Pat
Kua
Seasoned Technology Leader
Agenda
December 4-5, 2023Two days of inspirational talks from top engineering leaders
Conference themes
As the tech industry navigates some big shifts and challenges, we are designing this year’s content to help.
- Skills for leading in a downturn
- Doing more with less
- Preparation techniques for change
- Crafting agile, ambitious and achievable workflows
08:00
1h 45min
WELCOME
Registration & Refreshments
Welcome to LeadDev Berlin 2023
WELCOME
Registration & Refreshments
09:20
10 mins
Welcome to LeadDev Berlin 2023
A welcome to LeadDev Berlin 2023 from the host Pat Kua.
Welcome to LeadDev Berlin 2023
Your host Pat Kua welcomes you to the day, run through our code of conduct and let you know what we've got coming up.
Featuring:
09:35
Growth in a downturn
In this talk, Smruti Patel asks, if hyper-growth is marked by spending more to make more, what does building for enduring growth look like?
Growth in a downturn
Why are we not growing our headcount by 30% year-over-year? Is the business strong – or do we expect another RIF? Are we still funding my generative AI-based innovative project or should we optimize our cloud costs?
If you’ve been involved in one or more such discussions, you aren’t alone. It has been a rough year for tech, and especially our leaders - our Staff+ ICs and our engineering managers. We are reeling from the after-effects of rapid growth and zero-interest-rates, and have been forced into survival mode. If hyper-growth is marked by spending more to make more, what does building for enduring growth look like? What are key pivots and strategies needed to effectively navigate such different times?
In this talk, we’ll cover:
- Major differences in economic appetites during a downturn vs. an upswing and contextualizing that to our engineering day-to-day
- How to internalize the demands of this changing macro, and adapt your leadership style in an authentic, empathetic way
- How to drive focus and balance between tactical short-term engineering needs, and strategic long-term innovation with compounding returns
- How to drive clarity and bring your teams along the change management journey through a scarcity mindset and reduced coordination overhead
- How to reinforce a culture of diverse perspectives, psychological safety and high trust
As a manager or lead developer, this talk will give you a primer for building adaptability and resilience into your leadership toolkit and leading your teams through chaos and into sustained, enduring growth.
Featuring:
Smruti
Patel
VP of Engineering
Apollo GraphQL
10:10
Goldilocks doesn't need your story points or your t-shirts
Ben Murray believes there is only really one question you need to ask: is this task small enough? If the answer is no, then you need to break it down. Apply the same process to the sub-tasks. This talk will take you through some examples, tips and tricks for making this work.
Goldilocks doesn't need your story points or your t-shirts
Goldilocks can teach us how to improve our agility, and I don't mean by her well-documented technique of "how to jump through windows and escape from bears".
The trick is to make your tasks so they are juuust right and then to learn to let go of any t-shirts and story points.
We all want our businesses to be agile. We want our teams to be able to deliver value continuously starting as soon as possible after the starting gun fires. We want to deliver better outcomes faster and build what was actually required. We want to create useful software and believe in people over process. Teams so often seem to end up spending ages debating whether some task is a 3 or a 5, and then later on why the last task we gave a 3 to turned out to be more of an 8 and the last few 5s were 1s and 2s. Choosing the best Fibonacci number takes time and if you take too long the bears won't need the porridge...
There is only really one question you need to ask: is this task small enough? If the answer is no, then you need to break it down. Apply the same process to the sub-tasks. Once you learn what this juuust right size is for you and your team you will find that you are completing tasks on average at a near-constant rate. Some turn out smaller and some bigger but if you can make the average steady you can predict how long things will take without any size-to-time scale.
This talk will take you through some examples, tips and tricks for making this work.
Featuring:
Ben
Murray
Senior Engineering Manager
Holland & Barrett
10:20
AI for software development: A reality check
Birgitta Boeckeler gives an overview of what is actually possible today and walks through four capabilities of Large Language Models that can help us be more effective at software delivery.
AI for software development: A reality check
With the advent of coding assistance tools powered by Large Language Models, enthusiasts are already predicting the end of the programming profession, and some leaders want to know if they can now cut software teams in half.
Want to see more like this?
Watch all of the talks from LeadDev Berlin 2023 with a digital pass.
