Knowledge shared by our community

The Historic Decisions Document

Documentation is often seen as a hassle, but the Historic Decisions Document is a tool that can help to record the reasons behind decisions made throughout the lifecycle of a project. This document can help to provide context for both technical and non-technical people, and is especially important in larger engineering organizations. It can also help to prevent over-reliance on subject matter experts who may not always be available.

Making New Hires Effective Quickly

This article discusses the importance of assigning a mentor or "buddy" to new hires in a fast-growing startup. It also outlines the concept of "Leave a Trace," which is a practice of having new hires improve the new hire process. The article further discusses the importance of fostering a growth mindset and having a well-defined spin-up process. It also provides links to various resources related to developer productivity.

10x Engineer – The Root Cause

This article examines the concept of 10x engineers, which are believed to be highly skilled individuals who can contribute 10 times more than their peers. It looks into how to find, hire, inspire, and develop these engineers, as well as how to prevent them from leaving. It also discusses Carol Dweck's notion of learners possessing a "fixed mindset" or "growth mindset" and how to foster the growth mindset. It also references Jim Collins' book, Great by Choice, which discusses 10x companies and 10x leaders, as well as an article from Harvard Business Review which explains how Microsoft uses a growth mindset to develop leaders. It provides strategies for identifying growth-minded employees during the interview process and a 7-step process for hiring 10x engineers. It also discusses the risk tolerance of 10x engineers, the importance of recognizing the qualities that set 10x engineers apart when hiring, and how to develop deep learning through short repetitions and feedback loops. Finally, it discusses the "Happy Demise of the 10X Engineer" and how software development is being replaced by enabling technology, as well as the importance of engineering and scientific innovation in "deep-tech" companies.

Navigating Partnerships with Unicorns and Large Enterprises: Protecting AI Startups' Interests

This article explores the challenges faced by AI startups when partnering with unicorns and large enterprises, and provides strategies to protect their interests. It suggests engaging legal expertise to negotiate favorable terms and review contractual agreements, implementing NDAs and non-compete agreements, and considering jurisdiction and governing law. On the technical side, it recommends encryption, access controls, authorization, watermarking, model protection, federated learning, secure collaboration frameworks, and regular auditing and monitoring. By combining legal and technical safeguards, AI startups can mitigate the risks of theft or unauthorized usage of their AI models.

Mastering B2B AI SaaS Presentations: Winning Over Stakeholders

When presenting a B2B AI SaaS product, it is important to understand the three primary types of decision makers: financial, technical, and operational. To effectively navigate the presentation process, start by engaging with the highest decision makers and emphasizing the tangible benefits of the AI solution. Then, tailor the presentation to the operational stakeholders' specific needs and address the technical stakeholders' concerns by demonstrating a deep understanding of their technical landscape. Finally, establish a collaborative relationship with the IT department to ensure seamless integration and data security.

Scouting Top AI Talents: How to Compete with Big Tech Giants

This article explores effective tips for finding exceptional AI talents and competing with big tech companies based on value and impact. Tips include staying updated with the latest research, identifying relevant authors, leveraging value propositions, offering freedom and intellectual stimulation, and communicating value and impact. By implementing these tips, AI startups can attract and retain exceptional talents, creating a competitive advantage even when compared to big tech giants.

Recap From Our San Francisco Relaunch Party

We recently celebrated our platform-wide upgrade with a demo of our latest features. We announced a fairer revenue model, broader learning opportunities, a more flexible usage approach, and advanced AI features. Watch the full event recording for a full recap.

Stop Treating Pull Requests like PowerPoint Presentations

Pull Requests (PRs) are a platform for sharing information across development teams, but they are often treated like PowerPoint presentations and can lead to frustration and lack of understanding. To make the PR process more effective, techniques such as Triad Review, Shoutouts and Questions, running it locally, and prompting to sync can be used to ensure that everyone has a greater understanding of the system.

Hackathons Are Life

This article is about the author's experience in a hackathon, where they competed against another team to build a Chrome Extension that would inform users if they were purchasing an item with illegally sourced or environmentally harmful ingredients. The author's team was able to ship to the Chrome Web Store and win the hackathon, while the other team was still architecting. The author learned that hackathons can be a great way to emulate real life, as they force teams to focus on fast release cycles and produce the simplest solutions that gain the most benefit. The author also suggests that when evaluating a new tool, framework, language, etc., it is best to do a hackathon with it to test it out.

Why Would Anyone Mob Program? (an intro)

Mob Programming is a concept where a team of ~3-5 works together on a single feature, with only one person typing at a time. It is a difficult process to go from troll-coding to mobbing, but it is an incredibly valuable and efficient experience. It is slow, but the quality of work produced is multiple times better than what a single developer can create. It also allows for full domain knowledge of the system developed, and one member of the mob can represent the team in meetings.

Unlocking the Power of Product Management for Startup CTOs

This article explores the art of product management and how CTOs can use it to drive innovation and success. It covers core components, the importance of a strong CTO-product manager alliance, strategies for aligning engineering and product strategies with business objectives, and tips for implementing product management within an organisation. Agile methodologies and building high-trust empowered product teams are also discussed. By mastering these concepts, CTOs can unlock the power of product management to drive innovation and success.

Navigating the Maze of Technical Debt: A Startup's Survival Guide

In this blog post, the author discusses the concept of technical debt and its impact on startups. They explain that technical debt is the accumulated cost of quick fixes and workarounds in software development, which can slow down product development, reduce agility, lower quality, and compromise resilience. The author provides strategies to manage and mitigate technical debt, such as prioritizing debt reduction, maintaining a technical debt register, establishing coding standards, investing in continuous learning, and balancing short and long-term goals. They also discuss how to identify and prioritize technical debt for maximum value, including using code metrics, analyzing code churn and bug density, and leveraging team feedback. The author concludes by emphasizing the importance of understanding technical debt and adopting effective management strategies to maintain agility and successfully adapt to market changes.

How to balance the technical and business aspects of running an AI startup, as a technical person.

Success in AI startups requires a balance between technical and business aspects. This can be achieved by looking at things from a return on investment perspective, focusing on solving real business problems, being pragmatic in technical decisions, and surrounding yourself with business-minded people. Additionally, it is important to visit customers to gain a better understanding of their needs and develop technology that truly addresses their problems. Ultimately, the key to success is to stay focused on creating value for customers.

Tackling Technical Debt: A Crucial Step Towards Enhanced Productivity

Technical debt can be a major issue for companies, as it can decrease productivity and derail focus from delivering new features. To manage this, it is important to quantify, monitor, and highlight technical debt, and to allocate a proportion of team velocity to refactoring and technical debt elimination. It is also important to uphold consistent and high standards, and to use metrics to persuade management to allocate resources to tackle technical debt.

Working Effectively In a Remote Environment

This article outlines the best practices that were adopted to ensure business continuity during the Covid-19 pandemic. These practices included fostering a self-service mindset, promoting asynchronous communication, and providing clear communication guidelines. These measures allowed for streamlined onboarding, improved meeting efficiency, and reduced distractions. As we continue to adapt to the remote-first era, these best practices will be essential in charting our path forward.

