Tech Lead Journal

“As a startup, as a scaleup, you often get one chance. If the first impression is something that’s slow, doesn’t work, is down entirely, people will move on and go find some other way to solve that problem."

Tim Cochran and Kennedy Collins are the co-authors of the “Bottlenecks of Scaleups” series published on Martin Fowler’s website. In this episode, we explore several key challenges faced by scaleups, such as product-engineering friction, service disruptions, accumulation of tech debt, and onboarding. Tim and Kennedy share their experiences and provide actionable advice on fostering collaboration, creating unified roadmaps, ensuring system reliability, and managing technical debt. They also emphasize the importance of efficient onboarding and developer experience in navigating the complexities of scaling up a startup.  

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:02:02]
• Definition of a Scaleup - [00:05:29]
• Bottleneck #1: Friction Between Product and Engineering - [00:08:24]
• Healthy Product-Engineering Tension - [00:13:36]
• Unified Product-Engineering Roadmap - [00:18:54]
• Bottleneck #2: Service Disruptions - [00:22:16]
• Cross Functional Attributes - [00:27:09]
• Bottleneck #3: Accumulation of Tech Debt - [00:32:39]
• Systems Ownership - [00:38:37]
• Bottleneck #4: Onboarding - [00:41:01]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:46:35]

_____

Tim Cochran’s Bio
Tim Cochran is a Principal in Amazon’s Software Builder Experience (ASBX) group. He was previously a Technical Director at Thoughtworks.

Tim has over 20 years of experience working with both scaleups and enterprises. He advises on technology strategy and making the right technology investments to enable digital transformation goals. He is a vocal advocate for the developer experience and passionate about using data-driven approaches to improve it.

Kennedy Collins' Bio
At Thoughtworks, he leads product and design for the Central Market of North America. A product manager by trade and a designer by training, he’s most interested in creating (and helping others create) useful and valuable things — be it software or organizational structures.

He’s also a bit of a nerd about strategy, human behavior, health and fitness, productivity, writing, coffee, cocktails, board games, and the history of product management.

Follow Tim:

• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/timcochran

Follow Kennedy:

• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/kennedycollins
• Twitter / X – @kennedycollins

_____

Our Sponsors

Enjoy an exceptional developer experience with JetBrains. Whatever programming language and technology you use, JetBrains IDEs provide the tools you need to go beyond simple code editing and excel as a developer.
Check out FREE coding software options and special offers on jetbrains.com/store/#discounts.
Make it happen. With code.

Manning Publications is a premier publisher of technical books on computer and software development topics for both experienced developers and new learners alike. Manning prides itself on being independently owned and operated, and for paving the way for innovative initiatives, such as early access book content and protection-free PDF formats that are now industry standard.
Get a 40% discount for Tech Lead Journal listeners by using the code techlead24 for all products in all formats.

Like this episode?

Show notes & transcript: techleadjournal.dev/episodes/179. Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. Buy me a coffee or become a patron.

“99% of us aren’t working in big tech. There’s this impression that everybody works in big tech. There’s a huge world of software development out there that almost gets forgotten about in social media."

John Crickett is the creator of “Coding Challenges” and a seasoned software engineer with over 30 years of experience. In this episode, John shares his diverse career path, including transitioning between individual contributor roles and management, founding his own business, and his passion for coding challenges.

John explains the benefits of building real-world applications over algorithm-based ones, emphasizing the importance of learning by doing. John also shares practical tips on time management for continuous learning and debunks the myth that most software engineers work in big tech.

We also explore the role of personal branding in today’s competitive job market. John provides tips on building a personal brand and leveraging social media to stay ahead in your tech career.

Finally, John shares his perspective on the impact of AI on software engineering and how we can leverage AI in our day-to-day tasks.

Whether you’re an aspiring developer or a seasoned professional, this episode provides practical advice and inspiration to help you level up in your tech career.  

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:01:51]
• John’s Multiple Roles Transition - [00:03:51]
• IC-Management Transition - [00:06:44]
• Importance of a Vision - [00:09:39]
• Lifestyle Business - [00:11:55]
• Coding Challenges - [00:13:30]
• Building Real-World Projects - [00:16:37]
• CodingChallenges.fyi - [00:18:39]
• Learning the Non-Functional Aspects - [00:21:17]
• Allocating Time to Learn - [00:24:04]
• Working for Non-Big Tech Companies - [00:27:15]
• Relevant Skills for Non-Big Tech - [00:30:39]
• AI Impact on Software Engineering Role - [00:34:44]
• AI for Coding Challenges - [00:38:21]
• Building Personal Brand - [00:39:54]
• How to Build Personal Brand - [00:44:28]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:49:25]

_____

John Crickett’s Bio
John Crickett is a software engineer and sometimes a manager of software engineers. He has worked as both a senior individual contributor (Staff+) and a senior manager (VP Engineering, Head of Software Development).

John writes about software engineering daily on LinkedIn and Twitter. He’s the founder of the popular “Coding Challenges” newsletter. Each week, John offers practical coding challenges to help software engineers enhance their skills through building real-world applications.

Follow John:

• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/johncrickett/
• Twitter/X – x.com/johncrickett
• Coding Challenges – codingchallenges.fyi
• Developing Skills – developingskills.substack.com

_____

Our Sponsors

Enjoy an exceptional developer experience with JetBrains. Whatever programming language and technology you use, JetBrains IDEs provide the tools you need to go beyond simple code editing and excel as a developer.
Check out FREE coding software options and special offers on jetbrains.com/store/#discounts.
Make it happen. With code.

Manning Publications is a premier publisher of technical books on computer and software development topics for both experienced developers and new learners alike. Manning prides itself on being independently owned and operated, and for paving the way for innovative initiatives, such as early access book content and protection-free PDF formats that are now industry standard.
Get a 40% discount for Tech Lead Journal listeners by using the code techlead24 for all products in all formats.

Like this episode?

Show notes & transcript: techleadjournal.dev/episodes/178. Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. Buy me a coffee or become a patron.

“Every software gets more complex over time. What we need to do as engineers is to find ways so that we can work with increasing complexity, but not increasing the cost of maintaining the software."

Mauricio Aniche returns to the podcast for the second time and discuss with me his latest book, “Simple Object-Oriented Design”. Our discussion explores the intricacies of software design and shares practical strategies to manage software complexity through effective object-oriented design.

Mauricio delves into the six key principles of a simple object-oriented design: making code small, keeping objects consistent, managing dependencies, designing good abstractions, handling external dependencies, and achieving modularisation.

This episode is a must-listen for anyone seeking to deepen their understanding of object-oriented design and maintaining simplicity in their codebase!  

Listen out for:

• Simple Object-Oriented Design Book - [00:03:19]
• No Perfect Code Design - [00:04:51]
• Managing Complexity - [00:06:37]
• Object-Oriented Design - [00:08:24]
• Design as an Everyday Activity - [00:09:43]
• Effective Iterative Design - [00:12:31]
• Refactoring - [00:14:31]
• 6 Principles of a Simple Object-Oriented Design - [00:16:40]
• Principle #1: Making Code Small - [00:21:06]
• Arguments Against Smaller Units - [00:23:18]
• Principle #2: Keeping Objects Consistent - [00:26:25]
• Don’t Fight Your Framework - [00:30:03]
• Principle #3: Managing Dependencies - [00:32:05]
• Separate High-Level (What) and Low-Level Code (How) - [00:33:34]
• Principle #4: Designing Good Abstractions - [00:36:31]
• Finding the Balance in Abstraction - [00:38:39]
• Principle #5: Handling External Dependencies and Infrastructure - [00:41:05]
• Principle #6: Achieving Modularisation - [00:45:12]
• Owing to Junior Developers - [00:49:18]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:50:32]

_____

Mauricio Aniche’s Bio
Dr. Maurício Aniche’s life mission is to help software engineers to become better and more productive. Maurício is a Tech Lead at Adyen, where he heads the Tech Academy team and leads different engineering enablement initiatives. He is the author of the “Effective Software Testing: A Developer’s Guide” and “Simple Object-Oriented Design” published by Manning.

Maurício previously held a position as an assistant professor of software engineering at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, where his teaching efforts in software testing gave him the Computer Science Teacher of the Year 2021 award and the TU Delft Education Fellowship, a prestigious fellowship given to innovative lecturers.

Follow Mauricio:

• Website – mauricioaniche.com
• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/mauricioaniche
• Twitter / X – @mauricioaniche
• Simple Object-Oriented Design – https://www.manning.com/books/simple-object-oriented-design

_____

Our Sponsors

Enjoy an exceptional developer experience with JetBrains. Whatever programming language and technology you use, JetBrains IDEs provide the tools you need to go beyond simple code editing and excel as a developer.
Check out FREE coding software options and special offers on jetbrains.com/store/#discounts.
Make it happen. With code.

Manning Publications is a premier publisher of technical books on computer and software development topics for both experienced developers and new learners alike. Manning prides itself on being independently owned and operated, and for paving the way for innovative initiatives, such as early access book content and protection-free PDF formats that are now industry standard.
Get a 45% discount for Tech Lead Journal listeners by using the code techlead45 for all products in all formats.

Like this episode?

Show notes & transcript: techleadjournal.dev/episodes/177. Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. Buy me a coffee or become a patron.

“Always remember that system design interview is not about perfection. It is about trade-offs and being able to communicate them clearly and concisely."

Zhiyong Tan is the author of “Acing the System Design Interview”. In this episode, he joins me in demystifying the system design interview process. He shares insights into what to expect, how to tackle common challenges like time management, anxiety, and knowledge gaps, and reveals the core principles that guide successful system design interview.

Zhiyong dives deep into common pitfalls, offering advice on handling tricky topics like requirements gathering, data consistency, scaling problems, and service design. He also provides practical tips on how to learn and grow from system design interview failures, turning setbacks into stepping stones towards success.

Whether you’re a seasoned engineer or just starting your tech career, this episode offers valuable insights and actionable advice to help you ace your next system design interview.  

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:01:43]
• System Design Interview - [00:05:03]
• Trade-offs - [00:07:36]
• Managing the Time - [00:09:51]
• Handling What You Don’t Know - [00:13:27]
• Managing Anxiety - [00:15:40]
• System Design Interview Principles - [00:18:32]
• Non-Functional Requirements - [00:21:22]
• Data Consistency - [00:25:11]
• Database Scaling Problem - [00:28:41]
• Distributed Transactions - [00:33:09]
• Functional Requirements & API Design - [00:36:31]
• Failing System Design Interview - [00:38:38]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:42:02]

_____

Zhiyong Tan’s Bio
Zhiyong Tan is the author of Acing the System Design Interview. He is the founder of Tingxie, an app for learning Chinese as a second language. Previously, he was an Engineering Manager and Staff Engineer at PayPal, a senior software engineer at Uber, and a software and data engineer at various startups.

Follow Zhiyong:

• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/zytan
• Acing System Design Interview – https://www.manning.com/books/acing-the-system-design-interview
• Tingxie (iOS) – https://apps.apple.com/us/app/%E5%90%AC%E5%86%99-chinese-spelling-dictation/id6462944919
• Tingxie (Android) – https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.zhiyong.tingxie
• Jointgoals.com – https://www.jointgoals.com/
• Manning forum – https://livebook.manning.com/forum

_____

Our Sponsors

Enjoy an exceptional developer experience with JetBrains. Whatever programming language and technology you use, JetBrains IDEs provide the tools you need to go beyond simple code editing and excel as a developer.
Check out FREE coding software options and special offers on jetbrains.com/store/#discounts.
Make it happen. With code.

Manning Publications is a premier publisher of technical books on computer and software development topics for both experienced developers and new learners alike. Manning prides itself on being independently owned and operated, and for paving the way for innovative initiatives, such as early access book content and protection-free PDF formats that are now industry standard.
Get a 45% discount for Tech Lead Journal listeners by using the code techlead45 for all products in all formats.

Like this episode?

Show notes & transcript: techleadjournal.dev/episodes/176. Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. Buy me a coffee or become a patron.

“All data scientists and analysts should spend more time in the business, outside the data sets, just to see how the actual business works. Because then you have the context, and then you understand the columns you’re seeing in the data."

David Asboth, author of “Solve Any Data Analysis Problem” and co-host of the “Half Stack Data Science” podcast, shares practical tips for solving real-world data analysis challenges. He highlights the gap between academic training and industry demands, emphasizing the importance of understanding the business problem and maintaining a results-driven approach.

David offers practical insights on data dictionary, data modeling, data cleaning, data lake, and prediction analysis. We also explore AI’s impact on data analysis and the importance of critical thinking when leveraging AI solutions. Tune in to level up your skills and become an indispensable, results-driven data analyst.  

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:01:38]
• Half Stack Data Science Podcast - [00:06:33]
• Real-World Data Analysis Gaps - [00:10:46]
• Understanding the Business/Problem - [00:15:36]
• Result-Driven Data Analysis - [00:18:28]
• Feedback Iteration - [00:21:44]
• Data Dictionary - [00:23:48]
• Data Modeling - [00:27:18]
• Data Cleaning - [00:30:43]
• Data Lake - [00:35:05]
• Common Data Analysis Tasks - [00:36:50]
• Prediction Analysis - [00:40:23]
• The Impact of AI on Data Analysis - [00:43:15]
• Importance of Critical Thinking - [00:47:05]
• Common Tasks Solved by AI - [00:50:07]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:53:10]

_____

David Asboth’s Bio
David is a “data generalist”; currently a freelance data consultant and educator with an MSc. in Data Science and a background in software and web development. With over 6 years experience teaching, he has taught everyone from junior analysts up to C-level executives in industries like banking and management consulting about how to successfully apply data science, machine learning, and AI to their day-to-day roles. He co-hosts the Half Stack Data Science podcast about data science in the real world and is the author of Solve Any Data Analysis Problem, a book about the data skills that aspiring analysts actually need in their jobs, which will be published by Manning in 2024.

Follow David:

• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/david-asboth-9256772
• Website – davidasboth.com
• Podcast – halfstackdatascience.com

_____

Our Sponsors

Manning Publications is a premier publisher of technical books on computer and software development topics for both experienced developers and new learners alike. Manning prides itself on being independently owned and operated, and for paving the way for innovative initiatives, such as early access book content and protection-free PDF formats that are now industry standard.
Get a 45% discount for Tech Lead Journal listeners by using the code techlead45 for all products in all formats.

Like this episode?

Show notes & transcript: techleadjournal.dev/episodes/175. Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. Buy me a coffee or become a patron.

“Raise the bar of the team so that they bring sustainable practices. If your code stinks, no matter how you desire to be agile, you cannot respond to the change."

Dr. Venkat Subramaniam is a renowned figure in the software development community, an award-winning author and founder of Agile Developer, Inc. In this episode, Venkat sheds light on the frequently overlooked challenges of software development and provides valuable insights for succeeding in the field. We delve into the misalignment between understanding and practising agile development, the quality gaps that exist between software developers in the industry, the essential technical practices that often get neglected, and the critical role of software architects and technical leaders in steering successful software projects and teams.

If you’re ready for some hard-hitting truths and actionable advice to elevate your software development game, this episode is a must-listen.  

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:01:51]
• State of Agile Development - [00:03:36]
• Agile Development Misalignment - [00:07:04]
• The Developers' Gap - [00:15:55]
• Important Technical Practices - [00:26:37]
• The Role of an Architect - [00:36:04]
• The Role of Technical Leaders - [00:44:04]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:51:19]

_____

Venkat Subramaniam’s Bio
Dr. Venkat Subramaniam is an award-winning author, founder of Agile Developer, Inc., an instructional professor at the University of Houston, and the creator of the dev2next conference.

He has trained and mentored thousands of software developers in the US, Canada, Europe, and Asia, and is a regularly-invited speaker at several international conferences. Venkat helps his clients effectively apply and succeed with sustainable agile practices on their software projects.

Venkat is a (co)author of multiple technical books, including the 2007 Jolt Productivity award winning book Practices of an Agile Developer. You can find a list of his books at https://www.agiledeveloper.com. You can reach him by email at [email protected] or on Twitter/X at @venkat_s.

Follow Dr. Venkat:

• Website – www.agiledeveloper.com
• Twitter / X – @venkat_s
• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/vsubramaniam
• Email – [email protected]

_____

Our Sponsors

Manning Publications is a premier publisher of technical books on computer and software development topics for both experienced developers and new learners alike. Manning prides itself on being independently owned and operated, and for paving the way for innovative initiatives, such as early access book content and protection-free PDF formats that are now industry standard.
Get a 45% discount for Tech Lead Journal listeners by using the code techlead45 for all products in all formats.

Like this episode?

Show notes & transcript: techleadjournal.dev/episodes/174. Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. Buy me a coffee or become a patron.

“Three characteristics of an organization that is operating with maximal effectiveness are value, clarity, and flow."

Are you feeling the strain of growth? Struggling to maintain alignment and efficiency as your organization scales? In this episode, I sit down with Steve Pereira and Andrew Davis, authors of the groundbreaking new book, “Flow Engineering”.

Learn why traditional scaling methods focusing on rigid coordination can actually hinder progress and how flow engineering offers a solution. We delve into the challenges and paradox of scaling, the core principles of flow engineering, its five primary mapping techniques, and the leadership mindset shift required to create a culture of flow engineering.

If you’re looking to overcome misalignment and optimize performance as you scale, this episode is a must-listen!  

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:01:33]
• The Problem with Scale - [00:07:12]
• The Dangers of Increasing Coordination - [00:14:49]
• The Paradox of Scale - [00:19:58]
• Flow Engineering - [00:23:34]
• 5 Primary Maps - [00:27:50]
• The Biggest Impact Maps - [00:32:31]
• All Maps are Wrong - [00:38:23]
• 5 Principles of Flow Engineering - [00:40:11]
• Leading Flow Engineering - [00:46:00]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:52:53]

_____

Steve Pereira’s Bio
Steve Pereira has spent over two decades improving the flow of work across organizations. He’s worked through tech support, IT management, build and release engineering, and as a founding CTO for enterprise SaaS. After shifting to consulting large enterprises on value stream performance improvement, he created Flow Engineering to make value stream mapping simple, quick, and actionable. He serves as lead consultant for Visible Value Stream Consulting, as a board advisor to the Value Stream Management Consortium, Chair of the OASIS Value Stream Management Interoperability technical committee, and co-founder of the Flow Collective to bring flow-focused professionals together.

Andrew Davis’s Bio
Andrew Davis is a Salesforce DevOps specialist who’s passionate about helping teams deliver innovation, build trust, and improve their performance. After studying engineering at Virginia Tech and Johns Hopkins he became a Buddhist monk, teaching and building meditation communities for almost 15 years. Since 2014, he’s focused on the Salesforce platform as a developer, consultant, and architect. He launched Wipro’s Salesforce DevOps practice, and focuses on promoting modern development practices for Salesforce. He is the Chief Product Officer for AutoRABIT, helping people understand the importance of DevOps for scaling Salesforce implementations. He lives in San Diego with his amazing wife and very cuddly dog.

Follow Steve and Andrew:

• Website – flowengineering.org
• Steve’s LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/devopsto
• Andrew’s LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/andrewdavis-io
• Andrew’s Twitter/ X – @AndrewDavis_io

_____

Our Sponsors

Manning Publications is a premier publisher of technical books on computer and software development topics for both experienced developers and new learners alike. Manning prides itself on being independently owned and operated, and for paving the way for innovative initiatives, such as early access book content and protection-free PDF formats that are now industry standard.
Get a 45% discount for Tech Lead Journal listeners by using the code techlead45 for all products in all formats.

Like this episode?

Show notes & transcript: techleadjournal.dev/episodes/173. Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. Buy me a coffee or become a patron.

“The quality is connected to the risk, and the risk is connected to the testing. If we don’t keep an eye on quality, our testing and development will drift, because we are no longer building the thing that people care about anymore."

Mark Winteringham is a quality engineer and the author of “Testing Web APIs”. In this episode, discover how holistic, risk-based testing strategies can transform your software quality. Mark explains how to prioritize our testing by understanding what users truly value and translating that into different risk-based testing strategies, such as testing API design, exploratory testing, automated testing, and acceptance test-driven design (ATDD). Mark also reveals the testing Venn diagram as our testing strategic roadmap. Finally, get a glimpse of Mark’s upcoming book “AI-Assisted Testing” and learn how AI will evolve the roles of testers and developers.  

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:01:24]
• Writing “Testing Web APIs” - [00:05:17]
• Holistic Testing Strategy - [00:07:48]
• Start With Understanding the Problem - [00:11:02]
• Testing Venn Diagram Model - [00:14:11]
• Risk-Based Testing - [00:18:22]
• Defining Quality & Quality Attributes - [00:22:29]
• Testing API Design - [00:26:41]
• Exploratory Testing - [00:32:08]
• Automated Testing - [00:36:18]
• Acceptance Test-Driven Design (ATDD) - [00:41:54]
• “AI-Assisted Testing” Book - [00:45:51]
• Evolution of Developer and Tester Roles - [00:48:46]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:53:51]

_____

Mark Winteringham’s Bio
Mark Winteringham is a quality engineer, course director, and author of “AI Assisted Testing” and “Testing Web APIs”, with over 10 years of experience providing testing expertise on award-winning projects across a wide range of technology sectors. He is an advocate for modern risk-based testing practices, holistic based Automation strategies, Behaviour Driven Development and Exploratory testing techniques.

Follow Mark:

• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/markwinteringham/
• Twitter / X – @2bittester
• Website – mwtestconsultancy.co.uk

_____

Our Sponsors

Manning Publications is a premier publisher of technical books on computer and software development topics for both experienced developers and new learners alike. Manning prides itself on being independently owned and operated, and for paving the way for innovative initiatives, such as early access book content and protection-free PDF formats that are now industry standard.
Get a 45% discount for Tech Lead Journal listeners by using the code techlead45 for all products in all formats.

Like this episode?

Show notes & transcript: techleadjournal.dev/episodes/172. Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. Buy me a coffee or become a patron.

“Bureaucracy in itself is neither good nor bad. However, it often gets in the way and prevents important things you need to do. A good bureaucracy is lean, learning, and enabling."

Mark Schwartz is an Enterprise Strategist at AWS and the author of multiple books from IT Revolution. In this episode, we discuss his two latest books on the topics of bureaucracy and ethics. Mark begins by sharing his perspective on the impact of bureaucracy on digital transformation. He explains the definition of bureaucracy and why it tends to have a negative connotation. Mark describes the characteristics of a good bureaucracy and how leaders can play an important role in managing bureaucracy.

Next, Mark shares his reasons for writing about ethics in his latest book, why it is becoming more relevant in the digital world, and how leaders can make better ethical decisions in the current fast-paced business world.  

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:01:22]
• State of Digital Transformation - [00:04:33]
• Bureaucracy - [00:08:31]
• Bureaucracy and Process Improvement - [00:13:14]
• IT as the Biggest Bureaucrats - [00:15:30]
• Bureaucracy Creates Business Value - [00:18:09]
• Characteristics of Good Bureaucracy - [00:20:40]
• Leaders' Roles Towards Bureaucracy - [00:26:05]
• Writing About Ethics - [00:34:10]
• How to Make Ethical Decisions - [00:41:12]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:54:21]

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Mark Schwartz’s Bio
Mark Schwartz is an iconoclastic CIO and a playful crafter of ideas, an inveterate purveyor of lucubratory prose. He has been an IT leader in organizations small and large, public, private, and nonprofit. As an Enterprise Strategist for Amazon Web Services, he uses his CIO experience to bring strategies to enterprises or enterprises to strategies, and bring both to the cloud. As the CIO of US Citizenship and Immigration Services, he provoked the federal government into adopting Agile and DevOps practices.

Mark speaks frequently on innovation, bureaucratic implications of DevOps, and using Agile processes in low-trust environments. With a BS in computer science from Yale, a master’s in philosophy from Yale, and an MBA from Wharton, Mark is either an expert on the business value of IT or else he just thinks about it a lot.

Follow Mark:

• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/innovativecio

_____

Our Sponsors

Manning Publications is a premier publisher of technical books on computer and software development topics for both experienced developers and new learners alike. Manning prides itself on being independently owned and operated, and for paving the way for innovative initiatives, such as early access book content and protection-free PDF formats that are now industry standard.
Get a 45% discount for Tech Lead Journal listeners by using the code techlead45 for all products in all formats.

Like this episode?

Show notes & transcript: techleadjournal.dev/episodes/171. Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. Buy me a coffee or become a patron.

“Soft skills are always going to be those ladders for you to climb in your career, whereas your tech skills can turn into snakes, meaning you’ve got to start again with another skill."

Jacqui Read, author of “Communication Patterns,” joins in this episode to discuss why strong communication skills are crucial for developers and technical leaders, often surpassing the importance of merely technical expertise. We delve into four key communication areas: visual communication, multimodal communication, communicating knowledge, and communicating remotely. During the discussion, Jacqui suggests several practical patterns you can immediately implement to level up your communication skills, such as knowing your audience, the big picture comes first, and perspective-driven documentation.  

