7 Must-Read Newsletters For Tech Leaders
And no, I’m not going to add Hartley’s Handbook to this list. You’re already here and can decide for yourself if you’d like to subscribe for free!
Harvard Business Review
For Harvard Business Review (HBR), this is one that everyone probably already knows about, but I use my learning stipend every year to get this newsletter and the print edition as well. Harvard Business Review is fantastic and has a broad range of topics, including things like managing yourself, career transitions, and social marketing. HBR also has a "10 things about X" series that pulls from these subscriptions.
Their new mobile app got a much-needed makeover and filters topics specifically for you based on your interests. There are many times where I’ll read something from HBR and can apply it at work in the next few days. It seems like for everything you go through at work as a tech leader, Harvard Business Review probably has an article about that topic.
Technically
Technically might seem like a simple newsletter at first, offering insights into software basics. But for tech leaders, it's a goldmine of knowledge, keeping you updated on the latest software trends. Even if coding isn't your daily grind, staying in the loop with new tech is crucial.
The folks at Technically do this brilliantly, covering everything from beginner's guides on databases to explaining APIs in simple terms. It's like a modern-day version of those easy-to-understand "For Dummies" books. Whether you're helping someone struggling with tech or mentoring a colleague, Technically is your go-to guide, making complex topics easy to understand and sparking meaningful conversations for growth.
Tech Manager Weekly from CTO Craft
Tech Manager Weekly is a newsletter from CTO Craft, a large Slack organization for Director, VP, and CTO level individuals and the brainchild of Andy Skipper. The newsletter is a weekly collection highlighting live events and reads of the week. It had a good recommendation this last week on engineering strategy to reduce friction and improve developer experience from Will Larson.
It also covers stress, culture, people and teams, technology operations and delivery, and even stress while being in growth. "How to Do the Hard Things," for example, was another great find last week. If I could only choose one or two newsletters from this list, CTO Craft would be at the top for me.
Lessons
Lessons is a newsletter from Molly Graham (best known for coining the term “Give Away Your Legos”), and I've found her style and her writing to be very approachable and thoughtful.
Graham moved to a monthly cadence, but her Tidbits newsletter has been good for grouping content together in a way that's pretty digestible. A lot of great book and podcast episode recommendations, and content that she enjoyed that previous month.
One of the things that I really like in her newsletters is the "People I Admire" spotlight. I haven't seen this elsewhere too much, but it highlights one individual that Molly admires. This last month, for example, was Mari Nazary, the CEO of AppAcademy. I'm always looking for new folks to read about, follow, see what they're up to, or how they got their start.
The Looking Glass
The Looking Glass is not as technical, but it feels like an area that not a whole lot of tech leaders think about. One of the last major posts from Julie Zhuo there is about the origins of leadership and burnout. This is another that has a paid subscription. I personally have not paid to subscribe to this yet as there's already a lot of free content on that newsletter.
It really takes you out of the very granular technical aspects of tech leadership and more on the broader focus of how to just be a good leader. I think that's been a really helpful one for me and is also from the same author of The Making of A Manager.
Engineering Leadership Weekly - Jade Rubick
Up next is one from Jade Rubick, Engineering Leadership Weekly. I had the opportunity to work on a post about consulting and fractional tech leadership with Jade, and his newsletter is great for getting an understanding of what you may need to look at as either a fractional or whole CTO and how generally to approach your organization’s optimization.
Engineering Leadership Weekly takes a look at management practices, organizational structures, organizational behavior, and really some of the more human aspects of all of that as well. If you're going through re-org or any big shifts at a company, this can be a really good weekly newsletter to get into your inbox.
Tech Brew
TechBrew gives you a broader lay of the innovative tech landscape. It's an everyday newsletter and talks about everything from the future of travel and AI, granular connectivity, to co-working. As it covers a broad range, it keeps you in the know about different things to start looking into.
Autonomous vehicles, tech policy, virtual reality, and this is really the only newsletter on this list that expands that broadly in the tech space. I have found it helpful to keep up with different trends and understand industry-wise what tech I should be considering in the future.
Irrational Exuberance
Lastly, we have Irrational Exuberance, which is of course the blog from Will Larson. I have all of his books. He's one of my favorite writers in the tech leadership space, and I think he has a great way of condensing all the information into sizable chunks, but ones that have good tactical information.
You don't hear him pontificating too often and getting super verbose. It's a lot more, "Here is the way things are, here's how you should move forward." I really like that approach to learning and reading and writing. So definitely one to check out.
What other tech leadership newsletters have you found helpful? Let me know in the comments!