Navigating Strategy, Innovation, and Change in the Technology Landscape

This article outlines strategies for CTOs to create an effective and agile strategy-making process. It encourages leveraging customer feedback, market validation, and competitor analysis to make data-driven decisions. It also suggests forming cross-functional teams, incorporating diversity and inclusion, and leveraging renowned strategy frameworks. Additionally, it outlines the importance of continuous learning and adaptation, and provides resources and advice on conducting market research.

On Hiring: A Guide for Startup CTOs

This article provides CTOs of startups with strategies to create a transparent recruitment process that leads to trust-based technical teams. It covers topics such as crafting a concise and engaging job ad, collaborating with recruiters, and keeping job listings up-to-date. Additionally, it outlines two different approaches to recruiting for a startup, and suggests a hybrid model of recruiting that combines the benefits of working with a recruiter and being hands-on in the hiring process. It also emphasizes the importance of being transparent about salary expectations and involving the team in the recruitment process. Finally, it suggests regular communication with potential candidates and providing constructive feedback if they are not selected for a role. These strategies will help CTOs connect with diverse, talented candidates and build a cohesive team ready to drive their startup’s success.

Peacetime and Wartime Leadership in the Technology Industry: A CTO's Perspective

This article explores the concept of Peacetime and Wartime CTOs, drawing inspiration from the teachings of Ben Horowitz and Andrew S. Grove. It defines the role of the CTO as an engineering leader and innovator, and outlines the characteristics and responsibilities of Peacetime and Wartime CTOs. It also discusses the challenges CTOs face during wartime and strategies for addressing them. By understanding these distinct roles and their responsibilities, technology leaders can better navigate their organisations through periods of growth and stability, as well as times of crisis and intense competition.

Small vs complex pull requests

Small pull requests can lead to faster review cycles, improved collaboration, reduced merge conflicts, better code maintainability, easier troubleshooting, and incremental progress. Uplevel metrics can help measure the usage of small pull requests and assess their effectiveness. This approach can enhance collaboration, accelerate the development cycle, and foster a culture of agility and efficiency within engineering teams.

Deep work, the connection to increased productivity and reducing the risk of burnout...

Deep work can lead to increased productivity, higher-quality output, and more innovative solutions, as well as reduced employee burnout. To promote deep work, stakeholders should be made aware of its value and policies should be implemented to support it. Uplevel can be used to measure deep work in an organization.

The Historic Decisions Document

Documentation is often seen as a hassle, but the Historic Decisions Document is a tool that can help to record the reasons behind decisions made throughout the lifecycle of a project. This document can help to provide context for both technical and non-technical people, and is especially important in larger engineering organizations. It can also help to prevent over-reliance on subject matter experts who may not always be available.

Making New Hires Effective Quickly

This article discusses the importance of assigning a mentor or "buddy" to new hires in a fast-growing startup. It also outlines the concept of "Leave a Trace," which is a practice of having new hires improve the new hire process. The article further discusses the importance of fostering a growth mindset and having a well-defined spin-up process. It also provides links to various resources related to developer productivity.

10x Engineer – The Root Cause

This article examines the concept of 10x engineers, which are believed to be highly skilled individuals who can contribute 10 times more than their peers. It looks into how to find, hire, inspire, and develop these engineers, as well as how to prevent them from leaving. It also discusses Carol Dweck's notion of learners possessing a "fixed mindset" or "growth mindset" and how to foster the growth mindset. It also references Jim Collins' book, Great by Choice, which discusses 10x companies and 10x leaders, as well as an article from Harvard Business Review which explains how Microsoft uses a growth mindset to develop leaders. It provides strategies for identifying growth-minded employees during the interview process and a 7-step process for hiring 10x engineers. It also discusses the risk tolerance of 10x engineers, the importance of recognizing the qualities that set 10x engineers apart when hiring, and how to develop deep learning through short repetitions and feedback loops. Finally, it discusses the "Happy Demise of the 10X Engineer" and how software development is being replaced by enabling technology, as well as the importance of engineering and scientific innovation in "deep-tech" companies.

Navigating Partnerships with Unicorns and Large Enterprises: Protecting AI Startups' Interests

This article explores the challenges faced by AI startups when partnering with unicorns and large enterprises, and provides strategies to protect their interests. It suggests engaging legal expertise to negotiate favorable terms and review contractual agreements, implementing NDAs and non-compete agreements, and considering jurisdiction and governing law. On the technical side, it recommends encryption, access controls, authorization, watermarking, model protection, federated learning, secure collaboration frameworks, and regular auditing and monitoring. By combining legal and technical safeguards, AI startups can mitigate the risks of theft or unauthorized usage of their AI models.

Mastering B2B AI SaaS Presentations: Winning Over Stakeholders

When presenting a B2B AI SaaS product, it is important to understand the three primary types of decision makers: financial, technical, and operational. To effectively navigate the presentation process, start by engaging with the highest decision makers and emphasizing the tangible benefits of the AI solution. Then, tailor the presentation to the operational stakeholders' specific needs and address the technical stakeholders' concerns by demonstrating a deep understanding of their technical landscape. Finally, establish a collaborative relationship with the IT department to ensure seamless integration and data security.

Scouting Top AI Talents: How to Compete with Big Tech Giants

This article explores effective tips for finding exceptional AI talents and competing with big tech companies based on value and impact. Tips include staying updated with the latest research, identifying relevant authors, leveraging value propositions, offering freedom and intellectual stimulation, and communicating value and impact. By implementing these tips, AI startups can attract and retain exceptional talents, creating a competitive advantage even when compared to big tech giants.

Recap From Our San Francisco Relaunch Party

We recently celebrated our platform-wide upgrade with a demo of our latest features. We announced a fairer revenue model, broader learning opportunities, a more flexible usage approach, and advanced AI features. Watch the full event recording for a full recap.

Stop Treating Pull Requests like PowerPoint Presentations

Pull Requests (PRs) are a platform for sharing information across development teams, but they are often treated like PowerPoint presentations and can lead to frustration and lack of understanding. To make the PR process more effective, techniques such as Triad Review, Shoutouts and Questions, running it locally, and prompting to sync can be used to ensure that everyone has a greater understanding of the system.

Hackathons Are Life

This article is about the author's experience in a hackathon, where they competed against another team to build a Chrome Extension that would inform users if they were purchasing an item with illegally sourced or environmentally harmful ingredients. The author's team was able to ship to the Chrome Web Store and win the hackathon, while the other team was still architecting. The author learned that hackathons can be a great way to emulate real life, as they force teams to focus on fast release cycles and produce the simplest solutions that gain the most benefit. The author also suggests that when evaluating a new tool, framework, language, etc., it is best to do a hackathon with it to test it out.

Why Would Anyone Mob Program? (an intro)

Mob Programming is a concept where a team of ~3-5 works together on a single feature, with only one person typing at a time. It is a difficult process to go from troll-coding to mobbing, but it is an incredibly valuable and efficient experience. It is slow, but the quality of work produced is multiple times better than what a single developer can create. It also allows for full domain knowledge of the system developed, and one member of the mob can represent the team in meetings.

