Boards often worry about their relationship with their single employee, the Executive Director (ED). Many times, when we speak individually with a board chair or an Executive Director, their greatest concern is a fear that they are not aligned and may be heading for trouble. In most cases, board meetings are run well, with the ED providing relevant information, and the personal relationship between the chair and the ED is strong.

So, what is missing?

But why does this matter if the board seems happy and the chair and ED have a good relationship? In many cases, the board chair has been reassuring the ED and frequently noting that everything is going well.

The assumption is that the ED should be satisfied with the chair’s reassurance that they are doing well and that the board is happy with their performance. However, sometimes the chair may not feel comfortable leading an evaluation of an ED with whom they have a positive relationship. There may be a reluctance to identify areas for improvement or uncertainty about assessing a role that differs significantly from their own expertise. Chairs may not know what to say or how to approach the conversation. In addition, there may be no one on the board with HR leadership experience, or the Governance Committee may be unwilling to take on this added responsibility.

In the meantime, an information gap develops between the board and the ED. This gap can lead the ED to consider other opportunities, mistakenly believing they are not meeting board expectations.

A formal evaluation delivers feedback from the entire board—not just the chair. It provides a structured, regular (typically annual) opportunity for the board and ED to engage in meaningful dialogue about expectations, performance, and unmet needs—on both sides.

The evaluation also creates a formal record that remains in the ED’s confidential file, extending beyond the tenure of any single board chair. It documents the board’s expectations for future directors and helps guide the ED in developing a clear plan to meet operational needs and support its governance.

To ensure openness and transparency in a relationship that is critical to organizational success, the formal ED evaluation process is an essential tool for effective communication—and well worth the time it requires.

Exceptional boards understand that strong communication with the ED is fundamental to both board and organizational success.

They schedule an annual ED evaluation process, typically led by the Governance Committee, ensuring input from both the board and the ED. This process creates an opportunity to recognize what is working well and to clarify expectations that have not yet been achieved. It strengthens leadership alignment around strategic goals and identifies how the board can support the ED’s continued growth and success.

What does your organization need to move from performance to practice? Visit this page to see how Capacity Canada can help.

Written By:

♦Don McDermott, Executive in Residence, Capacity Canada

Email: don@capacitycanada.ca 

The post How do boards and the Executive Director ensure they are working well together? appeared first on Capacity Canada.

A week ago yesterday the TRAC meeting was held in Woolwich Council Chambers. For the second time I had to get on the Township to post the video of that meeting on their Woolwich Township website. To their credit they did so quickly after I called.

There are smart people on that committee including Sebastian Seibel-Achenbach.  There are smart and credentialed people on that committee including a hydrogeologist, a municipal planner, a regional water department staffer, possibly even a biologist or an ecologist. There are technical people and some very untechnical and uncredentialed persons with other soft skills such as human psychology, human manipulation and other skills; such as Susan Bryant. There are honest people and blatant liars present. There are a few with knowledge of the site and far too many who know nothing prior to their appointment to the committee. Some have common sense others less. What there is a complete lack of is members with serious Elmira environmental knowledge going back to 1989 combined with honesty, common sense and at least a minimum of  hard, technical skills including maths and sciences.  NOT ONE, and it is  intentional, on that committee has all those requirements. I do which is precisely why mayor Shantz , Lanxess and the Min. of Environment (MECP)  do not want me on that committee nor able to speak to them directly.

I viewed the entire TRAC meeting (June 18/26) on the Woolwich website last evening and it was beyond painful. Misunderstandings, incorrect facts and guesswork were prevalent throughout the meeting and they were NEVER corrected or clarified by the few who did know the facts and the truth. At one point Sebastian (the brightest light of a very dim bunch) conflated numbers of samples taken with number of DETECTIONS of two toxic chemicals. Hence he asked if that particular Table spelled out that more attention should be paid to the upstream reaches of the Creek ( Reaches 3 & 4) closest to the Lanxess site than the further downstream ones of Reaches 2 and 1.  Not only did nobody correct him or clarify his obvious honest mistake but Hadley Stamm (*5 minute wonder) of Lanxess actually had the nerve and the  brass to answer him with "Right but I'm not going to take that jump yet.". She actually agreed with his incorrect conclusion but was careful to delay that conclusion until the next or a later meeting.

Jen Lyndall of Integral Inc. somewhat mystifies me. Apparently she is a former friend or colleague of Hadley Stamm (not good). She presented the first part of a Data Summary to TRAC at the meeting. In my opinion this is just one more in a long litany of Public Relations nonsense issued by the polluter and its' successors for the purpose of green washing. There is way more than enough data available between soil, sediment and fish tissue sampling to know how grossly contaminated the Canagagigue Creek still is, even after allegedly stopping dumping over fifty years ago. It would seem to me that five decades of flushing and flooding of the Creek should have long ago flushed all the mobile and even semi mobile deeper sediments down into the Grand River and further (Lake Erie) by now. Unless of course contaminated groundwater and soils/sediments are still via natural processes (or with help) being released from the grossly contaminated former Uniroyal Chemical site.

My final comment today :  Sebastian pointed out to Jen Lyndall (Integral) that Tables 3.3, 3.4, 3.5 and 3.6 all indicated that dioxins/furans were DETECTED in surface sediments, sub-surface sediments, surface soils and sub-surface soils 100% of the time from a total of well over a thousand different samples. Oops I misspoke! Table 3.4 has the only dioxin/furan detections below 100%  for sub-surface sediments. It was 98%  . Ms. Lyndall responded "Yes even in background locations which is interesting" .   Credit goes to her for being accurate and honest on that point although either Hadley or some other DNAPL/ Dioxin  deniers suggested that dioxins are ubiquitous. They are not thank goodness ubiquitous at the concentrations also indicated in those four Tables.

The scam, the sham and the coverup continues. I still expect some token, tiny cleanup of part of the Creek with everybody's fan favourite Susan Bryant being handed some environmental award for her  acting skills over thirty plus years, aided and abetted by the guilty parties. 

In today’s newsletter, I’m excited to share five ideas from Fair Share: How Men and Women Can Create a More Equitable Workplace Together, a new book from my friends W. Brad Johnson PhD and David G. Smith PhD. I fondly refer to them as “the good guys” because of the title of their previous best-selling book and because they truly walk the talk when it comes to being wonderful allies.

Fair Share explores how outdated work norms undermine careers, caregiving, and gender equity. As Johnson and Smith point out, “The workplace is broken — and it’s holding everyone back.”

I hope that last sentence caught your attention. Let’s dive in and explore some of my favorite ally actions from the book.

–Karen

I love this truth bomb from Chapter 1:

“In too many organizations, leaders fall prey to the ‘emperor’s new clothes phenomenon,’ where they never hear the unvarnished truth. Both because they don’t ask for feedback regarding their gender-inclusive leader performance and because they have a track record of defensiveness and deflection when they get a whiff of unflattering performance feedback, those around them paint bad employee experience data in a favorable light before it arrives on their desk.”

To counteract this phenomenon, Smith and Johnson urge us to seek out non-inclusive behavior we may not personally encounter.

Attend an employee resource group (ERG) meeting for a demographic you’re not a part of (after first asking if you’d be welcome). Ask what’s on their mind. Ask what they wish others knew about situations they’ve encountered that lacked fairness.

And build your awareness so that you can be a better ally.

For a section about supporting flexible work options, Johnson and Smith interviewed Jody Thompson at CultureRx, who mentioned “sludge.” It’s a disparaging comment about someone who is working remotely or has a family obligation. For example, “She’s working from home today? Yeah, right. She’s probably doing laundry and binge watching Hallmark movies.” Or “He has to leave early? Why can’t his spouse pitch in?”

Sludge tends to shift thinking away from productivity and results, and instead focuses on grousing about how someone is structuring their time.

If we hear it, let’s call it out. Personally, I’d recommend something along the lines of, “Actually, research shows that flexible work leads to higher engagement and better performance. Do you have concerns about them getting their work done on time?”

One aspect of traditional workplace cultures that undermine efforts to create more fairness is the masculinity contest. Johnson and Smith describe them as hypercompetitive displays of dominance, strength, stamina and outworking everyone else.

I found myself thinking of things I’ve witnessed. Employees who felt they couldn’t go home before their supervisor. Coworkers who bragged about pulling all-nighters to meet deadlines. Plank challenges to kick off meetings.

I bet you’ve seen some examples, too.

As Johnson and Smith point out, such displays of strength and stamina can become a recipe for stress, burnout, and poorer work quality. And they can influence who is rewarded and advanced.

Look out for masculinity contests in your office, and push back.

Smith and Johnson point out the various reasons career pauses happen, including childcare, eldercare, health needs, military service, retiring-unretiring, and career pivots.

Because pauses are going to happen, they recommend normalizing them to reduce any stigma. For example,

• Show up with care and understanding when someone takes their full leave for the arrival of a child.
• Support colleagues who request an extended leave of absence for personal reasons.
• Offer to brainstorm with a coworker about their reentry plan for returning to work after a pause.

I’ll add one more idea: Update your résumé, CV, or LinkedIn profile to include any breaks you’ve taken over the years.

p.s. Because I try to follow my own advice, I added a pause I took in 2012 to my LinkedIn profile. LinkedIn has an option to list career breaks for full-time parenting, bereavement, career transition, well-being, etc.

Johnson and Smith emphasize the importance of providing equal access to relationships that might lead to career development opportunities. These include mentoring, advocacy, information sharing networks, and other reciprocal connections that can make a difference for those who are historically overlooked or marginalized.

They encourage us all to initiate such connections. One of their suggestions is to use these simple words:

“I wonder if I can get your take on something I’m working on. I’d value your perspective.”

I love it.

That’s all for this week. Many, many thanks to “the good guys” for collaborating with me on this week’s newsletter. I highly recommend you get a copy of their book, Fair Share, which is available starting June 30.

Please note: I’m off next week to celebrate the July 4th holiday and will be back in your inboxes on July 10.

Karen Catlin (she/her), Author of the Better Allies® book series

Copyright © 2026 Karen Catlin. All rights reserved.

Together, we can make a difference with the Better Allies® approach.

• Say thanks to Karen and buy her a coffee ☕ (Need a receipt for educational reimbursement? Reply to this email, and we’ll take care of it.)
• Sponsor an edition of this newsletter
• Follow @BetterAllies on Instagram, Medium, or YouTube. Or follow Karen Catlin on LinkedIn
• Read the Better Allies books
• Tell someone about these resources

Actions to Fix the Broken Workplace from the new book “Fair Share” was originally published in Code Like A Girl on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

♦

KITCHENER - Sometimes, you have to tip your cap to the opposing pitcher.

Guelph's Liam Watt struck out seven and gave up two hits in seven innings of work, as he helped the Royals to a 6-3 win over Kitchener Thursday night.

Kitchener's only runs came on a Mateo Zeppieri three-run home run in the ninth inning. 

He was the only Panthers starter not to get dinged with a strikeout.

Evan Elliott gave up five runs (four earned) off 10 hits in 5.2 innings in the loss. Jake Liberta was solid in relief, he gave up one unearned run and two hits in the remaining 3.1 innings, striking out four batters.

Kitchener drops to 6-12 on the year, while Guelph improved to 10-7.

Kitchener is on the road for two games, beginning in Hamilton Friday night at 7:35 p.m. and Welland Saturday at 6:05 p.m.

The Panthers host Welland Monday at 7:05 p.m. for a makeup game of a previous rain out.

GET YOUR TICKETS NOW and #PackTheJack!

When I first started learning data analysis using Python, I thought the process was pretty simple, just download a dataset, open a Python IDE or notebook, run the df.head(), create a few charts, identify some insights, and summarize the findings. That workflow appeared in nearly every practice project I worked on, so I naturally assumed that’s what data analysts did.

As I’ve completed more projects, and most importantly, since I started working as a data analyst. I’ve found that companies aren’t actually asking for dashboards. Instead, they ask questions like:

"Why are customers complaining more often?"

"Why are delivery issues increasing?"

"Why are customer ratings getting worse?"

"What exactly is going wrong?"

To answer these questions, simply creating charts isn’t enough. It requires a deeper analysis of the data, identifying patterns, testing assumptions, and connecting those findings to real-world business problems.

That’s the mindset I want to adopt this time… hehehe..