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:01:40]
• Architecture Kata - [00:03:17]
• Writing Communication Patterns - [00:05:03]
• Importance of Soft Skills - [00:07:33]
• Visual Communication - [00:09:24]
• Visual Communication Essentials - [00:12:12]
• Visual Narrative - [00:17:46]
• Multimodal Communication - [00:21:09]
• Verbal & Non-Verbal Communication - [00:26:29]
• Encoding & Decoding - [00:29:58]
• Communicating Knowledge - [00:32:22]
• Tips for Capturing Knowledge - [00:40:14]
• Get Feedback Early & Just-in-Time - [00:43:05]
• Communicating Remotely - [00:48:59]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:54:23]

_____

Jacqui Read’s Bio
Jacqui Read is an internationally-recognised solution and enterprise architect, and author of Communication Patterns: A Guide for Developers and Architects. She teaches public and private workshops and speaks at international conferences on topics such as architecture practices, technical communication, and systems design. Jacqui specialises in untangling and extracting value from data and knowledge, helping businesses to determine direction in complex environments.

Her professional interests include collaborative modelling, knowledge management, Domain-Driven Design, sociotechnical architecture, and modernising enterprise architecture practices. Outside of work she enjoys gardening and strumming her ukulele while singing at the same time.

Follow Jacqui:

• Personal Website – jacquiread.com
• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/jacquelineread
• Book’s Website – communicationpatternsbook.com

_____

Our Sponsors

Manning Publications is a premier publisher of technical books on computer and software development topics for both experienced developers and new learners alike. Manning prides itself on being independently owned and operated, and for paving the way for innovative initiatives, such as early access book content and protection-free PDF formats that are now industry standard.
Get a 45% discount for Tech Lead Journal listeners by using the code techlead45 for all products in all formats.

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Show notes & transcript: techleadjournal.dev/episodes/170. Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. Buy me a coffee or become a patron.

“As technology has become more and more pervasive, experience has become more and more important. And if companies don’t think of the experience, then users don’t think of the company."

Satyam Kantamneni is the CEO of UXReactor and the author of “User Experience Design”. In this episode, Satyam delves into the power of user experience design to drive business growth and value. Satyam explains why user experience design is paramount for success and reveals the common gaps that prevent companies from truly becoming user-centric. He dissects the concept of Experience Value Chain, illustrating the levels of UX (user experience), PX (product experience), and XT (experience transformation).

Satyam provides insights into how experience-driven organizations establish strong business moats and unlock incredible business values. He defines the concept of experience debt, urging organizations to prioritize a relentless pursuit of magical user experiences. Satyam also shares the PragmaticUX playbook and mindsets, providing a roadmap for organizations seeking to embark on the transformative journey towards XT.  

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:01:13]
• State of UX and Design - [00:02:35]
• The Gap for Being User-Centered - [00:04:51]
• Experience Value Chain - [00:09:09]
• Moving Beyond Just UI - [00:12:30]
• Trinity of Collaboration - [00:15:30]
• 3 Levels of Experience - [00:18:58]
• Experience Debt - [00:21:40]
• Experience Transformation (XT) - [00:24:16]
• XT & Business Moat - [00:28:04]
• PragmaticUX Playbook - [00:30:58]
• PragmaticUX Mindsets - [00:34:14]
• Organization’s Empathy - [00:40:14]
• Getting User’s Feedback - [00:43:24]
• Tips to Get Started - [00:45:04]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:47:10]

_____

Satyam Kantamneni’s Bio
Satyam is the Chief Experience Officer at UXReactor. In less than 7 years, UXReactor has become the fastest growing specialized experience design firm in the US, with a team of 50+ employees spread over three continents. Through UXReactor, Satyam demonstrated that UX can and should drive enterprise-wide innovation and business outcomes. UXReactor has enabled its clients-partners to generate hundreds of millions in additional revenue from user-centered innovation. Satyam is passionate about user-centered innovation, and he authored a book titled User Experience Playbook: A Practical to Fuel Business Growth.

Follow Satyam:

• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/kantamneni
• UXReactor – uxreactor.com

_____

Our Sponsors

Manning Publications is a premier publisher of technical books on computer and software development topics for both experienced developers and new learners alike. Manning prides itself on being independently owned and operated, and for paving the way for innovative initiatives, such as early access book content and protection-free PDF formats that are now industry standard.
Get a 45% discount for Tech Lead Journal listeners by using the code techlead45 for all products in all formats.

Like this episode?

Show notes & transcript: techleadjournal.dev/episodes/169. Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. Buy me a coffee or become a patron.

“If you can outsource it and if it’s not something that makes you different, you should use a service, because you’ll always be asked to do more things than you can build that are differentiated to your organization.”

Are you ever frustrated by your software development team getting bogged down doing undifferentiated tasks, leaving less time for innovation? In this episode, Joseph Emison, co-founder and CTO of Branch Insurance and author of “Serverless as a Game Changer,” suggests how serverless technology can streamline the way we do software development.

Joe starts by explaining the existing gap between the best and average software development teams, highlighting how teams often prioritize undifferentiated tasks instead of focusing on what truly sets them apart. He challenges the conventional wisdom that code is an asset and explains why it can be a liability.

Joe breaks down the definition of serverless technology and delves into the real costs of software development. He addresses a few of the most commonly raised objections to adopting serverless: lock-in, security, and uptime. You’ll also learn the Branch development principle and how they successfully implement serverless architecture and gain many benefits from the approach.

This episode is a must-listen for any developer or engineering leader looking to gain an understanding of serverless technology and revolutionize the way we approach software development.  

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:01:09]
• Writing “Serverless as a Game Changer” - [00:04:25]
• Software Development Teams Gap - [00:11:07]
• Differentiated vs Undifferentiated - [00:14:52]
• The Real Costs of Software Development - [00:19:57]
• The Serverless Mindset - [00:24:58]
• Code is a Liability - [00:27:44]
• Infrastructure as a Code - [00:31:06]
• Serverless Definition - [00:32:29]
• Serverless Security Objections - [00:36:22]
• Serverless Uptime Objections - [00:40:30]
• Branch Development Principle - [00:45:22]
• Hiring Junior Developers - [00:48:39]
• Branch’s Cloud Bill - [00:54:06]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:55:27]

_____

Joseph Emison’s Bio
Joe Emison is the co-founder and CTO of Branch Insurance, a B corporation and insurance carrier that makes it simple to bundle home and auto insurance. Previously, Joe founded BuildFax (acquired by Verisk), Spaceful (acquired by DMGT), and BluePrince (acquired by Harris Computer). Joe is also the author of “Serverless as a Game Changer: How to Get the Most out of the Cloud”.

Follow Joe:

• Twitter / X – @JoeEmison
• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/joemastersemison
• Serverless as a Game Changer: How to Get the Most Out of The Cloud – https://www.amazon.com/dp/0137392621/

_____

Our Sponsors

Manning Publications is a premier publisher of technical books on computer and software development topics for both experienced developers and new learners alike. Manning prides itself on being independently owned and operated, and for paving the way for innovative initiatives, such as early access book content and protection-free PDF formats that are now industry standard.
Get a 45% discount for Tech Lead Journal listeners by using the code techlead45 for all products in all formats.

Like this episode?

Show notes & transcript: techleadjournal.dev/episodes/168. Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. Buy me a coffee or become a patron.

“A blind spot is the gap between your intention and your impact. The more you can narrow the gap, the more you’re going to be able to be effective in your role and drive more performance."

Marisa Murray is the CEO of Leaderley and the author of “Blind Spots”. In this episode, Marisa delves into blind spots and explains why leaders must uncover them to become truly effective and great. She describes a blind spot as the gap between our intention and impact, and explains how it can be difficult for leaders to get feedback about their blind spots.

Marisa shares the 7 different blind spots from her book and dives deeper into three of them in this conversation: false assumptions, unhealthy detachments, and mismatched mindsets. Marisa also suggests how we can cultivate a culture to help us uncover our blind spots and also shares her practical tips for acknowledging positive intent.  

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:01:46]
• Writing “Blind Spots” - [00:07:05]
• Blind Spot - [00:10:08]
• Intention and Impact - [00:11:51]
• Strengths and Blind Spots - [00:14:48]
• Getting Feedback for Leaders - [00:18:45]
• 7 Blind Spots - [00:23:07]
• Bias and Blind Spot - [00:29:43]
• False Assumptions - [00:31:41]
• Unhealthy Detachment - [00:35:28]
• Mismatched Mindsets - [00:41:34]
• Uncovering Our Blind Spots - [00:45:05]
• The 3As of an Iteractive Leader - [00:48:12]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:49:33]

_____

Marisa Murray’s Bio
Marisa Murray P. Eng., MBA, PCC is a leadership development expert and the CEO of Leaderley International, an organization dedicated to helping executives become better leaders in today’s rapidly changing, highly complex world. Marisa leverages her over two decades of executive experience as a former Partner with Accenture and VP at Bell Canada in providing executive coaching, and leadership development services for organizations including Molson-Coors, Pratt & Whitney and Queen’s University.

Follow Marisa:

• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/murraymarisa
• Leaderley International – www.leaderley.com
• Weekly Leaderley tips – https://www.leaderley.com/leadership-tips
• Get feedback for free at https://www.leaderley.com/FeedbackFriend

_____

Our Sponsors

Manning Publications is a premier publisher of technical books on computer and software development topics for both experienced developers and new learners alike. Manning prides itself on being independently owned and operated, and for paving the way for innovative initiatives, such as early access book content and protection-free PDF formats that are now industry standard.
Get a 45% discount for Tech Lead Journal listeners by using the code techlead45 for all products in all formats.

Like this episode?

Show notes & transcript: techleadjournal.dev/episodes/167. Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. Buy me a coffee or become a patron.

“Kanban is a strategy for optimizing the flow of value to your customers by focusing on three main goals: efficiency, effectiveness, and predictability."

Colleen Johnson is the CEO of ProKanban, and in this episode, we delve into the fundamentals of Kanban and how you can use it to optimize your workflow. We start by defining Kanban and exploring its core principles. You’ll learn why work item age is the single most important aspect you should track in Kanban. Colleen then explains the concept of Service Level Expectation (SLE) and how it can improve predictability and client satisfaction. We also discuss the importance of smaller batch sizes, defining workflow policies, handling blockers, and the benefits of completing already started work items to optimize flow.

We also touch on scaling Kanban beyond an individual team and discuss why Kanban is suitable for navigating unpredictable situations like the current economic climate. Towards the end, Colleen shares Women in Kanban, a community and scholarship programme to empower women to excel in Kanban.  

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:01:18]
• Kanban - [00:04:24]
• Work Item Age - [00:04:59]
• Calculating Work Item Age - [00:10:20]
• Small Batch Size - [00:13:08]
• Service Level Expectation (SLE) - [00:16:54]
• Managing Blockers - [00:21:05]
• Stop Pulling More, Finish Open Work Items - [00:24:46]
• Optimizing Flow - [00:28:14]
• Scaling Kanban Beyond a Team - [00:30:17]
• Kanban in the Current Tough Time - [00:34:37]
• Tools to Get Started - [00:37:21]
• Women in Kanban - [00:39:33]
• Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:41:45]

_____

Colleen Johnson’s Bio
Colleen is the CEO of ProKanban.org, an inclusive Kanban learning community. She is also co-founder of ScatterSpoke, a proud Atlassian Ventures Portfolio company driving actionable improvements through retrospective data. She has presented and taught agile to audiences around the world. As a coach, she has worked across a range of industries with clients like Wells Fargo, eTrade, Home Depot, Tanium, Gemini, and more. Colleen helps organizations apply a systems thinking approach to aligning agile methodologies end-to-end. She has served as a board member for Agile Denver, the Agile Uprising, and chair of the Mile High Agile Conference. She is happiest in the woods, camping with her three kids and very patient husband.

Follow Colleen:

• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/colleen-johnson/
• Twitter – @scrumhive
• Threads – @colleenrae.j
• ProKanban – prokanban.org
• Women in Kanban – https://prokanban.org/women-in-kanban/

_____

Our Sponsors

Manning Publications is a premier publisher of technical books on computer and software development topics for both experienced developers and new learners alike. Manning prides itself on being independently owned and operated, and for paving the way for innovative initiatives, such as early access book content and protection-free PDF formats that are now industry standard.
Get a 45% discount for Tech Lead Journal listeners by using the code techlead45 for all products in all formats.

Like this episode?

Show notes & transcript: techleadjournal.dev/episodes/166. Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. Buy me a coffee or become a patron.

“As software engineers, only a fraction of your time is spent coding. A lot of your time is spent thinking. And I’m not seeing LLMs taking that away from us anytime soon, at least, for now."

Can AI help you learn to code? Will AI take your developer job? Join me discussing these topics with Leo Porter and Daniel Zingaro, the co-authors of “Learning AI-Assisted Python Programming”.

In this episode, we discuss the impact of AI assistants on how we learn and approach programming, particularly for students and educators. We examine the shifting skillset of developers, emphasizing the importance of code reading, specification, testing, and problem decomposition over syntax and library semantics.

We also confront critical questions like the ethical implications of AI, the potential impact on developers’ job, and whether it can help lead us to a more equitable society.  

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:01:11]
• AI Assistant - [00:07:55]
• How AI Assistant Affect Student - [00:11:04]
• Problem Decomposition Skill - [00:16:46]
• How LLM Works - [00:19:47]
• Prompt Engineering - [00:23:36]
• Automating Tedious Tasks - [00:29:29]
• AI Ethical Issues - [00:33:30]
• AI Replacing Developers - [00:40:08]
• A More Equitable Society - [00:47:34]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:55:58]

_____

Leo Porter’s Bio
Leo Porter is a Teaching Professor in the Computer Science and Engineering Department at UC San Diego. He is best known for his award-winning research on the impact of Peer Instruction in computing courses, the use of clicker data to predict student outcomes, and the development of the Basic Data Structures Concept Inventory. He co-wrote the first book on integrating LLMs into the instruction of programming with Daniel Zingaro, entitled “Learn AI-Assisted Python Programming: With GitHub Copilot and ChatGPT”. He also co-teaches popular Coursera and edX courses with over 500,000 enrolled learners. He is a Distinguished Member of the ACM.

Daniel Zingaro’s Bio
Dr. Daniel Zingaro is an award-winning Associate Teaching Professor of Mathematical and Computational Sciences at the University of Toronto Mississauga. He is well known for his uniquely interactive approach to teaching and internationally recognized for his expertise in active learning. He is the co-author of “Learn AI-Assisted Python Programming” (Manning Publications, 2023), author of “Algorithmic Thinking” 2/e (No Starch Press, 2024), co-author of “Start Competitive Programming!” (self-published, 2024), and author of Learn to Code by Solving Problems (No Starch Press, 2021).

Follow Leo & Daniel:

• Leo’s LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/leoporter/
• Daniel’s LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/danielzingaro

_____

Our Sponsors

Manning Publications is a premier publisher of technical books on computer and software development topics for both experienced developers and new learners alike. Manning prides itself on being independently owned and operated, and for paving the way for innovative initiatives, such as early access book content and protection-free PDF formats that are now industry standard.
Get a 45% discount for Tech Lead Journal listeners by using the code techlead45 for all products in all formats.

Like this episode?

Show notes & transcript: techleadjournal.dev/episodes/165. Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. Buy me a coffee or become a patron.

“The number one result of a good lead is reduced technical debt. Seeing technical debt just melts away and then stops occurring in the future. If you are a good lead, your systems will be stable all the time.”

Are you a developer ready to step up and lead? Join us as we explore the world of lead development with Shelley Benhoff, author of “Lead Developer Career Guide”.

In this episode, Shelley sheds light on the core responsibilities of a lead developer, clarifying the distinctions between different leadership titles within the field. We discuss the must-have leadership and mentoring skills you need to transform you into an inspiring leader. Shelley defines key success metrics and provides a self-assessment checklist to gauge your readiness for this exciting role. Shelley also covers the importance of a lead developer in optimizing development processes and fostering strong collaborations with stakeholders.  

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:00:59]
• Tips for Building Courses - [00:02:20]
• Writing “Lead Developer Career Guide” - [00:04:28]
• The Different Lead Developer Titles - [00:06:45]
• Leadership Skills - [00:08:43]
• Main Responsibilities - [00:10:28]
• Mentoring - [00:12:42]
• Success Measure - [00:14:22]
• Getting Appreciated - [00:16:19]
• Career Trajectory - [00:18:13]
• Readiness Check - [00:21:42]
• Leadership Styles - [00:24:12]
• Development Standards - [00:27:50]
• Optimizing The Development Process - [00:30:02]
• Learning from Different Stakeholders - [00:31:29]
• Writing Technical Documentation - [00:33:36]
• Preventive Measures - [00:36:55]
• Providing Estimates - [00:39:44]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:41:50]

_____

Shelley Benhoff’s Bio
Shelley has 20+ years of experience in IT as a Business Owner, Author, Speaker, Docker Community Leader, and Sitecore Technology MVP. She has a passion for tiaras, technology, gaming, and general nerdery. She loves to learn new things as well as mentor and teach others. She teaches content creation, content marketing, leadership, communication, Docker, and Sitecore development. Shelley is currently a Co-Owner of HoffsTech, LLC, an organization that she started with her family to provide online courses and digital media production.

Follow Shelley:

• Website – hoffstech.com
• Twitter / X – @SBenhoff
• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/shelley-benhoff-69787513/
• Tiaras and Tech Podcast – https://tiarasandtech.com/
• TikTok – @tiarasandtech
• Instagram – @tiarasandtech
• Threads – @tiarasandtech

_____

Our Sponsors

Manning Publications is a premier publisher of technical books on computer and software development topics for both experienced developers and new learners alike. Manning prides itself on being independently owned and operated, and for paving the way for innovative initiatives, such as early access book content and protection-free PDF formats that are now industry standard.
Get a 45% discount for Tech Lead Journal listeners by using the code techlead45 for all products in all formats.

Like this episode?

Show notes & transcript: techleadjournal.dev/episodes/164. Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. Buy me a coffee or become a patron.

“The whole idea of being intentional is instead of being reactive or unintentional and just letting your life come to you, we have this opportunity to choose what we want to do and who we want to become."

Are you tired of feeling uninspired and disengaged in your engineering career? If so, this episode is for you!

Jeff Perry is back again for a second episode with his latest book, “The Intentional Engineer”. In this episode, Jeff uncovers the keys to building a meaningful, fulfilling career by cultivating more intentionality. We dive into the ‘quiet quitting’ phenomenon happening worldwide, and Jeff shares his personal story of disengagement during a particular stage in his career.

Learn Jeff’s Intentional Engineer model to assess your current situation and start becoming more intentional toward your lives and career. You will also learn the importance of identifying your core values, the power of mindsets, getting your career clarity, finding your genius zones, and a few core skills you should learn for living more intentionally!  

Listen out for:

• Writing “The Intentional Engineer” - [00:03:31]
• Jeff’s Story of Becoming Intentional - [00:08:33]
• Quiet Quitting Phenomenon - [00:11:17]
• Being Intentional - [00:14:41]
• Intentional Engineer Model - [00:17:50]
• Going Beyond the Tipping Point - [00:21:25]
• Identifying Core Values - [00:25:01]
• The Power of Mindsets - [00:28:00]
• Outwards vs Inward Mindsets - [00:33:10]
• Getting Career Clarity - [00:36:42]
• Genius Zone - [00:39:57]
• Getting More Into Genius Zone - [00:42:54]
• Skills to Support Your Intentions - [00:45:42]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:48:44]

_____

Jeff Perry’s Bio
Jeff Perry is a leadership and career expert known for helping individuals, teams, and organizations unlock their potential in all facets of life. Given his background in engineering, business, and leadership, he specializes in working with engineering and technical professionals, but the principles he shares are universal.

Jeff received a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Brigham Young University, and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Washington.

Follow Jeff:

• LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffcperry/
• Personal Website – jeff-perry.com
• Engineering Career Coach Podcast – https://engineeringmanagementinstitute.org/the-podcast/

_____

Our Sponsors

Miro is your team's visual workspace to connect, collaborate, and create innovations together, from anywhere.

Sign up today at miro.com/podcast and get your first 3 Miro boards free forever.

Manning Publications is a premier publisher of technical books on computer and software development topics for both experienced developers and new learners alike. Manning prides itself on being independently owned and operated, and for paving the way for innovative initiatives, such as early access book content and protection-free PDF formats that are now industry standard.
Get a 45% discount for Tech Lead Journal listeners by using the code techlead45 for all products in all formats.

Like this episode?

Show notes & transcript: techleadjournal.dev/episodes/163. Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. Buy me a coffee or become a patron.

“The People Playbook: First, be clear about your goals and communicate with massive clarity to your team what you’re trying to accomplish. Second, be brilliant at the basics."

Andrew Bartlow is the co-founder of the People Leader Accelerator and the co-author of “Scaling for Success”. In this episode, Andrew discusses the common challenges faced by high-growth organizations and offers strategies for successful scaling.

He emphasizes the significance of organizations creating a unique people’s playbook and cautions against blindly adopting best practices from other companies. Andrew highlights 7 essential people practices organizations should prioritize, which includes organizational structure, learning & development, and culture & engagement.  

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:03:55]
• Writing “Scaling for Success” - [00:06:56]
• High-Growth Organization Challenges - [00:08:52]
• Goldilocks Zone - [00:11:11]
• People Playbook - [00:12:52]
• The Danger of Best Practices - [00:15:13]
• Crisis of Leadership & Autonomy - [00:17:29]
• Lack of Role Clarity - [00:21:34]
• 7 Key People Practices - [00:25:45]
• Key Practice: Organizational Structure - [00:30:44]
• Politics & Power Dynamics - [00:37:49]
• Key Practice: Learning & Development - [00:40:30]
• Key Practice: Culture, Engagement & Communications - [00:46:22]
• Sensing Employee Engagement - [00:52:17]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:55:14]

_____

Andrew Bartlow’s Bio
Andrew Bartlow has almost 25 years of experience as a thought leader in organizational effectiveness, and as a practical operator linking business strategy to HR priorities inside corporations. In addition to advisory and mentoring activities through Series B Consulting, Andrew serves as an Operating Partner & Senior Advisor for Altamont Capital Partners, the cofounder and Network Director for WiseGrowth Networks, the cofounder and Managing Partner of People Leader Accelerator, and an HR Venture Advisor for SemperVirens Venture Capital.

Follow Andrew:

• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/bartlow
• People Leader Accelerator – peopleleaderaccelerator.com
• Series B Consulting – seriesbconsulting.com

_____

Our Sponsors

Manning Publications is a premier publisher of technical books on computer and software development topics for both experienced developers and new learners alike. Manning prides itself on being independently owned and operated, and for paving the way for innovative initiatives, such as early access book content and protection-free PDF formats that are now industry standard.
Get a 45% discount for Tech Lead Journal listeners by using the code techlead45 for all products in all formats.

Like this episode?

Show notes & transcript: techleadjournal.dev/episodes/162. Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. Buy me a coffee or become a patron.

“Why are some software developers average and some others great? After a few years, I noticed that creativity is an important aspect of problem-solving and software development.”

Wouter Groeneveld is a software engineer, computer science education researcher, and the author of “The Creative Programmer”. In this episode, Wouter dives deep into what makes good engineers truly exceptional: creativity!

Wouter describes his definition of creativity and shares the 7 key dimensions of a creative programmer - from technical mastery to embracing constraints and being curious.

Listen to the episode to take your coding to the next level and unleash your inner creativity as a software engineer!  

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:03:35]
• Reasons Software Projects Fail - [00:06:10]
• The Creative Programmer - [00:08:29]
• Social Approval & Seniority Aspects - [00:14:06]
• Technical Knowledge: Getting More Inputs - [00:17:39]
• Personal Knowledge Management - [00:20:22]
• Creativity Begets Creativity - [00:23:37]
• Collaboration & Communication - [00:25:37]
• Collective Creativity - [00:29:05]
• Constraints - [00:30:55]
• Critical Thinking - [00:35:33]
• Creative State of Mind - [00:39:42]
• Virtual Interruptions - [00:41:56]
• Well-Rested - [00:44:36]
• Curiosity & Perseverance - [00:47:11]
• 2 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:49:04]

_____

Wouter Groeneveld’s Bio
Wouter Groeneveld is a software engineer, computer science education researcher, and professional bread baker. Wouter was an enterprise software engineer for 11 years with a passion for inspiring and teaching others. After a few years of experience, he became involved in teaching, coaching, and onboarding. Witnessing the failure of many software projects led him to ask the following question: What makes a good software engineer? That question ultimately caused him to quit his job in the industry in 2018 and rejoin academia. Since then, Wouter has been conducting research on nontechnical skills in the software engineering world. He has written extensively about the topic. A list of his academic publications can be found at https://brainbaking.com/works/papers/ (all papers are open access)..

Follow Wouter:

• Website – brainbaking.com
• Email – ⁠[email protected]⁠

_____

Our Sponsors

Manning Publications is a premier publisher of technical books on computer and software development topics for both experienced developers and new learners alike. Manning prides itself on being independently owned and operated, and for paving the way for innovative initiatives, such as early access book content and protection-free PDF formats that are now industry standard.
Get a 45% discount for Tech Lead Journal listeners by using the code techlead45 for all products in all formats.

