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Day 1

Tuesday 11 June

Track 1: Main hall
Micro workshops
08:00–09:45

Registration & refreshments

08:00–09:45

Registration & refreshments

09:15

Welcome to LeadDev London 2024

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Welcome to LeadDev London 2024

A welcome to LeadDev London 2023 from the host Meri Williams.

  • FEATURING
    Meri Williams
    CTO, NED & AdvisorPleo

    Meri is an experienced CTO and leader of technology organisations. She particularly enjoys helping others to level up as technical leaders and managers of organisations and works as a CTO coach and tech advisor / NED to various companies in this capacity through micro-consultancy ChromeRose.

    She has led teams ranging in size from 30 to 300, in a range of organisations from Procter & Gamble, to the Government Digital Service, award-winning online print company MOO, mobile-first challenger bank Monzo and patient-inspired AI-driven rare disease treatment discovery company Healx, amongst others.

    A published author and international speaker, she is the chair of The Lead Developer conference and a tech advisor for Kindred Capital. She’s also a trustee at Stonewall, the UK’s leading LGBTQ+ rights charity and together with her wife runs micro-charity One Goes Up to help young women & enby folks pursue STEM education & careers.

    blog.geekmanager.co.uk View Meri’s profile
09:25

Keynote: Embracing engineering’s place at the forefront of business

The landscape of technology has changed over the past decade – and that change has led to the place of engineering changing in the architecture of modern businesses. As engineering leaders, we need to move beyond the perception that technology is a back-office function, a support function, or a cost centre – and understand that technology is a leading function. As engineering leaders, we need to actively seek to lead the businesses that we’re a part of – and this is especially critical as we look to ensure the effective, safe and ethical adoption of GenAI.

+ More

Keynote: Embracing engineering’s place at the forefront of business

The landscape of technology has changed over the past decade – and that change has led to the place of engineering changing in the architecture of modern businesses.

As engineering leaders, we need to move beyond the perception that technology is a back-office function, a support function, or a cost centre – and understand that technology is a leading function. As engineering leaders, we need to actively seek to lead the businesses that we’re a part of – and this is especially critical as we look to ensure the effective, safe and ethical adoption of GenAI.

To do this effectively, it’s also important that engineering expands its horizon – taking ownership of the impact of the products we create and not just the code that we create them with. As engineering leaders, we need to gain cross-disciplinary knowledge in areas like marketing, data, operations and finance to successfully lead and resolve key business challenges and identify transformational opportunities.
09:55

How do you deliver a feature on the biggest stage in the world?

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How do you deliver a feature on the biggest stage in the world?

In this talk, media server engineer Josh McNamee discusses the challenges in shipping Disguise’s ‘Single Large Canvas’, the software feature that lets U2 put images on the inside of the Las Vegas Sphere.

Across disciplines and time zones, the team worked through a series of complex challenges to deliver a pipeline to let 23 machines fill a 16k video wall. Live events work to very short deadlines, where a whole project can come together in a matter of days before the band walks on stage. In this environment, software issues can and do emerge at the eleventh hour and have to be carefully triaged, tracked and resolved with confidence. 

As the scope of customer requirements shifted and came into focus, the project expanded from a team with a single engineer and grew rapidly over three months. Members were split across two continents, stamping out bugs in overlapping shifts and shuttling information back and forth between in-house testing and on-site testing. 

Discussing both the managerial and technical challenges, this talk will go through what worked, what didn’t, and what lessons were learned for the next show – which was only six months later!
10:10

“We’re so glad we hired you!” Incorporate microinclusions into developer onboarding to increase developer thriving

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“We’re so glad we hired you!” Incorporate microinclusions into developer onboarding to increase developer thriving

Spend enough time in the workforce, and you may encounter the unpleasant experience of not feeling particularly welcomed by the team that hired you.

And yet we know from both experience and empirical research that – particularly in our current state of distributed work – feeling welcomed, valued, and included throughout the onboarding process can have a tremendous impact on your happiness, thriving, success, and overall tenure on a team. 

We also know that in the software engineering domain, “good onboarding” typically hinges on the question, “How quickly did we get this engineer contributing lines of code?” rather than “Does this engineer feel welcomed and wanted by us, the team that hired them?” In this talk, Kristen Foster-Marks will offer a simple, evidence-based way to increase new teammates’ sense of belonging: microinclusions. She’ll share both “sad” and “happy” onboarding stories, demonstrating how both the presence and absence of microinclusions can impact not only a new engineer’s first impressions of a job, but their long-term happiness, success, and tenure. She’ll wrap up by sharing some simple actions that engineering leaders and teams can take during those first few months of onboarding to make sure new teammates know they were hired because they were wanted.

  • FEATURING
    Kristen Foster-Marks
    Head of Developer ExperienceDepot

    Kristen Foster-Marks is passionate about applying evidence-based science to help software teams learn, work, and thrive. She combines eight years in software development and engineering leadership with extensive knowledge in learning science, pedagogy, and classroom-based research to develop innovative workshops, interventions, and curricula that promote effective behavior change on software teams. Kristen actively contributes to the engineering community by writing articles and giving conference talks, aiming to demystify empirical research on software teams for those best equipped to utilize its insights.

    @KFosterMarks View Kristen’s profile
10:20

Presenting: The LeadDev Engineering Management Report 2024

A sneak peek into the 2024 LeadDev Engineering Management report: how the role is changing and what these changes mean for the industry at large.

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Presenting: The LeadDev Engineering Management Report 2024

A sneak peek into the 2024 LeadDev Engineering Management report: how the role is changing and what these changes mean for the industry at large.

The role of engineering management is changing, fast.

From rapidly changing business priorities, to limited progression opportunities for you and your team, the job of effectively managing a team of engineers is drastically different to just a year ago. In this report, we set out to understand how the role is changing, the impact these changes are having on you and your teams, and the what these changes mean for the industry at large. Here’s a sneak peek into what we found.

  • FEATURING
    Scott Carey
    Editor in ChiefLeadDev

    Scott Carey is the Editor in Chief at LeadDev. An experienced technology journalist, he has covered software development for Computerworld, CIO, and InfoWorld before joining LeadDev.

    @scarey102 View Scott’s profile
  • Lena Reinhard
    Engineering Leadership & Executive Coach

    Lena Reinhard has dedicated her career to building successful, high-performing globally distributed engineering organisations, and helping teams thrive in times of high change like hypergrowth. She now offers transformational leadership coaching and consulting for leaders.

    Previously, Lena served as VP Engineering with CircleCI and Travis CI, as well as a startup co-founder & CEO, and through her cross-functional background and experience, she brings a unique perspective on systems of technology, business, and people.

    @lrnrd View Lena’s profile
10:50–11:35

Refreshments

Network, learn and explore during every break

Office hours

+ More

Office hours

Chat with the speakers face-to-face in a relaxed, conversational environment.

  • FEATURING
    Renee Hunt
    CTOCompare the Market
    View Renee’s profile
  • Scott Carey
    Editor in ChiefLeadDev

    Scott Carey is the Editor in Chief at LeadDev. An experienced technology journalist, he has covered software development for Computerworld, CIO, and InfoWorld before joining LeadDev.

    @scarey102 View Scott’s profile
  • Kristen Foster-Marks
    Head of Developer ExperienceDepot

    Kristen Foster-Marks is passionate about applying evidence-based science to help software teams learn, work, and thrive. She combines eight years in software development and engineering leadership with extensive knowledge in learning science, pedagogy, and classroom-based research to develop innovative workshops, interventions, and curricula that promote effective behavior change on software teams. Kristen actively contributes to the engineering community by writing articles and giving conference talks, aiming to demystify empirical research on software teams for those best equipped to utilize its insights.

    @KFosterMarks View Kristen’s profile
  • Lena Reinhard
    Engineering Leadership & Executive Coach

    Lena Reinhard has dedicated her career to building successful, high-performing globally distributed engineering organisations, and helping teams thrive in times of high change like hypergrowth. She now offers transformational leadership coaching and consulting for leaders.

    Previously, Lena served as VP Engineering with CircleCI and Travis CI, as well as a startup co-founder & CEO, and through her cross-functional background and experience, she brings a unique perspective on systems of technology, business, and people.

    @lrnrd View Lena’s profile

Table Talks

How can I tell if my team is doing well?

+ More

Table talks: How can I tell if my team is doing well?

Join facilitated group conversations with other leaders on:

How can I tell if my team is doing well?

  • FEATURING
    Martha Moniz
    Senior Engineering Manager Intercom

    Martha Moniz is a Senior Engineering Manager experienced in leading high-performing, healthy and inclusive cross-functional teams. Passionate about people, supporting their career development and prioritising their fulfilment so they have room to be their best selves and achieve outstanding work.