Unlocking the Power of Product Management for Startup CTOs

This article explores the art of product management and how CTOs can use it to drive innovation and success. It covers core components, the importance of a strong CTO-product manager alliance, strategies for aligning engineering and product strategies with business objectives, and tips for implementing product management within an organisation. Agile methodologies and building high-trust empowered product teams are also discussed. By mastering these concepts, CTOs can unlock the power of product management to drive innovation and success.

Navigating the Maze of Technical Debt: A Startup's Survival Guide

In this blog post, the author discusses the concept of technical debt and its impact on startups. They explain that technical debt is the accumulated cost of quick fixes and workarounds in software development, which can slow down product development, reduce agility, lower quality, and compromise resilience. The author provides strategies to manage and mitigate technical debt, such as prioritizing debt reduction, maintaining a technical debt register, establishing coding standards, investing in continuous learning, and balancing short and long-term goals. They also discuss how to identify and prioritize technical debt for maximum value, including using code metrics, analyzing code churn and bug density, and leveraging team feedback. The author concludes by emphasizing the importance of understanding technical debt and adopting effective management strategies to maintain agility and successfully adapt to market changes.

How to balance the technical and business aspects of running an AI startup, as a technical person.

Success in AI startups requires a balance between technical and business aspects. This can be achieved by looking at things from a return on investment perspective, focusing on solving real business problems, being pragmatic in technical decisions, and surrounding yourself with business-minded people. Additionally, it is important to visit customers to gain a better understanding of their needs and develop technology that truly addresses their problems. Ultimately, the key to success is to stay focused on creating value for customers.

Tackling Technical Debt: A Crucial Step Towards Enhanced Productivity

Technical debt can be a major issue for companies, as it can decrease productivity and derail focus from delivering new features. To manage this, it is important to quantify, monitor, and highlight technical debt, and to allocate a proportion of team velocity to refactoring and technical debt elimination. It is also important to uphold consistent and high standards, and to use metrics to persuade management to allocate resources to tackle technical debt.

Working Effectively In a Remote Environment

This article outlines the best practices that were adopted to ensure business continuity during the Covid-19 pandemic. These practices included fostering a self-service mindset, promoting asynchronous communication, and providing clear communication guidelines. These measures allowed for streamlined onboarding, improved meeting efficiency, and reduced distractions. As we continue to adapt to the remote-first era, these best practices will be essential in charting our path forward.

Navigating Strategy, Innovation, and Change in the Technology Landscape

This article outlines strategies for CTOs to create an effective and agile strategy-making process. It encourages leveraging customer feedback, market validation, and competitor analysis to make data-driven decisions. It also suggests forming cross-functional teams, incorporating diversity and inclusion, and leveraging renowned strategy frameworks. Additionally, it outlines the importance of continuous learning and adaptation, and provides resources and advice on conducting market research.

On Hiring: A Guide for Startup CTOs

This article provides CTOs of startups with strategies to create a transparent recruitment process that leads to trust-based technical teams. It covers topics such as crafting a concise and engaging job ad, collaborating with recruiters, and keeping job listings up-to-date. Additionally, it outlines two different approaches to recruiting for a startup, and suggests a hybrid model of recruiting that combines the benefits of working with a recruiter and being hands-on in the hiring process. It also emphasizes the importance of being transparent about salary expectations and involving the team in the recruitment process. Finally, it suggests regular communication with potential candidates and providing constructive feedback if they are not selected for a role. These strategies will help CTOs connect with diverse, talented candidates and build a cohesive team ready to drive their startup’s success.

Peacetime and Wartime Leadership in the Technology Industry: A CTO's Perspective

This article explores the concept of Peacetime and Wartime CTOs, drawing inspiration from the teachings of Ben Horowitz and Andrew S. Grove. It defines the role of the CTO as an engineering leader and innovator, and outlines the characteristics and responsibilities of Peacetime and Wartime CTOs. It also discusses the challenges CTOs face during wartime and strategies for addressing them. By understanding these distinct roles and their responsibilities, technology leaders can better navigate their organisations through periods of growth and stability, as well as times of crisis and intense competition.

Small vs complex pull requests

Small pull requests can lead to faster review cycles, improved collaboration, reduced merge conflicts, better code maintainability, easier troubleshooting, and incremental progress. Uplevel metrics can help measure the usage of small pull requests and assess their effectiveness. This approach can enhance collaboration, accelerate the development cycle, and foster a culture of agility and efficiency within engineering teams.

Deep work, the connection to increased productivity and reducing the risk of burnout...

Deep work can lead to increased productivity, higher-quality output, and more innovative solutions, as well as reduced employee burnout. To promote deep work, stakeholders should be made aware of its value and policies should be implemented to support it. Uplevel can be used to measure deep work in an organization.

The Historic Decisions Document

Documentation is often seen as a hassle, but the Historic Decisions Document is a tool that can help to record the reasons behind decisions made throughout the lifecycle of a project. This document can help to provide context for both technical and non-technical people, and is especially important in larger engineering organizations. It can also help to prevent over-reliance on subject matter experts who may not always be available.

Making New Hires Effective Quickly

This article discusses the importance of assigning a mentor or "buddy" to new hires in a fast-growing startup. It also outlines the concept of "Leave a Trace," which is a practice of having new hires improve the new hire process. The article further discusses the importance of fostering a growth mindset and having a well-defined spin-up process. It also provides links to various resources related to developer productivity.

10x Engineer – The Root Cause

This article examines the concept of 10x engineers, which are believed to be highly skilled individuals who can contribute 10 times more than their peers. It looks into how to find, hire, inspire, and develop these engineers, as well as how to prevent them from leaving. It also discusses Carol Dweck's notion of learners possessing a "fixed mindset" or "growth mindset" and how to foster the growth mindset. It also references Jim Collins' book, Great by Choice, which discusses 10x companies and 10x leaders, as well as an article from Harvard Business Review which explains how Microsoft uses a growth mindset to develop leaders. It provides strategies for identifying growth-minded employees during the interview process and a 7-step process for hiring 10x engineers. It also discusses the risk tolerance of 10x engineers, the importance of recognizing the qualities that set 10x engineers apart when hiring, and how to develop deep learning through short repetitions and feedback loops. Finally, it discusses the "Happy Demise of the 10X Engineer" and how software development is being replaced by enabling technology, as well as the importance of engineering and scientific innovation in "deep-tech" companies.

Navigating Partnerships with Unicorns and Large Enterprises: Protecting AI Startups' Interests

This article explores the challenges faced by AI startups when partnering with unicorns and large enterprises, and provides strategies to protect their interests. It suggests engaging legal expertise to negotiate favorable terms and review contractual agreements, implementing NDAs and non-compete agreements, and considering jurisdiction and governing law. On the technical side, it recommends encryption, access controls, authorization, watermarking, model protection, federated learning, secure collaboration frameworks, and regular auditing and monitoring. By combining legal and technical safeguards, AI startups can mitigate the risks of theft or unauthorized usage of their AI models.

