As tech leaders, we often hear (or say), "We'll do it next quarter" regarding framework upgrades. But is this approach truly serving our teams and products? 🪄 The Illusion of the "Magical Next Quarter" Technical leaders recognize it all too well. Stakeholders push back on framework upgrades, seeing them as low-priority

You don't need to set up your development environment. We have dedicated machines running Visual Studio. Just remote desktop in. It was the first day of my new job as an engineer. All excited, I wanted to set up my development environment. My excitement dropped immediately. It highlights a critical

Why invest in technical debt? The app works fine, doesn't it? One of the stakeholders of a scale-up is in front of me. This question is one many tech leaders face. With no major technical improvements in over two years, metaphorical duct tape held one of their applications together. From

An often-forgotten trait for engineers is perseverance. While technical skills are crucial, the determination to solve problems truly sets exceptional engineers apart. Throughout my career, the most talented engineers I collaborated with share a common trait: they never give up on finding solutions. This persistence has evolved with technology: * A

As technical leaders, we often shy away from support tasks. But what if I told you that participating in support rotation could be a game-changer for technical leaders? Here's why: 1. Gain first-hand product knowledge 2. Build goodwill with your dev team 3. Identify technical debt hotspots 4. Uncover user

Microenterprises, typically defined as businesses with fewer than 10 employees, face unique challenges in the digital space. The decision to adopt custom software is pivotal. Business owners should consider the following choices. 🤔 Buy vs. Build Dilemma * 𝗢𝗽𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗢𝗳𝗳-𝘁𝗵𝗲-𝗦𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗳 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗣𝗼𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲: If existing software meets about 70% of your needs, adapting it is

Previously, I talked about shifting from builder to technical leader. How can you scratch your maker's itch while empowering your team? 🫂 Embracing Your New Role: Beyond Building Your team is growing, and people management tasks are piling up. You're no longer concerned with how to build things yourself but with

I was astonished when I reviewed the CI process of a promising scale-up with a complex technological product and found these instant red flags: * GitHub actions that hadn't run for two years * A testing suite with more tests failing than succeeding * A passing build despite the failing test suite Despite

Why are they just sitting around and not helping? I’ve done most of the work, and now they’re overlooking critical bugs that need fixing. The technical founder of a promising startup was venting their frustration about the team’s lack of initiative. A newly launched feature had flaws

Home Assistant is a fantastic platform. I've been sucked into it for quite some time. Creating the dashboards is fun, but finishing them is very difficult. They are a constant work in progress and take quite some time to get right. In the end, the results can be stunning. But