Right now, I’m working with the Customer Analytics dataset from Kaggle. Like always, my first instinct was to open the dataset and start exploring it. This time, instead of writing a line of SQL queries or Python code, I decided to try something different.

I asked myself, “If I were actually working as a data analyst at this company, what kind of problems would management ask me to solve?”

Not, Show me the distribution of customer ratings, Create five visualizations, or Build a dashboard.

More realistic would be…, “Customers seem dissatisfied with their shopping experience. Could you look into what’s going on?”

Actually.. there’s nothing wrong with dashboards. They’re incredibly useful. Dashboards often just tell us what’s happening, but they don’t always explain why. And that’s exactly what I want to focus on in this project. Instead of compiling a collection of unrelated charts, I want each analysis to help answer a specific business question.

Yeahh here.. I was facing a business challenge. Management wasn’t asking me for a new dashboard. Nor were they asking for five Power BI visualizations or reports. Instead, they made a much more specific question:

“We’ve noticed that a surprisingly large proportion of orders are not being delivered on time. Could this operational issue be affecting our customers’ overall experience?”

Rather than making assumptions, these concerns can actually be verified with data. Before diving into explanations or visualizations, I want to verify the KPI itself.

This quick calculation gives us the percentage of late deliveries.

late_rate = (
    df["Reached.on.Time_Y.N"] == 1
).mean()

print(f"Late Delivery Rate: {late_rate:.2%}")

I am now facing a real business problem, not just a feeling or an assumption, but measurable KPIs. This immediately shifts the perspective of my investigation. Instead of saying, “Customers seem dissatisfied with their shopping experience.”

Now we can say:

“Early assessment of the KPIs indicates that approximately 59.67% of orders were not delivered on time, causing concern about the potential continued impact on customer satisfaction and the overall customer experience.”

And that raises the next question, “Is this operational issue actually affecting customer experience?”

Looking through the dataset, there isn’t a single column titled “Customer Experience Score.” Instead, customer experience must be inferred based on multiple indicators, such as Customer Rating, Customer Care Calls, Reached on Time, or Discount Offered.

These variables became the main focus of my investigation. But measuring these factors wasn’t enough to explain the issue. The next step was to understand whyy this might be happening.

After calculating KPIs, I’m often tempted to jump straight into creating charts and calling the results “insights”. But this time, I want every analysis to start with a hypothesis.

Rather than trying to prove a single explanation, I want to explore various possibilities and let the data guide the investigation. Here’s what the research I have in mind looks like:

My first hypothesis is probably the most intuitive one, hehehe. If customers receive their orders late, there is a reasonable expectation that they may have a poorer shopping experience, which could eventually be reflected in lower their ratings. But rather than assuming that’s the case, I want to let the data answer that question. So, the first diagnostic question is:

Do customers experiencing delayed deliveries tend to report lower customer ratings?

rating_delivery = (
    df.groupby("Reached.on.Time_Y.N")
      .agg(
          avg_rating=("Customer_rating", "mean"),
          total_orders=("Customer_rating", "count")
      )
)

rating_delivery

I’m not trying to prove causality here. I just want to know if late deliveries are associated with worse customer ratings.

Surprisingly, the results didn’t support my initial hypothesis at all! Customers with delayed deliveries reported an average rating of 3.01, while on-time customers reported 2.97. This “teeny-weeny” difference suggests no meaningful relationship between delivery timeliness and customer ratings. It completely challenges one of the most obvious business assumptions. Even tho roughly 59.67% of orders were delivered late, customers just don’t rate their experience differently based on delivery status alone. At this stage, delivery performance is definitely not the main driver of customer ratings.

Of course, that doesn’t mean my investigation is over. It actually makes me wonder, if delays are so common, “why are they even happening in the first place?”

The previous analysis suggests that delayed deliveries may not directly explain customer ratings. But, the late delivery rate remains unusually high. So the next diagnostic question is, “Which shipment mode experiences the highest proportion of delayed deliveries?”

shipment_delay.rename(
    columns={
        0: "On Time",
        1: "Late"
    },
    inplace=True
)

shipment_delay

Using proportions instead of raw counts makes it much easier to compare performance. Interestingly, the delay rates are almost identical across the board with Flight (60.16%), Ship (59.76%), and Road (58.81%). Since Flight is only slightly higher, the variation is way too small to blame a specific transportation mode. But honestly, ruling this out is still a huge clue for me. If one method had been a total disaster, it would be an obvious target to fix. Instead, this tells me the issue is much broader than the shipment mode itself, helping me eliminate one big suspect and shifting my focus to new questions.

Or is shipment mode simply reflecting operational inefficiencies occurring elsewhere in the fulfillment process?

One possible explanation is warehouse performance. To investigate this possibility, the next question is, “Which warehouse contributes most to delayed deliveries?”

warehouse_delay = pd.crosstab(
    df["Warehouse_block"],
    df["Reached.on.Time_Y.N"],
    normalize="index"
)

warehouse_delay

Once again, the same pattern shows up. Warehouse delay rates are almost identical, and even though Warehouse B has the highest late rate, the variation is too tiny to mean anything. So, I definitely can’t blame a specific warehouse for these late deliveries.

So, instead of pointing fingers at one bad warehouse, it clearly shows me that delays are distributed evenly throughout our whole fulfillment network.

At this point, I’ve officially scratched off two major suspects:

• Shipment mode isn’t driving the delays.
• Warehouse location isn’t the culprit either.

Even tho I haven’t found the root cause yet, eliminating these obvious operational guesses has successfully narrowed down my search space!

Hmm yaa.. Shipping performance isn’t the only possible explanation. Another possibility is that customers who repeatedly contact customer service are experiencing unresolved issues during their shopping experience. If that assumption is true, customers with more customer care interactions should report lower ratings. This raises another diagnostic question, “Do customers making more customer care calls tend to report lower customer ratings?”

care_rating = (
    df.groupby("Customer_care_calls")
      .agg(
          avg_rating=("Customer_rating", "mean"),
          customers=("Customer_rating", "count")
      )
)

care_rating

The results show that customer ratings remain remarkably flat, no matter how many times a customer calls support. Instead of a consistent decline, the scores just bounce around a tiny, narrow range between 2.96 and 3.08.

This tells me that the number of customer care calls alone isn’t a red flag for customer dissatisfaction here. In other words, the spam-callers aren’t necessarily giving us terrible ratings. Of course, that doesn’t mean customer support is completely irrelevant. It just means the relationship isn’t as obvious as my initial thought.

Finally, I also wanted to challenge another common business assumption.

Promotions are often used to stimulate purchases and improve customer engagement. However, discounts do not automatically improve customer experience. So.. another diagnostic question is, “Do customers receiving larger discounts still report poor customer ratings?”

To make the analysis easier to interpret, discounts were grouped into three categories.

df["discount_group"] = pd.cut(
    df["Discount_offered"],
    bins=[0,10,30,100],
    labels=[
        "Low",
        "Medium",
        "High"
    ]
)

discount_rating = (
    df.groupby("discount_group")
      .agg(
          avg_rating=("Customer_rating","mean"),
          customers=("Customer_rating","count")
      )
)

discount_rating

The results show basically zero variation between the discount groups. Customer ratings remain almost identical no matter how big the discount is.

Surprisingly, the customer group getting massive discounts doesn’t look any happier than the others. This tells me that a discount strategy alone isn’t going to fix or explain the customer experience here.

After running all those operational hypotheses, I noticed something kinda frustrating but interesting. Delivery performance? Flat. Customer support calls? No pattern. Discounts? Identical ratings.

At that point, I started wondering… Hmm, what if this isn’t an operational issue at all? What if customer experience is driven by something purely behavioral? Like, customer loyalty?

My logic here is pretty simple here, customers who buy from us repeatedly are probably more used to our shopping process, shipping timelines, and overall quirks. So, my next question is, “Do customers with more prior purchases actually give higher ratings?”

df["loyalty_group"] = pd.cut(
    df["Prior_purchases"],
    bins=[0, 3, 6, 10],
    labels=[
        "New",
        "Returning",
        "Loyal"
    ]
)

loyalty_rating = (
    df.groupby("loyalty_group")
      .agg(
          avg_rating=("Customer_rating", "mean"),
          customers=("Customer_rating", "count")
      )
)

loyalty_rating

At first glance, the numbers aren’t exactly mind-blowing. Me is definitely not expecting a scenario where loyal customers rate for a whole point higher than new ones.

But, hmm wait… a subtle pattern does crawl up! The average ratings gradually increase the more prior purchases a customer has. While the gaps are small, returning and loyal customers consistently report slightly better scores than first-time buyers.

Now, does this prove that loyalty causes satisfaction? Yeahh… Not really. This is possibly customer keep buying because they already liked us in the past, or maybe familiarity just sets more realistic expectations, so they don’t get disappointed as easily. Either way, this was one of the few hypotheses that actually showed a consistent directional trend across my whole analysis.

After testing all those hypotheses, I sat back and looked at the bigger picture. To be honest, the results were a bit of a reality check. Delivery performance, customer support calls, and discount strategies all turned out to be completely flat lines that barely made a diff on customer ratings. The only real runner in this analysis was customer loyalty, which showed a small but positive trend.

In a textbook or a classroom project, I (maybe youu also hehehe) expect to find that one perfect, glaring root cause. But in the real world of data, sometimes the most valuable insight is realizing that the answer simply isn’t in the data you are currently tracking.

These flat relationships are telling me that we might be measuring our logistics and warehouse operations perfectly, but we are completely missing how customers actually feel. Customer experience isn’t just a byproduct of isolated operational metrics. Instead, it’s heavily shaped by behavioral and psychological context that lives outside this dataset, like product quality consistency, brand trust, or the frustrating gap between what marketing promised versus what reality delivered. At the end of the day, you can’t fix customer perception purely with faster trucks or bigger discounts.

1. Time to rethink how we measure customer experience. Current operational KPIs like delivery timeliness or support calls don’t capture the whole story. I highly recommend tracking the gap between expectation versus actual delivery perception, along with post-purchase satisfaction scores instead.
2. Stop obsessing over logistics alone. Improving logistics or warehouse efficiency in isolation won’t automatically fix customer ratings. Operational tweaks should be treated as a bare minimum, not a magic fix for satisfaction.
3. Investigate the missing drivers. For future analysis, we need to explore unobserved variables outside this dataset, such as product quality consistency, text-based review sentiment, and marketing-driven expectations.
4. Strengthen customer lifecycle analysis. Since customer loyalty was the only metric showing a mild positive trend, it would be super useful to shift toward comparing first-time vs returning customer experiences and tracking satisfaction across repeat purchases.

To explore my other projects, feel free to check out my Medium or GitHub. Stay tuned for more challenging projects~~

jihanKamilah - Overview

Beyond Dashboards: Testing Business Hypotheses Through KPI Trees & Diagnostic Analytics was originally published in Code Like A Girl on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Dear Readers,

I’ve had this topic on my writing list for a long time because I genuinely believe it can change how an internship is experienced.

Today, I’m finally sharing it.

Whether you’re preparing for your first internship or mentoring someone who is, invest just 4 minutes in this read. The lessons ahead can make the difference between simply completing an internship and truly making it count.

It is not uncommon to see interns getting excited to see themselves all dressed up in a suit, shaking hands with experienced professionals, participating in important meetings, and discussing matters that make it feel like they are running the world.

Amid all that excitement, what they often overlook is one reality:

organizations are made up of people, and people bring emotions.

Every workplace is shaped not just by processes and technology but by personalities, emotions, ambitions, and unspoken expectations. These are the forces that quietly influence decisions, relationships, and opportunities.

Maneuvering one’s way through office politics during internship is

Difficult

because no course, no mentor, and no orientation session quite equips them to balance the emotional weight of it all.

Office politics cannot be avoided altogether, especially as an intern. But one can avoid becoming overwhelmed by it.

The five points discussed hereafter, do not promise to eliminate the discomfort, but they will prepare interns for the hidden realities that no orientation session prepares them for.

Before forming strong opinions, choosing sides, or offering bold views, observe. Watch who defers to whom. Notice whose ideas get taken up in a room and whose get politely sidelined. Pay attention to the dynamics over lunch as much as in the boardroom.

Takeaway: Treat your first month as a listening phase, not a proving phase.

Building relationships matters, but so does understanding that not every relationship is equally genuine. Colleagues who seem warm and welcoming early on may have their own agendas. It’s just grown-up reality, which we rule out as cynicism during our early careers.

