Hope this message finds you well!

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How We Revolutionized CI/CD and Team Management

The Ebb and Flow of Progress

This week has been a whirlwind of growth, challenges, and breakthroughs. As we navigate the labyrinthine world of tech entrepreneurship, I’m reminded that progress is not always linear—it’s a series of side quests that help level up your team to conquer the main boss. Let me share five key lessons we’ve learned along the way.

1. Empower Your Team, One Drop at a Time

In my journey of building and managing teams while developing our flagship product, I’ve realized that “a jug is filled one drop at a time.” This applies not only to our projects but also to our people.

Key actions we’ve taken:

• Transitioned our core team to motion.app
• Defined clear workflows for task completion and delegation
• Empowered engineers to handle mid-level tasks independently

Result: Tasks now flow freely from one producer to the next, landing back in my lap only when delivered.

2. Evolve Your Stress Management

As a self-bootstrapped entrepreneur, I’ve learned that delegating and empowering your team is everything. My perspective on stress and challenges has evolved significantly since starting this business.

Key insights:

• Focus has shifted from feature delivery to marketing, sales, and meeting client expectations
• Embracing challenges as opportunities for growth and innovation
• Remember: “Further up and further in is the only way up and out”

3. Innovate to Fill Market Gaps

Introducing SpellCarver: Our latest venture born from years of experience in platform automation and CI/CD. It addresses a critical gap in the security space: immutable pipelines.

Key features:

• Runs on SBOMs and zero trust by default
• Utilizes OCI artifacts for secure delivery
• Makes semantic versioning accessible through a feature flag

4. Foster Team Independence

It’s been incredibly rewarding to see one of the teams we support using Linear for their day-to-day project management.

Progress indicators:

• The team is building and cleaning out their own backlog
• They’re moving the product forward without constant oversight
• The firm is maturing in its project management practices

5. Prioritize Security in Development

With SpellCarver, we’re reimagining pipelines with a security-first approach.

Our vision:

• Create a trustless pipeline service for both dabblers and enterprise users
• Offer a user-friendly alternative to Jenkins
• Provide easy-to-use, composable, secure pipelines

DevOps Course Update

I’m excited to share our progress on the DevOps course:

• Most of the course material has been written
• We’ve started recording Loom videos for each section
• I’m finally feeling comfortable in front of the camera

Remember, consistency is key for those looking to create educational content in tech. Keep showing up, and you’ll see progress.

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As we continue this journey of growth and innovation, I’d love to connect with you. Share your thoughts, experiences, or questions with me on Twitter at @Walt_eng.

Remember, in the world of tech and business, every challenge is an opportunity to learn and grow. Keep pushing forward, and let’s build the future of tech together!

Walt.

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