How would you fix this failing startup?

Question

Suppose that you've joined a small startup as the new CTO. This startup has a lot of users but its quality of service is terrible. Their website and apps are slow and they fail left and right.How do you find the cause of all problems and fix them? And more importantly, how do you make sure they never happen again in future?P.S: The tech stack is not important here. I'm interested to know your approach and management practices that you'd implement.

watt · Accepted Answer

This will happen again and will always happen if product is prioritized above sound technology base. Any time something is developed incurring tech debt.
To solve, the company will need to go into investment phase again. Invest into sound technology, paying off all the tech debt, building resilience and self-healing into services.
Product development will suffer, but that's how debt works.

kanobo · Answer

You should read The Phoenix Project by Gene Kim, you basically described it's premise. It's a pretty good novel that describes how DevOps practices can help a company dig itself out of the hole you describe.

karmakaze · Answer

How do you know tech stack isn't contributing?
> apps are slow and they fail left and right
Better tooling can improve performance and reduce errors.
> approach and management practices that you'd implement
What approach and management practices are currently used?

icedchai · Answer

I'd start with monitoring: performance, error logging, general infrastructure. You can't fix the problems if you don't know what's actually happening.

How would you fix this failing startup?

You should read The Phoenix Project by Gene Kim, you basically described it's premise. It's a pretty good novel that describes how DevOps practices can help a company dig itself out of the hole you describe.

How do you know tech stack isn't contributing?> apps are slow and they fail left and rightBetter tooling can improve performance and reduce errors.> approach and management practices that you'd implementWhat approach and management practices are currently used?

I'd start with monitoring: performance, error logging, general infrastructure. You can't fix the problems if you don't know what's actually happening.

How do you know tech stack isn't contributing?
> apps are slow and they fail left and right
Better tooling can improve performance and reduce errors.
> approach and management practices that you'd implement
What approach and management practices are currently used?