The blog · since 2015

Insights for founders,
CTOs & investors.

Essays, playbooks and field notes from our CTOs, architects and leads. Written for people shipping real product.

Latest posts

Leadership

Why you don't need estimates

How should you estimate your work? Are estimations needed when developing software? What is the value of estimations? What is an alternative to estimating work?

Leadership

How to run a good all-hands meeting

Our only company-wide meeting happens on Mondays, and this is how it looks. We're happy to share some tips on how to run an all-hands meeting properly.

Engineering

Why code quality matters

In today's digital landscape, software development is a crucial aspect of most businesses. However, many organizations overlook the importance of code quality. Ensuring code quality is critical for various reasons, from financial stability to customer satisfaction.

CTO

How a CTO builds a team

There are many factors involved in building a thriving team. This is what a CTO must consider when hiring expert teams to build software.

Leadership

Why you should invest in good engineers from the start

Investing in senior engineers is crucial for startups. They bring speed, efficiency, and quality to development, boost team morale, and ensure long-term profitability. Hire senior professionals from the start for success, here is why.

Leadership

Why defining a product vision is crucial in ensuring you are building the right things.

A company should have a vision, but a product should also have one. A product vision may sound like something large corporates work on. It may sound like a waste of time. However, a good product vision helps your team make the right choices while building your product.

madewithlove

The Importance of Small Details for Diversity and Inclusion

Sometimes, the most minor details can make the most significant impact. As an established company based in Belgium, we have always embraced our madewithlove.be domain name, despite our global reach. But a revelation during an annual retreat discussion on diversity changed everything.

Leadership

How to use Steve's Test during job interviews

When applying for a new job, it is tough to understand the culture of the team you are about to join. Use The Steve Test to evaluate the team culture.

Engineering

Why you should code your infrastructure

Have trouble documenting your infrastructure? Infrastructure as code might be the solution you are looking for.

Engineering

Inconsistent MongoDB regex behavior in document nested Objects

MongoDB supports full-text search. The word stemming, which it uses under the hood, may be quite useful in some cases. However, MongoDB FTS has a non-obvious limitation, which can leave you confused while producing empty search results instead of errors.

Leadership

Why you should invest in consolidating your documentation

Where is your documentation kept? Is it one tool that everyone has access to? Here's why you should consolidate your documentation.

Engineering

Taking PHP Seriously

Once considered a dying programming language, PHP has undergone a massive transformation in recent years, evolving into a powerful and modern web development tool.

Leadership

Why is operational documentation more important than you think

Do you have an employee handbook? Are senior people required to spend hours answering questions of colleagues? Here's how documentation can help.

CTO

The Steve Test: 12 Steps to Better Teams

Evaluate your team’s culture with a simple test. For managers, learn how you can improve your team. For individual contributors, learn what you’re missing out on when it comes to team culture.

madewithlove

Pulse: Episode 11 – On technical debt with Jonas Drieghe

Listen to this new Pulse podcast episode on technical debt where Jonas and Andreas discuss managed vs unmanaged debt, legacy code, code rot and give some tips on how to work with technical debt in any given circumstances.

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