7.6 KiB
← Week 31 - Weekly Review - 2026-07-31
→ Week 33 - Weekly Review - 2026-08-14
🎯 Executive Summary (2-3 sentences)
Overall health of the department:
Operations remained stable, but several strategic projects slipped due to validation findings, changing priorities, and resource constraints. This week also highlighted opportunities to strengthen project governance, documentation discipline, and the balance between operational work and project commitments.
Traffic light: 🟡
This week's headline:
- Shifted from tracking execution to actively managing project commitments and accountability.
Wins 🏆
Things that moved the company forward.
- Successfully prepared and delivered the VP project portfolio presentation.
- Established clearer expectations around project ownership, commitments, and operational coverage.
- Continued building my long-term management system in Obsidian to centralize decisions, employee follow-ups, meetings, and projects.
- Wrote a lot about solutions for a better Mogador and a Sync v2 which I'll call content publication engine (CPE)
Risks ⚠️
What keeps me awake?
| Risk | Impact | Mitigation | Owner |
|---|---|---|---|
| PBI Algolia delivery continues to slip after validation findings | High | Re-establish remaining work, validate against approved scope | Binta |
| QA capacity reduced during Habiba's vacation | Medium | Reduce non-urgent requests and prioritize operational work | Me |
| Operational coverage during Habiba, Valery and Joel vacation | Medium | Reduce non-urgent requests and prioritize operations | Me |
Team 👥
Team health
Overall morale: 🟡 Normal
Coaching / Recognition
Who deserves recognition?
- Habiba for identifying critical issues during validation instead of approving questionable results.
- Slimane for continuing to move BetterStack monitoring forward despite shifting priorities.
Who needs coaching?
- Binta on estimation, ownership, testing strategy, communication, and balancing project work with operational responsibilities.
- Slimane needs more autonomy in prioritization and technical decision-making.
Any conflicts?
- Ongoing concerns regarding Algolia execution and expectations around project ownership for Binta. Hasn't done the "formation" from Ai Rei's jira ticket
Any hiring concerns?
- None this week.
Projects 📁
| Project | Status | Next Milestone | Blocker |
|---|---|---|---|
| VP Portfolio | 🟢 | September follow up | None |
| BetterStack Heartbeats | 🟡 | Selection and implementation | Operation takeover with tickets |
| Umami | 🟡 | Establish new timeline | Operation then vacations |
| FMC | 🟢 |
First draft as to what is available | None |
| Algolia | 🔴 | Validation | Me + Habiba vacation |
Projects slipping:
- Algolia
- Umami
- Monitor Mogador
Projects completed:
- VP portfolio presentation
Vendors 🤝
Any issue?
- Important discussion regarding advertisement placement requiring follow-up Mediatonik
- Trings is asking $3500 for tags which I'll approve
Renewals coming?
- None
Invoices pending?
- None handled the ones from Affranchis and Libeo
Contract risks?
- None
KPIs 📈
Important numbers this week.
- No formal KPI review.
- Main focus remained project execution and delivery.
- Executive visibility into project portfolio improved.
Anything unusual?
Decisions Made
| Decision | Why |
|---|---|
| Prioritize Board of Directors work over Algolia validation | Executive priority |
| Will pay $3500 extra to trings for tags | Keeping the OTT in french see 2026-08-07 - Pay Trings for the french tabs |
Decisions Needed
What decisions must be made next week?
- Do we need a 2nd streams for the live on the OTT
- Do I tell the team about CPE
Meetings
Which meetings created value?
- Sprint review
- Meeting with JC about the live POC and streamin
Which meetings should disappear?
Which meetings could become:
- Slack
- Dashboard
- Monthly instead of weekly
Delegation
What did I unnecessarily do myself?
- Anything mogador
What should be delegated next week?
- Anything Idello
- Continue delegating technical execution while focusing on commitments, priorities, and outcomes.
Learning
Books
Articles
Podcasts
Lessons learned
- Validation should confirm quality, not discover fundamental defects.
- Approved project documents should not be modified without communication.
- A manager's role is to manage commitments and decisions rather than solve technical problems.
Process Improvements
Something that annoyed me this week.
- Important project documentation was modified after approval without notification.
How can I make sure it never happens again?
- Require communication whenever approved project documentation changes.
- Continue formalizing project governance and documentation practices.
CEO Questions
If the CEO walked in Monday morning, what questions might they ask?
- When will Algolia actually be completed?
- What projects are currently at risk?
- Are we properly staffed for upcoming priorities?
Do I already know the answers? Yes
Top Priorities Next Week
-
Review Binta's tickets and delivery of the FMC project
-
See if Affranchis has a solution for the sync issues
-
Start talking about CPE.
Personal Reflection
Energy (1-10): 8
Stress (1-10): 4
Biggest accomplishment: Mogador and preparing the presentation for the VP
Biggest mistake:
- Not following closely Binta
- Not establishing earlier expectations around documentation governance and operational/project balancing.
One thing to improve next week:
- Ask better question
- Do more follow up
- Ask for documentation
Parking Lot
Random ideas to revisit later.
CTO Development
Leadership
- Improved documentation of employee performance and coaching discussions.
- Strengthened expectations around ownership and commitments.
Technology
- Continued refining the Obsidian knowledge system.
- Advanced BetterStack monitoring planning.
Business
- Improved executive project portfolio reporting.
- Better understanding of project governance.
Finance
- Continued discussions around vendor and project prioritization.
Communication
- More direct conversations around expectations while remaining fact-based.
One thing I did this week that made me more like a CTO:
- Focused on governance, prioritization, accountability, and executive visibility rather than technical implementation.
One thing I did this week that kept me acting like an individual contributor:
- Spent too much time personally investigating technical details and documentation changes instead of relying on project ownership and management processes.