This talk gives an overview of what is actually possible today and walks through 4 capabilities of Large Language Models that can help us be more effective at software delivery. And it will go beyond coding: How can AI help boost productivity, creativity, and effectiveness in other parts of the delivery lifecycle as well? For which situations and tasks is it helpful to turn to a GenAI assistant, and when are you better off on your own? What are the risks and challenges, and how do you tackle them?
At the end of this talk, you will have a better understanding of the possibilities and risks of using this technology, you will be better able to judge when and how to use them, and better equipped to discuss the question if we will soon be able to build software with half the people.
Featuring:
Birgitta
Boeckeler
Principal Consultant
Thoughtworks
10:50
30 min
BREAK
Refreshments
Enjoy some refreshments during the break
BREAK
Refreshments
11:30
Building teams in tumultuous times. Lessons learned after multiple layoffs
Chris Jimenez covers topics of providing clarity to yourself and finding energy and motivation to rebuild as a leader, providing clarity to your teammates and different ways of offering support, organization re-structure with the intent of bringing people together with a clear scope, and tips and tricks on rebuilding the culture and team cohesion.
Building teams in tumultuous times. Lessons learned after multiple layoffs
The last couple of years, but especially in 2022 have been very challenging for tech companies of any size.
I am sure that any engineer leader struggle with topics like finding clarity, providing support to their teammates, and rebuilding a healthy team through troubling times.
The good news is that there are things that you can do to help your teammates in these difficult times. Throughout my career as an Engineering Leader, I have been unlucky enough to go through multiple reorganizations and even two rounds of layoffs.
The talk will cover topics of:
- Providing clarity to yourself and finding energy and motivation to rebuild as a leader.
- Providing clarity to your teammates and different ways of offering support
- Organization re-structure with the intent of bringing people together with a clear scope.
- Tips and tricks on rebuilding the culture and team cohesion.
Wherever people are in their career journey, either as engineering leaders or senior individual contributors, this talk should give the audience insights and tools that they can use to navigate uncertain and changing times.
Featuring:
Chris
Jimenez
Director of Platform Engineering
Zenjob
11:55
Practical tech-debt prioritization
Sahana Carlsen explores practical steps to influence stakeholders, be realistic about resourcing, and involve the entire team in making critical decisions on quality projects and technical debt.
Practical tech-debt prioritization
Managing technical debt is crucial for maintaining a high-performing engineering team and building a high-quality product.
In this talk, we explore practical steps to influence stakeholders, be realistic about resourcing, and involve the entire team in making critical decisions on quality projects and technical debt.
We'll dive into four key strategies in the product development and planning process that engineering leaders can adopt.
We'll start by talking about incepting the value of quality work directly with stakeholders early and often. We'll explore techniques to realistically evaluate resource constraints and identify areas where investments can be made. You'll learn a framework (with a notion template) that can be used to measure the relative importance of different tech debt items based on factors like impact, risk, and complexity. We'll introduce a collaborative voting mechanism (with a FigJam template) that allows engineers to voice their opinions and prioritize tech debt items collectively. Lastly, we'll share impact-first communication language that will illustrate value and bring you full circle to land quality projects on the roadmap.
Join us to gain actionable insights into fostering a collaborative and efficient approach to managing tech debt.
Featuring:
Sahana
Carlsen
Engineering Manager
Zip
12:10
Skills that empower engineers to drive business impact
Lydia Seidlitz focuses on skills for engineers to master in order to foster a business and product mind set.
Skills that empower engineers to drive business impact
The ability to create software that is not only functional but also meets the needs of the customers and aligns with the business objectives of the company can help companies stay ahead of the competition.
The adoption of Agile Methodologies and Continuous Delivery has provided solutions for managing project scope and time aspect. However, the cost now lies in maintaining effective communication, collaboration and alignment among cross-functional team members to deliver a cohesive customer experience.
This talk focuses on skills for engineers to master in order to foster a business and product mind set.
Featuring:
Lydia
Seidlitz
Technology Consultant
McKinsey Digital
12:25
Native to flutter: A tale of Tide's transformation
Anna Leushchenko and Giorgos Ampavis are here to share their transformation journey: how they upskilled their native mobile engineers to Dart and Flutter, migrated their codebase to the new tech stack, and rolled out the new product to their users, ensuring the best possible transition. They will highlight the challenges they faced, the solutions they implemented, and the objectives they have achieved for their business and engineering team.
