Marian's Newsletter
Engineering leadership notes: 1:1s, communities of practice, hiring, delivery, career pivots. Written from 3,400+ mentoring sessions since 2019.
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How to Find a Great Mentor: 10 Criteria to Score
How to find a mentor worth paying for: 10 criteria, each scored 0-10, with red flags and the questions to ask. Works on coaches too. Run it on me.
careermentoring
Should I Become a Team Lead? A 6-Dimension Answer
Six dimensions predict whether the team lead role will fit you, drawn from 3,400+ mentoring sessions. Take the 3-minute test, get a straight verdict.
careerengineering managementleadership
AI Agents Don't Shrink Engineering Teams. They Expose Weak Managers.
What AI coding agents change about the first-line engineering manager job: not headcount first, but feedback loops, spans, and what the role is for.
leadershipaiengineering management
How to Become a VP of Engineering: The Three Gaps
A VP of Engineering wrote me about his stuck senior EM. The email defines the EM-to-VPE gap better than any career guide. Three gaps, with fixes.
leadershipcareer
How to Convince Your Manager to Pay for Coaching
The ROI formula, three worked examples in EUR, the 3 to 6 month KPI contract, and a forwardable email your manager can approve in one read.
leadership
How to Find an AI Mentor, Not Another Course
AI courses go stale in months. How engineering leaders learn AI ultra fast with a 1:1 mentor who ships with you, plus five questions to vet one.
leadershipai
I Turned 3,400 Mentoring Sessions Into MCP Tools Your AI Can Call
Why I shipped an MCP server for engineering leadership, what the 8 tools do, and what it changes when your AI assistant can query a mentor's data.
leadershipaimcp
Product Builder: Why the Best Product Engineers Own Marketing, Adoption, and ROI Too
The product builder owns a feature end to end: evaluation, implementation, marketing, activation, adoption. Why this role earns Google money in CEE.
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Engineering Director: What the Role Really Is
What an engineering director does, how the role differs from VP of Engineering and engineering manager, and how to step into it without drowning.
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Head of Engineering: What the Title Means and Where It Sits
What a head of engineering is, how it maps to VP of Engineering and CTO, and why the title means different things at different company sizes.
leadershipcareerorg design
How Much Does Executive Coaching Cost in 2026? US, Europe and CEE Rates
Executive coaching costs 200 to 600 USD per hour in the US, 120 to 330 EUR in Central Europe. Full 2026 rate breakdown, plus one public mentoring price list.
coachingmentoringpricing
Fractional CTO for Startups: What It Is, What It Costs, When You Need One
What a fractional CTO for a startup does, real market rates, and the 6 signals you need one. Written by a fractional CTO who has run the model since 2023.
fractional ctoleadershipconsulting
From -$75k to +$500k Venture in 3 Years: Live Business Lessons, Raw Numbers
My engineering leadership business hit $537k revenue in 2025, from $0 in 3 years. The lessons, the mistakes, and the raw numbers, stream by stream.
consultingleadership
How I Grew a $200k Mentoring Business from Scratch
I turned a 6-month mentoring test into 161+ mentees, 1000+ sessions, and a $200k/year mentoring business. 10 no-BS steps to start and scale.
learningtrust
11 Red Flags It’s Time to Fire Your Consultant
Too many consultants linger without results. Spot the 11 red flags that signal it’s time to fire your consultant, end dependency, and reclaim control.
compensationconsultingleadership
How I Built Leadership Courses That Work
Most leadership courses overpromise and underdeliver. Here’s how I built a practical, results-driven program that truly transforms leaders at scale.
leadershipone on ones
10x Your Market Value: The Tech Leader’s 8-Step Playbook
Learn how to 10x your market value as a tech leader with 8 proven steps to boost your impact and become an irreplaceable asset in any company.
careercompensationleadership
ELC 2025: A Tech Leadership Revolution in Central Europe
ELC 2025 brought 300+ tech leaders to Prague to reshape engineering leadership in Central Europe. Here's what made it a turning point and what's next.
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10 Questions to Find the Right Engineering Management Role
Feeling stuck or burned out? Use these 10 questions to realign your engineering management role and find a path that truly fits your goals and strengths.
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6 proven strategies to hit a 90% candidate conversion rate and build a top startup team
Boost your candidate conversion rate to 90%+ with these 6 proven hiring strategies. Learn how to attract, engage, and secure top engineering talent.
hiringlearning
Fire, fix, or invest? The 3 performance criteria every leader needs.
Fire or invest? Learn 3 key criteria for tough performance decisions before it's too late. Avoid common mistakes and take action to protect your team.
engineering managementleadership
Time to fire your Scrum Master? 10 questions to expose whether your Agile still delivers value.
Discover how continuous improvement, value flow, and strategic alignment can transform your Agile practices and lead your teams to real results.
leadershipmetrics
Stop leading in isolation: build a community of practice for engineering managers
Bi-weekly rituals, 6 discussion areas, the tiger-team model, and the exact tools to run a CoP that genlly changes how EMs work. Real playbook, not theory.
engineering managementcommunityplaybook
Learn or die: 11 steps to transform your ‘learning culture’ from buzzword to reality
Without a real learning culture, your top talent will leave. This guide shows you how to build high-performing teams that thrive through continuous learning.
compensationlearning
CTO exit strategy: 10 proven steps to successfully complete your mission and secure your next role
My CTO exit strategy is grounded in years of experience working with some of the largest software companies in the Czech Republic and mentoring engineering
compensationhiringleadership
30-60-90-day guide to leading your new dev team like a pro
“In three months, I'll embrace the new dev team, complete an internal audit, and present my battle plan.” The 30-60-90 day guide, step by step.
engineering managementleadership
Creating the perfect compensation model for your software development team
Every CTO has faced the challenge: “What’s the best compensation model for my R&D team?” With so many options, it can feel overwhelming.
compensationlearning
Loving My New Porsche? A Provocative Review of Year Three on My $300k Rollercoaster Business.
