Ship fast without breaking things
Every team slows down as it grows. More people, more code, more meetings, less shipping. It doesn't have to be that way.
These essays dig into velocity, teamwork, and taming complexity — the engineering side and the people side. They're the thinking behind Scaling Fast, my book on software engineering through hypergrowth.
Essays on shipping fast
3 articles from March 2025 · show all
Sprint vs Shape Up vs Kanban
Whenever I talk about sprints, someone mentions Shape Up. So you have 9 week sprints – what's the difference?
Why sprints
For the past few months I've been introducing sprints into a chaotic startup that's been growing so fast everyone's got whiplash. Since August, 5 engineers turned into 12. I think it's starting to work.
Principles of high output engineering teams
A few engineering principles I aim to instill in every team I join. Lead or not.