Like this episode?

Show notes & transcript: techleadjournal.dev/episodes/161. Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. Buy me a coffee or become a patron.

“If we want to deliver better results, we need to change the system and our way of working."

Gil Broza is an Agile leadership expert and the author of the latest book “Deliver Better Results”. In this episode, Gil discusses ways to level up our value delivery system to deliver better results.

We first delve into the fundamental concept of systems thinking and cause-effect relationships, which are exemplified by reinforcing and balancing loops. Gil also explains the importance of ways of working, particularly on shifting mindset and focusing on people first before the process.

Gil then explains the SQUARE Model detailed in his book, and how the model helps us understand and assess our system’s fitness for purpose easily. He also shares some of the 10 strategies from his book that we can use to enhance our fitness level and deliver better results.
 

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [03:43]
• Deliver Better Results - [06:25]
• Systems Thinking - [11:15]
• Reinforcing & Balancing Loop - [14:15]
• Ways of Working - [16:24]
• Mindset: Values, Beliefs, Principles - [19:08]
• People First vs Process First - [23:22]
• SQUARE Model - [27:08]
• What Matters Most - [34:36]
• Clear Decision Making - [40:48]
• How to Get Started - [45:58]
• The Danger of Metrics - [47:07]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [50:52]

_____

Gil Broza’s Bio
Gil Broza specializes in helping tech leaders deliver far better results by upgrading their Agile ways of working. He also supports their non-software colleagues in creating real business agility in their teams. Gil has helped over 100 organizations achieve real, sustainable improvements by working with their unique value delivery contexts and focusing on mindset, culture, and leadership. Companies also invite Gil for specialized support, such as strategic mapping of their improvement journey, facilitation of organizational mindset workshops, and keynotes for internal conferences. He is the author of four highly acclaimed books: Deliver Better Results, The Agile Mind-Set, The Human Side of Agile, and Agile for Non-Software Teams. He lives in Toronto, Canada.

Follow Gil:

• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/gilbroza
• Website – 3PVantage.com

Free Gift Download:

• Deliver Better Results - Chapter 1 – HeardOnPodcast.DeliverBetterResultsBook.com

_____

Our Sponsors

Manning Publications is a premier publisher of technical books on computer and software development topics for both experienced developers and new learners alike. Manning prides itself on being independently owned and operated, and for paving the way for innovative initiatives, such as early access book content and protection-free PDF formats that are now industry standard.
Get a 45% discount for Tech Lead Journal listeners by using the code techlead45 for all products in all formats.

Like this episode?

Show notes & transcript: techleadjournal.dev/episodes/160. Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. Buy me a coffee or become a patron.

“A lot of developers tie their self-worth to their code. Being able to let go of your ego and understanding the feedback is based on the code, and it has nothing to do with anything about me. It’s just the code.”

Adrienne Tacke is a software engineer, keynote speaker, and the author of the upcoming book “Looks Good To Me”.

In this episode, we discuss code reviews and why it is an essential part of the software development process. Adrienne discusses the importance and benefits of code review, the common code review workflow and the different roles involved, how to provide effective code review comments, and why we should leverage on code review tools and automation. She also provides tips on how to speed up our code review turnaround time.  

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:03:31]
• Looks Good to Me (LGTM) - [00:09:05]
• Code Review Story - [00:12:24]
• Importance of Code Review - [00:15:38]
• Code Review Benefits - [00:20:27]
• Code Review Role: Author - [00:25:50]
• Code Review Role: Reviewer - [00:32:42]
• Code Review Role: The Team - [00:38:41]
• Code Review Tools & Automation - [00:45:53]
• Effective Code Review Comments - [00:51:44]
• Code Review Turnaround - [00:57:45]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [01:04:56]

_____

Adrienne Tacke’s Bio
Adrienne is a Filipina software engineer, keynote speaker, author of the best-selling book Coding for Kids: Python, and a LinkedIn Learning instructor who’s reached over 65,000 learners with her courses (a number she’ll likely surpass when you read this). She is writing Looks Good To Me: Constructive Code Reviews, a labor of love that she hopes will improve code reviews everywhere. Perhaps most important, however, is that she spends way too much money on desserts and ungodly amounts of time playing Age of Empires II.

Follow Adrienne:

• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/adriennetacke
• Twitter / X – @AdrienneTacke
• Instagram – @adriennetacke
• Website – adrienne.io

_____

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“Every organization has a mission, a vision, and a set of values. As a leader, your number one task is to live those values and talk about them at every opportunity with your team to create alignment."

Today's clip is from Tech Lead Journal episode 115 with Manoj Awasthi, the CTO at JULO and previously the SVP of Engineering at Tokopedia.

In this clip, Manoj described the role of a senior engineering leader before then explaining some important aspects of engineering leadership, such as scaling up engineering team, hiring engineers and engineering managers, and creating culture alignment.  

Listen out for:

• Role of Senior Engineering Leader - [00:00:26]
• Scaling Engineering Team - [00:06:55]
• Hiring Engineers - [00:09:51]
• Hiring Engineering Managers/Leaders - [00:12:29]
• Aligning Culture - [00:14:11]

_____

Manoj Awasthi’s Bio
Manoj Awasthi is the CTO at JULO, a fintech startup based in Jakarta. Prior to JULO, Manoj spent more than six years leading technology teams at Tokopedia wearing multiple hats during the growth years of Tokopedia from 2016 until 2022 as it scaled. During this time, he witnessed the tech team growing from 80 people to 2000+. He is a techie at heart, has a natural empathy for people and believes that wonders can happen through the alignment of teams towards a clear goal. When he is not working, he can be found either reading a book (almost every day) or having quality time with his family.

Follow Manoj:

• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/manojawasthi/
• Twitter – @awmanoj
• GitHub – github.com/awmanoj
• Blog – awmanoj.github.io/

_____

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“An effective developer is an effective software tester. As a developer, it’s your responsibility to make sure what you do works. And automated testing is such an easy and cheap way of doing it."

Today's clip is from Tech Lead Journal episode 139 with Mauricio Aniche, the author of “Effective Software Testing”.

In this clip, Mauricio explained how to become a more effective software developer by using effective and systematic software testing approaches. We discussed several such testing techniques, such as testing pyramid, specification-based testing, and behavior-driven design.

Listen out for:

• An Effective Developer is an Effective Tester - [00:00:26]
• Reasons for Writing Automated Tests - [00:01:35]
• Systematic Tester - [00:04:38]
• Testing Pyramid - [00:08:43]
• Unit vs Integration Test - [00:11:18]
• Specification-Based Testing - [00:13:48]
• Behavior-Driven Design - [00:16:27]

_____

Mauricio Aniche’s Bio
Dr. Maurício Aniche’s life mission is to help software engineers to become better and more productive. Maurício is a Tech Lead at Adyen, where he heads the Tech Academy team and leads different engineering enablement initiatives. Maurício is also an assistant professor of software engineering at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. His teaching efforts in software testing gave him the Computer Science Teacher of the Year 2021 award and the TU Delft Education Fellowship, a prestigious fellowship given to innovative lecturers. He is the author of the “Effective Software Testing: A Developer’s Guide”, published by Manning in 2022. He’s currently working on a new book entitled “Simple Object-Oriented Design” which should be on the market soon.

Follow Mauricio:

• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/mauricioaniche
• Twitter – @mauricioaniche
• Website – effective-software-testing.com
• Newsletter – effectivesoftwaretesting.substack.com

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“The three core dimensions of developer experience are feedback loops, cognitive load, and flow state."

Today's clip is from Tech Lead Journal episode 134 with Margaret-Anne (Peggy) Storey and Abi Noda, the coauthors of the ACM paper “DevEx: What Actually Drives Productivity”.

In this clip, they shared their view on the well-known SPACE and DORA metrics, and pointed out the danger of misusing and abusing the DORA metrics. Peggy and Abi then explained the three core dimensions of developer experience from their latest paper, which are feedback loops, cognitive load, and flow state.

Listen out for:

• SPACE & DORA Metrics - [00:00:26]
• Misuse and Abuse of DORA Metrics - [00:05:43]
• New Developer Experience Paper - [00:09:20]
• Developer Experience - [00:11:46]
• 3 Core Dimensions - [00:15:03]

_____

Margaret-Anne Storey’s Bio
Margaret-Anne (Peggy) Storey is a professor of computer science at the University of Victoria and holds a Canada Research Chair in human and social aspects of software engineering. Her research focuses on improving processes, tools, communication, and collaboration in software engineering. She serves as chief scientist at DX and consults with Microsoft to improve developer productivity.

Abi Noda’s Bio
Abi Noda is the founder and CEO at DX, where he leads the company’s strategic direction and R&D efforts. His work focuses on developing measurement methods to help organizations improve developer experience and productivity. Before joining DX, Noda held engineering leadership roles at various companies and founded Pull Panda, which was acquired by GitHub in 2019. For more information, visit his website at abinoda.com.

Follow Margaret:

• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/margaret-anne-storey-8419462/
• Twitter – @margaretstorey

Follow Abi:

• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/abinoda/
• Twitter – @abinoda
• Newsletter – newsletter.abinoda.com

_____

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“Developer experience is an approach to thinking about engineering excellence and maximizing engineering performance by increasing the capacity and performance of the individuals and the team as a whole."

Today's clip is from Tech Lead Journal episode 112 with Abi Noda, the CEO & co-founder of DX.

In this clip, Abi shared what developer experience is, why it is becoming an industry trend nowadays, and the different ways of how it is being implemented in the industry. Abi explained why the traditional metrics normally used to measure developer productivity do not really work and can even provide perverse incentives. Abi then touched on the two popular researches widely known in the industry, i.e. the DORA report and SPACE framework.  

Listen out for:

• Developer Productivity Industry Trend - [00:00:26]
• Developer Experience for Developers - [00:02:40]
• Different Names of Developer Experience - [00:04:42]
• Traditional Metrics - [00:08:27]
• DORA & SPACE - [00:12:28]

_____

Abi Noda’s Bio
Abi is the founder and CEO of getdx.com, which helps engineering leaders measure and improve developer experience. Abi formerly founded Pull Panda, which was acquired by GitHub.

Follow Abi:

• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/abinoda
• Twitter – @abinoda
• Website – abinoda.com
• DX – getdx.com
• Software Engineering Research – abinoda.substack.com

_____

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“A good API doesn’t expose the internal data models or internal logic too much. And the more your clients are not under your control, the less you want to do that."

Today's clip is from Tech Lead Journal episode 125 with Daniel Luebke, a software architect and the co-author of “Patterns for API Design”.

In this clip, we discussed some API design patterns and best practices taken from his book. Daniel shared the importance of understanding domain requirements for building APIs and several API and message best practices. 

Listen out for:

• Writing API Design Book - [00:00:26]
• Loosely Coupled Message Exchanges - [00:04:29]
• API Design Best Practices - [00:07:07]
• Message Best Practices - [00:12:24]

_____

Daniel Luebke’s Bio
Daniel Lübke is an independent coding and consulting software architect with a focus on business process automation and digitization projects. His interests are software architecture, business process design, and system integration, which inherently require APIs to develop solutions. He received his PhD at the Leibniz Universität Hannover, Germany, in 2007 and has worked in many industry projects in different domains since then. Daniel is author and editor of several books, articles, and research papers; gives training; and regularly presents at conferences on topics of APIs and software architecture.

Follow Daniel:

• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/danielluebke
• Twitter – @dluebke
• Blog – digital-solution-architecture.com

_____

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“A team has to be able to go fast if they have to. But they should always choose to go at a steady pace, most of the time. In the long run, what we emphasize is for each team to find their own space and pace."

Balazs Barna is the Head of US Engineering at Wise. In this episode, we delved into his insights on building sustainable engineering from scaling up Wise. Balazs started by touching on the engineering management role and described the traits of good and bad engineering management. We then went to discuss two different aspects of sustainable engineering, which are sustainable tech and sustainable teams. Throughout the discussion, Balazs outlined several key practices, such as weak code ownership, microservice strategy, stable pace, and building a bench.  

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:03:42]
• Building on Strengths - [00:05:52]
• Traits of a Good Engineering Management - [00:07:11]
• Limiting Work in Progress - [00:09:51]
• Traits of a Bad Engineering Management - [00:12:33]
• Sustainable Tech - [00:14:17]
• Weak Code Ownership - [00:19:25]
• Transitioning to Weak Code Ownership - [00:24:04]
• Microservice per Integration - [00:26:57]
• Managing Change Coupling - [00:30:12]
• Sustainable Team - [00:32:46]
• Dealing With Technical Debt - [00:35:57]
• Steady Pace - [00:37:41]
• Building a Bench - [00:39:59]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:44:51]

_____

Balazs Barna’s Bio
Balazs Barna is the Head of Austin Operations & US Engineering at Wise. At Wise, Balazs oversees the newly formed Austin office and the global engineering team, building the tech and infrastructure needed to facilitate instant, convenient and affordable cross border transactions. Balazs led and helped his team build the company’s historic direct access integration to the Hungarian banking sector’s instant payment system, the first of its kind for a company with a payment service license. He also oversaw and built Wise’s core infrastructure that enables the company’s European operations. Prior to joining Wise, Balazs worked at MSCI and Morgan Stanley. He graduated from Corvinus University of Budapest in Business Information Systems (BSc), and Computer Engineering (MSc) from Pannon University.

Follow Balazs:

• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/balazsbarn

_____

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“In a world that runs on software, when we develop and deploy software, we are part of a larger system where our failures are no longer about us, they are also about other people."

Today's clip is from Tech Lead Journal episode 122 with Kevlin Henney, a consultant, writer, and speaker on software development and has written and edited several popular books.

In this clip, Kevlin brought up some timeless software development concepts developers should learn from the past on cohesion, coupling, and code quality. He also explained why he becomes associated with public software failures widely known as KevlinHenney screens and how the trend started in the beginning.

Listen out for:

• Learning From the Past - [00:00:26]
• KevlinHenney Screens - [00:13:18]

_____

Kevlin Henney’s Bio
Kevlin Henney is an independent consultant, trainer, writer and speaker. His interests cover what happens on both sides of the keyboard, and everything from the detail of code to the bigger picture of software architecture. Kevlin is co–author of two volumes in the Pattern–Oriented Software Architecture series, editor of 97 Things Every Programmer Should Know and co-editor of 97 Things Every Java Programmer Should Know.

Follow Kevlin:

• Twitter – @KevlinHenney
• Mastodon – @[email protected]
• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/kevlin
• Medium – kevlinhenney.medium.com
• Instagram – instagram.com/kevlin.henney

_____

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Show notes & transcript: techleadjournal.dev/episodes/122. Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. Buy me a coffee or become a patron.

“Everything in software architecture is a trade-off, and the why is more important than how."

Today's clip is from Tech Lead Journal episode 120 with Neal Ford, a Director and software architect at ThoughtWorks.

In this clip, we discussed the definition of software architecture and how it relates to software design. Neal then described the two important laws of software architecture related to trade-offs and the why. Neal then explained why software architecture is difficult and discussed the hard parts.  

Listen out for:

• Definition of Software Architecture - [00:00:26]
• Software Architecture vs Design - [00:04:06]
• Laws of Software Architecture - [00:06:01]
• The Hard Parts of Software Architecture - [00:10:33]

_____

Neal Ford’s Bio
Neal Ford is Director, Software Architect, and Meme Wrangler at ThoughtWorks. He is also the designer and developer of applications, articles, video presentations, and author and/or editor of an increasingly large number of books spanning a variety of subjects and technologies, including the two most recent Fundamentals of Software Architecture and Building Evolutionary Architectures. His professional focus includes designing and building of large-scale enterprise applications. He is also an internationally acclaimed speaker, speaking at over 700 developer conferences worldwide, delivering more than 3000 presentations.

Follow Neal:

• Website – nealford.com
• Twitter – @neal4d

_____

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“Platforms harmonize and standardize without restricting. By standardizing, they actually enable and allow people to do more things."

Gregor Hohpe is back again for the second episode with his latest book “Platform Strategy”. In this episode, Gregor discussed in-depth about building platforms with a proper platform strategy. He began by describing what a platform is from a few different perspectives, the benefits it brings, and what strategy we should think about when building a platform. Gregor also emphasized the opposite difference between platforms and IT services, with the key difference of how a platform thrives with more scale. We then had a few fun discussions discussing building a platform on top of a cloud platform, the key skillset we need to build a good platform, and how we should build a proper platform abstraction. Towards the end, Gregor also covered the recent trend of building developer platforms and business capability platforms. Also, do not miss Gregor’s fun analogy of fruit basket vs fruit salad when explaining a good platform strategy.  

Listen out for:

• Strategy Book Series - [00:05:39]
• Definition of Platform - [00:07:58]
• Platform Benefits - [00:12:09]
• Platform Strategy - [00:17:25]
• Platform vs IT Service - [00:20:47]
• Platform Thrives With Scale - [00:25:39]
• Cloud Platform-Based Platform - [00:29:36]
• Skillset for Building Platform - [00:36:44]
• Abstraction, Not an Illusion - [00:44:19]
• Fruit Salad vs Fruit Basket - [00:47:32]
• Developer Platform - [00:51:34]
• Business Capability Platform - [00:55:48]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:59:31]

_____

Gregor Hohpe’s Bio
Gregor Hohpe advises CTOs and senior IT executives on IT strategy, cloud architecture, and organizational transformation. He served as advisor to the Singapore government, chief architect at Allianz SE, and technical director at Google Cloud’s CTO Office. He is widely known as co-author of the seminal book “Enterprise Integration Patterns” and as frequent speaker at conferences around the world. His accessible, but technically accurate essays were republished in “97 Things Every Software Architect Should Know” and “Best Software Writing”. He is an active member of the IEEE Software editorial advisory board.

Follow Gregor:

• Website – https://architectelevator.com/
• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/ghohpe/
• X – @ghohpe
• Platform Strategy (with special coupon for TLJ listeners) – https://leanpub.com/platformstrategy/c/techlead

_____

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“The five thieves of time are: too much work in progress, conflicting priorities, unplanned work, unknown dependencies, and neglected work."

Dominica DeGrandis is the author of “Making Work Visible”. In this episode, we discussed how we can optimize our workflow and reclaim control of our work and time. Dominica unveiled the concept of the five thieves of time that rob us of our productivity, that includes too much work-in-progress (WIP), conflicting priorities, unplanned work, unknown dependencies, and neglected work. She also shared actionable practices and tips on dealing with each of these thieves. Towards the end, Dominica emphasized the importance of bringing visibility to and measuring the flow of what leadership and customers care about - the delivery of customer value—big picture items that span end-to-end value streams.  

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:03:47]
• Making Work Visible & Five Thieves of Time - [00:08:45]
• Thief: Too Much WIP - [00:15:31]
• WIP is a Leading Indicator - [00:18:33]
• Thief: Unplanned Work - [00:20:45]
• Making Sense of WIP - [00:23:04]
• Thief: Conflicting Priorities - [00:24:38]
• Thief: Unknown Dependencies - [00:29:17]
• Managing Dependencies - [00:32:53]
• Thief: Neglected Work - [00:36:40]
• Make Organization Work Visible - [00:41:21]
• Measuring Flow - [00:50:19]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:55:11]

_____

Dominica DeGrandis’s Bio
A huge fan of using visual cues to inspire change, Dominica DeGrandis, author of Making Work Visible - Exposing Time Theft to Optimize Work & Flow, and Principal Flow Advisor at Planview, helps organizations make work visible to improve workflow. Obsessed with useful metrics & influencing change, Dominica advises customers on flow metrics, value stream management and how to effect change.

Follow Dominica:

• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/dominicadeg
• Website – ddegrandis.com/

_____

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“Product driven means you understand what your customers’ problems are, but you don’t let yourself get held back by what your customers are saying. You’re not building your product for a customer that you’re already working with. You’re building a product for a customer that you haven’t yet met."

Ben Foster is the co-founder of Prodify and the co-author of “Build What Matters”. In this episode, we discussed how product driven and vision-led product management helps organizations deliver key customer outcomes and achieve business goals. Ben first began by describing the product management paradox and some of the common product management dysfunctions. Ben then dived deep into the three important aspects of a vision-led product management, which are key customer outcomes, customer journey vision, and product strategy.  

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:03:31]
• Product Management Paradox - [00:05:59]
• The Role of Product Manager - [00:08:10]
• Product Dysfunctions - [00:09:50]
• Product Driven - [00:14:25]
• Vision-Led Product Management - [00:18:40]
• Key Outcomes - [00:22:52]
• Key Outcomes Pyramid - [00:28:52]
• Customer Journey Vision - [00:33:12]
• Customer Experience Stages - [00:35:36]
• Product Vision - [00:40:04]
• Product Strategy - [00:43:43]
• Product Roadmap - [00:47:49]
• Product Roadmap Duration - [00:55:50]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:58:51]

_____

Ben Foster’s Bio
Ben Foster has been working in product management in the tech scene for 25 years, and is co-founder and partner at Prodify, a product consulting and coaching firm he started 9 years ago. He cut his teeth at eBay during its heyday and was most recently the chief product officer at the wearable company Whoop. He has experience from startups to multi-billion dollar companies and everything in between. He’s spoken at several major tech events, has produced the definitive course on product leadership, and co-authored the Amazon bestseller Build What Matters. He lives in Arlington, VA with his wife and son.

Follow Ben:

• Website – https://www.prodify.group/
• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/benfoster/

_____

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Like this episode?

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“Lean is not about how we organize work, but how we think about it. It’s not a production system; it’s an education system."

Catherine Chabiron is a Lean expert and the co-author of “Learning to Scale at Theodo Group”. In this episode, Catherine and Fabrice–the co-founder and CTO of Theodo–shared their lessons learned from implementing Lean at a fast-growing scale-up company. Catherine and Fabrice first started by sharing the “big company disease” challenge and how Theodo started its Lean journey. We then discussed Lean essentials that include some of its principles, such as an obsession with customer value and lead time. We also talked about Lean practices adopted from the Toyota Production System, that include Gemba, Jidoka, Andon, and Kaizen. Along the way, Catherine and Fabrice also emphasized the importance of always building quality right the first time.  

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:03:41]
• Big Company Disease - [00:07:26]
• Theodo’s Lean Journey - [00:10:19]
• Implementing Agile at Scale - [00:14:35]
• The Essence of Lean - [00:18:41]
• Gemba - [00:23:16]
• Normal vs Not Normal - [00:26:26]
• Doing More Gemba Walks - [00:29:40]
• Obsession With Customer Value - [00:32:59]
• Obsession With Lead Time - [00:37:07]
• Jidoka & Andon - [00:40:25]
• Built-in Quality Right First Time - [00:44:16]
• Kaizen - [00:46:39]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:52:19]

_____

Catherine Chabiron’s Bio
Catherine Chabiron is an established expert in Lean management with a professional journey spanning over 40 years. Catherine is not only a Lean executive coach but also a renowned author. Her notable contribution, “Learning to Scale at Theodo Group: Growing a Fast and Resilient Company,” exemplifies her unique know-how and offers practical advice to leaders seeking growth without compromising on core values and employee engagement.

Fabrice Bernhard’s Bio
Fabrice co-founded Theodo in Paris in 2009, which has grown on average 50% a year for the last 8 years and generated 90M€ turnover in 2022. He is now based in London to help on the international expansion of Theodo.

Follow Catherine:

• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/catherine-chabiron-43ba6b16

Follow Fabrice:

• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/fabricebernhard/
• X – @fabriceb

_____

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“Architecture touches on the software, the business, and the team organization. Modernization updates something that has some outdated thinking, e.g. technologies, ideas, business models."

Nick Tune is a principal consultant and the author of “Architecture Modernization”. In this episode, we discussed how organizations can successfully go through an architecture modernization journey. Nick began by defining architecture modernization and discussing the socio-technical aspects involved. He then introduced the concept of an independent value stream and its four key characteristics: domain alignment, business outcome driven, empowered teams, and software alignment. Nick also shared tips on how to get buy in for a modernization journey, why it is beneficial to do it collaboratively, and explained in-depth the Wardley Mapping technique. Towards the end, Nick described the idea of Architecture Modernization Enabling Team and gave advice on creating an architecture modernization roadmap.  

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:03:31]
• Writing Architecture Modernization Book - [00:09:51]
• Architecture Modernization - [00:11:18]
• Socio-Technical Architecture - [00:13:35]
• Independent Value Stream - [00:17:47]
• Domain Aligned & Change Coupling - [00:19:32]
• Business Outcome Driven - [00:24:11]
• Owned by Empowered Teams - [00:27:02]
• Software Aligned - [00:28:34]
• Getting Buy In - [00:31:00]
• Collaborative Modernization Journey - [00:35:28]
• Wardley Mapping - [00:38:59]
• Product Taxonomy - [00:45:06]
• Architecture Modernization Enabling Team - [00:47:13]
• Modernization Roadmap - [00:53:51]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:58:35]

_____

Nick Tune’s Bio
Nick works with product and technology leaders to map strategy, model domains, design architecture and build continuous delivery teams while helping to deliver successful business outcomes. He is the author of Architecture Modernization (Manning), and Principles and Practices of Domain-Driven Design (Wrox).

