Ship fast without breaking things

The Laws of Software Evolution

Manny Lehman was one of the first to notice that software is never done. It just continues to evolve forever.

The Series A inflection point

The Series A inflection point is the most fun time in a startup, if you ask me. Here's what it looks like

You can side-step a yak, they don't all need to be shaved

When yaks aren't procrastination, they might be tunnel vision. You're so focused on the right solution, you miss the good enough solution

Better is good

A small improvement that lands is better than a large improvement stuck in review

How big up-front design fails

A long design phase without shipping kills many software projects. Here's a story from production I haven't shared before.

Why software projects fail

5 common themes

What helps you ship confidently?

Been thinking about what needs to be in place for engineers to ship with confidence

Let small fires burn

You can't fix everything. Focus on the next big thing and let the small fires burn.

90% of performance is data access patterns

Removing a single line of code slashed database CPU usage by 66% 🤘

DRY – the common source of bad abstractions

Swizec reveals the hidden pitfalls of overusing the DRY principle in coding, leading to bad abstractions. Discover how to write adaptable, efficient code that avoids these common traps.

Scaling Fast, my talk on lessons from tech startups

This talk from C3Fest summarizes the key lessons I've learned in the past ~15 years of working in tech startups. It's a high level overview of a new book I'm writing (60% done).

You can't side-quest a product

Here's a trap that talented engineers fall into all the time. It creates frustration, burnout, and the genre of tweets that read like "Why don't people care about the amazing work I'm doing".

The dangers of spurious automation and how to automate anything

Discover the potential pitfalls of spurious automation and learn a foolproof three-step process to automate any task effectively. Don't miss out on understanding when automation is truly beneficial and when it can become a hindrance.

It’s okay to just do the work

Not everything needs to work forever. Start by solving the problem

Notes for my Scaling Fast talk next week

Decided to publish my notes because they look pretty useful on their own. Although I hope my stage presence adds a little something something. Enjoy :)

How to use feature flags

All the hard lessons learned using feature flags in production. Skips the why and gets to the how.

Validate your assumptions early

here's war story from last summer. I've talked about it in workshops but haven't written it down before. It's for a book I'm working on.

A better roadmap solves many issues

Many engineering challenges start with your roadmap

Get us over the water, not build us a bridge

effective engineering teams should work *with* their product owner/manager, not *for* them

Coordinating at the end is too late

When working: sync first *then* async

From trivial to complex – 4 software quadrants

You can classify software projects into 4 quadrants from trivial to complex

Approve with comment

A shift in your code review process can boost your team's productivity. Empower authors to make the call.

Architecture is like a path in the woods

You're doing too much. Sit back, relax, see how people *want* to use the code. THEN build the abstraction.

Code yourself out of the job

Don't get stuck being a critical member of the team.

The quickest way to kill a team

The answer to 5 soloists in a trench coat

Team dysfunction where everyone's a soloist? Try this fix: Force the team to work on ONE story at a time.

5 soloists in a trench coat

Ever felt like your software team is just soloists in a trench coat? You may be right!

The market always wins

No amount of growth hacking, investor money, or a/b testing will save you, if people don't want what you have.

Why you need a regular retro

Agile is something you are, not something you do.

5 tips for effective standups

Talk about today, not yesterday