    @marthmoniz View Martha’s profile
  • Laura Tacho
    Engineering Leadership CoachLaura Tacho Consulting

    Laura Tacho is a technology leader with a successful track record leading engineering and product development teams at companies like CloudBees, Aula Education, and Nova Credit. ​As a VP of Engineering and now as engineering leadership coach, she’s on a mission to equip engineering leaders with the confidence and skills they need to build high-performing teams that consistently deliver, without compromising authenticity, equality, and inclusion. Having spent most of her career in developer tools and distributed systems, Laura enjoys debugging systems of infrastructure as well as systems of people.

    LinkedIn View Laura’s profile

Complete your “Voltron Quest”

+ More

Complete your “Voltron Quest”

Inspired by Lara Hogan’s Manager Voltron, meet other leaders to build your peer network at LeadDev London.

  • FEATURING
    Marcus Gardiner
    Technical LeadSoftwire

    Marcus’ first career was in Business Strategy and Operations. Despite a successful-seeming career, Marcus felt he was only scratching the surface of interests in technology and psychology. In 2017 he won a coding competition for a tuition-free place at Makers Academy and secured funding to research Digital Mental Healthcare with the Churchill Fellowship. Marcus is now a Technical Lead and People Development lead at Softwire.

    He loves working with technology and people to solve commercial business problems, such as how audiences engage with the BBC and how to better match blood cancer patients with bone marrow donors at Anthony Nolan.

    Twitter View Marcus’s profile

Table Talks

Join facilitated group conversations with other leaders

+ More

Table talks: How do you write documentation that people actually read

Join facilitated group conversations with other leaders on:

How do you write documentation that people actually read

Meet the author

Bring a book and get it signed – or just have a chat.

+ More

Meet the author

Bring a book and get it signed – or just have a chat.

  • FEATURING
    Andrew Harmel-Law
    Technical PrincipalThoughtworks

    A Tech Principal at Thoughtworks and author and online trainer for O’Reilly, Andrew specialises in Java / JVM technologies, agile delivery, build tools and automation, and domain driven design.

    Experienced across the software development lifecycle and in many sectors what motivates him is the efficient delivery of large-scale software solutions, fulfilling complex user needs. He understands that people, architecture, process and tooling all have key roles to play in achieving this. Andrew has a passion for open source software and its communities. He has been involved with OSS to a greater or lesser extent since his career began; as a user, contributor, expert group member, or paid advocate – most famously as one of the Jenkins JobDSL originators.

    Andrew enjoys sharing his experience as much as possible. This sharing is not only seen in his formal consulting engagements, but also informally through mentoring, books, online training, blog posts, conferences (speaking and organising), and open-sourcing his code.  His next book “Facilitating Software Architecture” is making its way onto the internet, a chapter at a time. (Check it out at https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/facilitating-software-architecture/9781098151850/)

    @al94781 View Andrew’s profile
10:50–11:35

Refreshments

Network, learn and explore during every break

Office hours

+ More

Office hours

Chat with the speakers face-to-face in a relaxed, conversational environment.

  • FEATURING
    Renee Hunt
    CTOCompare the Market
    View Renee’s profile
  • Scott Carey
    Editor in ChiefLeadDev

    Scott Carey is the Editor in Chief at LeadDev. An experienced technology journalist, he has covered software development for Computerworld, CIO, and InfoWorld before joining LeadDev.

    @scarey102 View Scott’s profile
  • Kristen Foster-Marks
    Head of Developer ExperienceDepot

    Kristen Foster-Marks is passionate about applying evidence-based science to help software teams learn, work, and thrive. She combines eight years in software development and engineering leadership with extensive knowledge in learning science, pedagogy, and classroom-based research to develop innovative workshops, interventions, and curricula that promote effective behavior change on software teams. Kristen actively contributes to the engineering community by writing articles and giving conference talks, aiming to demystify empirical research on software teams for those best equipped to utilize its insights.

    @KFosterMarks View Kristen’s profile
  • Lena Reinhard
    Engineering Leadership & Executive Coach

    Lena Reinhard has dedicated her career to building successful, high-performing globally distributed engineering organisations, and helping teams thrive in times of high change like hypergrowth. She now offers transformational leadership coaching and consulting for leaders.

    Previously, Lena served as VP Engineering with CircleCI and Travis CI, as well as a startup co-founder & CEO, and through her cross-functional background and experience, she brings a unique perspective on systems of technology, business, and people.

    @lrnrd View Lena’s profile

Table Talks

How can I tell if my team is doing well?

+ More

Table talks: How can I tell if my team is doing well?

Join facilitated group conversations with other leaders on:

How can I tell if my team is doing well?

  • FEATURING
    Martha Moniz
    Senior Engineering Manager Intercom

    Martha Moniz is a Senior Engineering Manager experienced in leading high-performing, healthy and inclusive cross-functional teams. Passionate about people, supporting their career development and prioritising their fulfilment so they have room to be their best selves and achieve outstanding work.

    @marthmoniz View Martha’s profile
  • Laura Tacho
    Engineering Leadership CoachLaura Tacho Consulting

    Laura Tacho is a technology leader with a successful track record leading engineering and product development teams at companies like CloudBees, Aula Education, and Nova Credit. ​As a VP of Engineering and now as engineering leadership coach, she’s on a mission to equip engineering leaders with the confidence and skills they need to build high-performing teams that consistently deliver, without compromising authenticity, equality, and inclusion. Having spent most of her career in developer tools and distributed systems, Laura enjoys debugging systems of infrastructure as well as systems of people.

    LinkedIn View Laura’s profile

Complete your “Voltron Quest”

+ More

Complete your “Voltron Quest”

Inspired by Lara Hogan’s Manager Voltron, meet other leaders to build your peer network at LeadDev London.

  • FEATURING
    Marcus Gardiner
    Technical LeadSoftwire

    Marcus’ first career was in Business Strategy and Operations. Despite a successful-seeming career, Marcus felt he was only scratching the surface of interests in technology and psychology. In 2017 he won a coding competition for a tuition-free place at Makers Academy and secured funding to research Digital Mental Healthcare with the Churchill Fellowship. Marcus is now a Technical Lead and People Development lead at Softwire.

    He loves working with technology and people to solve commercial business problems, such as how audiences engage with the BBC and how to better match blood cancer patients with bone marrow donors at Anthony Nolan.

    Twitter View Marcus’s profile

Table Talks

Join facilitated group conversations with other leaders

+ More

Table talks: How do you write documentation that people actually read

Join facilitated group conversations with other leaders on:

How do you write documentation that people actually read

Meet the author

Bring a book and get it signed – or just have a chat.

+ More

Meet the author

Bring a book and get it signed – or just have a chat.

  • FEATURING
    Andrew Harmel-Law
    Technical PrincipalThoughtworks

    A Tech Principal at Thoughtworks and author and online trainer for O’Reilly, Andrew specialises in Java / JVM technologies, agile delivery, build tools and automation, and domain driven design.

    Experienced across the software development lifecycle and in many sectors what motivates him is the efficient delivery of large-scale software solutions, fulfilling complex user needs. He understands that people, architecture, process and tooling all have key roles to play in achieving this. Andrew has a passion for open source software and its communities. He has been involved with OSS to a greater or lesser extent since his career began; as a user, contributor, expert group member, or paid advocate – most famously as one of the Jenkins JobDSL originators.

    Andrew enjoys sharing his experience as much as possible. This sharing is not only seen in his formal consulting engagements, but also informally through mentoring, books, online training, blog posts, conferences (speaking and organising), and open-sourcing his code.  His next book “Facilitating Software Architecture” is making its way onto the internet, a chapter at a time. (Check it out at https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/facilitating-software-architecture/9781098151850/)

    @al94781 View Andrew’s profile
11:35

Tech debt as innovation, reframing this forever problem as an opportunity

  • Engineering Director, Product Platform Systems Netflix
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Tech debt as innovation, reframing this forever problem as an opportunity

Tech Debt is a natural by-product of software engineering, yet we, in the software industry, don’t attack it with the same excitement or fervor as we do with product innovation or feature development.

What if we could change that narrative? What if we looked at tech debt as a vehicle for novel innovation, growth for your best engineers, and managing it became a competitive advantage? In this talk, I’ll discuss how we’re reframing technical debt at Netflix and what we’re investing in to help manage it better.

  • FEATURING
    Bruce Wang
    Engineering Director, Product Platform Systems Netflix

     

    Bruce has been an engineering leader for 15+ years, and currently an Engineering Director, Product Platform Systems at Netflix. The team creates a unified abstraction and aggregation layer over disparate Netflix mid-tier systems, enabling device teams to build innovative user experiences through a consistent API layer. On the consumer side they enable signup, content discovery, and partner experiences on 1000+ device types, and on the studio side, they maintain a federated GraphQL service that powers dozens of internal applications that enable Netflix’s global studio functions.

    Prior to that, he was the Sr Director of Eng at Shippo, VPE at Packet and CTO, Co-founder or Eng Leader at various startups and enterprises. He is also a serious foodie and resides in San Francisco with his wife and two daughters.

    @batmany13 View Bruce’s profile
12:05

From overload to oasis: Creating more time for the cool stuff

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From overload to oasis: Creating more time for the cool stuff

Tired of being overloaded with monotonous tasks? Craving more time for the ‘cool stuff’? You’re not alone.