Follow Nick:

• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/nick-tune
• Mastodon – @[email protected]
• Website – nick-tune.me

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“We need to change our ways of working to give importance to the work quality that we deliver, ensure we keep raising our bar, and pass it on to the next generation of developers."

Srihari Sridharan is a software architect and the author of “Craft Your Code”. In this episode, we discussed software craftsmanship and how to become better software engineers. Srihari first began by sharing the relationship between software craftsmanship and high-quality code. He described some practices for improving code quality, such as establishing coding standards, improving code readability, doing effective code review, and managing technical debt. He also explained the importance of software engineers understanding different architectural styles and domain knowledge. Srihari also shared strategies for creating high-performing teams by establishing psychological safety and trust.  

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:03:08]
• Bridging the Students Gap with Industry - [00:06:11]
• Writing “Craft Your Code” - [00:09:36]
• Software Craftsmanship and High Quality Code - [00:12:18]
• Root Causes of Low Quality Code - [00:15:26]
• Coding Standards - [00:20:15]
• Code Aesthetics - [00:24:17]
• Code Readability - [00:28:09]
• Tabs vs Spaces - [00:32:31]
• Code Review - [00:34:12]
• Managing Technical Debt - [00:39:36]
• Psychological Safety & Trust - [00:46:23]
• Mind Maps - [00:52:09]
• Architecture & Domain Knowledge - [00:54:00]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [01:02:33]

_____

Srihari Sridharan’s Bio
Srihari Sridharan is a Software Architect and Engineer with a hands-on approach. He is a speaker, conducting courses and delivering talks on software craftsmanship and writing clean code. Srihari’s areas of expertise encompass refactoring, design patterns, enterprise application architectural patterns, integration patterns, and cloud-native design patterns.

Srihari is also a reviewer and a senior technical proof-reader for Manning Publications Co, and he serves as a member of the ‘Board of Studies - Department of Information Technology’ at B.S Abdur Rahman Crescent Institute of Science & Technology. Residing in Chennai with his wife Swathy and son Advaith, Srihari enjoys spending quality time with his family. In his leisure time, he loves playing cricket, writing blogs, reading books, and cooking.

Follow Srihari:

• Website – https://topmate.io/srihari_sridharan
• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/srihari-sridharan/

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“Leading change is high stakes, but we don’t spend a great deal of time focusing on conversation and creating space to engage in real conversation."

Marsha Acker is the author of “Build Your Model for Leading Change” and the host of “Defining Moments of Leadership” podcast. In this episode, we discussed building our own model for leadership and leading change. Marsha first started by sharing the concept of a model and some of the common challenges for organizations in making changes. Then we discussed David Kantor’s theories on structural dynamics and functional awareness for understanding behavioral model, which include the concepts of leadership range and communicative competence. Marsha outlined what makes communication so challenging and what we can do to achieve a more effective communication. Towards the end, she shared the three different models that leaders need to think about, i.e. model for leadership, model for living, and model for leading change.  

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:03:54]
• Defining Moments of Leadership Podcast - [00:10:14]
• Building Our Model - [00:14:11]
• Challenges for Making Organization Change - [00:19:48]
• Behavioral Model - [00:23:57]
• Structural Dynamics - [00:27:30]
• Functional Awareness - [00:33:01]
• Communication Challenges - [00:38:12]
• Model for Leadership - [00:40:55]
• Model for Living - [00:44:12]
• Model for Leading Change - [00:46:10]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:54:44]

_____

Marsha Acker’s Bio
Marsha Acker is the founder and CEO of TeamCatapult, an executive & leadership team coach, author, speaker, facilitator, and the host of Defining Moments of Leadership Podcast. Marsha’s unparalleled at helping leaders identify and break through stuck patterns of communication that get in their way of high performance. She is known internationally as a facilitator of meaningful conversations, a host of dialogue and a passionate agilest. She is the author of The Art and Science of Facilitation: How to Lead Effective Collaboration with Agile Teams and Build Your Model for Leading Change: A guided workbook to catalyze clarity and confidence in leading yourself and others.

Follow Marsha:

• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/marsha-acker-3486a72
• Website – teamcatapult.com
• Twitter – @marshaacker

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“A CTO gives the business the technology it needs to drive success by delivering a roadmap to grow and scale at a level and speed where technology never holds up their growth."

Alan Williamson is the author of “Think Like a CTO”. In this episode, we discussed in-depth how to become a great CTO. Alan first described what a CTO role is, how the role differs at different company stages, and the attributes of a good CTO. Alan then explained the importance of a CTO coming up with a vision and how we can improve ourselves in visionary thinking. He then touched on how a CTO should work together and understand the expectations of the CEO. Alan also gave his tips on how to build engineering teams that can produce high-quality results. Towards the end, Alan gave his personal advice on how a CTO can deal with imposter syndrome and the importance of a CTO doing a personal review.  

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:03:28]
• The CTO Role - [00:07:47]
• Different Flavors of CTO Role - [00:12:47]
• CTO at Different Company Stage - [00:13:42]
• What Makes a Good CTO - [00:17:04]
• Visionary Planning - [00:19:40]
• Learning How to Create a Vision - [00:23:40]
• Working with the CEO - [00:30:54]
• Building Engineering Teams - [00:36:47]
• Building Quality In - [00:39:58]
• Dealing with Imposter Syndrome - [00:45:36]
• Reviewing Yourself - [00:52:11]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:59:09]

_____

Alan Williamson’s Bio
Alan was the first U.K. Java Champion and has contributed much to open source, including OpenBD, a Java based CFML runtime engine, that once powered MySpace.com, as well as many other blue-chip CFML sites.

Alan has published a number of books in the Java space covering Enterprise Java, Servlets, JavaMail and database access. He also served in the role of Editor-in-Chief for Java Developers Journal. His recent book, ‘ Think like a CTO ’ aimed at the new and upcoming CTO. Filled with real-world actionable items, including case studies and interviews.

Alan is currently a partner with New Harbor Capital, heading up their Portfolio Operations Group, providing interim and executive CTO services to New Harbor’s portfolios, advising on all levels on how to maximize technology for the growth of the business.

Follow Alan:

• Website – alan.is
• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/a1anw2/

_____

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“A lot of the traditional wisdom said the best teams are the ones that stay stable or the same; you need long-lived stable teams. The fact is, team change is inevitable. So let’s get better at it."

Heidi Helfand is the author of “Dynamic Reteaming”. In this episode, we discussed dynamic reteaming concept, or team changes in simple words. Heidi explained how her experience working in various startups and scaleups led to her coming up with the dynamic reteaming idea. She also explained how dynamic reteaming differs from the common advice of having long-lived teams. We then discussed the five patterns of dynamic reteaming as outlined by Heidi in her book. Our discussion also covered various other topics, such as onboarding, offboarding, maintaining company culture, ideal team size, and leadership role in dynamic teams.  

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:03:34]
• How Dynamic Reteaming Idea Came About - [00:08:30]
• Dynamic Reteaming - [00:12:08]
• Social Dynamics - [00:13:51]
• Dynamic Reteaming vs Long-Lived - [00:18:14]
• One by One - [00:26:19]
• Onboarding New Joiners - [00:27:42]
• People Leaving - [00:30:54]
• Maintaining Culture - [00:37:18]
• Grow & Split And Merging Patterns - [00:42:42]
• Ideal Team Size - [00:45:51]
• Isolation Pattern - [00:51:43]
• Role of Leader/Manager - [00:54:56]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:57:47]

_____

Heidi Helfand’s Bio
Heidi Helfand is author of the book Dynamic Reteaming and SVP of Strategy & Innovation at Artium. She’s passionate about helping companies build great products and high-performing teams, and she’s particularly interested in the people side of engineering. With over 20 years of experience in the tech industry, including roles at AppFolio, Procore and Expertcity/GoToMeeting, Heidi has gained a deep understanding of how to help organizations successfully navigate change and scale their teams. She lives in Southern California, where she enjoys spending time with her family and exploring the outdoors.

Follow Heidi:

• Website – heidihelfand.com
• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/heidihelfand/
• X – @heidihelfand
• Mastodon – @[email protected]
• Artium – thisisartium.com
• Email – [email protected]

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“BDD is about helping you collaborate with the different parties involved in software delivery to understand what’s actually required of your system, why you need to deliver it, and then find the best possible way to automate your requirements."

John Smart and Jan Molak are the co-authors of “BDD in Action: Second Edition”. In this episode, we discussed in-depth behavior-driven development (BDD) and its essentials. Jan and John first began by introducing what BDD is, the benefits of using BDD, and the Gherkin language with its given-when-then syntax. They gave advice on how to introduce and apply BDD, especially for legacy software, and how to manage the BDD specifications effectively. Jan and John then shared several BDD techniques, such as feature mapping, example mapping, impact mapping; and went deep into the screenplay pattern and the Serenity projects they both create to implement screenplay pattern. Towards the end, Jan and John shared their insights on which testing layers we should apply BDD and some anti-patterns we should avoid.  

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:04:49]
• Challenges Before BDD - [00:11:30]
• Behavior Driven Development (BDD) - [00:15:24]
• Benefits of BDD - [00:22:33]
• Gherkin - [00:27:39]
• Introducing BDD - [00:32:24]
• BDD for Legacy Software - [00:38:41]
• Managing BDD Specifications - [00:43:15]
• Screenplay Pattern - [00:47:09]
• Serenity Project - [00:58:42]
• Other BDD Techniques - [01:11:33]
• Testing Layers to Apply BDD - [01:14:13]
• BDD Anti-Patterns - [01:18:28]
• 4 Tech Lead Wisdom - [01:23:01]

_____

Jan Molak’s Bio
Jan Molak is a consulting software engineer and trainer who specialises in enhancing team collaboration and optimising software development processes for global organisations. Jan is the author of the Serenity/JS acceptance testing framework, a contributor to the Screenplay Pattern, and a co-author of a renowned book “BDD in Action, Second Edition”.

John Ferguson Smart’s Bio
John Ferguson Smart is a specialist in BDD, automated testing, and software lifecycle development optimization. He is the founder of the Serenity Dojo, an online training platform for testers who want to become world-class Agile Test Automation Engineers, and the creator of the Serenity BDD test automation framework.

Follow Jan:

• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/janmolak
• X – @JanMolak

Follow John:

• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/john-ferguson-smart
• X – @wakaleo
• Serenity Dojo – serenity-dojo.com

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“Collaborative modeling is getting the relevant people into a room to solve a problem or get on the same page about what it is you’re solving and getting some directions for that solution."

Evelyn and Gien are the co-authors of “Collaborative Software Design: How to Facilitate Domain Modeling Decisions”. In this episode, we discussed collaborative software design and why we need it in software development. Evelyn and Gien started by explaining the Cynefin framework in software development and the importance of having heuristics for making quick decisions. We then dived deep into discussing what collaborative modeling is, how to get people involved to collaborate, and the important role of a facilitator. We also talked about the socio-technical aspects and skills required in collaborative modeling, in particular, understanding the influence of cognitive bias and ranking. Towards the end, we discussed when we should do a collaborative modeling exercise, how to structure it, and tips for doing it remotely.  

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:06:53]
• Collaborative Software Design - [00:09:28]
• Complicated vs Complex Problems - [00:12:24]
• Heuristics - [00:15:07]
• Collaborating Modeling - [00:19:03]

• The Facilitator Role - [00:24:55]
• Socio Technical Skills - [00:30:10]
• Cognitive Bias - [00:33:10]
• The Influence of Ranking - [00:38:51]
• Collaborative Modelling Structure - [00:47:00]
• When to do Collaborative Modeling - [00:51:38]
• Remote Collaborative Modeling - [00:55:34]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:58:45]

_____

Evelyn van Kelle’s Bio
Evelyn van Kelle is a strategic software delivery consultant, with experience in coaching, advising, facilitating, and guiding organizations and teams in designing and maintaining socio-technical systems. She blends different techniques, tools and approaches from behavioral and social sciences, collaborative modeling and Domain-Driven Design, to help leadership teams achieve sustainable transformations. Evelyn loves to share her knowledge by speaking at international conferences and meetups.

Gien Verschatse’s Bio
Gien Verschatse is an experienced consultant and software engineer that specializes in domain modelling and software architecture. As a Domain-Driven Design practitioner, she always looks to bridge the gaps between experts, users, and engineers. As a side interest, she’s researching the science of decision-making strategies, to help teams improve how they make technical and organizational decisions. She shares her knowledge by speaking and teaching at international conferences. When she is not doing all that, you’ll find her on the sofa, reading a book and sipping coffee.

Follow Evelyn:

• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/evelynvankell
• X – @EvelynvanKell

Follow Gien:

• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/gien-verschatse
• X – @selketjah

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“Do not start a job search by looking for jobs. Start a job search by understanding at a deeper level who you are, what you value, how you like to work, and what are you solving for."

Andre Martin is an organizational psychologist and the author of “Wrong Fit, Right Fit”. In this episode, he shared the importance of finding the right fit company for us in our work. Andre used the analogy of writing with a non-dominant hand to explain working in a wrong fit company. He shared some of the common misalignments, such as the modern hiring practices, infinite browsing, and company culture deck trend. Andre then explained how we can work towards finding our right fit company by doing more self reflection using some fit excursions shared in his book. He also touched on the important concept of buffers and the role of leaders and managers in the workplace. Towards the end, Andre shared some practical tips on how companies can create a better right fit culture in the organizations.  

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:03:53]
• Wrong Fit, Right Fit - [00:05:28]
• Writing with Our Non-Dominant Hand - [00:07:27]
• Common Wrong Fit Misalignments - [00:10:25]
• Way of Working - [00:14:50]
• The Danger of Culture Deck - [00:22:04]
• The Danger of Infinite Browsing - [00:23:51]
• Finding the Right Fit - [00:26:18]
• Fit Excursions - [00:28:31]
• Interviewing and Onboarding + Right Fit - [00:33:07]
• Buffers + Right Fit - [00:37:52]
• The Role of the Leader & Manager - [00:40:04]
• Company + Right Fit - [00:43:46]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:47:39]

_____

Andre Martin’s Bio
Andre Martin is an organizational psychologist and talent management executive with 20+ years of experience in talent development, executive team development, employee engagement, culture change, c-suite assessment & succession planning, innovation/design thinking, strategy development, and employee experience design. He is also a father, a husband, and a wildly curious learner who is dedicated to ensuring iconic brands become iconic companies.

Follow Andre:

• Website – www.wrongfitrightfit.com
• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/docmartinpdx

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“Lifestyle engineering is about taking the idea we have within us to create a different reality in our own lives. It’s amazing what’s possible when you get in the driver’s seat and engineer your lifestyle."

Zachary White is a career coach for engineering leadership and the host of the Happy Engineer Podcast. In this episode, Zach shared how engineers can become happier in their work and life through the lifestyle engineering approach. He discussed what lifestyle engineering entails, such as debunking the myth of work-life balance, getting out of comfort zone, mastering mindset, building our own blueprint, and doing less. Zach also opened up and shared his personal story of getting burned out and gave great insights on how we can manage burnout before it happens. Towards the end, Zach explained the importance of coaching for engineering leaders to reach their full potential.  

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:03:40]
• Lifestyle Engineering - [00:07:22]
• The Happy Engineer Podcast - [00:10:09]
• Forget Work-Life Balance - [00:13:20]
• Getting Out of Comfort Zone - [00:17:42]
• Examples of Stepping Out of Comfort Zone - [00:21:19]
• Mastering Mindset - [00:25:37]
• Building Our Own Blueprint - [00:30:40]
• Doing Less - [00:34:10]
• Burnout - [00:38:02]
• Coaches for Engineering Leaders - [00:46:13]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:50:53]

_____

Zachary White’s Bio
Zach White is known as the premier career coach for engineering leadership. He has worked with hundreds of leaders at top companies worldwide to achieve breakthrough results and avoid burnout.

Zach is the founder and CEO of Oasis of Courage, a fast-growing company with unique and proven coaching programs exclusively for engineering and technology professionals. He also hosts a top-rated show, “The Happy Engineer Podcast.”

As a coach for engineering leaders, Zach understands the journey firsthand, holding both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in mechanical engineering, and spending over a decade building his career in the Fortune 200.

Follow Zachary:

• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/thezachwhite
• Coaching Website – oasisofcourage.com
• Happy Engineer Podcast – oasisofcourage.com/happy-engineer-podcast
• Podcast Mobile Listen – plnk.to/the-happy-engineer

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“The goal is not Agile. The goal is not DevOps. The goal is not Cloud. The goal is value, time to value, safety, happiness, and quality."

Jonathan Smart and Simon Rohrer are the co-authors of “Sooner Safer Happier”. In this episode, Jon and Simon shared how we can deliver better outcomes in a more humane way of working, by delivering better value sooner, safer, and happier. They shared several principles, patterns, and anti-patterns described in the book, such as focusing on outcomes, the leadership as team number one, intelligent flow, creating alignment, and having the ability to unlearn and relearn.  

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:03:41]
• The Age of Digital - [00:06:29]
• Patterns & Anti-Patterns - [00:11:15]
• Better Value Sooner Safer Happier (BVSSH) - [00:13:18]
• Focus on Outcomes - [00:17:06]
• Empower the How - [00:19:28]
• Role of Leadership - [00:23:30]
• Leadership Team is Team #1 - [00:26:41]
• Intelligent Flow - [00:31:28]
• Stop Starting, Start Finishing - [00:34:43]
• Building Alignment - [00:36:48]
• Limited Velocity to Unlearn and Relearn - [00:40:10]
• 4 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:43:41]

_____

Jonathan Smart’s Bio
Jonathan Smart is co-founder and CEO of Sooner Safer Happier, a thought leader and a coach. He has been an agile and lean practitioner since the early 1990s and the lead author of the award winning and bestselling ‘Sooner Safer Happier: Patterns and Antipatterns for Business Agility’. He is also the founder of the Enterprise Agility Leaders Network, a member of the Programming Committee for the DevOps Enterprise Summit, a member of the Business Agility Institute Advisory Council, a guest speaker at London Business School, and speaks at numerous conferences a year.

Simon Rohrer’s Bio
Simon Rohrer has been a hands on practitioner across both software engineering and enterprise architecture for over twenty-six years, and has had a passion for agile software development since picking up the eXtreme Programming white book in 1999. He’s passionate about an eclectic and pragmatic approach to modern ways of working, incorporating lean, agile, systems thinking, DevOps and other principles and practices at the right pace and in a human context in enterprises, typically with a legacy of existing technology and a drive to do things better.

Follow Jonathan and Simon:

• Jonathan Smart’s LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/jonathansmart
• Simon Rohrer’s LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/simonrohrer
• Website – soonersaferhappier.com
• Slack – soonersaferhappier.com/community

_____

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“Think about delegation as more of a coaching mindset instead of the doer mentality. It’s not about looking at the immediate task at hand, it’s about teaching that to others."

Akanksha Gupta is the author of “Think Like a Software Engineering Manager”. In this episode, Akanksha described the role of an engineering manager and the key traits of being a good engineering manager. She gave advice on how one can transition to the EM role and talked about the difference between an engineering management and leadership. Akanksha then walked us through the three key pillars of engineering management, which are people, process, and projects. We discussed topics, such as delegation, performance management, cross functional collaboration, and time management. Akanksha also shared her practical advice for women in technology who are also interested in becoming an engineering manager.  

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:03:38]
• Writing the Book - [00:05:54]
• Engineering Manager (EM) Role - [00:08:25]
• Transitioning to an EM Role - [00:10:48]
• Traits of a Good EM - [00:14:17]
• Engineering Manager vs Engineering Leader - [00:18:31]
• Boss Mindset - [00:20:01]
• Advice for Women to Become EMs - [00:21:56]
• Delegation - Learn to Let Go - [00:24:30]
• Managing Performance - [00:27:33]
• Cross-Functional Collaboration - [00:33:27]
• Setting Up Processes - [00:37:20]
• Managing Up - [00:40:00]
• Time Management - [00:42:02]
• A Growing Todo List - [00:45:50]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:47:28]

_____

Akanksha Gupta’s Bio
Akanksha Gupta is an experienced Engineering Manager at AWS. Prior to joining Amazon, she was an engineering manager with Robinhood, Audible and Microsoft. She completed her Masters in Computer Science at Columbia University. She is also part of the IADAS (The International Academy of Digital Arts and Science) and was awarded the Fellowship by the British Computer Society and the RSA.

Akanksha is also a huge advocate in Women in Technology. She is an Amazon Bar Raiser at Amazon and is an active mentor at PlatoHq, GrowthMentor and FastTrack mentorship programs. She has served as the jury member for several esteemed awards such as Stevie Awards, SIIA Codie, GraceHopper and the Webby awards. She has also been part of the Grace Hopper committee review for Software Engineering track and has served as a Track chair for Global WomenInTech conference.

Follow Akanksha:

• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/akankshaguptamgr
• Plato HQ – platohq.com/@akanksha-gupta-1364542759
• Growth Mentor – app.growthmentor.com/mentors/akanksha-gupta

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“To build trust, you need to do the right thing, do the best you can, and show people you care. And when you do that, it builds commitment. Trust and commitment are how teams do best and win the most."

Michael Foss is a leadership coach and the founder of CoachFoss LLC. In this episode, we discussed the power of leadership principles and positive leadership. Michael started by sharing the important principle of building trust and creating a shared commitment with the people we work with. He then shared what he learned from his time at Amazon and explained why creating leadership principles is important for any company to thrive. Michael also explained the powerful techniques for leading a successful process improvement: creating standard work and using Andon from the Toyota Production System. Towards the end, as a certified trainer, Michael summarized leadership essence of both John Maxwell’s Leadership and John Gordon’s Power of Positive Leadership. So many leadership insights you can learn just from this summary alone!  

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:04:04]
• Building Trust - [00:15:35]
• Creating Standard Work - [00:23:00]
• Pulling an Andon - [00:26:18]
• Power of Principles - [00:30:19]
• Building Shared Commitment - [00:33:18]
• John Maxwell & Positive Leadership - [00:38:58]
• Mental Health & Wellbeing - [00:48:34]
• 4 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:53:30]

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Michael Foss’s Bio
Michael is the Founder & CEO for CoachFoss LLC. As a speaker, trainer, and consultant, he is passionate about Finding Optimal Solutions for Success and thrives on inspiring and motivating leaders, teams, and individuals to achieve and sustain transformational success. Michael is certified to train The Power of Positive Leadership & The Power of a Positive Team by Jon Gordon and is an active Executive Program Director John Maxwell Leadership Certified Speaker, Trainer, and Coach.

Michael has extensive global experience and success as a logistics and supply chain operations leader, having worked for companies including Walmart, Flexport, CloudSort, Caterpillar, Amazon, Cameron, Weir, and FedEx. Michael is a Fellow, Past President, & IAB chairman of the Institute of Industrial & Systems Engineers (IISE). He earnt his Lean / Six Sigma Black Belt from the University of Villanova and he was awarded the Texas Tech Whitacre College of Engineering Distinguished Engineer’s award, one of only 27 industrial engineers ever awarded.

Follow Michael:

• Website – coachfoss.com
• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/coachfoss
• Instagram – instagram.com/coachfoss11
• Linktree – linktr.ee/CoachFoss

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“You should never do something just because the auditors want you to do it. They should be able to explain the risk and controls in accordance with your risk appetite and tolerance."

Clarissa Lucas is an audit and risk management leader and the author of “Beyond Agile Auditing”. In this episode, Clarissa shared a novel approach to internal auditing called auditing with agility. She shared this concept at the DevOps Enterprise Summit 2022, which drew some parallels to the revolutionary birth of the DevOps movement. Clarissa explained the three core components of auditing with agility, which are value-driven auditing, integrated auditing 2.0, and adaptable auditing.  

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:04:27]
• Purpose of Internal Audit - [00:08:38]
• Challenges with Traditional Auditing - [00:11:01]
• How Auditing with Agility Started - [00:16:48]
• Parallels with the Birth of DevOps - [00:22:02]
• Segregation of Duty - [00:25:04]
• Auditing with Agility & Value-Driven Auditing - [00:30:21]
• Integrated Auditing 2.0 - [00:33:52]
• Adaptable Auditing - [00:41:33]
• Extending to External Auditing - [00:45:32]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:47:26]

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Clarissa Lucas’s Bio
Clarissa Lucas is an experienced audit and risk management leader with over 15 years of experience. As a thought leader on Auditing with Agility, she has written articles on the topic published by both the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) and IT Revolution press, as well as her first book, Beyond Agile Auditing: Three Core Components to Revolutionize Your Internal Audit Practices. Clarissa has spoken at a number of IIA, ISACA, and IT Revolution conferences, as well as local IIA chapter events and various podcasts, on this topic. Clarissa is a Certified Internal Auditor, Certified Information Systems Auditor and a Certified Investments and Derivatives Auditor.