Native to flutter: A tale of Tide's transformation
Tide is a financial services platform with a strong presence in the UK market and very ambitious global growth plans.
We’ve been developing our mobile applications using native technologies for several years, and in pursuit of a solution with better performance, maintainability, and scalability, we chose to rebuild our product with Flutter, which is an emerging open-source framework by Google for building beautiful, natively compiled, multi-platform applications from a single codebase.
We are here to share our transformation journey: how we upskilled our native mobile engineers to Dart and Flutter, migrated our codebase to the new tech stack, and rolled out the new product to our users, ensuring the best possible transition. We will highlight the challenges we faced, the solutions we implemented, and the objectives we have achieved for our business and engineering team. We will also provide insights into the best practices and lessons learned during the process.
Featuring:
Anna
Leushchenko
Senior Staff Engineer
Tide
Giorgos
Ampavis
VP of Engineering
Tide
12:50
1h 20min
BREAK
Lunch
We'll take a break for lunch
BREAK
Lunch
14:15
Building bridges beyond the screen: Cracking the code of remote team-building
In this talk, Marina Planells Guasch will share her experiences and provide resources that have worked for her, as well as discuss the failures and difficulties she encountered while attempting to foster team spirit in a remote environment.
Building bridges beyond the screen: Cracking the code of remote team-building
When it comes to team building, working fully remotely poses unique challenges.
Has your team transitioned from being on-site or hybrid to being fully remote, and have you noticed a decrease in team spirit? Are you currently starting a new remote team and struggling to foster a sense of camaraderie? You are not alone.
Previously, when we were all in the office, team spirit often developed organically through simple activities such as having coffee together, chatting with coworkers, eating lunch together, or going out for drinks after work. However, with the transition to full remote work, these activities have become much more difficult or sometimes impossible.
In this talk, I will share my experiences and provide resources that have worked for me, as well as discuss the failures and difficulties I encountered while attempting to foster team spirit in a remote environment. By implementing the right strategies and tools, it is possible to create a similar level of camaraderie and bonding as in an on-site team. By the end of this talk, you will have new ideas for improving team spirit and building a powerful and connected remote team.
Featuring:
Marina
Planells Guasch
Engineering Manager
Cabify
14:45
Take back control of code quality
In this talk, Joel Chippindale shares stories from his experiences in leading engineering teams that illustrate the dynamics between team members and with stakeholders that lead teams to lose control of code quality.
Take back control of code quality
The best engineering leaders know that you can have both speed and quality when developing software.
The best engineering leaders know that you can have both speed and quality when developing software. Indeed, the only way to keep up the pace of delivery is to build high quality software. Everybody wins.
However, all too often, it can feel like you are not in control of the quality of your code. You can feel like your team doesn’t have time to develop high quality code. You can feel like you are forced to make a trade off between the quality of code and speed of development. And when you do you typically end up with neither.
How do you take back control of your code quality? How do you get your team and stakeholders to believe that this will enable you to develop faster? What practices do you need to put in place to make this true.
In this talk I share stories from my experiences in leading engineering teams that illustrate the dynamics between team members and with stakeholders that lead teams to lose control of code quality.
And I share a set of practices and techniques that you can take away and use to support your team to take control of their code quality, deliver rapidly and keep stakeholders on your side.
Featuring:
Joel
Chippindale
CTO Coach
Monkey's Thumb Ltd.
14:55
Go with the flow: Embracing and supporting menstrual needs in tech
Amy Roberts-Hoad spotlights the often-underestimated influence of menstruation on tech teams. Through personal anecdotes, she offers actionable insights on fostering conversations around this topic, paving the way for both inclusivity and heightened productivity.
Go with the flow: Embracing and supporting menstrual needs in tech
In my journey through the tech industry, I've been fortunate to be part of some teams that prioritize diversity and gender inclusivity.
There's a crucial topic I've noticed remains largely untouched: menstruation.
It's not enough to merely celebrate diverse teams; we must understand and embrace the experiences that come with them. For leaders in the tech space, understanding these nuances isn't just about being considerate; it's a strategic imperative. Menstruation and conditions like endometriosis aren’t merely personal challenges; they have tangible implications on performance and team dynamics.
In this talk, I spotlight the often-underestimated influence of menstruation on tech teams. Through personal anecdotes, I offer actionable insights on fostering conversations around this topic, paving the way for both inclusivity and heightened productivity. Gone are the days when we sidestep topics like menstruation. Addressing them head-on can lead to optimized workplaces where every team member feels validated and supported. By shedding light on menstruation and its workplace implications, we champion a tech industry that's not only diverse but also informed, compassionate, and at its productive best.
