My journey with Amazon Q Developer began precisely 3yrs ago when Mukul recommended that I speak with Ganesh and Sandeep about a confidential AI-based service for developers. Entirely uncertain about its implications, I joined the team on August 2nd, 2021, with 3 developers, and 9 more set to join a week later. As they say, the rest is history.
This has been an incredible journey, marked by countless meetings, discussions, reviews, debates, and deployments, often taking place over numerous weekends and late nights with some of the brightest minds in the industry, making this an exceptionally rewarding and challenging experience.
Here is part-1 of some of my reflections and insights through this journey:
- There is absolutely no substitute for Hard Work. While raw talent and serendipity play a role, true accomplishment is the result of unwavering effort and commitment. There is simply no shortcut to achievement; it requires persistent, focused hard work to reach full potential. Ultimately, the rewards of such diligence are immeasurable, as your hard work can take you further than you ever imagined.
- Follow the 80/20 to learn. 80% of your learning will occur through practical experience, such as engaging in discussions, conducting reviews, and implementing new skills. The remaining 20% requires dedicated effort, which can be achieved by reading blogs, research papers, books, and articles.
- Know the state of the art and the art of the possible. Understanding the pinnacle of technology or science within your domain of work will empower you to envision how to bring these advancements to your customers, thereby adding value. Understanding the Art of the Possible will cultivate a culture of problem-solvers who will define processes that eliminate constraints and make continuous improvement. This will enhance what you deliver to your customers, and will improve how you build what you deliver to your customers.
- Measure what you build and listen to feedback. As Peter Drucker said, “What gets measured gets done”. Monitoring various metrics is crucial as it helps assess the impact of the work, showcase its value, manage resources effectively, and direct improvement efforts. Closely tracking customer usage patterns and analyzing in-depth service telemetry are essential for making informed decisions and driving progress. Always listen to feedback from customers and identify new ways of gathering feedback from customers, and use this feedback to make improvements.
- Customers expect secure highly-available service. Establish mechanisms to maintain high standards throughout engineering and operations lifecycle, such as reviewing errors, regularly monitoring dashboards, and automating release processes. Don’t be content with the current state of affairs and proactively identify and implement ways to enhance team’s operational efficiency.
In part-2, will focus on “team”.
