Hello. 👋🏼
Building software at high growth companies — startups mostly — is a weird experience.
Things often feel broken. Code quality feels low. But yet, the system works - often very well. Why? Should we be fine with this?
New engineers are joining constantly. How do you avoid calcifying knowledge within your most tenured engineers, at a disadvantage to new employees?
Work within these companies is growing ever more popular. But, there’s a lack of discussion about the art of building software within these environments, and the constraints they provide. I’d like to fix that.
Who am I?
My name is Stephen Whitworth. I’m currently a Senior Software Engineer at Monzo Bank, where I’m helping fight financial crime. Before that, I co-founded Ravelin: one of the world’s fastest growing fraud prevention startups.
I’ve spent the past 7 years working for high growth companies. My path has followed a ‘do-what-needs-to-be-done’ path: software engineering, data science, machine learning, with a little product management thrown in for good measure. I’ve picked up some useful experience at the intersection of these disciplines, and I’d love to share it with you.
Why subscribe to High Growth Engineering?
As a subscriber, you’ll learn how to build better software, and operate more effectively in high growth companies. Every week, you’ll receive an email with:
Short, pragmatic posts that aim to teach useful techniques for the following week
Interesting links from around the web with personal thoughts on the topics discussed
These are focused on the broad range of skills that it takes to build software effectively at these companies. You can expect discussion on the following topics:
Writing maintainable software within constraints
Managing projects and prioritising effectively
Communicating clearly: both within a team, and outside
Improving your technical writing skills
However, if I see anything particularly excellent outside of these constraints, I’ll include it as well. To sign up, just add your email below.
Look forward to hearing from you,
Stephen
