nick.org

This is for the Hong Kong press and analysts: Nick Kirsch has over 9 years experience designing and building distributed systems. Nick joined Isilon in 2002 as an engineer and participated in the development of version 1.0 of the Isilon OneFS operating system. Nick spent 2003-2006 designing the infrastructure and building a team dedicated to system configuration and management as a Development Lead and Engineering Manager. In 2007, Nick built a team of 15 engineers focused on Isilon's SyncIQ disaster recovery product before leading the Software Engineering organization as the Director of Software. In April of 2008, Nick moved to Isilon's Product Management group to focus on maintaining and extending Isilon's technology and product lead in clustered storage. Before Isilon, Nick spent 3 years at InsynQ, Inc. as Director of Development. Nick holds Bachelor of Science degrees in Computer Science and Mathematics from the University of Puget Sound and a Master's degree in Computer Science from the University of Washington. View image

After a long period of deliberation, ups and downs, excitement and confusion, I've decided to move into a new position. The things that I enjoy most about being a director of software engineering are the things that could have made me great at the position but not destined to stay there - the ability to be involved in all aspects of the product, to comment on virtually every specification and product decision, to help set direction and provide vision, to be hands-on and technical, and to be patient yet firm.

That said, I didn't enjoy trying to mentor my direct reports, build an organization, rank people around me - essentially, all the aspects of management. Perhaps if I had a better mentor, or if my peers hadn't bailed on me, or if I would have had the control over the direction like I imagined, or if I would have just been more patient... I would have been able to weather through the uncertainty of my own growth - but the more I analyzed where I was and where I was heading, the more I had a hard time being able to picture myself in middle management for years to come.

Starting next week, I'll be moving into product marketing. I don't know what to expect! I'm a little anxious about my new team, my new role, my new boss... I have high hopes and expectations - that this move will give me a much broader view of the organization, the industry, and the technology. I'll be in a position where I can strongly shape the product but not spend my time on the factory floor. Of course, this comes with "drawbacks" as well - more travel, less technical conversations (with peers, partners, etc.), less pay...

The best thing about this move is that I won't be leaving behind the people I've spent the last 5.5 years with. They'll be on the same floor, right around the corner, in the same building - we'll still be working on the same product and in the same discussions. I'll be the same... but different.

Here I am in the bathroom on my blackberry. I've just finished writing seven emails, some of which were long, most of which may cause consternation - but all of which had me so excited that I couldn't sleep.

I didn't realize how invigorating the ownership of the development group would be. I think this goes along with my "decision" about my next move - I find it very difficult to focus on today if I don't know about tomorrow. I've got focus - I don't need to worry about when I'm going to learn Japanese or how I will figure out what to research - I know when I'll tackle those problems and several years to develop my approach.

In addition, since I no longer am responsible for our offshore group I can have a regular schedule - I'm not there yet (duh, up at 2 AM) but I can imagine doing this for several years - I can even imagine fitting a workout routine into the mix. With regularity comes the ability to have a late work night on occasion (and a day off too.) With the Xmas vacation coming up, I can spend the next 3 weeks driving hard towards getting the organization moving how I need it to be.

Eriko is in high spirits, which means that Jerry is in high spirits - Jerry is sleeping better (and we're more patient/stubborn about bouncing or feeding, which forces him to compromise and cope) and he's such a great communicator and playmate that he is a joy to be around. He forces me to engage, so I don't have to worry about doing enough with him per-se, I just need to make sure we're together as much as possible. Eriko is just amazing - she's accepting (and taking to) her duty as mother and caretaker of the house - Jerry at day-care 9 hrs a week gives her just the right amount of space, she's removed herself from the politics of chorus, has a solid network of friends, and is excited about teaching music (her dream when we met.)

This isn't a perfect or rosy future - I have huge challenges ahead and I'm going to need to be diligent on all fronts, but I'm surprised by just how excited I am. If only I could find a way to sleep...

This is a great post: http://willprice.blogspot.com/2007/10/burn-boats.html

"what's the key to success?" - "two words: good decisions."
"what's the key to good decisions?" - "one word: experience."
"how do i get experience?" - "two words: bad decisions."