As many organisations and teams enjoy the trialled comforts of hierarchy, all the responsibility tends to fall on the shoulders of leads, leaving them drowning in meetings and all kinds of ‘been there, done that’ tasks. Meanwhile, talented juniors never catch a glimpse of these new opportunities. Eager for more responsibility and exposure, yet struggling to find it, they can feel similarly stuck in their own search for more ‘cool’ bits in the day-to-day. 

So if half of us are lulled into overload and the other half frantically looking for more ways to contribute then is it time for change? 

If you’re ready to shift your team dynamics then join me for this talk. You’ll leave with actionable strategies on how to lighten your workload whilst genuinely empowering your team members and helping them grow. Instil confidence, create a safe environment and elevate your leadership. Less burnout, more contentment and way more time for the cool stuff! From overload to oasis, in under 10mins. It’s a win-win 🚀
12:15

Managing across timezones; A retrospective

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Managing across timezones; A retrospective

In 2020, Cloudflare moved from being an in office company to 100% remote. This changed the way we work completely.

As an Engineering Manager, I am responsible for managing 12 engineers across two different teams in 4 different timezones (SF, London, Austin and New York). Over the past two years we have experimented (and continue to experiment) with various processes and ways of working to maximise our ability to work collaboratively, deliver incrementally and build team rapport; even when we can’t be in the same room. 

This talk will be a retrospective of that journey. We will explore what worked, what didn’t and what were trying next.

  • FEATURING
    Matt Northam
    Senior Front-End DeveloperPulselive

    Matt is a front-end developer, with an emphasis on the front, and a particular interest in learning about how people use digital things. He started making websites in the 1990’s, around the same time that he started being a rapper. Only one of those hobbies became a viable career.

    As well as his work in digital agencies across South West England, Matt has worked in a range of educational settings from primary age to master’s level, hoping to pass on what he’s learnt, and more importantly trying to instil a love of the Wu-Tang Clan in today’s youth.

    @mattnortham View Matt’s profile
12:30

Building for the new developer

  • VP of Research Insights & Director of Developer Success Lab, Flow Pluralsight Flow
+ More

Building for the new developer

So we’ve bought a Copilot license for our teams….AI in software solved, right?!

Well, in the Developer Success Lab – an empirical research lab studying the social science of developers and their wellbeing — we went on a journey in 2023 to understand something a little different about AI and software work: how developers are being impacted by changing expectations happening across the world of software development, and what leaders can do to help them. 

In this talk, I want to share the research story of our large-scale study into the social science of genAI adoption as we fought to bring a human-centered approach to pressing questions that engineering organizations are facing about the rapidly-changing possibilities of AI-assisted coding. 

In this talk, I’ll share our original empirical research findings from 3000+ software engineers and developers across 12+ industries engaged in the transition to generative AI-assisted software work. How are developers impacted by changing demands on their roles? Where might there be emerging equity & opportunity gaps in who has access to these new development capabilities? What are the risks to the quality of technical work, and the developer productivity, thriving, and motivation which drive that technical work? Along with rich data and important insights about the current state of genAI adoption, we learned that what developers are grappling with goes far deeper than flipping the switch on a new tool: by measuring key beliefs about where programming ability comes from and who is seen as “brilliant,” we gathered empirical evidence about how to explain why teams thrive and others flail during this transition.

 Along the way, I’ll share the adventure of doing science on an innovative topic under high scrutiny – the choices we made as scientists about what to study and what to measure, including how using community-based methods to amplify diverse, underrepresented voices on tech gives us access to remarkable, incisive insights about how we use AI. Our research has found important risks and emerging equity gaps in how developers are experiencing the transition to AI, but also highlights the teams already creating resilience in this transition. 

Despite the uncertainty of technological transition, moments of change are also a transformational opportunity to examine our shared definitions of success, productivity, and knowledge work. Despite the upheaval of changing technical work, developers’ core skills of lifelong learning and collaboration are key strengths that engineering managers can leverage to sustain innovative teams.

  • FEATURING
    Cat Hicks
    VP of Research Insights & Director of Developer Success Lab, FlowPluralsight Flow

    As the VP of Research Insights and the Director of the Developer Success Lab at Pluralsight Flow, Cat Hicks studies the science of how developer teams learn and thrive. Cat is a social science leader in tech with expertise leading applied research teams to explore complex areas of human behavior, empirical intervention, and evidence science. Cat serves on the Advisory Council of the University of San Diego Center for Digital Civil Society, as a research affiliate in STEM education research at UC San Diego, and as an advocate for increasing education access. She holds a Ph.D. in Quantitative Experimental Psychology from UC San Diego, was an inaugural Fellow in the UC San Diego Design Lab, and has led research at organizations such as Google and Khan Academy.

    View Cat’s profile
11:35

The engineering leader’s playbook: A hands-on guide to DORA

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The engineering leader’s playbook: A hands-on guide to DORA

As engineering leaders, your success is the success of your teams. While success can take many forms, a key indicator is how effectively and quickly your team can deliver on its goals and ship software.

But with so many variables that contribute to how successful a team is – how can you work out what to change to move the needle? And what should you be measuring in the first place?

Ready to go beyond theory and get practical? This workshop dives deep into DORA, showing you exactly how to apply data-driven insights in your real-world environment to identify bottlenecks, measure progress, and drive continuous improvement. From selecting key performance indicators to fostering a culture of learning, you’ll walk away with actionable strategies to boost your team’s velocity, reduce time to market, and achieve your goals.
11:35

How to deal with the “technical” in “technical leadership”

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How to deal with the “technical” in “technical leadership”

How technical do technical leaders have to be? Are you worried that you’re too hands-on, or not hands-on enough? Are you exhausting yourself trying to keep up with every technical detail in your domain?

Sometimes individual contributors are promoted to leadership positions and worry that they won’t be as hands-on as they used to be. Sometimes they worry that they no longer have time to stay up to date with modern technology and/or the state of their team’s code base(s). Sometimes it’s the other way around: Somebody who has never been hands-on in the technical realm is given a leadership position, and worries they’re “not technical enough”.

Whatever your position, this workshop will help you overcome your worries and figure out the best attitude and approach for you and your circumstances. 

Takeaways: 

  • How to embrace the difference between individual contributor and technical leader
  • How to take a step back from “knowing all the things”
  • How to make the most of the knowledge and experience of your team
  • How to identify when technical knowledge matters and when it doesn’t
  • How to learn the things you need to know
  • FEATURING
    Clare Sudbery
    Independent Technical CoachSudbery Software Engineering Ltd

    Clare Sudbery is an independent technical coach with 22 years of software engineering experience. She specialises in TDD, refactoring and other XP practices.

    Twelve years ago Clare abandoned IT to retrain as a high school maths teacher… but quickly returned to software, gaining new energy via Extreme Programming. Up until very recently she co-ran Made Tech’s academy programme, coaching inexperienced engineers to learn on the job. She has a passion for helping under-represented groups to flourish in tech.

    Clare hosts the acclaimed Making Tech Better podcast, and publishes notes and scribbles at medium.com/a-woman-in-technology, tinyurl.com/clare-wiki and insimpleterms.blog. Follow on Twitter: @claresudbery

     

    @ClareSudbery View Clare’s profile
13:00–14:25

Lunch & hallway track

Network, learn and explore during every break

Office Hours

Chat with the speakers face-to-face in a relaxed, conversational environment.

+ More

Office Hours

Chat with the speakers face-to-face in a relaxed, conversational environment.

  • FEATURING
    Matt Boyle
    Engineering ManagerCloudflare

    Meet Dom, a dynamic full stack web engineer passionate about product, performance, and security. As a confident mid-weight developer, she enjoys sharing her knowledge with others and always manages a steady stream of new ideas, eager to revolutionise the tech game. Dom loves a challenge and constantly seeks new opportunities, currently undertaking a part-time master’s degree in AI.

    Matt Boyle View Matt’s profile
  • Cat Hicks
    VP of Research Insights & Director of Developer Success Lab, FlowPluralsight Flow

    As the VP of Research Insights and the Director of the Developer Success Lab at Pluralsight Flow, Cat Hicks studies the science of how developer teams learn and thrive. Cat is a social science leader in tech with expertise leading applied research teams to explore complex areas of human behavior, empirical intervention, and evidence science. Cat serves on the Advisory Council of the University of San Diego Center for Digital Civil Society, as a research affiliate in STEM education research at UC San Diego, and as an advocate for increasing education access. She holds a Ph.D. in Quantitative Experimental Psychology from UC San Diego, was an inaugural Fellow in the UC San Diego Design Lab, and has led research at organizations such as Google and Khan Academy.

    View Cat’s profile
  • Bruce Wang
    Engineering Director, Product Platform Systems Netflix

     

    Bruce has been an engineering leader for 15+ years, and currently an Engineering Director, Product Platform Systems at Netflix. The team creates a unified abstraction and aggregation layer over disparate Netflix mid-tier systems, enabling device teams to build innovative user experiences through a consistent API layer. On the consumer side they enable signup, content discovery, and partner experiences on 1000+ device types, and on the studio side, they maintain a federated GraphQL service that powers dozens of internal applications that enable Netflix’s global studio functions.

