Vercel Cuts 31% Tickets & Expo Powers Starlink

Hello and welcome to the first September issue of Frictionless 🍂

We’ll start by exploring how a structured approach can help you run successful software projects. Next, have a look at a CTO to CTPO transition, examining the benefits and challenges of combining these roles.

Are you looking for helpful insights? Learn how Vercel has transformed customer support with AI, reducing ticket volume and improving response times. For those interested in the cutting edge of technology, we have a story of Expo’s impact on Starlink and the future of space travel.

Grab your coffee and enjoy Frictionless!

In the Queue

• Vercel’s Strategy to Cut User Tickets by 31%

• Optimize Your React Native App

• Expo Powering Starlink’s App

• Why Agile and AI Don’t Mix

Reduce Friction

How to Run Successful Software Projects

If you're managing software projects, you know how important it is to have a solid routine. Breaking projects into manageable steps and maintaining clear communication can help prevent delays and miscommunication during every step of your project’s lifecycle. 

CTO to CTPO: Navigating the Dual Role in Tech Leadership

Are you considering merging your CTO and CPO roles into a single CPTO? Uniting product and technology leadership can eliminate communication problems and improve aligning business goals. It isn’t without risks such as increased workload, so before combining those two roles, examine the pros and cons carefully. 

Deploy on Friday? Moratorium Doesn’t Achieve Admirable Goal

Any experienced developer knows deploying anything on Friday is a recipe for disaster. Except… is it? The truth is, that not releasing projects on Friday doesn’t solve most of the issues causing them to fail. Instead of setting up timelines around avoiding Fridays, you’re better off working on communication problems and practices ensuring reliability, not speed.

Creating the Conditions For Great Teams to Form

Creating great teams isn’t a matter of chance, but intentional effort. Good leaders can create an environment where teams thrive by focusing on strong team identity, and building trust and safety. Investing in these foundational aspects, prepares your teams to work effectively and achieve great results. 

Take the ‘Shift Left’ Approach a Step Further by ‘Starting Left’

The impossible choice between ‘fast’ and ‘good’ often forces us to look for a way to balance the two, with the ‘Shift Left’ approach being the most helpful. But what if I told you that instead of shifting, you should be starting left? You can address issues early, and reduce costly risks and technical debt, all the while developer productivity skyrockets. 

Deepen Your Expertise

Expo is Powering Starlink and the Future of Space Travel

Communicating across the stars might be a problem for the future, but Expo is helping to tackle it today. Watch a short talk by Charlie Cheever, where he goes into detail about the functions of Starlink’s app, built with Expo SDK modules.

Optimizing Performance in React Native App

Improving the app’s performance can seem like a never-ending process, where two new ones replace every fixed issue. Sluggish animations and long load times are some of the most common problems affecting apps made with React Native, but all of them are pretty easy to fix once you’re introduced to a few handy tricks. 

Introducing the Vercel Marketplace

The Vercel Marketplace is here! Now developers can integrate third-party services directly into their Vercel projects. At the moment, Vercel Marketplace supports database solutions like Supabase, Redis, and EdgeDB. The end goal is to make managing multiple services easier by centralizing them within the Vercel dashboard. 

Increase Scalability

Building Postcards for “Airbnb” Scale

The development of Airbnb's "Postcards" had plenty of hurdles to overcome on the way to full release. Scalable image, text processing, ensuring good performance across platforms and multilingual localization were only some of them. Through a few clever solutions like a custom destination-matching algorithm, Airbnb managed to implement this feature to their user’s joy.

AI Development and Agile Don't Mix Well, Study Shows

A study by the RAND Corporation reveals Agile methodology and AI might not be a match made in heaven. Working with AI technology often requires plenty of experimentation and flexibility, and progress can be needlessly hampered by Agile’s structured sprints and rigid processes. 

Migrating a Native Mobile App to React Native - a Case Study

Though native apps boast great performance, their lack of cross-platform agility can be a significant problem at times. Managing separate apps for two platforms puts a lot of work and pressure on the development team, and this is exactly the problem this company faced. Their solution? Moving to React Native for availability without compromising on quality. 

Recommending for Long-Term Member Satisfaction at Netflix

Discover how Netflix optimizes its recommendation algorithms beyond short-term engagement metrics by using advanced machine learning techniques like contextual bandit models and reward engineering.

How Does Notion Handle 200 Billion Data Entities?

Managing over 200 billion data entities is challenging, but Notion is up to the task. As the platform grows, sharding, caching, and optimized database architecture help Notion handle complex data volumes efficiently without affecting their system’s reliability.

Just Cool

Web Design Museum is Open to Visitors

Are you ready for a nostalgia trip? Have a look around the Web Design Museum, and experience the vintage designs again. See what made some of them great and why others should stay where they are - in a museum.

Let’s stay in touch! 📨 

Do you have any comments about this newsletter issue or questions you want to ask? Drop me a message or book a meeting.