Deep Majumder

New blog post: The little things that got me into stream processing (https://lnkd.in/gU7Ba5Ym)

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We published an article about all the awesome product observability features of Segment we have today and upcoming in the near future. Bookmark this if you are a Segment user!

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A successful systems design and delivery strategy begins by assuming that change is likely the only constant. Be adaptable, or fail.

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Hot off the press, this latest Silicon Valley Product Group article is a good reminder that there are multiple paths to success, and we have to tailor our strategies to fit our unique circumstances. There’s rarely a single answer or approach when it comes to topics like organizational design— after all, people and companies are complicated and are never the same! To quote Marty: “I believe strongly that with the right people with the right skills, a strong product team can succeed no matter the org design. […] I will never again doubt what a motivated group of empowered and skilled cross-functional professionals can accomplish.” Definitely worth a read if you have ~4 minutes and lead or are part of a product team.

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My biggest takeaway from #ELCAnnual2024 last week was that trust and psychological safety are the foundation of everything we do. Whether I was listening to a talk on improving team velocity, product-engineering alignment, measuring performance, leading through change, or collaboration — trust was at the core. Without trust, your team will struggle to work through conflict.  Without trust, your team will become disengaged and stop delivering to its highest potential. Without trust, interactions will feel adversarial rather than collaborative. Here are 3 ways to build trust in your team: 1. Communicate the “why” behind decisions, rather than focusing on the “what”. 2. Start collaborating early in the process, asking for input and ideas on how to approach a project. Don’t show up with the solution and throw it over the wall to your team. 3. Address tension and conflicts directly. Working through conflicts builds trust because it shows you care about the relationship. What are your favorite ways to build trust on your teams? Check out all of the great resources from ELC: https://lnkd.in/gdZRuz-a

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Yes, our engineering team really did run CockroachDB on spot instances. I can explain. Our customers are running mission-critical workloads across clusters with hundreds of nodes, and it is paramount that our engineering team can test at a similar scale. But testing at this scale can get expensive. We need to be able to meet our customers where they are, but we also need to be able to control our costs as an organization. Spot instances can create significant savings over VMs, with savings of up to 90% a year. What if we could run long-running clusters on them? Besides saving money we would be able to leverage the unpredictable nature of Spot Instances for some exciting chaos testing! The effort to keep CockroachDB available and workloads predictable while nodes are rapidly disappearing would help us harden CockroachDB. Adam Storm's blog captures our entire journey, diving into the methodologies we chose, lessons learned, and yes—even the impact of preemptions. At Cockroach Labs, our engineering culture doesn't just push the boundaries of what's possible with a mission-critical database; it fuels technical innovation across the board. The results are fascinating, so give it a read if you're curious about running a distributed database on spot instances! Special thanks to Bilal Akhtar, Herko Lategan, David Taylor BabuSrithar M, Sambhav Jain, Shailendra Patel, Vidit Bhat, and Bhaskar Bora https://lnkd.in/et-aEjxm

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Thoughts on Standing Out as an Executive Engineering Leader based on My Experience After years in engineering leadership, I’ve found that the skills that truly make a difference go beyond the technical. Sure, strategy and results matter, but the real impact comes from something deeper. Here are a few qualities I’ve come to believe are essential for standing out as a leader: 1. Empathy Over Authority In my experience, leading with empathy isn’t just a nice-to-have, it’s essential. When I take the time to really listen to my team’s challenges and support them, it creates a culture of trust that no title or authority ever could. Empathy is what keeps teams together through tough projects and rapid changes. 2. Guiding Rather Than Taking Center Stage Early on, I thought leadership meant having all the answers. But over time, I’ve learned it’s much more about helping others find their answers. Guiding the team and letting them take ownership has led to some of the best outcomes I’ve seen. I’m curious if others have had similar experiences with this shift from “hero” to “guide.” 3. Creating Space for Failure and Growth Allowing room for mistakes has been a game-changer. When the team feels safe to take risks, they’re far more likely to innovate and learn from setbacks. This is where true growth happens not just for individuals, but for the team as a whole. 4. Consistency and Integrity Every Day I believe trust is built on showing up consistently and with integrity. Over the years, I’ve seen how a steady, reliable approach can be a stabilizing force for the team, especially in uncertain times. Consistency might sound simple, but it’s one of the hardes and most important things to get right. 5. Seeing the People Beyond Their Roles This has been one of the most rewarding aspects of leadership for me: seeing my team members as people first, professionals second. Knowing who they are beyond the work, recognizing their unique contributions, and supporting their growth has built a strong, cohesive team. These are just a few principles that have shaped my journey as a leader, and I’d love to hear from others who’ve had similar or even different experiences. What do you think really makes a difference in leadership? #Leadership #Engineering #TeamCulture #EmpathyInTech #ExecutiveLeadership #PeopleFirst