    Prior to that, he was the Sr Director of Eng at Shippo, VPE at Packet and CTO, Co-founder or Eng Leader at various startups and enterprises. He is also a serious foodie and resides in San Francisco with his wife and two daughters.

    @batmany13 View Bruce’s profile

Table talks: How do you know where to focus your attention as a staff+ leader?

Join facilitated conversations with other leaders

+ More

Table talks: How do you know where to focus your attention as a staff+ leader?

Join facilitated conversations on:

How do you know where to focus your attention as a staff+ leader?

Community Representation Groups: People with disabilities

Connect with other leaders with similar backgrounds and experiences to you, and build a peer network for support throughout your leadership journey.

+ More

Community Representation Groups: People with disabilities

Connect with other leaders with similar backgrounds and experiences to you, and build a peer network for support throughout your leadership journey. 

  • FEATURING
    Sally Lait
    Engineering Director – Safety & Trust. Bumble

    Sally Lait specialises in building strong engineering culture, and aims to create supportive and inclusive environments for managers, developers, and teams to thrive and do fantastic technical work.

    Her roles have included helping to change the way the world deals with death as VP of Engineering (plus IT & Data and Insights) at Farewill, prior to which she led Monzo’s web discipline and engineering across Operations through hypergrowth. Other experience involves founding a digital transformation consultancy with clients including the Manor Racing F1 team and RNLI, and working as Head of Technology for a global digital agency.
    Sally’s a strong advocate for building software and teams alike with empathy, responsibility, and accessibility in mind. She’s spoken at events around the world, is on Mastodon at @https://mastodon.social/@sally, and you can find out more about her at sally.dev.

    @sallylait View Sally’s profile

Career next steps Q&A

Dedicated sessions on how to take the next step in your career

+ More

Career next steps Q&A

Dedicated sessions on how to take the next step in your career for:

Tackling the role of Tech Lead

  • FEATURING
    Michael Tempest
    Senior Engineering Team LeadSpendesk

    Michael is a Senior Engineering Team Lead at Spendesk. He is passionate about getting people to work in the best way for them, and encouraging trust and open honest communication. He often pushes changes and experiments to test and learn quickly how a team should work, and makes sure the team are invested and feeding into those changes throughout the journey.

    In his free time, Michael enjoys listening to music, tinkering with new tech and watching movies/anime with his family.

    View Michael ‘s profile
  • Humayra Hanif
    Lead Software Engineerthisdotsoftware

    With a decade of experience as a software engineer, Humayra has established herself as a Lead Software Engineer while concurrently co-founding Hulm Club – a Muslim-focussed community of visionaries and innovators.

    She has navigated various roles in engineering leadership at startups, accumulating extensive expertise along the way. Her expertise spans various sectors including finance, data, health, and retail marketing, where she has led teams to consistently deliver innovative solutions.

    Outside of her professional pursuits, Humayra actively engages as a writer, speaker, and mentor, contributing to the growth and diversity of the tech community. Her overarching objective remains focused on leveraging technology to drive positive change on a global scale.

    @HumayraHanif View Humayra’s profile
  • Lisa Karlin Curtis
    Software Engineerincident.io

    Lisa started out as a consultant working with HMRC and then smart meters, before accidentally becoming a developer.

    She worked as a tech lead at GoCardless and has recently joined as employee #2 at incident.io, providing tooling to help your whole organization manage incidents better. She loves building stuff, but is also really interested in how people interact with each other in a work environment – particularly in software engineering.

    Having seen the ‘old way’ at Accenture (large-scale waterfall projects), she’s now looking at taking the lessons from that environment to the start-up scene.

    @paprikati_eng View Lisa’s profile

Speed coaching

Watch or participate in free 1:1 coaching

+ More

Speed coaching

  • FEATURING
    Mathias Meyer
    Founding PartnerThe Intentional Organization

    Mathias is founding partner at The Intentional Organization and executive coach to founders, CTOs, and senior engineering leaders. He supports his clients and their leadership teams in their personal and professional growth as they’re scaling out their business and their departments. Together with his business partner Sara, he’s co-authoring the forthcoming book “The Intentional Organization.” Starting his career as an engineer, Mathias has later worked in founder, CEO, and CTO roles across different companies, including Travis CI and Reaction Commerce.

    Mathias Meyer View Mathias’s profile

Meet the author

Bring a book and get it signed – or just have a chat.

+ More

Meet the author

Bring a book and get it signed – or just have a chat.

Table talks: How do you build an effective, human-centred on-call process?

Join facilitated group conversations with other leaders

+ More

Table talks: How do you build an effective, human-centred on-call process?

Join facilitated conversations on:

How do you build an effective, human-centred on-call process?

  • FEATURING
    Tatsiana Mihai
    Staff Engineer Tractable

    Tatsiana Mihai, a skilled Staff Engineer at Tractable, brings over 12 years of expertise in crafting sophisticated software solutions across diverse industries—Automotive, AdTech, Education, Travel, E-commerce, and Gaming. As a leader with diverse capabilities, she excels not only in developing customer-facing products and nuanced software design but also in transforming challenges into successes. Tatsiana’s visionary approach, coupled with her adept problem-solving, is complemented by a unique ability to integrate engineering practices seamlessly with team management strategies. From startups to industry giants, her strategic decisions reflect a commitment to excellence and innovation in every venture.

    Tan––Tan View Tatsiana ‘s profile
  • Alicia Collymore
    Engineering Manager incident.io

    Alicia has been an engineering managing for over 2 years, with experience working in many different industries, from biotech where she lead a team of molecular biologist to fintech where she helped build out the pay later space. Alicia is currently an EM at incident.io, who build software to help companies manage incidents more easily, helping her teams to get shit done and have fun doing it.

    View Alicia ‘s profile

Community Representation Groups: Women

Connect with other leaders with similar backgrounds and experiences to you, and build a peer network for support throughout your leadership journey.

+ More

Community Representation Groups: Women

Connect with other leaders with similar backgrounds and experiences to you, and build a peer network for support throughout your leadership journey. 

  • FEATURING
    Anastasia Lopez
    Engineering LeadUnmind

    Anastasia is an Engineering Lead currently working at Unmind. She is passionate about people and building teams that have a great psychological safety. She is also a public speaker and likes bringing the human side to technology conferences.

    @AnastasiaLopezD View Anastasia’s profile
13:00–14:25

Lunch & hallway track

Network, learn and explore during every break

Office Hours

Chat with the speakers face-to-face in a relaxed, conversational environment.

+ More

Office Hours

Chat with the speakers face-to-face in a relaxed, conversational environment.

  • FEATURING
    Matt Boyle
    Engineering ManagerCloudflare

    Meet Dom, a dynamic full stack web engineer passionate about product, performance, and security. As a confident mid-weight developer, she enjoys sharing her knowledge with others and always manages a steady stream of new ideas, eager to revolutionise the tech game. Dom loves a challenge and constantly seeks new opportunities, currently undertaking a part-time master’s degree in AI.

    Matt Boyle View Matt’s profile
  • Cat Hicks
    VP of Research Insights & Director of Developer Success Lab, FlowPluralsight Flow

    As the VP of Research Insights and the Director of the Developer Success Lab at Pluralsight Flow, Cat Hicks studies the science of how developer teams learn and thrive. Cat is a social science leader in tech with expertise leading applied research teams to explore complex areas of human behavior, empirical intervention, and evidence science. Cat serves on the Advisory Council of the University of San Diego Center for Digital Civil Society, as a research affiliate in STEM education research at UC San Diego, and as an advocate for increasing education access. She holds a Ph.D. in Quantitative Experimental Psychology from UC San Diego, was an inaugural Fellow in the UC San Diego Design Lab, and has led research at organizations such as Google and Khan Academy.

    View Cat’s profile
  • Bruce Wang
    Engineering Director, Product Platform Systems Netflix

     

    Bruce has been an engineering leader for 15+ years, and currently an Engineering Director, Product Platform Systems at Netflix. The team creates a unified abstraction and aggregation layer over disparate Netflix mid-tier systems, enabling device teams to build innovative user experiences through a consistent API layer. On the consumer side they enable signup, content discovery, and partner experiences on 1000+ device types, and on the studio side, they maintain a federated GraphQL service that powers dozens of internal applications that enable Netflix’s global studio functions.

    Prior to that, he was the Sr Director of Eng at Shippo, VPE at Packet and CTO, Co-founder or Eng Leader at various startups and enterprises. He is also a serious foodie and resides in San Francisco with his wife and two daughters.

    @batmany13 View Bruce’s profile

Table talks: How do you know where to focus your attention as a staff+ leader?

Join facilitated conversations with other leaders

+ More

Table talks: How do you know where to focus your attention as a staff+ leader?

