Test Double

We don't roll in with a "my way or the highway" playbook. Instead, we meet you where you're at, roll up our sleeves, and work with you (not at you) to make your team and codebase shine. Ready to see what real partnership looks like? Schedule a free pairing session. ?? in the comments.

Are your brainstorming sessions leading to tangible outcomes, or are they just another calendar invite? ?? An effective brainstorming session should fill your funnel, influence your stakeholders, energize your team, and help you build your innovation muscle. Here’s how we can change that: ? Strategic invites: Bring together a mix of thinkers from different disciplines. Diversity drives innovation. ? Rule of engagement: Ask for help to facilitate so you can be an active participant. Drive the conversation, challenge norms, and spark debates. ? Focus the problem: Try the "How might we... " approach so everyone is focused on the same problem as well as the freedom to explore ideas. Check out more tips (and grab an effective brainstorming template) from Senior Product Manager Shawn Leitner on the blog. ?? in the comments. ?? Let's hear from you! Have your brainstorming sessions been a hit or a miss? Do they feel like a real help or just another slot in your calendar?

If your roadmap is just a backlog with dates, then you've built a very expensive checklist. A real roadmap is a strategy. It helps teams make better decisions, faster. A bad one? It doesn't just slow you down—it speeds you toward the wrong destination.

"The customer is always right"—so they say. But if that were truly the case, wouldn't every feature request be a slam dunk? Clearly that's not the case. Blindly saying yes to every customer demand isn’t product management; it's order-taking. This approach often leads to a bloated product, wasted resources, and ultimately, solutions that fall short of real needs. Here's a hard truth: Customers know their pain points, but they don't always know what they?need. Great product leaders don't just gather customer feedback—they interpret it, validate it and uncover underlying needs. ?? Weigh in: Is "the customer is always right" a mantra for success or just a recipe for chaos?

What happens in Vegas... hits LinkedIn? You bet. Just a couple of weeks ago, over a hundred of us from Test Double stormed Las Vegas for our not-so-typical annual retreat. We made Vegas our virtual office and our playground: ??? Tech talks that gave those big-name conferences a run for their money. ??? Transparent Q&A with our founders and board members. ?? Bike rides and hikes in Red Rock Canyon. ??♀? Cheering like mad for our teammates running the Rock ‘n’ Roll Las Vegas Marathon & Half Marathon. ?? And a game night that evolved into an epic synth jam session. This is how we roll at Test Double. We're all about flipping the script, forging real connections, and having a downright blast while we're at it. ?? .. ??: Brett Buchanan, Camilo Payan, Jason A., Jamie Phelps, Jonathon Baugh, Kate McGinty, Mike Doel, Steve Goslin, Sukhraj Singh, Todd Kaufman

???? Standard Ruby 1.47.0 is OUT The fine folks at Rubocop were pretty busy so we added a bunch of stuff! Performance/ZipWithoutArray will suggest you use Array#zip when making an array of arrays (like when you're using Sidekiq's bulk enqueue feature!) to save a little time. Lint/CopDirectiveSyntax makes sure your comments disabling rules are going to work right! We added two rules to remove redundant code, Lint/RedundantTypeConversion and Lint/RedundantFormat Lint/SuppressedExceptionInNumberConversion will suggest you look at code that might swallow exceptions you don't mean to when using the number constructors Big thanks to Craig Zeise for working through a pretty marathon update session! https://lnkd.in/exxTYNsG #ruby #programming Test Double

Companies say they want top talent, diverse teams, and strong leadership. Then they enforce RTO mandates that push those exact people out the door. ?? Turnover spikes (especially among senior employees) ?? Women quit at nearly 3x the rate of men ?? Hiring slows, making it harder to replace lost talent If the goal is to build a great team, why force people into policies that make them leave? The data makes it clear. ?? More stats in the blog (?? in comments).

Think building an app is as easy as a child's puzzle? Low-code/no-code platforms sure make it seem that way. With just a few clicks, drags, and drops, you could have an app that seems ready to take on the world. ... but hold on, let's look a little closer behind those polished demos. ???♂? While they're fantastic at simplifying some tasks and cutting down on costs, they aren't a silver bullet for every challenge. Our software experts put together a guide on where low-code platforms shine — and where they might cause more headaches, outages or expenses than you expected. Blog ?? in the comments.

The goal isn't to stick around forever—it's to embed, model best practices, and leave the team better than we found them. We're here to solve problems, not take up permanent residency.

AI vs. Super Mario: Who wins? ???? Claude-3.7 just pulled off something wild: It outperformed other AI models in real-time Super Mario gameplay. ?? Hao AI Lab at UCSD ran AI gaming agents through live platformers, and here’s what they found: ? Claude-3.7 dominates with simple heuristics and better planning. ? Claude-3.5 is decent, but struggles with complex maneuvers. ? GPT-4o & Gemini-1.5-pro? Not as strong in this setting. Is this a sign that AI is about to take over software development? Lol, no. But if an AI can master real-time platformers, it means we're getting closer to AI that reasons and adapts—not just one that regurgitates training data. Go check out the repo (?? in comments). What do we want to see AI play next? Should we finally see if it can survive Dark Souls... or, you know, the real final boss: Google Sheets?