Ryan Murphy

Yesterday was the Frontend Performance Day from WeAreDevelopers, where three fascinating talks took place: - Catching up on the basics - you don't really need that much code from Chris Heilmann - Snappy UI needs no Single-Page Application from Clemens Helm - Leveraging Server-Sent Events (SSE) for Efficient Data Streaming in UI Development from Rainer Stropek Personally, my key takeaways from these talks are: - Review your code, tools, and frameworks regularly. Browsers are constantly evolving, and many features are already available, so trust the browser to do it for you. This will reduce the JavaScript required to maintain and the cost of maintaining it. Adopting this mindset will boost your customer and developer experience. - The browser has changed significantly over the years since its early days when we started, but all these patterns used to optimise the user experience are still very viable. Clemens provides a great recap and practical application of this. - I wasn't familiar with Server-Sent Events (SSE). Rainer's talk was a great introduction to this protocol and how to use it. I learned a lot about its usage and its similarities with streaming responses. It's well worth watching as it gives us another tool in our belt to provide the best solution for our customers when given the use case. #webperformance #frontenddevelopment #wearedevelopers #frontendarchitecture

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Do you have a React Native app and want to extend your app into the land of Vision OS? Well look no further than this wonderful little package https://lnkd.in/eGrjCe2K (I have no affiliation). It definitely isn't ready for production use but it's a great step forward in bridging the gap and bringing React Native and VisionOS closer together. I will try it out and share some findings... I feel like I have to because I am doing literally nothing else with my Vision Pro. #ReactNative #VisionOS #Development

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Alistair Gray gave a great talk at Write The Docs Portland, going into detail about our investment in Internal Docs at Stripe. He breaks down our thoughts about issues of fragmentation, discoverability, and document quality - and how we’ve tried to build great tools to improve the state of internal docs at Stripe across all of these axes. In Q&A, he touches on an important theme which is essentially “how do we convince engineers to use the tooling we build.” The answer really boils down to “ruthlessly build what engineers want” while maintaining our core primitives (eg, ownership, doc quality) that we know are vital to the health of Stripe’s knowledge base all-up. Let me know if y’all have any questions - happy to expand more on these themes! https://lnkd.in/em4QRFmH

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To say that I’ve had a bad week would be an under statement. I try to lose myself in reading and whilst it’s not the best coping strategy it does yield some interesting results … like this piece which really resonates with me: "Bad leaders execute, good leaders improve, and great leaders compound. Compounding is not about improvisation but a coherent set of actions in response to strategic challenges ahead. [...] A strategy is a designed response to the challenges ahead." We often fall into the trap of viewing strategy as a cure-all, neglecting to validate if the problems we identify are truly the most impactful for the business. We can create meticulously crafted documents brimming with well-intentioned policies and actions, but these efforts often yield minimal organisational recognition or lasting impact due to a lack of prioritisation. https://lnkd.in/ek8Xjfkx

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“I’ve been saying this for a whole year and no one listens, then the CEO said the same thing last week and everyone is acting like it was the most brilliant thing they ever heard” A QA engineer said that at a company I worked for in the past and it cracked me up because it’s so true of life in general. People are quick to dismiss advice that doesn’t come from a “high authority” or “reputable source”, that's just how we are wired to filter information. But if you hire really smart, proactive people and then reduce their voice to a whisper, your company is going to suck. This is why important that leaders do three things: 1. Listen to your employees and help amplify their voice → If you spot a great idea, give credit and then use your clout to push it to make it happen 2. Make them a higher authority, put them in charge of things, expand their remit → It doesn’t matter if you hire the top talent in the world if you box them in a tiny space or put them under management of someone who is not qualified to understand the output of their work. 3. Ensure you have clear values, mission and vision so it’s easy to spot what the great ideas are. → A great idea in Apple may not be a great idea in Amazon. Two companies, two very different values, that’s why it’s important that everyone in your company understands what the north star is, so they know what the metric for good idea is. 

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Following overwhelming demand, we're back with another Gemini Masterclass at the Google London office. Learn how generative AI can transform your entire organisation, network with like-minded business leaders, and boost employee productivity & innovation. Seats are limited – secure your spot now! ⬇️

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My latest on Paragraph: Quickstarts Are Recipes - Developers Are Bakers My plea is that developers stop overcomplicating their quickstart guide when building software. Treat your quickstart like a recipe: - Start with a desired outcome, much like a baked good, and get that developer from 0 -> 1 - Set a 'prep time' and 'baking time' that are clear and won't take someone an entire afternoon - Make limited assumptions and make sure you list every single "ingredient" down to what version of a particular library might be a prerequisite or environment constraints - Finally, don't let your quickstart go stale - you want them to buy your cookbook after they follow your recipe. https://lnkd.in/eFDjGR7U

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The secrets of how experienced engineering leaders accelerating growth of new Tech Leads... 𝘔𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘴𝘦𝘵 + 𝘗𝘦𝘳𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 + 𝘚𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵 + 𝘍𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬 = 𝗦𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗠𝗶𝗻𝗱𝘀𝗲𝘁 Individual focus → 𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗳𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 I love Andy Grove's definition 𝘓𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘫𝘶𝘥𝘨𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘱𝘶𝘵𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘪𝘯𝘧𝘭𝘶𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦. Although I prefer to use the term 𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘀. It's possible for a team to product a lot of output but not much value! 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗮 𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱? A team scoped Tech Lead can have many flavours. Is team leadership included? What about line management? What about delivery? Clarity is key 𝗦𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 Engineer → Tech Lead is a tricky transition. Holding more frequent 1:1's initially Seek feedback from team Stay close 𝗙𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 We all make mistakes when taking on new responsibilities  Provide both reenforcing and corrective feedback Observations + Impact = Actionable feedback Learn from mistakes Celebrate the wins P.S How do you support new Tech Leads?

