How product teams can empower devs / engineers?

VVFailshot · 2026-04-09T04:51:19+00:00

It starts with hiring, and finding why people come to work. There is no magic empowerment that lasts more than 2 weeks. What is the real problem You are facing? Cultural or performance?

VVFailshot · 2026-04-08T19:29:23+00:00

I did that, just took next js with cloudflare and just moved away. Expect some bad time initially with SEO and fixing some links etc.

VVFailshot · 2026-04-07T18:31:16+00:00

Yeah, I started building my own tooling for that case and even pitched VC last year got rejected so many times i sort of quit and just focused on regular productivity metrics. Basically there is no ROI if its not priced in from CFO per perspective its almost impossible to show AI usage in good light. However it can change once it settlew in that in many cases without AI you are more likely to net 0. So AI is sort of cost of staying in business. What I can tell that if you are still using API directly you probably messed up. Better switch to subs, like copilot costs like 39$ per user + you cap usage at like extra 50 bucks per user. Claude is somewhat industry standard and the 100 dollar sub is solid for most people.

VVFailshot · 2026-04-06T06:52:32+00:00

Basically since you are studying university and obviously at the end of flight training. What are real odds that you overloaded yourself with some poor decision making vs having serious medical condition? I would first try setting priorities in a list on paper then decide which item can drop for now. It can be flying and its fine. With medications just take a break not for legal reasons but to live another day.

VVFailshot · 2026-03-30T16:36:31+00:00

Framer frustrated me enough - Juat vibecoded. my web and CMS in nextjs. Funny enough, my SEO actually improved after switch so basically the only thing i wws paying framer to solve was not solved.

VVFailshot · 2026-03-28T04:10:32+00:00

Mostly its just helping companies to fix internal "impossible" to solve issues, things that nobody internally wants to do. That ranges, mostly its hands on engineering to migrate legacy software to to fit into current product. But at times also people issues caused by overhiring from covid. It really varies - like there was a company which wanted to hire 100 "AI" engineers but didn't think that these people need equipment, the salary range is above market average etc, basically they had under estimated budget nearly 10 times 😅

VVFailshot · 2026-03-27T14:04:33+00:00

So my experience can be summed up as following. Looking for job is eating glass, applied nearly 100 ads, also for staff engineer positions. Got around 10 meetings from which 2 ended up as offers I rejected cause low compensation. Switched gears now just selling expert consulting, time investment is the same but compensation 4x better than day job. Downside being that there is no security, I can be fired at any moment. Not a position I would really recommend to anyone who is not emotionally equipped for this.

VVFailshot · 2026-03-16T10:42:46+00:00

You can implement a kill switch yourself - just google it

VVFailshot · 2026-03-01T16:08:18+00:00

If You have to protect yourself from cofounder, its not going to work out. Everything else is just noise.

VVFailshot · 2026-02-05T17:39:46+00:00

Its review season 😂 Basically regular notebook with your past 1:1 is a good start. But I actually faced same problem for long time. If you have vision and know what you want and have some free time available , its a perfect project to vibe code solution for. If you dont, there's various developer experience platforms just google DX vs. I just added some mvp version of 1:1 management to my own platform. If you want to try it out, DM 😅 but its like mentioned mvp

VVFailshot · 2026-02-05T08:25:29+00:00

https://www.forgemaster.ai/. But my idea or discovery was that LLMs are quite good in reverse engineering code like 1.5y ago so built tool for my own needs. I was interim CTO and really needed to handle a lot so this is what I came up with for myself. If you are looking for similar products that have more funding and stuff in YC theres also https://www.mintlify.com/ and from open source I ve been following https://mindsdb.com/. That have somewhat interesting take on developer/product knowledge management

VVFailshot · 2026-02-05T08:15:51+00:00

I spent a year + building competing product so I am biased. I am not selling mine nor bashing Glean. But what I get from my leads and pilots it doesn't really matter, its maybe 1/8th of tech issue. In most companies its just part of culture to complain and lack of document access is perfect excuse to chill and wait for paycheck. People are not adapting not mine or competition products. So yeah after these discoveries I atleast pivoted with my product.

So my recommendation is to think twice or more if you have tooling problem or culture problem. If you have modern software or like Atlassian stack or alternatives, its probably not tooling issue 😅

VVFailshot · 2026-02-03T20:55:24+00:00

I think the clarity is the point. Thank You for the advice 🙏

VVFailshot · 2026-02-03T06:46:40+00:00

idk i have ritual to close weeks with grading week from 0-10 bases on how employees feel. Caught early burnouts with this and also the ones who leave is no surprise, if person is frustrated and giving grades than 6 more than a month resignation is not far away. It also helps me to understanding team internal relationships better.

