Berlin

November 4 & 5, 2024

New York

September 4 & 5, 2024

Do the hard stuff

Polina Giralt talks about how some of the most impactful technical work is about unwinding a humungous mess. This talk is about lessons learned over my career about executing challenging projects. The types of projects with politics, drama, tech debt, or past failed attempts. How do we know if the project is worth doing? Why has it failed before? Who’s blocking it? How do we know when to cut our losses and pause or cancel the project?

Register or log in to access this video

Create an account to access our free engineering leadership content, free online events and to receive our weekly email newsletter. We will also keep you up to date with LeadDev events.

Register with google

We have linked your account and just need a few more details to complete your registration:

Terms and conditions

 

 

Enter your email address to reset your password.

 

A link has been emailed to you - check your inbox.



Don't have an account? Click here to register
December 21, 2022

Some of the most impactful technical work is about unwinding a humungous mess.

Some projects are paint-by-number endeavors with solid management support. Other times, what’s needed are radical transformations, a different architecture, or decommissioning a legacy system. Riddled with risk, communication challenges, and cross-team dependencies, these messy Staff+ projects are all around us.

This talk is about lessons learned over my career about executing challenging projects. The types of projects with politics, drama, tech debt, or past failed attempts. How do we know if the project is worth doing? Why has it failed before? Who’s blocking it? How do we know when to cut our losses and pause or cancel the project?

Staff+ engineers are often the only hope for an organization to overcome and deliver on these types of projects. Don’t panic. I believe progress is possible and I’m here with tips.