Stephen Smyth

Tinkering fuels innovation and curiosity. It allows us to truly understand the tools and systems we work with at a granular level. Recently, I've been tinkering with Rust, a language gaining popularity for building reliable, safe, and sustainable systems at scale. The best way to learn is by doing. So, I turned our simple summarization proof of concept, Distill, into a CLI leveraging Rust's performance and memory safety advantages. As builders, it's our responsibility to continuously look for optimizations in everything we do. To ask questions and challenge the status quo. To learn and be curious. I encourage you to give Distill CLI a try, tinker with it, and share your feedback. And as always – now, go build! #AWS #tinkering https://lnkd.in/e7HUQwEt

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"Since 2018, we have increasingly leveraged Rust for critical workloads across various [AWS] services like S3, EC2, DynamoDB, Lambda, Fargate, and Nitro, especially in scenarios where hardware costs are expected to dominate over time." We've seen a lot of success with Rust at AWS, including our work on Firecracker, on Lambda's container dataplane, and on many other systems we've built. I love the fact that we can get memory safety without compromising performance or efficiency. I also enjoy seeing how much less time my teams spend tuning runtimes or debugging memory issues. I also really appreciate this sentiment from Werner's post: "... this is not a call to rewrite everything in Rust. ... It’s about using the right tool for the right job. This means questioning the status quo, and continuously looking for ways to incrementally optimize your systems – to tinker with things and measure what happens." Make decisions about programming languages the same way you make all critical engineering decisions: with data!

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I just published a new post "Innovating with conviction: lessons from Marc Pincus (Zynga founder)" https://lnkd.in/epTFRxWD We learn an important innovation framework from Marc, including: - The goal of innovation: getting to true signal - Develop your core idea thesis, and create multiple idea variants. Keep your idea variants separate from your idea thesis. - Cycle through your idea variants quickly to take the maximum number of shots on goal - Get to minimum viable idea state, not even minimum viable product, to test your idea variant Lots of practical innovation guidance from Marc Pincus, I've learned a lot and I'm immediately putting his framework into practice. I encourage anyone working on 0 -> 1 projects to do the same!

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Some great insights from our VP of Product, Chris Allsopp on building a platform designed for a diverse set of users. "...We implemented a consistent design language across the platform while allowing for customizable views and access levels. We've created a fluid platform where actions on one side seamlessly influence another." This quote from Chris does a great job encapsulating one of our core values at Growthware of creating a fluid platform. Click the link in the comments to read the full article. #ui #ux #saas

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Anyone interested in leveling up as a PM?? 💫 Check out Bot Mom Claire Vo on Unsolicited Feedback with Fareed Mosavat as they cover important topics like: - How to build a tool like ChatPRD - Advice for PMs if you want to build a product (even if you’re not technical) - The importance of learning SQL for data analysis & the pitfalls of shallow analysis - Why PMs should stop saying no by default - How you can use ChatPRD in your job search Watch the full interview here: https://lnkd.in/gX_7FvU8 #chatprd #clairevo #product #productmanagement 

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It's a 🐔&🥚 thing: you need to show product success metrics to raise capital, but you need capital to actually *get* those metrics. So, how does anyone possibly kick-off that cycle? Our CEO, David Barlev, has the answers: https://lnkd.in/gfSwgb8D #startup #seriesa #seriesb #seed #fundraising #productdevelopment

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🔥Join Jessica Z., COO of Talentful, and Matt Bradburn, CEO of People Collective, for a workshop on designing people experiences like a product leader at Pando Horizons. Register here 👉 https://bit.ly/3V8U6yd Learn how to treat the development of your organization's culture and employee interactions as a product, applying business-side strategies and metrics to retain and optimize your talent. What You'll Learn:  ✔️ How-to apply product development principles to the employee lifecycle ✔️Tactics for aligning teams and programs to business metrics and outcomes ✔️Strategies to continuously improve your people experience programs #peopleops #hrevents #hrtech #agile #eltv #peoplestrategy

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Kudos to Zuck for taking aim at VP titles, the proliferation of which is inversely correlated to how lean a company is and how fast it can move. Hope more CEOs follow in his footsteps. It’s also an appropriate time to reshare my old article on Titles. It’s a call to arms to be very thoughtful and intentional about Director / VP titles and avoid them for as long as possible. https://lnkd.in/g4zQkEr

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My key takeaways: - hire intentionally, engineering talent doesn't need to be never-customer-facing - build & grow with customers you love to work with - never hoard your insights, democratize that customer voice and everyone wins - at Voxpopme, product and engineering are in the same org, that might not work for your organizational structure, but at Voxpopme it makes engineering closer to customers & product closer to technical solutions Andy Barraclough - thanks for the shoutout!

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Put your hand up if you’re a startup Head of People who wants to know more about how to build and run effective compensation practices 🙋 We get it — startup compensation is hard. But it doesn’t have to be. That’s why we’re so excited to be kicking off a newsletter series focused on exploring compensation at startups. Featuring insightful interviews with deeply respected industry experts who are accomplished at building and running compensation practices. We’ll be putting a spotlight on everything to do with compensation, the good, the bad and the ugly, with a view to helping the Head of People at every startup to own their startups compensation practice with confidence. Subscribe today to start getting these monthly editions straight into your inbox: https://lnkd.in/gnxJ7EU8 Follow us here on LinkedIn for snippets of the amazing insights our guests will share. Share below, what would you love to know more about when it comes to startup compensation? 👇

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Big news! Coming up on May 29, I'll be hosting a webinar with the team from Meta to talk all things Threads. From what's new in SND to what's coming up on the platform, you'll want to sign up so you don't miss a thing! https://lnkd.in/gufFyuqN #socialmedia #threads #socialgov #socialjournalism #meta #socialmediamarketing

