Tech Lead Journal – Details, episodes & analysis

“One key highlight of the report is that there’s a massive disconnect between engineering leaders and engineers about developer experience."

Andrew Boyagi is a DevOps Evangelist at Atlassian. In this episode, Andrew shares the key findings of the State of Developer Experience Report 2024, including the disconnect between engineering leaders and engineers, the impact of AI on developer experience, and the importance of measuring and improving developer productivity.

Andrew shares practical advice on how to improve developer experience in our organization, emphasizing the importance of communication, continuous improvement, and transparency. We also delve into the role of internal platforms in enhancing developer experience and the importance of engineering culture.

If you’re interested in learning more about developer experience and looking for ways to improve developer productivity, this episode is for you!  

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:01:37]
• State of Developer Experience Report - [00:04:05]
• Developer Experience (DevEx) - [00:05:32]
• DevEx Across Companies & Teams - [00:06:25]
• Report Key Highlights - [00:09:20]
• AI Impact to DevEx - [00:12:41]
• How Developers Spend Their Time - [00:15:13]
• How to Improve DevEx - [00:18:21]
• What to Ask Developers About DevEx - [00:21:31]
• Impact of DevEx on Deveopers' Retention & Attraction - [00:24:22]
• The Danger of Traditional DevEx Measurement - [00:26:50]
• Importance of Engineering Culture - [00:31:15]
• DevEx Frameworks - [00:34:24]
• Platform Engineering - [00:37:02]
• Platform Buy vs Build - [00:39:29]
• Self Service & Reducing Wait Time - [00:42:03]
• AI for Improving Documentation - [00:44:50]
• Feedback Loop for Improving DevEx - [00:47:29]
• Atlassian DevEx Journey - [00:49:01]
• Importance of Transparency - [00:50:28]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:52:01]

_____

Andrew Boyagi’s Bio
Andrew is a DevOps Evangelist at Atlassian with more than 20 years of experience in software delivery and service management in enterprise organizations. He provides a practical perspective on how teams and organizations can maximize the benefits of DevOps based on real-life experience.

Before joining Atlassian, Andrew was an Executive Manager at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, where he established and matured a platform engineering function that supported 7,000 engineers. Andrew holds an MBA from Southern Cross University.

Follow Andrew:

• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/andrewboyagi/
• State of Developer Experience Report 2024 – atlassian.com/software/compass/resources/state-of-developer-2024

_____

Our Sponsors

Enjoy an exceptional developer experience with JetBrains. Whatever programming language and technology you use, JetBrains IDEs provide the tools you need to go beyond simple code editing and excel as a developer.
Check out FREE coding software options and special offers on jetbrains.com/store/#discounts.
Make it happen. With code.

Manning Publications is a premier publisher of technical books on computer and software development topics for both experienced developers and new learners alike. Manning prides itself on being independently owned and operated, and for paving the way for innovative initiatives, such as early access book content and protection-free PDF formats that are now industry standard.
Get a 40% discount for Tech Lead Journal listeners by using the code techlead24 for all products in all formats.

Like this episode?
Show notes & transcript: techleadjournal.dev/episodes/191.
Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.
Buy me a coffee or become a patron.

“The three core expectations of a Staff+ engineer are having a high blast radius impact, able to do multi-scale planning & influence, and having high ownership & autonomy level.”

What does it take to become a Staff+ engineer? Thiago Ghisi, an experienced engineering leader and a Director of Engineering at Nubank, reveals the secrets in this episode. We discuss the path to becoming a Staff+ engineer and explore the attributes that set successful Staff+ engineers apart.

Thiago emphasizes that technical skills alone are not enough and outlines the three core expectations and three key behaviors for Staff+ engineers to demonstrate. Our conversation concludes with a discussion of the importance of finding role models and learning from their behaviors and approaches rather than following checklists.

If you’re an aspiring Staff+ engineer or simply interested in career growth in tech, don’t miss this episode! Tune in now to unlock the secrets to Staff+ success.  