Follow Clarissa:

• Website – clarissalucas.com
• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/clarissalucas

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“It’s so important to start with a problem and make sure you understand it is a big market. Many tech founding teams end up building a technology that is still in search of a problem."

Jothy Rosenberg is a serial entrepreneur who has founded 9 startups with exits of over $100 million. He is the author of an upcoming book “Think Like a Tech Founder: Anecdotes of an Incorrigible Entrepreneur”. In this episode, Jothy shared his valuable lessons learned on founding and managing a startup, such as why and when you should decide to startup, valuable advice for founders (including letting go founders who don’t work out), dealing with failures, being the CEO of your own startup, and traits of a bad CEO we should avoid. Towards the end, Jothy shared inspiring message about his story overcoming physical disability that resulted in a foundation “Who Says I Can’t”, and described his formula why people with physical disability so often overachieve.  

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:04:48]
• Jumping into Startup - [00:12:34]
• When to Start a Startup - [00:16:36]
• Definition of Founders - [00:19:01]
• Advice for Founders - [00:21:44]
• Letting Founders Go - [00:24:20]
• Dealing with Failure - [00:26:47]
• Lessons from Big Companies - [00:30:20]
• Being a Startup CEO - [00:34:16]
• Bad CEOs - [00:38:18]
• Who Says I Can’t Foundation - [00:44:31]
• Who Says I Can’t Formula - [00:49:10]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:54:00]

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Jothy Rosenberg’s Bio
Jothy Rosenberg has been an entrepreneur since 1988, and has founded and run nine technology startups—two of which had exits of over $100 million. He was the general manager of Borland’s Developer Division from 1992-1997, where he led Borland’s Languages division, including Delphi, C++Builder, and JBuilder. He has a PhD in computer science, and has authored two technical books, a business book, memoir, and childrens book. Jothy is the creator of the series Who Says I Can’t on YouTube, and established and runs the The Who Says I Can’t Foundation.

Follow Jothy:

• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/jothy
• Who Says I Can’t – whosaysicant.org
• Dover Microsystems – dovermicrosystems.com
• Email – [email protected]

_____

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“An effective developer is an effective software tester. As a developer, it’s your responsibility to make sure what you do works. And automated testing is such an easy and cheap way of doing it."

Mauricio Aniche is the author of “Effective Software Testing”. In this episode, Mauricio explained how to become a more effective software developer by using effective and systematic software testing approaches. We discussed several such testing techniques, such as testing pyramid, specification-based testing, boundary testing, structural testing, mutation testing, and property testing. Mauricio also shared his interesting view about test-driven development (TDD) and suggested the one area we can do to improve our test maintainability.  

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:03:43]
• Winning Teacher of the Year - [00:06:07]
• An Effective Developer is an Effective Tester - [00:09:33]
• Reasons for Writing Automated Tests - [00:10:43]
• Systematic Tester - [00:13:45]
• Testing Pyramid - [00:17:50]
• Unit vs Integration Test - [00:20:25]
• Specification-Based Testing - [00:22:55]
• Behavior-Driven Design - [00:25:34]
• Boundary Testing - [00:27:01]
• Structural Testing & Code Coverage - [00:30:16]
• Mutation Testing - [00:35:31]
• Property Testing - [00:38:45]
• Test-Driven Development - [00:42:00]
• Test Maintainability - [00:46:03]
• Growing Object-Oriented Software, Guided by Tests - [00:48:07]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:49:24]

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Mauricio Aniche’s Bio
Dr. Maurício Aniche’s life mission is to help software engineers to become better and more productive. Maurício is a Tech Lead at Adyen, where he heads the Tech Academy team and leads different engineering enablement initiatives. Maurício is also an assistant professor of software engineering at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. His teaching efforts in software testing gave him the Computer Science Teacher of the Year 2021 award and the TU Delft Education Fellowship, a prestigious fellowship given to innovative lecturers. He is the author of the “Effective Software Testing: A Developer’s Guide”, published by Manning in 2022. He’s currently working on a new book entitled “Simple Object-Oriented Design” which should be on the market soon.

Follow Mauricio:

• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/mauricioaniche
• Twitter – @mauricioaniche
• Website – effective-software-testing.com
• Newsletter – effectivesoftwaretesting.substack.com

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“Building an application security program is about ensuring security is built into the software development lifecycle and how to respond to vulnerabilities."

Derek Fisher is the author of “Application Security Program Handbook”. In this episode, Derek shared about building an application security program and how to implement it in our organization. First, we discussed some security fundamental concepts, such as shift-left, CIA triad, and threat modeling. Derek then outlined how to start an application security program and measure the program’s success. Derek also touched on the security program maturity model and gave his tips on how to build and hire application security teams. Towards the end, Derek also gave his insights on how to address zero-day vulnerabilities when it becomes prominent.  

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:03:51]
• Building Application Security Program - [00:06:56]
• Shifting Left - [00:11:58]
• CIA Triad - [00:16:30]
• Threat Modeling - [00:19:04]
• Threat Classification - [00:22:49]
• Starting Application Security Program - [00:27:04]
• Security Program Maturity Model - [00:32:45]
• Building Security Teams - [00:35:27]
• Measuring the Program’s Success - [00:40:19]
• Zero Day Vulnerabilities - [00:42:48]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:44:59]

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Derek Fisher’s Bio
Derek is an award winning author of a children’s book series in cybersecurity as well as the author of “The Application Security Handbook.” He is a university instructor at Temple University where he teaches software development security to undergraduate and graduate students. He is a speaker on topics in the cybersecurity space and has led teams, large and small, at organizations in the healthcare and financial industries. He has built and matured information security teams as well as implemented organizational information security strategies to reduce the organizations risk. His focus has been to raise the security awareness of the engineering organization while maintaining a practice of secure code development, delivery, and operations.

Follow Derek Fisher:

• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/derek-fisher-sec-arch
• YouTube – @securelybuilt5967
• Website – securelybuilt.com

_____

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“It’s not about the tools or processes. Most important is you understand the target outcomes for your customers and establish the right level of shared situational awareness across the teams."

Robert Benefield is the author of “Lean DevOps: A Practical Guide to On Demand Service Delivery”. In this episode, Robert shared insights on how we can apply the Lean DevOps mindset for building successful IT delivery organizations. Robert started by sharing what initiated him writing the book and how it differs from the other available DevOps books. Robert described the concept of on-demand service delivery and important concepts, such as knowing the target outcomes, building situational awareness, and making effective and timely decisions based on the OODA loop. Robert also shared a few practices and techniques he outlined in the book, such as mission command, workflow board, queue master, service engineering lead, value stream mapping, and Einheit.
 

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:03:58]
• Writing a DevOps Book - [00:14:14]
• On Demand Service Delivery - [00:18:58]
• Mission Command - [00:21:42]
• OODA Loop - [00:26:56]
• Building Situational Awareness - [00:33:16]
• Workflow Management - [00:39:43]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:49:41]

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Robert Benefield’s Bio
Robert Benefield is an experienced technical leader who has decades of experience delivering robust on-demand services to solve hard problems in demanding ecosystems including banking and securities trading, medical and pharmaceutical, energy, telecom, government, and Internet services. His continual eagerness to learn and work with others to make a difference has taken him from building computers and writing code in the early days of the Internet at Silicon Valley startups to the executive suite in large multinational companies. He shares his unique experience in the hopes that others can continue to build on it without having to collect quite as many scars along the way.

Follow Robert:

• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/robert-benefield-25482
• Website – leandevops.com
• Twitter – @leandevops

_____

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“Privacy is about handling data in a way that builds for both compliance and trust, maturity and transparency."

Nishant Bhajaria is cybersecurity and data privacy executive and the author of “Data Privacy: A Runbook for Engineers”. In this episode, we discussed the importance of data privacy and privacy engineering. Nishant described his definition of data privacy and why it is becoming a key concern for users, companies, and regulators. He explained why doing data privacy is hard and how companies can build a privacy-first culture. Nishant also covered other data privacy topics, including data classification, data sharing, data consent, and data privacy applied to machine learning.  

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:03:29]
• Writing “Data Privacy” Book - [00:05:45]
• Building a Course - [00:10:04]
• Data Privacy Definition - [00:13:43]
• Data Privacy Concerns - [00:16:03]
• Data Privacy Regulations - [00:22:07]
• Data Privacy is Hard - [00:26:23]
• Privacy & Security - [00:31:22]
• Privacy-First Culture - [00:35:23]
• Data for Machine Learning - [00:39:23]
• Data Privacy Tooling - [00:42:45]
• Data Sharing - [00:45:45]
• Data Consent - [00:49:27]
• Data Classification - [00:52:10]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:55:46]

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Nishant Bhajaria’s Bio
Nishant Bhajaria is an executive in the cybersecurity and data privacy industry. Having started out as an engineer with a second act as a product manager, he pivoted to data protection before it became a high-visibility topic. Besides building and leading teams at Nike, Netflix, Google and Uber, Nishant has also authored the recently released Data Privacy: A Runbook for Engineers - a deep dive into strategies on effectively identifying, communicating and addressing privacy risks using technical strategies. He also teaches courses on LinkedIn Learning on cybersecurity, career development and building inclusive teams.

Follow Nishant:

• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/nishantjb
• LinkedIn Courses – https://www.linkedin.com/learning/instructors/nishant-bhajaria

_____

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“Spend some time looking at the system in which you work. Understand how the work is working. Understand how flow is for your organization. And then you can work to optimize that."

James Lewis is a Director at ThoughtWorks and a pioneer of microservice architecture. In this episode, we went back memory lane to the time when James first coined and popularized the microservice architecture. James described his definition of a microservice and its important characteristics. He also shared the recent microservice evolution, including the swing between microservice and monolith. In the second half, James shared his insights from complexity science related to different scaling patterns. Particularly, he explained how different hierarchy types can affect an organization’s growth rate. Towards the end, James gave some tips on how organization can detect signs of suboptimal growth and what we can do to maintain organizational agility.  

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:03:48]
• Coining Microservices - [00:07:25]
• Definition of Microservices - [00:14:13]
• Microservices Swing - [00:18:42]
• Scaling Law and Complexity Science - [00:24:05]
• Complex and Adaptive System - [00:40:01]
• Examining Sublinear Growth - [00:43:47]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:51:19]

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James Lewis’s Bio
James is a Software Architect and Director at Thoughtworks based in the UK. He’s proud to have been a part of Thoughtworks’ journey for fourteen years and it’s ongoing mission of delivering technical excellence for its clients and in amplifying positive social change for an equitable future. As a member of the Thoughtworks Technical Advisory Board, the group that creates the Technology Radar, he contributes to industry adoption of open source and other tools, techniques, platforms and languages.

He is an internationally recognised expert on software architecture and design and on its intersection with organisational design and lean product development. After defining what was the newly emerging Microservices architectural style back in 2014, James’ primary consulting focus these days is helping organisations with technology strategy, distributed systems design and adoption of SOA.

Follow James Lewis:

• Twitter – @boicy
• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/james-lewis-microservices/
• Email – [email protected]

_____

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“The three core dimensions of developer experience are feedback loops, cognitive load, and flow state."

Margaret-Anne (Peggy) Storey and Abi Noda are the coauthors of the recently published ACM paper “DevEx: What Actually Drives Productivity”. In this episode, we discussed how we can better measure and improve developer productivity using a developer-centric approach. Peggy and Abi first began by explaining the importance of socio-technical factors in software development. They also shared their view on the well-known SPACE and DORA metrics, and pointed out the danger of misusing and abusing the DORA metrics. Peggy and Abi then explained the three core dimensions of developer experience from their latest paper, which are feedback loops, cognitive load, and flow state. Towards the end, Peggy and Abi shared tips on how we can start measuring developer experience, including how to conduct developer surveys properly.  

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:04:09]
• First Developer Experience Paper - [00:06:19]
• Socio-Technical Factors - [00:07:37]
• SPACE & DORA Metrics - [00:13:35]
• Misuse and Abuse of DORA Metrics - [00:18:52]
• New Developer Experience Paper - [00:22:29]
• Developer Experience - [00:24:55]
• 3 Core Dimensions - [00:28:11]
• Optimizing Feedback Loops - [00:32:44]
• Cognitive Load - [00:37:06]
• Flow State - [00:40:32]
• Importance of Culture - [00:46:25]
• Measuring Developer Experience - [00:50:27]
• Conducting Survey - [00:54:29]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [01:00:10]

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Margaret-Anne Storey’s Bio
Margaret-Anne (Peggy) Storey is a professor of computer science at the University of Victoria and holds a Canada Research Chair in human and social aspects of software engineering. Her research focuses on improving processes, tools, communication, and collaboration in software engineering. She serves as chief scientist at DX and consults with Microsoft to improve developer productivity.

Abi Noda’s Bio
Abi Noda is the founder and CEO at DX, where he leads the company’s strategic direction and R&D efforts. His work focuses on developing measurement methods to help organizations improve developer experience and productivity. Before joining DX, Noda held engineering leadership roles at various companies and founded Pull Panda, which was acquired by GitHub in 2019. For more information, visit his website at abinoda.com.

Follow Margaret:

• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/margaret-anne-storey-8419462
• Twitter – @margaretstorey

Follow Abi:

• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/abinoda
• Twitter – @abinoda
• Newsletter – newsletter.abinoda.com

_____

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Show notes & transcript: techleadjournal.dev/episodes/134. Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. Buy me a coffee or become a patron.

“The goal of requirements development is clear and effective communication. Thus, it has to be done in an incremental and iterative fashion."

Karl Wiegers is the coauthor of “Software Requirements Essentials” and has previously appeared in our episode #103. In this episode, we discussed 6 essential practices for software requirements out of the 20 core practices specified in his book. Karl also explained the importance of having a clear and effective communication in developing software requirements, his view on doing software requirements for Agile teams, and the importance of having good software requirements for becoming an effective software development team and for avoiding unnecessary rework.  

Listen out for:

• What Karl is Up To Lately - [00:04:08]
• Writing “Software Requirements Essentials” - [00:05:20]
• Software Requirements - [00:10:19]
• Clear & Effective Communication - [00:13:20]
• Importance of Requirement Details - [00:16:19]
• Practice #1 - Understand the Problem Before Converging on a Solution - [00:22:05]
• Practice #3 - Define the Solution’s Boundaries - [00:26:26]
• Requirements Elicitation vs Requirements Gathering - [00:30:47]
• Practice #6 - Understand What Users Need to Do With the Solution - [00:33:01]
• Software Requirements in Agile - [00:37:06]
• Requirements & Effective Software Development - [00:40:59]
• Rework - [00:44:39]
• Practice #19 - Establish and Manage Requirement Baselines - [00:46:20]
• Practice #13 - Prioritize the Requirements - [00:49:17]
• Practice #20 - Manage Changes to Requirements Effectively - [00:52:22]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:55:54]

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Karl Wiegers’s Bio
Karl Wiegers is Principal Consultant with Process Impact. He has a PhD in organic chemistry. Karl is the author of 14 books, including Software Requirements Essentials (with Candase Hokanson), Software Requirements (with Joy Beatty), Software Development Pearls, The Thoughtless Design of Everyday Things, Successful Business Analysis Consulting, and a forensic mystery novel titled The Reconstruction. Karl has delivered more than 650 training courses, webinars, and conference presentations worldwide. You can reach him at ProcessImpact.com or KarlWiegers.com, where you can also hear more than 50 songs he has recorded just for fun, including 18 originals that he wrote.

Follow Karl:

• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/karlwiegers
• Website – karlwiegers.com
• Software Requirements Essentials – softwarereqs.com
• Process Impact – processimpact.com
• Medium – karlwiegers.medium.com

_____

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Show notes & transcript: techleadjournal.dev/episodes/133. Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. Buy me a coffee or become a patron.

“Speak about topics you are passionate about, because if you are passionate about something, you can easily find the story and the motivation that will lead you to success."

Oscar Santolalla is the author of “Rock the Tech Stage” and the host of the “Time to Shine” podcast. In this episode, we discussed techniques on how to deliver a successful tech presentation and demo. Oscar broke down the elements of a successful tech presentation, in particular, explaining in-depth the three essential elements of passion, storytelling, and interaction. Oscar also shared some practical tips on how to deliver a killer product demo, some presentation slides hacks, and insights on how we can use our voice more effectively when delivering talks.  

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:03:47]
• Writing Public Demo and Public Speaking Books - [00:08:40]
• Elements of a Successful Public Speaking - [00:12:52]
• Passion - [00:23:10]
• Storytelling - [00:25:20]
• Delivering Product Demos - [00:28:55]
• Presentation Slides - [00:34:56]
• Importance of Voice - [00:38:31]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:42:09]

_____

Oscar Santolalla’s Bio
After a decade and a half in the technology arena, Oscar embarked on a mission to help people in technology companies present better, inspire others, and sell more. He is author of “Rock the Tech Stage” (Apress, 2020) and “Create and Deliver a Killer Product Demo” (Apress, 2018). Oscar helps professionals in the technology industry rediscover the power of sharing their best ideas onstage.

Since 2014, Oscar hosts Time to Shine, the pioneer podcast show in public speaking. He works as a Senior Sales Engineer at Ubisecure, in which he hosts the podcast “Let’s Talk About Digital Identity” and leads the company’s product training program. He has also contributed as speaking coach in several TEDx events. Oscar lives in Helsinki, Finland.

Follow Oscar:

• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/oscarsantolalla
• Twitter – @osantolalla
• Website – rockthetechstage.com
• Rock the Tech Stage On Demand – rockthetechstage.com/ondemand (25% off with code: techleadjournal)

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“The notion of transaction, consistency, and ACID compliance are many times tech imposed. It should be the business that makes the decision. We as technologists should not make that decision."

Pramod Sadalage is a Director at ThoughtWorks and the co-author of the Jolt Award winning “Refactoring Databases”. In this episode, we discussed data essentials in software architecture. Pramod started by explaining why dealing with data is hard in software architecture and some data related concerns we should think about when making architecture decisions. He then shared the thought process of how we can choose the right database for our purpose and shared insights on data modeling differences between SQL and NoSQL. Pramod also touched on the important considerations in managing transactions and the trade-offs between ACID and eventual consistency. Towards the end, Pramod shared practical advice on the step-by-step how we can split a monolithic database through database refactoring.  

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:04:23]
• Data is Hard - [00:15:57]
• Data Related Architecture Concerns - [00:18:36]
• Choosing the Right Database - [00:24:19]
• Data Modeling in SQL vs NoSQL - [00:30:28]
• Managing Transactions - [00:37:31]
• Tradeoff Between ACID & Eventual Consistency - [00:44:06]
• Refactoring Database - [00:46:58]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:54:58]

_____

Pramod Sadalage’s Bio
Pramod Sadalage is Director at ThoughtWorks where he enjoys the rare role of bridging the divide between database professionals and application developers. In the early 00’s he developed techniques to allow relational databases to be designed in an evolutionary manner based on version-controlled schema migrations. He is co-author of Software Architecture: The Hard Parts: Modern Trade-Off Analyses for Distributed Architectures, co-author for Building Evolutionary Architectures - Automated Software Governance, co-author of Refactoring Databases: Evolutionary Database Design, co-author of NoSQL Distilled: A Brief Guide to the Emerging World of Polyglot Persistence, author of Recipes for Continuous Database Integration and continues to speak and write about the insights he and his clients learn.

Follow Pramod Sadalage:

• Twitter – @pramodsadalage
• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/pramodsadalage
• Website – sadalage.com
• Database Refactoring – databaserefactoring.com
• DevOps for DBA – devopsfordba.com
• Agile Data – agiledata.org

_____

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“Understand the stage of your company and the kind of risks you face at that stage, make decisions that are appropriate, and remind other people about that all the time."

Sarah Milstein is the VP of Engineering at Daily and has run remote teams for 25 years. In this episode, Sarah started by sharing some remote work insights we may not have heard before, such as why remote distributed teams often have higher propensity of trust, how remote work could help make difficult conversations easier, and how leaders can establish swift trust by having more intentional communications. In the second half of our conversation, Sarah shared about her experience of leading engineers as someone from a non-tech background. She explained why a lack of technical expertise can sometimes be useful and pointed out some leadership qualities an engineering leader should have to balance out the need for technical acumen. Sarah also shared her few tips on how to upskill herself in technical stuffs and her perspective on whether a company should consider having non-tech engineering leaders.  

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:03:49]
• Remote Work Insights - [00:08:04]
• Propensity of Trust - [00:12:26]
• Working Back in Office - [00:15:39]
• Other Remote Work Insights - [00:17:36]
• Ingroup Bias - [00:20:47]
• Swift Trust & Intentional Communication - [00:23:21]
• Accountability - [00:28:28]
• Being an Engineering Leader from a Non-Tech Background - [00:30:50]
• Leadership Qualities - [00:33:31]
• Benefits of Non-Tech Background - [00:35:15]
• Self-Learning Technical Stuffs - [00:39:23]
• Company Accepting Non-Tech Engineering Leaders - [00:41:51]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:45:14]

_____

Sarah Milstein’s Bio
Sarah Milstein is VP of Engineering at Daily, which lets developers add real-time video and audio to any app or website. Before Daily, Sarah held executive roles at ConvertKit, Mailchimp,18F.gov, and indie.vc. She was also CEO and co-founder of Lean Startup Productions and co-author of The Twitter Book. Earlier, she was a freelance journalist writing regularly for The New York Times. She holds an MBA from UC Berkeley and has run remote teams for 25 years.

Follow Sarah:

• Website – sarahmilstein.com
• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/sarahmilstein

_____

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“The difference of why some companies are so much more successful at producing high value, high-impact products than others comes to 4 areas of GIST (Goals, Ideas, Steps, Tasks)."

Itamar Gilad is a coach and author with over 20 years of experience in product management, strategy, and growth, and was previously a product manager at Google and the head of Gmail’s growth team. In this episode, we discussed all things about product management and how to build high-value products. Itamar first shared his journey at Google growing Gmail to 1 billion MAUs and some of his lessons learnt on managing large-scale product changes, getting users feedback, and dogfooding. Itamar then explained in-depth his GIST framework as an alternative to the product roadmap, a collection of methods and best practices for producing high-value and impactful products. He shared some challenges working with product roadmap and how teams can create better alignment instead. He also shared how we can do product prioritization better by using the ICE technique and his Confidence Meter. Towards the end, Itamar shared the different ways of how companies can conduct product experimentation and how to use the GIST board to improve the way we execute product development.  

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:04:17]
• Growing Gmail - [00:06:06]
• Managing Large Scale Product Changes - [00:07:26]
• Getting Feedback from a Major Product Change - [00:10:48]
• Dogfooding - [00:15:21]
• GIST - [00:19:10]
• Problem with Product Roadmap - [00:27:17]
• Creating Alignment - [00:34:22]
• Prioritization and ICE - [00:38:02]
• Doing Product Experimentation - [00:43:59]
• Project & Task Management - [00:48:43]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:54:39]

_____

Itamar Gilad’s Bio
Itamar is a coach, author and speaker specializing in product management, strategy, and growth. For over two decades, he held senior product management and engineering roles at Google, Microsoft and a number of startups. At Google, Itamar led parts of Gmail and was the head of Gmail’s growth team (resulting in 1Bn MAUs).

Itamar publishes a popular product management newsletter and is the creator of a number of product management methodologies including GIST Framework and The Confidence Meter. Itamar is based in Barcelona, Spain.

Follow Itamar:

• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/itamargilad/
• Twitter – @ItamarGilad
• Website – itamargilad.com
• PM resources – itamargilad.com/resources
• Newsletter – itamargilad.com/newsletter

_____

Our Sponsors

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“The core of threshold leadership is a set of four pathways of cultivating stillness, embodying intelligence, thinking independently, and maturing consciousness."

Nick Chatrath is a leadership and organizational transformation expert and the author of “The Threshold: Leading in the Age of AI”. In this episode, Nick shared the concept of threshold leadership and explained its importance in the wake of recent AI advancements. Nick first shared some impact AI has made in our lives, both the good and the bad, and pointed out the importance of leaders taking accountability for those AI impact. Nick then shared in-depth the threshold leadership and its four pathways to help leaders be more responsible in the development and use of AI, which are cultivating stillness, thinking independently, embodying intelligence, and maturing consciousness. For each pathway, Nick shared a few tips on what we can do to improve ourselves, both at the personal level and the organization level. Towards the end, Nick closed our conversation by reminding us not to forget the two best human qualities we have compared to AI, which are love and wisdom.  

