Why Readiness Should Be a Habit, Not a Final Gate
Quality isn't decided in the final review. The teams with the smoothest launches built it through daily habits, long before anyone thought about a release date.
Dean Hume's Blog
I'm a Technical Program Manager at Xbox Game Studios. I write about technical leadership, developer tools, and making great games.
Latest posts
A Maturity Matrix for Game Development
A few years ago, I wrote about using a Maturity Matrix to assess software engineering teams. The idea was simple - what does a great team look like, and how honestly can you measure yourself against that picture? Since then, I've moved into the gaming industry. Anyone who has
As Engineering Teams get smaller, is the Technical Program Manager the missing piece?
As AI shrinks engineering teams and the EM role splits in two, the Technical Program Manager could be the most overlooked answer hiding in plain sight.
Meeting Notes - A Free Desktop App for Tracking 1:1s
Meeting Notes is a free offline desktop app for 1:1s. Organise notes by person, tag topics, and transcribe meetings on-device with Whisper.
Building a Custom MCP Server with Node.js
Ever wished your AI assistant actually knew your stuff? Your files, your schedule, or even a custom data source? That's exactly what the Model Context Protocol (MCP) makes possible. MCP is an open standard for connecting AI assistants like Claude to external data sources and tools. Think of
Technical Skills Every Technical Program Manager Should Learn in 2026
The technical skills every TPM needs in 2026 from cloud basics to AI agents and governance. A practical guide to staying close to the tech.
Supercharge Your Clipboard with PowerToys Advanced Paste 📋
PowerToys Advanced Paste transforms your clipboard - paste as plain text, Markdown, JSON, extract text from images, and reformat content with AI.
How I Use PowerToys Workspaces to Switch Contexts in Two Clicks 🫰
Tired of arranging windows every morning? PowerToys Workspaces launches your ideal Windows desktop management setup with two clicks 🫰.
Staying Technical as a Technical Program Manager
Learn practical ways Technical Program Managers can stay technical - daily habits, internal engineering practices, and hands-on routines that keep skills sharp while leading programs at scale.
Backup Buddy: A Simple Tool to Backup Your Website Content
Have you ever wanted to create a backup of your website or blog? Maybe you're migrating to a new platform, or perhaps you just want a portable archive of your content that you can read offline. I've previously experienced issues with this site going down and
From Crash to Resolution: A Practical Guide for Xbox & Windows Developers
If you’ve ever had an app crash at the worst possible moment, you’ll know how frustrating it can be - both for developers and players. Recently, I wrote an article for the Microsoft Developer blog that dives deep into this exact challenge: how to diagnose and resolve
A Modern Guide to Using OAuth 2.0 with C# and Visual Studio Code
Master OAuth 2.0 in .NET 9.0! This tutorial covers using OAuth 2 to acquire tokens and access Microsoft Graph user data.
HTML Minifier: A 12-Year Journey Building and Maintaining an Open Source Tool
Discover the 12-year journey behind HTML Minifier an open source tool that helped developers optimize web performance and reduce page load times.
Best Practices for Handheld Gaming Development
If you've ever played a game on a modern handheld device, you'll know how much fun it can be. I recently wrote an article on the Microsoft Game Dev Blog about some key recommendations to help you craft exceptional gaming experiences for handheld devices. Please head
Getting started with Azure's Hybrid and Embedded Text-to-Speech
Over the past few months, I've been experimenting with Azure's Text-to-Speech service. It is a super powerful API that enables fluid, natural-sounding text to speech that matches the tone and emotion of human voices. Whether you are building an app or a game,