me the most in the book. Continue reading
Language as a tool for engineering teams
A take on how to overcome problems engineering and product development teams face with stakeholders, goals and metrics through an universal, yet very powerful tool: language. Continue reading
Review: Radical Candor
Three reflections I made after reading Kim Scott's "Radical Candor", which I consider to be one of the best books for managers and leaders, regardless of their craft and experience level. Continue reading