Katerina Skroumpelou: Bridging Engineering and Advocacy for Scalable Software

As a product advocate at Nx, Katerina Skroumpelou combines her engineering skills with a knack for connecting with clients. In this episode, she shares how clear documentation, scalable architectures, and a collaborative culture can transform software development for the better.Key Takeaways [00:01:25] Katerina’s Background: Robby and Katerina discuss her career journey, starting in engineering and recently moving into product advocacy. [00:02:29] Characteristics of Well-Maintained Software: Katerina highlights key aspects of maintainable software—readability, scalability, and reliability. [00:04:39] Product Advocacy at Nx: Katerina describes her unique role, bridging technical support and customer outreach to ensure clients make the most of Nx tools. [00:07:01] White Glove Approach: The “white glove” service approach allows Katerina to dive deep into clients' codebases, offering a hands-on approach to using Nx effectively. [00:09:52] Scalable Documentation Practices: Balancing clarity and detail, Katerina provides tips on structuring code comments and READMEs to be concise yet thorough. [00:12:09] Managing Technical Debt: Robby and Katerina discuss the importance of keeping code up-to-date and scalable, especially in large systems with high demands. [00:16:00] The Importance of Collaboration: Moving from solo work to team-based code reviews taught Katerina the value of a collaborative approach to maintainable code. [00:19:15] Nx’s Monorepo Solution: How Nx provides cache and build tools to optimize mono-repo performance, boosting both speed and organization within projects. [00:22:12] Nx Cloud and CI: Katerina discusses Nx Cloud’s role in enhancing CI workflows by allowing parallel tasks and cache sharing across teams. [00:24:07] When to Consider Monorepos: Katerina explains the benefits of monorepos for organizing codebases and improving scalability. [00:26:37] AI Tools in Development: Katerina shares her enthusiasm for new AI tools like StackBlitz’s Bolt and their potential to streamline app development. [00:29:00] Finding Motivation at Work: Advice for developers who feel stuck or unmotivated in their current roles and ways to reconnect with the work they enjoy.Resources MentionedNx DevStackBlitz Bolt.newBooks:The Three-Body Problem by Cixin LiuCryptonomicon by Neal StephensonSlaughterhouse-Five by Kurt VonnegutKaterina's social profiles: LinkedIn Twitter BlueskyThanks to Our Sponsor! Turn hours of debugging into just minutes! AppSignal is a performance monitoring and error-tracking tool designed for Ruby, Elixir, Python, Node.js, Javascript, and other frameworks. It offers six powerful features with one simple interface, providing developers with real-time insights into the performance and health of web applications. Keep your coding cool and error-free, one line at a time!  Use the code maintainable to get a 10% discount for your first year. Check them out! Subscribe to Maintainable on:Apple PodcastsSpotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Keep up to date with the Maintainable Podcast by joining the newsletter.