Mastering B2B AI SaaS Presentations: Winning Over Stakeholders

When presenting a B2B AI SaaS product, it is important to understand the three primary types of decision makers: financial, technical, and operational. To effectively navigate the presentation process, start by engaging with the highest decision makers and emphasizing the tangible benefits of the AI solution. Then, tailor the presentation to the operational stakeholders' specific needs and address the technical stakeholders' concerns by demonstrating a deep understanding of their technical landscape. Finally, establish a collaborative relationship with the IT department to ensure seamless integration and data security.

Scouting Top AI Talents: How to Compete with Big Tech Giants

This article explores effective tips for finding exceptional AI talents and competing with big tech companies based on value and impact. Tips include staying updated with the latest research, identifying relevant authors, leveraging value propositions, offering freedom and intellectual stimulation, and communicating value and impact. By implementing these tips, AI startups can attract and retain exceptional talents, creating a competitive advantage even when compared to big tech giants.

Recap From Our San Francisco Relaunch Party

We recently celebrated our platform-wide upgrade with a demo of our latest features. We announced a fairer revenue model, broader learning opportunities, a more flexible usage approach, and advanced AI features. Watch the full event recording for a full recap.

Stop Treating Pull Requests like PowerPoint Presentations

Pull Requests (PRs) are a platform for sharing information across development teams, but they are often treated like PowerPoint presentations and can lead to frustration and lack of understanding. To make the PR process more effective, techniques such as Triad Review, Shoutouts and Questions, running it locally, and prompting to sync can be used to ensure that everyone has a greater understanding of the system.

Hackathons Are Life

This article is about the author's experience in a hackathon, where they competed against another team to build a Chrome Extension that would inform users if they were purchasing an item with illegally sourced or environmentally harmful ingredients. The author's team was able to ship to the Chrome Web Store and win the hackathon, while the other team was still architecting. The author learned that hackathons can be a great way to emulate real life, as they force teams to focus on fast release cycles and produce the simplest solutions that gain the most benefit. The author also suggests that when evaluating a new tool, framework, language, etc., it is best to do a hackathon with it to test it out.

Why Would Anyone Mob Program? (an intro)

Mob Programming is a concept where a team of ~3-5 works together on a single feature, with only one person typing at a time. It is a difficult process to go from troll-coding to mobbing, but it is an incredibly valuable and efficient experience. It is slow, but the quality of work produced is multiple times better than what a single developer can create. It also allows for full domain knowledge of the system developed, and one member of the mob can represent the team in meetings.

Unlocking the Power of Product Management for Startup CTOs

This article explores the art of product management and how CTOs can use it to drive innovation and success. It covers core components, the importance of a strong CTO-product manager alliance, strategies for aligning engineering and product strategies with business objectives, and tips for implementing product management within an organisation. Agile methodologies and building high-trust empowered product teams are also discussed. By mastering these concepts, CTOs can unlock the power of product management to drive innovation and success.

Navigating the Maze of Technical Debt: A Startup's Survival Guide

In this blog post, the author discusses the concept of technical debt and its impact on startups. They explain that technical debt is the accumulated cost of quick fixes and workarounds in software development, which can slow down product development, reduce agility, lower quality, and compromise resilience. The author provides strategies to manage and mitigate technical debt, such as prioritizing debt reduction, maintaining a technical debt register, establishing coding standards, investing in continuous learning, and balancing short and long-term goals. They also discuss how to identify and prioritize technical debt for maximum value, including using code metrics, analyzing code churn and bug density, and leveraging team feedback. The author concludes by emphasizing the importance of understanding technical debt and adopting effective management strategies to maintain agility and successfully adapt to market changes.

How to balance the technical and business aspects of running an AI startup, as a technical person.

Success in AI startups requires a balance between technical and business aspects. This can be achieved by looking at things from a return on investment perspective, focusing on solving real business problems, being pragmatic in technical decisions, and surrounding yourself with business-minded people. Additionally, it is important to visit customers to gain a better understanding of their needs and develop technology that truly addresses their problems. Ultimately, the key to success is to stay focused on creating value for customers.

Tackling Technical Debt: A Crucial Step Towards Enhanced Productivity

Technical debt can be a major issue for companies, as it can decrease productivity and derail focus from delivering new features. To manage this, it is important to quantify, monitor, and highlight technical debt, and to allocate a proportion of team velocity to refactoring and technical debt elimination. It is also important to uphold consistent and high standards, and to use metrics to persuade management to allocate resources to tackle technical debt.

Working Effectively In a Remote Environment

This article outlines the best practices that were adopted to ensure business continuity during the Covid-19 pandemic. These practices included fostering a self-service mindset, promoting asynchronous communication, and providing clear communication guidelines. These measures allowed for streamlined onboarding, improved meeting efficiency, and reduced distractions. As we continue to adapt to the remote-first era, these best practices will be essential in charting our path forward.

Navigating Strategy, Innovation, and Change in the Technology Landscape

This article outlines strategies for CTOs to create an effective and agile strategy-making process. It encourages leveraging customer feedback, market validation, and competitor analysis to make data-driven decisions. It also suggests forming cross-functional teams, incorporating diversity and inclusion, and leveraging renowned strategy frameworks. Additionally, it outlines the importance of continuous learning and adaptation, and provides resources and advice on conducting market research.

On Hiring: A Guide for Startup CTOs

This article provides CTOs of startups with strategies to create a transparent recruitment process that leads to trust-based technical teams. It covers topics such as crafting a concise and engaging job ad, collaborating with recruiters, and keeping job listings up-to-date. Additionally, it outlines two different approaches to recruiting for a startup, and suggests a hybrid model of recruiting that combines the benefits of working with a recruiter and being hands-on in the hiring process. It also emphasizes the importance of being transparent about salary expectations and involving the team in the recruitment process. Finally, it suggests regular communication with potential candidates and providing constructive feedback if they are not selected for a role. These strategies will help CTOs connect with diverse, talented candidates and build a cohesive team ready to drive their startup’s success.

Peacetime and Wartime Leadership in the Technology Industry: A CTO's Perspective

This article explores the concept of Peacetime and Wartime CTOs, drawing inspiration from the teachings of Ben Horowitz and Andrew S. Grove. It defines the role of the CTO as an engineering leader and innovator, and outlines the characteristics and responsibilities of Peacetime and Wartime CTOs. It also discusses the challenges CTOs face during wartime and strategies for addressing them. By understanding these distinct roles and their responsibilities, technology leaders can better navigate their organisations through periods of growth and stability, as well as times of crisis and intense competition.

Small vs complex pull requests

Small pull requests can lead to faster review cycles, improved collaboration, reduced merge conflicts, better code maintainability, easier troubleshooting, and incremental progress. Uplevel metrics can help measure the usage of small pull requests and assess their effectiveness. This approach can enhance collaboration, accelerate the development cycle, and foster a culture of agility and efficiency within engineering teams.

Deep work, the connection to increased productivity and reducing the risk of burnout...

Deep work can lead to increased productivity, higher-quality output, and more innovative solutions, as well as reduced employee burnout. To promote deep work, stakeholders should be made aware of its value and policies should be implemented to support it. Uplevel can be used to measure deep work in an organization.

