Articles
Writing on PHP, Laravel, APIs, and engineering leadership.
- Building Modern Laravel APIs: Foundations and Project Structure Start the Modern Laravel APIs series by structuring Pulse-Link for production with clear layers, ULIDs, action classes, DTO requests, and versioning.
- Building Modern Laravel APIs: Ingesting Leads Implement lead ingestion in Laravel with Form Request validation, typed DTO payloads, Action classes, and JSON:API responses for POST /v1/leads.
- Managing Expectations in the AI Era How to have honest conversations with stakeholders about AI productivity — what actually changes, what doesn't, and how to set realistic expectations.
- Building Modern Laravel APIs: Routing, Versioning, and API Contracts Learn how to version Laravel API routes, signal deprecations with Sunset headers, and keep API contracts aligned with your implementation.
- Running A Better Table How to run a Shape Up betting table — the planning meeting where pitches get selected and cycles begin or quietly collapse.
- Redefining Engineering Roles in the AI Era AI makes implementation cheaper and judgment more valuable. Learn how engineering roles, hiring, and team design are changing.
- Reviewing AI Generated Work How to review AI-generated code effectively, what failure modes to watch for, and how to maintain quality standards as code volume increases.
- Spec Driven Development With LLMs How to write specifications that produce useful LLM output, covering interface definitions, edge cases, and why the spec is your highest-leverage artifact.
- Shape Up: A Practical Introduction A practical introduction to Shape Up - the planning methodology built on appetite over estimation, fixed time with flexible scope, and small autonomous teams.
- Writing Pitches That Work How to write Shape Up pitches that give engineering teams real clarity - problem definition, appetite, solution shaping, rabbit holes, and no-gos explained.
- Why Sprints Are Broken Technical debt is inevitable. What matters is whether you manage it deliberately. A practical framework for prioritisation and stakeholder communication
- Career Growth: From Junior to Staff Engineer A practical guide to engineering career progression, from junior to staff, covering promotion criteria and the conversations that move careers forward.
- Leading Through Uncertainty: Crisis Management for Tech Teams How engineering leaders make decisions under pressure, communicate through uncertainty, and keep teams focused when the path forward is not clear.
- Technical Debt: When to Fix, When to Ship Technical debt is inevitable. What matters is managing it deliberately. Here is a practical framework for prioritisation and stakeholder communication.
- The Engineering Manager as Coach, Not Boss How to develop your coaching skills as an engineering manager, with practical techniques for performance conversations, growth planning, and career development.
- Strategy vs. Execution: How Leaders Set Technical Vision Why technical vision matters, how to set it, and how to maintain it over time in the face of changing circumstances and competing priorities.
- Building Psychological Safety in Engineering How to create a culture where engineers feel safe to take risks, speak up, and make mistakes without fear of punishment.
- Scaling Engineering Teams Without Losing Velocity How to design org structure, hiring, and coordination to avoid the common traps that kill velocity as engineering teams scale.
- Hiring Engineers: A Manager's Playbook A practical guide for engineers moving into management—covering mindset shifts, letting go of coding, time management, feedback, and building leadership skills.
- From IC to Manager: First Steps for New Engineering Leads A practical guide for engineers moving into management—covering mindset shifts, letting go of coding, time management, feedback, and building leadership skills.