Let's talk about vulnerability in tech. Two aspects of our careers in which we can be left vulnerable are code reviews and tech interviews, particularly if they are negative experiences.

Most people have experienced getting ripped apart in a code review or have bombed a technical interview at some point in their career. If you have not experienced it yourself, there’s probably someone on your team who has.

In this talk, I will give actionable feedback on how to improve code review processes in teams to improve the quality of the feedback team members receive. We'll also look at technical interviews from both the hiring side, and the applicant side.

You’ve made the move from being an individual contributor into management, now what? The transition can be quite jarring, even if you think you are prepared for it. In this talk, I’ll share the most important lessons I’ve learned in my first year of being an engineering manager and how I adjusted to my new role. If you are already in management, I hope this talk can serve as a refresher about how to coach others looking to get into management.

Ever seen a rookie mistake in a code review, find an incredibly simple bug in a legacy code base or maybe have an interviewee make a minor mistake during an interview? Congratulations, you have encountered a normal human being!

Let’s talk about how we can turn mistakes and misunderstandings into teaching moments while being direct without being rude. We’ve all been there, so let’s talk about how our actions can make or break our relationships with other engineers, designers, QA members, etc...

GitLab is 100% distributed and remote company. As an engineering director I would like to share the tools I use to measure the health of the teams reporting to me. Engineering metrics are extremely powerful but you need to find the ones and will allow you to measure the team's productivity as well as identify bottlenecks and challenges that the team need to focus on.

I will discuss how to develop those metrics and the importance of driving the team with the proper incentives. I will discuss how to introduce these metrics to your engineering team and get everyone to benefit from the visibility of an engineering development dashboard.
 

You have stellar technical skills and you are a champion task slayer when it comes to cranking out the technical work. You are recognized for your fantastic work by your leadership and you are recognized as an expert in your technical area.

But are you ready to be a leader?

You need strategies and skills to nurture highly effective and collaborative teams of willing and eager professionals who are 100% behind your vision for your organization's success.

Your team needs a calm, cool & collaborative leader.

You can use the 3C Leadership Principles to get you there.

As a leader, hiring the right team is the most important thing you do. So why do we do such an awful job interviewing people? Candidates hate our silly brain teaser questions and SQL pop quizzes, and many managers just end up hiring on intuition anyway.

I've stumbled upon a few techniques that have made our interviews a lot less miserable—even occasionally fun—and have helped us find some excellent people at the same time. I want to tell you about those techniques and the ideas that produced them, so you can get a little better at finding the people you need too.