Blog
Articles on product strategy, engineering principles, and building software that lasts.
Caching strategy directly influences product performance, scalability, and operational costs. Neglecting a deliberate caching approach results in predictable system inefficiencies and financial overheads, especially under load.
During an incident, the primary goal is restoring service availability and functionality. This often means applying a rapid mitigation strategy first. A full fix addresses the underlying issue, preventing recurrence, and is typically undertaken after the incident is stabilized.
Intermittent bugs manifest unpredictably in production systems. Their non-deterministic nature makes reproduction and diagnosis challenging. Successful tracing relies on comprehensive logging, monitoring, and methodical isolation techniques to identify root causes.
Non-technical founders need a structured approach to evaluate development agencies. Focus on concrete deliverables, transparent processes, and verifiable third-party feedback. Avoid agencies promising unrealistic timelines or broad, undefined scopes.
Production incidents often mask underlying systemic issues. Identifying these deeper problems requires analyzing incident recurrence, impact, and shared root causes beyond immediate failures. This proactive approach prevents future outages.
Often, what is termed an MVP is actually a V2. This occurs when initial feature sets extend beyond solving the single core problem. Indicators include multiple user roles or complex integrations, delaying initial market validation.
Creating space for deep work on engineering teams requires disciplined operational adjustments. It involves allocating dedicated, uninterrupted time blocks for focused tasks. This protects engineers from reactive production demands, allowing for sustained concentration on complex problem-solving and strategic initiatives.
On-call rotations consume engineering time for unplanned production incidents. This directly impacts feature delivery timelines and overall project predictability. Understanding this cost is crucial for accurate resource planning.
Automated testing is beneficial for stable systems. It becomes a net negative when applied to volatile components or systems where the cost of test maintenance outweighs the cost of potential defects. Understanding these boundary conditions is critical.
Premature abstraction means designing for future unknowns. It adds complexity without immediate benefit. For early products, this slows development, increases bug surface, and delays validated learning cycles.
Race conditions in production systems are challenging due to their non-deterministic nature. Effective debugging involves analyzing system state, event logs, and understanding thread or process synchronization. Reproducibility is often low, requiring specific investigative approaches.
User feedback often conflicts with actual application usage patterns. This article outlines approaches to reconcile these disparities. Prioritize behavioral data to inform development, ensuring features meet real needs.
Better Software is a product engineering company, part of Better. We build software for owners and founders who already understand the problem.
© 2026 Jalan Technology Consulting Pvt. Ltd.