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Some people gaslight themselves (and others) into requiring the London Underground of 'software development' processes to then never release anything, or something the market doesn't want. My company has literally 0 process, and I challenge anyone to make a better product than us in <6 months using these "agile" frameworks. You'll be in your third round of RFP's, seeking board approval by then. Don't believe me? Check the app, and get back to me: https://us.idyllic.app/ Before using the classic consulting line: "but how does it scale?" -- Yes, we scaled the app to over 10k-20k DAU in that time as well comfortably 😂. The app is ready for the next million users. How is writing those user stories going? #tech #startup #product #ai #agile

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TDD is expensive Like many other niche technologies Delivery of software is not only a technical problem It’s logistical and people problem as well It can be using Kotlin in Java company It can be adding a better database engine It can be applying Event sourcing to all systems You can say all of those are great But there are a couple of non-technical problems 🧠 Knowledge The whole team must know the new solution They need space to learn and practice You may get training from an expert Both cost money and time 🚦 Risk You face the bus factor What if the devs will leave? (they will) How will you maintain the niche solution? How much will it cost to hire or train a replacement? 👩 Hiring Adding new technologies narrows the pool of hires The more niche you go the harder is to find a good fit The longer hiring process will strain delivery You'll have to balance with higher salaries ☯️ Alignment What about your current team? 80% of them like tests but aren’t fans of TDD What will you do? Force them to learn or let them go? The culture will take a hit and retention will sink What can you do instead? Keep it simple Keep it boring Focus on the basics Drive incremental improvement Find alignment before picking new tech Get excited about the features and business If you don’t need to fix niche problems You get more time to deliver value

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A couple of recent improvements to Konquest for us to shout about. Our flexible yet accessible calculation engine is already our pride and joy, but we just keep making it better. Firstly, we recently added support for bi-monthly and semi-annual schemes, ideal for those kicker schemes where you want to close out the year strong and have consultants make up for a shaky start to the year. https://lnkd.in/emeMvYUP Then today, we have just shipped support for schemes which are calculated into any number of weeks from (and back from) a specified start date. Want to run three week schemes starting on the 2nd Wednesday of the year - now you can with Konquest 🦍 https://lnkd.in/eeC_KM9G We're currently hard at work on the next set of enhancements, this time looking at ways you can penalise blank months and missed thresholds in a variety of different ways. Feel your current commission structure is not getting the best out of your teams? There's never been a better time to speak to us. #commissionaccomplished

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I'm prepping for a conf talk at the BrowserConf this week and will be talking about test flakiness in e2e testing (Playwright will be the example). What are your pain points when it comes to flaky e2e tests?

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In this article, describing an approach to writing tests with a clear division into separate stages, each performing its specific role. This facilitates the creation of tests that are easier to read, understand, and maintain. Read more about arranging HTTP request testing in Spring: https://lnkd.in/ed8dAbeX

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📣 speak with your customers. Have your developers speak and assist your customers. I had the misfortune of having to spend a couple hours waiting inside a bank branch in Portugal. But it provided a lot of insights. People would arrive and immediately have their expectations broken: their fiscal number had to be introduced to have a ticket to be served. They all went "huh? what?". Anyway, all fine, most could move beyond it with the help from other customers - yes, no employee helped - it was wild. Then, one person got to the machine, and they went: "This machine is asking me for a cell phone number but I don't have one." "humm" "I'll try with my home number." "Doesn't work, has to be a cell number." Asked for help from an employee, only to be told it *had* to be a cell number. And yeah, the person had to leave without the transfer they wanted to make and without any other information beyond the "you need a cell number". I love computers and automation but it's weird and wild to me to think that people aren't being helped or not understanding how to sort out their financial lives. We have to build better systems. We have to do a lot better than this. If you're reading this and you're a software engineer building software for bank branches where the end customer has to interact with it, please beg your manager to let you spend a morning at a branch.

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⚙ Platform Engineering Lead Rob Hornby on implementing DX ⚙ “I think that evidences the success of DX, that everyone talks about it. At the team level, they say ‘Oh the DX results said this, this is now what we’re focusing on'...It's seen as a key measure of how we're doing.” Listen to how John Lewis Partnership is using DX to strategically improve their engineering practices #platformengineering #developerexperience

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I'm observing a team writing code as an ensemble without TDD. I am selfishly delighted in the confirmation of how valuable TDD is to me as I use it. The team is implementing a new function that's doing list of list manipulation and returning something. They are all over the place with naming things, creating objects, streaming, mapping, flattening maps, return object, variables, naming...so many squirrels. Too many squirrels to even really focus on "what's the simplest first thing we could do?" TDD is so much more than writing a test first. It's a framework that helps me focus, prioritize, structure, and order my thoughts. Test Driven Development is an immensely helpful design and focus tool. I should also note, that I am beginning of working with this team and meeting them where they are. #codelife #devlife #TDD #testdrivendevelopment #unittesting #designthinking #problemsolving #structuredthinking #focus #mindset #toomanysquirrels #codingchaos

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It's not all non-symbolic AI... I presented today to Accord Project Technology Working Group on recent enhancements to the Template Engine and how TypeScript expressions within templates are compiled and evaluated. Accord Project uses TypeScript over Concerto types (with Concerto also compiled to TypeScript) to provide type-safe logic/calculations for templates; ensuring that a wide array of programming errors are caught at template compilation time, not at runtime. #typesafety #soundness #typescript #templating #legaltech

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