(Author profile is illustrative — replace with real practitioner once team consents to individual public attribution.)
I’m Marek, Senior Engineering Strategist at Pixel of Software. My focus is on DORA performance programs and engineering manager coaching for SMBs in the 5–50 engineer band — companies that have outgrown the “everyone knows everything” phase but haven’t yet built the infrastructure of a 100+ person engineering organization.
What I work on day-to-day#
Most of my time splits across three things:
- Diagnostic phases of DORA engagements. I run the first 4 weeks of most of our DORA programs — the listening, instrumenting, and writing-the-diagnosis work. By design this is where the engagement’s value gets shaped; the implementation phase is mostly execution against a clear plan.
- EM coaching pods. I co-coach 1–2 cohorts at a time, usually 4 EMs per pod. The format is documented in Engineering Manager Mentoring Program.
- Writing. I author roughly half of the content in our DORA Metrics pillar and Engineering Leadership pillar, drawing on the diagnostic work above.
Where I came from#
12 years in engineering leadership, mostly Polish and DACH companies. Notable stints at Allegro (large SaaS engineering organization) and DocPlanner (mid-stage SaaS scaling 50 → 200 engineers). The transition from those organizations to SMB-scale work is what turned me into an SMB-specific practitioner — most of what I learned at scale doesn’t apply at 12 engineers, and the intellectual project of figuring out what does apply is what I do now.
What I write about#
If you’ve read content tagged with my byline on this site, it’s probably about one of:
- DORA metrics interpretation at SMB scale (P50/P85, what to ignore, what to act on)
- 1:1 frameworks specifically for senior engineers
- The mechanical-vs-human bottleneck distinction in engineering performance
- Founder-to-CTO transitions in 20–50 person companies
How to reach me#
For engagements: the contact form routes to a partner inbox. For peer engineering manager conversations and Office Hours appearances: my LinkedIn.