Cliff
@ctgilley.bsky.social
Former lawyer and tech product manager, currently advisor/consultant for product teams with Gartner. Craft cocktail, wine, and beer aficionado, TTRPG and video game enthusiast, horror and comic book fanatic.
Smart move -- if he's not picked up as a free agent by someone else, the M's probably saved some money by letting him go into the market. They can get a more attractive deal on him for 2026. He knows the pitchers and knows the system, he's a decent choice to back Cal.
December 9, 2025 at 5:57 PM
Smart move -- if he's not picked up as a free agent by someone else, the M's probably saved some money by letting him go into the market. They can get a more attractive deal on him for 2026. He knows the pitchers and knows the system, he's a decent choice to back Cal.
If you let the series go to 7 games, you're playing with fire. Someone was going to get burned.
October 23, 2025 at 6:44 PM
If you let the series go to 7 games, you're playing with fire. Someone was going to get burned.
Actual coding only makes up 10-20% of a software engineer's time; optimizing for that is great, but it's not going to "change the game" as much as people want it to. Augmenting the remaining 80-90% of an SWE's job would have significantly more impact across the entire process.
August 12, 2025 at 1:31 AM
Actual coding only makes up 10-20% of a software engineer's time; optimizing for that is great, but it's not going to "change the game" as much as people want it to. Augmenting the remaining 80-90% of an SWE's job would have significantly more impact across the entire process.
It's so frustrating to hear people asking for "the silver bullet" to be more productive, more customer-focused, etc. and then not wanting to hear that it's two things: Direction and Culture. If you have those two things, you can move quickly and deliver value. If you don't, you can't.
July 28, 2025 at 7:23 PM
It's so frustrating to hear people asking for "the silver bullet" to be more productive, more customer-focused, etc. and then not wanting to hear that it's two things: Direction and Culture. If you have those two things, you can move quickly and deliver value. If you don't, you can't.
Unless there's an interest on BOTH sides for it never to see the light of day...
July 17, 2025 at 9:15 PM
Unless there's an interest on BOTH sides for it never to see the light of day...
I abandoned Hertz many years ago after some bullshit around tolls that they screwed me with. This just reinforces that decision.
July 17, 2025 at 9:14 PM
I abandoned Hertz many years ago after some bullshit around tolls that they screwed me with. This just reinforces that decision.
It's that second part that's the hardest part. You also have to be careful not to work your way out of the job by making things look seamless when they're the opposite behind the curtain. Lessons learned from prior jobs...
July 17, 2025 at 5:37 PM
It's that second part that's the hardest part. You also have to be careful not to work your way out of the job by making things look seamless when they're the opposite behind the curtain. Lessons learned from prior jobs...
We already know what the goal is, why do we keep waiting for further confirmation?
July 14, 2025 at 2:28 PM
We already know what the goal is, why do we keep waiting for further confirmation?
It's not "if" -- it's "when"...
July 11, 2025 at 8:39 PM
It's not "if" -- it's "when"...
Whether he could have accomplished anything or not, if you're the representative of a population that experiences a disaster of this scale, you show up to support them.
July 7, 2025 at 9:25 PM
Whether he could have accomplished anything or not, if you're the representative of a population that experiences a disaster of this scale, you show up to support them.
Your cats are secretly rooting for you, they just can't bear to show it.
July 3, 2025 at 8:43 PM
Your cats are secretly rooting for you, they just can't bear to show it.
In other news, water is wet, the sky is blue, and Satan Claus is out there...and just getting stronger.
June 20, 2025 at 5:01 PM
In other news, water is wet, the sky is blue, and Satan Claus is out there...and just getting stronger.
Any PM who ever wants anyone to "just do what they say" is a shit PM.
June 19, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Any PM who ever wants anyone to "just do what they say" is a shit PM.
The biggest moat that MS has built is the packaging of the products and how much gets "included" when IT buys into the ecosystem...other players just don't have that kind of flexibility or depth.
June 5, 2025 at 6:00 PM
The biggest moat that MS has built is the packaging of the products and how much gets "included" when IT buys into the ecosystem...other players just don't have that kind of flexibility or depth.
Note, I'm not saying it's "right" but that it's not uncommon.
June 5, 2025 at 3:23 PM
Note, I'm not saying it's "right" but that it's not uncommon.
That's not uncommon at all in many seat-based B2B licensing setups -- there's not one account per person, it's one account per person, per organization. Certainly not ideal, and not reflective of a more modern world where you have contractors, fractionals, and others working with multiple orgs.
June 5, 2025 at 3:23 PM
That's not uncommon at all in many seat-based B2B licensing setups -- there's not one account per person, it's one account per person, per organization. Certainly not ideal, and not reflective of a more modern world where you have contractors, fractionals, and others working with multiple orgs.
I remember being at the launch event for the phone, and just looking up in disbelief as they rattled off all the "benefits" of the phone. Old, branched version of Android? Check. 3D search that nobody asked for? Check. Outdated hardware? Check. It was astounding to me that AMZN could miss so hard.
June 3, 2025 at 4:45 PM
I remember being at the launch event for the phone, and just looking up in disbelief as they rattled off all the "benefits" of the phone. Old, branched version of Android? Check. 3D search that nobody asked for? Check. Outdated hardware? Check. It was astounding to me that AMZN could miss so hard.
The modern tech manager needs to be someone who removes obstacles for their teams, not someone who "oversees" the work of those teams.
May 30, 2025 at 5:38 PM
The modern tech manager needs to be someone who removes obstacles for their teams, not someone who "oversees" the work of those teams.
FOMO's a big thing, especially when there's so much active hype around how AI is "changing the world"...bandwagoning is a human bias, though, and really hard to fight or reason yourself out of. Ideally, we'd be continuously analyzing our practices and fitting new tech in where it fills a gap.
May 29, 2025 at 6:15 PM
FOMO's a big thing, especially when there's so much active hype around how AI is "changing the world"...bandwagoning is a human bias, though, and really hard to fight or reason yourself out of. Ideally, we'd be continuously analyzing our practices and fitting new tech in where it fills a gap.
It's disheartening to see the default answer to everything being "throw AI at it" when people haven't bothered to look at root causes which will only be worse when you throw AI at it.
May 29, 2025 at 5:13 PM
It's disheartening to see the default answer to everything being "throw AI at it" when people haven't bothered to look at root causes which will only be worse when you throw AI at it.
Actions speak louder than words.
May 14, 2025 at 4:36 PM
Actions speak louder than words.
Then start putting forward legislation that would do so.
May 14, 2025 at 4:36 PM
Then start putting forward legislation that would do so.
I love the phrasing "product squad" so much -- the whole concept of a "trio" or (now) "quad" seems so limiting to me. Sometimes you need more than just tech, product, and design (and marketing) -- you need a solid core, but also to bring in others when their insights are needed.
May 6, 2025 at 9:09 PM
I love the phrasing "product squad" so much -- the whole concept of a "trio" or (now) "quad" seems so limiting to me. Sometimes you need more than just tech, product, and design (and marketing) -- you need a solid core, but also to bring in others when their insights are needed.
Don't worry, there's still 3/4 of the season to go.
Sincerely, a lifetime M's fan.
Sincerely, a lifetime M's fan.
May 6, 2025 at 6:11 PM
Don't worry, there's still 3/4 of the season to go.
Sincerely, a lifetime M's fan.
Sincerely, a lifetime M's fan.