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Engineering leadership and software architecture insights
Practical guidance for founders and engineering leaders navigating technical strategy, team growth, delivery, architecture, and reliability.
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Latest · July 28, 2026 · AI
Turn Every Production Bug Into a Regression Test With AI
Do not use AI to generate more tests. Use it to turn confirmed production failures into verified regression tests that preserve what the engineering team learned.
Read article- July 13, 2026AIAI Coding Agents Should Take an Issue to a Reviewable PR—Not Build the FeatureDo not ask an AI coding agent to build a feature. Give it a constrained task contract and make it return a small, tested pull request that an engineer can understand and safely review.
- June 09, 2026Support & SREError Budgets Are a Management Tool, Not an Engineering OneMost error budgets die quietly because engineers introduced them with no authority behind them. The number only matters when it changes what leadership does. Here is how to wire budget burn into roadmap decisions, exec reviews, and feature-freeze conversations so it actually has teeth.
- June 05, 2026Support & SRESRE Org Design: Centralized, Embedded, or Platform?Centralized, embedded, or platform SRE? Each model solves a different problem and breaks in a different way. Here is how to pick one, and how to migrate when you outgrow it.
- June 01, 2026Support & SREL1/L2/L3 at Scale: Where the Tiered Support Model BreaksThe tiered support model works beautifully until it doesn't. At enterprise scale, tickets stop flowing up the tiers and start flowing sideways. Here's exactly where L1/L2/L3 breaks, and the three patterns that replace it.
- May 26, 2026Support & SREYour First SRE Hire Is Not Your Best FirefighterThe instinct is to take the engineer who saves every outage and crown them SRE. That instinct is wrong. The skills that make someone great at firefighting are often the same ones that keep your systems fragile.
- May 25, 2026Engineering LeadershipEngineering Process Audit: How to Assess Your Team's HealthAn engineering process audit is one of the highest-leverage things a leader can do. Here is a practical framework for running one, plus what good and bad actually look like.
- May 25, 2026Fractional CTOYour First 90 Days as a Fractional CTO: A Practical PlaybookThe first 90 days set the tone for the entire engagement. Move too fast and the team resists. Move too slow and you lose credibility. Here is the playbook I follow.
- May 25, 2026Fractional CTOFractional CTO vs Full-Time CTO: Cost, Scope & When Each Makes SenseMost founders pick between a fractional and full-time CTO based on cost. That's the wrong way to choose. Here is a clearer way to think about it.
- May 25, 2026Fractional CTOHow Much Does a Fractional CTO Cost in 2026?Fractional CTO pricing is all over the place. Here are the real numbers, the engagement models, and what actually drives the price up or down.
- May 21, 2026Fractional CTOWhat is a Fractional CTO? And When Should You Hire OneMost founders don't need a $300K full-time CTO. They need senior technical leadership a few days a week. Here's what a fractional CTO actually does and when to bring one in.
- May 14, 2026Support & SREBuilding L1 That Resolves, Not Just EscalatesMost L1 teams become a forwarding service that adds latency and frustrates everyone. Here's what it takes to build a first line that actually resolves tickets — the tooling, the runbooks, and the incentives that produce real outcomes instead of gamed numbers.
- May 08, 2026Support & SREWhen to Split Support From Engineering (Without Losing Context)Somewhere between 20 and 150 engineers, most companies split support out of engineering and quietly break the feedback loop that made them good. Here is how to split without building a wall.
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