Creating the next generation of Senior Engineers

An introduction to the science of teaching – pedagogy – how it applies to leadership and techniques to grow our teams in the era of doing more with less.

Mentoring less experienced engineers can be intimidating, but there’s a whole field of study – pedagogy – that we can use to help us. In this talk, I’ll introduce you to the basics of pedagogy, from mental models to (human!) memory. Then – using my experience across IC and management – I’ll show how you can apply these techniques in your day-to-day leadership work. We’ll see how you can mentor and coach your team, leveling them up through effective learning science.

In today’s market, it’s more important than ever to make the most of your resources. That’s why it’s critical that engineering leadership have the skills to invest in and grow our teams.

I learned these techniques by training hundreds of developers over seven years of volunteering at Code Your Future, a free training program for refugees and other people excluded from tech education. Since 2016 we have helped more than 250 people start careers in tech. I’ve become a core contributor to our open-source curriculum, providing proven tools and strategies to our incredible volunteers.

Key takeaways

• Mentorship is a two-way process – we’re learning as much as those we teach
• Some key principles of technical pedagogy, as applied to engineering management
• Three concrete ideas you can use in your daily work: backward design, expert blindspot, and cognitive load