Takeaway: Build relationships widely and genuinely. Be warm without being naive.

This one is hard to hear, and most interns learn it the hard way.

You’ll work hard on something and watch someone else get the credit. You’ll be talked over in a meeting. You’ll receive criticism that feels personal or be asked to redo work that you were proud of. You may encounter a senior colleague who is dismissive, territorial, or simply difficult—and in that moment, every instinct in you will want to react.

Don’t.

Ego management and temper management are not about suppressing who you are. They’re about choosing the response that serves you best.

As an intern, with limited context and little organizational influence, the cost of reacting emotionally is even higher.

Takeaway: The most emotionally intelligent person in the room is almost never the loudest, the most defensive, or the quickest to react. Discipline your responses. It’s a skill.

There will be friction. Teams have tensions. Managers have rivalries. Departments compete for budget, credit, and influence. And at some point, someone, perhaps several people, will bring that friction to you, whether you asked for it or not.

A senior colleague vents about another manager. Two teammates are clearly not speaking to each other, and each wants you quietly onside. Someone asks your opinion on a dispute you barely understand.

This is one of the situations that catches most interns off guard. You want to be liked. You want to be helpful. Saying nothing feels awkward, and taking a side feels supportive.

Takeaway: Stay neutral during conflicts. Listen. Be kind. Don’t carry messages. Don’t fuel fires. Step back, and let the people involved work it through.

Every organization has two cultures: the one it advertises and the one it lives.

Takeaway: Pay attention to both. Not so you can judge, but so you can understand. Ask yourself at the end of each week: How does this organization handle disagreement? Who gets to fail safely, and who doesn’t? What does it take to be respected here?

What separates the interns who grow from those who quietly lose confidence isn’t intelligence or talent. More often, it’s emotional awareness, the ability to observe before reacting, stay grounded under pressure, and understand that success at work is shaped as much by people as by performance.

If this article helped you, share it with a friend preparing for internships or entering corporate for the first time.

Do Support my work and buy me a Chai :)

Buy me chai

And follow the ENGINEERING BEYOND CODE series for more real corporate lessons that colleges rarely teach.

• Sujata Jha | Official - Medium
• You Don't Suck at Coding. You're Just Meeting a Real Codebase.
• How Senior Engineers Actually Debug (It's Not What You Think)

5 Tips for Interns To Stay Prepared for Office Politics was originally published in Code Like A Girl on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

As we reach the halfway point of 2026, many buyers and sellers in Waterloo Region are asking the same question: Is the market behaving the way we expected back in January? The short answer is yes and no.

More Inventory — After several years of tight supply, forecasts pointed to a more balanced market with more homes available for buyers.

Stables or Slightly Softer Prices — Most local analysts expected prices to remain relatively flat or experience modest declines.

Improved Affordability — Lower mortgage rates and softer pricing were expected to bring more first-time buyers into the market.

A Gradual Increase in Sales Activity — The expectation was not a return to the frenzy of 2021-2022, but a healthier, more active market than 2024-2025.

Inventory Increased — Buyers had significantly more choice compared with recent years. Waterloo Region reached roughly 3.6-4.0 months of inventory by spring 2026, placing the market in balanced territory.

Prices remained softer year-over-year — Average prices in Waterloo Region were generally 4-7% lower than a year earlier, though some months showed modest month-over-month improvement.

Homes took longer to sell — The average time on market increased compared to 2025, especially for condos and some townhomes.

Buyer activity improved, but cautiously — Sales picked up during the spring months, but remained below long-term averages. Buyers returned, yet many remained price-sensitive and selective.

You have more options — Inventory levels are healthier than they have been in several years.

Prices are not surging — While some neighbourhoods remain competitive, broad price growth has slowed.

Due diligence matters — The market allows more time for inspections, financing approvals, and careful decision-making than the pandemic-era market did.

More info for buyers.

Pricing matters more than ever — Today’s buyers are comparing more listings and negotiating more aggressively.

Presentation pays off — Professional photography, staging, and strategic marketing can make a difference in a balanced market.

Expect a more normal timeline — Many homes are taking longer to sell than they did in 2021-2022, especially if they are priced above market value.

More info for sellers.

Most indicators suggest that Waterloo Region will continue to operate in a balanced market environment. Inventory levels remain elevated compared with recent years, while prices appear to be stabilizing rather than accelerating sharply upward.

Thinking of buying?
We can help you identify neighbourhoods and property types that check all the boxes. Talk to us about buying a home in Kitchener-Waterloo.

Thinking of selling?
Success is still very achievable, but it depends more heavily on strategic pricing and marketing. Talk to us today.

Need a selling strategy tailored to your home? — Our team understands what it takes to create a selling strategy in this market. We can build a plan that fits your goals.

Contact us.

There’s something special about summer in Waterloo Region. Long evenings, backyard barbecues, mornings spent with a coffee outdoors, and weekends filled with family and friends. The good news? You don’t need a cottage or a plane ticket to create that vacation feeling. With a few thoughtful outdoor upgrades, your backyard can become the staycation destination you’ve always wanted.

Whether you’re planning a full backyard transformation or simply looking for ways to elevate your outdoor living space, these ideas can help you make the most of every sunny day this season.

A well-designed patio serves as the foundation for outdoor living. Think of it as an extension of your home. It’s a place where comfort and functionality come together.

How to bring this outdoor space to life:

• Comfortable outdoor seating
• Weather-resistant cushions and throws
• Outdoor rugs
• Side tables and coffee tables
• Planters with seasonal flowers or greenery
• Shade umbrellas or sail shades
• String lights or lanterns

Enhance the ambiance by layering lighting to create a warm evening atmosphere. Choose soft, neutral furnishing for a resort-inspired look. Add potted herbs or fragrant plants like lavender for a fully sensory experience.

How to use the space:

• Morning coffee and quiet reflection
• Reading your favourite book
• Casual family dinners
• Evening cocktails with neighbours
• Watching summer sunsets

Pergolas have become one of the most desirable backyard features, providing both visual appeal and practical shade. They create a defined outdoor “room” that feels elevated and intentional.

How to bring this outdoor space to life:

• A sturdy pergola structure
• Outdoor lounge furniture
• Climbing vines or hanging plants
• String lights
• Privacy screens or outdoor curtains
• Ceiling fan (if electrical access allows)

It’s all the little details that make any outdoor space feel as comfortable as the inside of your home. Train climbing plants such as clematis or wisteria to grow over the structure. Or you can use flowing curtains to create a cabana-like atmosphere at home. Add warm lighting for cozy evenings, and choose comfortable seating that encourages lingering conversations.

How to use the space:

• An afternoon escape from the sun
• Family game nights
• Outdoor yoga or stretching
• Hosting small gatherings

Nothing says summer nights quite like gathering around a fire. A dedicated fire pit area naturally brings people together and extends the use of your backyard well into the evening.

(Be sure to check the open fire bylaws applicable to your home.)

How to bring this outdoor space to life:

• A gas or wood-burning fire pit
• Comfortable seating arranged in a circle
• Adirondack chairs or outdoor sectionals
• Side tables for drinks and snacks
• Storage for blankets
• Outdoor lighting along pathways

A burning fire, the sound of crackling, and flickering flames might be all the ambiance you need to relax, but there are a few other things to consider: Keep seating close enough to encourage conversation. Depending on the direction of the wind, you may want to rearrange your seating. Incorporate natural stone for a cottage-inspired feel.

How to use the space:

• Roasting marshmallows with the kids
• Hosting friends
• Date nights at home
• Storytelling around the fire
• Stargazing on clear summer evenings
• Acoustic guitar sing-along night

For homeowners who love to entertain, an outdoor kitchen can transform summer hosting. Even a simple setup can make meal preparation more enjoyable and keep everyone connected while food is being prepared.

How to bring this outdoor space to life:

• Grill or built-in barbecue
• Food prep counter space
• Outdoor dining table
• Storage cabinets
• Beverage cooler or mini-fridge
• Weather-resistant serving station

Create an easy flow between the cooking and dining areas, and add task lighting around the cooking areas. Incorporate consistent materials and finishes for a polished look. These will make the space look great, but let’s be honest…this one is all about how it smells and tastes.

How to use the space:

• Family barbeques
• Neighbourhood cookouts
• Birthday celebrations
• Summer holiday gatherings
• Outdoor pizza or taco nights

If your idea of summer vacation includes fun and socializing, consider creating a dedicated outdoor entertainment space. These areas can be customized for families, sports fans, movie lovers, or anyone who enjoys hosting.

How to bring this outdoor space to life:

• Outdoor television or projector screen
• Comfortable sectional seating
• Bluetooth speakers
• Lawn games
• Outdoor bar cart
• Extra seating for guests

Make this space unforgettable by creating multiple seating zones for larger gatherings. Use lighting to define spaces and improve evening visibility. Include weatherproof storage for all your games and accessories, and add decorative accents to reflect your personal style. Check out these backyard wow factors that can elevate your summer entertaining.

How to use the space:

• Outdoor movie nights
• Watching sports events
• Family game tournaments
• Summer parties

Read: How to Create a Memorable Outdoor Movie Night

The best outdoor spaces aren’t necessarily the largest or most expensive. They’re the ones that invite you to slow down, spend time with loved ones, and enjoy everything summer has to offer.

Whether you’re upgrading your patio, adding a pergola, or creating the perfect entertainment area, investing in your outdoor space can make every day feel a little more like a vacation.

If you’re dreaming of a home with more room to enjoy summer outdoors, our team would love to help you find the perfect backyard to match your lifestyle.

Contact us today!

It was a typical Woolwich "review" which means that it was done for appearances sake not to reform or improve it. Afterall they has been working perfectly just  as planned by Chemtura and the Ont. Ministry of Environment . TRAC ended up replacing them  and stands for either Totally Rotten and Corrupt or what Woolwich calls it which is disingenuous. Regardless there was exactly zero improvement from the public's viewpoint and interest.

The Woolwich Observer published a story titled "Woolwich to review how its environmental watchdog functions" written by Leah Gerber on November 9, 2023. In it Sebastian was the only member to tell it like it is with multiple criticisms and concerns including the committee being routinely at a disadvantage technically and often bulldozed. Other members such as Eric Hodgins, Wilson Lau and Susan Bryant thought that that was just fine. They made excuses as well as deflected towards better communications with the public.

The bottom line is that the committee can suggest this or that and even criticize something strongly but  it goes nowhere if Lanxess and the MECP are not in favour of it.  One obvious example is RAC, TAG & TRAC's attempts to get a commitment to clean part of the Canagagigue Creek whether semi fake "hotspots" or actually any part of the downstream highly contaminated Creek. All they have commitment wise is delay, delay and more delay without any commitment whatsoever to do a damn thing. 

• What: The Language of Peace, a talk by Robert Massoud
• When: 11:30am on Thursday 25 June 2026
• Where: Mennonite Central Commitee, Community Room
• Location: 50 Kent Avenue, Kitchener, Ontario Map
• Presented by: Waterloo Region Friends of Palestine♦
• Online: mcec.ca/event/25904-2026-06-25-lunch-and-learn-the-language-of-peace
• Contact: wrfriendsofpalestine@gmail.com

This talk by Robert Massoud, founder of Zatoun and co-founder of WRFP is offered as part of the “Lunch & Learn” series sponsored by MCEC PIN (Mennonite Church Eastern Canada – Palestine/Israel Network) .

No shortage of words for peace, just shortage of peace.

We hope for peace and live in the “language of peace” but where has it brought humanity and the planet. Why is peace so elusive? Why is the language not bringing us closer to peace?

Robert looks at the language of peace and why it betrays the pursuit of peace and how we can begin to recapture the language and the peace. All are invited to conversation following.

For more details, please visit Lunch and Learn: The Language of Peace – Mennonite Church Eastern Canada.

We can be grateful for living in a vibrant community of courage, commitment and solidarity. See you on Thursday for The Language of Peace, For the Children of Gaza Benefit Concert and for “Walk with Palestine” on Saturday.

