Essays

Long-form pieces to help me make sense of and shape the world.

Redefining the Digital Value Chain for Multi-Brand Retail

Published on December 4, 2024 · 11 mins

Price wars won't save multi-brand retail—but becoming a tastemaker will.

Digital Product Passports and Retail’s New Growth Opportunity

Published on July 24, 2024 · 6 mins

Span of control

Published on June 10, 2024 · 5 mins

Holding the space

Published on April 18, 2024 · 6 mins

The Ultimate Guide to E-Commerce Loyalty Programs

Published on March 20, 2024 · 15 mins

The collapse of commerce

Published on March 20, 2024 · 5 mins

The Web3 rightshifting

Published on February 21, 2024 · 8 mins

Maslow and brands

Published on January 24, 2024 · 6 mins

Agency, deconstruct thyself

Published on January 10, 2024 · 6 mins

Apology of the regulator

Published on December 13, 2023 · 6 mins

The curation opportunity

Published on November 29, 2023 · 6 mins

Outage outrage

Published on November 15, 2023 · 5 mins

All hail the superapp

Published on November 2, 2023 · 5 mins

Rise of the cultural brand

Published on October 18, 2023 · 3 mins

Beauty and the Beast

Published on October 4, 2023 · 3 mins

The eCommerce rat race

Published on September 6, 2023 · 2 mins

The Shopify play

Published on August 23, 2023 · 4 mins

Between rebels and giants, Shopify plays a dangerous game of two strategies.

Members only

Published on August 9, 2023 · 2 mins

Why Memberships Are The Future of Customer Loyalty

Published on August 2, 2023 · 12 mins

Petco''s recipe: turning pet owners into $120M of loyal members

Media x commerce

Published on July 10, 2023 · 3 mins

Building Content Infrastructures for eCommerce Brands

Published on June 26, 2023 · 12 mins

The playbook delusion

Published on June 26, 2023 · 3 mins

Supercharge Your DTC Growth with Product Management

Published on May 24, 2023 · 10 mins

Data drowns most DTC brands. Product management throws you a lifeline.

Scaling DTC Brands Through Product-Led Growth

Published on April 27, 2023 · 9 mins

How to Make Your E-Commerce A/B Tests Useless

Published on March 29, 2023 · 13 mins

Mistakes to avoid when running your e-commerce A/B testing program.

eCommerce A/B Testing: Strategies for Success

Published on March 7, 2023 · 13 mins

The GTDT Model for Intentional eCommerce Personalization

Published on January 3, 2023 · 10 mins

Data powers intimacy. Turn your store into a personal shopper.

The Feedback-Centric Organization

Published on November 16, 2020 · 9 mins

The Transformative Nature of Ownership in Engineering Orgs

Published on April 30, 2020 · 12 mins

Using RFCs to Drive Organizational Change

Published on January 9, 2020 · 9 mins

A 50-year-old solution to modern workplace chaos.

Coach Them Until It Hurts

Published on September 29, 2019 · 4 mins

Evolution Techniques for RESTful APIs

Published on February 27, 2019 · 6 mins

Like a living organism, APIs must adapt or fade into obsolescence.

6 Design Principles for Your HTTP APIs

Published on February 13, 2019 · 8 mins

Fail Better: Turning Software Errors into Documentation

Published on January 21, 2019 · 7 mins

My 2018 Annual Review

Published on January 7, 2019 · 7 mins

March Reflection

Published on August 20, 2018 · 7 mins

Lying on the wooden floor, I tried to find something worth fighting for.

The Three Tenets of API Design (3/3): Respect REST

Published on January 22, 2018 · 10 mins

The Three Tenets of API Design (2/3): Embrace HTTP

Published on January 15, 2018 · 11 mins

The Three Tenets of API Design (1/3): Be Boring

Published on January 8, 2018 · 4 mins

People vs Process

Published on December 25, 2017 · 8 mins

Startups fear structure, yet without it, they're doomed to fade away.

The One Skill You Need in Order to Thrive in Life, at Work and Everywhere

Published on December 18, 2017 · 11 mins

The Changelog-Versioning Revolution

Published on December 11, 2017 · 8 mins

In Defense of Human Testing

Published on December 4, 2017 · 8 mins

Developers who trust test suites blindly are building castles in quicksand.

The Hype Cycle: What It Is and How to Game It

Published on November 27, 2017 · 8 mins

Everything Is an Investment

Published on November 20, 2017 · 6 mins

Money vanished. All of it. That's when I learned there had to be a better way.

I Want to Quit

Published on November 13, 2017 · 3 mins

The No-Bullshit Guide to Hiring

Published on October 11, 2017 · 21 mins

Leadership: Five Lessons in Five Months

Published on September 5, 2017 · 8 mins

The CTO Manifesto

Published on May 5, 2017 · 2 mins

Tech wisdom forged in code, shaped by leadership, built on values.

The Superhero

Published on May 1, 2017 · 5 mins

BSBS: Building Solid Billing Systems

Published on November 29, 2016 · 9 mins

Composizione

Published on February 2, 2016 · 2 mins

25 Things I Learned on Software Development

Published on September 20, 2014 · 15 mins

Executing Sidekiq Jobs Immediately

Published on September 13, 2014 · 2 mins

Save $34.50/month by running Sidekiq jobs instantly on your free Heroku dyno

Testing Active Record Concerns with RSpec and Temping

Published on August 23, 2014 · 3 mins

:extend’s Gotchas

Published on July 5, 2014 · 5 mins

Are you getting what you want from LESS?

Do Reinvent the Wheel

Published on April 17, 2014 · 3 mins

Meditate with Purpose

Published on April 6, 2014 · 3 mins

Be Childish

Published on April 3, 2014 · 2 mins

The Imperative Manifesto

Published on March 19, 2014 · 2 mins

The Evolution of an Introvert

Published on March 16, 2014 · 6 mins

UI Components in Rails

Published on December 24, 2013 · 5 mins

See you soon?
© 2025 Alessandro Desantis