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:02:11]
• Definition of a Staff+ Engineer - [00:04:24]
• The Different Level & Scope of Responsibilities - [00:09:43]
• What You Got Here Won’t Get You There - [00:18:54]
• High Blast Radius Impact - [00:23:34]
• Multi-Scale Planning & Influence - [00:27:23]
• Stakeholder Management - [00:31:06]
• Ownership & Autonomy Level - [00:35:52]
• Behaviors & Patterns - [00:43:51]
• Role Models Over Checklists - [00:51:53]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:55:56]

_____

Thiago Ghisi’s Bio
Thiago Ghisi is the Director of Engineering for the Mobile Platform team at Nubank. He has nearly 20 years of experience in the software industry, having worked at companies like Apple, ThoughtWorks, and Amex. Ghisi has worn multiple hats - from Programmer to Project Manager to Quality Engineer, back to Engineering, and finally, Engineering Management, where he has been leading cross-functional teams in the Mobile FinTech space for the past eight years. He also hosts a podcast called “Engineering Advice You Didn’t Ask For” and writes extensively about Career & Leadership in Tech on LinkedIn & Twitter.

Follow Thiago:

• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/thiagoghisi
• Twitter – @thiagoghisi

_____

Our Sponsors

Enjoy an exceptional developer experience with JetBrains. Whatever programming language and technology you use, JetBrains IDEs provide the tools you need to go beyond simple code editing and excel as a developer.
Check out FREE coding software options and special offers on jetbrains.com/store/#discounts.
Make it happen. With code.

Manning Publications is a premier publisher of technical books on computer and software development topics for both experienced developers and new learners alike. Manning prides itself on being independently owned and operated, and for paving the way for innovative initiatives, such as early access book content and protection-free PDF formats that are now industry standard.
Get a 40% discount for Tech Lead Journal listeners by using the code techlead24 for all products in all formats.

Like this episode?
Show notes & transcript: techleadjournal.dev/episodes/190.
Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.
Buy me a coffee or become a patron.

“Engineers make this mistake of thinking that if they just do the work, they’re going to be rewarded. But it’s just not how it happens. Be heads down, add the value, do great work, but don’t forget to make the noise."

Louie Bacaj is a software engineer and engineering leader who turned entrepreneur. In this episode, Louie shares his unique career journey and valuable insights for aspiring tech professionals and aspiring entrepreneurs.

Louie reveals the secrets behind his rapid career progression, sharing the key differences between working in a big corporate versus a nimble startup, and the challenges and rewards of wearing multiple hats. He offers practical advice on self-upskilling, embracing more senior management roles, and excelling at people management. He also shares timeless career advice for engineers at all stages of their journey.

Louie then opens up about his entrepreneurial journey, emphasizing the importance of taking small bets and learning from the small wins, and embracing freedom and independence by building your own business. Plus, discover why strong writing skills are a secret weapon for success at any stage of your career.

This episode is packed with actionable tips and inspiration for anyone navigating the tech industry – whether you’re a seasoned engineer or an aspiring entrepreneur.  

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:02:14]
• Big Corporate vs. Startup - [00:03:36]
• Wearing Multiple Hats - [00:06:02]
• Self-Upskilling Rapidly - [00:08:18]
• Louie’s Rapid Career Progression - [00:10:56]
• Getting Comfortable with More Senior Roles - [00:16:00]
• Tips on People Management - [00:21:55]
• Timeless Career Advice for Engineers - [00:25:41]
• Going Into Entrepreneurship - [00:31:24]
• Sense of Freedom & Independence - [00:38:59]
• Small Bets - [00:45:10]
• Learning from Small Wins - [00:49:12]
• The Importance of Writing Skills - [00:54:24]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:59:18]

_____

Louie Bacaj’s Bio
Louie Bacaj is a Software Engineer and Engineering Leader who turned Entrepreneur. Over the last decade, he has helped build multiple engineering teams and systems that scaled to millions of users. But he decided to leave that career behind for entrepreneurship.