Irene
Waterloo Region Friends of Palestine
www.instagram.com/wrfriendsofpalestine/

• What: For the Children of Gaza Benefit Concert with Peggy Weber & Friends
• When: 7:00pm on Thursday 25 June 2026 (doors open at 6:30pm)
• Where: St. Jacobs Mennonite Church
• Location: 1310 King Street North, St. Jacobs, Ontario Map
• Presented by: Waterloo Region Friends of Palestine♦
• Donate: mcc.org/get-involved/giving/community-fundraisers/st-jacobs-benefit-concert-children-gaza-june25
• Contact: wrfriendsofpalestine@gmail.com

Dear friends of Palestine,

WRFP is overjoyed to partner with Peggy Weber & Friends to bring this unique evening to Waterloo Region. Together we celebrate the culture and resistance through song and music, while fundraising for families in Gaza.

Tax-deductible Donations via MCC at St. Jacobs Benefit Concert for Children in Gaza June25 | Mennonite Central Committee

Already over $2,100 raised online alone! Thank you to the many that have given even if cannot attend event.

WRFP is very happy to be hosting For the Children of Gaza, a fundraising concert on Thursday, June 25 at 7:00 p.m. at St. Jacobs Mennonite Church.

The evening features Peggy Weber & Friends joined by Palestinian singers. Peggy brings together an eclectic group of 15 well-known local musicians to make glorious music from heartfelt folk, blues, gospel harmonies, classic singalongs, to soulful acoustic performances. With a presentation and conversation with Robert Massoud, long-time Canadian-Palestinian activist and co-founder of WRFP.

This unforgettable evening of music will raise funds for the children of Gaza. Although the destruction of Gaza is not in the news now, the children still live in rubble and tents and are in greater need of emergency support than ever. All donations are tax-deductible through Mennonite Central Committee and directed toward emergency aid for Gaza children and families, including food assistance, warm clothing, and mental health support programs.

For people who cannot attend the event to donate, there is a webpage to accept tax-deductible donations online – already has received $2,100 towards the overall goal of $12,000.

It promises to be an unforgettable evening of inspiring music to bring people together and make a difference in the lives of Gaza’s children.

The event is Free – no registration required. Come as you are, bring your heart, and make community for a unique and inspiring evening. All ages and all nations welcome!

See the exciting program: Waterloo Region Friends of Palestine – Children of Gaza Benefit Concert – program – 2026-06-25 (PDF, 82 kBytes)

Irene
Waterloo Region Friends of Palestine
www.instagram.com/wrfriendsofpalestine/

♦

The Waterloo Region luxury real estate market continued to show strength in May 2026, with both single-family and attached luxury homes performing in seller’s market territory. While inventory has increased compared to last year, buyer demand remains active, particularly for well-positioned homes that are priced strategically and presented properly from the start.

For homeowners considering selling a luxury property in Waterloo Region, the numbers point to an important takeaway: there is still opportunity in the market, but buyers are not moving blindly. The strongest results are going to homes that align with current buyer expectations, show exceptionally well, and are supported by a thoughtful pricing and marketing strategy.

The luxury benchmark price for single-family homes in Waterloo Region was $1,100,000 in May 2026. During the month, there were 246 active luxury single-family listings and 65 sales, resulting in a 26% sales ratio. This placed the single-family luxury segment firmly in seller’s market territory.

The median luxury sale price for single-family homes reached $1,271,200, up from $1,188,750 in May 2025. This represents a year-over-year increase of approximately 7%, showing continued resilience in the upper end of the market.

At the same time, inventory also rose substantially. There were 246 luxury single-family homes available in May 2026 compared to 166 in May 2025, an increase of 48%. Sales activity also improved, with 65 sales compared to 50 the year before.

This combination tells a more nuanced story. Sellers have more competition than they did last year, but buyers are still active. In other words, the market is moving, but not every listing will receive the same level of attention. Homes that are well-prepared, well-priced, and marketed with intention are more likely to stand out.

Luxury single-family homes spent a median of 16 days on the market in May 2026, down from 18 days in May 2025. This shows that desirable properties are still moving at a healthy pace.

However, the median sale-to-list price ratio was 97.77%, slightly lower than 98.60% the year before. This suggests that while demand remains strong, buyers are still negotiating and paying close attention to value. Sellers should not interpret a seller’s market as a guaranteed over-asking result. Pricing discipline still matters.

The most active single-family price band was $1,700,000 to $1,899,999, which saw a 50% sales ratio. This indicates particularly strong buyer activity in that segment of the luxury market.

The strongest single-family activity came from 4-bedroom homes, with 31 sales and a 32% sales ratio. These properties had a median sale price of $1,283,000 and a median of 16 days on market.

3-bedroom homes also performed well, with a 28% sales ratio and a median sale price of $1,187,500. Larger homes with 5 bedrooms posted a more balanced 20% sales ratio, while 6+ bedroom homes remained in seller’s market territory with a 22% sales ratio.

For sellers, this reinforces the importance of understanding how your home fits into the market. A 4-bedroom executive home, a large estate-style property, and a downsizer-friendly luxury bungalow may all sit above the luxury benchmark, but they attract different buyers and require different positioning.

The attached luxury market also remained in seller’s market territory in May 2026. The luxury benchmark price for attached homes was $700,000. There were 67 active listings and 15 sales, resulting in a 22% sales ratio.

The median luxury sale price for attached homes was $760,000, down from $835,000 in May 2025. While this represents a 9% year-over-year decrease, the broader picture is more balanced. Total sales were unchanged year over year, with 15 sales in both May 2025 and May 2026, while inventory increased from 38 to 67 listings.

In simple terms, buyers had more attached luxury options to choose from this year. That added competition likely contributed to softer median pricing, even though sales activity remained steady.

One of the most notable improvements in the attached luxury market was the drop in days on market. Attached luxury homes spent a median of 18 days on market in May 2026, compared to 44 days in May 2025.

The sale-to-list price ratio also improved, rising from 98.32% in May 2025 to 100.68% in May 2026. This means that, on a median basis, attached luxury homes sold slightly above list price in May.

The most active attached luxury price band was $820,000 to $839,999, where the sales ratio reached 200%. This indicates very strong activity in that range, although smaller sample sizes can make individual price bands more volatile from month to month.

For homeowners thinking about selling a luxury home in Waterloo, Kitchener, or the surrounding Waterloo Region communities, the current market offers a strong opportunity, but strategy matters more than ever.

Inventory is higher in both the single-family and attached luxury segments. More choice for buyers means presentation, pricing, exposure, and timing all play a major role in the final result. A luxury listing cannot rely on the market alone. It needs to be launched properly.

That includes preparing the home before it hits the market, using professional photography and video, creating a strong digital presence, and pricing with both comparable sales and current buyer behaviour in mind.

Today’s luxury buyers are still willing to act quickly when the right property becomes available, but they are also informed, selective, and value-conscious. Homes that feel dated, overpriced, or poorly marketed may sit, even in a market that technically favours sellers.

For many sellers, yes. The May 2026 data shows that the luxury market in Waterloo Region remains active, with seller’s market conditions in both the single-family and attached home segments.

However, the best results are likely to come from a tailored approach. The right strategy will depend on your property type, neighbourhood, price range, condition, and the current level of competition in your segment.

A luxury home in Colonial Acres, Westmount, Upper Beechwood, Laurelwood, Carriage Crossing, or another sought-after Waterloo Region neighbourhood should not be marketed with a one-size-fits-all plan. Luxury buyers are looking for more than square footage. They are looking for lifestyle, quality, privacy, location, and confidence in the value they are purchasing.

If you are considering selling a luxury home in Waterloo Region, understanding where your property fits within the current market is the first step. A strong sale starts well before the listing goes live.

The Deutschmann Team provides a tailored, full-service approach to luxury real estate in Waterloo Region, including strategic pricing, elevated marketing, professional presentation, and local market expertise.

If you are thinking about selling, we would be happy to help you understand what your home could be worth in today’s market and what steps would help position it for the strongest possible result.

The post Waterloo Region Luxury Real Estate Market Update | June 2026 appeared first on Kitchener Waterloo Real Estate Agent - The Deutschmann Team.

Luxury homes in Waterloo Region are defined by far more than price. They combine location, scarcity, quality, and lifestyle appeal in a way that attracts a smaller, more selective pool of buyers. Knowing whether your home falls into that category, and how to position it before listing, can change your final sale result.

• Luxury real estate in Waterloo Region is usually defined by a combination of price, location, scarcity, build quality, and lifestyle appeal. In most cases, higher-end homes start above $1M.
• Pricing, presentation, and marketing all impact how quickly a luxury home sells and what it sells for. A generic listing rarely produces the strongest result.
• Luxury looks different across Waterloo Region. Westmount, Deer Ridge, Carriage Crossing, Colonial Acres, Laurelwood, and the rural townships each attract a different buyer.
• Overpricing or under-marketing a higher-end home is the most common reason a luxury listing sits and loses buyer momentum.
• The first 1 to 2 weeks of a listing are the most important. A clear strategy from day 1 protects long-term value.

A luxury home in Waterloo Region refers to a property that stands out across a combination of location, scarcity, build quality, lifestyle appeal, and buyer perception. In most cases, these homes start above $1M, but price alone is not enough to make a home luxury.

A house can be expensive without feeling rare. A different home can feel elevated, desirable, and hard to replace even when it is not the highest-priced home on the street. Knowing which category your home falls into matters when it is time to sell.

When we evaluate a higher-end home for sale in Waterloo, Kitchener, Cambridge, or any of the surrounding townships, we look at several factors that buyers actively weigh:

Buyers pay a premium for neighbourhood prestige, school catchment, walkability, privacy, trails, views, and proximity to amenities.

Oversized lots, mature trees, custom architecture, and one-of-a-kind settings cannot be easily replaced.

Custom construction, premium materials, craftsmanship, and the level of finish throughout the home all impact perceived value.

Buyers are not just buying square footage. They are buying how the home lives day to day: layout, light, flow, and outdoor space.

Photography, video, staging, floor plans, and listing copy shape buyer perception long before the first showing.

The strongest higher-end homes make buyers picture themselves living there. Emotional pull drives stronger offers.

The strongest luxury homes deliver on most or all of these factors. The weakest ones rely on price alone, and that rarely meets buyer expectations in today’s market.

The buyer pool for a higher-end home is smaller and far more selective than for a typical listing. At $1M, $1.5M, $2M and beyond, buyers are not browsing dozens of listings each week. They are carefully comparing a handful of strong options across multiple neighbourhoods, often across municipalities.

These buyers are weighing finish level, layout, lot quality, privacy, neighbourhood reputation, outdoor living space, basement function, garage capacity, natural light, condition, and overall emotional pull.

That is why a luxury home cannot rely on a standard MLS® listing and a handful of photos. It needs a strategy.

Before we bring a higher-end home to market, we look at who the most likely buyer is, what they will care about most, what competing listings currently exist, and how to position the home so its value becomes clear quickly. That clarity is what creates urgency in a market where buyers have options.

One of the most expensive mistakes in higher-end real estate is assuming that a high list price automatically creates a luxury perception. It does not.
If the pricing, marketing, and buyer expectations do not align, buyers hesitate. They may like the home but feel no urgency. They compare it to newer homes, larger homes, more updated homes, or better-located homes. They wait. They watch. Some move on entirely.

Once a higher-end home sits on the market for too long, the perception around it begins to shift. Buyers stop asking, “Could this be the one?” and start asking, “Why has this not sold yet?” That question is hard to recover from. Even if there is nothing wrong with the home, longer days on market often invite lower offers and heavier negotiation.

This is why the launch matters. The first impression matters. The pricing strategy matters. The story matters. In the higher-end market, a strong start often defines the final result.

Luxury is not the same in every part of Waterloo Region. Each neighbourhood attracts a different buyer, and the marketing strategy needs to reflect that.

• Westmount: Luxury is often tied to character, mature lots, architectural integrity, and proximity to Uptown Waterloo.
• Carriage Crossing and Kiwanis Park: Newer custom construction, scale, premium finishes, and family-oriented function.
• Deer Ridge: Estate presence, privacy, and executive appeal in an established setting.
• Colonial Acres and Eastbridge: Established neighbourhoods, mature trees, executive homes, and strong school catchments.
• Laurelwood and Upper Beechwood: Premium lots, modern updates, and proximity to top-rated schools.
• St. Jacobs, Woolwich, and Wellesley: Luxury often means land, privacy, greenspace, and lifestyle outside the city core.

