Master Workplace Influence; Onboarding faster with AI; Claude for SMBs is Here!
Issue #89 Bytes
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Article of the Week â
âManagers do not spend a lot of time investigating who is doing the best work. They are usually overwhelmed with their own workload and are just trying to survive.â
How workplace influence really works
Ethan Evans left Amazon in 2020 as a VP over 800 people across Prime Video, gaming, and Twitch. Before that, two startups laid him off from VP-level roles because his style created more friction than his output was worth. This interview covers the parts of corporate life nobody documents: the polite fictions, the back-channeling, the warning signs that appear months before HR gets involved.
Visibility beats quality in most promotion decisions. One engineer does strong technical work quietly; another does decent work and publicizes it. A busy manager hears more about the second one. Engineers define âbestâ as technically superior. Managers reward whatâs easy to see and easy to work with.
By the time a PIP starts, the manager has already run out of options. Warning signs arrive months earlier as soft feedback. Managers deliver them gently; engineers hear them as routine growth notes. Recovery almost never happens.
Influence and manipulation use the same tactics; motive separates them. Reframing, back-channeling, pre-wiring a decision: all legitimate if youâre genuinely helping. Manipulation is the same moves, executed while indifferent to the harm they cause.
âBrilliant and bluntâ is a choice. Ethan was that engineer. Two layoffs changed him. His read: engineers who claim this as a fixed trait usually enjoy being right more than they care about working relationships. Social skills can be learned, and he is evidence.
To find out whether youâre an umbrella or a funnel manager, ask former employees, specifically ones who left the team a year or more ago and are safely elsewhere. Theyâre the only ones who will tell you the truth.
At director, senior manager and staff level youâre inside this system from both sides: making promotion calls and being subject to them.
Evans is rare in admitting that even as VP, he made decisions based on who he wanted to work with over who was most qualified.
Other highlights đ
How to Use AI to Onboard Into a Codebase Faster
If you're opening a codebase for the first time without AI, you're losing hours you don't need to spend. Jeff Morhous at CoverMyMeds shares a 4-step framework: run /init with Opus (not Sonnet â reasoning upfront saves correction later) to generate an architecture map, prompt for the test pyramid, then get a reproducible local setup based on actual repo files. He includes the exact prompts for each step. The habit worth adding even on familiar codebases: ask for a change plan before writing any code, so the agent names files, tests, and risks before it starts editing.
Anthropic Launches Claude For Small Business
Anthropic launched Claude for Small Business on May 13. 15 pre-built agentic workflows and connectors to QuickBooks, PayPal, HubSpot, Canva, Docusign, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, and Slack. Human approval is required before anything executes; Claude reads and drafts, you sign off.
Karo Zieminski's breakdown covers the decision tree for picking your first workflow and the trust-boundary model (Claude inherits your existing permissions, so it can't touch data you can't touch).
For engineering leaders, the distribution play is worth watching: Canva has $500M+ in B2B revenue and PayPal has tens of millions of sellers. Anthropic is shipping inside the tools SMBs already open every day.
Find Yourself đ»
Thatâs it for Today!
Whether youâre innovating on new projects, staying ahead of tech trends, or taking a strategic pause to recharge, may your day be as impactful and inspiring as your leadership.
See you next week, Ciao đ
Credits đ
Curators - Diligently curated by our community members Denis & Varun
Featured Authors - Ethan Evans (w. Dr Milan MilanoviÄ), Jeff Morhous (w. Gregor Ojstersek), Karo (Product with Attitude)
Sponsors - This newsletter is sponsored by Typo AI - Engineering Intelligence Platform for the AI Era.
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