Launch 2 weeks (ish)?

Luge is the scariest sport ever. Lugers (is that a word?) go nearly 100 mph down an ice rollercoaster, on their backs, 3” from the ice.

I feel like we’re living through some luge energy right now: Security assessment from the City, mayoral launch of NYCA, and 250k lines of code shipping — all at once, all on uncertain timelines.

Lugers don’t die on the regular because they know they’re doing a NUTS thing, and compensate for it with tracks built to make sure they don’t fly off, top physical condition, and meticulously maintained equipment.

Likewise, if we’re not going to fly off in a million directions, we need to have strong guardrails – on the Momentum side, that means focus on more and varied test coverage and amping up observability – as well as finding a pace that’s super fast, but not deadly.

Personally, I’ve been going a bit into the red zone, enabled by AI. The irony is that AI is so fast, it builds up its own kind of pressure to keep going!

Seems to me that many of you are also out beyond your ideal zone, so here’s a reminder for all of us: Don’t focus only on the need for speed! If you wanna win, you gotta stay ON THE TRACK! – Bomee

Metrics

• Unique Buildings: 13,733 (Real time, via Admin panel!)
• Active users so far this month: 57 (down from peak, but steady)
• Annual Run Rate: $2.9M

Development

• Bug Count (P-0 and P-1): 28 - up, because we went looking for security bugs and then because fixing them resulted in side effects. We’ll get through them!

This Week’s Highs and Lows

• What started as Redis hiccups turned into a full pneumonia from March 8-11, causing frequent 500s and bad user experience, to an extent we were slow to realize. We’re working to get to the bottom of what happened. (FH)
• We successfully deployed a new version of the BKB with major structural improvements to support non-multifamily buildings ahead of NYCA. (FH)
• Mike and Ilyada joined the team, and Rebecca is helping with some NYCA testing! (JMB)
• Jon led some great onboardings and trainings with the folks running the new NYS Homes and Community Renewal (HCR) version of the Climate Friendly Homes Fund (CFHF) program. They seem excited to start using the software and said it looks easy to use, which is great to hear. (JMB)
• DOB data love fest. Robin and Jason had a great meeting with the LL97 team at the department of buildings. Laura (the Deputy Commissioner, the head of LL97 for the City) was so appreciative! Good job, guys! (BJ)
• NYCA Program Deployment Strategy. Willdan, C15, and several other partners are deep in editing a 90+ page “Program Deployment Strategy” laying out the NYCA approach for the city. It’s Willdan’s job to complete this document, but it’s in our interest to ensure it sets the right direction for an effective program, including the “user portal” (aka, Momentum). (JIB)
• Welcomed Mike, Ilayda, and Rebecca - and everyone’s onboarding seems to be smooth sailing! (BJ)
• This monster release (2.11.0, fka 116) is challenging to get out the door. But when it does, there will be several very happy people who get to use developments! (BJ)
• Momentum team is really coming together on how-we-work topics. Love it! (BJ)

Any missing highlights? Please share in Discord comments.

Crow’s Nest

Looking out for icebergs: What are the risks on the horizon that we’re watching for and navigating around?

François’ List

Repeats with tweaks:

• To get ready for NYCA launch, we need to project ourselves to a near future were a lot of variables are multiplied by 10-100x. Max number of concurrent users. Size of database backups. Occurrences of Sentry issues. Probability of a malicious actor trying to make us look bad. Let’s be creatively paranoid and prepare the ship!
• We have a lot of “almost there” large features or complex clean-ups that need to land soon: EPA Portfolio Manager v2, new BKB supporting buildings beyond Multi-Family (shipped!), Building Attribute Guesser for NYSERDA BDP (shipped!), improved tariff support, etc.

Jason’s List

Repeats:

• Improving clarity around our roadmap and prioritization process–I’ve started to meet with a PM coach to help me. But I’m back in the cycle of dealing with near-term stuff, so it may be a while before I make a lot more progress on this.
• We may have won some minds, and we’re winning some wallets, but will we win their fingers? Which users will actually use our software instead of just looking for the outputs and expecting consultant-style service?
• What is our moat in a world and industry where data wants to be free, especially when some of our largest customers are city and state agencies?
• Getting a clearer sense of our delivery velocity. I anticipate we’ll need to be more responsive to ad hoc customer feedback this year, and this will help me better plan and prioritize our product needs.

Bomee’s List

• Building the NEW Willdan relationship — They don’t know yet that we’re gonna show up for them. But we will anyway!
• DDD migration is mid-flight — But now we have Arch test enforcement, too.
• PR review as a bottleneck for AI-enabled velocity — Tracking will tell. Pls see my test proposal!
• NYCA launch readiness — This is it you guys. The stuff we call done needs to be pretty blemish-free!
• Livewire 4 stability — My hypothesis of the week is that you gotta lean aaaaalll the way into v4.

Erika’s List

• Compliance and our people policies - we need an update to make sure we remain compliant globally as we grow. Neither the company nor anyone who works for us wants a liability shock. A policy referesh in general to make sure they still work for where we are now and that everyone is aware of the policies, tools and resources available.
• Onboarding and Ongoing Integration - as we grow, we need to make sure we have the right resources and systems in place to support employees on an ongoing basis. Check-ins on the onboarding process and with everyone on professional growth goals coming soon.
• Building up our reserves we know our revenue is lumpy (our revenue does not come in, in equal amounts each month) so a buffer is necessary to help weather the leaner months or the impact of slower paying customers.

Jon’s List

• NYCA Process The NYCA Willdan team seems to still be working out their own process: what they want owner/managers to do, how they will support them, where service providers fit in. Jason and Jon went this week to their office to help map out their workflow, including where Momentum is used. The meeting was productive but the process-mapping still at an early stage. Will need to stay closely engagd with them to ensure the human+Momentum case management approach for NYCA is effective and scalable.

On Deck for Next Week

• Kicking ass and not apologizing! (JMB)

Upcoming Releases

• 2.11.0 / 116: The Monstrous Release. Delivering developments and a whole bunch of battening-down of security hatches.
• 2.12.0 / 117: The Program Arrives. Basic flows all work for NYCA onboarding.
• Updating the NYCA registration flow to match the program needs for both owner-manager (OM) and service provider (SP) users
• Making sure things are stable for NYCA launch
• A few more odds and ends to get ready for NYCA

Please Leave Feedback

Please note your reaction to this update in the Discord channel. It helps us to know what is resonating, what is unclear, etc. Thanks!

• What are your highlights / low-lights?
• Did we miss a highlight? Something else you want to react to?