The Historic Decisions Document

Documentation is often seen as a hassle, but the Historic Decisions Document is a tool that can help to record the reasons behind decisions made throughout the lifecycle of a project. This document can help to provide context for both technical and non-technical people, and is especially important in larger engineering organizations. It can also help to prevent over-reliance on subject matter experts who may not always be available.

Making New Hires Effective Quickly

This article discusses the importance of assigning a mentor or "buddy" to new hires in a fast-growing startup. It also outlines the concept of "Leave a Trace," which is a practice of having new hires improve the new hire process. The article further discusses the importance of fostering a growth mindset and having a well-defined spin-up process. It also provides links to various resources related to developer productivity.

10x Engineer – The Root Cause

This article examines the concept of 10x engineers, which are believed to be highly skilled individuals who can contribute 10 times more than their peers. It looks into how to find, hire, inspire, and develop these engineers, as well as how to prevent them from leaving. It also discusses Carol Dweck's notion of learners possessing a "fixed mindset" or "growth mindset" and how to foster the growth mindset. It also references Jim Collins' book, Great by Choice, which discusses 10x companies and 10x leaders, as well as an article from Harvard Business Review which explains how Microsoft uses a growth mindset to develop leaders. It provides strategies for identifying growth-minded employees during the interview process and a 7-step process for hiring 10x engineers. It also discusses the risk tolerance of 10x engineers, the importance of recognizing the qualities that set 10x engineers apart when hiring, and how to develop deep learning through short repetitions and feedback loops. Finally, it discusses the "Happy Demise of the 10X Engineer" and how software development is being replaced by enabling technology, as well as the importance of engineering and scientific innovation in "deep-tech" companies.

Navigating Partnerships with Unicorns and Large Enterprises: Protecting AI Startups' Interests

This article explores the challenges faced by AI startups when partnering with unicorns and large enterprises, and provides strategies to protect their interests. It suggests engaging legal expertise to negotiate favorable terms and review contractual agreements, implementing NDAs and non-compete agreements, and considering jurisdiction and governing law. On the technical side, it recommends encryption, access controls, authorization, watermarking, model protection, federated learning, secure collaboration frameworks, and regular auditing and monitoring. By combining legal and technical safeguards, AI startups can mitigate the risks of theft or unauthorized usage of their AI models.

Mastering B2B AI SaaS Presentations: Winning Over Stakeholders

When presenting a B2B AI SaaS product, it is important to understand the three primary types of decision makers: financial, technical, and operational. To effectively navigate the presentation process, start by engaging with the highest decision makers and emphasizing the tangible benefits of the AI solution. Then, tailor the presentation to the operational stakeholders' specific needs and address the technical stakeholders' concerns by demonstrating a deep understanding of their technical landscape. Finally, establish a collaborative relationship with the IT department to ensure seamless integration and data security.

Scouting Top AI Talents: How to Compete with Big Tech Giants

This article explores effective tips for finding exceptional AI talents and competing with big tech companies based on value and impact. Tips include staying updated with the latest research, identifying relevant authors, leveraging value propositions, offering freedom and intellectual stimulation, and communicating value and impact. By implementing these tips, AI startups can attract and retain exceptional talents, creating a competitive advantage even when compared to big tech giants.

Recap From Our San Francisco Relaunch Party

We recently celebrated our platform-wide upgrade with a demo of our latest features. We announced a fairer revenue model, broader learning opportunities, a more flexible usage approach, and advanced AI features. Watch the full event recording for a full recap.

Stop Treating Pull Requests like PowerPoint Presentations

Pull Requests (PRs) are a platform for sharing information across development teams, but they are often treated like PowerPoint presentations and can lead to frustration and lack of understanding. To make the PR process more effective, techniques such as Triad Review, Shoutouts and Questions, running it locally, and prompting to sync can be used to ensure that everyone has a greater understanding of the system.

Hackathons Are Life

This article is about the author's experience in a hackathon, where they competed against another team to build a Chrome Extension that would inform users if they were purchasing an item with illegally sourced or environmentally harmful ingredients. The author's team was able to ship to the Chrome Web Store and win the hackathon, while the other team was still architecting. The author learned that hackathons can be a great way to emulate real life, as they force teams to focus on fast release cycles and produce the simplest solutions that gain the most benefit. The author also suggests that when evaluating a new tool, framework, language, etc., it is best to do a hackathon with it to test it out.

Why Would Anyone Mob Program? (an intro)

Mob Programming is a concept where a team of ~3-5 works together on a single feature, with only one person typing at a time. It is a difficult process to go from troll-coding to mobbing, but it is an incredibly valuable and efficient experience. It is slow, but the quality of work produced is multiple times better than what a single developer can create. It also allows for full domain knowledge of the system developed, and one member of the mob can represent the team in meetings.

Unlocking the Power of Product Management for Startup CTOs

This article explores the art of product management and how CTOs can use it to drive innovation and success. It covers core components, the importance of a strong CTO-product manager alliance, strategies for aligning engineering and product strategies with business objectives, and tips for implementing product management within an organisation. Agile methodologies and building high-trust empowered product teams are also discussed. By mastering these concepts, CTOs can unlock the power of product management to drive innovation and success.

Navigating the Maze of Technical Debt: A Startup's Survival Guide

In this blog post, the author discusses the concept of technical debt and its impact on startups. They explain that technical debt is the accumulated cost of quick fixes and workarounds in software development, which can slow down product development, reduce agility, lower quality, and compromise resilience. The author provides strategies to manage and mitigate technical debt, such as prioritizing debt reduction, maintaining a technical debt register, establishing coding standards, investing in continuous learning, and balancing short and long-term goals. They also discuss how to identify and prioritize technical debt for maximum value, including using code metrics, analyzing code churn and bug density, and leveraging team feedback. The author concludes by emphasizing the importance of understanding technical debt and adopting effective management strategies to maintain agility and successfully adapt to market changes.

How to balance the technical and business aspects of running an AI startup, as a technical person.

Success in AI startups requires a balance between technical and business aspects. This can be achieved by looking at things from a return on investment perspective, focusing on solving real business problems, being pragmatic in technical decisions, and surrounding yourself with business-minded people. Additionally, it is important to visit customers to gain a better understanding of their needs and develop technology that truly addresses their problems. Ultimately, the key to success is to stay focused on creating value for customers.

Tackling Technical Debt: A Crucial Step Towards Enhanced Productivity

Technical debt can be a major issue for companies, as it can decrease productivity and derail focus from delivering new features. To manage this, it is important to quantify, monitor, and highlight technical debt, and to allocate a proportion of team velocity to refactoring and technical debt elimination. It is also important to uphold consistent and high standards, and to use metrics to persuade management to allocate resources to tackle technical debt.

Working Effectively In a Remote Environment

This article outlines the best practices that were adopted to ensure business continuity during the Covid-19 pandemic. These practices included fostering a self-service mindset, promoting asynchronous communication, and providing clear communication guidelines. These measures allowed for streamlined onboarding, improved meeting efficiency, and reduced distractions. As we continue to adapt to the remote-first era, these best practices will be essential in charting our path forward.