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:05:17]
• Writing a Book About AI & Leadership - [00:08:20]
• Impact of AI - [00:10:07]
• Leadership Responsibility - [00:15:34]
• Threshold Leadership - [00:18:02]
• Cultivating Stillness - [00:21:17]
• Knowing What Matters Most - [00:24:28]
• Organization Stillness - [00:28:01]
• Improving Stillness - [00:30:53]
• Thinking Independently - [00:34:00]
• Cultivating Independent Thinking - [00:39:48]
• Embodying Intelligence - [00:42:46]
• Importance of Recovery - [00:45:30]
• Organization’s Embodied Intelligence - [00:47:55]
• Maturing Consciousness - [00:50:22]
• Love & Wisdom - [00:53:05]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:57:29]

_____

Nick Chatrath’s Bio
Dr. Nick Chatrath is an expert in leadership and organizational transformation. A former McKinsey & Co. consultant, he now serves as managing director of the Oxford-based executive leadership firm Artesian Transformational Leadership. He holds a doctorate from the University of Oxford, and a dozen training certifications from organizations like The Leadership Circle and Hogan Assessment Systems. Previously, he co-founded the tech startup Coachify and the social reform advocacy group The Shaftsbury Partnership Ltd. A bestselling author, his most recent book is The Threshold: Leading in the Age of AI. He is an avid cook and triathlete.

Follow Nick:

• LinkedIn – www.linkedin.com/in/nickchatrath
• Artesian – artesiangroup.co.uk

_____

Our Sponsors

Are you looking for a new cool swag? Tech Lead Journal now offers you some swags that you can purchase online. These swags are printed on-demand based on your preference, and will be delivered safely to you all over the world where shipping is available. Check out all the cool swags available by visiting techleadjournal.dev/shop. And don't forget to brag yourself once you receive any of those swags.

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“3 core ideas in game thinking: super fan funnel to find the right people, loop design to create the experience people want to stick around for, and concept testing to figure out the user experience."

Amy Jo Kim is a game designer, startup coach, author, and co-founder of Game Thinking. In this episode, Amy shared how we can use game thinking to build better and successful products that people want. She first described some top reasons products fail and gave a few tips to avoid product failure by validating our ideas before building the product. Amy then explained in-depth the 3 core ideas in game thinking, which are identifying super fans, building a sticky core habit loop, and validating the product concept using storyboards. Towards the end, Amy shared how we can get started with game thinking and why we should do it early in our product journey.  

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:04:32]
• Quitting and Starting Own Journey - [00:08:08]
• Top Reasons Product Fail - [00:16:44]
• Validating Before Building - [00:27:37]
• Identifying Super Fans - [00:33:03]
• Building Core Habit Loop - [00:35:41]
• Storyboarding - [00:42:48]
• Getting Started with Game Thinking - [00:48:48]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:51:48]

_____

Amy Jo Kim’s Bio
Named by Fortune as one of the top 10 influential women in games, Amy Jo Kim is a game designer, community architect, and innovation coach. Her design credits include Rock Band, The Sims, eBay, Netflix, nytimes.com, Ultima Online, Covet Fashion, & Happify.

Amy Jo helps entrepreneurs & innovators bring their ideas to life through at gamethinking.io. She pioneered the practice of applying game design to digital services and is well-known for her books Community Building on the Web (2000) and Game Thinking (2018).

In addition to her coaching practice, Amy Jo has taught Game Thinking at Stanford University and the USC School of Cinematic Arts, where she co-founded the game design program. She holds a PhD in Behavioral Neuroscience from the University of Washington and a BA in Experimental Psychology from UCSD.

Follow Amy:

• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/amyjokim
• Twitter – @amyjokim
• Game Thinking – gamethinking.io

Mentions & Links:

• Game Thinking Masterclass – https://gamethinking.io/masterclass/
• G School – gamethinking.io/programs
• Innovator’s Quiz – gamethinking.io/quiz

_____

Our Sponsors

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Like this episode?

Show notes & transcript: techleadjournal.dev/episodes/127 Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. Buy me a coffee or become a patron.

“The vertical altitude of the organization leaders sets the ceiling for how effective the organization can be."

Ryan Gottfredson is a leadership development researcher and a Wall Street Journal and USA Today best-selling author of “The Elevated Leader”. In this episode, Ryan explained the concept of an elevated leader and why it is important to have elevated leaders in an organization. He described the role of vertical development in elevating leadership and how it differs from the horizontal development that many of us are familiar with. Ryan described in-depth the 3 different levels of vertical development, including the cognitive and emotional aspects associated with each of the level. Towards the end, Ryan explained the 4 different types of mindset and why it is important for leaders to understand and heal from past traumas in order to become elevated Mind 3.0 leaders.  

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:04:38]
• Elevated Leader - [00:06:38]
• Importance of Elevated Leader - [00:10:30]
• Horizontal & Vertical Developments - [00:14:27]
• Cognitive and Emotional Development - [00:18:48]
• 3 Levels of Vertical Development - [00:23:18]
• Center of Gravity - [00:32:28]
• 4 Different Mindsets - [00:36:04]
• Understanding Past Trauma - [00:41:34]
• Improving Our Past Trauma - [00:45:18]
• Elevated Leader & Culture - [00:48:59]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:53:50]

_____

Ryan Gottfredson’s Bio
Ryan Gottfredson, Ph.D. is a cutting-edge leadership development author, researcher, and consultant. He helps organizations vertically develop their leaders primarily through a focus on mindsets. Ryan is the Wall Street Journal and USA Today best-selling author of Success Mindsets: The Key to Unlocking Greater Success in Your Life, Work, & Leadership and The Elevated Leader: Leveling Up Your Leadership Through Vertical Development. He is also a leadership professor at the College of Business and Economics at California State University-Fullerton.

Follow Ryan:

• Website – RyanGottfredson.com
• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/ryangottfredson
• Twitter – @RyanGottfredson
• Facebook – facebook.com/RyanGottfredsonPhD
• Instagram – instagram.com/ryangottfredson
• YouTube – youtube.com/channel/UCyTe4jL0cla-U_Y4lqjc3-w

_____

Our Sponsors

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Like this episode?

Show notes & transcript: techleadjournal.dev/episodes/126 Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. Buy me a coffee or become a patron.

“A good API doesn’t expose the internal data models or internal logic too much. And the more your clients are not under your control, the less you want to do that."

Daniel Luebke is a software architect and the co-author of “Patterns for API Design”. In this episode, we discussed some API design patterns and best practices taken from his book. Daniel first shared the importance of understanding domain requirements for building APIs and several API and message best practices, such as API first design, how to design loosely coupled message exchanges, the tradeoff between generic and specialized API operations, and the risk of exposing too much internal data model and logic in our APIs. Daniel also introduced the microservices domain-specific languages (MSDL) as an alternative to Open API for specifying APIs independent of the technology implementation. Towards the end, Daniel explained the importance of defining the API lifecycle, how to support backward compatibility, and the different API versioning strategies we can use to evolve our APIs.  

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:04:17]
• Writing API Design Book - [00:08:26]
• Loosely Coupled Message Exchanges - [00:12:53]
• API Design Best Practices - [00:15:31]
• Message Best Practices - [00:20:48]
• Generic vs Specialized API - [00:24:51]
• Exposing Internal Data Model - [00:27:13]
• Microservices Domain-Specific Language - [00:30:37]
• API Evolution - [00:33:23]
• API Versioning - [00:39:27]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:44:27]

_____

Daniel Luebke’s Bio
Daniel Lübke is an independent coding and consulting software architect with a focus on business process automation and digitization projects. His interests are software architecture, business process design, and system integration, which inherently require APIs to develop solutions. He received his PhD at the Leibniz Universität Hannover, Germany, in 2007 and has worked in many industry projects in different domains since then. Daniel is author and editor of several books, articles, and research papers; gives training; and regularly presents at conferences on topics of APIs and software architecture.

Follow Daniel:

• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/danielluebke
• Twitter – @dluebke
• Blog – digital-solution-architecture.com

_____

Our Sponsors

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Show Notes: techleadjournal.dev/episodes/125 Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. Buy me a coffee or become a patron.

“The business technology divide was apparent in many companies. The idea of the value flywheel effect is to join the business and technology goals and create this flywheel effect momentum."

David Anderson is the author of “The Value Flywheel Effect” and the co-creator of The Serverless Edge. In this episode, David described the value flywheel effect concept and its four stages: clarity of purpose, challenge & landscape, next best action, and long-term value. David also explained the importance of Wardley Mapping and how we can use it to help improve the organization’s situational awareness within the value flywheel. During our discussion about the four stages, we also discussed several important concepts, such as the North Star Framework for clarity of purpose, understanding the team’s psychological safety and sociotechnical systems landscape, serverless-first paradigm as one way for the next best action, and using the well-architected framework and sustainability as guidelines for ensuring long-term value.

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:05:39]
• Value Flywheel Effect - [00:09:48]
• Wardley Mapping Overview - [00:12:09]
• Improving Situational Awareness - [00:18:04]
• Clarity of Purpose - [00:20:51]
• North Star Framework - [00:23:33]
• Obsess Over Time to Value - [00:26:36]
• Challenge and Landscape: Psychological Safety - [00:28:44]
• Sociotechnical Systems View - [00:33:54]
• The Next Best Action: Serverless-First Mindset - [00:36:11]
• Code is a Liability - [00:40:33]
• Long-Term Value: Problem Prevention Culture - [00:42:03]
• Well-Architected Framework - [00:45:26]
• Sustainability - [00:47:42]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:50:45]

_____

David Anderson’s Bio
David is a technical leader who enjoys writing and speaking about the leading edge of technology. David moved to Liberty Mutual in 2007 and drove technology change and cloud adoption. As a practicing Architect with G-P, he continues to empower and enable peers on Serverless First, Well-Architected, Engineering Excellence. His new book, The Value Flywheel Effect - Power the Future and Accelerate Your Organization to the Modern Cloud was published by IT Revolution in the fall of 2022. He is based in Belfast, writes on The Serverless Edge, is the lead organizer for ServerlessDays Belfast, is a member of the Wardley Mapping community.

Follow David:

• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/david-anderson-belfast
• Twitter – @davidand393
• Serverless Edge – ServerlessEdge.com
• Serverless Craic Podcast – theserverlessedge.podbean.com

_____

Our Sponsors

Skills Matter is the global community and events platform for software professionals. You get on-demand access to their latest content, thought leadership insights as well as the exciting schedule of tech events running across all time zones.
Head on over to skillsmatter.com to become part of the tech community that matters most to you - it’s free to join and easy to keep up with the latest tech trends.

Are you looking for a new cool swag? Tech Lead Journal now offers you some swags that you can purchase online. These swags are printed on-demand based on your preference, and will be delivered safely to you all over the world where shipping is available. Check out all the cool swags available by visiting techleadjournal.dev/shop. And don't forget to brag yourself once you receive any of those swags.

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Pledge your support by becoming a patron.
For episode show notes, visit techleadjournal.dev/episodes/124.

“People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. What people want in these traumatic moments is somebody to listen to and acknowledge them."

Katharine Manning is the President of Blackbird DC and author of “The Empathetic Workplace”. In this episode, we discussed how leaders can deal with traumatic experience in the workplace. Katharine described what she means by workplace trauma and explained the impact of such trauma on employees’ performance and organizations’ productivity. She shared the importance of leaders showing trust whenever employees come forward and share their trauma, and why leaders should avoid problem-solving in response to their situation. Katharine also touched on the importance of empathy and gave a few tips on how we can be more empathetic towards others. Towards the end, Katharine shared her LASER method, the five steps we can do for a more compassionate, calm, and confident response to the workplace trauma.

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:05:53]
• Trauma in the Workplace - [00:10:50]
• Impact of Trauma - [00:14:47]
• Showing Trust - [00:19:29]
• Avoid Problem-Solving - [00:28:35]
• Empathy - [00:31:07]
• The LASER Method - [00:37:17]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:50:48]

_____

Katharine Manning’s Bio
Katharine Manning is the President of Blackbird DC, which provides training and consultation on empathy at work. She is the author of The Empathetic Workplace: Five Steps to a Compassionate, Calm, and Confident Response to Trauma on the Job, and teaches at American University and in the Master’s in Trauma-Informed Leadership Program at Dominican University. Her work has been featured in the Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, Thrive Global, and CEOWorld. She has worked on issues of trauma and victimization for more than 25 years, including 15 years at the Justice Department, where she was a Senior Attorney Advisor consulting on victim issues in cases like the Boston Marathon bombing and the Pulse Nightclub shooting.

Follow Katharine:

• Website – KatharineManning.com
• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/katharine-manning/
• Blackbird DC – blackbird-dc.com/

_____

Our Sponsors

Skills Matter is the global community and events platform for software professionals. You get on-demand access to their latest content, thought leadership insights as well as the exciting schedule of tech events running across all time zones.
Head on over to skillsmatter.com to become part of the tech community that matters most to you - it’s free to join and easy to keep up with the latest tech trends.

Are you looking for a new cool swag? Tech Lead Journal now offers you some swags that you can purchase online. These swags are printed on-demand based on your preference, and will be delivered safely to you all over the world where shipping is available. Check out all the cool swags available by visiting techleadjournal.dev/shop. And don't forget to brag yourself once you receive any of those swags.

Like this episode?
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Pledge your support by becoming a patron.
For episode show notes, visit techleadjournal.dev/episodes/123.

“In a world that runs on software, when we develop and deploy software, we are part of a larger system where our failures are no longer about us, they are also about other people."

Kevlin Henney is a consultant, writer, and speaker on software development and has written and edited several popular books. In this episode, Kevlin shared his 3 favorite things every software engineer should know based on the two books he edited: “97 Things Every Programmer Should Know” and “97 Things Every Java Programmer Should Know”. He explained the importance for developers of taking an occasional break when working on deep work, putting code comments wisely, and using testing not just for checks but also for communication tool. Kevlin also brought up some timeless software development concepts developers should learn from the past on cohesion, coupling, and code quality. He also explained why he becomes associated with public software failures widely known as KevlinHenney screens and how the trend started in the beginning. Towards the end, Kevlin shared his views on why it is important for developers to improve public speaking, writing, and having more compassion towards each other.

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:04:54]
• Things Every Programmer Should Know - [00:10:13]
• Learning From the Past - [00:25:35]
• KevlinHenney Screens - [00:38:28]
• Public Speaking, Writing, and Compassion - [00:42:49]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:53:46]

_____

Kevlin Henney’s Bio
Kevlin Henney is an independent consultant, trainer, writer and speaker. His interests cover what happens on both sides of the keyboard, and everything from the detail of code to the bigger picture of software architecture. Kevlin is co–author of two volumes in the Pattern–Oriented Software Architecture series, editor of 97 Things Every Programmer Should Know and co-editor of 97 Things Every Java Programmer Should Know.

Follow Kevlin:

• Twitter – @KevlinHenney
• Mastodon – @[email protected]
• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/kevlin
• Medium – kevlinhenney.medium.com
• Instagram – instagram.com/kevlin.henney

_____

Our Sponsors

Skills Matter is the global community and events platform for software professionals. You get on-demand access to their latest content, thought leadership insights as well as the exciting schedule of tech events running across all time zones.
Head on over to skillsmatter.com to become part of the tech community that matters most to you - it’s free to join and easy to keep up with the latest tech trends.

Are you looking for a new cool swag? Tech Lead Journal now offers you some swags that you can purchase online. These swags are printed on-demand based on your preference, and will be delivered safely to you all over the world where shipping is available. Check out all the cool swags available by visiting techleadjournal.dev/shop. And don't forget to brag yourself once you receive any of those swags.

Like this episode?
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For episode show notes, visit techleadjournal.dev/episodes/122.

“Creativity at work is a type of thinking and a process of developing ourselves and our ability to create and bring novelty to our professional life."

Oana Velcu-Laitinen is the author of “How to Develop Your Creative Identity at Work”. In this episode, Dr. Oana shared how we can develop our creative identity at work and in our personal life. She first started by describing the definition of creativity in her book, its relation with intelligence, and explained why creativity is important for maintaining our sense of engagement and motivation. Dr. Oana outlined the 4 different types of thinking that can help us foster our creative diversity and shared several tips on how to explore our creativity by channeling our curiosity, choosing our audience, finding time for creative work, and overcoming the fear of rejection. Dr. Oana also shared some potential barriers hindering our creativity at work and why we should avoid them to foster more creative innovations. I also shared my own creative journey, including how I ended up doing this podcast. If you are looking to exercise more of your creativity or thinking of starting your creative journey, check out this episode.

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:05:01]
• Definition of Creativity - [00:07:35]
• Creativity for Engagement and Motivation - [00:11:07]
• Creativity and Intelligence - [00:13:55]
• Fear of Rejection - [00:16:14]
• 4 Types of Thinking for Creative Diversity - [00:18:46]
• Channeling Curiosity - [00:21:17]
• Importance of Audience - [00:27:08]
• Creativity Barriers at Work - [00:30:49]
• Finding Time for Creative Work - [00:34:13]
• Creative Belief - [00:40:15]
• Tips to Explore Creativity - [00:42:33]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:48:08]

_____

Oana Velcu-Laitinen’s Bio
Oana Velcu-Laitinen is a NeuroLeadership coach and trainer focusing on creative thinking to enhance work performance. Her clients include researchers, change leaders, entrepreneurs, and individuals seeking career growth. Oana holds a PhD in Economics from the Hanken School of Economics in Helsinki, Finland. In 2016, she disrupted her academic career to become a knowledge solopreneur. The book “How to Develop Your Creative Identity at Work” reflects Oana’s curiosity to keep abreast of the latest research on creative identity, mindsets and beliefs and turn it into actionable principles for ambitious knowledge workers. Her motto is, “To know job satisfaction, know your creativity.”

Follow Oana:

• Website – velcu.fi
• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/oana-velcu-laitinen-phd-6081084
• Email – [email protected]

_____

Our Sponsors

Skills Matter is the global community and events platform for software professionals. You get on-demand access to their latest content, thought leadership insights as well as the exciting schedule of tech events running across all time zones.
Head on over to skillsmatter.com to become part of the tech community that matters most to you - it’s free to join and easy to keep up with the latest tech trends.

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“Everything in software architecture is a trade-off, and the why is more important than how."

Neal Ford is a Director and software architect at ThoughtWorks. In this episode, we discussed all things about software architecture covering his three most recent books: “Fundamentals of Software Architecture”, “Software Architecture: The Hard Parts”, and “Building Evolutionary Architectures”. We first discussed the definition of software architecture and how it relates to software design. Neal then described the two important laws of software architecture related to trade-offs and the why. Neal then explained why software architecture is difficult and discussed the hard parts, such as finding the least-worst combination trade-offs, understanding the importance of data, and managing coupling. Towards the end, Neal shared about the evolutionary architecture concept and some of its principles to support making incremental change across multiple software architectural dimensions.

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:04:25]
• Definition of Software Architecture - [00:10:48]
• Software Architecture vs Design - [00:14:29]
• Laws of Software Architecture - [00:16:24]
• The Hard Parts of Software Architecture - [00:20:55]
• Least-Worst Combination of Trade-offs - [00:26:42]
• Importance of Data - [00:29:51]
• Coupling and The 3 Co’s - [00:35:54]
• Evolutionary Architecture - [00:40:11]
• Incremental Change - [00:45:26]
• Principles of Evolutionary Architecture - [00:49:32]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:52:01]

_____

Neal Ford’s Bio
Neal Ford is Director, Software Architect, and Meme Wrangler at ThoughtWorks. He is also the designer and developer of applications, articles, video presentations, and author and/or editor of an increasingly large number of books spanning a variety of subjects and technologies, including the two most recent Fundamentals of Software Architecture and Building Evolutionary Architectures. His professional focus includes designing and building of large-scale enterprise applications. He is also an internationally acclaimed speaker, speaking at over 700 developer conferences worldwide, delivering more than 3000 presentations.

Follow Neal:

• Website – nealford.com
• Twitter – @neal4d

_____

Our Sponsors

Skills Matter is the global community and events platform for software professionals. You get on-demand access to their latest content, thought leadership insights as well as the exciting schedule of tech events running across all time zones.
Head on over to skillsmatter.com to become part of the tech community that matters most to you - it’s free to join and easy to keep up with the latest tech trends.

Are you looking for a new cool swag? Tech Lead Journal now offers you some swags that you can purchase online. These swags are printed on-demand based on your preference, and will be delivered safely to you all over the world where shipping is available. Check out all the cool swags available by visiting techleadjournal.dev/shop. And don't forget to brag yourself once you receive any of those swags.

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“If you have self-organizing teams, your power as a leader is determined by your ability to enable others to grow and take responsibility."

Ron Eringa is a leadership developer and the co-author of “The Professional Agile Leader”. In this episode, we discussed insights from his book on how one can become a professional agile leader. Ron started by sharing his view of why agile transformations usually fail and gave advice on how companies should adopt agile in a more effective way. Ron then described characteristics of a professional agile leader, including how to apply situational leadership by understanding the 4 different leadership styles (combative, compliant, competitive, catalytic). Ron also explained how leaders can build high-performing teams by being aware of the two domains (visible & invisible) the teams are operating in and by understanding the interconnection between structure and culture. Towards the end, Ron shared his utopia view of how organizations would look like if they already become fully agile and also shared some patterns for effective leadership.

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:04:50]
• Why Agile Transformations Fail - [00:07:47]
• Changing to Agile Culture - [00:10:19]
• Professional Agile Leader - [00:15:56]
• Importance of Learning - [00:20:37]
• 4 Leadership Styles - [00:22:56]
• High-Performing Team - [00:27:16]
• Visible & Invisible Domains - [00:30:05]
• Structure & Culture - [00:32:08]
• What Full Agile Looks Like - [00:35:41]
• Self-Perpetuating Change - [00:38:43]
• Effective Leadership Patterns - [00:41:34]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:47:23]

_____

Ron Eringa’s Bio
Ron Eringa is a Leadership Developer. His mission is to create organizations where people love to work and where real customer value is created. He is realising this mission by developing Leadership on all levels in the organization: by creating autonomous and mature teams, by developing leadership in teams and at the management level, and by helping management to create an environment where teams can become autonomous. In 2022, Ron co-wrote ‘The Professional Agile Leader’ to help leaders build mature agile organizations.

Follow Ron:

• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/reringa
• Twitter – @roneringa
• Website – roneringa.com
• Evolutionary Leadership – EvolutionaryLeadership.nl

_____

Our Sponsors

Skills Matter is the global community and events platform for software professionals. You get on-demand access to their latest content, thought leadership insights as well as the exciting schedule of tech events running across all time zones.
Head on over to skillsmatter.com to become part of the tech community that matters most to you - it’s free to join and easy to keep up with the latest tech trends.

Are you looking for a new cool swag? Tech Lead Journal now offers you some swags that you can purchase online. These swags are printed on-demand based on your preference, and will be delivered safely to you all over the world where shipping is available. Check out all the cool swags available by visiting techleadjournal.dev/shop. And don't forget to brag yourself once you receive any of those swags.

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For episode show notes, visit techleadjournal.dev/episodes/119.

“When blame is our focus rather than understanding what happened, people spend as much or more energy avoiding the blame and less time to be productive, creative, and energetic."

Diana Larsen is the co-founder of Agile Fluency Project and co-author of the latest book “Lead Without Blame”. In this episode, we discussed insights from her book about building resilient learning teams by moving away from blaming culture. Diana first described the definition of blame and its characteristics, and explained the negative impacts it can bring to an organization and its culture. Diana advised that instead of a blaming culture, organizations should build a learning culture by adopting the 3 essential motivators (team purpose, autonomous teams, co-intelligence) and the 4 resilience factors (collaborative connection, embracing conflict, inclusive collaboration, minimizing power dynamics).

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:05:30]
• Understanding Blame - [00:08:58]
• Blaming Habit - [00:11:50]
• Leaders & Accountability - [00:18:12]
• 3 Essential Motivators - [00:21:21]
• Essential Motivator: Team Purpose - [00:27:19]
• Essential Motivator: Autonomous Teams - [00:31:21]
• Essential Motivator: Co-Intelligence - [00:35:36]
• Resilience Factor: Collaborative Connection - [00:39:55]
• Resilience Factor: Embracing Conflict - [00:42:55]
• Resilience Factor: Inclusive Collaboration - [00:46:40]
• Resilience Factor: Minimizing Power Dynamics - [00:48:48]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:52:59]

_____

Diana Larsen’s Bio
Visionary pragmatist Diana Larsen is a cofounder, chief connector, learning leader, and principal coach, consultant, and mentor at the Agile Fluency Project. Diana coauthored the books Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great; Liftoff: Start and Sustain Successful Agile Teams; and Five Rules of Accelerated Learning. She co-originated the Agile Fluency model and coauthored the book The Agile Fluency Model: A Brief Guide to Success with Agile. For more than 20 years, she led the practice area for agile software development, leading and managing teams, and guiding agile transitions at FutureWorks Consulting.

Through the Agile Fluency Project’s programs, Diana shares the wisdom she’s gained in over 35 years of working with leaders, teams, and organizations. To serve her communities, she delivers inspiring conference keynotes, talks, and workshops around the world.

Follow Diana:

• Website – DianaLarsen.com
• Twitter – @DianaOfPortland
• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/dianalarsenagileswd
• Agile Fluency – AgileFluency.org

_____

Our Sponsors

Skills Matter is the global community and events platform for software professionals. You get on-demand access to their latest content, thought leadership insights as well as the exciting schedule of tech events running across all time zones.
Head on over to skillsmatter.com to become part of the tech community that matters most to you - it’s free to join and easy to keep up with the latest tech trends.

