CTO Insights - Issue #135
Software Engineering and Technical Leadership
Welcome to CTO Insights #135!
This newsletter delivers top-notch Software Engineering and Technical Leadership content, making your weekly reading more insightful and enjoyable.
This week’s favorite - Manage your priorities and energy.
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Featured
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Architecture
Overview of JupyterHub Ecosystem
Read more about Yelp's JupyterHub ecosystem and how it transformed to a unified, scalable, and robust platform. Handling everything from ad-hoc data analysis to sales reports, the ecosystem now supports daily execution of hundreds of notebooks across varied hardware, processing terabytes of data.
This blog post unveils the journey of adopting technologies like Apache Spark, Kubernetes, and more, while overcoming challenges in version control, security, and maintenance.
Scalability
Building and operating S3
Andy Warfield, VP and distinguished engineer at S3, reflects on the complexities and nuances of building and operating Amazon's massive storage system, S3.
His insights span from the technical aspects like managing heat, data placement, and redundancy schemes, to organizational elements like the importance of ownership.
He emphasizes how working with S3 has not only required a broader understanding of systems but has also taught him invaluable lessons about the scale of software, service operation, organizational challenges, and personal growth through problem-solving and empowering others to own their projects.
Culture
A More Ethical Approach to Employing Contractors
This article by HBR discusses the growing trend among companies to outsource labor, highlighting both the benefits and drawbacks. It emphasizes the flexibility and legal advantages for companies across various industries while also acknowledging the potential costs to workers. The piece further outlines a responsible approach to mitigate these issues.
Leadership
Manage your priorities and energy
In this post, the author reflects on evolving from using the "company, team, self" framework to prioritizing with an "eventual quid pro quo" model, emphasizing positive-sum energy management, recognizing the difference between self-interest and its appearance, and the importance of flexibility in adhering to these frameworks.
Product
The GIST Framework
A story by a consultant Itamar Gilad where he present his GIST framework, designed to improve product launches. He categorizes launches into three types: Positive, Negative, and Middle, and emphasizes that many products fail due to poor planning and execution.
The GIST framework is composed of four levels of planning - Goals, Ideas, Steps, and Tasks - and aims to enhance the planning process through clear goal setting, effective idea evaluation using the ICE scoring system, and rapid validation of ideas.
Other
Growth Framework for Engineers and Engineering Managers
Explore Square's Growth Framework for Engineers and Engineering Managers.
Focused on transparency in career growth, the framework offers reinforcing foundations, clarity, and logical progression between levels. Ideal for those seeking a dynamic framework that fosters fairness and a culture of growth, this insight could be key to shaping your personal development or organizational structure.
Forecasting Team Performance
Discover the power of systems thinking in understanding delivery metrics in this insightful piece by Ness Velazquez.
Learn how complex adaptive systems, unlike individual components, require creative handling and how systems mapping can uncover hidden connections and second-order effects. See how these techniques were applied to accurately forecast a team's delivery pace, revealing the interwoven nature of complex systems. This article will be your guide to a more nuanced approach to handling complexity.
Closing Notes
Thanks for making it this far! 🙏
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