Jon Peck

In my latest conversation on The Daily CTO, I sat down with Arnaud Lucas to dive into a fundamental shift that every CTO should consider: moving from feedback to proactive input in tech leadership. It’s not just about asking for feedback after the plan is made. The real impact comes when you gather input before the planning begins, building a foundation for alignment, avoiding costly missteps, and delivering solutions that resonate across teams and customers alike. In this episode, Arnaud shares: Why timing matters when gathering stakeholder input. How a structured input-gathering system can transform alignment. Steps for implementing this approach in your own organization. Check out the episode here: https://lnkd.in/gwUTAwcm #CTO #TechLeadership #StakeholderEngagement #TheDailyCTO #CustomerExperience #Wayfair #Leadership #Innovation

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The Future of Coding Education and Lifecole®'s New Positioning in my latest artifact at Reforge 📘 In this artifact, I unveil industry insights, strategic positioning, and proposed solutions aimed at revolutionizing the way students engage with coding. 🌐 In an era marked by rapid technological advancement, the demand for proficient coders continues to soar. However, alongside this growth, challenges persist in ensuring accessibility and sustained engagement among K-12 students. This artifact sheds light on these challenges and presents innovative strategies to address them. 🔍 Key highlights include: - Industry Overview & Current Positioning: Gain insights into the exponential growth and competitive dynamics of the K-12 coding education sector. - Competitor Analysis: Navigate the complex landscape with in-depth insights into learning models and sales approaches adopted by key players. - Market Challenges & Insights: Understand the barriers hindering accessibility and engagement in coding education, backed by valuable data-driven insights. - Lifecole's Distinctive Positioning: Discover how Lifecole sets itself apart with a unique approach to certification and an engaging learning environment designed to foster long-term retention and satisfaction. Special thanks to Brian Balfour and the exceptional team at Reforge for their invaluable insights and support. 💡 Join the conversation and stay ahead in the evolving realm of K-12 Education! 💡 #Education #K12 #Coding #EdTech #Lifecole #IndustryInsights #Positioning #Accessibility #Engagement #LearningJourney #startup https://lnkd.in/e9RZ6HeK

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I love this more nuanced approach from David Morris for determining what product ideas should get on the roadmap. The technique I use and coach most often is a bit simpler. It's "doable" vs "desirable". David's Viable + Feasible is a nice way to split out the two aspects of my "doable". I define great product management is a simultaneous exploration of the doable vs desirable space to find the optimal tradeoff between the two. So, the exercise I facilitate has people put post-its up on the wall on a two-dimensional graph where the x-axis is how "doable" the idea is. The y-axis is how desirable it is. The "best" ideas end up closest to the upper-right corner. I then draw two squiggly lines on the chart, generally meandering, going from upper-left to lower-right. The first line is quite close to the upper-right corner, meaning that only a small fraction of the ideas will be above and to the right of it. Anything above and to the right of it is considered a commitment for the roadmap timeframe under consideration. The second line is close to the first and catches the stretch goals for the roadmap timeframe. I'd love to host such an exercise for anyone who's interested, using David's nuanced version of "doable". Thoughts? Owen Farrell, Tony Reinert, and Tony Mantoan, you've seen me host these exercises many times. How well do you think this alteration to my exercise would work? https://lnkd.in/eaTGz6ep

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Ollama is a great tool for simplifying running small language models like Phi-3 and Llama3-8B on your personal computer, even without a GPU or with an ARM chip. But what if your device can't support Ollama? Pamela Fox shares how GitHub Codespaces allows you to open any GitHub repository in a web-based VS Code running a containerized environment. You can add Ollama to the Codespace for a repository by incorporating this community-created feature in devcontainer.json. https://lnkd.in/gqtNR8gY #Ollama #GitHub #Codespaces #msftadvocate