Since quitting, he has realized that building an audience is an asset to entrepreneurship. It’s a great way to help people and to have them help him. But as an awkward engineer, he had no idea where to start. So he started writing and Tweeting his story. And everything he has learned so far.

Since starting this entrepreneurial journey in September 2021, he has built multiple SaaS apps with his brother. He created two courses that have sold over 1500 times. And he has grown a sizeable audience.

Follow Louie:

• Twitter / X – @LBacaj
• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/louiebacaj
• Website – louiebacaj.com
• Small Bets – smallbets.com

_____

Our Sponsors

Enjoy an exceptional developer experience with JetBrains. Whatever programming language and technology you use, JetBrains IDEs provide the tools you need to go beyond simple code editing and excel as a developer.
Check out FREE coding software options and special offers on jetbrains.com/store/#discounts.
Make it happen. With code.

Manning Publications is a premier publisher of technical books on computer and software development topics for both experienced developers and new learners alike. Manning prides itself on being independently owned and operated, and for paving the way for innovative initiatives, such as early access book content and protection-free PDF formats that are now industry standard.
Get a 40% discount for Tech Lead Journal listeners by using the code techlead24 for all products in all formats.

Like this episode?
Show notes & transcript: techleadjournal.dev/episodes/181.
Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.
Buy me a coffee or become a patron.

“A way to boost productivity is to create high-quality software from the outset, so that teams can spend less time on rework, both during development and after the release."

Karl Wiegers is the author of “Software Development Pearls” and the Principal Consultant at Process Impact. In this episode, Karl shared some lessons he has learned over the past five decades of his career. We first discussed software requirement, its role for communication, and the importance of defining the right requirements. Karl then touched on the reasons we can’t optimize all desirable quality attributes and instead advised how we should define the quality attribute requirements. Next, Karl shared some project management pearls, related to work planning and dealing with estimates. Towards the end, Karl explained the relation between quality and productivity, using pain as a driver for improvement, and his ultimate pearl of wisdom.

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:05:46]
• Requirements for Communication - [00:08:07]
• Importance of the Right Requirements - [00:13:49]
• Importance of Definitions - [00:16:23]
• Optimizing Quality Attributes - [00:18:48]
• Specifying Quality Attribute Requirements - [00:21:59]
• Work Plans & Friction - [00:24:48]
• Giving Estimates - [00:31:03]
• Pressure to Making Commitment - [00:35:19]
• High Quality & Productivity - [00:39:38]
• Pain as Improvement Driver - [00:45:16]
• Ultimate Pearl - [00:50:25]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:54:09]

_____

Karl Wiegers’s Bio
Karl Wiegers is Principal Consultant with Process Impact, a software development consulting and training company. He has a PhD in organic chemistry. Karl is the author of 13 books, including Software Development Pearls, Software Requirements, The Thoughtless Design of Everyday Things, Successful Business Analysis Consulting, and a forensic mystery novel titled The Reconstruction. You can reach him at ProcessImpact.com or KarlWiegers.com, where you can hear more than 50 songs he has recorded just for fun, including 18 originals that he wrote.

Follow Karl:

• LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/karlwiegers
• Website – https://karlwiegers.com
• Process Impact – https://www.processimpact.com
• Medium – https://karlwiegers.medium.com

Our Sponsors

DevTernity 2022 (devternity.com) is the top international software development conference with an emphasis on coding, architecture, and tech leadership skills. The lineup is truly stellar and features many legends of software development like Robert "Uncle Bob" Martin, Kent Beck, Scott Hanselman, Venkat Subramaniam, Kevlin Henney, and many others! The conference takes place online, and we have the 10% discount code for you: AWSM_TLJ.

Skills Matter is the global community and events platform for software professionals. You get on-demand access to their latest content, thought leadership insights as well as the exciting schedule of tech events running across all time zones.
Head on over to skillsmatter.com to become part of the tech community that matters most to you - it’s free to join and easy to keep up with the latest tech trends.

Like this episode?
Subscribe on your favorite podcast app and submit your feedback.
Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.
Pledge your support by becoming a patron.
For more info about the episode (including quotes and transcript), visit techleadjournal.dev/episodes/103.

