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How-to guides, tooling tips and real-world advice for developers and product managers tired of broken software. Let’s fix this mess together.

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How-to guides, tooling tips and real-world advice for developers and product managers tired of broken software. Let’s fix this mess together.

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An idea board overflowing with both new and old post its and papers

Product managers

Product managers

Product managers

Great company cultures hold people accountable

Principles without consequences are aspirations. Here's the framework for turning codified culture into real behavioral change.

Michael Toland

Product management

Tradeoffs chart for changeability, cost, and reliability

What is legacy software in the age of AI?

Todd Kaufman

Legacy modernization

Three people emerge from darkness toward light and a neon green path

In the age of AI we’re in this together

River Lynn Bailey

River Lynn Bailey

Cognitive hazard study diagram showing a laptop, coffee mug, and documentation sinking into a tarpit

Organizational observability: The AI alignment problem starts upstream

Dave Mosher

Double Takes

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Double Takes

TDDing with Claude is like having a pair that removes all the failing assertions every time you go to the bathroom.

Steve Jackson

State machines are the answer for those seeking determinism in the era of AI agents.

Dave Mosher

A Slack conversation left Doc reflecting on what bug bashes say about the systems we work in.

Doc Norton

Test-driven development is to programming what double-entry bookkeeping is to accounting.

Neal Lindsay

The fundamental character flaw of the software creator is not the misguided belief that they can solve any problem with software. Instead, it is the belief they can understand how their own software works before they create it.

Steve Jackson

We may need a SaaS appendix for Zawinski's law:

Any SaaS platform attempts to expand until it is a social network.

Matt Jones

Two monitors show incremental changes to a web development project

Build with HTMX: Simplify development with a return to fundamentals

Modern web development embraced complexity with frameworks like React, but at what cost? HTMX is a lightweight, progressively enhanced alternative, embraces web fundamentals, and reduces dependency overhead. Through a side-by-side comparison of identical applications built with React and HTMX, this screencast and blog explores the benefits of a hypermedia-first approach and when it might be the right choice for your projects.

Dave Mosher

Software tooling & tips

dev-experience

ux-ui

react

What it’s like to work as a consultant at Test Double

Considering transitioning from senior software engineer or product manager to consulting? Test Double has created space for software and product consultants to work how they work best.

Anya Iverova

Recruiting & careers

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Computer monitor showing tests but depicted as modern art painting

How modern frontend teams approach automated testing

Modern frontend testing doesn't need to be overwhelming—focus on two types of tests that deliver real value: co-located unit tests using tools like Vitest and Testing Library, plus targeted E2E tests for critical user flows. This practical approach helps product teams move fast while maintaining confidence, without getting bogged down in testing theory or arbitrary coverage metrics.

Robert Komaromi

Robert Komaromi

automation

ci-cd

testing

quality

Feature backlog that's out of control

Why hiring more developers costs more than you think

Scaling challenges are rarely caused by a lack of developers or how many lines of code are written each sprint. Let’s explore challenges caused by prematurely expanding your team—and why you’re less likely to scale your productivity and more likely to scale your existing bottlenecks.

Shawn Rinehart

Maximize software investment

communication

teams

tech-debt

dev-experience

productivity

Paint splashes turn into a beautiful piece of art

Building software teams that manage mistakes rather than rejecting them

The software industry shares a pervasive assumption that expert developers don’t make mistakes. Developers are only human. They will make mistakes. Ignoring that means any mistake can lead to a high intensity event. There’s a better way. Invest in systems to manage inevitable mistakes.

Gabriel Côté-Carrier

Gabriel Côté-Carrier

Communication & teams

agile

communication

productivity

professional-growth

teams

Rubber duck next to a Rubik's cube

The business of AI: Solve real problems for real people

After participating in the Perplexity AI Business Fellowship, one thing became clear: the AI hype cycle is missing the business fundamentals. Here are 3 evidence-based insights from practitioners actually building or investing in AI solutions that solve real problems.

Cathy Colliver

ai-ml

product-innovation

greenfield-product-development

founders

scaling-challenges

Agentic coding pair programmer robot toy in a box

Pragmatic approaches to agentic coding and AI for engineering leaders

Discover essential practices for AI agentic coding to enhance your team’s AI development learning and adoption, while avoiding common pitfalls of vibe coding.

Test Double Editorial Board

Test Double Editorial Board

ai-ml

productivity

product-innovation

efficient software

teams

16 things software developers believe, per a Justin Searls survey

Ruby on Rails developer Justin Searls made a personality quiz, and more than 7,000 software developers filled it out. Here's what it revealed.

Justin Searls

Accelerate quality software

community

testing

teams

communication

professional-growth

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Test Double Executive Leadership Team

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