Navigating Strategy, Innovation, and Change in the Technology Landscape

This article outlines strategies for CTOs to create an effective and agile strategy-making process. It encourages leveraging customer feedback, market validation, and competitor analysis to make data-driven decisions. It also suggests forming cross-functional teams, incorporating diversity and inclusion, and leveraging renowned strategy frameworks. Additionally, it outlines the importance of continuous learning and adaptation, and provides resources and advice on conducting market research.

On Hiring: A Guide for Startup CTOs

This article provides CTOs of startups with strategies to create a transparent recruitment process that leads to trust-based technical teams. It covers topics such as crafting a concise and engaging job ad, collaborating with recruiters, and keeping job listings up-to-date. Additionally, it outlines two different approaches to recruiting for a startup, and suggests a hybrid model of recruiting that combines the benefits of working with a recruiter and being hands-on in the hiring process. It also emphasizes the importance of being transparent about salary expectations and involving the team in the recruitment process. Finally, it suggests regular communication with potential candidates and providing constructive feedback if they are not selected for a role. These strategies will help CTOs connect with diverse, talented candidates and build a cohesive team ready to drive their startup’s success.

Peacetime and Wartime Leadership in the Technology Industry: A CTO's Perspective

This article explores the concept of Peacetime and Wartime CTOs, drawing inspiration from the teachings of Ben Horowitz and Andrew S. Grove. It defines the role of the CTO as an engineering leader and innovator, and outlines the characteristics and responsibilities of Peacetime and Wartime CTOs. It also discusses the challenges CTOs face during wartime and strategies for addressing them. By understanding these distinct roles and their responsibilities, technology leaders can better navigate their organisations through periods of growth and stability, as well as times of crisis and intense competition.

Small vs complex pull requests

Small pull requests can lead to faster review cycles, improved collaboration, reduced merge conflicts, better code maintainability, easier troubleshooting, and incremental progress. Uplevel metrics can help measure the usage of small pull requests and assess their effectiveness. This approach can enhance collaboration, accelerate the development cycle, and foster a culture of agility and efficiency within engineering teams.

Deep work, the connection to increased productivity and reducing the risk of burnout...

Deep work can lead to increased productivity, higher-quality output, and more innovative solutions, as well as reduced employee burnout. To promote deep work, stakeholders should be made aware of its value and policies should be implemented to support it. Uplevel can be used to measure deep work in an organization.

The Historic Decisions Document

Documentation is often seen as a hassle, but the Historic Decisions Document is a tool that can help to record the reasons behind decisions made throughout the lifecycle of a project. This document can help to provide context for both technical and non-technical people, and is especially important in larger engineering organizations. It can also help to prevent over-reliance on subject matter experts who may not always be available.

Making New Hires Effective Quickly

This article discusses the importance of assigning a mentor or "buddy" to new hires in a fast-growing startup. It also outlines the concept of "Leave a Trace," which is a practice of having new hires improve the new hire process. The article further discusses the importance of fostering a growth mindset and having a well-defined spin-up process. It also provides links to various resources related to developer productivity.

10x Engineer – The Root Cause

This article examines the concept of 10x engineers, which are believed to be highly skilled individuals who can contribute 10 times more than their peers. It looks into how to find, hire, inspire, and develop these engineers, as well as how to prevent them from leaving. It also discusses Carol Dweck's notion of learners possessing a "fixed mindset" or "growth mindset" and how to foster the growth mindset. It also references Jim Collins' book, Great by Choice, which discusses 10x companies and 10x leaders, as well as an article from Harvard Business Review which explains how Microsoft uses a growth mindset to develop leaders. It provides strategies for identifying growth-minded employees during the interview process and a 7-step process for hiring 10x engineers. It also discusses the risk tolerance of 10x engineers, the importance of recognizing the qualities that set 10x engineers apart when hiring, and how to develop deep learning through short repetitions and feedback loops. Finally, it discusses the "Happy Demise of the 10X Engineer" and how software development is being replaced by enabling technology, as well as the importance of engineering and scientific innovation in "deep-tech" companies.

Navigating Partnerships with Unicorns and Large Enterprises: Protecting AI Startups' Interests

This article explores the challenges faced by AI startups when partnering with unicorns and large enterprises, and provides strategies to protect their interests. It suggests engaging legal expertise to negotiate favorable terms and review contractual agreements, implementing NDAs and non-compete agreements, and considering jurisdiction and governing law. On the technical side, it recommends encryption, access controls, authorization, watermarking, model protection, federated learning, secure collaboration frameworks, and regular auditing and monitoring. By combining legal and technical safeguards, AI startups can mitigate the risks of theft or unauthorized usage of their AI models.

Mastering B2B AI SaaS Presentations: Winning Over Stakeholders

When presenting a B2B AI SaaS product, it is important to understand the three primary types of decision makers: financial, technical, and operational. To effectively navigate the presentation process, start by engaging with the highest decision makers and emphasizing the tangible benefits of the AI solution. Then, tailor the presentation to the operational stakeholders' specific needs and address the technical stakeholders' concerns by demonstrating a deep understanding of their technical landscape. Finally, establish a collaborative relationship with the IT department to ensure seamless integration and data security.

Scouting Top AI Talents: How to Compete with Big Tech Giants

This article explores effective tips for finding exceptional AI talents and competing with big tech companies based on value and impact. Tips include staying updated with the latest research, identifying relevant authors, leveraging value propositions, offering freedom and intellectual stimulation, and communicating value and impact. By implementing these tips, AI startups can attract and retain exceptional talents, creating a competitive advantage even when compared to big tech giants.

Recap From Our San Francisco Relaunch Party

We recently celebrated our platform-wide upgrade with a demo of our latest features. We announced a fairer revenue model, broader learning opportunities, a more flexible usage approach, and advanced AI features. Watch the full event recording for a full recap.

Stop Treating Pull Requests like PowerPoint Presentations

Pull Requests (PRs) are a platform for sharing information across development teams, but they are often treated like PowerPoint presentations and can lead to frustration and lack of understanding. To make the PR process more effective, techniques such as Triad Review, Shoutouts and Questions, running it locally, and prompting to sync can be used to ensure that everyone has a greater understanding of the system.

Hackathons Are Life

This article is about the author's experience in a hackathon, where they competed against another team to build a Chrome Extension that would inform users if they were purchasing an item with illegally sourced or environmentally harmful ingredients. The author's team was able to ship to the Chrome Web Store and win the hackathon, while the other team was still architecting. The author learned that hackathons can be a great way to emulate real life, as they force teams to focus on fast release cycles and produce the simplest solutions that gain the most benefit. The author also suggests that when evaluating a new tool, framework, language, etc., it is best to do a hackathon with it to test it out.

Why Would Anyone Mob Program? (an intro)

Mob Programming is a concept where a team of ~3-5 works together on a single feature, with only one person typing at a time. It is a difficult process to go from troll-coding to mobbing, but it is an incredibly valuable and efficient experience. It is slow, but the quality of work produced is multiple times better than what a single developer can create. It also allows for full domain knowledge of the system developed, and one member of the mob can represent the team in meetings.