Join facilitated conversations on:

How do you know where to focus your attention as a staff+ leader?

Community Representation Groups: People with disabilities

Connect with other leaders with similar backgrounds and experiences to you, and build a peer network for support throughout your leadership journey.

+ More

Community Representation Groups: People with disabilities

Connect with other leaders with similar backgrounds and experiences to you, and build a peer network for support throughout your leadership journey. 

  • FEATURING
    Sally Lait
    Engineering Director – Safety & Trust. Bumble

    Sally Lait specialises in building strong engineering culture, and aims to create supportive and inclusive environments for managers, developers, and teams to thrive and do fantastic technical work.

    Her roles have included helping to change the way the world deals with death as VP of Engineering (plus IT & Data and Insights) at Farewill, prior to which she led Monzo’s web discipline and engineering across Operations through hypergrowth. Other experience involves founding a digital transformation consultancy with clients including the Manor Racing F1 team and RNLI, and working as Head of Technology for a global digital agency.
    Sally’s a strong advocate for building software and teams alike with empathy, responsibility, and accessibility in mind. She’s spoken at events around the world, is on Mastodon at @https://mastodon.social/@sally, and you can find out more about her at sally.dev.

    @sallylait View Sally’s profile

Career next steps Q&A

Dedicated sessions on how to take the next step in your career

+ More

Career next steps Q&A

Dedicated sessions on how to take the next step in your career for:

Tackling the role of Tech Lead

  • FEATURING
    Michael Tempest
    Senior Engineering Team LeadSpendesk

    Michael is a Senior Engineering Team Lead at Spendesk. He is passionate about getting people to work in the best way for them, and encouraging trust and open honest communication. He often pushes changes and experiments to test and learn quickly how a team should work, and makes sure the team are invested and feeding into those changes throughout the journey.

    In his free time, Michael enjoys listening to music, tinkering with new tech and watching movies/anime with his family.

    View Michael ‘s profile
  • Humayra Hanif
    Lead Software Engineerthisdotsoftware

    With a decade of experience as a software engineer, Humayra has established herself as a Lead Software Engineer while concurrently co-founding Hulm Club – a Muslim-focussed community of visionaries and innovators.

    She has navigated various roles in engineering leadership at startups, accumulating extensive expertise along the way. Her expertise spans various sectors including finance, data, health, and retail marketing, where she has led teams to consistently deliver innovative solutions.

    Outside of her professional pursuits, Humayra actively engages as a writer, speaker, and mentor, contributing to the growth and diversity of the tech community. Her overarching objective remains focused on leveraging technology to drive positive change on a global scale.

    @HumayraHanif View Humayra’s profile
  • Lisa Karlin Curtis
    Software Engineerincident.io

    Lisa started out as a consultant working with HMRC and then smart meters, before accidentally becoming a developer.

    She worked as a tech lead at GoCardless and has recently joined as employee #2 at incident.io, providing tooling to help your whole organization manage incidents better. She loves building stuff, but is also really interested in how people interact with each other in a work environment – particularly in software engineering.

    Having seen the ‘old way’ at Accenture (large-scale waterfall projects), she’s now looking at taking the lessons from that environment to the start-up scene.

    @paprikati_eng View Lisa’s profile

Speed coaching

Watch or participate in free 1:1 coaching

+ More

Speed coaching

  • FEATURING
    Mathias Meyer
    Founding PartnerThe Intentional Organization

    Mathias is founding partner at The Intentional Organization and executive coach to founders, CTOs, and senior engineering leaders. He supports his clients and their leadership teams in their personal and professional growth as they’re scaling out their business and their departments. Together with his business partner Sara, he’s co-authoring the forthcoming book “The Intentional Organization.” Starting his career as an engineer, Mathias has later worked in founder, CEO, and CTO roles across different companies, including Travis CI and Reaction Commerce.

    Mathias Meyer View Mathias’s profile

Meet the author

Bring a book and get it signed – or just have a chat.

+ More

Meet the author

Bring a book and get it signed – or just have a chat.

Table talks: How do you build an effective, human-centred on-call process?

Join facilitated group conversations with other leaders

+ More

Table talks: How do you build an effective, human-centred on-call process?

Join facilitated conversations on:

How do you build an effective, human-centred on-call process?

  • FEATURING
    Tatsiana Mihai
    Staff Engineer Tractable

    Tatsiana Mihai, a skilled Staff Engineer at Tractable, brings over 12 years of expertise in crafting sophisticated software solutions across diverse industries—Automotive, AdTech, Education, Travel, E-commerce, and Gaming. As a leader with diverse capabilities, she excels not only in developing customer-facing products and nuanced software design but also in transforming challenges into successes. Tatsiana’s visionary approach, coupled with her adept problem-solving, is complemented by a unique ability to integrate engineering practices seamlessly with team management strategies. From startups to industry giants, her strategic decisions reflect a commitment to excellence and innovation in every venture.

    Tan––Tan View Tatsiana ‘s profile
  • Alicia Collymore
    Engineering Manager incident.io

    Alicia has been an engineering managing for over 2 years, with experience working in many different industries, from biotech where she lead a team of molecular biologist to fintech where she helped build out the pay later space. Alicia is currently an EM at incident.io, who build software to help companies manage incidents more easily, helping her teams to get shit done and have fun doing it.

    View Alicia ‘s profile

Community Representation Groups: Women

Connect with other leaders with similar backgrounds and experiences to you, and build a peer network for support throughout your leadership journey.

+ More

Community Representation Groups: Women

Connect with other leaders with similar backgrounds and experiences to you, and build a peer network for support throughout your leadership journey. 

  • FEATURING
    Anastasia Lopez
    Engineering LeadUnmind

    Anastasia is an Engineering Lead currently working at Unmind. She is passionate about people and building teams that have a great psychological safety. She is also a public speaker and likes bringing the human side to technology conferences.

    @AnastasiaLopezD View Anastasia’s profile
14:25

Demystifying neurodiversity in tech with nostalgic video games

+ More

Demystifying neurodiversity in tech with nostalgic video games

What happens when great minds DON’T think alike?

Most of already know that diverse teams are more productive and build better tech products. But Neurodiversity is still relatively new to the conversation when talking about DEI in the workplace. Since the prevalence of Neurodivergence in tech is almost double that of the general population, technical leaders have a position of power and responsibility to consciously build neuroinclusive environments. 

In this talk, you’ll learn about a DEI topic in a way that you’ve never seen before. Parul will be taking you on a trip down memory lane to learn about Neurodiversity in technical leadership through concepts from nostalgic video games such as Mario, Pacman and Tetris. She’ll use case studies to demonstrate different scenarios faced by technical leaders and best practices to support and embrace neurodiversity in the workplace.
14:55

How to use technology radars to make transparent tech decisions

+ More

How to use technology radars to make transparent tech decisions

The Community Health Toolkit (CHT) supports a vast range of open-source tools, features, and health service activities.

Through the technical stewardship provided for the CHT, Medic is committed to ensuring the tools stay updated with the newest technologies, techniques, innovations, and industry improvements to serve the community better. 

To bring transparency and enhance visibility and clarity on the technology choices, the technological strategy, and the available features and tools, the CHT leverages a framework called Technology Radar. 

A Technology Radar provides an easy-to-grasp visual representation of tools, languages, frameworks, platforms, and techniques, as well as features and functionalities available for use to build the CHT. Additionally, the Technology Radar provides a degree of adoption and guidelines on using (or not using) a particular technology with the CHT. 

Human-Centered Design (HCD) is important at Medic and building out technology radars is no exception. In this case that shows in the form of two radars, each designed specifically for the needs of the technologists using it. Those are a CHT Technology Radar for Implementers and a CHT Technology Radar for Contributors. Both versions leverage existing open-source tools by ThoughtWorks and AOE to implement the user interface; the difference is in the content and anticipated collaborators. Due to Medic’s commitment to open-source, all the content of the Technology Radars is public on GitHub and open to the community to provide comments and suggestions. 

The talk centers around the benefits of building such a tool, such as transparency, alignment and faster onboarding.
15:05

Delivery metrics – the good, the bad and the utterly ridiculous

+ More

Delivery metrics – the good, the bad and the utterly ridiculous

As an engineering team lead, I spent countless hours pouring over data points, spreadsheets, and graphs in search of the perfect set of metrics to measure our team’s success.

I’ve scrutinised burndown charts, velocity reports, and defect density metrics, searching for insights that will help us deliver more value to our customers in less time. But as a member of the development team, I’ve also experienced the frustration of being reduced to a set of numbers, and the pressure to meet arbitrary targets that don’t necessarily reflect the reality of our work. During this talk we’ll examine how an over-reliance on metrics can be exploited by both developers and managers for status, power and $$$$. And for the less cynical, how a sensible approach to measuring things can actually make a team work better. 
14:25

The new developer: Help your engineering org navigate issues of trust, agency and skill threat as they adopt generative AI

+ More

The new developer: Help your engineering org navigate issues of trust, agency and skill threat as they adopt generative AI

With the advent of Generative AI, the role of the software engineer sits at the edge of drastic transformation. Many have embraced this transformation, leaning into the adoption of AI-assisted coding tools.

