Tech radar & tools of the trade, 2024 edition

A small list with the main technology and tools we use at HOW

The way a team works determines and is determined by the tools it uses. This dialectical relationship of mutual determination cannot be left to chance. At HOW, we try to understand our needs, understand what each tool provides us, and apply a critical process, which is usually the trial period of the tool under consideration, at the end of which we decide whether we are a good fit or not. We don’t have specific rules for this process, and since we are a relatively very new organization, the needs are at such a level that the tools are about a dozen.

Tech radar

• Ruby on Rails

  We love Ruby and Rails, the reasons are many. Let’s just say that after 20 years of use, we have confidence in the community that it will continue unabated to improve the language and gems!

• React

  We have no intention of closely following the ever-changing landscape of Javascript, nor have we been caught by some kind of FOMO. It just so happens that an excellent partner of ours brings a lot of experience in React to the team, and in two projects, we see benefits mainly through the wealth of libraries and themes that exist.

• Astro

  We tried Astro on the current website and were very pleased with the choices, speed, and maturity of the framework. We believe that in future static websites, we will prefer it again

• Fly

  We are very satisfied with the pricing and availability of Fly’s services for now.

Design

• Mui

  We are very pleased with Material UI for React. It requires some time investment at the beginning to get the project going, then the road is very smooth.

• LexingtonThemes

  LexingtonThemes is a project driven by Mike Andreuzza. Mike creates simple and beautiful themes based on Astro.js.

Tools

• Notion

  Notion is the best thing out there for organizing a small company - I say small because I don’t know how it responds to a larger scale, although I’m sure it won’t have a problem. From tasks, OKRs, internal wikis, calendar. Really excellent product and implementation. We recommend it unreservedly.

• Slack

  We want and prefer to be asynchronous. We like Slack and with proper organization and use, it is very useful!

• Google Workspace

  We consider document collaboration and email to be perfectly served by Google. We understand that there is an overlap between these three tools, but it seems to us that firstly, we can’t find one that does everything right, and secondly, it’s preferable to use the best tool for our appropriate need.

Interested in a tool mentioned above and wonder how it could help your organization? Reach out to our team, and let’s discuss our experiences and how we can help you integrate it!