Bottlenecks to Breakthroughs

I'm excited to share some news with you.

I'm launching a brand new course called "Bottlenecks to Breakthroughs: Master Effective Software Delivery".

This is a fresh adventure for me, and while I'm super thrilled, I won't lie, there's a bit of butterflies-in-the-stomach feeling too. 🦋

Let me give you a bit of background. 

I've been in the software writing game for over 25 years. I've dabbled in front-end and back-end code, done plenty of work in mobile, worked on software, hardware and firmware and held positions such as, CTO, VP of Engineering & IC. I've been part of huge corporations like Uber & Included Health, and also smaller, scrappier startups you probably haven't heard of. 

Regardless of the size or funding of the company, I noticed a common theme: teams often struggle to produce impactful output and, worse, they're unhappy and stressed while doing it. This is especially true in companies that are not considered to be primarily “tech companies”.

Agile: I've been part of teams that followed "agile" principles, yet struggled to deliver code. We'd spend countless hours planning from sprint to sprint, only to have very little to show for it at the end. It felt like we were stuck in a never-ending cycle of mini waterfalls, which, let's be honest, isn't really what agile is about.

Tech Debt: I've also been in teams that were better at shipping, but the quality was a constant issue. We were drowning in bugs and spent most of our time just trying to keep our systems running. The complexity of the software would keep piling up until it became a tangled mess no one could decipher. Any attempt at change would inevitably break something. 

Metrics: And let's not forget the classic problem where the business side of the company has no clue how engineering works. What metrics should they use to measure our productivity? Does adding more engineers mean more output? Can some of the work be offshored? It's hard for a CEO to strategize for an engineering team when they don't understand the inner workings of it.

These issues kept popping up in some form wherever I went. Everyone was conscious of the issues and had a desire to resolve them, but quite frequently, they found themselves unable to do so.  These are smart, motivated people - they are no dummies.

Yet most of the problems that they were facing had already been solved countless times.  So why aren’t these teams drawing from these solutions?

The answer is almost always: because they’re busy.  

Yup. Too busy doing the work, that they fail to put sufficient attention towards changing how they do the work. 

Inertia. 🤦

To be fair, while there are a lot of resources available, it is very very time consuming to stitch all of them together and produce a coherent technical strategy.

My journey has always been one of curiosity. I've immersed myself in countless books, dedicated thousands of hours to absorbing podcasts, watched hundreds of hours of videos, and sought wisdom from industry experts.  I have also put this knowledge to practice by writing, rewriting and reviewing numerous systems and shipping tons and tons of code.  

I recently realized that instead of solving this problem one company at a time, I could shoot for a wider impact and solve this for many teams at a time.  

That's why I decided to create this course.

I've gathered and organized a ton of material that combines the theory & the practice in a reasonable format, and I'll be sharing more in the coming weeks. 

I'd love to hear your thoughts. Don't hesitate to drop me a line, and sign up for updates here:  https://www.cosmicteacups.com/bottlenecks-to-breakthroughs-waitlist-signup