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I am deeply interested in Prompt Optimization and helping citizen developers build better prompts. That's why this Prompt Wizard announcement from Microsoft Research is so fascinating and close to heart to me. The iterative prompt improvement approach described in the article makes sense and feels intuitive, need to put this into practice. Key Differentiators: 👉 Joint Optimization: Unlike existing approaches, PromptWizard optimizes both prompt instructions and in-context examples, maximizing model performance. 👉 Feedback-driven refinement: The framework iteratively refines prompts by mutating instructions and incorporating diverse examples to deepen understanding and ensure diversity. 👉 Critic based Enhancements: It further enhances both instructions and examples with the aid of a critic, synthesizing new instructions and examples enriched with detailed reasoning steps for optimal performance. Congrats to Akshay Nambi and Tanuja Ganu Article: https://lnkd.in/e_NpiYpd Paper: https://lnkd.in/ewkRRHzV GitHub: https://lnkd.in/eEha8hbz #MicrosoftResearch #PromptWizard #PromptOptimization #PromptEngineering #LLMs

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I’m honored to kick off this series with none other than Barry Jones a fractional CTO with 22+ years of experience, to tackle a topic that so many teams struggle with: Why software estimation is broken. Episode: https://lnkd.in/gF5H29Sb In this episode, Barry breaks down: Why story points often do more harm than good The confusion and misalignment they create between teams and stakeholders A smarter way to approach estimation by focusing on task breakdowns and measuring queues instead. If you’re a CTO, developer, or product manager, you’ll benefit from Barry’s practical tips for improving your development process and avoiding the common pitfalls of traditional estimation methods. Check it out and let me know your thoughts!

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Thinking about a journey map as you plan your next half? Let's get you set up for success! Registration for Best Practices for Journey Mapping is open, 12 hours of live instruction Dec 9 - 13. Learn how to maximize the impact of your journey mapping efforts and investment. You'll gain insights and tips from interviews with > 75 journey mappers, including 4 principles for maps with impact and best practices for each. You'll also have the opportunity to participate in hands-on activities in a small group setting to cement your learning: conducting journey interviews, analyzing the data, and drafting a map. This course is perfect for qualitative researchers who are new to mapping or who are ready to up their game. Discounts are available for people who are self-employed, un/under-employed, or for whom the full course fee would be a hardship. Group discounts available, so bring your team. (Prefer a private workshop for your team? Reach out!) Don't miss out on this opportunity to boost the impact of your maps & mapping. Register now at the link below! What people are saying: - "This is an excellent, immersive course on journey mapping. Julie's a fantastic, charismatic, and deeply knowledgable teacher and has built out a solid interactive framework for practicing journey mapping over the course of the week" - "Julie is a leading expert on journey maps and it is evident in her thoughtful approach, relevant case studies, and her many years of experimenting, refining, and coaching others on how to do journey mapping well. She is generous with her wisdom and humor and makes a multi-day course both digestible and fun. Whether you are new to journey mapping or a seasoned expert, you'll be surprised with how many practical takeaways you'll get from this course that will uplevel your own journey mapping practice and approach." - "Julie is not only an expert in doing journey mapping but also an awesome instructor for teaching it. Though I have had experience with journey mapping, her systematic approach and all the hands-on activities certainly helped me level up my practice." #journeymapping #customerexperience #customerjourney #customerjourneymapping #customerjourneys #userexperience #userjourney #userexperience #uxresearch #uxdesign #ux #buyerjourney #cjm #uxresearcher #uxr

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fun post from Harrison Chase on cognitive architectures (link in comments) - does a great job of articulating the difference between human-defined workflow DAG vs. letting the LLM drive the workflow In a human-defined DAG you get greater control and determinism, but I've talked to folks who have experimented with agent-defined DAGs, and many of them remark things like "the agent found a solution that we never would have come up with" - I think as LLMs get smarter, there's a ton of upside in taking the rails off the workflow which one do you prefer? #ai #llms #agents

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I discovered an insightful explanation by Matt Palmer, DevRel Lead at Replit, discussing Developer Relations. He addresses common questions like: What is DevRel? What distinguishes a good DevRel from a great or lead DevRel? When is it ideal to hire a full-time DevRel compared to a part-time consultant? And, how can DevRel performance be evaluated? Key insights include: DevRel combines Product, Marketing, and Education for developer tool companies. Developers often resist traditional marketing. DevRel effectively turns leads into users, while the product keeps them engaged. Integrating DevRel communication into your marketing strategy post-product-market fit enhances credibility with developers. Watch the full video here: https://buff.ly/4iXRC0x #DevRel #DeveloperAdvocacy

