madewithlove

Are you feeling like progress is stalling as your software team grows? Do you feel product delivery is slow? Is there a communication breakdown or too much technical debt? Finding the right balance is hard. Sometimes, slowing down is the smartest way to speed up 🚀 . Andreas Creten talks about the tradeoffs software leaders need to make when building a growing product. The goal is not just to move fast—it's to move smart.

Our book, Free Range Management, celebrates two years this month! Want to win a free copy, fill out the form. Good luck, and enjoy ❤️ #giveaway #freerangemanagement #book

At madewithlove, we like to think of audits as more than just checking boxes. We go beyond the codebase and dive into the entire engineering ecosystem: team vibes, leadership styles, processes, documentation, and all the intricate details that make your tech tick. Our interview-based approach means we get a real feel for what's happening under the hood without taking up too much of your time—just 10-12 hours, and you're done. In just two weeks—which is much faster than the typical timeline for a thorough audit—you'll get you'll get a no-fluff, practical assessment from auditors who live and breathe SaaS every day. We don't just spot issues; we understand what it's like to run and scale software products because we do it ourselves. If you're looking for due diligence that doesn't just scratch the surface, we are ready to dig in and give you the real story. #duediligence #saas #audit #madewithlove

What do the first weeks of our 'CTO as a service' engagement look like when one of our fractional CTO's starts helping out a new client? Our resident CTO's Peter Eysermans and Christophe Thelen explain what to expect. And what not.

Would you rather... work with a team of 1 senior and 3 juniors or a team of just 2 seniors? At our yearly retreat, we have presented our engineers and CTOs in residence with some dilemmas, this being one of them. Curious to hear what Geoffrey and Christophe Thelen had to say?

In this edition of The Road Less Perfect, Mike Veerman discusses the difficulty of convincing founders that every team should be able to onboard less experienced employees. It sounds like your A-team players, your rockstars, or your top developers will be less efficient because they need to support B-players. Hiring "regular team members" feels like a step back. Yet scaling means making sure you can take on less experienced people and grow that talent in-house. And to learn how to do that, you should read his newsletter.

"You have a hard problem? Sarah will fix it!" As engineers gain experience and tenure, they inevitably face increasingly complex challenges. It's the nature of our field—the toughest problems land on the desks of our most seasoned professionals. Protecting your problem solvers While it's gratifying to hear, this praise can mask a hidden danger. Many underestimate the mental toll of constant problem-solving. When your daily view is an endless parade of issues, it's easy to fall into the trap of thinking everything is broken. To prevent burnout and maintain a healthy team, technical leaders must actively guard the mental well-being of their problem solvers. Here are key strategies to implement: 💪 Empower them to say no: Encourage your team to communicate when they're overwhelmed. Create a culture where it's okay to say, "I need a break from troubleshooting right now." ⚖️ Balance complex problems with defined feature work: Alternate between debugging sessions and scoped feature development. This variety can provide mental relief and restore a sense of progress. 2️⃣ Promote pair programming: Share the load of complex problems. This reduces mental strain and spreads crucial knowledge, building a more resilient team. 🌳 Advocate for breaks: Resist the urge to push through exhaustion. Encourage team members to step away, take a walk, and return with fresh perspectives. As leaders, we must ask ourselves: Are we repeatedly tapping the same individuals for every challenging issue? How can we better distribute these tasks to protect our key problem solvers? While some thrive on tackling complex issues, it's crucial to safeguard their boundaries. Continuous exposure to high-stress problem-solving can lead to mental fatigue and eventual burnout.

Is today's AI-driven approach truly superior, or just a different means to the same end? When Strava launched Athlete Intelligence, which uses AI for personalized feedback, it reminded Andreas Creten of his time at Addapp Corp, the startup he co-founded almost a decade ago. They used data from devices like Apple Watch to provide insights, such as how a run could impact your sleep. While Strava now uses AI, the Addapp team were delivering similar insights with traditional data science, proving that sometimes, being ahead of your time is not always good. Addapp may have been too early for mass adoption, while Strava is riding a wave where the market is ready and the technology is more accessible. Ultimately, Andreas is proud of the work they did at Addapp. Seeing how ideas evolve, refine, and sometimes come back in new forms is fascinating. Watching how Strava and others advance in this space reinforces the belief that good ideas always find their way to the surface—sometimes, it's just a matter of timing.

Here's Andreas Creten and Jonas Drieghe talking about what's going on between Wordpress and WP Engine at the moment.

"Reflecting on work through retrospectives helps software teams improve by identifying what went well and what didn’t. This promotes continuous growth, stronger collaboration, and better performance." Our Emma Williams explains how you can get the most out of your retrospectives.