However, many developers are still struggling to adopt AI tools in their day-to-day development process – partially due to AI Skill  Threat: when developers fear that the skills that have contributed to their success as code writers may become obsolete, thus threatening their identities as software practitioners.

In our research, 45% of developers reported AI skill threats. We also found that developers are poised and eager to address the threat they’re feeling, with 74% of developers reporting that they plan to actively upskill in AI-assisted coding tools and technologies.

In this workshop, we’ll tackle AI adoption inside engineering organisations head-on and help today’s technology leaders adopt AI-assisted coding tools and practices in a human-centred and evidence-based way. We’ll walk you through our Generative AI Adoption Toolkit – which comes complete with a benchmarking assessment adapted from our research – that allows organisations and teams to first benchmark their AI adoption readiness, and then respond appropriately to it with tools that allow you to meet your teams and engineers where they’re at in their AI adoption journey.

By the end of the session, you’ll walk away with an understanding of how your  engineering organisation can adapt to this new world of AI-assisted knowledge work in a way that protects the human intelligence of your organisation while preserving it.

  • FEATURING
    Carol Lee
    Principal ScientistDeveloper Success Lab

    Dr. Carol Lee leverages her deep scientific and clinical expertise in how people cope and thrive through stressful circumstances to develop empirically tested interventions and conduct scientific research for developers. She is a principal scientist at Pluralsight’s Developer Success Lab, the lead behavioral strategist at Koehn Consulting, a research fellow at IBHRI, and the science advisor for Bravely Mental Health. She holds a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from UMass Boston.

    @carol_lee_phd View Carol’s profile
  • Kristen Foster-Marks
    Head of Developer ExperienceDepot

    Kristen Foster-Marks is passionate about applying evidence-based science to help software teams learn, work, and thrive. She combines eight years in software development and engineering leadership with extensive knowledge in learning science, pedagogy, and classroom-based research to develop innovative workshops, interventions, and curricula that promote effective behavior change on software teams. Kristen actively contributes to the engineering community by writing articles and giving conference talks, aiming to demystify empirical research on software teams for those best equipped to utilize its insights.

    @KFosterMarks View Kristen’s profile
14:25

Mastering managing, mentoring and coaching

+ More

Mastering managing, mentoring and coaching

Being an engineering leader requires many skills.

We have to know how to prioritize, manage work to deadlines and perhaps the hardest – lead others. Our role means a shift from doing to guiding and supporting. We must know when to manage, mentor or coach. When we use these modalities well we build capacity in the team, increasing our ability to meet organisational goals. Along with it, people feel valued, we strengthen our culture and create a workplace where people want to come to work.

In this mini-workshop, we’ll talk about the difference between each of these skills and how to know when to use them. You’ll learn three key coaching skills and have the opportunity to practice deciding which modality to use. You’ll walk away more confident in your ability to lead others.

  • FEATURING
    Suzan Bond
    Leadership ConsultantConstellary

    Suzan Bond is an executive coach and organizational strategist. A former COO for Travis CI, she coaches technology leaders. You can find Suzan on Twitter and at SuzanBond.com.

    @suzanbond View Suzan’s profile
15:50–16:35

Refreshments

Network, learn and explore during every break

Office Hours

Chat with the speakers face-to-face in a relaxed, conversational environment.

+ More

Office Hours

Chat with the speakers face-to-face in a relaxed, conversational environment.

Table talks

Join facilitated conversations on how to interpret engineering data in a holistic way.

+ More

Table talks

Join facilitated conversations on how to interpret engineering data in a holistic way.

Community Representation Groups: autistic

Connect with other leaders with similar backgrounds and experiences to you, and build a peer network for support throughout your leadership journey.

+ More

Community Representation Groups: autistic

Connect with other leaders with similar backgrounds and experiences to you, and build a peer network for support throughout your leadership journey. 

  • FEATURING
    Dennie Declercq
    President, Microsoft MVPDDSoft

    Dennie is Microsoft MVP Developer Technologies and has experience in accessibility with Microsoft technologies. In daily life Dennie is president and developer at DDSoft, a nonprofit that connects IT to People who are less tech-savvy. Dennie invented technical solutions and systems to help people with disabilities to participate in their daily life. Thanks to his autism he’s the right man at the right spot to contribute as a volunteer in function of people with disabilities.

    @DennieDeclercq View Dennie’s profile

Career next steps Q&A

Dedicated sessions on how to take the next step in your career

+ More

Career next steps Q&A

Dedicated sessions on how to take the next step in your career for:

Tackling the role of Tech Lead

  • FEATURING
    Michael Tempest
    Senior Engineering Team LeadSpendesk

    Michael is a Senior Engineering Team Lead at Spendesk. He is passionate about getting people to work in the best way for them, and encouraging trust and open honest communication. He often pushes changes and experiments to test and learn quickly how a team should work, and makes sure the team are invested and feeding into those changes throughout the journey.

    In his free time, Michael enjoys listening to music, tinkering with new tech and watching movies/anime with his family.

    View Michael ‘s profile
  • Humayra Hanif
    Lead Software Engineerthisdotsoftware

    With a decade of experience as a software engineer, Humayra has established herself as a Lead Software Engineer while concurrently co-founding Hulm Club – a Muslim-focussed community of visionaries and innovators.

    She has navigated various roles in engineering leadership at startups, accumulating extensive expertise along the way. Her expertise spans various sectors including finance, data, health, and retail marketing, where she has led teams to consistently deliver innovative solutions.

    Outside of her professional pursuits, Humayra actively engages as a writer, speaker, and mentor, contributing to the growth and diversity of the tech community. Her overarching objective remains focused on leveraging technology to drive positive change on a global scale.

    @HumayraHanif View Humayra’s profile
  • Lisa Karlin Curtis
    Software Engineerincident.io

    Lisa started out as a consultant working with HMRC and then smart meters, before accidentally becoming a developer.

    She worked as a tech lead at GoCardless and has recently joined as employee #2 at incident.io, providing tooling to help your whole organization manage incidents better. She loves building stuff, but is also really interested in how people interact with each other in a work environment – particularly in software engineering.

    Having seen the ‘old way’ at Accenture (large-scale waterfall projects), she’s now looking at taking the lessons from that environment to the start-up scene.

    @paprikati_eng View Lisa’s profile

Speed coaching

Watch or participate in free 1:1 coaching

+ More

Speed coaching

Watch or participate in free 1:1 coaching

  • FEATURING
    Mathias Meyer
    Founding PartnerThe Intentional Organization

    Mathias is founding partner at The Intentional Organization and executive coach to founders, CTOs, and senior engineering leaders. He supports his clients and their leadership teams in their personal and professional growth as they’re scaling out their business and their departments. Together with his business partner Sara, he’s co-authoring the forthcoming book “The Intentional Organization.” Starting his career as an engineer, Mathias has later worked in founder, CEO, and CTO roles across different companies, including Travis CI and Reaction Commerce.

    Mathias Meyer View Mathias’s profile
  • Lena Reinhard
    Engineering Leadership & Executive Coach

    Lena Reinhard has dedicated her career to building successful, high-performing globally distributed engineering organisations, and helping teams thrive in times of high change like hypergrowth. She now offers transformational leadership coaching and consulting for leaders.

    Previously, Lena served as VP Engineering with CircleCI and Travis CI, as well as a startup co-founder & CEO, and through her cross-functional background and experience, she brings a unique perspective on systems of technology, business, and people.

    @lrnrd View Lena’s profile

Solution Swap

Work together to find ways of solving a common problem posed by our moderator

+ More

Solution Swap

Work together to find ways of solving a common problem posed by our moderator.

My team is being asked to move faster, but we’re already flat out – what can I do?

  • FEATURING
    Joel Chippindale
    CTO CoachMonkey's Thumb

    Joel Chippindale is an Engineering Leadership Coach and Adviser. He has about 20 years experience building, scaling and leading software development teams, including CTO roles at Econsultancy, FutureLearn and Unmade.

    He values building inclusive, empowered, sustainable teams. He has experienced the challenges of nurturing the cultures, skills and practices that enable teams and individuals to achieve their full capabilities.

    Joel uses his experience, beliefs and skills to help organisations overcome the challenges they face in building more effective and inclusive software development teams.

    Joel Chippindale View Joel’s profile

Community Representation Groups: Black

Connect with other leaders with similar backgrounds and experiences to you, and build a peer network for support throughout your leadership journey. 

+ More

Community Representation Groups: Black

Connect with other leaders with similar backgrounds and experiences to you, and build a peer network for support throughout your leadership journey. 

Meet the Author

Bring a book and get it signed – or just have a chat.

+ More

Meet the Author

Bring a book and get it signed – or just have a chat.
15:50–16:35

Refreshments

Network, learn and explore during every break

Office Hours

Chat with the speakers face-to-face in a relaxed, conversational environment.

