Four Signals
Every engineering org sends four signals. Most CTOs only listen to one or two.
People. Process. Architecture. Measure.
Brand + Signal Palette
Orange is the brand. The four signal colors are used exclusively for content taxonomy.
Font System
JetBrains Mono for headings and UI, Source Serif 4 for body text.
Engineering Health Score
The Four Signals
Measuring What Matters
Every engineering organisation sends signals — whether they realise it or not. People, Process, Architecture, and Measure are the four dimensions I use to diagnose health, guide decisions, and drive improvement. No hand-waving. No gut instinct alone. Data-driven transformation.
const signals = ['people', 'process', 'architecture', 'measure'];
signals.forEach(signal => assess(signal));The Four Signals
Signals are content taxonomy. Brand orange is identity. Never mix them.
People
Culture, collaboration, psychological safety, team health
Process
Delivery flow, CI/CD, planning, lean practices
Architecture
System design, coupling, modernization, cloud-native
Measure
DORA metrics, scorecards, data-driven decisions
Tesseract Logo
The tesseract represents the four-dimensional nature of engineering health — all signals interconnected.
Blockquote
Used in blog posts for pull quotes and citations. Centered text with large amber curly quotes and card background.
You can't improve what you don't measure. That same scientific rigour now drives how I assess engineering organisations.
”Do's and Don'ts
Keep the brand system consistent across all touchpoints.
- Use brand orange for links, CTAs, the logo, and the tesseract
- Use signal colors only for content taxonomy (section headers, accent lines)
- Use JetBrains Mono for all headings and UI elements
- Use Source Serif 4 for body text
- Use CSS custom properties for all colors — never hardcode hex values
- Use signal colors for buttons, links, or brand elements
- Use brand orange as a signal color
- Use rounded corners — the design system uses sharp edges throughout
- Use the old BaseLayout — all pages should use LandingLayout + Nav + LandingFooter