Aline.team

Latest — 12 Jan 2026

When Planning Becomes the Product

Why execution management matters more than perfect schedules in startups When I was leading engineering teams at early-stage startups, I noticed a pattern that repeats everywhere. Planning becomes the job. The business team sets a deadline. Engineering translates it into a plan. Then the team wakes up every day trying

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Do Early Startups Really Need a TPM Or Do They Need the Outcomes a TPM Provides?

Early-stage startups often ask the same question. Do we need a TPM(Technical Program Manager)? The honest answer is usually yes. But the practical answer is often not yet. This post is not about whether TPMs are valuable. It is about how the function of a TPM can be handled

Code Quality, Technical Debt, and When to Pay It Down

This article follows an earlier post: https://blog.aline.team/when-code-quality-becomes-a-convenient-explanation/ In that piece, I wrote about how “code quality” is often used as a summary, not a diagnosis. This article builds on that idea and focuses on a question founders and engineering leaders ask repeatedly. When is the right

When “Code Quality” Becomes a Convenient Explanation

When startup founders come to me to talk about problems in their development teams, one phrase comes up again and again. “Code quality is low.” “That’s why development is slow.” “Maintenance is nearly impossible.” “We can’t add new features anymore.” At first, I assumed this language came from

3 Months or 5 Days, Who Should You Believe?

When I was working as a startup CTO, I once designed a feature and asked a senior developer how long it would take. The answer was three months. As a former developer with years of project experience, it felt unrealistic. So I asked a newly joined developer the same question.

AI Makes Code Faster, and Technical Debt Deeper for Teams

AI has moved beyond simply making development easier. It is now reshaping organizations, sometimes even driving discussions around headcount reduction. From my experience, one thing is clear: doing more work faster is absolutely possible with AI. Code generation, test scaffolding, refactoring suggestions, AI dramatically increases individual productivity. However, that doesn’

The Number Was Correct, but the Meaning Was Different

Over many years, the bank had grown through multiple mergers and acquisitions. As a result, it retained: * Duplicate accounts * Dormant accounts * Legacy system records * Accounts no longer tied to active customers Strictly speaking, this was not a clean or healthy account count. I would not call it a normal metric

What Founders Really Mean When They Say “We Need a Great Developer”

I often hear this request: “We have development issues. Can you help us find a great developer?” Whenever that happens, I ask two simple questions. First: “What does ‘great’ mean to you?” Second: “Are you building something like Windows or macOS?” Most founders smile and shake their heads at the

Technology Evolves Because Humans Make Mistakes

When I was a junior developer, a colleague once shared a story that stayed with me. He told me about his time working on a service at a major telecom company in Korea. One day, according to him, a single mistake by a developer deleted all the source code on

When Product Teams Agree But Build Different Things

We Agreed on the Destination, But Not on What “Arrival” Meant After more than 20 years as a developer, engineering manager, and CTO, I’ve learned that product failures rarely come from poor execution. They come from something far subtler: agreeing on the same words while imagining different endings. “Let’