Featuring:
Amy
Roberts-Hoad
Engineering Manager
Olio
15:10
We should all be declaring more incidents
You’re probably used to avoiding incidents at all costs, but they are actually the most effective tool you have to handle reactive work when things go wrong. In this talk, Martha Lambert looks at how to reframe incidents and use them to your advantage to make customers happier.
We should all be declaring more incidents
You’re probably used to avoiding incidents at all costs, but they are actually the most effective tool you have to handle reactive work when things go wrong.
In this talk, I look at how to reframe incidents and use them to your advantage to make customers happier.
We’ll start by looking at some examples of how we turn bugs into customer delight through excellent response.
We’ll target three key areas to make incidents work better for you, including
- Lowering your bar for what you consider an incident
- Flexing your process to deal with reactive work effectively
- Making incidents serve your customers better
You’ll leave understanding how to make your incidents less chaotic, more customer-focused, as well as how to get your team on board with changes.
Featuring:
Martha
Lambert
Technical Lead
incident.io
15:40
30 min
BREAK
Refreshments
Enjoy some refreshments during the break
BREAK
Refreshments
16:20
Pragmatic data organization leadership
In this talk, Olalekan Elesin looks at how a data team was led through a difficult reorganization to deliver company-wide impact and customer value.
Pragmatic data organization leadership
Data is referred to as the new oil, following the Forbes article in 2019, and strategic differentiator for competitive advantage for businesses.
However, organizations, including digital natives, find it difficult to leverage one of their most valuable assets to the fullest. As a result, there is a never ending blame-game from business executives to data teams to product teams. Furthermore, as businesses grow, the need for data to drive business decisions as well as integrating analytics/AI into technology products to delight customers and stay competitive increases. So, how might data organizations collaborate with software teams to deliver customer value and strategic impact for organizations?
In this talk, we will look at how a data team was led through a difficult reorganization to deliver company-wide impact and customer value. We will cover common pitfalls in setting up data organizations and how to lead data organizations to success based on:
- Collaboration with engineering & product organization
- Faster analytics delivery cycles
- Customer value and strategic company impact, not leaving out people development.
Featuring:
Olalekan
Elesin
Director Data Platform and Data Architect
HRS Group
16:45
Coaching autism traits in tech
In this talk, Dennie Declercq explains how autism works, what the traits are and how you can coach people with autism in tech.
Coaching autism traits in tech
Autism, Autism Spectrum is a condition where the brain of a person works different.
With different I mean: not worse nor better. Just different connections wired in the brain. Predictions, behavior, communication, social interaction, and more are different.
In this talk, I explain how autism works, what the traits are and how you can coach people with autism in tech. I explain how the different traits can manifest. I talk about the underlying patterns and layers, and how traits that at first sight are a disadvantage can be an advantage in the right context. I teach you coaching techniques helping you to change the context. If you change the context, you change the outcome. I also explain how you can coach yourself if you have autism. This is because coaching can come from external resources, but also from within. If you start to know yourself from the inside, you start seeing patterns what works in which scenario. This is a very powerful tool to be more productive, more happy and more successful in life.
Featuring:
Dennie
Declercq
President, Microsoft MVP
DDSoft
17:10
Making work (and life) less stressful by making better decisions
Nicky Thompson's talk is aimed at engineers, tech leads, managers, humans - anyone who makes decisions. Making better decisions is a skill that you can improve on, and this talk will introduce some ways to do that.
Making work (and life) less stressful by making better decisions
Making mistakes is one way to learn.
But no matter how many times someone says that to me, it still feels bad when it happens. This talk shares some ways to help you make fewer mistakes by making better decisions. I’ve heard people say as a joke that engineers “type for a living”, but I think it’s more realistic to say that we make decisions for a living. Decisions about what code to write (or not write), what to learn next, whether to hire a candidate or not. Whether to invest in or close down one project or another, or to reorganise teams. And that’s saying nothing about personal decisions like whether to move house or change jobs. And then even if you make the decision, how do you know it was the right one?
