In this issue of groCTO , we’ve handpicked:
Our week’s favorite - The design flaw at the heart of every data product
Other insightful pieces:
And lastly, groCTO podcast with
, Head of Engineering, Atlassian Australia & author of Commence, Connect, Coach & Cultivate
🔖 The design flaw at the heart of every data product
is a specialist when it comes to business intelligence. His latest essay highlights an oft-encountered design flaw in data products. To appease a saturated B2B market product designers rely on demos, aesthetic tricks and fake data.Product engineers find themselves in situations where the mocked data runs its roots too deep in the architecture and can make your favorite AI data tool pretty, but horrendously unusable.
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His critique pinpoints a data product problem that is starting to plague modern AI/LLM tools: the balance of deduction and discovery.
More clues don’t help us know what to do; they just create more confusion. Instead, we need help making sense of what we already know. We need help with deduction, not discovery.
His playbook, while completely reasonable, will likely send a designer working on a demo up the wall:
Make mocks on real data. A real dashboard, and a real
marketo_leads
table.Use those things as design templates
If it makes the UI ugly or the experience confusing, make the UI and the experience better
That reality is the world we need products for
⏩ Kent Beck: Why Accelerate Development?
Kent Beck’s old reposted essay still holds its weight in software engineering paradigms. He stipulates that acceleration is not about individual productivity, but rather about the frequency of feedback.
Quicker feedback allows for more decisions to be made. However, most organizations are not following an OODA loop or equivalent—thus they don’t have any meaningful product questions to get feedback on!
A recent post this week by Bryan Finster—a founding member of the continuous delivery movement— echoed a similar concept:
Highlight
If your spring goal needs to change due to priority shifts, your sprint is too long.
If you struggle to complete sprint goals within the sprint, your sprint is too long.
⌛️ Timeless skills in Software Development
is a thought leader when it comes to career development towards all forms of engineering leadership. As CTO of Zorion he shares his insights about the evergreen aspects of soft and hard skills.Everyone is touched by their impostor at some point in their career. The temptation to learn a new framework or the latest agile methodology to stay "relevant” is strong.
His latest article highlights areas of improvement that are always in demand and highlight strong engineering leadership and product thinking prowess:
Understanding the business needs and the industry
The customer
Product mindset
Avoid shiny new tech
Teamwork and collaboration
Inspire good teamwork inside the team
Become a better team player
Set your ego aside, Focus on helping others
Being good at solving problems
Be resourceful
Pure experience with solving various of different problems
Learn to ask the right questions
If there is one thing you should take from this article is to not put all of the eggs in one basket, meaning that don’t just focus on one main skill like spending all your time improving your knowledge of a certain programming language or a framework.
Instead, my suggestion is to:
Become great at one thing and good at a lot of others. See your career skyrocket!
—Gregor Ojsteršek
Sunday Motivation 🌻
We just loved this LinkedIn post by Roberto Ferraro.
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📊 Benchmark your engineering teams’ performance - Typo
In software engineering, metrics track progress and performance. Benchmarking these metrics against industry standards reveals what “good” looks like, helping teams identify gaps and improve. Typo’s 2024 Software Engineering Benchmark Report (back by popular demand, this report is featured again this week) provides updated insights and guidance, enabling teams to make data-driven decisions and stay competitive in the evolving tech landscape.
groCTO: Originals | ‘Growing dev teams in a sustainable way’ with Isabel Nyo
In the recent episode of ‘groCTO: Originals’ (Formerly: Beyond the Code), host Kshitij Mohan, welcomes Isabel Nyo, Head of Engineering, Atlassian Australia. The focus of their discussion is on growing development teams in a sustainable way.
Isabel places valuable insights into building engineering teams that foster a culture of transparency and excellence. Isabel also shares specific metrics she utilizes to gauge her team’s velocity and satisfaction. Further, she delves deeper into the framework — C.A.R.E. explaining how it plays a pivotal role in instilling a product-driven mindset among engineers. Lastly, Isabel addresses the challenges faced by women in the tech industry and how individuals and the industry as a whole can work collaboratively to break down these barriers and create a more inclusive, equitable, and diverse tech ecosystem.
And that’s it for today! See you next week, Ciao 👋
Credits 🙏
Curators- Diligently curated by our community members Denis & Kovid
Sponsors- This newsletter is sponsored by Typo AI - Ship reliable software faster.
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