In How should you adopt LLMs?, we explore how a theoretical ride sharing company, Theoretical Ride Sharing, should adopt Large Language Models (LLMs). Part of that strategy’s diagnosis depends on understanding the expected evolution of the LLM ecosystem, which we’ve build a Wardley map to better explore. This map of the LLM space is interested in how product companies should address the proliferation of model providers such as Anthropic, Google and OpenAI, as well as the proliferation of ...| lethain.com
The first time I heard about Wardley Mapping was from Charity Majors discussing it on Twitter. Of the three core strategy refinement techniques, this is the technique that I’ve personally used the least. Despite that, I decided to include it in this book because it highlights how many different techniques can be used for refining strategy, and also because it’s particularly effective at looking at the broadest ecosystems your organization exists in.| lethain.com
Shortly after a senior leader joins a new company, sometimes you’ll notice them quickly steer the organization towards a total architectural rewrite. Perhaps this is a switch from batch to streaming computation, perhaps a switch from a monolith to a services architecture, perhaps it’s a rewrite into a new programming language. If you take a few minutes to reflect, I bet you can identify several times where you’ve had this experience. Regardless of the proposed technical change, it’s a...| lethain.com
While I was probably late to learn the concept of strategy testing, I might have learned about systems modeling too early in my career, stumbling on Donella Meadows’ Thinking in Systems: A Primer before I began my career in software. Over the years, I’ve discovered a number of ways to miuse systems modeling, but it remains the most effective, flexible tool I’ve found to debugging complex problems. In this chapter, we’ll work through:| lethain.com
The How should you adopt LLMs? strategy explores how Theoretical Ride Sharing might adopt LLMs. It builds on several models, the first is about LLMs impact on Developer Experience. The second model, documented here, looks at whether LLMs might improve a core product and business problem: maximizing active drivers on their ridesharing platform. In this chapter, we’ll cover: Where the model of ridesharing drivers identifies opportunities for LLMs How the model was sketched and developed using...| lethain.com
If I could only popularize one idea about technical strategy, it would be that prematurely applying pressure to a strategy’s rollout prevents evaluating whether the strategy is effective. Pressure changes behavior in profound ways, and many of those changes are intended to make you believe your strategy is working while minimizing change to the status quo (if you’re an executive) or get your strategy repealed (if you’re not an executive). Neither is particular helpful.| lethain.com
Even if you believe that strategy is generally useful, it is difficult to decide that today’s the day to start writing engineering strategy. When you do start writing strategy, it’s easy write so much strategy that your organization is overwhelmed and ignores your strategy rather than investing time into understanding it. Fortunately, these are universal problems, and there are a handful of useful mental models to avoid both extremes. This chapter covers:| lethain.com
Whenever I transition to a new opportunity, I think about how to “start well.” How can I ramp up as effectively as possible? How do I balance the urge to “show value” immediately with making the right decisions?| lethain.com