Making a bad choice, in hindsight, usually feels bad, and could have a negative impact. Making mistakes is not necessarily bad - it’s one way to learn - but it can be stressful. But there are tools and frameworks that you can use to sense-check when you’re about to make a difficult choice, to help you have the best possible outcome (or to learn better from a choice that in hindsight you think was wrong). This talk is aimed at engineers, tech leads, managers, humans - anyone who makes decisions. Making better decisions is a skill that you can improve on, and this talk will introduce some ways to do that.
Featuring:
Nicky
Thompson
Principal Technologist
dxw
17:35
10 min
CLOSE
Wrap-up
Closing session
CLOSE
Wrap-up
Featuring:
Pat
Kua
Seasoned Technology Leader
17:45
90 min
NETWORK
Networking mixer
Join us for the networking drinks reception
NETWORK
Networking mixer
19:30
Close
End of event
Close
08:00
1h 45min
WELCOME
Registration & Refreshments
Welcome to LeadDev Berlin 2023
WELCOME
Registration & Refreshments
09:15
10 mins
Welcome to LeadDev Berlin 2023
A welcome to LeadDev Berlin 2023 from the host Pat Kua.
Welcome to LeadDev Berlin 2023
Your host Pat Kua welcomes you to the day, run through our code of conduct and let you know what we've got coming up.
Featuring:
Pat
Kua
Seasoned Technology Leader
09:20
Leading through the downturn
Allison Malloy shares the secret sauce to building high-performing teams that thrive in any economic climate. You will learn practical strategies to keep growing your team’s careers (as well as your own), retain your top talent, bolster morale, and get shit done!
Leading through the downturn
Economic downturns are a part of life in tech, how leaders navigate through them has a direct impact on how strongly we emerge on the other side.
This talk contains the secret sauce to building high performing teams that thrive in any economic climate. You will learn practical strategies to keep growing your team’s careers (as well as your own), retain your top talent, bolster morale, and get shit done!
Downturns can be scary; top worries are about job security quickly followed by lack of opportunities for growth. But, they also present unique opportunities for growth and efficiency. Slow team growth doesn’t need to put a stop to team and personal development, in fact it presents a great opportunity to focus on the craft of leadership. This session will leave you with actionable strategies to harness the power of a stable team, do more with less while avoiding burning out, and adapt your leadership style to thrive through the downturn.
Featuring:
Allison
Malloy
Director of Engineering
Shopify
09:50
There and back again: A journey of complexity
Tristan Heal presents his journey in helping my company successfully modularise its frontend codebase, that started off being single product single platform to multiple products spanning multiple tech stacks across web, mobile and TV platforms today.
There and back again: A journey of complexity
The journey of a tech startup from a tiny venture to an SME to a large company is one where early vital decisions to launch "something" to the market are good for then, but then as the company grows, both in scale and scope, additional desirable complexity brings with it a code base that is also complicated, and often tightly coupled and increasingly difficult to increment on.
This talk presents my journey in helping my company successfully modularise its frontend codebase, that started off being single product single platform to multiple products spanning multiple tech stacks across web, mobile and TV platforms today. Finding simplicity in growing complexity is essential as tech companies grow and is just as important in the frontend as it is the backend. I cover how we solve the problems of complicated dependency graphs between modules of front end code, and how the problems of “dependency hell” are minimised in a large group with multiple teams with similar and potentially conflicting dependencies. I show how we have leveraged concepts from backend architecture (microservices) to deliver similar benefits in the frontend.
Featuring:
Tristan
Heal
Principal Software Engineer
FanDuel
10:10
Managing architecture
Lutz Hühnken talks about the importance of a strategic approach to software architecture, that prevents teams from becoming architecture firefighters, who spent an excessive amount of energy applying short-term fixes to architectural problems.
Managing architecture
In the sociotechnical system that is software development, software architecture plays a crucial role.
We strive to design our systems in a way that allows us to scale, both technically and organizationally. In a way that allows a fast flow of change. Succeeding in doing so will be a significant competitive advantage. But how do we ensure we follow the right architecture principles across the organization, in times of empowered teams and extreme ownership?
Lutz talks about the importance of a strategic approach to software architecture, that prevents teams from becoming architecture firefighters, who spent an excessive amount of energy applying short-term fixes to architectural problems. He explores the options to implement architecture strategy in a modern software development organization that is built on value stream aligned teams. Developers in such organizations will flat-out reject any "ivory tower architects", or needing approval of architectural decisions by some governance body - and rightfully so. Having experience as a software architect, as a manager of an "enabling team" of architects, and as an engineering manager in setups with no designated architects at all, he shares his learnings and provide some heuristics on which approach to choose when.
