Berlin

November 4 & 5, 2024

New York

September 4 & 5, 2024

All our video highlights from webinars to live events

  • Modeling complex systems

    This talk will look at some examples of these dashboards that represent the scopes of the system. Highlight how navigating between related scopes, or components, can be more powerful than standard documentation. Finally, will end with some discussion on challenges particular to multi-tenant systems.

  • Navigating complex projects: Finding the right mode of operation

    In this talk, I share my journey of deciding on an effective mode of operation when engaging with complex projects.

  • Sunsetting legacy: Navigating the Shop merchant eligibility data pipeline migration

    In this talk, I’ll share the strategies used to disassemble our legacy data pipelines responsible for managing merchant eligibility on the Shop apps. Join me on a journey through our successes, challenges, and invaluable learnings in the meticulous orchestration of terminating our legacy data pipelines.

  • Letting the Best Ideas Win

    In my talk I will explain that this is generally a pretty bad idea; it won’t surface the best ideas and it doesn’t let more junior engineers develop their skills. Instead, I introduce some steps you can take to make sure that the idea adopted to solve a problem is the best idea available, even if you aren’t the one who came up with it. Perhaps counter-intuitively I will show how this increases your influence in your organisation and sets everyone up for success.

Highlights from our conferences

Measure for Change

Picking metrics is one thing. But the harder decisions lie in what to do with them afterward.

Drive product gaps as an engineering leader talk by Emily Thomas in LeadDev New York 2024 Conference

Drive product gaps as an engineering leader

Discover practical strategies for engineering leaders to influence product development effectively, even in the absence of strong product management and a clear company vision.

Smruti Patel

Growth in a downturn

In this talk, Smruti Patel asks, if hyper-growth is marked by spending more to make more, what does building for enduring growth look like?

Idea to Innovation

Join me as we embark on a journey to dissect the anatomy of innovation, uncover strategies to unlock the full potential of ideas, and transform them into impactful realities. Let’s build a strong culture of innovation, and make sure that it is not just a buzzword but a tangible outcome.

Slack enterprise key management: Senior to staff lessons

Explore the key lessons and skills Audrei gained during their first Staff+ project, Slack Enterprise Key Management. This talk offers insights for anyone growing in their Staff+ career.

  • Hacking verbal communication systems

    This talk will outline how to achieve better communication by replacing parts of your talking protocols.

  • Leadership. By the numbers.

    A series of simple numbers can represent a useful and memorable corpus of hard-earned leadership experience. This talk will succinctly explain essential leadership lessons that you can either heed or simply wait to experience.

  • How to crash an airplane

    On July 19, 1989, United Airlines Flight 232 was en route to Chicago when a mechanical failure caused the plane to become all but uncontrollable. In this unsurvivable situation, the flight crew saved more than half of those onboard. How did they do it?

  • The importance of pragmatism when building and maintaining systems

    The software industry is surrounded by complexity, with new solutions to old problems appearing daily.

  • Telling stories through your commits

    As your codebase and development team grow, being able to communicate how and why your code has evolved is crucial to your ability to continue to change it.

  • The positives and negatives of networks and tech hiring

    In a fast developing industry such as tech, the acquisition and retention of talent is a crucial success factor. Often, hiring through personal networks can lead to a quicker and more successful hiring process than traditional methods – and sometimes contacts can even encourage under-represented groups to apply for positions they wouldn’t consider otherwise.

  • Writing Modular CSS with CSS modules

    This talk will introduce WebPack and will demonstrate how to write, bundle and use CSS Modules.

  • Creating processes that don’t impede autonomy

    Many factors contribute to developer happiness. However, as engineers, we’re often singularly obsessed with the idea that our job satisfaction comes solely from solving only the most interesting technical challenges.

  • Feedback models for engineering teams

    Feedback is one of the most important skills when collaborating with others. Giving and receiving feedback with honesty, integrity and empathy is hard. Doing so consistently takes practice and requires learning and practising feedback and listening techniques.

  • An introduction to webhooks

    In an increasingly connected world, APIs are key to great tools and effective workflows. What is better than an API? A webhook of course!

  • The journey from monolith to microservices

    Are you starting a new application and wondering whether to go with a monolith or take the microservices path?

  • Seven key considerations in early development

    It’s empowering for developers and other people involved in the inception of a project to have tools for making the project better long-term.

  • What I wish I knew as a first time Tech Lead

    The path from being a developer to a Tech Lead seems like a scary transition. As a developer, you could focus on constantly learning new tools, libraries, frameworks and programming languages.

  • Managing everyday BAU as a tech lead

    As a developer you are used to certain constants in your life such as battling with a compiler/interpreter or debugging a production issue only to discover a single, tiny error.

  • How to estimate as as an engineering leader

    Estimating time is like packing for a long holiday. No matter how hard you try, you always feel like you forgot something important.

  • Communicating as an engineering leader

    To build great teams you need to understand people. One of your core skills as a leader should be the ability to have effective conversations with your team, the rest of your organisation, and your customers.

  • Improving your feedback loop on engineering teams

    The feedback loop is easily the most effective way to improve individual and team performance.

  • Prioritising personal development as en engineering leader

    What should I focus on to become a better leader and to better support my team? Where do I find the time to keep my technical skills relevant? How do I learn more about the business so I can understand the needs of the organisation better?

  • 5 Features of a Good API

    Everyone is writing APIs from micro-services through to full applications, but what makes a good one?

  • Leadership Lessons from the Agile Manifesto

    Whether you’re a Tech Lead, Engineering Manager, or Project Manager for an engineering team, you probably weren’t handed a leadership instruction manual when you were given your first team to lead.

  • Running An Effective Mobile Engineering Team

    Organisations often worry about their mobile teams. Sometimes they are a bit separate. There’s often this inexplicable hostility to mentions of “React Native”.

  • Navigating different communication styles as engineers

    Have you ever been told you’re “too direct,” or feel like you don’t understand what others want? Or on the other side, do you think others are often too confrontational?

  • The Original Skunk Works

    Long before Agile and Lean became buzzwords, a scrappy group of aerospace engineers at Lockheed’s Skunk Works were using similar practices to produce some of the most amazing aircraft ever built.

  • Failing smarter and learning faster in engineering

    Software development has been evolving. When I started in the industry, working at companies like Microsoft, we would bet many person-years of development and many millions of dollars into the development of products that would sometimes be hits and sometimes be total duds