+ More

Office Hours

Chat with the speakers face-to-face in a relaxed, conversational environment.

Table talks

Join facilitated conversations on how to interpret engineering data in a holistic way.

+ More

Table talks

Join facilitated conversations on how to interpret engineering data in a holistic way.

Community Representation Groups: autistic

Connect with other leaders with similar backgrounds and experiences to you, and build a peer network for support throughout your leadership journey.

+ More

Community Representation Groups: autistic

Connect with other leaders with similar backgrounds and experiences to you, and build a peer network for support throughout your leadership journey. 

  • FEATURING
    Dennie Declercq
    President, Microsoft MVPDDSoft

    Dennie is Microsoft MVP Developer Technologies and has experience in accessibility with Microsoft technologies. In daily life Dennie is president and developer at DDSoft, a nonprofit that connects IT to People who are less tech-savvy. Dennie invented technical solutions and systems to help people with disabilities to participate in their daily life. Thanks to his autism he’s the right man at the right spot to contribute as a volunteer in function of people with disabilities.

    @DennieDeclercq View Dennie’s profile

Career next steps Q&A

Dedicated sessions on how to take the next step in your career

+ More

Career next steps Q&A

Dedicated sessions on how to take the next step in your career for:

Tackling the role of Tech Lead

  • FEATURING
    Michael Tempest
    Senior Engineering Team LeadSpendesk

    Michael is a Senior Engineering Team Lead at Spendesk. He is passionate about getting people to work in the best way for them, and encouraging trust and open honest communication. He often pushes changes and experiments to test and learn quickly how a team should work, and makes sure the team are invested and feeding into those changes throughout the journey.

    In his free time, Michael enjoys listening to music, tinkering with new tech and watching movies/anime with his family.

    View Michael ‘s profile
  • Humayra Hanif
    Lead Software Engineerthisdotsoftware

    With a decade of experience as a software engineer, Humayra has established herself as a Lead Software Engineer while concurrently co-founding Hulm Club – a Muslim-focussed community of visionaries and innovators.

    She has navigated various roles in engineering leadership at startups, accumulating extensive expertise along the way. Her expertise spans various sectors including finance, data, health, and retail marketing, where she has led teams to consistently deliver innovative solutions.

    Outside of her professional pursuits, Humayra actively engages as a writer, speaker, and mentor, contributing to the growth and diversity of the tech community. Her overarching objective remains focused on leveraging technology to drive positive change on a global scale.

    @HumayraHanif View Humayra’s profile
  • Lisa Karlin Curtis
    Software Engineerincident.io

    Lisa started out as a consultant working with HMRC and then smart meters, before accidentally becoming a developer.

    She worked as a tech lead at GoCardless and has recently joined as employee #2 at incident.io, providing tooling to help your whole organization manage incidents better. She loves building stuff, but is also really interested in how people interact with each other in a work environment – particularly in software engineering.

    Having seen the ‘old way’ at Accenture (large-scale waterfall projects), she’s now looking at taking the lessons from that environment to the start-up scene.

    @paprikati_eng View Lisa’s profile

Speed coaching

Watch or participate in free 1:1 coaching

+ More

Speed coaching

Watch or participate in free 1:1 coaching

  • FEATURING
    Mathias Meyer
    Founding PartnerThe Intentional Organization

    Mathias is founding partner at The Intentional Organization and executive coach to founders, CTOs, and senior engineering leaders. He supports his clients and their leadership teams in their personal and professional growth as they’re scaling out their business and their departments. Together with his business partner Sara, he’s co-authoring the forthcoming book “The Intentional Organization.” Starting his career as an engineer, Mathias has later worked in founder, CEO, and CTO roles across different companies, including Travis CI and Reaction Commerce.

    Mathias Meyer View Mathias’s profile
  • Lena Reinhard
    Engineering Leadership & Executive Coach

    Lena Reinhard has dedicated her career to building successful, high-performing globally distributed engineering organisations, and helping teams thrive in times of high change like hypergrowth. She now offers transformational leadership coaching and consulting for leaders.

    Previously, Lena served as VP Engineering with CircleCI and Travis CI, as well as a startup co-founder & CEO, and through her cross-functional background and experience, she brings a unique perspective on systems of technology, business, and people.

    @lrnrd View Lena’s profile

Solution Swap

Work together to find ways of solving a common problem posed by our moderator

+ More

Solution Swap

Work together to find ways of solving a common problem posed by our moderator.

My team is being asked to move faster, but we’re already flat out – what can I do?

  • FEATURING
    Joel Chippindale
    CTO CoachMonkey's Thumb

    Joel Chippindale is an Engineering Leadership Coach and Adviser. He has about 20 years experience building, scaling and leading software development teams, including CTO roles at Econsultancy, FutureLearn and Unmade.

    He values building inclusive, empowered, sustainable teams. He has experienced the challenges of nurturing the cultures, skills and practices that enable teams and individuals to achieve their full capabilities.

    Joel uses his experience, beliefs and skills to help organisations overcome the challenges they face in building more effective and inclusive software development teams.

    Joel Chippindale View Joel’s profile

Community Representation Groups: Black

Connect with other leaders with similar backgrounds and experiences to you, and build a peer network for support throughout your leadership journey. 

+ More

Community Representation Groups: Black

Connect with other leaders with similar backgrounds and experiences to you, and build a peer network for support throughout your leadership journey. 

Meet the Author

Bring a book and get it signed – or just have a chat.

+ More

Meet the Author

Bring a book and get it signed – or just have a chat.
16:35

Leading engineering teams in the era of AI: Lessons learned for engineering managers & tech leads

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Leading engineering teams in the era of AI: Lessons learned for engineering managers & tech leads

AI is no longer just a buzzword being thrown around but is becoming a foundational element engineers use when building software.

As AI reshapes the software engineering landscape and engineering teams embark on building their first AI-powered features, leadership and management also need to evolve in ways that ensure they can provide the right support to set teams up for success as they navigate this new frontier. 

Drawing from my experience as Engineering Manager at incident.io, where I led the product team in building the company’s first AI-powered features, this talk combines personal insights and broader leadership strategies. It aims to help your team navigate the challenges and opportunities presented by AI. It will highlight the need for leaders to adapt to these technologies and anticipate unexpected outcomes as teams begin using them. This talk’s objective is to provide engineering managers with the tools necessary to encourage innovation, manage various situations, and ensure the success of AI initiatives within their teams.
17:05

Designing APIs when things keep changing

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Designing APIs when things keep changing

APIs are forever. Unlike other products, APIs are hard to take back once developers integrate against them. But in a world where business needs and user requirements are continually changing, APIs need to be flexible enough to anticipate future changes.

So how do you design APIs in an effective way – striking the balance between making good decisions that stand the test of time, whilst still empowering the business to move quickly and being able to react to internal and customer feedback?

In this talk, Jeff will take about his experiences at Stripe and OpenAI, sharing stories and lessons on creating APIs that are easy to use, yet powerful and adaptable for the future. He’ll discuss strategies for making decisions in API design, even when the path ahead isn’t clear.

You’ll take away:

  • Guiding principles for shipping high-quality APIs that meet the demands of the business
  • Tools to work through the inevitable ambiguity in the design process 
  • Frameworks for establishing a contract with end users 
17:55

End of day wrap up

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End of day wrap up

Closing session

  • FEATURING
    Meri Williams
    CTO, NED & AdvisorPleo

    Meri is an experienced CTO and leader of technology organisations. She particularly enjoys helping others to level up as technical leaders and managers of organisations and works as a CTO coach and tech advisor / NED to various companies in this capacity through micro-consultancy ChromeRose.

    She has led teams ranging in size from 30 to 300, in a range of organisations from Procter & Gamble, to the Government Digital Service, award-winning online print company MOO, mobile-first challenger bank Monzo and patient-inspired AI-driven rare disease treatment discovery company Healx, amongst others.

    A published author and international speaker, she is the chair of The Lead Developer conference and a tech advisor for Kindred Capital. She’s also a trustee at Stonewall, the UK’s leading LGBTQ+ rights charity and together with her wife runs micro-charity One Goes Up to help young women & enby folks pursue STEM education & careers.

    blog.geekmanager.co.uk View Meri’s profile
18:00–20:00

Networking mixer

Spend some time with other attendees after Day 1 of the conference

Office Hours

Chat with the speakers face-to-face in a relaxed, conversational environment.

+ More

Office Hours

Chat with the speakers face-to-face in a relaxed, conversational environment.

Become a LeadDev Contributor AMA

Hear from the LeadDev content team on the secrets of crafting winning speaker submissions, effective article proposals and how to get involved with the community.

+ More

Become a LeadDev Contributor AMA

Hear from the LeadDev content team on the secrets of crafting winning speaker submissions, effective article proposals and how to get involved with the community.

  • FEATURING
    Anastasija Kovacevic
    EditorLeadDev

    Anastasija is the Editor at LeadDev. She works closely with LeadDev’s contributors to make their written content sing, whether that be articles for publication or talk descriptions for speakers.