Featuring:
Lutz
Hühnken
Head of Engineering
Upvest
10:35
Things I got wrong when preparing for my first Engineering Manager role
Ferit Topcu shares his own experiences in this transition, the errors I made, and how I overcame them.
Things I got wrong when preparing for my first Engineering Manager role
Transitioning from a Senior Engineer to an Engineering Manager is more than a career change; it's a journey of personal and professional development.
In this talk, I delve into my own experiences during this transition, highlighting not just the errors I made, but also the insights I gained about self-assessment, motivation, and resilience. I will share strategies for identifying personal strengths and weaknesses as they relate to management roles, understanding the deeper motivations behind the pursuit of a leadership position, and developing the resilience necessary to thrive. Additionally, I touch upon preparing for leadership-focused interviews, the essential questions to ask potential employers, and other subtleties of making this significant career shift
Featuring:
Ferit
Topcu
Senior Manager, Engineering Management
RedCare Pharmacy (formerly Shop-Apotheke)
10:50
30 min
BREAK
Refreshments
Enjoy some refreshments during the break
BREAK
Refreshments
11:30
Growing future leaders: nurturing Team Leads as a path to managerial succession
Anna Kurylo shares the learnings from growing two team leads within her org, where the change ended up being a win-win-win situation for her, the teams, and the new team leads.
Growing future leaders: nurturing Team Leads as a path to managerial succession
Sooner or later in your manager journey, one of your ICs will express their interest in pursuing management as the next career step.
Most likely, when that happens, the only such role on your team would already be taken: by you. While you can’t immediately resign and have the person in question get a new title, there are ways to help them prepare for the next opportunity, one of which could be by having them manage a few of their peers as a team lead.
In this talk, Anna shars the learnings from growing two team leads within her org, where the change ended up being a win-win-win situation for her, the teams, and the new team leads. Anna covers the steps she took with her team leads to help them get started in the role: forming teams, getting the leads trained and mentored (Anna’s focus was on giving and receiving feedback, having difficult conversations, and overall creating a set of behaviors expected from leads), making announcements, and actually transitioning into the new team structure. Anna will also talk about ways to grow the leads' visibility in the organization beyond initial responsibilities, and some mistakes she made with the steps above. Most of the ideas from this talk also apply to the process of training a successor for a manager.
Featuring:
Anna
Kurylo
Manager, Software Engineering
Red Hat
12:00
How to completely fail at learning
Hywel Carver asks, are you being asked to do more with less? Are hiring ambitions lower than they were a couple of years ago? Are you finding it slow and painful to adopt new technologies? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, this talk is for you.
How to completely fail at learning
Are you being asked to do more with less? Are hiring ambitions lower than they were a couple of years ago? Are you finding it slow and painful to adopt new technologies?
If the answer to any of these questions is yes, this talk is for you. Hywel went from being a long-time CTO to founding a tech learning company because he was so frustrated by upskilling provisions in tech. In this talk, he will walk you through the ways in which learning sucks, and how to change that so you can supercharge your team, and change what’s achievable.
Featuring:
Hywel
Carver
CEO
Skiller Whale
12:25
Learning is a core capability of software teams; here’s how to measure it
Sorrel Harriet shares what she has learned. Specifically, talking about how she has been measuring learning culture and using the data to uplift learning capability in different organizations and teams. While still an experiment in progress, the methods and tools she's using are mature enough to be shared, so as to invite commentary and feedback from fellow practitioners.
Learning is a core capability of software teams; here’s how to measure it
Learning is a core capability of high-performing software teams.
It comprises the skills and behaviours that support continuous improvement and nudge us into the funnel of flow - that joyous place where we become one with our work. As engineering leaders, it is important then, that we consider the learning culture and capabilities of our teams if we are to support them in delivering value. But how?
In 2022 I spoke at LeadDev Berlin about a Lean DevOps approach to continuous learning. Towards the end of the talk I raised the question: How can we measure learning culture? I invited people to come forward and be part of an experiment aimed at answering this question.
