Thinking in public
Notes on how AI changes operating models, why APIs become business capabilities, and what helps product and engineering organisations move faster.
Every few months a new tool promises that anyone can build software now, even easier than before... and every time it happens, someone declares that software is becoming "free". AI code creation changes the surface of how software gets built. This says nothing about its durability. though.
Most roadmaps fail in one of two ways: They become an annual PowerPoint promise that nobody on the team is willing to touch again for fear of being held to it, or they live inside a product tool that the executive team never opens. Either way, shortly after it's compiled the roadmap stops doing its job - which is to tell people what you're doing and why.
Patrick Lencioni's The Ideal Team Player argues that the best people on a team share three traits: humble, hungry and smart. I've used that model in hiring conversations for years and it still holds up, but I don't think it's complete anymore. than any of the other three. I recently posted a short video on this thought - the fourth trait I look for now is curious, and I think (at least in the world of product and tech) it's becoming more important than any of the other three.
Marathon finishers skew wealthy and educated, but cost does not explain who finishes. A look at the selection effect behind the finisher's medal.
When process stops serving the work and becomes the work, a scaling company slows down. How to spot it, and why velocity is about customer outcomes.
We're currently prepping for the MRI Ascend conference in APAC. It's made me think back to the most valuable professional development course I’ve ever done. It came completely out of left field. It was a storytelling course.
When generative AI and the frontier LLMs started to become practical, I pushed every team in my portfolio to build an AI feature. I wasn't stressed about what they were building, but I pushed hard to get them all to build something. This wasn't because I thought adding on an AI feature would change the business or even make us money. In fact, we never charged customers for any of them as an added feature. I did this for the sole purpose of forcing people to engage with this new technology.
A long time ago, way back when I still had hair, Microsoft introduced Team Foundation Server and one of the productivity metrics commonly reported on was lines of code written per developer. At the time, it seemed like a relevant metric. More code meant more output, no?