Exposing my 2024 financial data: every revenue stream, what earned, what flopped, and the plan for 2025. Year three of the $300k rollercoaster.
compensationconsultingsolopreneur
Why isn't my manager listening to me? Mastering six levels of influence to push your ideas.
Don't just bring up problems. Tell your manager what they get in return. Six levels of influence that get your ideas heard, funded, and shipped.
Earn Six Figures in 6 Months: Your Guide to Landing 30+ Clients and Growing Your Business
Currently, I’m guiding two extra mentees with a different mission: They want to follow my path as a solopreneur.
engineering managementsolopreneur
11 Keys to Mastering Performance Reviews: The Good, The Bad, The Successful Elements of Career Frameworks
Have you ever considered performance reviews your team looks forward to? Build a system that brings value to both you and your team.
careerperformance review
Hiring A Software Engineering Manager? 10 Interview Questions to Help You Make the Right Bet.
How do I onboard an Engineering/Tech Manager ace ♣️ in just 3 months? Do this: 1️⃣ Decide how much of Technical/Delivery, Leadership and Process scope you…
compensationengineering managementhiring
Want to get promoted? The software developer’s secret weapon for advancing in your career.
Developers think about technical skills when they want a career promotion. But managers care equally about a broader set of qualities.
career
Engineering Manager Team Leader Training Course - Part One - Foundation
Engineering Manager Course: Confidently lead engineering teams that ship and scale using techniques and lessons acquired through real-world experience.
engineering managementleadership
My 2024 Solopreneur Strategy: 5 Key Objectives to Outperform as a Fractional Advisor and Coach in the Tech Industry
No strategy → no focus → no improvements → no differentiators → no happiness in what I do → back to employee mode.
compensationsolopreneur
Don't Do DORA Metrics First: Rethinking Team Performance Indicators
What's the purpose of having expensive highly performing teams if they don't work on things that matter the most, having 60% off-roadmap contribution?
deliverymetrics
How my unconventional solopreneur strategy and tips put me in an unbeatable spot
A well-crafted battle plan is your strategic compass for handling the competitive space of client engagement.
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How to Succeed as a Consultant on a Client's Site: 10 Steps to Dominate.
Becoming a successful consultant is not guesswork, it's a battle plan. 10 steps to earn trust and dominate on a client's site from day one.
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From VPE to solo mentor: 317 billed sessions in year one
The full story of leaving a €230k VPE seat to build a mentoring venture. Y1 numbers, the strategy that worked, and the mistakes I made.
solopreneurmentoringfounder story
Is there a better way to do 1:1s? Let's find out.
The 60-min slot, the 4-session foundation to build trust, the core agenda, and the async pattern. The full playbook I use with every new mentee running 1:1s.
one on onesengineering managementplaybook
Staff Engineer: What the Role Is, and Where It Differs From Senior
Staff engineer is not senior engineer with a better title. It is a different job: multiplying other engineers, not shipping more code yourself.
9 Solid Tips To Grow Your Team’s Talent in a Year
“I have no time to grow my teammates. We have to deliver.” 9 practical moves to grow your team's talent in a year without dropping delivery.
compensationengineering managementleadership
VP of Engineering @ Mews - A look back on my 1st year
Life is fun! Joining a new company in April 2020 couldn’t have been easier: The Prague HQ office got closed due to the virus whose name we shall not mentio…
compensationengineering managementleadership
How to Make Your Teams Beat OKRs
OKRs for engineering teams that ship: how to set them, wire them to delivery, and make your teams beat them quarter after quarter.
compensationdelivery
Learn or Die - My Daily Learning Habit to Beat the Sleepers
At work, do you need to be a stronger weightlifter to outdo more senior guys? Not necessarily. The difference lies in learning.
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Great people are active in self-learning
Top picks of engineering management and leadership: the books, blogs, and podcasts I keep recommending to my mentees, and why each earns its slot.
engineering managementleadershiplearning
How to Excel in Engineering management
Stay focused and invest your time into improvements of a bigger scale. Don’t stay at the level of resolving small daily issues, which results in hundreds o…
careercompensationengineering management
Estimates: The Art of Guessing Badly
Oftentimes I hear stakeholders or PMs complaining that the engineering team repeatedly fails to complete their work on time.
compensation
Innovation Days: Helping Employee Creativity for Enhanced Company Operation
How Innovatrics runs Innovation Days: giving staff room to pitch ideas beyond the roadmap that end up shaping how the company and product work.
compensationmetrics
How to Build Trust with Engineering Teams
In engineering management, my vision is to create a productive software delivery environment that developers are proud to work in, with a focus on tangible…
compensationdeliveryengineering management
What makes a Great Software Company
The topmost indicators that define great software companies: how they ship, hire, decide, and learn. A checklist to grade your own company against.
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