In this talk, I share what I have learned since. Specifically, I talk about how I have been measuring learning culture and using the data to uplift learning capability in different organizations and teams. While still an experiment in progress, the methods and tools I’m using are mature enough to be shared, so as to invite commentary and feedback from fellow practitioners. I’ll also make a case for letting teams own and discover their learning and development goals and tooling, explaining why, in a sector that is constantly in flux, a team-first approach to learning is one that makes sense.
Featuring:
Sorrel
Harriet
Independent Learning Consultant
12:35
Leading a distributed team out of a war zone: Lessons in resilience and adaptability
Bohdan Kit shares his management experience and insights from leading a team of eight senior engineers.
Leading a distributed team out of a war zone: Lessons in resilience and adaptability
In the age of distributed work, global events can impact the workplace in unpredictable ways.
As a manager leading a distributed team in the wake of Russian aggression in Ukraine, I have had to draw on exceptional leadership capabilities and resilience to ensure my team's success and impact on our product and users. In this talk, I share my management experience and insights from leading a team of 8 senior engineers. I highlight the key leadership strategies and techniques that enabled me to succeed despite adversity. From fostering a robust and outcome-oriented team culture to maintaining productivity in challenging life circumstances — providing practical tips and guidance that engineering managers and leaders can apply in their work and to their own teams.
Featuring:
Bohdan
Kit
Head of Product, Non-Ad Monetization
Tumblr (Automattic)
13:05
1h 20min
BREAK
Lunch
We'll take a break for lunch
BREAK
Lunch
14:30
How to make better modernization decisions
Indu Alagarsamy shares some of the methods she has been using such as Service Blueprints, Wardley Mapping, and Architecture/Product Decision Tracking Framework to get buy-in collaboratively.
How to make better modernization decisions
When attempting to modernize an existing system, you need to build up an understanding of how the business works and the complexities of the existing system in order to answer questions such as:
- Where do we start?
- What are the pain points and risks associated with the existing system?
- How can we incrementally modernize the system?
It often involves working with different teams, and different services that fulfil the capability to the user and understanding the current state so we have a place to start.
In this talk, I’ll share with you some of the methods I’ve been using such as Service Blueprints, Wardley Mapping, and Architecture/Product Decision Tracking Framework to get buy-in collaboratively.
Featuring:
Indu
Alagarsamy
Principal Engineer
The New York Times
15:00
Managing in hard times: How to shift from growth to stability
David LaMothe covers some of the key actions a manager should take to make sure their team gets through difficult times. Whether it’s managing expectations, focusing on the essentials, or celebrating small successes, you will leave with the essential toolbox you need to weather the storm.
Managing in hard times: How to shift from growth to stability
Many managers have spent careers working in a constant state of growth.
Growth requires a certain set of skills and we as an industry have become very good at detailing the best practices to make sure it can occur smoothly. However, in the current macroeconomic environment, many of us have found ourselves in a situation we have never experienced where growth is no longer the primary goal. Instead, we are shifting to a state where stability is the most important for organizations, and in some cases, this means having to make difficult decisions.
In this talk, I go through some of the key actions a manager should take to make sure their team gets through difficult times. Whether it’s managing expectations, focusing on the essentials, or celebrating small successes, you will leave with the essential toolbox you need to weather the storm.
Featuring:
David
LaMothe
Engineering Manager
SumUp
15:10
Python Powered People - teaching non-technical professionals to code
Charlie Beeson talks about our bespoke training initiative called develop, which is designed to bring Python and other critical technical skills to the masses, including resolute technophobes, and how, just 18 months after launching, over half of our firm now use Python - including compliance officers, communications professionals, operations analysts and lawyers!
Python Powered People - teaching non-technical professionals to code
I'll talk about our bespoke training initiative called develop, which is designed to bring python and other critical technical skills to the masses.
Including resolute technophobes, and how, just 18 months after launching, over half of our firm now use Python - including compliance officers, communications professionals, operations analysts and lawyers! Roughly 10 years ago I learnt Python, and I soon found it so powerful, so useful, that I had an idea to bring the power of Python to the masses – to resolute non-programmers and technophobes. We've taught critical technical skills, predominantly Python, to all teams, such as our lawyers, sales, and HR professionals, to our charitable partners with the aim of improving diverse representation in tech, and to our clients too.
I’m going to tell you what I did with this idea, where I failed, how we've taught almost 300 people critical technical skills in our first 18 months, how to manage the risks that this unleashes, and why you should embark on a similar initiative to teach python, data science, basic machine learning (including generative AI), and technical operational risk management to anyone who will let you! No prior knowledge is needed for this talk.
