As systems grow, understanding what is actually happening in production becomes increasingly difficult. Many teams either lack visibility or overcomplicate their observability setup with expensive and hard-to-maintain tools. This webinar explores how startups can build observability that is truly useful — without adding unnecessary complexity or cost.
Speaker
Stanislav Korolev is a Golang Engineer at Avito, where he works on building scalable backend systems and focuses on practical observability approaches that help teams understand and operate their services in production.
Observability as a Tool for Speed
At the early stage, startups move fast and constantly evolve their product. The main challenge is not scaling infrastructure, but understanding what is happening right now. Without visibility, teams lose track of user behavior, miss issues, and make decisions based on assumptions. Observability becomes a way to react faster to real signals.
The Core Mistake
Many teams approach observability incorrectly. Some ignore it entirely, while others try to build complex systems too early. Both approaches slow teams down. The goal is not to build a perfect system, but to create enough visibility to support fast decision-making.
Focus on Meaningful Signals
Effective observability starts with focusing on what actually matters. This includes key product and system metrics — such as errors, latency, and user behavior — along with structured logs that help investigate issues. Dashboards should make this information easy to understand and act on. The goal is not to collect more data, but to make data useful.
Keep Architecture Simple
At the early stage, complexity is a bigger risk than lack of tooling. Heavy observability systems increase cost, slow down development, and require ongoing maintenance. A lightweight setup is often enough to detect problems, understand system behavior, and validate product decisions. More advanced solutions should come later, when they are actually needed.
From Data to Decisions
Observability is only valuable if it leads to action. Teams should be able to quickly identify issues, understand what changed, and decide what to do next. Without this, even well-collected data does not provide real value.
Conclusion
Observability at the early stage is not about scaling infrastructure — it is about moving faster with clarity. Startups do not need complex systems, but they do need clear signals and simple tools that help them understand their product in real time. The real value of observability lies not in how much data is collected, but in how effectively it helps teams take the next step.