Really enjoyed the article! Wholeheartedly agree with the use of iteration speed as the measure for productivity.
I think one key under-explored opportunity for improving productivity involves bringing the outer loop closer to the inner loop. The main reason we have a distinction between these loops is everything we need to do in the inner loop generally happens fast enough to keep us in flow state, while everything in the outer loop is usually slow enough to break flow state.
In the graphic illustrating the inner loop vs outer loop in the article, only the Plan, Review, Measure, React, steps have intrinsic latency floors based on product/market/human/organizational constraints. My hypothesis is that the other three, Author, Test, Deploy, are constrained in latency only by technology, and can be made fast enough keep us in flow state given the right technology, bringing them into the inner loop.
Disclaimer: My ulterior motive in writing about this is I've been building a product to do exactly what I described above, for client-side rendered React apps: https://reflame.app/. But I would honestly love to see more folks explore opportunities here, since I want to be able to build all kinds of software this way, not just the kinds I have the bandwidth/skills to work on.
I think one key under-explored opportunity for improving productivity involves bringing the outer loop closer to the inner loop. The main reason we have a distinction between these loops is everything we need to do in the inner loop generally happens fast enough to keep us in flow state, while everything in the outer loop is usually slow enough to break flow state.
In the graphic illustrating the inner loop vs outer loop in the article, only the Plan, Review, Measure, React, steps have intrinsic latency floors based on product/market/human/organizational constraints. My hypothesis is that the other three, Author, Test, Deploy, are constrained in latency only by technology, and can be made fast enough keep us in flow state given the right technology, bringing them into the inner loop.
Disclaimer: My ulterior motive in writing about this is I've been building a product to do exactly what I described above, for client-side rendered React apps: https://reflame.app/. But I would honestly love to see more folks explore opportunities here, since I want to be able to build all kinds of software this way, not just the kinds I have the bandwidth/skills to work on.