Building a Product-Minded Engineering Team
A product leader's playbook for growing product-mindedness across an engineering team.
Sam Julien's writing
Articles on developer relations, AI engineering, web development, and career growth by Sam Julien
Latest posts
How I Used AI to Restructure My Obsidian Vault
I had 100+ messy files at the root of my Obsidian vault. Here is how I used an AI agent to plan and execute a full restructure in an afternoon.
Switching Capacity: A New Kind of Tired
Running five AI agent threads feels productive until your judgment collapses. How to find your limit before it finds you.
Why I'm Betting on Generative UI
Announcing joining CopilotKit as Director of Product, and the thesis behind why generative UI is the most important unsolved problem in the agentic stack.
What DevRel Taught Me About Product Management
Seven years of DevRel turned out to be the best PM training I could have asked for.
How I Automated the Worst Part of Product Management
The synthesis problem for PMs managing large portfolios, and how AI agents changed everything.
Triaging Ideas When Execution Is Cheap
Ideas have always been cheap. Now execution is too. The real constraint is ruthlessly filtering which ideas are actually worth your time.
My Annual Review Process
A structured process for reviewing the entire year (not just work accomplishments) to understand how you actually spent your time, what you cared about, and what you neglected, then using that honesty to plan the next year more intentionally.
The Shitty First Step
How taking imperfect first steps can break through inertia and help you get unstuck, whether you're fixing a chair, troubleshooting a problem, or exploring new interests.
Bee First Impressions
First impressions of the Bee AI wearable
Building an Effective Developer Marketing Plan
Practical steps to authentically and effectively reach developers.
A Practical Guide to Developer Journey Analysis
How to analyze and improve the developer journey.
How to Create Developer Personas that Actually Work
Target the right developers with your developer motion.
Building a Developer Motion
How to build and drive developer adoption, from personas to marketing.
Monthly and Quarterly Reviews
Strategic thinking for sustainable progress.
Weekly Review and Planning
Building momentum through consistent reflection.
The Daily Shutdown Ritual
The key to sustainable productivity.
Building a Progress System
How I prevent burnout and stay balanced.
Understanding and Recovering from Burnout
My journey from burnout to building a better progress system.
Migrating from Gatsby to Astro
After putting it off for nearly two years, I finally migrated my website from Gatsby to Astro. Here's how I did it, what I learned, and why it was worth the effort.
How to Think Strategically
How to think strategically in your career and in your work.
The Most Valuable Non-Technical Skill of 2021
Personal Knowledge Management can take your thinking and creation to a totally new level.
Growing Your Career as a Developer Advocate
How do you know if you're making progress in your career as a dev advocate? How do you grow and succeed?
The Secret to Getting Really Good at Something
If you want to get really good at something, teach it to a total beginner.
Deep Work and Analog Productivity
Sometimes you need to disconnect in order to do the important work.
How to Get a New Job When All Your Work is Private
How do you get a new job when all of your work is closed source or private?
Getting Support on Role Changes
What do you do if someone won't give up their authority?
Setting Quarterly Goals as a Developer and Developer Advocate
How do you set goals as a developer or developer advocate?
The Upside of Your Unfinished Projects
It's easy to feel discouraged about all those unfinished projects. Did you know there's a hidden upside to them?
How to Be a Great Podcast Guest
'Just act natural' is terrible interview advice. In this article, I'll give you some practical advice on how to sound natural and prepared for podcasts.
Re-Purposing Day Job Work to Make Career Moves
One of the best wasy to grow in your career is to re-purpose your day job work. I'll show you how in this article.
Adapting to Sudden Change
Sudden change can be scary. In this article, we'll talk about some ways you can make it through sudden change while preserving your mental health.
When and How to Charge for Your Content
Learn how to get paid what you're worth and know when to create content for free.
Powering Up with Capacity Tests
Learn how to grow your skills through challenging yourself.
How to Get Unstuck in 10 Minutes
Stuck on a project or a goal? Here's quick process to unblock yourself.
Embrace 1% Days
Any progress is good progress.
How to Link JavaScript to HTML
This article shows you how to include JavaScript in your HTML files.
What is a Full Stack Developer?
If you're interested in learning to code, you might hear the term 'full stack developer' used. What does 'full stack developer' mean? How do you become one?
Publishing Your First Tech eBook: A Chat with Caitlyn Greffly
Caitlyn Greffly and I had a chat about overcoming writer's block and publishing your first ebook.
Get Started with Obsidian as a Developer
How to use Obsidian as a developer: a Markdown second brain for notes, knowledge management, content creation, and AI agent workflows.
How to Start Doing Dev Rel Right Now
You don't need a title to start doing dev rel work.
The Counterintuitive Secret to Shipping Better Articles Faster: Talk Resources
Don't get stuck taking forever to write long articles. Build consistency through small wins.
Advice for New Tech Speakers
Tips and resources I wish I had when I started doing technical speaking.
The 90-Day Rule (and Other Secrets to Consistency)
Doing anything consistently is tough. In this article, I'll share some lessons I've learned over the last few years that have helped me hack my brain into writing or creating content consistently as well as build better exercise and eating habits.
How to Get Started with Technical Writing
If you feel like you should finally get around to blogging but feel overwhelmed, check out the TIL format to get started with technical writing today.
Learning to Say No to Things
Helpful people tend to get buried by saying yes to everything. How do we improve at saying no? How do we know what to say no to?
Avoiding the Shiny Chase: How to Maintain Focus
How to maintain focus at three different levels.
How to Prioritize Projects
How to evaluate projects and pick which ones to work on.
How and Why to Reduce Your Scope
How do we pick projects that will challenge us but also actually get completed? I'll show you in this article on how and why to reduce your project scope.
Tiny Experiments Example: Video Courses
Let's look at a practical example of using the Tiny Experiments framework to create your first video course.