Product and Engineering Wisdom - Issue #7
Product and Engineering Wisdom - Issue #7
Tips and advice on how to test Core Web Vitals
A free fortnightly email that highlights the relevant tips, advice, and case studies from the world of product and engineering for the SEO community.
Hello 👋,
It’s been two weeks which means another issue of product and engineering wisdom.
In this issue the theme is around testing Core Web Vitals.
If you’re interested in learning more, I’d recommend the Zalando uses Lighthouse in automated testing and I’d also check out Web.dev post on Evolving the CLS.
Stay safe and enjoy.
Adam
⚡Post of the Sprint
Zalando uses Lighthouse in automated testing
by Jeremy Colin and Jan Brockmeyer
A case study from Jeremy Colin and Jan Brockmeyer on the Zalando web infrastructure team, on how they use Lighthouse CI proactively automate Core Web Vital checks to make sure new code doesn’t impact on performance.
Adam’s Insight: This is a brilliant case study for any enterprise SEO who wants to understand how a developer team can use CWV in automated testing.
I’ve mentioned SEO automated testing in previous newsletters but this is a hot topic amongst enterprise SEOs. As a PM I’ve seen first hand the importance of automated testing to catch issues before a product launch.
This is a great read for any technical SEO or SEO manager who works in a product or engineering team.
✨Product
Monday.com's Customer Success and Product Teams
by Wes Bush and Tom Ronen, Product-Led Growth
Tom Ronen the Head of Customer Success at Monday.com talks about how product and customer success teams work together.
Adam’s Insight: Cross-team collaboration is critical in product management.
Tom provides great advice and tips on why you should work with a customer success (account managers) team. He also stresses the importance of alignment between the two teams because they usually have very different KPIs.
From my own experience CS teams sit on a wealth of customer knowledge. They understand the client’s problem at a micro level and can help segment customers with specific problems.
For an in-house SEO or SEO Consultant in an agency I highly recommend sitting down with any customer success or account manager to better understand the client’s needs.
Why Product leaders need to be storytellers
by Jessica Hall, Author of The Product Mindset
Jessica Hall an author and Product Manager discusses the importance of story telling when trying to solve problems.
Adam’s Insight: The skill of story telling is talked about a lot in product or in SEO. It’s a skill I think many need to practice.
I’ve found that crafting a good story and providing the right context can help a client or internal team better understand a problem were trying to solve.
Jessica Hall does a great job of helping you understand why creating a great story for your team can help rally them around an issue.
I recommend reading this if you’re a SEO Strategist or Team Leader in an organisation.
⚙️Engineering
Evolving the CLS metric
by Annie Sullivan and Hongbo Song, Chrome Speed Metrics Team
Annie Sullivan and Hongbo Song, Chrome Speed Metrics team talk about the updates to the Cumulative Layout Shift metric.
Adam’s Insight: If you’ve been reading this newsletter you’ll know I enjoy reading blog posts from developers solving problems.
This is especially interesting as it directly impacts on how SEOs and engineers measure CLS.
I do find CLS metric a bit harsh at times when auditing but I understand that these things are never perfect. It’s great to see the Chrome team are trying to improve the metric and being open about it.
The new version of the metric was released in Search Console from 13th April 2021. This is a great post for any SEO specialist wanting to understand updates to the CLS metric.
Building an engineering team
by Sam Eaton, Yelp
Sam Eaton Chief Technology Office at Yelp talks through the lessons learned building a inclusive and diverse engineering team.
Adam’s Insight: I have witnessed first hand the importance of building a great engineering team (virtually).
It’s tough.
So, its great to see Yelp putting so much effort into building a great team. This isn’t practical for any SEOs (unless you’re a manager) but does give insight into what makes a great engineering team.
Retrospective
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