Today, I want to talk about a silent killer of software engineer reputations — bad coding hygiene.
I’ve seen it happen over and over again. A new engineer joins the team, eager to start strong. They dive into the code, push a few commits, open their first pull request… and then it hits. Reviewers look at the code and find a mess: test cases that don’t follow naming conventions, i and j used as variable names, dead code hanging around like forgotten leftovers, unformatted blocks of logic, and the classic — TODOs that scream “I didn’t finish this but please merge anyway.”
When I take on managing a new engineering team, whether by inheriting an existing one or hiring from scratch, one of the first things I do is create a Team Knowledge Density document. This document helps me understand how knowledge is distributed across the team, identify areas where expertise is siloed, and take action to mitigate risks. Over the years, it has proven to be one of my most effective tools for setting up teams for success.
In my engineering team, we hold daily standups, and to keep things engaging, we wanted to randomize the order of speakers each day. However, we quickly realized that while randomizing keeps things fresh, it also catches people off guard if they don't know when they will be called upon. To solve this, I built an automation using Google Apps Script that:
Randomizes the standup order while grouping people from the same workstream together.
Sends a Slack message every weekday morning at 9 AM with the order.
Pulls the attendee list from a Google Spreadsheet, allowing easy updates.
This post walks through the entire setup, including code snippets, Slack integration, and lessons learned.
From time to time, your direct report or colleague will take extended time away from work. It could be a parental leave or a sabbatical or an extended time off to take care of personal things. Whatever the reason, when they come back, they are going to be overwhelmed by the thousands of Slack and email notifications that they have missed while they were away.
