User's blog

Author: teddyondieki

  • INSPIRED: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love (Book Review)

    “INSPIRED: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love” is a book by Marty Cagan, a thought leader in technology product management. Even though this book is primarily for Tech Product Managers, I got a lot of invaluable insights as a Software Engineer. It is mostly about establishing a strong product culture using modern product development techniques to build successful products.

    The Traditional Waterfall Approach

    The traditional product development process, used by most companies, follows a waterfall model as illustrated below.

    This process has many flaws, which are the major causes of product failures. However, to sum them up, they include:

    1. Risks are being tackled at the end of the lifecycle rather than upfront. These risks are value, usability, feasibility, and business viability risks.
    2. Teams work in isolation, following a sequential process rather than collaborating. Each role’s decision is constrained by the preceding one i.e. Product Manager -> Design -> Engineering.
    3. The waterfall model is output (solution) driven rather than outcome (business results) driven.

    Product Discovery and Delivery

    Cagan suggests an approach of Continuous Product Discovery and Delivery to help alleviate the limitations of the waterfall model and consequently lead to a more successful product. These two activities, discovery and delivery, happen in parallel and are ongoing in a cross-functional product team.

    In product discovery, the product management, UI/UX, and engineers collaborate to quickly separate good ideas from bad by answering four critical questions using experiments and prototypes:

    • Will the user buy this (or choose to use it)?
    • Can the user figure out how to use this?
    • Can our engineers build this?
    • Can our stakeholders support this?

    In product delivery, after validating a product in the discovery phase, a production-quality product is built and delivered to the customer.

    Throughout the book, and I would highly recommend it, the author dives deeper into product discovery and delivery techniques and touches on exciting topics such as people at scale, product vision, discovery techniques such as planning, prototyping, testing, etc, and how to establish a strong product culture.

    Conclusion

    Reading this book has greatly widened my understanding of product development as an engineer and made me appreciate more the collaborative effort required across different roles. I got the book as a gift from Wellthy, my former employer, and I’m incredibly grateful.

  • He Chose the Nails: What God Did to Own Your Heart (Book Review)

    I believe that God is not confined to Christianity, but the story of the Cross brings much hope thinking of what God did through Christ to redeem us.

    He Chose the Nails: What God Did to Win Your Heart by Max Lucado aggregates different parts of the Scriptures to paint a clear picture of what the crucifixion of Jesus meant to the world.

    As a believer, I especially enjoyed the part where the author spoke about positional and progressive sanctification, signified by the blood (Heb. 9:12) and water (John 7:38-39) that flowed out of the piercing on Christ’s rib (John 19:34) on the cross.

    The Son of God became the Lamb of God, the cross became the altar, and we were “made holy through the sacrifice Christ made in his body once and for all time” (Heb. 10:10).
    Excerpt from Chapter 11: “I Have Reedemed You and I Will Keep You”

    Although we have positional sanctification (Heb. 10:10, done deal, once and for all), we also have progressive sanctification (John 7:38-39) which is the life after salvation: how God works in us through the Holy Spirit. The latter is not needed for the former but is equally important.

    The book has 15 chapters full of wisdom from the Bible about the significance of the death of Christ, His empathy for our total depravity as humans, and how He reconciled us eternally to God through the cross. I loved that the book was completely free of condemnation. It was also an engaging read, written with a generous dose of humor.

  • Break Out! (Book Review)

    Break Out! is a faith-filled book, full of God’s promises and testimonies of people who overcame challenges by taking steps of faith. Not only is it inspirational, but draws its wisdom from the Bible.

    Joel is a great storyteller. Very many important lessons are packed throughout each of the 25 chapters but below (to be updated) are just a few that stood out for me in no particular order:

    • Our God is sovereign and as Christians, we ought to glorify Him by dwelling on His promises rather than our problems, situations, or people. His thoughts for us are good regardless of how bleak the current situation might look. I loved how we are reminded that if we stay in faith, God will eventually work all things out in our favor.
    • Not to think small, but to dream big, since God desires to see the dreams that He has planted in our hearts come to pass and that we have favor under His gracious hand.
    • Always demonstrate my faith through actions; being expectant that whatever God promised will come to pass.

    The list could go on and on but this is my own summarized take which should not underplay the innumerable teachings in the book.

  • The Slight Edge (Book Review)

    The Slight Edge is still among my favorite self-help books, years after first reading it. I feel like it has some similarities with The One Thing by Gary Keller and that’s what prompted me to revisit it.

    Throughout The Slight Edge, Jeff Olson talks about the power of compounding interest, and how simple habits that are seemingly easy to do, as well as easy not to do, compound over time to work for us or against us. The catch is that these habits mostly do not have any immediate effects and are thus easy to neglect.

    One of the author’s many examples to illustrate the compounding effect was that of a wealthy man who gave his two sons a choice: either have a penny that doubles every day for the next 30 days or get 1 million dollars deposited instantly. One of the sons chose the former option which surprisingly compounded to ~5.3 million dollars on the 30th day.

    Of course, that is a scarce opportunity that most won’t experience, but it illustrates how consistency can be an effective tool in creating wealth and building fulfilling relationships, better health, and general personal development.

    I particularly liked Chapter 6, “The 7 Slight Edge Principles”, where Jeff Olson outlines 7 actionable principles that have helped me focus more on working toward my career, health, relationship, and financial goals.

    It is generally a very engaging read. The only downside was that some sections got too wordy when conveying simple concepts. This could be beneficial to help cement the Slight Edge philosophy but for others, I think a “condensed” or audio version would make it easy to move past these sections fast.

    Overall, it is a great book and I can’t recommend it enough to anyone who would like to work on their habits and discipline.

  • Blooming Where We’re Planted

    I attended Nairobi Lighthouse Church for the third time today and anyone who’s been there will tell you that it is indeed a blessed church with wonderful people and an amazing worship experience. My favourite part however was the sermon by Pr Murphy Matheny that urged us to be the light of the world wherever God has planted us. This includes our circle of influence, whether work or friends because most of these people will never meet our pastors.

    I particularly enjoyed these three points that were emphasized by the Preacher: That we are emissaries for the kingdom (Luke 24:44-49), we are equipped (Eph 4:11-12), and empowered by the Holy Spirit (Matt 10:7-8) for the service.

  • Layoff on Paradise Island

    Picture this: December 6th, 2023, in Zanzibar, having the time of my life. Then, my phone rings and it’s my manager with the plot twist that there will be layoffs at Wellthy (budget cuts), and I’m among the affected.

    Normally, I’d be puzzled, but this brought a mix of feelings; excitement that different and better opportunities were on the way, and disappointment that I was parting ways with the precious team at Wellthy. That said, my one-month notice period began which I spent mostly transitioning.

    It’s been seven weeks since I laid down my tools at Wellthy, but my journey to find meaningful work is not over yet. These last few weeks have allowed me to pause and reflect on my next steps as a Software Engineer.

    In order to see where we are going, we not only must remember where we have been, but we must understand where we have been.

    Ella Baker

    Ella Baker once said, “In order to see where we are going, we not only must remember where we have been, but we must understand where we have been.” In line with this, I have taken this time to analyze my steps and the habits that led me to where I currently am. Not just career-wise but in many other aspects of life, for better decision-making in the future. The moments have been quite relieving and comforting.

    So what else have I been up to? Mostly upskilling on Coursera and Leetcode. I’ve also joined a Taekwondo class, and I find the time to play basketball and do good via Rotary. I am also grateful for having a supportive and available partner who has made this period even more worthwhile.

    I am truly grateful for the last two years at both Wellthy and Andela. I look forward to what the next chapter holds!