Pomelo
The Wonderful World of Billing
Nearly 100 clients, USD 6M in unpaid invoices and no product manager. The map we used to sort out billing at Pomelo, told as a guided tour.
Hey, I'm Bilu
I'm Head of Engineering at Aerolab, and before that I worked at Mercado Libre, Ualá and Pomelo 🇦🇷
I work on how engineering teams and their leaders operate, and how to bring AI into everyday work without losing focus on what we ship.
My work
My notes
Gonzalo Bilune
Two neural nets learned to write in Arrival's ink
I rewatched Arrival and ended up training two neural nets that send each other English sentences written in the film's ink. This is what I learned.
Gonzalo Bilune
ChatGPT Dots vs Grok Bot: what I learned using them side by side
After weeks of using ChatGPT Dots and Grok Bot, they're neck and neck. I compare autonomy, proactivity, memory and how they work.
Gonzalo Bilune
The game we're playing
There's a huge difference between telling a team what to do and getting them to understand what they're trying to achieve. Giving context isn't sharing more information, it's helping someone understand what game they're playing.
Gonzalo Bilune
A house you didn't build
More and more teams are delegating code review to an agent. Before accepting the shift, it's worth pausing on a more basic question: what was code review, done between humans, actually doing all these years.
Gonzalo Bilune
Communication is a trade off
Building something is no longer expensive. Deciding what to build-and getting everyone to understand it the same way-is what's still expensive.
Gonzalo Bilune
(Don't) stick to the status quo
There's a stage in a team's growth where everything revolves around getting the process in order. But if you're not paying attention to how it ages, the process starts taking up space it shouldn't.
Gonzalo Bilune
Leading is taking responsibility
When a team fails, the first reaction is to look for someone to blame. But what can we do to exercise proactive leadership?
Gonzalo Bilune
It All Started as a Game
Reflections on how an organization like AIESEC can develop leaders more effectively than many companies.
Gonzalo Bilune
There’s a world out there
There are people with enormous potential who remain stuck in their initial quadrant, and no one, neither they nor their leaders, walks far enough to see what lies beyond.
Gonzalo Bilune
Quantophrenia: what it is and why measuring everything costs you
Quantophrenia is the obsession with measuring everything. Sociologist Pitirim Sorokin coined the term in 1956. How it shows up in tech teams and what gets lost when only what fits in a spreadsheet counts.
Gonzalo Bilune
And what metric does that move?
We build features as if that were the goal… but what if we’re not generating any real impact?
Gonzalo Bilune
How we adopted microfrontends at Pomelo
A Talks by Pomelo session about how the Pomelo dashboard went from a monorepo to microfrontends integrated at runtime, and why the hardest part in the end wasn't the technical one.
Gonzalo Bilune
What is the Dunning-Kruger effect? Confidence without skill
The Dunning-Kruger effect is when people who know the least overrate their skill. On engineering teams it shows up as sure decisions from people still learning.
Gonzalo Bilune
What is the McNamara fallacy? Only measured things count
The McNamara fallacy says that what you cannot measure does not matter. Engineering teams then ignore quality and judgment that never show up on a dashboard.
Gonzalo Bilune
What is Brooks's law? Adding people makes it later
Brooks's law says adding people to a late software project makes it later: ramp-up and coordination cost more than the extra hands on the team.
Gonzalo Bilune
What is Goodhart's law? When a measure becomes a target
When a measure becomes a target, it stops being a good measure. Engineering teams then chase the number and miss the outcome it was there to track.
Gonzalo Bilune
What is Parkinson's law? Work fills the time you give it
Parkinson's law says work expands to fill the time available for it. Engineering teams with loose estimates ship later, even when the problem itself was small.
Gonzalo Bilune
What are vanity metrics? Numbers that don't help you decide
Vanity metrics look strong and almost never change a decision. Engineering teams that chase them celebrate activity while the outcome that matters stays flat.
Gonzalo Bilune
What is micromanagement? Controlling every small detail
Micromanagement is controlling every detail of someone else's work. Engineering teams slow down when a lead reviews the how instead of the outcome.
Gonzalo Bilune
What is the Peter principle? Promoted past competence
The Peter principle says people rise until the role is past what they do well. Engineering teams feel it when a strong developer becomes a lead too soon.
Gonzalo Bilune
What is burnout syndrome? Exhaustion built into the team
Burnout syndrome is exhaustion, detachment, and the sense that effort no longer matters. Engineering teams usually design it in through load, not weak people.
Gonzalo Bilune
What is impostor syndrome? Feeling you don't belong yet
Impostor syndrome is believing you do not deserve your role and will be found out. It hits engineering teams hardest as someone grows into harder work.