Author: Jeff Francis

Hiring a CTO sounds like the kind of thing a serious startup should do early… signal you’re for real to prospective investors and customers. While that logic is compelling… it’s not always what the doctor ordered. Rushing into that decision can derail your progress, drain your budget, and distract you... Read More

Outsourcing your software development can feel like trying to pick a PR agency — there’s too many options, they all make bold claims, and if you choose wrong, you’ll end up paying for something that never delivers. Custom software outsourcing can absolutely cut costs, but there’s a big “but” that... Read More

Custom software development ain’t cheap… there’s really no way around it. But over the years (dare I say decades… yeesh 🤣), I’ve found that the right approach can keep costs in check without sacrificing quality. I’ve seen firsthand how smart planning and strategic decisions make all the difference, so I... Read More

Low-code and no-code platforms have been around for years… always promising to make software development faster, cheaper, and more accessible. And to an extent, they do! But if you’ve been in the industry long enough, you know that promise tends to fall short — especially when it comes to building... Read More

If you’re a product or engineering leader (or CTO/CIO), chances are you’ve considered augmenting your in-house team at some point. But when does it actually make sense? And more importantly, how do you do it right? We work with a lot of companies navigating this decision, so I’ll break down... Read More

If you’ve spent any time in software development, you know the usual suspects people blame when things go off the rails — bad developers, the wrong tech stack, or a team that just can’t seem to execute. But in my experience, these aren’t the root causes. More often than not,... Read More

One of the most common issues in software development isn’t about the coding itself — it’s about communication, alignment, and trust. In fact, coding is rarely the hard part… governance is (but that’s a story for a different time). If you’ve ever experienced what I call the “black box” of... Read More

If you’ve ever worked on a software project that felt like it was spiraling out of control, you’re not alone. 2/3 of digital product development efforts fail… so how do you become that 1 in 3? Product failures and development missteps are all too common… but the good news? They... Read More

Imagine a world where every platform you use, every service you consume, just… slowly degrades over time. It gets worse, little by little, until it’s almost unusable before you realize what happened. But it’s not a hypothetical… it’s the digital world we live in right now. Welcome to the Rot... Read More

Stepping into a new engineering VP role is equal parts exhilarating and daunting. It’s like being handed the keys to a high-performance race car… that’s sputtering along the highway at 80mph instead of the 180mph it’s capable of. Your challenge? Make an immediate impact, rescue floundering projects, and prove that... Read More