The way you market a renovated character home is not the same way you market a newer custom build. A lot backing onto open green space tells a different story than a walkable downtown property. The buyer profile changes, and the strategy must change with it. This is where local market knowledge becomes essential.

If you are thinking about selling a luxury home in Waterloo Region, the first question is not, “What price can we list at?” The better questions are:

• Who is the most likely buyer for this home, and where do they currently live?
• What makes this home difficult to replace in today’s market?
• Which features will buyers care about most, and which will matter less?
• How does the home compare to active competition right now?
• What should be done before listing to strengthen buyer perception?
• What pricing strategy creates the strongest result, given current demand?

The answers to these questions shape everything that follows, from photography direction to listing copy to which buyer channels we prioritize. Most realtors have access to the same MLS, the same photographers, and the same social platforms. What separates teams is the strategy behind the process and the experience to negotiate when it matters.

When we represent a higher-end home, our goal is never just to “get it on MLS®.” Our goal is to maximize the result. That means looking at the full picture from the first conversation through closing.

For every luxury listing, we develop a custom plan that includes:

• A pricing strategy built on real-time market data, not guesswork
• Home preparation and staging recommendations tailored to the property
• A clearly defined buyer profile and where to reach them
• Magazine-quality photography, video, and detailed floor plans
• Strategic listing copy that tells the story of the home
• Targeted digital advertising and database marketing
• Direct agent outreach across the region
• Ongoing showing feedback and pricing analysis
• Disciplined negotiation when offers come in

A luxury home deserves more than a generic listing. It deserves a plan built around what makes it valuable to the right buyer.

There is no single price that defines luxury across every neighbourhood. In most cases, homes starting above $1M are considered higher-end, with true luxury typically reaching $1.5M, $2M, or higher depending on location. Price is only one factor. Scarcity, quality, location, and buyer perception all play a role in whether a home is truly luxury.

If your home is custom-built, extensively renovated, located on a premium lot, or difficult to compare directly to other listings, you benefit from an agent who understands higher-end positioning, presentation, pricing, and negotiation. Generic marketing rarely produces the strongest result for a unique property.

Higher-end homes most often sit when they are overpriced, presented poorly, marketed to the wrong buyer pool, or positioned in a way that does not clearly communicate value. Once a luxury listing loses early momentum, it becomes harder to regain, which is why the launch strategy matters so much.

The most accurate way to value a higher-end home is to review recent comparable sales, current active competition, buyer demand at your price point, property condition, lot quality, updates, and the lifestyle appeal of the home. Online estimates rarely capture these factors accurately, especially for unique or custom properties.

The strongest results come from the right combination of accurate pricing, thoughtful preparation, professional presentation, targeted marketing, qualified buyer reach, and skilled negotiation. When each of these elements is done well, the home attracts attention from serious buyers and creates the conditions for the strongest possible offer.

If you are considering selling a luxury or higher-end home in Waterloo, Kitchener, Cambridge, St. Jacobs, Woolwich, Wellesley, or anywhere else in the region, the first step is understanding how your home should be positioned in today’s market.

At The Deutschmann Team, we help sellers identify what makes their home valuable, who the most likely buyer is, and what strategy will create the strongest result. Your home deserves more than a listing. It deserves a pricing, marketing, and negotiation plan built around the right buyer.

If you would like a confidential evaluation of what your home may be worth in today’s market, we would be happy to help. Request your free home evaluation to start the conversation.

The post Is Your Waterloo Region Home Considered Luxury? Why Positioning Matters Before You Sell appeared first on Kitchener Waterloo Real Estate Agent - The Deutschmann Team.

♦

During the earlier years of my writing career, all life experiences were filed under “material” for future writing projects. This mindset helped me endure difficult times, and even the drudgery of caring for small children (which goes hand-in-hand with the joy) could be made to feel useful, as if I were collecting scraps that could one day be turned into a delicious writer’s stew.

A few years ago, during the pandemic, I recognized that all of my writing was therapeutic, including the literary writing I’d been calling my career and vocation. I did not like this idea at all. I rebelled and revolted against it, maybe because it felt exploitative, even of my own experiences (let alone everyone else with whom I am in relationship).

Lately, I’ve been feeling at peace with this discovery—that my writing is therapeutic, that I’ve practiced it with devotion out of necessity, as much as discipline. My writing has kept my head above water, while also giving me a sense of purpose and hope during dull or aimless or desperate periods of my life. Writing soothes and comforts me. Writing fiction has deepened my capacity for empathy, sharpened my curiosity to learn how others see and frame the world. Writing is a magnetic force that pulls me in its direction; yet writing has never quite become the organizing principle around which I can structure, to satisfaction, my energies and priorities. Is writing my reason for being? My purpose and calling? Or is it the practice that sustains my purpose and calling?

My life is structured around relationships. Connection is my organizing principle. I am a quiet interior person, yet I thrive on sharing experiences with others.

I recently did a time audit, tracking the minutiae of my activities throughout a week (valuable, because so much of my time is “unstructured,” at present). First, I noticed that I spend a lot of time being with others, focusing on the needs of others (and that this brings meaning to my days). The flip-side is that I spend a lot of time in self-oriented activities—going to the gym, writing and journaling, quiet time alone, walks with friends. Focus on self; focus on others. Fill the cup; pour it out. Experience; process the experience. Action; reflection. Sometimes there is overlap between these circles—for example, biking on an errand feeds my spirit while the errand may benefit someone else; a walk with a friend can be both an experience and a processing of experiences.

One more observation: I spend very little time “working,” when work is defined as as an exchange of one’s time and skills for commensurate financial gain in the form of salary or paycheque, benefits, pension, etc. When someone asks “What do you do?” they generally mean “What do you do for a living?” And for this, my time audit showed very clearly, I have no good answer. I’ve been writing poems all spring; does that count? I also spend a lot of time looking after my dad right now, trying to understand his needs as they change, keeping my siblings and wider family in the loop, connected, feeling togetherness, mutually supported. Is this work? It’s just life, isn’t it?

♦

When my kids were little, I stayed home to look after them for close to a decade (while trying to find time to write). This was a hard time, in many ways, for many of the same reasons that now is a hard time, in my life. “What do you do?” I’m a writer, I would have said then; or not, depending on how confident I felt in that identity on a given day or hour. 

Twenty years ago, I was writing poems too.

They’re in a stack of books and projects beside me now—a manuscript titled “Famous Love Story,” which was never published in full, and did not earn me a living, though it probably kept me sane and grounded. Reading those poems now returns me to the tones and textures and chaotic/serene inner life of early motherhood. (As in the photos above and below, when I was the mother of a six-month-old infant.)

♦

Maybe poems belong to this strange between-time, when my identity feels threadbare outside of my relationships—mother, daughter, sister, spouse, friend. Thank heavens for friendships, the landing spot for safe ranting and commisseration and truth-telling and kindness. (Not that there isn’t respite and kindness and ranting inside those other relationships too, but friends are a different category of caring and reciprocity; side note, just finished reading The Weekend, by Charlotte Wood, and now I want to write a book about friends—maybe in twenty years or so!)

So. Poems. Self/Other. Making meaning, meaning-making.

Is my CV an incoherent tangle of part-time, contract, volunteer, temporary job-jobs? Or is it a fascinating but partial record of a person who has been a steady, creative, connective presence in the life of her family, for which there is no job title, no description shorter than a novel, and for now at least, no particular beginning or end? Probably both. That’s life.

xo, Carrie

The Wilmot Land Grab

The Waterloo Region Water Crisis

The Elmira Water Crisis

Failure to honestly advise the public re: Uniroyal 

Failure to honestly advise the public re: Ciba-Geigy, Cnd. General Tower

Failure to honestly advise the public re: Northstar Aerospace & the Bishop St. community

Failure to honestly advise the public re: TCE & the Middleton Wellfield

Failure to honestly advise the public re: Breslube and Safety-Kleen 

That's enough for now for you to understand the problem. They were very late to the party to protect our groundwater supplies in 1989-90 in Elmira and elsewhere. They didn't even have a single hydrogeologist on staff for Pete's sake. Since then they have consistently insulated, protected and covered up each and every dirty polluter within the Region of Waterloo. They are far too beholden to our local businesses and industries including those doing major harm to both our environment and to our residents. 

Their dishonesty includes Non-Disclosure Agreements in order to keep the tax paying public constantly in the dark. It also includes attending public consultation forums such as in Elmira but failing to speak out publicly to denounce corporate policies that they know are inadequate at best and just plain a coverup at worst.  Their quiet presence in a sense validates the entire totally inadequate process. Their refusal to stand up and say what needs to be said loud and clear simply emboldens arrogant polluters.

I have been advised that they have in the past done good things regarding hard urban/rural boundaries limiting where development can go. They do have smart people on board but I suspect the main problem is and always has been the career politicians who call themselves regional councillors. Most are mouthpieces for the status quo, the influential and the well off. 

When I first started leading cross-functional initiatives, I thought authority came from job titles.

Come on… It seemed logical. Managers and Directors had authority. Vice Presidents had authority.

I had… an email assigning me to a program and a Jira epic.

Unfortunately, Jira does not outrank anyone.

This created a small problem. Everyone expected me to deliver the product, but nobody involved in actually delivering it worked for me. Dev teams didn’t report to me, the ISSOs didn’t report to me, Ops & Sustainment didn’t report to me. Yet somehow, if the project failed, everyone would know exactly who to blame.

I eventually learned something that every PM, TPM, and program leader discovers the hard way: Everyone expects you to deliver the project. Nobody is required to listen to you.

Welcome to managing without authority.

Where using mom’s “because I said so” as a delivery strategy has a remarkably low success rate.

When you manage large, cross-functional programs, you are likely dealing with the matrix of a brilliant, highly opinionated, and fiercely autonomous workforce.

Engineers rarely tolerate bureaucratic red tape and unrealistic vanity dates that stifle their performance. Product managers are trying to ship enough features to keep everyone happy. Quality Assurance is trying to make sure none of those features take production down. Everyone has their own drivers.

So, if you walk into a room of cross-functional stakeholders and try to command them based on some arbitrary urgency that pulls them from their focus, you’ll be met with polite nods, silence, and enough NTR status reports to make you question whether anyone is actually working on the project.

Here is the reality:

• Dev Team A can’t force Dev Team B to prioritize a dependency.
• Security can’t force Operations to create a maintenance window.
• Operations can’t force the infrastructure team to deliver capacity.
• The TPM sitting in the middle of the chaos certainly can’t force anyone to do anything.

Yet somehow projects still launch.

Roadmaps still move.

Complex systems still get built.

The people who consistently make that happen aren’t always the ones with the biggest titles. They’re the ones who learn how to create alignment before they need authority. Because the truth is simple:

If your only strategy is escalation, you’re not leading the project.

You’re forwarding emails.

One of the fastest ways to lose credibility with engineers is to micromanage their time.

We have all had (or have been — don’t worry you don’t have to raise your hand) that professional status collector:

“What’s the status for today?”

“Just checking in.”

“Circling back.”

“Following up.”

Or worse, the tyrannical PM:

“What’s taking so long?”

“Why is this ticket not done yet?”

“ah, I see you’re out of office next week…”

By the third message, the engineer is actively hiding from you on Slack. I’ve been that engineer.

The problem is that constant status requests are usually a symptom of something else: missing context.

When a TPM, PM, or manager repeatedly asks why a ticket isn’t done, they’re often trying to compensate for information they don’t have. They see a missed date. The engineer sees three production incidents, a broken dependency, and a security finding that appeared halfway through the sprint.

Most developers don’t wake up thinking, “How can I ruin the PM’s timeline today?”

They’re making tradeoffs. A production issue appeared. A dependency broke. Another team became a blocker.

Or they simply don’t understand why your deadline matters.

That’s where most leaders make a critical mistake.

They try to solve a context problem with control.

The instinct is understandable. The date is slipping, stakeholders are asking questions, and pressure is building. So we start checking in more frequently. More meetings. More status requests. More reminders.

Unfortunately, none of those things explain why the work matters.

Brilliant technical minds don’t want to be told when to ship by someone who isn’t writing the code. What they actually want is enough context to make good decisions. If they view your deadlines as arbitrary dates on a spreadsheet, they will treat them as optional.

The moment you connect work to consequences, the conversation changes.

