Leader or engineer? Navigating our technical identity crisis

Am I still Technical enough? What does my team think?

Whether you are a lead developer or a CTO, these questions are evergreen. There is a quiet crisis in technical leadership, amplified by industry shifts from AI to layoffs. In this conflict between technical depth and leadership, the truth is that you cannot optimise for everything.

Drawing from the hard-won lessons of a leadership initiative for 250 engineers, and the lived experience of Marcus’ career pivot into software development, this talk will give you:

• A practical map for navigating your identity as a technical leader, helping you embrace your constraints by playing to your strengths
• An actionable breakthrough in technical leadership that you can apply tomorrow
• Most importantly of all, a powerful insight drawn from the ingenious ways farmers in India protect their crops (yes, really!)

Right now, the stakes are too high for you to drift towards an answer. You have more agency than you realise – this talk will help you claim it.