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 β 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
9 articles from 2022 Β· show all
November 2022
Scaling teams is a technical challenge
A founder friend asked me about growing pains on his team. How do you avoid stepping on each other's toes?
September 2022
The art of the cowboy merge π€
how do you catch a critical deadline that cannot be missed? We're talking external stakeholders, millions on the line, and it all hinges on *your* team getting it done on time. No overtime
August 2022
Reader Question: What do collaborative teams look like?
New members on our team invariably say 2 things: 1. Wow I've never seen a team move this fast 2. This approach feels weird. I'm uncomfortable Teams like this are not common.
Reader question: So about that perfect burndown chart ...
If your approach works so well, why isn't every team doing this?
July 2022
Write abstractions, not just code
Wherein I use a silly example to show why you need more than small reusable single purpose functions to write good software.
June 2022
Coding forces you to understand the problem
Programming translates fuzzy understanding into exacting specifications. Thatβs why itβs hard. The Illusion of Explanatory Depth reigns supreme
May 2022
Writing software is like kicking a can
Writing software is a playful process of exploration and discovery. Like a game of kick the can on a Sunday walk.
The Italian foods theory of bad software design π
Spaghetti code β unstructured Ravioli code β too structured Lasagna code β layered wrong Minestrone software β unclear domains
April 2022
How we made the best burndown chart you've ever seen
My entire career I've never seen a sprint finished on time. The new manager said "Oh I think we can fix that" ... 18 months later he proved me wrong