“Instead of being given a roadmap of features, an empowered team is given a problem to solve and they get to figure out the best way to solve that problem."

Marty Cagan is the founder of the Silicon Valley Product Group and the author of “Inspired” and “Empowered”. In this episode, we discussed how companies ought to build great products by learning from the best product companies. Marty explained the importance of building the right product and shared the two inconvenient truths about building products. Marty then elaborated on the traits a good product team has and how to create an empowered product team by ensuring ownership and alignment and by having clear product vision, strategy, and focus. Towards the end, Marty shared the importance of coaching and nurturing people, how to hire better, and how to structure product team topologies.

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:05:48]
• Writing Inspired & Empowered - [00:11:38]
• Building the Right Product - [00:16:23]
• Two Inconvenient Truths - [00:17:45]
• Traits of Good Product Teams - [00:22:06]
• Engineering Involvement - [00:24:53]
• Empowered - [00:26:44]
• Ownership & Alignment - [00:28:41]
• Product Vision & Strategy - [00:33:00]
• Focus - [00:35:39]
• Coaching & Nurturing People - [00:39:40]
• Hiring - [00:41:56]
• How to Structure Teams - [00:43:49]
• 4 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:46:55]

_____

Marty Cagan’s Bio
Before founding the Silicon Valley Product Group to pursue his interests in helping others create successful products through his writing, speaking, advising and coaching, Marty Cagan served as an executive responsible for defining and building products for some of the most successful companies in the world, including HP Labs, Netscape Communications, and eBay. Marty is also the author of the books INSPIRED: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love and EMPOWERED: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Products.

Follow Marty:

• Website – https://www.svpg.com/
• LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/cagan
• Twitter – @cagan

Our Sponsors

DevTernity 2022 (devternity.com) is the top international software development conference with an emphasis on coding, architecture, and tech leadership skills. The lineup is truly stellar and features many legends of software development like Robert "Uncle Bob" Martin, Kent Beck, Scott Hanselman, Venkat Subramaniam, Kevlin Henney, and many others! The conference takes place online, and we have the 10% discount code for you: AWSM_TLJ.

Skills Matter is the global community and events platform for software professionals. You get on-demand access to their latest content, thought leadership insights as well as the exciting schedule of tech events running across all time zones.
Head on over to skillsmatter.com to become part of the tech community that matters most to you - it’s free to join and easy to keep up with the latest tech trends.

Like this episode?
Subscribe on your favorite podcast app and submit your feedback.
Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.
Pledge your support by becoming a patron.
For more info about the episode (including quotes and transcript), visit techleadjournal.dev/episodes/102.

“As a servant leader, your number one job is to serve the people around you. You succeed together with your people, and that’s why serving them first would give you the best opportunity to succeed together."

Henry Suryawirawan is the host of your beloved podcast. In this episode, hosted by Jerome Poudevigne, we uncovered lessons from Henry’s career journey and from running the Tech Lead Journal podcast. Henry shared his career turning points that included multiple transitions between individual contributor (IC) and management, being part of retrenchment, working in a failed startup, and his decision to leave Google and join a scaleup. Henry then shared how he prepared and grew himself into his current leadership position by being a problem solver, exercising the servant leadership mindset, building culture intentionally, and a few tips on doing remote work effectively. In the second half of the conversation, Henry shared why and how he first started the Tech Lead Journal podcast, as well as sharing moments and lessons he learned from releasing 100 episodes in the last 2 years.

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:06:10]
• Career Planning & Progression - [00:09:40]
• Leaving Google - [00:13:34]
• Taking a Plunge to Leadership - [00:16:14]
• Servant Leadership & Difficult Conversation - [00:18:07]
• Preparing & Growing Leadership - [00:21:07]
• Building Culture - [00:26:29]
• Tips for Remote Working - [00:31:08]
• Career Failures - [00:37:08]
• Starting a Podcast - [00:38:51]
• Finding Guests - [00:42:17]
• Learnings From the Podcast - [00:44:02]
• Nervous Moments - [00:46:39]
• Relationships With the Guests - [00:47:35]
• Personal Learning - [00:49:21]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:52:15]
• Credits - [00:59:13]

_____

Henry Suryawirawan’s Bio
Henry Suryawirawan is an experienced engineering leader and an avid personal growth learner. He is the host of Tech Lead Journal, a podcast about technical leadership and excellence.

