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
LD BER 22_5
08:00 1h 45min

WELCOME

Registration & Refreshments

Welcome to LeadDev Berlin 2023

10:00 10 mins

Welcome to LeadDev Berlin 2023

A welcome to LeadDev Berlin 2023 from the host Pat Kua.

Featuring:

Pat Kua
Pat Kua
Seasoned Technology Leader
10:10

Growth in a downturn

It has been a rough year for tech, and especially our leaders. 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? 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
Smruti Patel
VP of Engineering Apollo GraphQL
10:40

Doing more with less - achieving high velocity without burning out your teams

Goldilocks doesn't need your story points or your t-shirts

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.

Featuring:

Ben Murray
Ben Murray
Senior Engineering Manager Holland & Barrett
10:50

Opportunities and risks of generative AI

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. 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.

Featuring:

Birgitta Böckeler
Birgitta Böckeler
Principal Consultant Thoughtworks
11:20 30 min

BREAK

Refreshments

Enjoy some refreshments during the break

11:50

Advancing as a technical leader in challenging times

Building teams in tumultuous times. Lessons learned after multiple 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, and tips and tricks on rebuilding the culture and team cohesion.

Featuring:

Chris Jimenez
Chris Jimenez
Director of Platform Engineering Zenjob
12:20

Doing more with less - achieving high velocity without burning out your teams

Practical tech-debt prioritization

In this talk, we will explore a practical steps to influence stakeholders, be realistic about resourcing, and involve the entire team in making critical decisions on quality projects and technical debt.

Featuring:

Sahana Carlsen
Sahana Carlsen
Engineering Manager Zip
12:30

Doing more with less - achieving high velocity without burning out your teams

Skills that empower engineers to drive business impact

This talk focuses on skills for engineers to master in order to foster a business and product mind set.

Featuring:

Lydia Seidlitz
Lydia Seidlitz
Technology Consultant McKinsey Digital
12:40

Modern approaches to front end and mobile

Native to flutter: A tale of Tide's transformation

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.

Featuring:

Anna Leushchenko
Anna Leushchenko
Senior Staff Engineer Tide
Giorgos  Ampavis
Giorgos Ampavis
VP of Engineering Tide
13:00 1h 20min

BREAK

Lunch

We'll take a break for lunch

14:10

Skills for new managers

Challenges in transforming a multicultural local-only company to a remote-first

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
Felipe Furlan
VP of Engineering Jimdo
14:20

Coping with change as a technical leader

Building bridges beyond the screen: Cracking the sode of remote team-building

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.

Featuring:

Marina  Planells Guasch
Marina Planells Guasch
Engineering Manager
14:40

Doing more with less - achieving high velocity without burning out your teams

Take back control of code quality

In this talk I will 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.

Featuring:

Joel Chippindale
Joel Chippindale
CTO Coach Monkey's Thumb Ltd.
14:50

Go with the flow: Embracing and supporting menstrual needs in tech

In this talk, I'll spotlight the often-underestimated influence of menstruation on tech teams. Through personal anecdotes, I'll offer actionable insights on fostering conversations around this topic, paving the way for both inclusivity and heightened productivity.

Featuring:

Amy  Roberts-Hoad
Amy Roberts-Hoad
Engineering Manager Olio
15:00 30 min

BREAK

Refreshments

Enjoy some refreshments during the break

15:30

Leading in a downturn

Pragmatic data organization leadership

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.

Featuring:

Olalekan Elesin
Olalekan Elesin
Director Data Platform and Data Architect HRS Group
16:00

Coaching autism traits in tech

In this talk I will 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.

Featuring:

Dennie Declercq
Dennie Declercq
President, Microsoft MVP DDSoft
16:20

Making work (and life) less stressful by making better decisions

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
Nicky Thompson
Principal Technologist dxw
16:50 10 min

CLOSE

Wrap-up

Closing session

Featuring:

Pat Kua
Pat Kua
Seasoned Technology Leader
17:00 90 min

NETWORK

Networking mixer

Join us for the networking drinks reception

18:30

Close

End of event

Get engineering leadership insights, news, events, and more from LeadDev in your inbox

 
Read our Data Promise