You’re reading The Steady Beat, a weekly round-up of hand-picked articles and resources for people who make software products: designers, engineers, product managers, and organizational leaders.
By the Numbers - Coffee Nerding
1715 — The year amateur historian suggest the western hemisphere’s first coffee arrived in St. Domingue, now the island of Hispaniola split by Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
2 — The number of unique species, Coffea canephora (Robusta) and Eugenioides, that spontaneously intermingled to produce Arabica, according to scientists who sequenced the Arabica genome.
5 — The number of countries where Robusta and Eugenioides, the parent species of Arabica, are indigenous: Southern Uganda, Northwestern Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, and Western Democratic Republic of Congo.
1 — Arabica is a hybrid that evolved in one primary location: the Keffa Zone in what is now the western edge of Ethiopia, along the northwest border with South Sudan’s Boma Plateau.
6th Century — The possible earliest introduction of coffee to the rest of the world by Ethiopia’s Coptic Aksumite Empire during its occupation in Arabia Felix (modern day Yemen).
— Royal Coffee, 22m, #coffee, #history #engineering
Leave Me Alone
How do different types of interruptions affect productivity and stress? An investigation conducted by researchers at Duke and Vanderbilt reveals that the complexity of tasks and the type of interruption influence the impact on performance. In-person interruptions were found to be less physiologically stressful than on-screen ones, however, participants perceived them as more stressful. Interestingly, simpler code comprehension problems were more affected by interruptions than complex ones. The report suggests minimizing “high-dominance” interruptions, reducing disturbances during code writing tasks, and using survey data to understand the impact on the engineering team. Despite the physiological data, the advice leans towards addressing perception as it is more likely to affect actions and behaviors.
— RDEL #75, 16m, #engineering-leadership, #productivity, #interruptions
Confusing Copilot
Microsoft’s iconic Office suite has undergone another rebranding, moving from Microsoft 365 to Microsoft Copilot 365. This change only adds to the confusion that ensued after the first rebranding effort in 2022, when Microsoft Office became Microsoft 365. The new name aligns with the integration of Microsoft’s AI, Copilot, into Office apps like Word and Excel. However, the AI isn’t impressing users yet, with many complaints about a price increase and an intrusive AI assistant that they want to disable. The new logo for the suite is nearly identical to the Copilot logo, making it difficult for users to distinguish between the two. This move seems to be a bid to draw attention to Copilot, but the end result is a confusing rebrand that users find difficult to navigate.
— Creative Bloq, 5m, #branding, #microsoft, #design
StackUnderflow
Recent data reveals that the number of questions asked on StackOverflow has plummeted to levels not seen since 2009. The decline appears to correlate with the release of OpenAi’s chatbot, ChatGPT, in November 2022, which offers fast and efficient solutions to developers’ coding issues. However, StackOverflow’s slump actually began earlier, around June 2020, following a brief surge in usage prompted by the Covid-19 pandemic. The site’s perceived lack of innovation, failure to adopt video Q&A, and increasingly restrictive moderation policies have been cited as contributing factors. The proliferation of more accessible programming groups on platforms such as Discord or Telegram has also played a role. While most of StackOverflow’s traffic originates from search engines, this decline in questions could lead to a vicious cycle of outdated content, reduced search engine traffic, and even fewer site visits.
— The Pragmatic Engineer, 9m, #stackoverflow, #technology-shift, #software-development
Product Management Homework
James Effarah shares a curated list of books from his Kindle library that he believes will help product managers advance their skills and knowledge. These books, published in 2023 or later, provide fresh insights, practical frameworks, and innovative strategies for today’s product managers. The list includes titles such as “Transformed: Moving to the Product Operating Model” that provides steps for transitioning to a product-centric operating model, and practical advice on scaling a successful product organization in “Product Operations: How Successful Companies Build Better Products at Scale” by Melissa Perri. Whether you are looking to reimagine your leadership style, navigate uncertainty, or scale product operations, this article has some terrific resources.
— HackerNoon, 12m, #product-management, #books, #leadership
Autonomous Team Coordination
The average knowledge worker loses 23 hours weekly to coordination overhead. Fix that with Steady today.
Steady is an agentic AI coordination layer that runs in the background, distilling plans and progress from tools, teams, & people into forward-looking tailored summaries, giving everyone the clarity they need to build outstanding products together. Teams using Steady typically see 10X speed-to-impact increases in the first 30 days.
Learn more at steady.space.