Follow Henry:

• LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/henry-suryawirawan
• Twitter – @henry_ken
• Tech Lead Journal – https://techleadjournal.dev
• Website – https://henrysuryawirawan.com

Our Sponsors

DevTernity 2022 (devternity.com) is the top international software development conference with an emphasis on coding, architecture, and tech leadership skills. The lineup is truly stellar and features many legends of software development like Robert "Uncle Bob" Martin, Kent Beck, Scott Hanselman, Venkat Subramaniam, Kevlin Henney, and many others! The conference takes place online, and we have the 10% discount code for you: AWSM_TLJ.

Skills Matter is the global community and events platform for software professionals. You get on-demand access to their latest content, thought leadership insights as well as the exciting schedule of tech events running across all time zones.
Head on over to skillsmatter.com to become part of the tech community that matters most to you - it’s free to join and easy to keep up with the latest tech trends.

Like this episode?
Subscribe on your favorite podcast app and submit your feedback.
Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.
Pledge your support by becoming a patron.
For more info about the episode (including quotes and transcript), visit techleadjournal.dev/episodes/101.

🎙️ CELEBRATE the 100th EPISODE by submitting your story/message at techleadjournal.dev/celebrate-100 🎉

“Engineering discipline is the most effective, efficient way of doing high-quality work. If our software development practices do not allow us to build better software faster, we should really change them because they are not engineering."

Dave Farley is the co-author of the Jolt award-winning book “Continuous Delivery” and runs the popular “Continuous Delivery” YouTube channel on software engineering topics. In this episode, we discussed Dave’s latest book, “Modern Software Engineering”. Dave started by explaining his view on modern software engineering and why it emphasizes on practices for building better software faster. Dave described the foundations of the software engineering discipline and explained the core competencies we need to succeed by becoming experts at both learning and managing complexity. Dave also explained the importance of understanding technology fundamentals, improving software readability, and handling software complexity by managing concurrency and coupling. Towards the end, Dave shared some other tools in the modern software engineering toolkit that include Continuous Delivery.

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:08:01]
• Modern Software Engineering - [00:12:19]
• Better Software Faster - [00:14:58]
• Software Engineering - [00:17:22]
• Expert at Learning - [00:20:37]
• Why Agile Not Enough - [00:26:34]
• Expert at Managing Complexity - [00:31:49]
• Importance of Fundamentals & Readability - [00:36:01]
• Concurrency & Coupling - [00:43:57]
• Other Modern Software Engineering Tools - [00:51:29]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:57:42]

_____

Dave Farley’s Bio
Dave Farley, founder and consultant for Continuous Delivery Ltd., has been a programmer, software engineer, and systems architect since the early days of modern computing. With Jez Humble, Farley coauthored the best-seller Continuous Delivery. As Head of Software Development for the LMAX, he built one of the world’s fastest financial exchanges. One of the earliest adopters of agile techniques employing iterative development, continuous integration, and high levels of automated testing, he also coauthored the Reactive Manifesto.

Follow Dave:

• Twitter – @DaveFarley77
• LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/dave-farley-a67927
• Youtube – https://www.youtube.com/c/ContinuousDelivery
• Website – https://countinuous-delivery.co.uk
• Courses – https://courses.cd.training

Our Sponsors

DevTernity 2022 (devternity.com) is the top international software development conference with an emphasis on coding, architecture, and tech leadership skills. The lineup is truly stellar and features many legends of software development like Robert "Uncle Bob" Martin, Kent Beck, Scott Hanselman, Venkat Subramaniam, Kevlin Henney, and many others! The conference takes place online, and we have the 10% discount code for you: AWSM_TLJ.