Are you looking for a new cool swag? Tech Lead Journal now offers you some swags that you can purchase online. These swags are printed on-demand based on your preference, and will be delivered safely to you all over the world where shipping is available. Check out all the cool swags available by visiting techleadjournal.dev/shop. And don't forget to brag yourself once you receive any of those swags.

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For episode show notes, visit techleadjournal.dev/episodes/118.

“The strength of SRE is in the alignment of operational concerns between the product management, product development, and product operations."

Dr. Vladyslav Ukis is the Head of R&D at Siemens Healthineers and author of “Establishing SRE Foundations”. In this episode, Dr. Vlad shared insights on how to establish SRE foundations from scratch based on his firsthand experience at Siemens Healthineers and the concepts described in his book. We started by discussing the basic SRE concept and how it differs from other related concepts, such as ITIL, COBIT, and DevOps. Dr. Vlad then explained in-depth how SRE implementation can help to create an alignment between the product management, product development, and product operations teams. He also shared the importance of having internal SRE coaches to facilitate this transformation and when an organisation can start realizing the benefits of implementing SRE. In the latter half, Dr. Vlad walked us through how we can begin our SRE journey, make further progress in the journey, and measure the success of our SRE implementation. Also, do not miss his sharing on how SRE implementation can help to improve reliability in a stringent industry, such as healthcare.

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:06:04]
• Getting to Know SRE Concept - [00:08:24]
• SRE vs Other Frameworks - [00:12:20]
• SRE Definition - [00:16:48]
• Ops-Development-Product Alignment - [00:19:26]
• SRE Coach - [00:26:36]
• Realizing SRE Benefits - [00:28:52]
• How to Begin SRE Journey - [00:31:37]
• SRE Journey Progression - [00:36:15]
• Healthcare Reliability - [00:41:48]
• Measuring SRE Implementation Success - [00:46:25]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:48:44]

_____

Vladyslav Ukis’s Bio
Dr. Vladyslav Ukis graduated in Computer Science from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany, and later from the University of Manchester, UK. He joined Siemens Healthineers after each graduation and has been working on Software Architecture, Enterprise Architecture, Innovation Management, Private and Public Cloud Computing, Team Management, Engineering Management, Portfolio Management, Partner Management, and Digital Transformation at large. He currently works as the Head of R&D for the Siemens Healthineers teamplay digital health platform, and has shared his DevOps knowledge in his book “Establishing SRE Foundations” published in 2022.

Follow Dr Vlad:

• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/dr-vladyslav-ukis-5172ba32

_____

Our Sponsors

Skills Matter is the global community and events platform for software professionals. You get on-demand access to their latest content, thought leadership insights as well as the exciting schedule of tech events running across all time zones.
Head on over to skillsmatter.com to become part of the tech community that matters most to you - it’s free to join and easy to keep up with the latest tech trends.

Are you looking for a new cool swag? Tech Lead Journal now offers you some swags that you can purchase online. These swags are printed on-demand based on your preference, and will be delivered safely to you all over the world where shipping is available. Check out all the cool swags available by visiting techleadjournal.dev/shop. And don't forget to brag yourself once you receive any of those swags.

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“Emotional intelligence is about knowing yourself, empathizing with other people, and always defining a win-win outcome in everything you do."

Trenton Moss is the founder of Team Sterka and the author of “Human Powered”. In this episode, Trenton shared the importance of having good emotional intelligence and people skills in digital product teams. He shared the 6 key skills we need to succeed as outlined in his book: conflict resolution, building strong relationships, leading and influencing, facilitation, storytelling, and outbound communications. Trenton also shared some frameworks we can use to improve some of those skills, such as PLEASE, MASTER, and LEAD frameworks. And throughout our conversation, Trenton emphasized multiple times the importance of achieving the win-win outcome in every interaction we have with each other.

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:05:37]
• Importance of People Skills - [00:10:07]
• Emotional Intelligence - [00:12:52]
• 6 Key Skills - [00:20:45]
• Win-Win Outcome - [00:22:58]
• Conflict Resolution & PLEASE Framework - [00:24:59]
• Improving Conflict Resolution Skill - [00:29:54]
• Active Listening - [00:33:10]
• Strong Relationships - [00:36:50]
• MASTER Framework - [00:38:43]
• Negative Behaviors - [00:45:05]
• Leading & Influencing & LEAD - [00:48:47]
• Over-communication - [00:51:47]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:55:36]

_____

Trenton Moss’s Bio
Trenton is a business leader, trainer and coach who inspires everyone around him to achieve more than they think they can. His bestselling book, ‘Human Powered’, was published last year. It helps you gain all the people skills and EQ you need to succeed. He’s the founder and head coach at Team Sterka, a training and coaching business that creates high-performing teams. Previously, Trenton spent 15 years as founder and CEO at one of the UK’s first product design consultancies, Webcredible. When he’s not working, you’ll usually find him running around after his kids. Or sleeping. He loves a post-lunch power nap.

Follow Trenton:

• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/trentonmoss
• Twitter – @trentonmoss100
• Team Sterka – https://sterka.team/

_____

Our Sponsors

Skills Matter is the global community and events platform for software professionals. You get on-demand access to their latest content, thought leadership insights as well as the exciting schedule of tech events running across all time zones.
Head on over to skillsmatter.com to become part of the tech community that matters most to you - it’s free to join and easy to keep up with the latest tech trends.

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Pledge your support by becoming a patron.
For episode show notes, visit techleadjournal.dev/episodes/116.

“An engineering manager should make sure that the team has a good balance of delivering things that the business needs with enough capacity to do it sustainably over time."

Today's clip is from episode 94 with Patrick Kua. In this clip, we discussed Pat’s latest course, Engineering Manager Essentials.  We discussed what an engineering manager role is, how it differs from a Tech Lead role, and the common manager versus IC career track. Pat also shared his view on why being an engineering manager is not a promotion.

Listen out for:

• Engineering Manager Essentials - [00:00:50]
• The Role of Engineering Manager - [00:02:46]
• Difference With Tech Lead - [00:05:43]
• Manager and IC Paths - [00:07:53]
• EM Is Not a Promotion - [00:12:27]

_____

Patrick Kua’s Bio
Patrick Kua is a seasoned technology leader with almost 20 years of experience. His personal passion is accelerating the growth and success of tech organisations and technical leaders. He has had many years of hands-on experience, leading, managing and improving complex organisations and software systems as the CTO and Chief Scientist of N26 (Berlin, Germany) and as a Technical Principal Consultant at ThoughtWorks. He is a frequent keynote and conference speaker, author of three books including “The Retrospective Handbook“, “Talking with Tech Leads“ and “Building Evolutionary Architectures“ and runs the free popular newsletter for leaders in tech, “Level Up” and the “Tech Lead Academy“, offering online training for technical leaders, or running his very popular “Shortcut to Tech Leadership“ workshop.

Follow Patrick:

• Website – https://patkua.com/
• Twitter – @patkua
• LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/patkua/
• EM Essentials Course – https://www.patkua.com/em-essentials/
• Tech Lead Academy – https://techlead.academy/
• Level Up Newsletter – https://levelup.patkua.com/

_____

Our Sponsors

Mental well-being is a silent pandemic. According to the WHO, depression and anxiety cost the global economy over USD 1 trillion every year. It’s time to make a difference! Learn how to enhance your lives through a master class on mental wellness. Visit founderswellbeing.com/masterclass and enter TLJ20 for a 20% discount.

Skills Matter is the global community and events platform for software professionals. You get on-demand access to their latest content, thought leadership insights as well as the exciting schedule of tech events running across all time zones.
Head on over to skillsmatter.com to become part of the tech community that matters most to you - it’s free to join and easy to keep up with the latest tech trends.

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“Interactions with domain experts play a key role in implementing software. You have to make sure that you understand the problem you’re solving. You cannot provide a software solution without understanding the problem first."

Today's clip is from episode 76 with Vladik Khononov, the author of “Learning Domain-Driven Design”. In this clip, Vladik shared why understanding business domain is crucial in software engineering and how DDD can help build the shared understanding between the domain experts and software engineers. Vlad also explained the importance of DDD's strategic design.

Listen out for:

• Importance of Understanding Business Domain - [00:00:51]
• How Domain-Driven Design Helps - [00:06:21]
• DDD Strategic Design - [00:10:30]

_____

Vladik Khononov’s Bio
Vlad (Vladik) Khononov is a software engineer with over 20 years of industry experience, during which he has worked for companies large and small in roles ranging from webmaster to chief architect. Vlad maintains an active media career as an author, public speaker, and blogger. He travels the world consulting and talking about domain-driven design, microservices, and software architecture in general. Vladik lives in Northern Israel with his wife and an almost-reasonable number of cats.

Follow Vladik:

• Twitter – @vladikk
• LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/vladikkhononov/
• Website – https://vladikk.com/

_____

Our Sponsors

Mental well-being is a silent pandemic. According to the WHO, depression and anxiety cost the global economy over USD 1 trillion every year. It’s time to make a difference! Learn how to enhance your lives through a master class on mental wellness. Visit founderswellbeing.com/masterclass and enter TLJ20 for a 20% discount.

Skills Matter is the global community and events platform for software professionals. You get on-demand access to their latest content, thought leadership insights as well as the exciting schedule of tech events running across all time zones.
Head on over to skillsmatter.com to become part of the tech community that matters most to you - it’s free to join and easy to keep up with the latest tech trends.

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For more info about the episode (including quotes and transcript), visit techleadjournal.dev/episodes/76.

“The simplest way to describe craftsmanship is pride of workmanship. It is the mindset that you are working on something important and you are going to do it well."

Today's clip is from episode 90 with Robert C. Martin, more widely known as Uncle Bob. In this clip, Uncle Bob shared some insights from his latest book, “Clean Craftsmanship”. He shared the current major challenge of the software development industry as a young discipline, which drove Uncle Bob writing the book to help define disciplines, standards, and ethics for software craftsmanship. He also touched on the five key disciplines of clean craftsmanship.

Listen out for:

• Clean Craftsmanship - [00:00:55]
• Programmer as a Profession - [00:05:32]
• Craftsmanship - [00:08:46]
• Disciplines - [00:12:46]

_____

Robert C. Martin’s Bio
Robert Martin (Uncle Bob) has been a programmer since 1970. He is the co-founder of the online video training company cleancoders.com and founder of Uncle Bob Consulting LLC. He served as Master Craftsman at 8th Light inc and is an acclaimed speaker at conferences worldwide. He is a profilic writer and has published hundreds of articles, papers, blogs, and best-selling books including: “The Clean Coder”, “Clean Code”, “Agile Software Development: Principles, Patterns, and Practices”, and “Clean Architecture”. He also served as the Editor-in-chief of the C++ Report and as the first chairman of the Agile Alliance.

Follow Uncle Bob:

• Twitter – @unclebobmartin
• Clean Coder – http://cleancoder.com
• Clean Coders – https://cleancoders.com
• GitHub – https://github.com/unclebob

_____

Our Sponsors

Mental well-being is a silent pandemic. According to the WHO, depression and anxiety cost the global economy over USD 1 trillion every year. It’s time to make a difference! Learn how to enhance your lives through a master class on mental wellness. Visit founderswellbeing.com/masterclass and enter TLJ20 for a 20% discount.

Skills Matter is the global community and events platform for software professionals. You get on-demand access to their latest content, thought leadership insights as well as the exciting schedule of tech events running across all time zones.
Head on over to skillsmatter.com to become part of the tech community that matters most to you - it’s free to join and easy to keep up with the latest tech trends.

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For more info about the episode (including quotes and transcript), visit techleadjournal.dev/episodes/90.

Instead of being given a roadmap of features, an empowered team is given a problem to solve and they get to figure out the best way to solve that problem."

Today's clip is from episode 102 with Marty Cagan, the founder of the Silicon Valley Product Group and the author of “Inspired” and “Empowered”. In this clip, Marty explained the importance of building the right product and shared the two inconvenient truths about building products. Marty then elaborated on the traits a good product team has and how to create an empowered product team.

Listen out for:

• Writing Inspired & Empowered - [00:00:51]
• Building the Right Product - [00:05:36]
• Two Inconvenient Truths - [00:06:57]
• Traits of Good Product Teams - [00:11:19]
• Engineering Involvement - [00:14:06]
• Empowered - [00:15:57]

_____

Our Sponsors

Mental well-being is a silent pandemic. According to the WHO, depression and anxiety cost the global economy over USD 1 trillion every year. It’s time to make a difference! Learn how to enhance your lives through a master class on mental wellness. Visit founderswellbeing.com/masterclass and enter TLJ20 for a 20% discount.

Skills Matter is the global community and events platform for software professionals. You get on-demand access to their latest content, thought leadership insights as well as the exciting schedule of tech events running across all time zones.
Head on over to skillsmatter.com to become part of the tech community that matters most to you - it’s free to join and easy to keep up with the latest tech trends.

Like this episode?
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Pledge your support by becoming a patron.
For more info about the episode (including quotes and transcript), visit techleadjournal.dev/episodes/102.

“Engineering discipline is the most effective, efficient way of doing high-quality work. If our software development practices do not allow us to build better software faster, we should really change them because they are not engineering."

Today's clip is from Tech Lead Journal episode 100 with Dave Farley, the one who runs the popular "Continuous Delivery" YouTube channel, and also the author of "Continuous Delivery" and the latest book, "Modern Software Engineering". In this clip, Dave explained his view on modern software engineering and why it emphasizes on the practices for building better software faster. Dave described the foundations of the software engineering discipline and explained the core competencies we need to succeed by becoming experts at learning. 

Listen out for:

• Modern Software Engineering - [00:00:59]
• Better Software Faster - [00:03:37]
• Software Engineering - [00:06:01]
• Expert at Learning - [00:09:16]

_____

Dave Farley’s Bio
Dave Farley, founder and consultant for Continuous Delivery Ltd., has been a programmer, software engineer, and systems architect since the early days of modern computing. With Jez Humble, Farley coauthored the best-seller Continuous Delivery. As Head of Software Development for the LMAX, he built one of the world’s fastest financial exchanges. One of the earliest adopters of agile techniques employing iterative development, continuous integration, and high levels of automated testing, he also coauthored the Reactive Manifesto.

Follow Dave:

• Twitter – @DaveFarley77
• LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/dave-farley-a67927
• Youtube – https://www.youtube.com/c/ContinuousDelivery
• Website – https://countinuous-delivery.co.uk
• Courses – https://courses.cd.training

_____

Our Sponsors

Mental well-being is a silent pandemic. According to the WHO, depression and anxiety cost the global economy over USD 1 trillion every year. It’s time to make a difference! Learn how to enhance your lives through a master class on mental wellness. Visit founderswellbeing.com/masterclass and enter TLJ20 for a 20% discount.

Skills Matter is the global community and events platform for software professionals. You get on-demand access to their latest content, thought leadership insights as well as the exciting schedule of tech events running across all time zones.
Head on over to skillsmatter.com to become part of the tech community that matters most to you - it’s free to join and easy to keep up with the latest tech trends.

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For more info about the episode (including quotes and transcript), visit techleadjournal.dev/episodes/100.

“Every organization has a mission, a vision, and a set of values. As a leader, your number one task is to live those values and talk about them at every opportunity with your team to create alignment."

Manoj Awasthi is the CTO at JULO and previously the SVP of Engineering at Tokopedia. In this episode, Manoj shared engineering leadership lessons from his recent experiences. Manoj started by describing the role of a senior engineering leader before then explaining some important aspects of engineering leadership, such as scaling up engineering team, hiring engineers and engineering managers, creating culture alignment, putting in place engineering governance, and maintaining engineering productivity. Towards the end, Manoj shared some of his important lessons learned before ending by sharing his tech leadership wisdom.

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:05:46]
• Role of Senior Engineering Leader - [00:15:02]
• Scaling Engineering Team - [00:21:31]
• Hiring Engineers - [00:24:28]
• Hiring Engineering Managers/Leaders - [00:27:06]
• Aligning Culture - [00:28:47]
• Engineering Governance - [00:32:25]
• Maintaining Engineering Productivity - [00:35:58]
• Sharing Lessons Learned - [00:39:12]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:41:39]

_____

Manoj Awasthi’s Bio
Manoj Awasthi is the CTO at JULO, a fintech startup based in Jakarta. Prior to JULO, Manoj spent more than six years leading technology teams at Tokopedia wearing multiple hats during the growth years of Tokopedia from 2016 until 2022 as it scaled. During this time, he witnessed the tech team growing from 80 people to 2000+. He is a techie at heart, has a natural empathy for people and believes that wonders can happen through the alignment of teams towards a clear goal. When he is not working, he can be found either reading a book (almost every day) or having quality time with his family.

Follow Manoj:

• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/manojawasthi/
• Twitter – @awmanoj
• GitHub – github.com/awmanoj
• Blog – awmanoj.github.io/

_____

Our Sponsors

Mental well-being is a silent pandemic. According to the WHO, depression and anxiety cost the global economy over USD 1 trillion every year. It’s time to make a difference! Learn how to enhance your lives through a master class on mental wellness. Visit founderswellbeing.com/masterclass and enter TLJ20 for a 20% discount.

Skills Matter is the global community and events platform for software professionals. You get on-demand access to their latest content, thought leadership insights as well as the exciting schedule of tech events running across all time zones.
Head on over to skillsmatter.com to become part of the tech community that matters most to you - it’s free to join and easy to keep up with the latest tech trends.

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Pledge your support by becoming a patron.
For episode show notes, visit techleadjournal.dev/episodes/115.

“Intrinsic motivation is a great predictor of success. When people are doing things they feel intrinsically motivated to do, they tend to be much more successful."

Matt K. Parker is the author of “A Radical Enterprise”. In this episode, Matt started by sharing his views on the underlying causes of the great resignation trend, which includes the dominator hierarchies. Matt then explained in-depth the four key imperatives mentioned in his book that organizations must practice for establishing radical collaboration, which are: (i) team autonomy, (ii) managerial devolution, (iii) deficiency gratification, and (iv) candid vulnerability. Matt also touched on several other interesting concepts, such as how to establish autonomy while minimising chaos, the concept of a dynamic and contextual leadership, and a few alternatives for structuring the salary and compensation in a devolved organization.

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:05:14]
• Great Resignation - [00:10:51]
• Dominator Hierarchies - [00:15:26]
• 4 Imperatives - [00:19:12]
• Imperative 1: Team Autonomy - [00:26:14]
• Autonomy Without Chaos - [00:32:25]
• Imperative 2: Managerial Devolution - [00:37:15]
• Dynamic & Contextual Leadership - [00:41:46]
• Salary & Compensation - [00:44:30]
• Imperative 3: Deficiency Gratification - [00:50:49]
• Imperative 4: Candid Vulnerability - [00:54:23]
• Applying Radical Collaboration - [00:59:54]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [01:02:42]

_____

Matt K. Parker’s Bio
Matt K. Parker is a writer, speaker, researcher, and third-generation programmer. Over the last two decades, he’s played a variety of roles in the software industry, including developer, manager, director, and global head of engineering. He has specialized in hyper-iterative software practices for the last decade, and is currently researching the experience of radically collaborative software makers. He lives in a small village in Connecticut with his wife and three children.

Follow Matt:

• Website – mattkparker.com
• Twitter – @realMattKParker
• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/matt-k-parker/
• Email – [email protected]

_____

Our Sponsors

Mental well-being is a silent pandemic. According to the WHO, depression and anxiety cost the global economy over USD 1 trillion every year. It’s time to make a difference! Learn how to enhance your lives through a master class on mental wellness. Visit founderswellbeing.com/masterclass and enter TLJ20 for a 20% discount.

Skills Matter is the global community and events platform for software professionals. You get on-demand access to their latest content, thought leadership insights as well as the exciting schedule of tech events running across all time zones.
Head on over to skillsmatter.com to become part of the tech community that matters most to you - it’s free to join and easy to keep up with the latest tech trends.

Like this episode?
Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.
Pledge your support by becoming a patron.
For episode show notes, visit techleadjournal.dev/episodes/114.

“An ADR is a simple text file describing the context, the decision, and the consequences of a single architectural decision stored in the version control repository."

Michael Keeling is an experienced software engineer, architect, and the author of “Design It!: From Programmer to Software Architect”. In this episode, Michael shared in-depth about ADR. He first shared his story of discovering ADR before describing what an ADR is. Michael then shared the objectives and benefits of using ADR to record architecture decisions and explained the key behavior changes happening when we practise ADR. Towards the end, Michael shared a few practical tips on creating and updating ADR, some patterns and anti-patterns he observed from his experience, and suggestions on how we can practise ADR effectively as a team.

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:05:02]
• Discovering ADR - [00:07:05]
• ADR - [00:08:57]
• ADR Objectives - [00:11:18]
• Facilitating Good Design - [00:12:31]
• Not Capturing Design Decisions - [00:15:06]
• Distance Between Developers and Design - [00:17:19]
• Key Behaviour Changes - [00:19:11]
• Recent Popularity - [00:22:11]
• ADR Tips - [00:24:31]
• When to Create an ADR - [00:26:36]
• Updating Previous ADR - [00:27:55]
• Diagrams - [00:29:28]
• ADR Patterns - [00:31:06]
• ADR Anti-Patterns - [00:32:48]
• Doing ADR as a Team - [00:34:25]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:37:05]

_____

Michael Keeling’s Bio
Michael Keeling is a software engineer at Kiavi and the author of Design It!: From Programmer to Software Architect. Prior to Kiavi, he worked at IBM on the Watson Discovery Service and has experience with a variety of software systems including service-oriented architectures, enterprise search systems, and even combat systems. Michael is an award-winning speaker and regularly participates in the architecture and agile communities. He holds a Masters in Software Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and a BS in Computer Science from the College of William and Mary. His current research interests include software design methods, patterns, and human factors of software engineering.

Follow Michael:

• Twitter – @michaelkeeling
• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/michaelkeeling
• Website – www.neverletdown.net

_____

Our Sponsors

Mental well-being is a silent pandemic. According to the WHO, depression and anxiety cost the global economy over USD 1 trillion every year. It’s time to make a difference! Learn how to enhance your lives through a master class on mental wellness. Visit founderswellbeing.com/masterclass and enter TLJ20 for a 20% discount.

Skills Matter is the global community and events platform for software professionals. You get on-demand access to their latest content, thought leadership insights as well as the exciting schedule of tech events running across all time zones.
Head on over to skillsmatter.com to become part of the tech community that matters most to you - it’s free to join and easy to keep up with the latest tech trends.

Like this episode?
Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.
Pledge your support by becoming a patron.
For episode show notes, visit techleadjournal.dev/episodes/113.

“Developer experience is an approach to thinking about engineering excellence and maximizing engineering performance by increasing the capacity and performance of the individuals and the team as a whole."

Abi Noda is the CEO & co-founder of DX. In this episode, Abi started by sharing what developer experience is, why it is becoming an industry trend nowadays, and the different ways of how it is being implemented in the industry. Abi explained why the traditional metrics normally used to measure developer productivity do not really work and can even provide perverse incentives. Abi then touched on the two popular researches widely known in the industry, i.e. the DORA report and SPACE framework, before then explained how DX is building on top of both researches to provide the measurements and KPIs to measure developer experience and productivity. Towards the end, Abi shared his advice on how we can start investing in improving developer experience, including when to form a dedicated team and getting the buy-in from company executives.

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:06:22]
• Developer Productivity Industry Trend - [00:09:14]
• Developer Experience for Developers - [00:11:28]
• Different Names of Developer Experience - [00:13:30]
• Traditional Metrics - [00:17:15]
• DORA & SPACE - [00:21:16]
• DX Measurements - [00:26:30]
• DX KPIs - [00:32:01]
• Starting With Developer Experience - [00:36:49]
• Developer Experience Team - [00:40:49]
• Building a Case for Developer Experience - [00:43:08]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:46:18]

_____

Abi Noda’s Bio
Abi is the founder and CEO of getdx.com, which helps engineering leaders measure and improve developer experience. Abi formerly founded Pull Panda, which was acquired by GitHub.

Follow Abi:

• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/abinoda
• Twitter – @abinoda
• Website – abinoda.com
• DX – getdx.com
• Software Engineering Research – abinoda.substack.com

_____

Our Sponsors

Mental well-being is a silent pandemic. According to the WHO, depression and anxiety cost the global economy over USD 1 trillion every year. It’s time to make a difference! Learn how to enhance your lives through a master class on mental wellness. Visit founderswellbeing.com/masterclass and enter TLJ20 for a 20% discount.

DevTernity 2022 (devternity.com) is the top international software development conference with an emphasis on coding, architecture, and tech leadership skills. The lineup is truly stellar and features many legends of software development like Robert "Uncle Bob" Martin, Kent Beck, and many others! The conference takes place online, and we have the 10% discount code for you: AWSM_TLJ.

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Pledge your support by becoming a patron.
For episode show notes, visit techleadjournal.dev/episodes/112.

