
Latest
-
“Vibe hacking” signals seismic shift for engineering leaders
Blackhat hackers have an addition to their armoury. Here’s how engineering leaders can safeguard their systems and stay on high alert.
-
Is GitHub’s coding agent your newest junior dev?
GitHub’s new coding agent has some perks, but is still showing signs of significant growing pains. What are the current pain points?
-
Why most developers hate their tech stack
Outdated tech stacks are a top reason for developers to quit.
-
Software engineering with GenAI
A look at how AI coding tools are reshaping software engineering, how teams are adapting, and what remains unchanged in the development process.
Editor’s picks
Essential reading

How to build an effective technical strategy
Building a tech strategy requires a lot of moving parts. Learn about what routes to take and whether decisions should be top-down.
On our Technical Direction playlist

Modernizing legacy systems: A technical strategy for evolving monoliths into modern architectures at HelloFresh
Gain insights into transforming legacy systems into scalable architectures, with practical strategies for balancing stability, managing technical debt, and enabling growth opportunities at HelloFresh.

Technical Vision vs. Technical Strategy: The difference and why it matters
Jonathan Maltz digs into the nuts and bolts of setting a successful technical strategy. Startin by talking about the difference between technical vision and technical strategy.

How to implement platform engineering at scale
In this webinar, we’ll hear from enterprise engineering leaders who’ve overcome cultural barriers and team silos, and successfully adopted platform engineering practices in their orgs.

Good technical debt
Jon Thornton discusses how this framework was used to rapidly build and ship Squarespace’s Email Campaigns product in less than 15 months. Along the way, you’ll get several practical guidelines for how tech debt can supercharge your technical investments.

Creating, defining, and refining an effective tech strategy
Having a defined tech strategy creates alignment and keeps everyone on the same page. So how can you ensure yours is most effective? Panelists Anna Shipman, Randy Shoup, Papanii Nene Okai, Nimisha Asthagiri and Anand Mariappan share their tips.
More about Technical Direction
-
Building a cloud architecture that can scale to any challenge
By building a cloud architecture that could meet the complex needs of international expansion, Nubank has established a more robust and flexible cloud infrastructure.
-
OpenAI explains how they scaled ChatGPT
Ahead of his talk at LeadDev West Coast in October, OpenAI’s Evan Morikawa goes behind-the-scenes on the challenges they faced scaling ChatGPT, the constant need to reset as a leader, and how GPUs don’t in fact grow on trees.
-
How AI changes engineering management
The rise of competent AI coding assistants could shift the role of software engineering managers considerably. Are you ready for that change?
-
Tech debt for engineering leaders: How a shortcut today impacts tomorrow
Technical debt is a ubiquitous problem for engineering managers, but what does it actually mean and how can you best attack it while balancing the other needs of the business?
-
How to get leadership buy-in on your tech strategy
For some Staff+ engineers, technical strategy development is an expectation, and not an easy one to navigate. Ras Kasa Williams is here to help you get buy-in for that strategy.
-
Tech debt traps to avoid
Tech debt is a term that often catches people out. Here are some ways to make sure you avoid falling into that trap!
-
The 6 biggest generative AI risks for developers
The future of work will almost certainly involve the use of generative AI tools, but is big tech being too hasty in integrating these capabilities into the software we use every day?
-
Can platform engineering help you do more with less?
As tech faces a downturn, platform engineering offers a way to decrease cognitive load, cut cloud costs, and boost delivery speed. What’s the catch?
Top Technical Direction videos
-
Iterate to Greatness: Building High Performance, AI-native Engineering Teams
In this talk, we’ll discuss how Vercel transitioned to an AI-native company and how you too can operate highly effective, AI-native product engineering teams, from the tools used to the way to stay organised amid the rapidly changing pace of AI.
-
Making smart investments: A framework for maximizing your ROI in technical decisions
In this talk, we’re going to explore a framework for evaluating the return on investment (ROI) of complex tech decisions, illustrated with real-world examples that highlight both the traps to avoid and the paths to success. I’ll share methods for pinpointing key metrics that matter, and how to design experiments or proof-of-concepts to measure ROI. Finally we will discuss the importance of staying objective and adaptable throughout the process.
-
Data Science Demystified
This talk gives an overview of Data Science and delves deep into the pipeline data scientists use – right from fetching the data, the Python tools and frameworks used to creating models, gaining insights and telling a story.
-
How to use technology radars to make transparent tech decisions
The talk centres around the benefits of building such a tool, such as transparency, alignment and faster onboarding.
-
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.
-
Start with an exit in mind: How to be effective by being selfish as a staff engineer
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.
-
Explosive overflow: Lessons from rocket science
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.
-
Focus on project value using businesses strategy
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.