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The USPTO team integrated Sonatype solutions and revolutionized their approach to software development. By automating the critical aspects of the #softwaredevelopmentlifecycle, they’re not just keeping pace with technology—but leading the charge in IT innovation. Curious about their journey and how we're tackling challenges with #opensource dependencies head-on? Dive into our story 👉 https://bit.ly/4aSrCz2

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🚀 Want to run your very own trained LLM, privately and securely? 🤖🔒 Imagine harnessing the power of a Language Model tailored just for you without worrying about third-party servers! 💼✨ Try, LM Studio. Jest for few click . LLM running in your PC. With LM Studio, you can ... 🤖 • Run LLMs on your laptop, entirely offline 📚 • Chat with your local documents (new in 0.3) 👾 • Use models through the in-app Chat UI or an OpenAI compatible local server 📂 • Download any compatible model files from Hugging Face 🤗 repositories 🔭 • Discover new & noteworthy LLMs right inside the app's Discover page #LLM #private #chatgpt #AI

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A lot of the Apple development crowd in my timeline on Mastodon being super-negative about the WWDC keynote today. Many are also anti-AI (or maybe anti-AI-as-we've-been-seeing). Feels like they're having a "get off my lawn” moment. (Developers are a prickly bunch. I expect end-users to be really happy when the features launch this fall.) Just like the recording industry did when Napster came out, and they were trying to prevent a future that was oh-so-obviously coming, no matter what. Generative AI is in its infancy. It will grow, change, and improve over time. Sure, be skeptical. Push for something better than we have today. Challenge Apple (and Google, Microsoft, Meta, etc.) to do better. Absolutely. I certainly am. But AI isn't going anywhere. Trying to stop it is like trying to stop the planet from spinning on its axis — an exercise in failure.

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"You can have a great strategy for the next billion-dollar developer product, but the battle is won in the trenches of daily iterations." I love this clip from Lee Robinson (VP Product, Vercel). Lee helped scale Vercel to 1M+ developers and has some of the clearest thinking of developer marketing that I've read. We talked about: - Getting into the developer's mindset - 3 pillars of a great developer experience - Why developers don't trust your marketing A few quotes from Lee: "Most developers don't adopt a tool the first time they hear about it. It's probably the 10th time." "Great documentation is great writing. The tech industry is plagued with jargon and fluff. It would be much cleaner if people wrote more like how they talk." "The battle is won in the trenches. It could be a two-paragraph docs change or a small UX improvement. For every developer that complains, 100 more won't say anything." 📌 Watch now: https://lnkd.in/g-g-u3E5 Also available on: Apple: https://lnkd.in/grhhYVyh Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gGyvBKmX Newsletter: https://lnkd.in/gGkkYG4M

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It has been a week since Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced our AWS Generative AI Accelerator and applications have been flying in 🚀🚀🚀 I can't share how many startups have applied, but it definitely has been the most active and exciting of our accelerator launches 🤩 What is awesome about this accelerator is that it's truly global, so startups from anywhere around the global can apply 🌐 As long as your startup is building a tech or tech-enabled product, has a tech lead, a working product, and is still early stage (not raised a Series A), then you are eligible for the program ✍️ Learn more about the program and apply using the link in the post below and remember to submit your application before 11:59 PM ET July 19 📌 #startups #AWS #GenerativeAI #accelerator

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James Stanier has a good argument for why deadline-driven development is so… difficult → https://lnkd.in/gz3rvj2s “Given that non-technical people don’t understand why software is hard, dates become the stick that they beat you with when you don’t deliver on time. Don’t ask me why, it’s just human behavior. I’m sure you’ve done it when roadworks have taken longer than were specified on the sign, or if a delivery of a package was late. Dates mean something to people, so handle them with care. In fact, perhaps we could do something entirely different instead.” What’s the “something different”? “So, instead, you should take a forecasting approach that follows the uncertainty curve that we outlined above. You start wide, and you taper in. At the beginning of a given project, you might even just have the year that you’re aiming to ship. Then, as you progress, you can start to narrow it down to a quarter, then a month, and finally a specific date.” This is why I will always advocate for time horizon roadmaps → https://lnkd.in/gN8VSYZc

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