Unlocking the Power of Product Management for Startup CTOs

This article explores the art of product management and how CTOs can use it to drive innovation and success. It covers core components, the importance of a strong CTO-product manager alliance, strategies for aligning engineering and product strategies with business objectives, and tips for implementing product management within an organisation. Agile methodologies and building high-trust empowered product teams are also discussed. By mastering these concepts, CTOs can unlock the power of product management to drive innovation and success.

Navigating the Maze of Technical Debt: A Startup's Survival Guide

In this blog post, the author discusses the concept of technical debt and its impact on startups. They explain that technical debt is the accumulated cost of quick fixes and workarounds in software development, which can slow down product development, reduce agility, lower quality, and compromise resilience. The author provides strategies to manage and mitigate technical debt, such as prioritizing debt reduction, maintaining a technical debt register, establishing coding standards, investing in continuous learning, and balancing short and long-term goals. They also discuss how to identify and prioritize technical debt for maximum value, including using code metrics, analyzing code churn and bug density, and leveraging team feedback. The author concludes by emphasizing the importance of understanding technical debt and adopting effective management strategies to maintain agility and successfully adapt to market changes.

How to balance the technical and business aspects of running an AI startup, as a technical person.

Success in AI startups requires a balance between technical and business aspects. This can be achieved by looking at things from a return on investment perspective, focusing on solving real business problems, being pragmatic in technical decisions, and surrounding yourself with business-minded people. Additionally, it is important to visit customers to gain a better understanding of their needs and develop technology that truly addresses their problems. Ultimately, the key to success is to stay focused on creating value for customers.

Tackling Technical Debt: A Crucial Step Towards Enhanced Productivity

Technical debt can be a major issue for companies, as it can decrease productivity and derail focus from delivering new features. To manage this, it is important to quantify, monitor, and highlight technical debt, and to allocate a proportion of team velocity to refactoring and technical debt elimination. It is also important to uphold consistent and high standards, and to use metrics to persuade management to allocate resources to tackle technical debt.

Working Effectively In a Remote Environment

This article outlines the best practices that were adopted to ensure business continuity during the Covid-19 pandemic. These practices included fostering a self-service mindset, promoting asynchronous communication, and providing clear communication guidelines. These measures allowed for streamlined onboarding, improved meeting efficiency, and reduced distractions. As we continue to adapt to the remote-first era, these best practices will be essential in charting our path forward.

Navigating Strategy, Innovation, and Change in the Technology Landscape

This article outlines strategies for CTOs to create an effective and agile strategy-making process. It encourages leveraging customer feedback, market validation, and competitor analysis to make data-driven decisions. It also suggests forming cross-functional teams, incorporating diversity and inclusion, and leveraging renowned strategy frameworks. Additionally, it outlines the importance of continuous learning and adaptation, and provides resources and advice on conducting market research.

On Hiring: A Guide for Startup CTOs

This article provides CTOs of startups with strategies to create a transparent recruitment process that leads to trust-based technical teams. It covers topics such as crafting a concise and engaging job ad, collaborating with recruiters, and keeping job listings up-to-date. Additionally, it outlines two different approaches to recruiting for a startup, and suggests a hybrid model of recruiting that combines the benefits of working with a recruiter and being hands-on in the hiring process. It also emphasizes the importance of being transparent about salary expectations and involving the team in the recruitment process. Finally, it suggests regular communication with potential candidates and providing constructive feedback if they are not selected for a role. These strategies will help CTOs connect with diverse, talented candidates and build a cohesive team ready to drive their startup’s success.

Peacetime and Wartime Leadership in the Technology Industry: A CTO's Perspective

This article explores the concept of Peacetime and Wartime CTOs, drawing inspiration from the teachings of Ben Horowitz and Andrew S. Grove. It defines the role of the CTO as an engineering leader and innovator, and outlines the characteristics and responsibilities of Peacetime and Wartime CTOs. It also discusses the challenges CTOs face during wartime and strategies for addressing them. By understanding these distinct roles and their responsibilities, technology leaders can better navigate their organisations through periods of growth and stability, as well as times of crisis and intense competition.

Small vs complex pull requests

Small pull requests can lead to faster review cycles, improved collaboration, reduced merge conflicts, better code maintainability, easier troubleshooting, and incremental progress. Uplevel metrics can help measure the usage of small pull requests and assess their effectiveness. This approach can enhance collaboration, accelerate the development cycle, and foster a culture of agility and efficiency within engineering teams.

Deep work, the connection to increased productivity and reducing the risk of burnout...

Deep work can lead to increased productivity, higher-quality output, and more innovative solutions, as well as reduced employee burnout. To promote deep work, stakeholders should be made aware of its value and policies should be implemented to support it. Uplevel can be used to measure deep work in an organization.

The Historic Decisions Document

Documentation is often seen as a hassle, but the Historic Decisions Document is a tool that can help to record the reasons behind decisions made throughout the lifecycle of a project. This document can help to provide context for both technical and non-technical people, and is especially important in larger engineering organizations. It can also help to prevent over-reliance on subject matter experts who may not always be available.

Making New Hires Effective Quickly

This article discusses the importance of assigning a mentor or "buddy" to new hires in a fast-growing startup. It also outlines the concept of "Leave a Trace," which is a practice of having new hires improve the new hire process. The article further discusses the importance of fostering a growth mindset and having a well-defined spin-up process. It also provides links to various resources related to developer productivity.

10x Engineer – The Root Cause

This article examines the concept of 10x engineers, which are believed to be highly skilled individuals who can contribute 10 times more than their peers. It looks into how to find, hire, inspire, and develop these engineers, as well as how to prevent them from leaving. It also discusses Carol Dweck's notion of learners possessing a "fixed mindset" or "growth mindset" and how to foster the growth mindset. It also references Jim Collins' book, Great by Choice, which discusses 10x companies and 10x leaders, as well as an article from Harvard Business Review which explains how Microsoft uses a growth mindset to develop leaders. It provides strategies for identifying growth-minded employees during the interview process and a 7-step process for hiring 10x engineers. It also discusses the risk tolerance of 10x engineers, the importance of recognizing the qualities that set 10x engineers apart when hiring, and how to develop deep learning through short repetitions and feedback loops. Finally, it discusses the "Happy Demise of the 10X Engineer" and how software development is being replaced by enabling technology, as well as the importance of engineering and scientific innovation in "deep-tech" companies.

Navigating Partnerships with Unicorns and Large Enterprises: Protecting AI Startups' Interests

This article explores the challenges faced by AI startups when partnering with unicorns and large enterprises, and provides strategies to protect their interests. It suggests engaging legal expertise to negotiate favorable terms and review contractual agreements, implementing NDAs and non-compete agreements, and considering jurisdiction and governing law. On the technical side, it recommends encryption, access controls, authorization, watermarking, model protection, federated learning, secure collaboration frameworks, and regular auditing and monitoring. By combining legal and technical safeguards, AI startups can mitigate the risks of theft or unauthorized usage of their AI models.