• The Old Way (Control): “Hey, we really need the authentication endpoint completed by Tuesday’s deployment train. Let me know if you hit any blockers.”
• The New Way (Context): “If the authentication endpoint misses Tuesday’s deployment train, the localization team loses its testing window. That pushes the global launch by two weeks, delays enterprise onboarding activities, and impacts revenue tied to the release. Here’s the dependency map.”

Now we’re having a different conversation.

One is an arbitrary deadline.

The other is context via blast radius.

When engineers can see how a delay in one component affects five other teams, they usually don’t need to be managed. They start managing themselves.

They reprioritize. They collaborate. They escalate blockers earlier.

They protect the broader system because they finally understand the broader system.

You didn’t create alignment by demanding compliance. You created alignment by providing context.

People can’t align around ten different but equal priorities.

We’ve all had the super fun surprise “New initiative” meeting or email.

Leadership says it’s top priority.

Product wants more features, Engineering wants more time, Security wants more testing, and Operations wants stability. Leadership wanted it delivered yesterday.

The problem isn’t that someone is wrong. The problem is that everyone is right.

What NOT to do:

Promise speed to Leadership.
Promise scope to Product.
Promise quality to Security.
Promise flexibility to Engineering.

Before long, everything becomes Priority #1. At which point the word “priority” has lost all meaning. Every meaningful decision requires a tradeoff.

Want more features? More testing? More speed?

Something has to give.

Tradeoffs must happen. The question is whether you’re making it deliberately or discovering it accidentally three weeks before launch.

Alignment doesn’t necessarily mean getting everyone to agree either. However, it does mean everyone understands what wins when the priorities collide.

I like to title these meetings “Rock, Paper, Scissors”. Getting stakeholders together and making it clear whether we are prioritizing speed over features, or quality over speed, etc..

If speed is the priority, some scope may need to go.

If quality is the priority, the timeline may move.

If security is non-negotiable, everyone understands what that means for delivery.

People don’t need to love the decision. They need to understand the decision.

Because when priorities are unclear, every disagreement becomes a debate. When priorities are explicit, people can make good decisions without waiting for permission.

And that’s one of the most powerful forms of influence a TPM has.

Not deciding every outcome.

Making sure everyone knows how to decide when you’re not in the room.

TPM Survival Tip: Beware of the Green Lie

Month 1: 🟩 Green
"The architecture is sound."
Month 2: 🟩 Green
"We're slightly behind, but we'll catch up."
Month 3: 🟩 Green
"One dependency slipped. No major concern."
Month 4: 🟩 Green
"We've accumulated some technical debt, but it's manageable."
Month 5: 🟩 Green
"The integration testing window is getting tight."
Month 6: 🟨 Yellow
"The authentication service doesn't scale under load."
Three days later: 🟥 Red
"Everything depends on the authentication service.“

for my fellow or former SWEs:

if (projectStatus == GREEN) {
askForEvidence();
}
if (projectStatus == GREEN && launchDate < 30_days) {
askForMoreEvidence();
}

The dangerous part about the “Green Lie” is that every individual task can appear healthy while the overall initiative quietly moves toward failure.

One of the biggest shifts in my career happened when I stopped thinking like a coordinator and started thinking like an owner.

If a TPM only cares about process theater, then “Is the ticket done?” is the only question they will ask. They simply measure activity and protect the process.

If a TPM has an owner mindset, they ask, “If this ships, does it solve the problem we intended to solve?”

An owner protects the outcome by removing friction and protecting engineering time from low-value work.

This distinction matters because engineers can spot process theater from a mile away.

Nobody gets excited about updating a spreadsheet or improving a burndown chart.

People get motivated when they understand the value being created.

The best TPMs I’ve worked with weren’t obsessed with picture-perfect Agile ceremonies.

They challenged ideas that consumed resources without delivering meaningful value. That’s what owners do.

So instead of asking whether the process was followed perfectly, ask whether the outcome justified the investment.

Ironically, this mindset also makes managing without authority easier.

Engineers respect leaders who protect their time, product teams respect leaders who understand business impact, executives respect leaders who deliver predictable outcomes.

When people believe you’re optimizing for the success of the system instead of the success of your project plan, trust grows.

You’re probably thinking, “Okay, so sum it up. What’s the magic sauce?”

Let’s put it plainly: it’s communicating explicit tradeoffs, and using objective data.

Context is the difference between:

“The team said NTR, they’re working on it.”

and

“The team is working critical task X, and sustaining Y so that system Z doesn’t go down. The current resources do not have the bandwidth.”

Tradeoffs are the difference between:

“New Task A and Critical Task X are both priority and cannot slip. We need to beat the deadline if possible but we also need to add these new features to satisfy a new customer requirement within the timeframe.”

and

“New task A is higher priority than critical task X because of these downstream dependencies and reliant business outcomes. For this cycle, speed > optimization > scope.”

Data is the difference between:

“I think we’re on track.”

and

“The team averages 20 story points per sprint. We have 100 points remaining and two sprints left.”

Most cross-functional conflict exists because one of those three things is missing. People are operating with different information, priorities, and versions of reality.

Your job isn’t to force alignment. It’s to decrease ambiguity until alignment becomes the obvious choice.

TPMs with no direct reports can quietly move mountains while directors with massive organizations struggle to get alignment.

The difference isn’t their title.

It is trust.

Those TPMs consistently identified risks before they exploded, they understood the business, they made meetings shorter instead of longer, they brought data instead of opinions.

After enough iterations, something interesting happens.

People stop asking,“Who gave you authority?”

And start asking, “What do you think we should do?”

That’s the moment you’ve earned influence.

And the org chart never changed.

The Critical Skill Nobody Teaches You was originally published in Code Like A Girl on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

As part of our ongoing mission to provide simple, real-time energy monitoring solutions for homeowners and commercial customers, our development team regularly rolls out software updates to the MyEyedro cloud platform. These changes are driven by customer requests and our desire to provide continuous enhancements to the MyEyedro ecosystem.  Updated feature deployments ensure that whether you are managing electricity, water, gas, or temperature, your data is always handled with maximum speed, security, and precision.

Bookmark the MyEyedro Release Notes page to stay up-to-date on the current version of the MyEyedro software and any new features.  

♦

I have some Sicilian in my DNA. When I have an opportunity and find interesting wines from Sicily, I drink them with a thoughtful and reflective pause — I dream I’m in the small town, Racalmuto (Sister City to Hamilton), where my nonna Concetta was born.

It’s an imaginative leap, to be sure, but one which is easy to do while gazing into a glass of red wine as heady, earthy aromas waft upward.

Recently, I made such an imaginative leap, sitting in the backyard with a small collection of cheese and salumi on a peaceful and warm, but not oppressive, early-summer evening. Accompanying was a 2017 Centopassi “Cimento di Perricone” (available at the LCBO).

It was of those ideal moments: relaxed and casual Alt-J radio on the outdoor speakers, a slight breeze. A gentle rustle of leaves from the trees above.

Serenity.

The moment with the wine only added to that relaxed feeling.

It was my first encounter with Perricone, an unusual and obscure varietal — and one of Sicily’s oldest indigenous grapes, apparently — that is most often blended with the better-known Nero d’Avola.

On its own, however, this Perricone was deep red, I’d say nicely bodied (probably medium or just a bit beyond), with some fruitiness and just a gentle touch of pleasant spiciness.

I quite liked it.

The Centopassi Perricone for this wine grew on a plateau at about 400 metres above sea level in seven hectares of certified-organic Don Tomasso vineyard. The soil is impermeable clay, the grapes are native to Sicily, and the wines are grown organically.

But the wine has an even more interesting backstory which I found compelling.

Centopassi is an example, very recently in the very long history of the noble grape, of a winery that started cultivating land that was “rescued” and reclaimed from the Mafia who seized it nastily and illegally and let the properties, the land, and any buildings rot.

Centopassi’s Cimento di Perricone is from a vineyard reclaimed from Giovanni Brusca, the brutal thug who, in 1992, assassinated judge and prosecuting magistrate Giovanni Falcone, a magistrate noted for prosecuting Mafiosi. (There were a number of other prosecutors, such as Paolo Borsellino, assassinated by the Mafia over a period in the same era.)

I wondered if that’s, in part, where the name — “cimento” — came from: a challenge, a test, an ordeal? Or is the grape, on its hard, impermeable clay soil, just hard to grow?

The former, “the challenge,” especially in the wine making is the reason, I’ve learned: besides what I would imagine are considerable safety risks when one involves oneself with anything that once involved the Cosa Nostra, working with Perricone is tetchy.

In his illuminating article of May, 2021, “Centopassi and the Perricone ordeal” in jancisrobinson.com, wine writer Walter Speller, having spoken to Centopassi winemaker-consultant, Giovanni Ascione, writes that Perricone is “difficult to grow and a challenge to ferment.”

Speller’s piece continues, “‘We decided to plant the vineyard, because we wanted to honour the history of the terroir,’ Ascione explained the choice of Sicily’s most fickle variety. ‘We wanted to take on the challenge'” (my emphasis).

Thanks to the Libera Terra organization, the Alto Belice Corleonese region, south of Palermo, now has vineyards growing grapes, including Perricone, for some delicious wines.

Terra Libera is dedicated to creating autonomous, cooperative farms that are “self-sufficient, stable, and that are able to create work places, thereby establishing a moral economic system based on legality, social justice and market,” according to their website.

The co-op includes Placido Rizzotto, Pio La Torre and Rosario Livatino growing on dozens and dozens of reclaimed hectares of vineyards in the Sicilian provinces of Palermo, Trapani and Agrigento.

If you are familiar with one of the world’s greatest films — Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather — you will recognize the name Corleone. Vito Corleone and his family, in Mario Puzo’s 1969 novel on which the movie was based, were fictional, of course. But the Corleonesi Mafiosi were real — and a ruthless, murderous, thuggish and evil gang.

In another connecting movie note, “I Cento Passi,” or “The Hundred Steps,” is Marco Tullio Giordana’s anti-Mafia film, made in 2000, depicting the life of Peppino Impastato, a political activist who opposed the Sicilian Mafia.

While I also sipped a Sicilian Pinot Grigio, a good, light-bodied wine with crispness, not a lot of sweet and a range of citrus and melon flavours, it was the Perricone that really set in motion a few moments of reflection.

That grapes and their wine could have such restorative power — playing a critical role in returning ill-gotten land, taken by mobsters, to its majesty for growing things like grapes (and other crops like wheat) that produce such good wine and helping farmers and rejuvenating the agrarian system — is, frankly, energizing and inspiring to me as someone who loves good, proper food and drink that has a social-justice foundation.

That’s brilliant.

So, next time you pop a cork, do some research and see if there’s a story behind the label. You might be truly rewarded — and inspired as you spend a bit of time reflecting peacefully with your glass.

Check out my latest post Centopassi wine turfs the Mafia from AndrewCoppolino.com.

♦

Zabaglione; zabaione (zah-bahl-YOH-nay) 

One of Italy’s great gifts to the rest of the world, zabaglione is an ethereal dessert made by whisking together egg yolks, wine (traditionally Sicilian Marsala) and sugar.  This whisking is done over simmering water so that the egg yolks cook as they thicken into a light, foamy custard. 

Traditional zabaglione must be made just before serving. It can be served either as a flavoured dessert by itself or as a sauce over cake, fruit, ice cream or pastry. In France it’s called sabayon, but the Italian zabaglione is much more fun to say.

Banner image/commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lime_sabayon_with_vanilla_ice_cream,_roasted_mango_and_Baba_Grand_Marnier.jpg

Check out my latest post Zabaglione! from AndrewCoppolino.com.

I just finished a round of job interviews. LeetCode screens, take-home tasks, vibe coding sessions. The whole spectrum. Here’s what I actually think about each one.

The theory behind LeetCode is defensible: a standardised problem, a time limit, a controlled environment. Everyone gets the same test. Objective. Comparable.

The practice is something else.

When I sit down to do a LeetCode screen, I don’t feel like I’m being evaluated. I feel like I’m proving I did the homework. It’s a secret handshake: a prerequisite you clear before the real conversation can start, regardless of whether inverting a binary tree has anything to do with the role.

What LeetCode actually measures is preparation. Recent, specific preparation. A senior engineer who’s shipped production systems for a decade can still fail if they haven’t practised the pattern library in the last 90 days. The format rewards the person who did the extra prep, who sat down and worked through this specific class of exercises until the shapes became familiar. If you’re preparing for it, resources like NeetCode 150 are useful because they teach the patterns, not just the answers. That’s the game: recognise the shape quickly enough, then execute under pressure.