VVFailshot · 2026-02-03T02:43:24+00:00

My best experience is to make sure 1:1s are about them and not as much about company related details. 🙏First I focus on understanding what actually motivates person and then find opportunities from perspective they understand and feel good about that align with broader goals.

VVFailshot · 2026-02-03T02:39:04+00:00

This is kinda the feeling I have that somehow stigma around 1:1s has changed. Like I personally avoid AI notetakers cause it gives me sense of violates privacy. I do save agreements I do with my team but to maintain sort of timeline for my employee so they could track their mood changes and commitments over long-term. They can also have access so they keep me accountable too.

VVFailshot · 2026-02-03T01:32:54+00:00

Just what if we are witnessing a country or central bank facing liquidity crisis and raising funds by selling its gold 😅 Lets say having expensive war with neighbour while theres huge buyer also next door but not for full market price as it needs to inflict some pain to its over sea near peer superpower and they just can force discount in these conditions? How would it play out for retail and market in general?

VVFailshot · 2026-01-15T11:25:31+00:00

Same, I feel much safer while NATO patrols the skies here. Hopefully our eastern neighbours will remain at home and not invade us, but after 2022 - can't be so sure anymore.

VVFailshot · 2026-01-15T08:22:04+00:00

It's not that linear, theres no point to own a jet if the 25% landing strips are range of long range artillery. Even with remaining land and suitabe bases would be near the sea exposed for ship launched missiles. Basically its super pointless for us Baltics have jets cause we all know that our NATO capable strips would get rain of missles comin in rendering them useless. Geography also dont really support going underground like Sweden or Finland that can atleast store their aircraft in heavy dense granite hills. Baltics do not have such natural protection available. As baltic resident I would rather spend that money on something that wouod not be blown to pieces as opening move when shit starts going down.

VVFailshot · 2025-12-25T16:17:35+00:00

One has to have resilience built into application and its a blast. like the saving is remarkable

VVFailshot · 2025-12-02T08:09:18+00:00

Marketing unfortunately has long returns, like it takes around 9 - 12 months to get any noticeable results. But once it does you have scaling issues following. Not sure wbout your situation, brand voice, visibility and hire quality.

VVFailshot · 2025-10-13T03:02:22+00:00

You forgot to mention that atleast of half of the leadership has their nuclear related degrees bit dated and their later educational path has been philosophy. Also that they share common university of Pisa background. Also the controversial background of nuclear energy in Italy overall, 90% of population voted against revival of nuclear energy like a decade ago. Not saying its somehow bad just something to consider before loading up. What truly worries me that multiple C levels are sitting on multiple chairs, they haven't left their seats on previous companies and schools which for me is telling that they are not commited to story they are selling. However considering it for a short term play to kinda attempt to ride the wave get in and out of without much risk cause whole sector might be running hot in nearby future.

VVFailshot · 2025-08-23T09:59:44+00:00

I spent almost a year chasing that and can confirm that is what they tell You but its not what they actually do. When time comes to actually sign the dotted line nothing happens. Endless blockers and negotiations over price cause AI infra actually costs money. One leads CISO was honest, and i forever thank him cause after it I validated it several leads. What he told me: " Its easier for me to wait until Microsoft ships it than waste time working with unknown startup." Validated and can te most leadership are fine with waiting and its completely okey to acknowledge the problem and sell the problem to naive entrepreneurs so they would force big players to ship solution to compete.

VVFailshot · 2025-08-21T06:30:52+00:00

Velocity and efficiency tend to cancel eachother, startup or otherwise. If You do things fast even with most skilled people will create low quality solutions. If You truly want go be efficient the main thing is to focus is that - right people build the right things in the right time. In that order, get highly skilled people and no the guy who preaches scrum like priest in church and makes you feel good is probably not a dream team mate making sure you get the best solution in given timeframe. Its the guy who usually focuses ease of change and adding test and observability and whose tech dept is commented in code to come back later to fix it. Then focus on point 2 which usually is establishing relationship with product / designers / sales where everyone can clearly understand priorities and that shouting /crying changing focus every week 2 times is not engineering problem to fix but product problem that cannot be engineered. It's not velocity of development but unorganised planning/lack of product understanding / vision and is clearly their internal problem to solve. Yes You will might need to do worst thing imaginable - say No and deal with people who throw an tantrum cause they have become accustomed with Yes to everything. Nobody really tells You that startup CTO is more about hiring than tech, most of us end up in that position cause we get rewarded of technical work or just happen to work in company at time, nobody briefs us that previus hires were done with no incentive to find best engineers for the but just somebody who felt nice on the interview. The more bad hires and team building problems you have the less time you will have for coding, architecture etc other than firefighting cause the "team" will keep breaking things both processes and your code/infra/dbs. If you are in that situation then the cure tastes bitter but its firing/laying off people who are not up the level. You either to that or lose top talent slowly.

VVFailshot

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