Alex Ponomarev - Alex Ponomarev (Page 12)

20 Oct 2023 · 5 min read

Beyond Finger-Pointing: Lead with Systems Thinking

Will Larson, the author of “The Elegant Puzzle” I’m reading now, tells an interesting story in his book. He recalls how he found himself in a tough spot after

19 Oct 2023 · 4 min read

Velocity Obsession: The Flawed Metric of Agile

Raise your hand if you’ve ever had a manager obsessed with your team’s velocity. Yeah, that’s what I thought. Velocity is the go-to metric for tracking agile

18 Oct 2023 · 6 min read

Escaping Tech Debt Jail With Regular Migrations

I love reading books while paying attention to details, checking references to other books recommended by the author, and following the recommended reading links. The icing on the cake is

17 Oct 2023 · 4 min read

Expanding Without Exploding: Lessons on Team Growth

As the CTO of a growing software development team, I was starting to feel anxious. Our engineering team grew from a handful to almost 30 people in the last few

16 Oct 2023 · 4 min read

Tips for Transitioning to Tech from a Non-Tech Job

Career changes can be downright scary, I get it. Especially when you’re looking to jump into a new field like tech. In this post, I want to share some

15 Oct 2023 · 4 min read

Stop Scope Creep With Prioritization

Software projects are rife with uncertainty. Even seasoned developers struggle to provide accurate estimates. But one thing is sure — to ensure your project succeeds, you must prioritize the features your

14 Oct 2023 · 3 min read

The 3 Factors that Make or Break Your Startup’s Success

What is it that makes a startup succeed? This question has stumped me and likely many other entrepreneurs and investors over the years. Bill Gross — a legendary founder of Idealab

13 Oct 2023 · 3 min read

All Hands on Deck: Rapidly Scaling Engineering to Stay Afloat

Scaling an engineering team in as requirements pile up is a challenging feat. With a hockey-stick user growth, engineering managers feel like drowning trying to balance non-stop requests for new

12 Oct 2023 · 4 min read

The Dark Side of the Hero Engineer

I was reading the book “An Elegant Puzzle: Systems of Engineering Management” by Will Larson today and stumbled upon a definition of the “hero engineer” problem in software development. It’

11 Oct 2023 · 3 min read

Turning Around a Troubled Talent

We’ve all encountered the “Jeff” in our careers — the talented engineer who creates as many problems as he solves. I recently came across an interesting Reddit post describing a

10 Oct 2023 · 5 min read

When Good Enough is Good Enough: Avoid Getting Stuck as an Software Engineer

As software engineers, we all want to write the best code possible. Along the way, it’s easy to get carried away in search of perfection and lose sight of

9 Oct 2023 · 4 min read

Control Freak's Guide to Empowering Your Team

During my first years as a CTO, I was a control freak. I wanted to be involved in every engineering decision — from reviewing pull requests to picking out frameworks. I

8 Oct 2023 · 5 min read

The Stressful Leap from Engineer to CTO

You know who the best managers are? They’re the great individual contributors who never, ever want to be a manager, but decide they want to be a manager, because

7 Oct 2023 · 5 min read

Connecting the Dots: Why You Need One-on-Ones

When managers invest in quality one-on-one time, projects run better, developers feel supported, and people stick around longer. Regularly connecting with the team is extremely important for the success of

6 Oct 2023 · 4 min read

Using Analytics to Build a Better Product

Analytics. I used to think they were just nice-to-have stats for big tech companies. Turned out I was wrong. When I launched my first e-commerce site about 15 years ago,

5 Oct 2023 · 5 min read

Automated Testing: Your Team’s Safety Net

Jim’s heart raced as he watched the CEO’s eyes flare with frustration. Their mobile app had just frozen mid-demo in front of investors. As sweat beaded on his

4 Oct 2023 · 3 min read

Coding Rockstars vs. Team Values: Bridging the Technical Divide

I recently came across an interesting story on the web highlighting some of the common challenges teams face when bringing on new senior developers. In this case, a senior dev

3 Oct 2023 · 5 min read

From Engineer to CTO: Navigating the Rocky Road

Sam Carow’s path to becoming a CTO was anything but straightforward, according to her post on Reddit I stumbled upon. In fact, her story is marked by plenty of