Mastering B2B AI SaaS Presentations: Winning Over Stakeholders

When presenting a B2B AI SaaS product, it is important to understand the three primary types of decision makers: financial, technical, and operational. To effectively navigate the presentation process, start by engaging with the highest decision makers and emphasizing the tangible benefits of the AI solution. Then, tailor the presentation to the operational stakeholders' specific needs and address the technical stakeholders' concerns by demonstrating a deep understanding of their technical landscape. Finally, establish a collaborative relationship with the IT department to ensure seamless integration and data security.

Scouting Top AI Talents: How to Compete with Big Tech Giants

This article explores effective tips for finding exceptional AI talents and competing with big tech companies based on value and impact. Tips include staying updated with the latest research, identifying relevant authors, leveraging value propositions, offering freedom and intellectual stimulation, and communicating value and impact. By implementing these tips, AI startups can attract and retain exceptional talents, creating a competitive advantage even when compared to big tech giants.

Recap From Our San Francisco Relaunch Party

We recently celebrated our platform-wide upgrade with a demo of our latest features. We announced a fairer revenue model, broader learning opportunities, a more flexible usage approach, and advanced AI features. Watch the full event recording for a full recap.

Stop Treating Pull Requests like PowerPoint Presentations

Pull Requests (PRs) are a platform for sharing information across development teams, but they are often treated like PowerPoint presentations and can lead to frustration and lack of understanding. To make the PR process more effective, techniques such as Triad Review, Shoutouts and Questions, running it locally, and prompting to sync can be used to ensure that everyone has a greater understanding of the system.

Hackathons Are Life

This article is about the author's experience in a hackathon, where they competed against another team to build a Chrome Extension that would inform users if they were purchasing an item with illegally sourced or environmentally harmful ingredients. The author's team was able to ship to the Chrome Web Store and win the hackathon, while the other team was still architecting. The author learned that hackathons can be a great way to emulate real life, as they force teams to focus on fast release cycles and produce the simplest solutions that gain the most benefit. The author also suggests that when evaluating a new tool, framework, language, etc., it is best to do a hackathon with it to test it out.

Why Would Anyone Mob Program? (an intro)

Mob Programming is a concept where a team of ~3-5 works together on a single feature, with only one person typing at a time. It is a difficult process to go from troll-coding to mobbing, but it is an incredibly valuable and efficient experience. It is slow, but the quality of work produced is multiple times better than what a single developer can create. It also allows for full domain knowledge of the system developed, and one member of the mob can represent the team in meetings.

Unlocking the Power of Product Management for Startup CTOs

This article explores the art of product management and how CTOs can use it to drive innovation and success. It covers core components, the importance of a strong CTO-product manager alliance, strategies for aligning engineering and product strategies with business objectives, and tips for implementing product management within an organisation. Agile methodologies and building high-trust empowered product teams are also discussed. By mastering these concepts, CTOs can unlock the power of product management to drive innovation and success.

Navigating the Maze of Technical Debt: A Startup's Survival Guide

In this blog post, the author discusses the concept of technical debt and its impact on startups. They explain that technical debt is the accumulated cost of quick fixes and workarounds in software development, which can slow down product development, reduce agility, lower quality, and compromise resilience. The author provides strategies to manage and mitigate technical debt, such as prioritizing debt reduction, maintaining a technical debt register, establishing coding standards, investing in continuous learning, and balancing short and long-term goals. They also discuss how to identify and prioritize technical debt for maximum value, including using code metrics, analyzing code churn and bug density, and leveraging team feedback. The author concludes by emphasizing the importance of understanding technical debt and adopting effective management strategies to maintain agility and successfully adapt to market changes.

How to balance the technical and business aspects of running an AI startup, as a technical person.

Success in AI startups requires a balance between technical and business aspects. This can be achieved by looking at things from a return on investment perspective, focusing on solving real business problems, being pragmatic in technical decisions, and surrounding yourself with business-minded people. Additionally, it is important to visit customers to gain a better understanding of their needs and develop technology that truly addresses their problems. Ultimately, the key to success is to stay focused on creating value for customers.

Tackling Technical Debt: A Crucial Step Towards Enhanced Productivity

Technical debt can be a major issue for companies, as it can decrease productivity and derail focus from delivering new features. To manage this, it is important to quantify, monitor, and highlight technical debt, and to allocate a proportion of team velocity to refactoring and technical debt elimination. It is also important to uphold consistent and high standards, and to use metrics to persuade management to allocate resources to tackle technical debt.

Working Effectively In a Remote Environment

This article outlines the best practices that were adopted to ensure business continuity during the Covid-19 pandemic. These practices included fostering a self-service mindset, promoting asynchronous communication, and providing clear communication guidelines. These measures allowed for streamlined onboarding, improved meeting efficiency, and reduced distractions. As we continue to adapt to the remote-first era, these best practices will be essential in charting our path forward.

Navigating Strategy, Innovation, and Change in the Technology Landscape

This article outlines strategies for CTOs to create an effective and agile strategy-making process. It encourages leveraging customer feedback, market validation, and competitor analysis to make data-driven decisions. It also suggests forming cross-functional teams, incorporating diversity and inclusion, and leveraging renowned strategy frameworks. Additionally, it outlines the importance of continuous learning and adaptation, and provides resources and advice on conducting market research.

On Hiring: A Guide for Startup CTOs

This article provides CTOs of startups with strategies to create a transparent recruitment process that leads to trust-based technical teams. It covers topics such as crafting a concise and engaging job ad, collaborating with recruiters, and keeping job listings up-to-date. Additionally, it outlines two different approaches to recruiting for a startup, and suggests a hybrid model of recruiting that combines the benefits of working with a recruiter and being hands-on in the hiring process. It also emphasizes the importance of being transparent about salary expectations and involving the team in the recruitment process. Finally, it suggests regular communication with potential candidates and providing constructive feedback if they are not selected for a role. These strategies will help CTOs connect with diverse, talented candidates and build a cohesive team ready to drive their startup’s success.

Peacetime and Wartime Leadership in the Technology Industry: A CTO's Perspective

This article explores the concept of Peacetime and Wartime CTOs, drawing inspiration from the teachings of Ben Horowitz and Andrew S. Grove. It defines the role of the CTO as an engineering leader and innovator, and outlines the characteristics and responsibilities of Peacetime and Wartime CTOs. It also discusses the challenges CTOs face during wartime and strategies for addressing them. By understanding these distinct roles and their responsibilities, technology leaders can better navigate their organisations through periods of growth and stability, as well as times of crisis and intense competition.

Small vs complex pull requests

Small pull requests can lead to faster review cycles, improved collaboration, reduced merge conflicts, better code maintainability, easier troubleshooting, and incremental progress. Uplevel metrics can help measure the usage of small pull requests and assess their effectiveness. This approach can enhance collaboration, accelerate the development cycle, and foster a culture of agility and efficiency within engineering teams.

Deep work, the connection to increased productivity and reducing the risk of burnout...

Deep work can lead to increased productivity, higher-quality output, and more innovative solutions, as well as reduced employee burnout. To promote deep work, stakeholders should be made aware of its value and policies should be implemented to support it. Uplevel can be used to measure deep work in an organization.