#7 The Retrospective 17th June 2024:The Four Must-Have Weekly Meetings for Engineering Managers + AI Coding Experiments

In 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 weekly ceremonies for engineering managers to ensure smooth and predictable execution. The ceremonies include the weekly kickoff, daily sync, one-on-one meetings, and the weekly review.

Peter shares his recent experiment with AI-assisted coding, using ChatGPT for a Google Apps Script project, highlighting the benefits and challenges of leveraging AI in software development.

Show notes:

• Jeremy’s article on the Four Must-Have Weekly Meetings for Engineering Managers: https://www.jeremybrown.tech/the-four-must-have-weekly-meetings-for-engineering-managers/
• Jeremy’s earlier article about sharing at 20%: https://www.jeremybrown.tech/the-20-percent-rule/
• Explainer on Task Relevant Maturity: https://getlighthouse.com/blog/management-concept/
• John Cutler on Troubleshooting Status Updates: [https://cutlefish.substack.com/p/tbm-252-how-to-troubleshoot-status](https://cutlefish.substack.com/p/tbm-252-how-to-troubleshoot-status?ref=jeremybrown.tech)
• Peter’s updates including AI-assisted coding experiences: https://peterszasz.com/week-24-2024-ai-coding-search-and-creativity/
• BI dashboard and tools article Jeremy mentioned: https://briefer.cloud/blog/posts/self-serve-bi-myth/ - AI Summary “Sales pitches often oversell the idea of "self-serve dashboards," but in reality, it often falls short as non-technical users lack the context to interpret data accurately. The key to successful self-serve BI lies in technical support for business stakeholders using flexible tools that cater to their needs efficiently. Providing technical people with tools like LLMs, Python, and easy data sharing capabilities can bridge the gap between technical complexity and business user needs.”

00:00 Intros

00:37 4 Weekly Meetings for Engineering Managers

01:59 Why Work to a Weekly Cadence?

03:30 Projects and Milestones

09:03 The Weekly Team Kick-off / Planning Meeting

20:06 Daily Sync (Standup) and Team Connection

33:21 One-on-One Meetings

37:16 Monthly Career Focus and Continuous Feedback and Coaching

38:11 One-to-One Frequency

40:15 Task Relevance Maturity Framework

41:35 The Weekly Review Meeting

46:04 Stakeholder Communication and Status Updates

58:02 Retrospectives and Team Health

01:03:23 Using AI for Coding Projects

01:12:14 Wrapping up!