Alex Ponomarev (Page 15)

1 Oct 2023 · 4 min read

Why Crunching Doesn’t Work: A CTO’s View

Years ago, when I was still new to the role of a CTO, I interviewed Sam, an experienced project manager with an impressive resume. He had overseen major initiatives at

30 Sep 2023 · 4 min read

From Scrappy to Stable: Navigating Startup Growing Pains

Many startups follow a similar narrative arc. A few friends working after hours start a company to build their app. Fueled by ramen, energy drinks, and enthusiasm, they scrape together

29 Sep 2023 · 4 min read

Curing the Disease of Underperformance in Engineering Teams

According to recent surveys, 26% of employees are considered underperformers, costing companies up to $3.4M in lost productivity per 1,000 workers. Engineering teams are not immune to this

28 Sep 2023 · 4 min read

Boost Engineering Velocity: How to Get Unstuck and Ship Faster

In the fast-paced world of software development, engineering teams face immense pressure to deliver value quickly. However, bottlenecks like misalignment, lack of visibility, and constant context switching can grind productivity

27 Sep 2023 · 5 min read

Overscheduled and Overwhelmed: My Battle Against Meeting-Mania

Meetings, meetings, meetings. As a CTO, my calendar gets jam-packed with what feels like back-to-back meetings from dawn to dusk if I’m not vigilant. Don’t get me wrong

26 Sep 2023 · 4 min read

Why Your Roadmap is Worthless Without Rigor

As CTO, I’m constantly seeking ways to improve how we build and deliver software. After a few painful release rollouts riddled with delays, defects, and cost overruns, someone suggested

25 Sep 2023 · 4 min read

Managing Opinions and Egos on Product Teams

Being a UX designer is one of the most challenging jobs ever. You spend years honing your craft, building your design sense, and working on countless projects. Then, someone with

24 Sep 2023 · 4 min read

Software Rot: When Systems Become Legacy

Recently, I became a user of Revolut, an 8-year-old digital banking and financial services company. Initially offering just money transfer and exchange services in the UK, Revolut now provides various

23 Sep 2023 · 4 min read

Forget Dashboards, Let Users Chat with Data

Chatbots may seem like just another tech buzzword, but they actually have the power to transform how businesses work with data in a big way. Instead of companies investing months

22 Sep 2023 · 4 min read

The Engineering Realities of AI Chatbot Development

Chatbots are everywhere these days. Since ChatGPT burst onto the scene last year, companies like ours have been exploring leveraging this exciting new technology. Our goal is to help businesses

21 Sep 2023 · 3 min read

Requirements Are Made to Be Broken

I was talking to a fellow software developer recently, and he was complaining about how imperfect the development process is. His main point of complaint was that he’s constantly

20 Sep 2023 · 5 min read

The Quest for the Holy Grail of Project Management Systems

It could be me, but none of the off-the-shelf project management tools work for us. They’re either overly complicated like Jira or too simplistic and lack the functionality and

19 Sep 2023 · 5 min read

Xano: Can You Really Build Real APIs With No Code?

Today, I tried Xano, a backend-as-a-service platform enabling users to build apps without writing code. With it, you can create a REST API powered by a fully-fledged database and connect

18 Sep 2023 · 3 min read

Is Remote Work Here to Stay?

I was recently interviewing a software developer, let’s call him John. John was struggling to balance his work and personal life. He had to move to another city because

17 Sep 2023 · 4 min read

CTO Skills: Much More Than Just Being a Great Engineer

Today, I’ve stumbled upon a 2017 interview with Nathan Blecharczyk, co-founder and CTO of Airbnb. In it, Blecharczyk discusses his background as an entrepreneur and how he became involved

16 Sep 2023 · 4 min read

When Off-the-shelf Products You Depend on Shift Gears and Target Enterprise

Airtable, a code-free software company once valued at $11.7 billion, has announced layoffs of 27% of its workforce, or 237 people. This is part of a plan to refocus

15 Sep 2023 · 4 min read

The Art Behind the Apps: Why Software is a Creative Act

Building software products is a creative process, much like painting, writing, or any other art form. This became clear when I recorded an extremely short screencast demonstrating a product our

14 Sep 2023 · 5 min read

The Rocks, Pebbles, and Sand of Project Management

I have a friend. Every message she writes begins with “URGENT! IMPORTANT!”. I’m not kidding. She does that because she learned that if she doesn’t add those words