If I’m being honest, these interviews give me the same feeling I used to get before school exams. Not fear exactly, but the sense that I’m about to be tested on how well I revised. But I also understand why companies use them. If you have thousands of applicants, LeetCode gives you a fast, standardised filter.

It’s also worth separating at-home LeetCode-style challenges from live ones. At-home challenges are harder to trust now. If the problem is self-contained and the candidate is alone, AI can solve a lot of it. That doesn’t mean everyone is cheating. It does mean the format has to account for it.

Live LeetCode has a different problem. Run badly, it becomes a memory test: have you seen this exact pattern before, and can you reproduce it while someone watches? Run better, it can at least test pattern recognition, communication, and thinking under pressure. That distinction matters.

The companies that rely on it most also have the most applicants. When you can afford high false negatives, you don’t have to fix the screen.

Take-homes start from a different premise: a realistic problem, your own environment, your own tools, no artificial time pressure. See what someone actually builds.

When I helped run interviews, we gave candidates a focused ML task that fit in a couple of hours. The submission wasn’t the verdict; it was the starting point. The follow-up session was where the real signal was. We’d ask about implementation decisions, probe the parts we found interesting, and ask them to make live changes. You find out quickly whether someone understands their own code or just assembled it.

In my opinion, that’s a well-designed take-home, though I might be biased since I helped design it at my previous company. The format depends heavily on how the task is run.

The problems are usually the same. Scope creep: “should take 3–4 hours” becomes a weekend. Asymmetry: the candidate invests serious time with no guarantee of feedback. Gaming: without time pressure, candidates can over-polish the submission until it stops reflecting how they actually work.

There’s also a structural issue worth naming: the ask is unevenly distributed. A take-home is easier to absorb if you’re between jobs, have quiet evenings, or can spend a weekend polishing. It’s much harder if you’re currently employed, caring for someone, or already squeezed for time.

So the same format can reveal very different things depending on how it’s run. Sometimes the signal is engineering judgment. Sometimes it’s mixed with everything around the candidate’s life.

The newest format: you write code while thinking aloud, often with AI tools available, with an interviewer who participates rather than just observes. The focus shifts from “did you solve it?” to “how do you think while solving it?”

LeetCode and take-homes are established formats. Vibe coding is not. The edges are still fuzzy: different companies are using the same label for very different interviews.

The two vibe coding interviews I did in this round were very different, which is part of why the format is hard to talk about cleanly.

One was a concrete spec-to-implementation task. I could use my own AI setup, so I used opencode and prompted it to clarify the plan before building. After the code was generated, the interview shifted into review: understand what was built, explain decisions, and compare tradeoffs.

The other was much more abstract: take a loose product prompt and turn it into something working. Again, the useful part was not just asking the model to generate code, but forcing clarification first. By the end, I had a rough prototype in a stack I would not normally choose, followed by a short discussion about what I would do next.

The interesting shift is not that code stops mattering. It is that code alone tells the interviewer less. If the model can generate a plausible implementation, the signal moves to everything around it: how you frame the problem, how you constrain the tool, how you test the output, and whether you understand the tradeoffs.

Traditional live coding puts a lot of weight on retrieval: can you remember the syntax, the pattern, the data structure, the trick? AI changes the value of that memory test. The scarce skill is no longer retrieving the first plausible answer. It is validating whether that answer is right.

Prompting is not just a shortcut here. The prompt becomes part of the signal. A vague prompt usually means vague thinking. A good prompt shows that you can decompose the problem, state constraints, and force clarification before generating code.

AI can make shallow understanding more visible, not less. If you accept the first answer and cannot explain it, the follow-up questions expose that quickly. The tool can generate code, but it cannot give you ownership of the code.

There is one advantage across both versions: shallow understanding is harder to hide. You can’t prepare a polished artifact in advance. You can’t memorise the pattern for this problem type. You have to think in real time, with someone watching how you think.

But it is not neutral. Vibe coding rewards people who have already built the muscle. The developer with the maxed-out subscriptions, a tuned local setup, a library of prompts, and reusable skills for every common task is going to move faster than someone opening the tool for the first time.

I’m not sure that advantage is automatically unfair. Knowing how to use the tools well is becoming part of the job. If someone has learned how to decompose a problem, constrain the model, review its output, and recover when it goes wrong, that is real engineering judgment.

There is a real preparation gap here. Someone who has spent months building prompts, skills, and workflows will look much stronger than someone using the tool cold. That is not obviously different from LeetCode rewarding someone who spent months grinding patterns. The uncomfortable difference is cost: LeetCode practice is mostly free; serious AI-tool fluency often is not. Someone unemployed or earlier in their career may not have the same setup, even if they have the same underlying ability. So the advantage might be signal. It might also be privilege. Most interviews don’t separate those cleanly.

Companies haven’t converged on a standard and the variance is wide enough to be its own signal. I looked around at public candidate reports, interview prep posts, and discussions from people who had recently gone through these loops. I wouldn’t treat any of this as official policy, but the patterns are useful.

Shopify is one of the most AI-forward examples I found. According to Hello Interview’s write-up, candidates can expect AI-enabled coding rounds where using AI is part of the exercise, not a violation of it. Catching the model’s mistakes is part of what they’re evaluating.

Meta has also moved in this direction. Hello Interview describes repo-scale tasks with AI available, and 404 Media reported that Meta would let candidates use AI during coding tests. That’s a meaningful statement about what they think the job is now.

One Google-focused community interview guide had the most explicit rubric I found. It frames the work around decomposing problems into modular prompts, encoding constraints before generating anything, validating output rather than accepting it, and diagnosing when a failure is in the prompt vs the code. That’s actually a coherent theory of AI-era engineering judgment.

Stripe has reportedly added an AI programming exercise in HackerRank, with a built-in AI chat window. The reported task is spec-heavy, multi-part, and hard to finish by hand in the time available. The controlled environment matters: candidates get access to the same model and the same tool surface, instead of bringing whatever paid setup they already use. From candidate accounts, the signal is less “can you code this from scratch?” and more “can you read the spec quickly, guide the AI, review its output, add tests, catch edge cases, and explain your reasoning under pressure?”

Amazon has reports pointing in the same direction. In one Reddit thread, a candidate said their recruiter offered an AI-assisted coding round and reimbursement for the tool, reportedly up to $100. Another commenter said they had done the round using Cursor and were reimbursed. That doesn’t mean the whole loop has changed, but it does show how quickly the norms are moving.

The pattern: companies are not moving in one clean direction. Some are building AI into the interview environment. Some are allowing candidates to bring tools. Some are still closer to traditional coding screens. Big tech is fragmenting by role, team, and probably recruiter guidance.

The issue is not that every company needs the same evaluation. They don’t. A company hiring for product prototyping should look for different signals than one hiring for infrastructure work. The problem is when the interview has no explicit criteria at all.

Without criteria, “good vibes” starts doing the assessment. That’s just bias with a friendlier name.

Tooling also complicates the signal. A controlled environment makes access more equal, but it may hide how someone actually works. Letting candidates bring their own setup is more realistic, but it also rewards people who have had the time and money to build one.

A good vibe coding interview makes the competencies explicit upfront. Not “write some code with AI and we’ll see how it goes,” but “we’re watching how you decompose, how you constrain, and how you validate.” The difference between that and the average version is the difference between a signal and a vibe.

A realistic, feature-sized problem. Not algorithmic puzzles, but rather something closer to actual day-to-day work. Done collaboratively, with the interviewer as a participant. Time-boxed, but not in a way that creates artificial panic. Followed by a conversation about the decisions, not just the code.

That’s a well-run vibe coding interview with a clear rubric. It captures what the other formats are reaching for, without most of the distortions.

The harder truth: this doesn’t scale easily, which is why most companies won’t do it. And scale tends to win over signal in hiring.

What’s been your experience across these formats?

Three Coding Interview Formats: And What Each One Actually Tests was originally published in Code Like A Girl on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

On June 16, 2026, our community gathered once again for a tradition that has grown into something much greater than an Annual General Meeting. 

House of Friendship’s Strawberry Social is a moment to pause, reflect, connect, and celebrate what we are building together. 

This year’s theme, “Building a Village – A Community That Lasts,” reminded us that none of us can do this work alone. A village is built through care, through compassion, and through people who choose to show up for one another. 

This year, that village was felt in every corner of the room.

There was an unmistakable sense of connection in the room. Supporters, partners, staff, volunteers, and community members came together, united by a shared belief in creating a stronger, more compassionate Waterloo Region. 

Throughout the afternoon, we saw what building a village truly looks like in action. 

We heard from Janine Vidal, whose journey with House of Friendship has come full circle. What began as support for her family became a pathway into leadership. Today, she walks alongside others as they rebuild their own lives. 

Her story is a powerful reminder that change often begins with one connection — one person who listens, who supports, who helps you take the next step forward. 

We also celebrated the incredible young leaders from our Boys in Leadership program and Youth Smile-Link.

These youth are not waiting for the future to arrive, they are shaping it right now. 

One of the most meaningful moments of the day was sharing progress on Friendship Village — a new supportive and affordable housing community opening later this year in downtown Kitchener. 

When complete, Friendship Village will include: 

• 100 units of supportive housing in Phase One 

• 70 additional affordable units in Phase Two 

But more than that, it represents a new way forward. A place where housing is just the beginning. Where care, connection, and community are built into everyday life. 

Friendship Village is designed so that individuals can move forward at their own pace, with the supports they need, while staying connected to the relationships that help them thrive. 

Belonging is not something people should have to leave behind as they heal.

During the event, we launched a new initiative: 
Welcome Home: Friendship Village 

This campaign invites our community to help furnish each unit within Friendship Village, ensuring that every resident arrives not just to housing, but to a space that feels like home. 

A bed. A table. A place to sit. 
These simple things carry deep meaning. 

They say:  

You are welcome here. 
You are cared for. 
You belong. 

This is an opportunity for our community to come together in a tangible and meaningful way, to prepare a space for someone they may never meet, but whose life they will directly impact. 

We are deeply grateful to everyone who joined us — to our sponsors, donors, community partners, volunteers, and staff. 

Your support makes this work possible. We are so grateful to be building this community with you. 

Because of you, more people in Waterloo Region will find a place where they can belong, a place where they can rebuild, a place they can finally call home.

Explore More 

• Watch the full presentation: Link 

• View event photos: Link

• Learn about Friendship Village: Friendship Village – House Of Friendship 

• Support Welcome Home: Gift Catalogue – House Of Friendship 

The post Strawberry Social 2026: Building a Village That Lasts appeared first on House Of Friendship.

Well there are a few reasons. Firstly I know how difficult it is to remove contamination from both soils and groundwater once it is there. I have been following very closely the unsuccessful efforts here in Elmira for the last 36 years. If talk and bull were cleanup they'd have been done many years ago. The so called cleanup efforts to the best of my knowledge in and around the Safety-Kleen site in Breslau have not been even 5% of the efforts, cleanup and pumping done both on the Uniroyal site as well as those done directly below ground in Elmira. 

I have seen and read past groundwater monitoring reports done on the east side of the Grand River, between Safety-Kleen's operations and the Grand River. A large part of this area was and maybe still is owned by Forwell Gravell. These monitoring wells are not solely shallow groundwater but also deeper groundwater in which the nearby pumping wells are screened. Lots of various solvents are present presumably from earlier efforts to bring in dirty oil for recycling that unfortunately contained these solvents whether unintentionally or intentionally in order to get rid of them.

With my own eyes I have seen colour photographs of various excavations done on and near the Safety-Kleen site. I have seen sub-surface soil excavations of contaminated sites before whether the two Varnicolor sites in Elmira or the Uniroyal site also in Elmira. They are not a pretty picture and just like at Uniroyal, I expect that without massive on-site source removal, the site and surrounding groundwater will never be clean much less achieve even our modest drinking water standards.

Two wells for sure are on the east side of the Grand River and the rest recently mentioned in the K-W Record are on the west side of the river. However their well screens are well beneath the river bottom and pumping will easily draw water from the contaminated side, under the river and into the wells.   

All of this combined with the likely Mickey Mouse upcoming Environmental Assessment will make for very bad quality drinking water. Bon appetit !

