If you were standing in this exact spot in early 1941, you’d be surrounded by rubble. Large swaths of London lie in ruins after the months-long Blitz during World War II, and Cripplegate ward where we now sit was almost completely destroyed. The only building you’d see standing would be a heavily damaged St. Giles Church.
Staff engineers often get overwhelmed by long-term ownership of critical projects. This talk explores how to avoid burnout by starting every project with an exit strategy—whether transferring ownership, pausing or bootstrapping a team.
Thirty-nine seconds after launch, the Ariane 5 rocket exploded—caused by software design errors. In this talk, Mark analyzes these historical flaws to explore key lessons in resilience and product security. We'll discuss testing, validation, legacy code, design assumptions, and the challenge of proving when things don’t go wrong.
This talk introduces the Listen-Act-Share framework, guiding you to find, evaluate, and scale high-impact projects. Using real examples, like transforming Datadog's analytics infrastructure, you'll learn to spot valuable opportunities, invest your time wisely, and iterate after validation. Discover what sets great opportunities apart and how to apply this framework for maximum impact.
Staff+ Engineers often fear working on the wrong projects. This talk explains how that fear stems from misalignment with your company's business strategy. Learn to identify your company’s strategy, align your projects with it, and communicate value to stakeholders. Maximize your impact by refocusing efforts on work that truly matters.
Code review anxiety is often dismissed as a "junior developer issue," but this talk challenges that misconception with scientific research. Carol Lee shares findings from studies on the causes and effects of code review anxiety, revealing cognitive factors like self-efficacy and bias that worsen it. You'll also learn about an empirically tested intervention to help developers manage anxiety and create healthier code review cultures.
Learn how the Scrappy/Scale Mindset helps engineering leaders balance leadership styles, avoid burnout, and adapt to their teams' needs for sustainable success.