“The people who are the communicators are the ones visible within companies. Just being technically proficient is not enough. You have to be an advocate for yourself."

Neil Thompson is the founder of Teach the Geek and a public speaking coach. In this episode, Neil explained the importance of public speaking for technical professionals. Neil shared tips and advice on we can start and improve our public speaking skills. We also discussed some common challenges when speaking publicly and tips on how to overcome them. Towards the end, Neil shared more tips on storytelling, presenting data, doing virtual presentation, and presenting at large events.

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:06:43]
• Importance of Public Speaking - [00:10:25]
• Tips to Start Public Speaking - [00:11:52]
• Challenge 1: Lack of Confidence - [00:14:44]
• Challenge 2: Lack of Expertise - [00:16:27]
• Challenge 3: Language Barrier - [00:17:59]
• Challenge 4: Past Trauma - [00:19:36]
• Filler Words - [00:20:52]
• Maintaining Eye Contacts - [00:22:36]
• Recording Video - [00:24:28]
• Body Language - [00:25:33]
• Getting Feedback - [00:26:44]
• Storytelling - [00:27:52]
• Presenting Data - [00:29:22]
• Managing Presentation Time - [00:30:33]
• Virtual Presentation - [00:31:48]
• Conference and Big Events - [00:32:37]
• Practising and Opportunities - [00:34:06]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:36:32]

_____

Neil Thompson’s Bio
After one too many failed presentations, Neil Thompson, an engineer, knew he had to improve. He did so, and now he works with technical professionals like himself to improve their communication skills. He hosts the Teach the Geek podcast, interviewing technical professionals about their public speaking journeys. He is also author of the book, Teach the Geek to Speak: a No-fluff Public Speaking Guide for STEM Professionals.

Follow Neil:

• LinkedIn – https://linkedin.com/in/neilithompson
• Podcast – podcast.teachthegeek.com
• Youtube – youtube.teachthegeek.com
• Website – teachthegeek.com

Our Sponsors

Mental well-being is a silent pandemic. According to the WHO, depression and anxiety cost the global economy over USD 1 trillion every year. It’s time to make a difference! Learn how to enhance your lives through a master class on mental wellness. Visit founderswellbeing.com/masterclass and enter TLJ20 for a 20% discount.

The iSAQB® Software Architecture Gathering is the international conference highlight for all those working on solution structures in IT projects: primarily software architects, developers, professionals in quality assurance, and also system analysts. The conference takes place online from November 14 to 17, 2022, and we have a 15% discount code for you: TLJ_MP_15.

DevTernity 2022 (devternity.com) is the top international software development conference with an emphasis on coding, architecture, and tech leadership skills. The lineup is truly stellar and features many legends of software development like Robert "Uncle Bob" Martin, Kent Beck, and many others! The conference takes place online, and we have the 10% discount code for you: AWSM_TLJ.

Like this episode?
Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.
Pledge your support by becoming a patron.
For episode show notes, visit techleadjournal.dev/episodes/111.

“As a team leader, you will become more successful and valuable if you are no longer a bottleneck for the people who are working with you and under you."

Roy Osherove is the author of “Elastic Leadership” and “The Art of Unit Testing”. In this episode, we discussed leadership insights from “Elastic Leadership”. Roy first shared how he came up with the concept and described what elastic leadership is. He explained the different leadership styles based on the 3 team phases (survival mode, learning mode, and self-organizing mode) and advised how leaders can adapt and transition their leadership style from one phase to the other to lead effectively. Roy also shared about the Team Leader manifesto and the Line Manager manifesto to provide guidance on how leaders can grow their teams towards self-organization and self-sufficiency.

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:06:45]
• Writing “Elastic Leadership” - [00:11:31]
• Team Leader Manifesto - [00:17:57]
• There Are No Experts - [00:23:23]
• Survival Mode - [00:30:49]
• Slack Time - [00:37:52]
• Self-Organizing Mode - [00:39:21]
• Learning Mode - [00:41:18]
• Line Manager Manifesto - [00:45:47]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:48:13]

_____

Roy Osherove’s Bio
Roy Osherove is the organizer of the CD/XP Israel meetup group. He’s the author of “Art of Unit Testing”, “Elastic Leadership” and the upcoming “Co-Ops: Pipeline Driven Organizations”. He has been working in the software industry for over 20 years in most types of technical & testing roles, and these days is working as a freelance consultant & trainer on-site for various companies across the world.

Follow Roy:

• Twitter – @RoyOsherove
• LinkedIn – https://linkedin.com/in/osherove/
• Website – https://osherove.com/
• 5 Whys – https://5whys.com/

Our Sponsors

Mental well-being is a silent pandemic. According to the WHO, depression and anxiety cost the global economy over USD 1 trillion every year. It’s time to make a difference! Learn how to enhance your lives through a master class on mental wellness. Visit founderswellbeing.com/masterclass and enter TLJ20 for a 20% discount.

The iSAQB® Software Architecture Gathering is the international conference highlight for all those working on solution structures in IT projects: primarily software architects, developers, professionals in quality assurance, and also system analysts. The conference takes place online from November 14 to 17, 2022, and we have a 15% discount code for you: TLJ_MP_15.

DevTernity 2022 (devternity.com) is the top international software development conference with an emphasis on coding, architecture, and tech leadership skills. The lineup is truly stellar and features many legends of software development like Robert "Uncle Bob" Martin, Kent Beck, and many others! The conference takes place online, and we have the 10% discount code for you: AWSM_TLJ.

Like this episode?
Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.
Pledge your support by becoming a patron.
For episode show notes, visit techleadjournal.dev/episodes/110.

“The most responsible thing a human can do, either personally for their own development or the development of others, is play to a person’s strengths."

Brandon Miller is the founder and CEO of 34 Strong and one of the first 7 certified Gallup Clifton StrengthsFinder coaches in the world. In this episode, we discussed Clifton StrengthsFinder, also known as CliftonStrengths. Brandon introduced what CliftonStrengths is and why it is important for us to recognize and focus on our strengths. He also shared when leaders apply a strengths-based approach at work, it leads to a much increased workplace engagement. Brandon then gave a walkthrough on how we can identify our strengths by taking the CliftonStrengths assessment and what we should do after we find out our strengths. Brandon also spent some time to discuss my top 3 strengths and explained the idea of complimentary partnerships. Towards the end, Brandon gave some tips for parents on how we can identify and nurture children’s core strengths since their childhood.

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:06:46]
• Starting Journey with StrengthsFinder - [00:08:35]
• StrengthsFinder - [00:10:17]
• Why Focus on Strengths - [00:15:06]
• Increased Workplace Engagements - [00:19:41]
• Tips for High Work Engagement - [00:23:56]
• Doing StrengthsFinder Assessment - [00:26:59]
• Henry’s Top 3 Strengths - [00:30:56]
• Strengths-Based Leadership - [00:35:34]
• Core Strengths - [00:38:53]
• Nurturing Children’s Strengths - [00:41:18]
• Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:44:46]

_____

Brandon Miller’s Bio
Brandon Miller is the founder and CEO of 34 Strong, a coaching and consulting firm dedicated to improving employee engagement. As one of the First 7 Certified GALLUP Clifton Strengths Finder, Brandon has nearly 15 years of experience providing leadership training, coaching, advising, and facilitating. Brandon is also passionate about parenting, having authored several books such as “Play to Their Strengths” and “Incredible Parent” and founded Co-Founder of Incredible Family, a consulting agency applying strengths-based approach to parenting.

Follow Brandon:

• LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandon-miller-34strong
• Email – [email protected]
• 34 Strong – https://www.34strong.com/

Our Sponsors

Mental well-being is a silent pandemic. According to the WHO, depression and anxiety cost the global economy over USD 1 trillion every year. It’s time to make a difference! Learn how to enhance your lives through a master class on mental wellness. Visit founderswellbeing.com/masterclass and enter TLJ20 for a 20% discount.

The iSAQB® Software Architecture Gathering is the international conference highlight for all those working on solution structures in IT projects: primarily software architects, developers, professionals in quality assurance, and also system analysts. The conference takes place online from November 14 to 17, 2022, and we have a 15% discount code for you: TLJ_MP_15.

DevTernity 2022 (devternity.com) is the top international software development conference with an emphasis on coding, architecture, and tech leadership skills. The lineup is truly stellar and features many legends of software development like Robert "Uncle Bob" Martin, Kent Beck, and many others! The conference takes place online, and we have the 10% discount code for you: AWSM_TLJ.

Like this episode?
Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.
Pledge your support by becoming a patron.
For episode show notes, visit techleadjournal.dev/episodes/109.

“Companies that are successful in getting the most out of the cloud embrace the fact that distributed application architecture is a first class application architecture concern."

Joe Duffy is the co-founder and CEO of Pulumi. In this episode, we discussed cloud engineering concept and how Pulumi is helping to shape its future. Joe started by sharing his story founding Pulumi and the evolution of the cloud adoption. He shared his view on why cloud should be a first class application architecture concern and the concept of cloud as an operating system. Joe then shared in-depth the concept of cloud engineering as the next evolution of DevOps and explained how it changes the way we build, deploy, and manage infrastructure and application in the product development lifecycle. Towards the end, Joe shared his view on the future of cloud engineering and how Pulumi is helping organizations adopt cloud engineering at scale.

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:06:18]
• Founding Pulumi - [00:11:05]
• Cloud as First Class Concern - [00:13:00]
• Cloud Engineering - [00:17:27]
• Build Phase - [00:23:02]
• Deploy Phase - [00:29:48]
• Manage Phase - [00:35:43]
• Infrastructure as Software - [00:38:32]
• Future of Cloud Engineering - [00:43:11]
• Pulumi Customer Story - [00:44:52]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:46:30]

_____

Joe Duffy’s Bio
Joe Duffy is co-founder and CEO of Pulumi. Prior to founding Pulumi, Joe was a longtime leader in Microsoft’s Developer Division, Operating Systems Group, and Microsoft Research. Most recently, he was Director of Engineering and Technical Strategy for developer tools, where part of his responsibilities included managing the groups building the C#, C++, Visual Basic, and F# languages. Joe was instrumental in taking .NET open source and cross-platform. Joe founded Pulumi in 2018 with Eric Rudder, the former Chief Technical Strategy Officer at Microsoft.

Follow Joe:

• Twitter – @funcOfJoe
• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/joejduffy/
• Website – JoeDuffyBlog.com

Our Sponsors

Mental well-being is a silent pandemic. According to the WHO, depression and anxiety cost the global economy over USD 1 trillion every year. It’s time to make a difference! Learn how to enhance your lives through a master class on mental wellness. Visit founderswellbeing.com/masterclass and enter TLJ20 for a 20% discount.

The iSAQB® Software Architecture Gathering is the international conference highlight for all those working on solution structures in IT projects: primarily software architects, developers, professionals in quality assurance, and also system analysts. A selection of well-known international experts will share their practical knowledge on the most important topics in state-of-the-art software architecture. The conference takes place online from November 14 to 17, 2022, and we have a 15% discount code for you: TLJ_MP_15.

DevTernity 2022 (devternity.com) is the top international software development conference with an emphasis on coding, architecture, and tech leadership skills. The lineup is truly stellar and features many legends of software development like Robert "Uncle Bob" Martin, Kent Beck, Scott Hanselman, Venkat Subramaniam, Kevlin Henney, and many others! The conference takes place online, and we have the 10% discount code for you: AWSM_TLJ.

Like this episode?
Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.
Pledge your support by becoming a patron.
For episode show notes, visit techleadjournal.dev/episodes/108.

“If you want to unlock the value of your data by generating data-driven values, and you want to do it reliably and resiliently at scale, then you need to consider data mesh."

Zhamak Dehghani is the author of the “Data Mesh” book. In this episode, we discussed in-depth about the data mesh, a concept she founded in 2018, which has then been becoming an industry trend. We started our conversation by discussing the current challenges working with data, such as the data centralization approach and why the current data tools are still inadequate. Zhamak then described data mesh and why organizations should adopt it to generate data-driven values at scale. Zhamak then explained the 4 principles of data mesh, which include domain ownership, data as a product, the self-serve data platform, and the federated computational governance.

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:06:49]
• Challenges Working with Data - [00:10:19]
• Centralization of Data - [00:13:53]
• Why Current Tools Not Adequate - [00:16:00]
• Data Mesh & Its Drivers - [00:19:32]
• Principle of Domain Ownership - [00:25:54]
• Principle of Data as a Product - [00:35:57]
• Principle of The Self-Serve Data Platform - [00:40:51]
• Principle of Federated Computational Governance - [00:46:01]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:52:23]

_____

Zhamak Dehghani’s Bio
Zhamak Dehghani works as the CEO and founder of a stealth tech startup reimagining the future of data developer experience. She founded the concept of Data Mesh in 2018 and since has been implementing the concept and evangelizing it with the wider industry. She is the author of Architecture the Hard Parts and Data Mesh books.

Zhamak serves on multiple tech advisory boards. She has worked as a technologist for over 24 years and has contributed to multiple patents in distributed computing communications. She is an advocate for the decentralization of all things, including architecture, data, and ultimately power.

Follow Zhamak:

• Twitter – @zhamakd
• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/zhamak-dehghani

Our Sponsors

Mental well-being is a silent pandemic. According to the WHO, depression and anxiety cost the global economy over USD 1 trillion every year. It’s time to make a difference! Learn how to enhance your lives through a master class on mental wellness. Visit founderswellbeing.com/masterclass and enter TLJ20 for a 20% discount.

The iSAQB® Software Architecture Gathering is the international conference highlight for all those working on solution structures in IT projects: primarily software architects, developers, professionals in quality assurance, and also system analysts. A selection of well-known international experts will share their practical knowledge on the most important topics in state-of-the-art software architecture. The conference takes place online from November 14 to 17, 2022, and we have a 15% discount code for you: TLJ_MP_15.

DevTernity 2022 (devternity.com) is the top international software development conference with an emphasis on coding, architecture, and tech leadership skills. The lineup is truly stellar and features many legends of software development like Robert "Uncle Bob" Martin, Kent Beck, Scott Hanselman, Venkat Subramaniam, Kevlin Henney, and many others! The conference takes place online, and we have the 10% discount code for you: AWSM_TLJ.

Like this episode?
Subscribe on your podcast app.
Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.
Pledge your support by becoming a patron.
For episode show notes, visit techleadjournal.dev/episodes/107.

“There’s no leading without following. We are only a leader because somebody is following us."

Jutta Eckstein is a coach, consultant, and trainer who has helped many teams and organizations worldwide making an Agile transition. In this episode, we discussed ideas from her book “Company-wide Agility With Beyond Budgeting, Open Space, and Sociocracy”, also widely known as the BOSSA nova. Jutta started by sharing today’s company challenge in terms of collision of values between shareholder, customer, and the employee, and she provided a suggestion how to align the values better. She then broke down BOSSA nova and explained each concept and principles of Beyond Budgeting, Open Space, Sociocracy, and Agile. Jutta also shared the four values of BOSSA nova and how they also relate extrinsically to sustainability.

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:06:24]
• Writing BOSSA Nova - [00:08:34]
• People-Customer-Shareholder Value - [00:12:04]
• BOSSA Nova - [00:14:54]
• Beyond Budgeting - [00:24:16]
• Open Space - [00:32:56]
• Sociocracy - [00:37:58]
• Agile Values - [00:44:04]
• Transparency - [00:49:50]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:52:22]

_____

Jutta Eckstein’s Bio
Jutta Eckstein works as an independent coach, consultant, and trainer. She has helped many teams and organizations worldwide to make an Agile transition, especially with medium-sized to large distributed mission-critical projects. Jutta has recently pair-written with John Buck a book entitled Company-wide Agility with Beyond Budgeting, Open Space & Sociocracy (dubbed BOSSA nova). Besides that, she has published her experience in her books Agile Software Development in the Large, Agile Software Development with Distributed Teams, Retrospectives for Organizational Change, and together with Johanna Rothman Diving for Hidden Treasures: Uncovering the Cost of Delay in your Project Portfolio.

Follow Jutta:

• Website – https://jeckstein.com/
• Twitter – @JuttaEckstein
• LinkedIn – https://linkedin.com/in/juttaeckstein

Our Sponsors

Mental well-being is a silent pandemic. According to the WHO, depression and anxiety cost the global economy over USD 1 trillion every year. It’s time to make a difference! Learn how to enhance your lives through a master class on mental wellness. Visit founderswellbeing.com/masterclass and enter TLJ20 for a 20% discount.

The iSAQB® Software Architecture Gathering is the international conference highlight for all those working on solution structures in IT projects: primarily software architects, developers, professionals in quality assurance, and also system analysts. A selection of well-known international experts will share their practical knowledge on the most important topics in state-of-the-art software architecture. The conference takes place online from November 14 to 17, 2022, and we have a 15% discount code for you: TLJ_MP_15.

DevTernity 2022 (devternity.com) is the top international software development conference with an emphasis on coding, architecture, and tech leadership skills. The lineup is truly stellar and features many legends of software development like Robert "Uncle Bob" Martin, Kent Beck, Scott Hanselman, Venkat Subramaniam, Kevlin Henney, and many others! The conference takes place online, and we have the 10% discount code for you: AWSM_TLJ.

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For episode show notes, visit techleadjournal.dev/episodes/106.

“If you want to become a better and more effective leader, then one of your core skills should be coaching skills."

Bob Galen is the President & Principal Agile Coach at RGCG and a prolific writer, blogger, and podcaster. In this episode, Bob and I discussed coaching and leadership from his latest book “Extraordinarily Badass Agile Coaching”. Bob started by explaining the concepts of agile leadership and agile coaching. He shared about the different coaching stances and why he suggests that coaching is an essential core leadership skill. Bob then went into details to describe the skills to become a good coach, such as asking powerful questions and becoming powerful listeners. Towards the end, Bob shared some tips for coaching up and coaching the middle managers, i.e. coaching the coaches.

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:06:39]
• Agile Leader - [00:09:17]
• Extraordinarily Badass Agile Coaching - [00:12:35]
• Definition of Coaching - [00:15:31]
• Coaching as a Leadership Skill - [00:19:44]
• Skills to Become a Good Coach - [00:24:00]
• Powerful Questions - [00:27:59]
• Powerful Listening - [00:33:37]
• When to Give Solutions - [00:38:54]
• Coaching Up - [00:43:30]
• Coaching Middle Managers - [00:48:06]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:51:47]

_____

Bob Galen’s Bio
Bob Galen is an Agile Methodologist, Practitioner & Coach based in Cary, NC. In this role, he helps guide companies and teams in their pragmatic adoption and organizational shift towards Scrum and other Agile methods and practices. He is currently President & Principal Consultant at RGCG, LLC.

Bob regularly speaks at international conferences and professional groups on topics related to software development, project management, software testing and team leadership. He is a Certified Scrum Coach (CSC), Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), and an active member of the Agile & Scrum Alliances.

He’s published 3 agile related books: Extraordinarily Badass Agile Coaching, Scrum Product Ownership, and Agile Reflections. He’s also a prolific writer, blogger, and podcaster.

Follow Bob:

• LinkedIn – http://www.linkedin.com/in/bobgalen
• Twitter – @bobgalen
• Personal Website – www.rgalen.com
• Website – www.agile-moose.com
• Meta-Cast Podcast – www.meta-cast.com

Our Sponsors

The iSAQB® Software Architecture Gathering is the international conference highlight for all those working on solution structures in IT projects: primarily software architects, developers and professionals in quality assurance, but also system analysts who want to communicate better with their developers. A selection of well-known international experts will share their practical knowledge on the most important topics in state-of-the-art software architecture. The conference takes place online from November 14 to 17, 2022, and we have a 15% discount code for you: TLJ_MP_15.

DevTernity 2022 (devternity.com) is the top international software development conference with an emphasis on coding, architecture, and tech leadership skills. The lineup is truly stellar and features many legends of software development like Robert "Uncle Bob" Martin, Kent Beck, Scott Hanselman, Venkat Subramaniam, Kevlin Henney, and many others! The conference takes place online, and we have the 10% discount code for you: AWSM_TLJ.

Like this episode?
Subscribe on your podcast app.
Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.
Pledge your support by becoming a patron.
For episode show notes, visit techleadjournal.dev/episodes/105.

“The most important part about building an experiment-driven culture is to make it safe to fail and to fail in good ways."

Lisi Hocke is an active figure in the global testing community. In this episode, Lisi shared her lessons learned growing an experiment-driven quality culture in her recent years. Lisi shared why it is important to have an experimentation mindset before we adopt something new or any good practices and to have a safe environment to execute those experiments. Lisi shared her advice on how to run an experiment, from building transparency, creating hypothesis, getting buy-in, and understanding our biases, in particular the sunk cost fallacy. In the latter half, Lisi shared her personal transformation journey learning in public and shared her tips on growing technical confidence.

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:05:59]
• Sharing About Building Quality Culture - [00:13:39]
• Experiment-Driven Culture - [00:21:14]
• Building Transparency - [00:25:41]
• Hypothesis - [00:28:08]
• Building Better Hypothesis - [00:29:58]
• Getting Buy-In - [00:33:38]
• Sunk Cost Fallacy - [00:37:44]
• Learning in Public - [00:41:42]
• Growing Technical Confidence - [00:47:37]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:53:12]

_____

Lisi Hocke’s Bio
Lisi found tech as her place to be in 2009 and grew as a specialized generalist ever since. She’s passionate about the whole-team approach to holistic testing and quality and enjoys experimenting and learning continuously. Building great products which deliver value together with great people motivates her and lets her thrive. Having received a lot from communities, she’s paying it forward by sharing her stories and learning in public. In her free time, she plays indoor volleyball or delves into computer games and stories of all kinds.

Follow Lisi:

• Twitter – @lisihocke
• LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisihocke/
• Website – https://www.lisihocke.com/

Our Sponsors

The iSAQB® Software Architecture Gathering is the international conference highlight for all those working on solution structures in IT projects: primarily software architects, developers and professionals in quality assurance, but also system analysts who want to communicate better with their developers. A selection of well-known international experts will share their practical knowledge on the most important topics in state-of-the-art software architecture. The conference takes place online from November 14 to 17, 2022, and we have a 15% discount code for you: TLJ_MP_15.

DevTernity 2022 (devternity.com) is the top international software development conference with an emphasis on coding, architecture, and tech leadership skills. The lineup is truly stellar and features many legends of software development like Robert "Uncle Bob" Martin, Kent Beck, Scott Hanselman, Venkat Subramaniam, Kevlin Henney, and many others! The conference takes place online, and we have the 10% discount code for you: AWSM_TLJ.

Like this episode?
Subscribe on your favorite podcast app and submit your feedback.
Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.
Pledge your support by becoming a patron.
For more info about the episode (including quotes and transcript), visit techleadjournal.dev/episodes/104.

“A way to boost productivity is to create high-quality software from the outset, so that teams can spend less time on rework, both during development and after the release."

Karl Wiegers is the author of “Software Development Pearls” and the Principal Consultant at Process Impact. In this episode, Karl shared some lessons he has learned over the past five decades of his career. We first discussed software requirement, its role for communication, and the importance of defining the right requirements. Karl then touched on the reasons we can’t optimize all desirable quality attributes and instead advised how we should define the quality attribute requirements. Next, Karl shared some project management pearls, related to work planning and dealing with estimates. Towards the end, Karl explained the relation between quality and productivity, using pain as a driver for improvement, and his ultimate pearl of wisdom.

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:05:46]
• Requirements for Communication - [00:08:07]
• Importance of the Right Requirements - [00:13:49]
• Importance of Definitions - [00:16:23]
• Optimizing Quality Attributes - [00:18:48]
• Specifying Quality Attribute Requirements - [00:21:59]
• Work Plans & Friction - [00:24:48]
• Giving Estimates - [00:31:03]
• Pressure to Making Commitment - [00:35:19]
• High Quality & Productivity - [00:39:38]
• Pain as Improvement Driver - [00:45:16]
• Ultimate Pearl - [00:50:25]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:54:09]

_____

Karl Wiegers’s Bio
Karl Wiegers is Principal Consultant with Process Impact, a software development consulting and training company. He has a PhD in organic chemistry. Karl is the author of 13 books, including Software Development Pearls, Software Requirements, The Thoughtless Design of Everyday Things, Successful Business Analysis Consulting, and a forensic mystery novel titled The Reconstruction. You can reach him at ProcessImpact.com or KarlWiegers.com, where you can hear more than 50 songs he has recorded just for fun, including 18 originals that he wrote.

Follow Karl:

• LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/karlwiegers
• Website – https://karlwiegers.com
• Process Impact – https://www.processimpact.com
• Medium – https://karlwiegers.medium.com

Our Sponsors

DevTernity 2022 (devternity.com) is the top international software development conference with an emphasis on coding, architecture, and tech leadership skills. The lineup is truly stellar and features many legends of software development like Robert "Uncle Bob" Martin, Kent Beck, Scott Hanselman, Venkat Subramaniam, Kevlin Henney, and many others! The conference takes place online, and we have the 10% discount code for you: AWSM_TLJ.