Latest
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Breaking down the WordPress drama
A dispute has riven the WordPress community in half, how does this impact developers?
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Build an AI roadmap that actually delivers value
There are lots of things to consider before you dive into the world of AI. If you want to do it correctly, consider these core elements.
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How to craft a realistic technology roadmap
Technology roadmaps are difficult things to navigate. Having a realistic approach can save you a lot of time and energy.
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Content sponsored by ChainguardDoes ‘shifting security left’ really work?
“Shifting security left” is a term in modern DevOps that refers to the practice of integrating security measures earlier in the software development lifecycle (SDLC).
Editor’s picks
November 4 & 5, 2025
The leadership conference for tech leads and engineering leaders.
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
Managing architecture
Lutz Hühnken talks about the importance of a strategic approach to software architecture, that prevents teams from becoming architecture firefighters, who spent an excessive amount of energy applying short-term fixes to architectural problems.
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.
Writing your technical strategy
Bruce Wang talks about Writing your technical strategy (psst, it doesn’t have to feel like a Squid Game) at LeadDev Together in February 2022.
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.
November 4 & 5, 2025
The leadership conference for tech leads and engineering leaders.
More about Technical Direction
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Who holds the edge in the JavaScript framework wars?
Are React and Angular breaking free of the competition in the great JavaScript framework wars?
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How business strategy can help to prioritize projects
As a staff+ engineer your company’s business strategy can be a great indicator as to which projects you need to prioritize over others.
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12 things to consider when assessing open source software
Open source has been gathering more and more traction. But consider some of the risks before taking a leap.
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Leading open-source teams in large organizations
You can nurture and grow a highly impactful open-source project in your organization by systematically building an excellent team, technology, and product.
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Whatever happened to Big Data?
In the world of AI, cloud services, and automation, the tools and expertise engineering managers need to mine large-scale data sets are changing, fast.
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What you need to know about Biden’s AI executive order
US President Joe Biden has announced a sweeping executive order covering artificial intelligence. Here’s everything you need to know about how the US government is looking to regulate the technology.
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How OpenAI fought off security threats and GPU shortages to scale ChatGPT
The rapid rise of ChatGPT exposed OpenAI to a myriad of scaling issues and security threats, leading to some unique mitigation approaches.
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Balancing build vs buy decisions in a post-boom world
The question of whether to build software in-house or rely on third-party vendors is more fraught than ever, as budgets come under scrutiny and internal teams get stretched after waves of layoffs.
Top Technical Direction videos
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Software security as a force of nature
In this keynote talk, Kelly explores principles, practices, and patterns that are actually effective at sustaining systems resilience, from the overlooked to the counterintuitive.