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NOTHING like starting your Monday onsite with a customer — and all the more energizing when it's the energizer himself Don McGuire and his killer marketing team at Qualcomm! What I talked to folks about this morning: 👉🏽 Thinking about reinvention, not just substitution, when it comes to building new AI workflows (especially with agentic AI around the corner) 👉🏽 The importance of CONTINUOUS data when it comes to building RAG-based digital assistants 👉🏽 The commoditization of LLMs: the BEHAVIOUR of a model and how quickly you can build AI into your workflows becomes your differentiator 👉🏽 The importance of having dedicated AI headcount to make the adoption stick, to get the AI train really moving 👉🏽 And — because their amazing agency partners were in the audience and asked the question — the importance of building an ecosystem around the AI change, bringing your agencies to the table to help! cc Brian Flanagan and the Perficient team! Thank you also to Carmen True Jeremy Krall Brent Summers! Let's goooo! #teamqualcomm #snapdragon

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Catch another episode of This Week in Startups where Upfront Managing Partner Mark Suster interviews Max Altman and Ben Braverman, two of the three co-founders of Saga Ventures. With Saga’s new $125 million fund, the trio talk about: ➡ Fundraising challenges the co-founders faced as a first-time fund and the playbook of how referrals can be the best leads for increasing the chances of success ➡ Nuances of determining a fund size to maintain competitive advantages in deal strategies ➡ Ben’s learnings from working with Ryan Peterson at Flexport as well as Max’s experience and unique advantages working with his brothers Jack and Sam Here's a short clip below about the attributes of successful founders that they look for, including those willing to take unconventional risks 👇

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For those of you focused on building high performing teams, our (virtual) Culture First conference is back again in May with some great speakers lined up! Here's one: Do high performers benefit from making time for play? Ben Crowe, professional mentor and leadership coach, will lead a session at Culture First Global exploring what it takes to truly transform your mindset and become more resilient. To join this session, be sure to follow this link to register.

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Product Market Fit (PMF) is a crucial yet elusive concept for many early-stage startups. Achieving it can make or break a company's long-term success. In the latest episode of the "Founder & CEO Podcast," Michael Viscuso and I discuss what PMF is, what it looks like, and what to do once it's achieved. Check out the podcast here: https://lnkd.in/g2fw7v9g

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Hiring the right engineering talent to build your startup is one of the most critical pieces of a founder's early journey. Jellyfish founder and CEO Andrew Lau knows quite a bit about building an engineering team. We tapped him to author this piece in Founder Docs, about how to know if you’re ready to hire your first engineers, what characteristics you should seek, and how to avoid costly failed hires. Learn more on Founder Docs: https://lnkd.in/eSjpmf3E

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Strategic alignment across product and field is complex and not easy to get right, but it's a pleasure to work alongside Brett Crane, Trevor Jett (Childers), and Jarod Greene. It's wonderful to be in conversation with them, sharing what we have learned, in this webinar: https://lnkd.in/gc-qp7Hk

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Jim Morrisroe has been at the helm of nine venture-funded startups, and is currently CEO at 15Five. His journey is a testament to resilience, passion, and the importance of purpose in leadership. Jim joined me on the Flex Perspectives podcast to share his insights on leadership and managing hybrid / distributed workforces. We covered: 🔸 The importance of passion and purpose in leadership roles 🔸 Navigating the transition from sales roles to CEO and the lessons learned 🔸 The impact of being fully virtual on employee engagement and performance 🔸 Key strategies for supporting managers in a remote environment 🔸 Much more Listen now 👇 YouTube: https://lnkd.in/edRAZyYt Spotify: https://lnkd.in/e4QrvBHR Apple: https://lnkd.in/edga97xu Some key takeaways: (1) Passion and Purpose Drive Success: Jim emphasizes the critical role of passion in staying motivated and effective. Especially in a hybrid or remote setting, finding purpose in your work can help maintain high levels of engagement and drive through challenging times. (2) Understand Your Workforce's Productivity: Data shows that while top performers excel in remote settings, average performers require higher levels of support to succeed when fully remote. Identifying these disparities is essential for maintaining overall productivity. (3) Effective Communication is Key: Over-communicating goals and expectations is crucial, particularly in remote environments. Ensuring that every team member understands their role and feels supported can significantly enhance performance and morale. (4) Support Your Managers: Investing in frontline managers' development is more important than ever. Providing them with the tools and training they need to support their teams can bridge the gap between remote work challenges and successful outcomes. (5) Adapt and Innovate: The shift to remote work requires constant adaptation. Jim shares how 15Five has iterated its processes and tools to better support a fully remote workforce, highlighting the importance of continuous improvement.

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Tem ‎Nugmanov, CEO of Optemization, was on the podcast this week. Ironically… he cautioned Notion users on the idea of OVER-OPTIMIZING their workspaces. At LA Tech Week, some VC and founder types hit him with a question that stopped him in his tracks. — ”How do you take a workspace that is already a 4/5 to a 5/5?” Apparently, that's not a situation Tem deals with on the regular. But it got his gears turning, and he realized something key. The answer? Keep it simple, stupid. Tem sees tons of folks getting a little too excited about all the crazy stuff Notion can do. They get sucked into this never-ending cycle of tweaking and optimizing every little thing. But here's the reality: There's a point where all that extra effort starts to give diminishing returns. At some point, you just gotta call it good and start actually using the workflow. And here's the kicker: Even a "good enough" setup is going to get you most of the results you're after. So Tem's words of wisdom for all you Notion nerds out there? Don't get too carried away with all the bells and whistles. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. — What is the silliest over-optimization you have ever seen? How do you keep your Notion workspace simple? If you wanna hear more of Tem’s expert takes on Notion, catch the full episode, now live.