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Just finished recording a great podcast with Ankit Jain on his #HangerDX podcast. We chatted a lot about engineering metrics, their value, and how you should/shouldn't use them to drive change across your organization. It should be released soon, so make sure to check it out! #softwareengineeringinsights #engineeringmetrics #developerexperience

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In today’s rapidly evolving world, where AI and large language models are redefining industries, the demand for AI talent has never been greater. Yet, finding enough traditional AI experts to meet this demand is a significant challenge. In honor of #NationalApprenticeshipWeek, I’m proud to spotlight LinkedIn’s REACH apprenticeship program. It’s one of the ways we’re closing this gap by welcoming diverse, non-traditional talent with fresh and unique perspectives. I recently spoke with Javier, a former REACH apprentice who transitioned from a background in math and music. In our conversation, we explore how his music background and my own journey from political science have prepared us for success in AI engineering. It’s a testament to the power of blending art, science, and engineering — and how embracing diverse experiences can drive unexpected innovation. #LinkedInLife #NAW2024 #TechTalent #AI #Apprenticeships #CareerGrowth #NationalApprenticeshipWeek #FutureOfWork #LinkedInREACH

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Would you rather embark on a Quest or simply make progress towards a Goal? I agree with David Cain that the term "goal" has become too institutionalized and uninspiring. Unlike goals, quests are transformative—they change you, not just your situation. That's what makes this idea so appealing. And the concept of "One Big Win" is absolutely fantastic! Wouldn't it be great if we had "Quest Reflection" instead of "Performance Reviews" and "Adventure Mapping" instead of "Goal Setting"? https://lnkd.in/e3GDbJVu

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All really good general suggestions. Though, it is also important for focused time as mentioned here: https://lnkd.in/gnY7DUw7 https://lnkd.in/g5CQdWtc

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Interested in capturing the attention of in market buyers? Come see how TrustRadius can partner with you to increase your market share!

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Scaling a team is often necessary as demand grows, but it’s essential to ensure it’s done effectively. Before adding headcount, consider if scaling is the best approach—sometimes addressing process inefficiencies or architectural issues can yield better results. If scaling is the answer, keep these factors in mind: * Define clear goals for each team. * Ensure accountability and support. * Minimize dependencies and avoid inefficiencies. * Scaling impacts people, process, and technology. Successful team growth requires careful planning to maintain efficiency and productivity. https://lnkd.in/eTkqykmG

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Some takeaways for a Jeff Hinton interview with timeless insights. My POV as an app builder is that models are now being improved for better UX (faster response/multi-modal) and reasoning capability and cost continues to improve. The technology headroom remains strong, and the integration of LLM into all software experience will continue and expansion of the reach (invasion) of software + intelligence will also continue. - Next word prediction is not merely parroting of training data. To do next word prediction well, LLM needs and already exhibits strong reasoning behavior. This would continue to scale / improve with more data / training. - LLM is a compression of human knowledge. The compression mechanism is identifying similar concepts across domains and reduces duplications among them. This can also be a source of "creativity" as LLM "sees" correlations of seemingly unrelated ideas through this compression. LLM can be more creative as it sees similiarity / correlations across all domains beyond (human) convetional wisdom. - LLM can exceed the quality of its training data. Jeff gave an example of an experiment where a model trained on 50% intentionally incorrectly labeled data, can still perform at 90+% accuracy after training. - Multi-modal models can improve the overall world understanding and lead to better overall reasoning. It does not even need to generate multi-modal output. - Not ML specific, but an interesting life insights. Bad intuition comes from believing (or wanting to believe) everything you are told. It diminishes the ability to make a clear choice that would lead to differentiated success (or failure).

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As I continue to experiment, I realized chunking is an unsung hero in RAG architecture. Dynamic chunking can be used to elevate the performance of your RAG architecture considerably!

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Honeycomb's storage engine, Retriever, is the key differentiator behind so much of our product. I sometimes get questions from other engineering leaders about why we didn't use x or y off-the-shelf technology or product instead. There are a number of reasons I could share, but one of the most important ones is that it's usually hard to evolve someone else's offering (even if OSS) as the constraints of your business change over time. This post from Hazel Edmands is such a fantastic deep dive into our most recent round of doing just that. https://lnkd.in/g9mvvHWW

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Here is everything that I found interesting last month about irresponsible AI. #blog #engineering #leadership #qfm QFM012: Irresponsible AI Reading List March 2024 https://lnkd.in/e-u-Jyzw

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Over the course of each month, I spend a few moments each day or so collecting interesting links, and then, at the end of the month, I bundle them (with the help of some nifty automation scripts) into an easily digestible reading list. Here's everything that I found interesting in May 2024 about engineering leadership: #qfm #quantumfaxmachine #blog #engineering #leadership #management https://lnkd.in/eYQxe7sX

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