The Fanciest eCards

I believe the best engineering leaders are students of engineering management, which is to say people who constantly and shamelessly try to steal inspiration from other managers. I joined Stripe in the immediate aftermath of the California Covid-19 lockdowns, when the company had just freshly moved to a new office, and also experimented with hot desks (in other words: not giving engineers dedicated desks).

My manager at the time, Jeff Chan, introduced me to a tradition of his: Whenever there was an opportunity to celebrate a team member (say, for a work anniversary or a birthday), he would build slightly over-engineered eCards. The core format was what you might be used to: Collect greetings, then present the person to be celebrated with everyone's well-wishes. At Stripe, kudoboard.com was popular to do so – but it always felt a little impersonal. Jeff, instead, collected messages from people and then combined them into an adorable website tailor-made for the person in question. I remember the eCard for a team member who used to be a lead on Gmail. It was a simple clone of Gmail's frontend, filled with little jokes both about the person's work and messages from all of their colleagues as fake emails. I wish I had taken a screenshot.

I have since started to build completely over-engineered eCards for my colleagues. Some of the best examples are the "Buch Fashion Week", "Aliceland", "Jigram", or "MajaBnb".

Obviously, building little prototypes that only aim to bring joy to one person is fun — but there are two major benefits that I'd warmly recommend to other EMs:

1: Really see your team

Corporate celebrations, especially of individuals, run the risk of creating slightly dystopian vibes in the vein of Severance's Music Dance Experience. I like Jeff's approach so much because it is authentic and genuine. Building something yourself just for that one person, regardless of how bad or janky it turns out, gives you an opportunity to really "see" the person being celebrated. If I ever enter "anniversary" or "3 years" into a gif search box again I'll know that I'm probably missing the mark.

It's also an opportunity for everyone to make their contributions more personal than a "Happy two year anniversary! — Jen" would be. Tee up a more personal approach for your team and you'll see how people start to engage with each other's humanity more.

2: Play with code

I advocate for engineering managers to code occasionally, ideally also playing with newer technologies. Getting a healthy dose of exposure to both the code your team works with every day but also what the industry is exploring is, in my view, a prerequisite to coming up with good answers to a large subset of engineering management problems.

Building fancy celebrations is an excellent opportunity to do just that. I work a lot with web technologies, so a lot of my celebrations are web experiences — but I'm confident that I could come up with ways to do something similar in the API, AI, or Game space, too. I use different languages, frameworks, tools, and hosting providers for my little eCards. It's my way of spending less than two days on a technology potentially relevant to my company or team without building yet another to-do app implementation.

How To Find the Time

When sharing my approach with people, the question I get asked the most is "Where do you find the time?".

For me, staying current with code is non-negotiable. When Richard Feynman died, his blackboard read in large lettering "What I cannot create, I do not understand". Obviously, I'm not the best engineer on my team, nor should I be. I'm sure that there are Engineering Leaders out there who do well and don't understand the work they're leading —but speaking only for myself, I don't think I could be one of them. To go one step further, I've found being at least somewhat aware of emerging technologies to be useful for me. The best way I can sort-of understand those technologies is by trying to use them to build something small.

Given that I need to understand current and emerging technologies and that the best way I can do so is to build something small, my fancy eCards don't cost me additional time. I believe I'd spend the same amount if I'd walk around the office getting people to sign a physical card and also built a Svelte to-do prototype just to see what all the hype is about. I'm just combining two things I'd do anyway to make them serve me better.

Embracing the Human Side of Engineering Leadership

For me, this approach to celebration reflects what truly matters in engineering leadership: blending technical craftsmanship with genuine human connection. These over-engineered eCards transform routine workplace milestones into meaningful moments that say, "I see you as both an engineer and a person." The underlying philosophy is something I believe in more than my approach to achieving that goal — it doesn't have to be eCards, just something that reflects both technical interests and your team's unique personalities. Small, unexpected gestures that make someone feel truly valued for exactly who they are are, in my experience as both an IC and EM, an important tool. Jeff had a lot of good tools.