Polish email marketing challenge and solution slides

Torey Heinz committed Feb 22, 2026

commit 07942ae64ec4d9d3bd7aa7a063ba1d83119f950b

Showing 1 changed file with 19 additions and 19 deletions

slides/03-real-world.html +19 -19

@@	@@ -30,9 +30,9 @@

	<section>
	<h2>Three Production Systems</h2>
-	<p class="muted">Same patterns, different domains</p>
+	<p class="muted">Going beyond basic CRUD apps</p>
	<ol>
-	<li class="fragment"><strong>Email Marketing</strong> — 500k+ personalized emails through AWS SES</li>
+	<li class="fragment"><strong>Email Marketing</strong> — 500k+ personalized emails</li>
	<li class="fragment"><strong>Domain Registry</strong> — TCP connections to Verisign</li>
	<li class="fragment"><strong>Internal Admin</strong> — Multi-site LiveView dashboard</li>
	</ol>
@@	@@ -47,44 +47,44 @@
	============================================= -->

	<section class="section-divider" data-transition="zoom">
-	<h2>3.1 — Email Marketing</h2>
+	<h2>Email Marketing</h2>
	<p>500,000+ personalized emails through AWS SES</p>

	<aside class="notes">
-	First system: our email marketing platform. This sends half a million personalized emails through AWS SES.
+	First system: our email marketing platform. This sends half a million personalized emails through
	</aside>
	</section>

	<section>
	<h2>The Challenge</h2>
-	<p>Send <strong>500,000+ personalized marketing emails</strong> through AWS SES.</p>
	<div class="callout fragment">
-	<p><strong>The catch:</strong> If you exceed your rate limit, AWS doesn't tell you — they <strong>silently drop your emails</strong>.</p>
+	<p>Send 500,000+ personalized marketing emails</p>
	</div>
	<ul>
-	<li class="fragment">Rate limiter that <strong>never</strong> exceeds the AWS SES sending rate</li>
-	<li class="fragment">Schedule and personalize hundreds of thousands of emails</li>
+	<li class="fragment">Emails need to be sent individually so each one is trackable.</li>
+	<li class="fragment">Ensure we send <strong>one and only one</strong> email per recipient!</li>
	<li class="fragment">Handle bounces, complaints, and delivery notifications</li>
-	<li class="fragment">Run concurrently without blocking the web app</li>
+	<li class="fragment">Each email generates 3–4 API requests — needs to run <strong>concurrently</strong> without blocking the app</li>
+	<li class="fragment">With AWS SES, if you exceed your rate limit, they...<br> <strong class="fragment">silently drop your emails</strong>.</li>
	</ul>

	<aside class="notes">
-	The key constraint: AWS SES silently drops emails if you exceed your rate limit. No error, nothing. So we need a rate limiter that's rock-solid, plus the ability to schedule and personalize half a million emails without blocking the web app.
+	The key constraint: AWS SES silently drops emails if you exceed your rate limit. No error, nothing. So we need a rate limiter that's rock-solid. We also need to handle bounces, complaints, and delivery notifications. Plus the ability to schedule and personalize half a million emails without blocking the web app.
	</aside>
	</section>

	<section>
-	<h2>The Architecture</h2>
+	<h2>Our Solution</h2>

-	<ol style="font-size: 0.65em; margin-top: 15px;">
-	<li class="fragment"><strong>Scheduler Worker</strong> queries DB, creates email jobs — in batches of 2,000</li>
+	<ul>
+	<li class="fragment"><strong>Scheduler Worker</strong> queries recipients, creates Oban jobs</li>
	<li class="fragment"><strong>Oban</strong> picks up each job and triggers a <strong>Mailer Worker</strong></li>
-	<li class="fragment"><strong>Mailer Worker</strong> handles one email: validate, personalize, rate-check, send</li>
-	<li class="fragment"><strong>Rate Limiter</strong> (GenServer) ensures we never exceed the AWS SES limit</li>
-	</ol>
+	<li class="fragment"><strong>Mailer Worker</strong> validate → personalize → rate-check → send</li>
+	<li class="fragment"><strong>Rate Limiter</strong> ensures we never exceed the AWS SES limit</li>
+	</ul>

	<aside class="notes">
-	Here's the architecture. A scheduler worker pulls member IDs from the database in chunks of 2,000 and creates individual email jobs. Each mailer worker handles one email — validate, personalize, check the rate limiter, send. The rate limiter is a GenServer that enforces the AWS SES sending rate. All supervised.
+	Here's our solution. A scheduler worker pulls member IDs from the database in chunks of 2,000 and creates individual email jobs. Each mailer worker handles one email — validate, personalize, check the rate limiter, send. The rate limiter is a GenServer that enforces the AWS SES sending rate. All supervised.
	</aside>
	</section>

@@	@@ -270,7 +270,7 @@ end
	============================================= -->

	<section class="section-divider" data-transition="zoom">
-	<h2>3.2 — Domain Registry</h2>
+	<h2>Domain Registry</h2>
	<p>TCP connections to Verisign</p>

	<aside class="notes">
@@	@@ -448,7 +448,7 @@ defp connection_healthy?(_conn), do: false
	============================================= -->

	<section class="section-divider" data-transition="zoom">
-	<h2>3.3 — Internal Admin</h2>
+	<h2>Internal Admin</h2>
	<p>Multi-site LiveView dashboard</p>

	<aside class="notes">