No Assumptions

Transcript

1. ARMIN RONACHER The Role of the Modern CTO NO ASSUMPTIONS

2. -Armin @mitsuhiko Ronacher - fi nd my stu ff at

   mitsuhiko.at -Twitter/X: x.com/mitsuhiko -VP of Platform at Sentry -Creator of Flask, Jinja and many other Open Source libraries -Building Open Source Projects for 20 Years WHO AM I

3. RUST

4. WHAT'S THERE TO BUILD?

5. -Technology companies often start out with a vision -Then march

   towards development of that idea -In many cases they are leveraging independent research -Particularly startups do not typically have an R&D department RESEARCH AND PRODUCTS

6. -Compute and storage is becoming extremely cheap -LLM/AI is being

   greatly subsidized by venture capital MODERN TECHNOLOGY MAKES THE IMPOSSIBLE POSSIBLE

7. “We set out to build a distributed database with zero

   latency” A VISIONARY

8. “We are building a storage system with in in fi

   nite storage” ANOTHER VISIONARY

9. UNDERSTAND WHAT CAN BE BUILD UNDERSTAND HOW IT COULD BE

   BUILD

10. -It's very possible some things will never work -But many

    things work with tradeo ff s or approximation: -Sometimes the tradeo ff s are compromising a key part of the experience -More commonly an approximation of the goal can work, but it's too expensive IMPOSSIBLE VS EXPENSIVE

11. -It might be too expensive today -For some things advancements

    in computing can catch up with implementation time -When the cost drops below what the market is willing to pay, it becomes incredibly appealing THINGS MIGHT CHANGE

12. -As a CTO you have to have a good understanding

    of what the market is willing to pay -How to approximate this on the technology front -And to use the foresight, developments and clever tradeo ff s to inform the product side of the equation CONNECTING THE TECHNOLOGY WITH THE PRODUCT

13. UNDERSTAND WHAT IT COSTS IN RELATION TO VALUE DELIVERED (WHAT

    A CUSTOMER IS WILLING TO PAY)

14. CONSTRAINTS

15. “The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees one’s

    self. And the arbitrariness of the constraint serves only to obtain precision of execution.” IGOR FYODOROVICH STRAVINSKY

16. -Constraints are useful -But constraints are better if they are

    meaningful -Constraints ideally are informed by business objectives (cost, desired behavior) SETTING CONSTRAINTS

17. EXAMPLES FROM SENTRY

18. -Business objective: get started within 5 minutes -As a user

    I can rely on the system automatically con fi guring itself -As a user I do not need to manually instrument my application to derive value from the product -Business objective: o ff er a simple 29 USD/month plan -Constraint: people might not pay for excess tra ff i c -Quota and rate-limiting aware SDKs -Sampling awareness MEANINGFUL CONSTRAINTS

19. UNDERSTAND AND LEVERAGE BUSINESS CONSTRAINTS. UNDERSTAND HOW VALUE IS DELIVERED

20. WRONG BETS AND HEDGING

21. -Quali fi ed assessment today ➛incorrect assumption about the state

    tomorrow -Technologies and tastes can change -Signi fi cant advancements can happen KEEP VETTING

22. -Incorrect measurements can lead to wrong conclusions -Maybe what you

    measure doesn't matter MEASURE THE RIGHT THING

23. -Is the ask quali fi ed? -Does it have data

    to back up the bet? -There might be data that disproves it THE BUSINESS IS WRONG

24. -Some ideas are not right for the time -Marketing and

    Brand can help with story telling -If it's worth doing TELL THE STORY

25. THINGS CHANGE. MEASURE. PUSH BACK. LEVERAGE THE BUSINESS TO TELL

    THE STORY.

26. - fi nd my stu ff at mitsuhiko.at -Twitter/X: x.com/mitsuhiko

    TALK TO ME :)

27. OSSPledge.com Pay your share Whether you're a CEO, CFO, CTO,

    or just a dev, chances are your company depends on Open Source software. It's time to pledge back.