CTO Insights - Issue #143
CTO Insights - Issue #143
Microservices at Uber, Reliability at Slack, OKRs, Automated Dead Code Cleanup, and more.
Welcome to CTO Insights #143!
CTO Insights is a weekly newsletter on software engineering and technical leadership, aiming to provide you with a set of topics to keep you up to date with the latest developments in the industry and help you be a better leader.
This week’s favorite - Nice Teams Finish Last?
Your support for CTO Insights makes all the difference.
Together, we can make every edition of CTO Insights a wealth of knowledge for all!
Featured
Conference for Engineering Leaders - Elevate
Are you an engineering leader looking to elevate your team's performance?
Elevate is the prime opportunity for engineering leaders to learn from industry leaders, get mentored by top Plato mentors, and network with their peers.
Join a 2-day in-person event on November 7-8, 2023, at Storek 149 9th St, San Francisco. Get a 50% discount provided by our friends at Plato on the following link.
Architecture
Portable Microservices Ready for the Cloud
A story about about Uber's impressive feat of consolidating over 4,500 microservices, deployed by 4,000 engineers, into a streamlined and efficient architecture.
Discover the history of Uber's transition from a monolithic to a microservice framework, the challenges faced with microservice variability, and the strategic move to a cloud-based infrastructure to mitigate supply chain issues. Dive into Uber's multi-cloud, multi-tenant federation control plane, and understand how the company automated service operations at scale, culminating in significant cost savings and operational efficiencies.
Scalability
Reliably At Scale with Slack
A story on Slack's approach to scaling cron script execution as their data and script count grew exponentially.
Discover how Slack's engineering team overcame reliability issues with a cron service, leveraging a Golang-based "Scheduled Job Conductor," Slack's high-volume Job Queue, and a Vitess database for job deduplication and monitoring. This solution not only streamlined operations but also provided Slack engineers with greater visibility into script execution states, ensuring that critical functionalities like reminders and notifications run flawlessly.
Culture
Your Engineers Want More Feedback
Read more about the importance of product managers collaborating closely with engineers, sharing customer feedback, and working together on product development. The story dives into key practices for effective communication, including reducing pressure during discussions, recognizing feedback patterns, sharing insights frequently, prioritizing tasks collaboratively, and being prepared to say no to maintain focus on value.
Leadership
How the Goal-Setting System of OKRs Helps Organizations Thrive
In this article, you'll learn about the transformative power of OKRs for aligning and driving organizational success. Discover how OKRs connect individual efforts to company goals, infusing a culture of clarity, focus, and innovation.
Find out how tech giants like Google leverage OKRs for strategic planning and why a score of 0.7 is considered a win.
Talking with Colleagues About Suffering
In this article, you'll learn effective ways to support colleagues who might be struggling, with guidance on initiating sensitive conversations, embracing vulnerability, and truly listening. Discover how to foster a compassionate workplace that values well-being alongside professional responsibilities.
Nice Teams Finish Last
Clear communication in management, especially regarding significant errors, is crucial for growth and morale.
In this article, you'll explore why clear feedback trumps "niceness" in management, especially when addressing significant mistakes. Learn the pitfalls of ambiguity and the importance of straightforward communication to prevent morale decline and performance issues, ensuring mistakes become valuable lessons, not missed opportunities for growth.
AI
Increasing User Engagement with Generative AI and Rejection Sampling
Read more about Nextdoor's approach to boosting user engagement with GAI-generated content, specifically through optimizing email subject lines.
Discover how they tackle AI's content generation challenges using rejection sampling and prompt engineering to create authentic, engaging email headers.
Product
The future of product management in the age of AI
Explore how AI is revolutionizing product management by providing data-driven insights and augmenting decision-making capabilities. Dive into the transformative potential of AI in understanding customer sentiment, predicting behaviors, and automating operations, and learn how to navigate the challenges of integrating AI to enhance product development and secure a competitive edge in the market.
Other
Prompt Engineering Jobs are a Mirage
The author dives deeper into 'prompt engineering' as an illusionary career path, asserting that true expertise in AI requires substantial effort beyond shortcuts and that AI's rapid evolution will render such roles obsolete. The article serves as a caution against chasing hyped but unsustainable job trends in technology.
Automating dead code cleanup
Discover how Meta's SCARF system streamlines the intricate process of product deprecation, smartly tackling dead code through innovative analysis and automation, while safeguarding against the complexities of intersystem dependencies and data entanglements.
Data Engineering on People Data
Gusto harnesses One Model's People Data Cloud and Deepnote's ELTs for secure HR analytics, offering strategic insights for workforce planning, regulatory reporting, and talent development while ensuring precise data privacy and management through integrations and security protocols.
Closing Notes
Thanks for making it this far! 🙏
I hope you enjoyed this week’s issue. Use the thumbs up/down buttons to rate and don’t forget to share the newsletter with fellows.