What It Takes for a Web App to Feel Premium
Building a premium experience on the web is harder than it looks, but it scales everywhere once you get it right. This is what that discipline actually involves.
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The Five Second Contract
Queueing looks harmless at first. A slow call holds a few threads, then a few more, and if left unchecked it can tip the whole system over.
The Other Production
Players only see production. Engineers live in the systems behind it. When those systems fail, the product fails later. The two worlds are closer than they look.
Let the Browser Do the Heavy Lifting
Most slowdowns in an SPA come from one place. Too much work ends up hanging off a single thin thread inside the browser, and the moment it strains, the whole product feels it.
Making a Big Repo Feel Small
Sparse checkout as the everyday way to work in a monorepo.
Keys to the Kingdom
Finding the Keys That Matter
What Would It Take to Go Live Next Week?
Sometimes the fastest way to find out what’s broken is to try to ship it.
The Myth of Multiplying Yourself
Sometimes the things that once made sense deserve another look.
A general guide to branching in a multi-product monorepo
How many teams ship one product across surfaces without collisions.
Fast, Loose, and Fragile
Why the freedom that makes the web powerful also makes it fragile.
Monkey Dust and the Pale Blue Room
A fever dream of early-2000s Britain that still haunts its viewers.
The Tide of Review
Why code review must be predictable, humane, and measured.
Organisational Design
Beyond Squads: The Case for Centres of Excellence
When muscles and nerves aren’t enough to stand.
Organisational Design
A Modern Approach to Engineering
The practices that make companies faster, safer, and engineers more valuable.
Developer Experience
Federated Design Systems: Global, Brand, Product
One wardrobe, many uniforms, one team.
Developer Experience
Boarding the Release Train
Why weekly release trains and a monorepo culture deliver stability, speed, and less toil.
Developer Experience
Email Signals
Clarity in the address line is clarity in the organisation.
Developer Experience
Boiled Frogs and Ringed Deployments
The case for ringed deployments: safety, visibility, and confidence at scale
Player Experience
Watching the Watchers, Part 2: How Scripts Break Your Frame Budget
Why borrowed milliseconds cost more than they seem.
Organisational Design
The Integration Dilemma
Balancing integration, adoption, and the lure of best-of-breed.
Developer Experience
Show Your Working
Why visible fixes build knowledge, demonstrate competence, and strengthen trust.
Developer Experience
Trading Without a Ticker
Real-user monitoring is our market feed. Hide it, and we trade blind on player experience.
Developer Experience
The Right Shoes?
The right shoes are the ones closest to production.
Developer Experience
The Code Belongs to Everyone
Inner sourcing only works when making changes is easy. Standards make that possible.