Welcome to The Steady Beat, a weekly-ish round-up of hand-picked articles and resources for people who make software products: designers, engineers, product managers, and organizational leaders.
By the Numbers - Olympic Times
- 250,000 — Technicians completed over 250,000 hours of testing for the IT systems of the Paris 2024 Olympics, surpassing the 200,000 hours done for Tokyo 2020.
- 5000 — NBC is using an AI-generated version of famed broadcaster Al Michaels to voice selected highlights from over 5000 hours of Olympic coverage.
- 4 — Omega, the official timekeeper, will deploy new technologies for timekeeping and scoring, including AI-assisted starting blocks for sprinters that can detect false starts within 4 milliseconds.
The Verge, 6m #engineering #scaling #development
Scaling Blues
So, unless you’ve been hanging out under a digital rock, the news is out: an audacious update by CrowdStrike sent 8.5 million Windows machines globally into the dreaded “Blue Screen of Death,” causing chaos from airports to hospitals to Formula One’s pit crews. The fix? Manual, painfully slow, and beyond frustrating. CrowdStrike hustled to patch things up, but the fallout was as massive as it was instructive. What can we learn? Plan your rollouts meticulously, cherish your staging environments, and never, ever underestimate the mighty canary test.
The Pragmatic Engineer, 8m #development #engineering
Rethinking Your North Star Metric
In product management, a North Star Metric (NSM) isn’t just a trendy buzzword; it’s the compass guiding your entire strategy. But it’s not about choosing the most obvious metric like subscriber numbers or revenue. Instead, it’s about asking contrarian questions and thinking long-term. Take a cue from Spotify’s focus on engagement over sheer numbers, or Amazon’s “Day 1” mentality focusing on unchanging customer needs. Whether you opt for challenging conventional wisdom or betting on timeless truths, your NSM should encapsulate the unique value your product brings and directly lead to revenue growth.
Productify, 7m #product #productmanagement
Try-Before-You-Buy Leadership
Navigating the dicey search for full-time leaders often feels like playing with fire. Enter interim leaders—your hero with a “no commitment” but “full impact” vibe. These short-term execs can jump in within days, tackle urgent issues, and even help find their own permanent replacements. They’re a smash hit for plugging sudden leadership gaps and driving innovation without the long-term strings. For companies craving flexibility or caught in rapid flux, it’s time to embrace interim leadership. It’s a bit like renting a flashy convertible for the weekend—pricey but damn effective.
Elena Verna, 6m #leadership #management
Neither Agree nor Disagree
The Likert scale creeps into every crevice of life, be it academia or your local grocery store. This handy tool for quantifying our feelings has turned into an insidious overlord, stripping nuance in favor of neat numerical certainty. From rating professors to evaluating your coffee shop experience, our collective obsession with turning qualities into quantities is undeniable. How Likerted is your life? Do you even want to know? Rate your response.
The Offing, 8m #design
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