Category: Product

  • Writing software at an enterprise require different architecture tradeoffs

    Writing software at an enterprise require different architecture tradeoffs

    This post delves into balancing autonomy and consistency, why duplication isn’t always bad, and how simplicity can outshine forced uniformity. It offers practical principles for creating systems that adapt and thrive in complex environments.

  • Allow projects to have exploration time

    Allow projects to have exploration time

    We’ve been working on some terrific discovery stage projects in my team. We are all super pumped about it. Team has come up with some fresh ideas and a vision to execute on. However, we are very much seasoned in working within fixed structured, mature projects. Usually, we either work on small pieces or large…

  • Difficult job of focusing in a large organisation

    Difficult job of focusing in a large organisation

    It is time to work through our division operating plan for 2025. We’ve had many hours of discussions around which customers to focus on, volatility in the market, where we should build trust with customers and what kind of initiatives will amount to strong growth. I find it energising to spend time thinking about these.…

  • Strategy and focus

    Great quote from “Good Strategy/Bad Strategy: The difference and why it matters” by Richard Rumelt: “If the business is really successful, then there is usually a good strategic logic behind that success, be it hidden or not. But the truth is that many companies, especially large complex companies, don’t really have strategies. At the core,…

  • Future of the web

    Future of the web

    I recently had the opportunity to attend WordCamp Asia in Taipei. It was my first time in a WordPress community event. One of the key takeaways for me was that WordPress adoption was in decline. Not only that, behind closed doors, I got to hear that number of websites created on the web overall is…

  • How much planning is enough?

    How much planning is enough?

    Few years back, I was sitting in Bunker Coffee with Luke for our 1:1. Luke tells me, “you know, no matter how hard you plan, the error rate of our decision doesn’t change much. If we take path A today versus next week, after having a whole lot more meetings, we still don’t know what…

  • App Store

    App Store

    Something we used to talk about in university was the impact an operating system can have on people. A system designer imagines the future and creates capabilities that its users can leverage. It is a form of influence on users to adopt the imagined future. Users, however, behave in unpredictable ways. A system starts to…

  • A messy change in direction for iPad

    A messy change in direction for iPad

    Enjoyed reading this article from David Pierce at TheVerge on Stage Manager. It is not going well for Apple as far as iPadOS is concerned. Here in the real world, trying to figure out how Stage Manager works turns into a wild puzzle requiring a wall of Polaroids and a ball of yarn. The issue…

  • Twitter thread on “preventing frustration”

    Found this awesome Twitter thread by Ken Kocienda while reading about iPhone keyboard complaints in Hacker News. “This gets back to the idea of preventing frustration. I determined that it would be more frustrating to have autocorrection “guess wrong” and erroneously fix broken typing.” Read the full thread. It is great, including the constallation algortihm…

  • Thoughts on “Scaling Technology”

    Thoughts on “Scaling Technology”

    I had the privilege to take part a panel discussion on “scaling technology” for go1’s offsite. It got me thinking… Software products are (usually) written to meet product outcomes. Initially, these outcomes tend not to include deliverables like “used by millions” or “developed by 1000s”. As a product grows and matures, these concerns start to…