Please contact Eyedro Sales for more information: 

Here are three reasons why an Eyedro LoRa energy meter is highly beneficial:

• Deep Signal Penetration Through Dense Building Obstacles: Commercial electrical panels are frequently isolated in reinforced concrete basements, subterranean utility vaults, or heavy-machinery rooms where standard WiFi signals cannot penetrate. LoRa operates on sub-GHz frequencies, allowing real-time telemetry  to cleanly slice through structural barriers and transmit securely over long distances without network dropouts.

• Massive Coverage Area with Drastically Reduced Infrastructure Costs: Running miles of industrial Ethernet cabling or installing dozens of expensive enterprise WiFi repeaters across a sprawling facility is cost-prohibitive. A single LoRa gateway can support numerous nodes over a wide footprint, enabling seamless, wireless data aggregation from all your submeters back to the cloud via the MyEyedro Pro software license ecosystem.

• Zero Crowding or Interference on Corporate IT Networks: Traditional wireless hardware can congest enterprise Wi-Fi bands, creating bandwidth constraints and cybersecurity vetting roadblocks with corporate IT departments. LoRa utilizes an isolated, low-power wide-area network (LPWAN) architecture, ensuring that your real-time utility tracking remains secure, self-contained, and completely non-disruptive to existing corporate network operations.

Options champions and celebrates the sexual health of all people in BC by supporting, providing, and promoting inclusive and accessible health care and education.

Based in British Columbia, Options for Sexual Health (Options) is Canada’s largest non- profit provider of sexual health services in Canada. We operate through clinics, community engagement and education programs, and the Sex Sense information and referral service.

Options seeks to provide comprehensive and accurate information, support for sexual expression and reproductive choice, and confidential clinical services that help British Columbians enjoy healthy sexuality throughout life.

We acknowledge that Options for Sexual Health operates across the homelands of the more than 198 First Nations and 30 Métis charter communities throughout the province.

We are currently seeking up to 4 new members to serve on Options’ governance-focused Board of Directors. The Board’s role is to lead and guide Options in achieving its mission, vision and strategic priorities. The Board helps determine how Options makes a difference for British Columbians: what good, for which need, for whom, at what cost, and how ethically.

In particular, the role of the Board is to:

• Foster connections between Options, its members, and the community at large
• Oversee governing policies that guide the organization in:
  • Future and Strategic Planning
  • Organizational Outcomes
  • The Board-Executive Director Relationship
  • Governance processes
• Ensure adherence to applicable laws and regulations
• Make decisions about financial management, risk management and resource management
• Evaluate the performance of both the Executive Director and Board.

Volunteer six to ten hours a month. This will include attending in-person and virtual board and committee meetings, preparing for meetings, and attending special events. Most in-person commitments are in Vancouver, and any travel expenses will be reimbursed.

We want people who are committed and care! We have a lot of great people on the Board already and need to add a few more people with particular characteristics and skillsets.

The following are considered key qualifications for the Board Directors:

• A demonstrated commitment to the organization’s mission, vision, values and strategic directions
• Knowledge of the various types of communities and clients Options serves
• A commitment to serve the first full 2-year term
• Being simultaneously kind, and your own kind of rad

Experience in a mid- to large-sized organization or serving on a Board of Directors is also considered an asset.

Specific skills we are currently seeking include:

• Financial Management (CGA/CPA preferred)
• Strong connections with leaders in the business community
• Communications
• Entrepreneurship
• Fundraising

We invite applications from anyone who may contribute to furthering the mission of Options, and especially those who represent groups we serve.

We especially encourage applications from individuals who are:

• Living in rural and remote communities
• Youth (under 25)
• Older adults (over 65)
• 2SLGBTQIA+
• Indigenous
• Black and/or people of colour
• People with disabilities
• Members of other marginalized populations (e.g. temporary residents, low socio-economic status)

We invite you to self-identify and link to the work of Options within your application materials.

To express your interest in joining the Options board, please email executivedirector@optbc.org with your resume and a letter outlining why you are interested and are a good match. If you do not have a resume, a letter (or email) is fine.

The post Options appeared first on Capacity Canada.

Why is anybody surprised anymore by Donald Trump's behaviour? He has an extremely recently signed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Iran which firstly I'm sure he has a copy of in English and secondly so does the rest of the world and it says that hostilities must end in Lebanon.  Now maybe Trump's first stupidity was agreeing to something he maybe can't deliver namely Israel stepping back from it's hostile activities in Lebanon. Regardless the twit signed it.

Then as Israel continues pounding Lebanon, Iran as promised sends some missiles over to Israel to remind them about the MOU which granted they have not signed. Then Trump who at least used to have access to the best and brightest brains in America not only threatens the country of Iran with further attacks but he goes so far as to suggest  that the Iranian leaders and emissaries present at the negotiations in Switzerland should behave or they might not make it back home to Iran. Holy crap what an assh#ole Trump is. He only recently invaded a sovereign country (Venezuela) and kidnapped their President and under his command the U.S. has actually bombed Iran in the past DURING peace negotiations. He has also threatened the sovereignty of Cuba, Greenland (Denmark) and Canada.

Assuming that at one time he was sane and rational, it appears that  those days are long gone. There are mechanisms for America to remove a President who has become incapacitated whether by age, physical health, mental health or even by criminal behavior. That time is now due before he singlehandedly starts World War Three.    

♦

In a few short months, people in our community will leave homelessness behind by moving into Friendship Village!

The first phase of this project, still under construction in downtown Kitchener, will provide housing and healthcare supports for 100 residents, providing a new pathway out of homelessness for people in our community. A second, later phase, will provide additional housing for 70 community members.

Residents will have their own apartments, along with one-on-one support from staff, and access to health care, mental health, and addiction support to help them rebuild and stabilize their lives.

The new building will also have recreational programming and common spaces, to build community and connection – crucial after the many losses they’ve experienced while homeless.

Friendship Village will build on the lessons learned in ShelterCare, providing a range of supports to help residents grow more independent. Residents will have the chance to relearn critical life skills like cooking, cleaning and doing laundry, and become part of a larger community again.

“By providing this tailored support to the residents in Friendship Village, we are helping them get stronger and healthier, so that they can reclaim their lives and one day, move on to greater independence and stability,” said Tracey-Shonk-Lacey, House of Friendship Program Director. “This is so much more than a new building – it’s a way forward in our community’s journey to find solutions to homelessness.”

Construction on Friendship Village will continue into the fall, with the first residents expected to move in later this year.

YOU can be part of Friendship Village! Your generous gift today will help provide housing, support and more for people who are struggling with homelessness.

♦

Donate TODAY!

The post Get Ready for Friendship Village appeared first on House Of Friendship.

The first time my pipeline failed, I assumed I had made some tiny mistake.

A wrong parameter. A missing library. Maybe I forgot to update a path somewhere.

I genuinely thought it would take ten minutes to fix.

It took almost two days. And honestly, I’m still not completely sure I fixed the right thing. The results looked better after. Whether that means I actually solved it, I couldn’t tell you.

Before my internship, most of my experience came from coursework and tutorials where the datasets were clean, and the instructions were clear. You download the data, train the model, get a result, write a report, and move on.

Real-world data doesn’t work like that.

Things break for reasons that aren’t immediately obvious. One preprocessing mistake quietly ruins everything downstream, and you won’t notice until three steps later when nothing adds up. At one point, I had so many temporary print statements scattered through my code that reading the output became its own separate problem.

And the error messages almost never point to the actual issue. I don’t know why I kept trusting them.

I remember one evening - it was late, probably past 5, I had a half-eaten sandwich next to me that I kept meaning to throw away - staring at outputs that made absolutely no sense.

Not slightly wrong. Completely wrong.

The kind of wrong that makes you wonder if you’re even looking at the correct file.

After hours of checking things, I was fairly confident weren’t the problem, I eventually traced the issue back to something in the preprocessing step. Something I had glossed over because it seemed too small to matter. I had spent most of the day looking in the entirely wrong place.

That’s when I started understanding that debugging isn’t really about finding errors.

It’s about finding assumptions.

AI research is full of assumptions.

You assume the data is fine. That the labels make sense. You assume the model is the problem, then you assume it isn’t, then you’re not really sure what you’re testing anymore. Most of the time, you’re just trying to figure out which assumption quietly betrayed you three hours ago.

I probably reran the same experiment more times than was strictly necessary because I kept hoping the next result would somehow make more sense than the last one. Sometimes it did. Usually, it didn’t.

A surprising amount of debugging is just staring at numbers until one of them looks slightly suspicious.

What surprised me most wasn’t how complicated the models were. It was how much time went into everything around them.

Reading documentation. Checking outputs. Verifying whether something actually improved or just got lucky on that particular run. Trying to figure out whether a result was meaningful or whether I had accidentally introduced a different problem while fixing the first one.

There’s one issue I ran into mid-internship that I still haven’t fully explained. I worked around it. It hasn’t come back. I’ve decided not to think about it too hard.

One bug disappeared completely after a restart, and I still don’t know why.

I used to think strong programmers were people who wrote complicated code quickly.

I don’t think that anymore.

Strong engineers are people who stay calm when nothing is working. Because sooner or later, something always stops working. You spend hours debugging and find a mistake that takes five seconds to fix. Or the fix doesn’t fix anything. Or you solve one problem and immediately discover two more you hadn’t noticed before.

I wish I could say I had a systematic debugging process. Most of the time it looked more like controlled panic with occasional breaks.

Sometimes the only thing that changed between failure and success was stepping away and looking at it again the next morning with slightly less frustration.

There were days I questioned everything.

The code. The dataset. My implementation. My understanding of what I was even trying to do.

During meetings, I’d sometimes listen to people discuss problems I hadn’t even considered yet. Eventually, I started to realize most people were figuring things out as they went, too. They just didn’t narrate the confusion out loud.

Nobody is debugging for hours because everything is going well.

At some point, without really realizing it, I stopped worrying so much about looking like I knew what I was doing.

I started asking more questions. Dumber questions. The kind I would’ve avoided before because I was worried about what they’d reveal about what I didn’t know.

It helped more than anything else I did.

Near the end of the internship, I didn’t feel like someone who had figured things out.

I had a clearer picture of how much I still didn’t understand. Which sounds discouraging, but actually felt useful. Knowing specifically what you don’t know is different from just feeling generally lost.

Some days, I left my laptop with nothing resolved. I’d come back the next morning, and something would click that hadn’t clicked the night before. That happened more than I expected.

I became less afraid of problems I couldn’t immediately solve.

AI research didn’t teach me how to have the answers.

Most days, it just taught me how to stay in the room when I didn’t.

I Thought AI Research Would Mostly Be About Coding. I Was Very Wrong. was originally published in Code Like A Girl on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

♦

KITCHENER - Another day, another game where Jack Couch Park had a tough time containing the baseball.

In a game where 25 runs were scored, 19 were scored via the home run as the Barrie Baycats beat Kitchener 18-7 Sunday afternoon.

Barrie hit eight out of the park, giving them a league-leading 37 homers on the season.

Many of them were of the multi-run variety, as they ballooned their lead to 8-0 by the end of the third.

The Baycats continued to pile on the runs, only posting a zero-run inning once.

The Panthers were full marks with 14 hits, but couldn't keep up and couldn't solve Saul Vazquez with consistency.

Raffi Gross, Petey Kiefer and Josh Williams all hit solo shots, the only blemishes on what was a banner night for the visiting starting pitcher. 

Vazquez struck out nine through six innings for the win. He gave up seven hits and four runs.

The final of the four runs he was charged with was Trent Lawson coming around to score. He pinch ran for Josh Williams, who was clunked on the back to lead off the seventh.

For doing that, Vazquez was tossed from the game, and both benches even cleared for a moment.

Samuel Quintana took the loss for the Panthers. He gave up 10 runs on 10 hits, struck out five and walked two.

Malik Williams was three-for-five, while Yosvani Penalver had two hits.

Noah Hull was the big bat for Barrie, going three-for-six with two home runs and seven RBI.

Kitchener drops to 6-11 on the season, while Barrie improves to 13-4.

The Panthers don't have long to think about the loss, as Welland comes to town for a Monday night rain out make up game at 7:05 p.m.

GET YOUR TICKETS NOW and #PackTheJack!

Lore is a next-generation, open source version control system

Rust 6.4k Updated Jun 26