A behind-the-scenes look at bulk declines, decline reasons, a content calendar, and one very bad hourA few months ago, we took an honest look at publications on Medium and asked if they were succeeding. Were users incentivized to create quality publications on Medium?We had the Boost Nomination Program, which was helpful for the cohort that was selected, but we didn’t have any signal that the BNP was motivating for other users. Were we getting higher quality articles as a result of BNP?So we asked ourselves “How can we reward good editors for their editorial work and make it clear how others…
Introducing composable, module system native and agent friendly command line tools for modern Java developmentBy Danny Thomas, JVM Ecosystem TeamRecent work on the Java language to pave the on-ramp has made it easier than ever to start a Java program and evolve it using the full language and platform. At the end of that on-ramp lies Java’s mature build and dependency management ecosystem, capable of carrying software to enormous scale and complexity.That ecosystem reached its maturity by developing strong models for projects, dependencies, and builds. When the Java Module System arrived,…
How a feature goes from idea to prototype to shippedFor years, there’s been this really popular Chrome extension for adding a table of contents to your Medium stories. Props to Vinicius De Antoni for writing a popular chrome extension all those years go.The extension was so popular, we even wrote about it in our Medium Handbook.How to make a table of contents for your Medium storyThe fact that it was so popular was a signal to me. There was a decent size of our user base that wanted this feature. So, at first I set out to just copy it.The Chrome extension extends the popup menu we have in the…
How we built a Slack-native on-call reasoning harness at Instacart that shortens time to first insight, speeds up theory testing, and turns tribal knowledge into reusable infrastructure.Key Contributors: Karthik Halukurike, Gabe de Oliveira, Hassan Jallad, Alan WongOn-call work is a race to turn noisy signals into shared judgment. The hardest minutes of that race aren’t the ones spent fixing the bug — they’re the ones spent figuring out what the bug even is, while everyone in the thread is asking the same question from a slightly different angle.Blueberry is the system we built at Instacart…
Software isn't being replaced by LLMs, it's being fronted by them, with the deterministic core (schemas, constraints, processes) staying as essential as ever. The post What Is Software, and Will LLMs Replace It? appeared first on Strumenta.
How Airbnb built a Kubernetes sidecar to deliver dynamic configuration reliably at scale.By: Bo Teng, Cosmo Qiu, Siyuan Zhou, Ankur Soni, Xin Huang, Willis HarveyIntroductionIn our previous post, we explored Airbnb’s dynamic configuration system, Sitar, with a focus on service architecture and configuration change safety. Now for the harder question: once a config change is committed, which happens several times each minute, how does it actually reach the thousands of Airbnb’s service instances reliably, quickly, and without redeploying the services?This post describes sitar agent: a…
This was originally written and published by Christophe Spy (Director of Engineering, Medium) as an internal Medium Eng post.Desired outcomes (what “good” looks like)🙏🏻 These are the kinds of changes we want to see if AI is going well at Medium.Less drudgery, more leverageEngineers use AI to remove repetitive, low‑leverage work (e.g. tedious refactors, boilerplate, large test suites), not just to ship more tickets.We see examples like:“We took a part of the codebase that was basically untestable and, with AI, made it testable and added meaningful coverage in days instead of months.”“We…
Authors: Auriane Bonmarchand, Carolina Tealdo & Minh-Quyên NGUYENIn our previous post, we explained the Engineering Program Manager role at Criteo at a high level: EPMs sit at the intersection of business ambition, technical reality, and execution, helping complex cross-team initiatives move from intent to delivery. But if you are considering this role, that high-level description is only the beginning. The more interesting question is: what does the role actually feel like in practice?For us, the answer comes down to one simple idea: an EPM drives projects to completion in complex…
Authors: Auriane Bonmarchand, Carolina Tealdo & Minh-Quyên NGUYENAt Criteo, Engineering Program Managers (EPMs) sit at the heart of our most complex, cross-team initiatives. We connect business ambition with technical reality, helping engineering teams ship impactful products at scale. In this article, three EPMs share what the role really looks like, why we love it, and how your career can grow in this path.If you ask ten people what an EPM does, you’ll probably get ten different answers… So let us explain our vision of the EPM role: what we do (and don’t), why so many of us love this job,…
Kenza Boulisfane, Software Engineer at Thumbtack, works at the intersection of data, AI, and real business impact. In this Q&A, she shares how she’s building an AI-powered Marketing Analytics Agent designed to make complex marketing data accessible to everyone. She also reflects on team culture, technical challenges, and why diverse perspectives make engineering stronger.What are you currently working on?I’m working on building a Marketing Analytics Agent. It’s an AI-powered marketing expert that provides companywide support, regardless of technical background. The idea is simple: marketing…
Conduct a technical migrationwithin less than 6 months — Part 3 (final)based on Next.js migration, performed at JobTeaserWhat is this 3-parts article about:sharing my own experience with handling a technical migration📖 some additional elements that I find relevant and could help (identified with 📖 emoji) but not personally testedWhat this presentation is NOT about:technical step-by-step Next.js migrationthe perfect and only way to do a migrationI tried to be as exhaustive as possible, but I didn’t even complete all the points personally. So the presentation is a mix of my personal…
Conduct a technical migrationwithin less than 6 months — Part 2based on Next.js migration, performed at JobTeaserWhat is this 3-parts article about:sharing my own experience with handling a technical migration📖 some additional elements that I find relevant and could help (identified with 📖 emoji) but not personally testedWhat this presentation is NOT about:technical step-by-step Next.js migrationthe perfect and only way to do a migrationI tried to be as exhaustive as possible, but I didn’t even complete all the points personally. So the presentation is a mix of my personal experience and…
Conduct a technical migrationwithin less than 6 months — Part 1based on Next.js migration, performed at JobTeaserWhat is this 3-parts article about:sharing my own experience with handling a technical migration📖 some additional elements that I find relevant and could help (identified with 📖 emoji) but not personally testedWhat this presentation is NOT about:technical step-by-step Next.js migrationthe perfect and only way to do a migrationI tried to be as exhaustive as possible, but I didn’t even complete all the points personally. So the presentation is a mix of my personal experience and…
My name is Avery Dunn and I am a rising master’s student at Washington University in St. Louis studying computer science. For the past 12 weeks, I have been a software engineering intern on the API & Platform pod of the Foundation team. I am an active Strava user and have been for approximately 3 years with my favorite activity being running. Some other activities I enjoy are playing the piano, reading novels, or skiing (more of a luxury rather than a hobby). My internship at Strava has been a wonderful experience to help me learn, grow, and develop into becoming a more well-rounded,…
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