    Anastasija Kovacevic View Anastasija ‘s profile
  • Mariana Valette
    Content ProducerLeadDev

    Mariana works closely with engineering leaders to programme inclusive events that directly address and help to navigate the challenges they face.

    When not at work, you can find Mariana dreaming of a Sicilian getaway, dancing the night away to R&B classics, or pounding the pavements of East London in her running shoes.

    View Mariana’s profile
  • Ishaan Singh
    Content and Community Manager

    Ishaan works closely with our audience to curate content for software engineering leaders to address their pain points and help them become more effective in their roles. Ishaan explores new topical themes for future content and exciting new formats for its delivery to drive engagement across our platform.

    She’s recently started leading on the global rollout of LeadDev meetups and other community initiatives.

    View Ishaan’s profile
  • Melinda Seckington

    Melinda is a Technical Manager at FutureLearn, a social learning platform. She loves attending BarCamps, Hackdays and other tech meetups, and since 2009 has been organising them at Geeks of London. She also writes at MissGeeky, a blog about all things geeky and girly.

    @mseckington View Melinda’s profile

Meet the author

Bring a book and get it signed – or just have a chat.

+ More

Meet the author

Bring a book and get it signed – or just have a chat.

  • FEATURING
    James Stanier
    Director of EngineeringShopify

    James Stanier is Director of Engineering at Shopify. He is also the author of Become an Effective Software Manager and Effective Remote Work. He holds a Ph.D. in computer science and runs theengineeringmanager.com.

    @jstanier View James’s profile
18:00–20:00

Networking mixer

Spend some time with other attendees after Day 1 of the conference

Office Hours

Chat with the speakers face-to-face in a relaxed, conversational environment.

+ More

Office Hours

Chat with the speakers face-to-face in a relaxed, conversational environment.

Become a LeadDev Contributor AMA

Hear from the LeadDev content team on the secrets of crafting winning speaker submissions, effective article proposals and how to get involved with the community.

+ More

Become a LeadDev Contributor AMA

Hear from the LeadDev content team on the secrets of crafting winning speaker submissions, effective article proposals and how to get involved with the community.

  • FEATURING
    Anastasija Kovacevic
    EditorLeadDev

    Anastasija is the Editor at LeadDev. She works closely with LeadDev’s contributors to make their written content sing, whether that be articles for publication or talk descriptions for speakers.

    Anastasija Kovacevic View Anastasija ‘s profile
  • Mariana Valette
    Content ProducerLeadDev

    Mariana works closely with engineering leaders to programme inclusive events that directly address and help to navigate the challenges they face.

    When not at work, you can find Mariana dreaming of a Sicilian getaway, dancing the night away to R&B classics, or pounding the pavements of East London in her running shoes.

    View Mariana’s profile
  • Ishaan Singh
    Content and Community Manager

    Ishaan works closely with our audience to curate content for software engineering leaders to address their pain points and help them become more effective in their roles. Ishaan explores new topical themes for future content and exciting new formats for its delivery to drive engagement across our platform.

    She’s recently started leading on the global rollout of LeadDev meetups and other community initiatives.

    View Ishaan’s profile
  • Melinda Seckington

    Melinda is a Technical Manager at FutureLearn, a social learning platform. She loves attending BarCamps, Hackdays and other tech meetups, and since 2009 has been organising them at Geeks of London. She also writes at MissGeeky, a blog about all things geeky and girly.

    @mseckington View Melinda’s profile

Meet the author

Bring a book and get it signed – or just have a chat.

+ More

Meet the author

Bring a book and get it signed – or just have a chat.

  • FEATURING
    James Stanier
    Director of EngineeringShopify

    James Stanier is Director of Engineering at Shopify. He is also the author of Become an Effective Software Manager and Effective Remote Work. He holds a Ph.D. in computer science and runs theengineeringmanager.com.

    @jstanier View James’s profile

Day 2

Wednesday 12 June

Jump to Day 1

Track 1: main track
Track 2: micro workshops

Breakfast and networking

Breakfast and networking

Mastering managing, mentoring and coaching

Being an engineering leader requires many skills. We have to know how to prioritize, manage work to deadlines and perhaps the hardest – lead others. Our role means a shift from doing to guiding and supporting. We must know when to manage, mentor or coach. When we use…

+ More

Mastering managing, mentoring and coaching

Being an engineering leader requires many skills.

We have to know how to prioritize, manage work to deadlines and perhaps the hardest – lead others. Our role means a shift from doing to guiding and supporting. We must know when to manage, mentor or coach. When we use these modalities well we build capacity in the team, increasing our ability to meet organisational goals. Along with it, people feel valued, we strengthen our culture and create a workplace where people want to come to work.

In this mini-workshop, we’ll talk about the difference between each of these skills and how to know when to use them. You’ll learn three key coaching skills and have the opportunity to practice deciding which modality to use. You’ll walk away more confident in your ability to lead others.

  • FEATURING
    Suzan Bond
    Leadership ConsultantConstellary

    Suzan Bond is an executive coach and organizational strategist. A former COO for Travis CI, she coaches technology leaders. You can find Suzan on Twitter and at SuzanBond.com.

    @suzanbond View Suzan’s profile

The engineering leader’s playbook: A hands-on guide to DORA

As engineering leaders, your success is the success of your teams. While success can take many forms, a key indicator is how effectively and quickly your team can deliver on its goals and ship software. But with so many variables that contribute to how successful a team is…

+ More

The engineering leader’s playbook: A hands-on guide to DORA

As engineering leaders, your success is the success of your teams. While success can take many forms, a key indicator is how effectively and quickly your team can deliver on its goals and ship software.

But with so many variables that contribute to how successful a team is – how can you work out what to change to move the needle? And what should you be measuring in the first place?

Ready to go beyond theory and get practical? This workshop dives deep into DORA, showing you exactly how to apply data-driven insights in your real-world environment to identify bottlenecks, measure progress, and drive continuous improvement. From selecting key performance indicators to fostering a culture of learning, you’ll walk away with actionable strategies to boost your team’s velocity, reduce time to market, and achieve your goals.

Building for the new developer

In this talk, Cat wants to share the research story of their large-scale study into the social science of genAI adoption as they fought to bring a human-centered approach to pressing questions that engineering organizations are facing about the rapidly-changing possibilities of AI-assisted coding.

  • VP of Research Insights & Director of Developer Success Lab, Flow Pluralsight Flow
+ More

Building for the new developer

So we’ve bought a Copilot license for our teams….AI in software solved, right?!

Well, in the Developer Success Lab – an empirical research lab studying the social science of developers and their wellbeing — we went on a journey in 2023 to understand something a little different about AI and software work: how developers are being impacted by changing expectations happening across the world of software development, and what leaders can do to help them. 

In this talk, I want to share the research story of our large-scale study into the social science of genAI adoption as we fought to bring a human-centered approach to pressing questions that engineering organizations are facing about the rapidly-changing possibilities of AI-assisted coding. 

In this talk, I’ll share our original empirical research findings from 3000+ software engineers and developers across 12+ industries engaged in the transition to generative AI-assisted software work. How are developers impacted by changing demands on their roles? Where might there be emerging equity & opportunity gaps in who has access to these new development capabilities? What are the risks to the quality of technical work, and the developer productivity, thriving, and motivation which drive that technical work? Along with rich data and important insights about the current state of genAI adoption, we learned that what developers are grappling with goes far deeper than flipping the switch on a new tool: by measuring key beliefs about where programming ability comes from and who is seen as “brilliant,” we gathered empirical evidence about how to explain why teams thrive and others flail during this transition.

 Along the way, I’ll share the adventure of doing science on an innovative topic under high scrutiny – the choices we made as scientists about what to study and what to measure, including how using community-based methods to amplify diverse, underrepresented voices on tech gives us access to remarkable, incisive insights about how we use AI. Our research has found important risks and emerging equity gaps in how developers are experiencing the transition to AI, but also highlights the teams already creating resilience in this transition. 

Despite the uncertainty of technological transition, moments of change are also a transformational opportunity to examine our shared definitions of success, productivity, and knowledge work. Despite the upheaval of changing technical work, developers’ core skills of lifelong learning and collaboration are key strengths that engineering managers can leverage to sustain innovative teams.

  • FEATURING
    Cat Hicks
    VP of Research Insights & Director of Developer Success Lab, FlowPluralsight Flow

    As the VP of Research Insights and the Director of the Developer Success Lab at Pluralsight Flow, Cat Hicks studies the science of how developer teams learn and thrive. Cat is a social science leader in tech with expertise leading applied research teams to explore complex areas of human behavior, empirical intervention, and evidence science. Cat serves on the Advisory Council of the University of San Diego Center for Digital Civil Society, as a research affiliate in STEM education research at UC San Diego, and as an advocate for increasing education access. She holds a Ph.D. in Quantitative Experimental Psychology from UC San Diego, was an inaugural Fellow in the UC San Diego Design Lab, and has led research at organizations such as Google and Khan Academy.

    View Cat’s profile