The Founder's Foyer with Aishwarya: Building better software, running experiments, adopting 'agile' mindset

Ft. Allen Holub, Renowned Software Architect. We chat everything from why 'fail fast' is ineffective these days to how to maintain system architecture, trade 'accountability' with 'drive' and more.

Aishwarya Ashok

Hey everyone,

Here’s the the episode for this week:

Building products is so much fun—at the same time, it’s equally exhausting and challenging with so many peers to work with, the market needs to look into, and a lot of processes to go by. While frameworks and techniques can be compelling to share, they are hard to standardize for different software teams and their cultures. So what are some ways to navigate these complexities and build better software?

Allen Holub, an internationally recognized software architect and consultant, and I recently chatted about the ways product teams can work on small experiments and ship things iteratively so there's value and impact. One of the things we debated on is the whole 'fail fast' approach—of course, the phrase still holds a good meaning, but often the context of why we do it is lost. Allen goes on to share how 'fail fast' is increasingly equated with reckless building, and what to do to avoid that.

TFF Chat: Allen x Aishwarya

Check out The Founder’s Foyer:

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Allen and I discuss about:

  • Allen's transition from hardware to software building

  • Why Agile is not a methodology but mindset

  • ‘Fail fast' and how it's no longer effective as it's done wrongly

  • Deciding not to build certain things

  • Getting better at understanding what to build and ship

  • Communication within team and with customers

  • How to keep in pace with growing teams

  • Conway's law and how it applies to software architecture

  • Eliminating complexities for a software team

  • What remains the same between startups and large orgs

  • Counterintuitive approach to 'accountability' and 'commitment'

  • What's a better way than using frameworks?

Listen to our conversation as a podcast on:

TFF Chat: Allen x Aishwarya

Thank you, and have a great week ahead!

Cheers,

Aishwarya