Featuring:
Charlie
Beeson
Technology Chief of Staff
15:20
Challenges in transforming a multicultural local-only company to a remote-first
Felipe Furlan discusses the most significant challenges and the strategies we use to overcome them. I will also discuss the advantages and disadvantages of such a strategy.
Challenges in transforming a multicultural local-only company to a remote-first
Like most companies, before the COVID-19 pandemic, Jimdo was built by relocating talents from their original country to Germany.
There were a lot of onboarding challenges, professional and personal, but we successfully integrated 15+ nationalities into the engineering organization. With the advent of the remote world, we were required to change most of our processes to ensure our team kept its performance correctly. In this talk, I will discuss our most significant challenges and the strategies we use to overcome them. I will also discuss the advantages and disadvantages of such a strategy.
Featuring:
Felipe
Furlan
VP of Engineering
Jimdo
16:00
30 min
BREAK
Refreshments
Enjoy some refreshments during the break
BREAK
Refreshments
16:30
Pleasing everyone, except yourself: Overcoming people-pleasing tendencies to become a stronger engineering leader
Nikita Rathi talks about her ongoing journey towards recognising the different patterns of people pleasing that she tends to fall into, like countless other folks, and how it impacts her work as an engineering leader.
Pleasing everyone, except yourself: Overcoming people-pleasing tendencies to become a stronger engineering leader
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As a South-Asian woman, I was conditioned from a young age to prioritise the needs of others over my own, limit my self-expression, take up as little space as possible, and be adaptable, even at the cost of my own personal and professional growth. This talk is about my ongoing journey towards recognising the different patterns of people pleasing that I tend to fall into, like countless other folks, and how this impacts my work as an engineering leader.
Most importantly, I'll share strategies and learnings on how to break free from the people-pleasing trap, while still being an effective, empathetic and authentic leader. Whether you're a seasoned professional or just starting out in your career, I hope you’ll leave this talk having had some 'aha' moments of your own tendencies, and a deeper understanding of how people-pleasing can hold you back and how you can overcome them.
Featuring:
Nikita
Rathi
Engineering Manager
Taxfix
16:50
50 shades of PR dark matter
In this short and fun talk (yes it’ll be fun!) - Avishag Sahar laments about the top blockers of PRs, but cheer up - because I’ll also provide insights into how to unblock them.
50 shades of PR dark matter
We’ve all experienced what we believe to be perfectly crafted PRs getting blocked for seemingly arbitrary reasons.
In this short and fun talk (yes it’ll be fun!) - we’ll lament about the top blockers of PRs, but cheer up - because we’ll also provide insights into how to unblock them. We’ll share better mechanisms for qualifying PRs than just the binary block/allow, and how and why you should codify your development process (and not just rely on oral tradition). You’ll come away with good ideas for how to mix and match rules and inputs to intelligently delegate PRs to the right people and optimize your PRs for the process so they don’t just end up in the dead queue of a failed build.
Featuring:
Avishag
Sahar
Engineering Team Lead
LinearB
17:00
Responsible AI / Ethics in AI in engineering
Maria Gomez Aguirre and Priyanka Syal share insights on how to adapt to this changing landscape and factor in the human impact of our work while building systems and products with AI.
Responsible AI / Ethics in AI in engineering
AI is becoming mainstream, with companies across multiple industries increasingly integrating it into their solutions.
Decisions taken in engineering teams can have an unexpected widespread impact on factors like diversity, accessibility, security, privacy, and mental health in our society. This will cause a shift in roles and responsibilities of engineers and product specialists.
In this talk, we share insights on how to adapt to this changing landscape, and factor in the human impact of our work while building systems and products with AI. The talk also explores some of the ways in which Gen AI affects society (i.e. how reliable and accurate is the info provided by LLMs and GenAI-powered applications, would It make jobs redundant, how can engineers and technologies build GenAI products in an ethical way)
Featuring:
Maria
Gomez Aguirre
Vice President Engineering
BCG Digital Ventures
Priyanka
Syal
Senior Engineer
BCG Digital Ventures
17:30
10 min
CLOSE
Wrap-up
Closing session
CLOSE
Wrap-up
Featuring:
Pat
Kua
Seasoned Technology Leader
17:40
Close
End of event