👋 Hi, this is Dishit with this week’s newsletter. I write about software engineering, clean code and developer productivity.
I am trying something new here. So let me know how this video podcast feels.
As an upcoming developer, you would have read posts about scaling to millions of users. The engineering approaches that big companies like LinkedIn, Facebook or Google took to scale to millions.
But you may be working for a company that is serving 100 customers a day. Maybe a 1000, 100,000 or even a million.
So you cannot apply those strategies for your code as it will become costly.
You do not want to drive a Ferrari to the grocery store.
The other problem is your organization wants to deliver fast. Your wife needs milk and eggs now. She doesn’t want to wait until you have enough money to buy a Ferrari.
So what can you do in your situation?
Well, the first thing should be how can you do the right thing for your small set of customers.
How will they feel when they use your product?
What will their journey look like?
Can a small car help you get the milk and eggs in time?
The second piece would be how your peers will look at the product you build. Is it easy to understand? Or will your code have them pulling their hairs out?
If you are not there, will your car be easy enough to drive for your wife?
The last bit is how it will help your organisation.
Are you making pragmatic choices that do not sacrifice speed to quality?
Are you building a robust product so that there are minimal issues when it goes to production?
Can your car be used for grocery shopping a thousand times without breaking down?
An engineer needs to walk the tightrope of balancing quality, speed and customer satisfaction.
All the big companies Facebook, Google, Netflix went through these phases and earned the customer's trust which gave them the problem to scale. And they scaled.
But for you, focus should be the foundation.
Foundation includes understanding what makes the software maintainable, stable, performant, resilient and secure.
So going back to the initial question - Should you be reading about scaling?
Yes, and you also need to focus on the foundation so that you make your existing customers and organisation happy.
Drop a Y in the comments if having a strong foundation is important before scaling.
Before you scale, earn customer trust. It's the foundation of growth.