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Newsletter archive
AI agents and the missing link in DevOps
AI agents aren’t just assistants anymore – they’re making decisions. Are engineers ready for the shift or are they just too skeptical?
Carving out time for large-scale engineering chores
Determine what to prioritize, set out a path, and be prepared for some hiccups along the way.
Encouraging a passion for productivity
In this edition of DirectorPlus, Neha Batra, VP of Engineering at GitHub, explains how she creates a culture of productivity.
Framing AI rollouts in the right light
How can you introduce AI into teams in a way that doesn’t invite unrest within your org? It starts with presenting it in the right light.
Latest
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AI coding trackers are here. Proceed with caution
Companies are finally starting to track AI usage within their engineering orgs. Should we be worried or remain cautiously optimistic?
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Navigating the emotional rollercoaster of leadership
Any well-seasoned leader will know that it’s not always an easy journey. The key is to tackle the low moments with the right approach.
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5 AI agent frameworks for developer teams
If you’re thinking of dipping your toes into the agentic pool, here are some frameworks you could explore.
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Your go-to professional growth model
When you’re an engineering leader, finding the time to upskill is almost impossible. Following the S-curve model might keep you on track.
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The right way to make AI part of your tech strategy
With everyone scrambling to bake AI into their technical strategy, leaders may be resorting to unreliable and unscalable methods.
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The unions are (finally) coming for big tech
After decades of taking a back seat, the rise of AI, layoffs, and industry-wide burnout has led to a call for more prominent tech unions.
October 15 & 16, 2025
Agendas for New York events are live! 🙌
Essential reading
What is a Director of Engineering? The glue keeping engineering together
A director of engineering is responsible for keeping an entire engineering function humming. Find out what skills you need to climb the ladder to this vital position.
On our DirectorPlus playlist
Strategies to hone commercial awareness and drive business outcomes
Learn effective strategies for enhancing commercial awareness in tech teams, turning engineering into a business driver through alignment, impactful initiatives, and stakeholder engagement.
The path from Director to CTO: How to follow it, or how to mentor it
This talk is aimed at both aspiring Chief Technology Officers and those who are in a position to mentor future CTOs. Explore the journey from a Director of Engineering role to a CTO, focusing on the skills and experiences needed for this transition and how experienced leaders can guide others on this path.
Making the manager of manager’s mindset
Suzan Bond covers the difference between the two roles and the key mindset shifts leaders need to make to manage managers.
Agendas for New York events are live!
Lineup includes Addy Osmani, Kevin Goldsmith, Robin Bonatesta, and more…
New York • October 15 & 16, 2025
More for managers of managers
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The importance of supervising your AI coding agents
And 3 other themes from the latest Thoughtworks’ Technology Radar.
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Bringing internal engineering projects to the world
Pia Nilsson, senior director of engineering at Spotify, on how they identify and externalize impactful internal developer tools like Backstage.
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95% AI-written code? Unpacking the Y Combinator CEO’s developer jobs bombshell
Garry Tan says YC startups are launching with 95% AI-written code. What does this mean for the shape and size of engineering teams?
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Executive communication tactics that work for all audiences
The way you communicate with executives – clear, direct, and to the point – should be the standard for all communication.
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Tech debt is an outdated concept
Tech debt is often overused as a blanket statement for all manner of engineering issues. What if we reframed our approach?
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How leaders can beat the first quarter slump
After the buzz of New Years Eve and all the aspirations that follow fizzle out, what can you do to regain some momentum?
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How to combat bias in the hiring process
Don’t let bias dictate your next hire and make hiring decisions based on skills, not gut feelings.
Videos for managers of managers
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The creative technologist
Learn how to build a creative practice to help you become a more creative leader.
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From monitoring to mastery: Building an observability-driven culture
This talk explores how Phorest shifted to an observability-driven culture by aligning technical vision with customer pain, empowering teams through proactive ownership, and embedding observability into software practices to enhance customer trust.
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Escaping the rewrite trap
Gain practical frameworks to assess rewrites vs. evolution, plan successful migrations, and align teams and stakeholders without losing momentum.
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Technical Steering Groups: Balancing autonomy, technical alignment, and speed through strategic collaboration
Learn how technical steering groups drive technical alignment while fostering ownership – balancing autonomy and collaboration to fuel speed, innovation, and impactful decision-making across teams.
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10 things nobody tells you about OKRs
OKRs are a simple – and useful – sounding idea, but in practice, there are all kinds of troubles people get bogged down in. Here are ten, rarely mentioned, things that can help.
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The million dollar bug: Quality leadership lessons from costly failures
CrowdStrike lost $5.4B, Sonos stumbled into a $500M crisis – and they’re not alone. Learn battle-tested leadership strategies to protect your organization from quality catastrophes that can shake your business to its core.
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Monolith-ifying perfectly good microservices
Learn why consolidating microservices into a Rails monolith boosted performance, reduced complexity, and helped Intercom scale more efficiently
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In partnership with VercelHow to maintain a codebase – when everyone can code
Learn how to maintain platform performance with machine-first observability, enabling AI agents to monitor and repair production systems.
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Organizational evolution: From products to user needs
A practical guide to evolving an engineering organization from functional to product-based to user-centric – rooted in real experiences at Flo Health.
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From autocomplete to agents: AI coding assistance state of play
Everybody wants high reliability, but the path isn’t exactly clear. This talk is for people who need to know what works and what doesn’t.
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Dressing to the 9s
Everybody wants high reliability, but the path isn’t exactly clear. This talk is for people who need to know what works and what doesn’t.
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A safe place to land: Practical (and hyper-scale tested) advice for technical decision-making while evolving systems in place
Practical strategies for evolving systems at hyperscale while balancing innovation, stability, and reliability – featuring real-world insights from Fastly.