Skills Matter is the global community and events platform for software professionals. You get on-demand access to their latest content, thought leadership insights as well as the exciting schedule of tech events running across all time zones.
Head on over to skillsmatter.com to become part of the tech community that matters most to you - it’s free to join and easy to keep up with the latest tech trends.

Like this episode?
Subscribe on your favorite podcast app and submit your feedback.
Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.
Pledge your support by becoming a patron.
For more info about the episode (including quotes and transcript), visit techleadjournal.dev/episodes/100.

🎙️ CELEBRATE the 100th EPISODE by submitting your story/message at techleadjournal.dev/celebrate-100 🎉

“Acceptance test is any test that a system must pass in order to be accepted. If you can’t ship a system without passing a test, then it is an acceptance test."

Kenneth Pugh is an acclaimed author and thought leader in acceptance-test driven development (ATDD) and behavior-driven development (BDD). His works include the 2006 Jolt award winner “Prefactoring” followed by “Lean-Agile Acceptance Test-Driven Development”. In this episode, Ken explained in-depth the concept of acceptance tests and ATDD. He first described what an acceptance test is, why it is beneficial to deliver better software, and why we should invest our effort to automate it. Ken also touched on a few other important concepts, such as the testing triad, test pyramid, user acceptance test, and table-driven specifications. Towards the end, Ken shared some advice on how we can start implementing ATDD.

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:06:16]
• Acceptance Test - [00:09:30]
• Acceptance Test Benefits - [00:13:39]
• When to Write Acceptance Test - [00:16:18]
• The Triad - [00:20:55]
• Is Doing ATDD Expensive? - [00:26:31]
• Acceptance Test & Test Pyramid - [00:28:56]
• UAT & Reporting - [00:33:22]
• Automating Acceptance Test - [00:36:21]
• Table-Driven vs Text Format - [00:39:09]
• ATDD - [00:42:46]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:44:49]

_____

Kenneth Pugh’s Bio
Ken Pugh helps companies develop software effectively by applying lean-agile principles and practices. He concentrates on delivering business value quickly by removing waste and delays in value streams; building in quality with Acceptance Test-Driven Development / Behaviour Driven Development; creating a collaborative environment; and evaluating return-on-investment. He has written several software development books including the 2006 Jolt Award winner Prefactoring: Extreme Abstraction, Extreme Separation, Extreme Readability and his latest: Lean-Agile Acceptance Test-Driven Development: Better Software Through Collaboration. He is the co-creator of the SAFe® Agile Software Engineering course.

Follow Ken:

• LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenpugh/
• Twitter – @kpugh
• Website – https://kenpugh.com/
• ATDD/BDD – https://atdd-bdd.com

Our Sponsors

DevTernity 2022 (devternity.com) is the top international software development conference with an emphasis on coding, architecture, and tech leadership skills. The lineup is truly stellar and features many legends of software development like Robert "Uncle Bob" Martin, Kent Beck, Scott Hanselman, Venkat Subramaniam, Kevlin Henney, and many others! The conference takes place online, and we have the 10% discount code for you: AWSM_TLJ.

Skills Matter is the global community and events platform for software professionals. You get on-demand access to their latest content, thought leadership insights as well as the exciting schedule of tech events running across all time zones.
Head on over to skillsmatter.com to become part of the tech community that matters most to you - it’s free to join and easy to keep up with the latest tech trends.

Like this episode?
Subscribe on your favorite podcast app and submit your feedback.
Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.
Pledge your support by becoming a patron.
For more info about the episode (including quotes and transcript), visit techleadjournal.dev/episodes/99.

“Empiricism is at the heart of agility. The fundamental foundation of agility starts with some assertion about value. Every sprint or iteration is really an experiment about value."

Kurt Bittner is the author and editor of many books on agile product development, including co-authoring the recent “Professional Agile Leader” book. In this episode, we started our conversation discussing the common misconception of Agile in the modern day and Kurt emphasized that empiricism should be at the heart of agility, especially for solving complex problems. Kurt then explained the importance of aligning company’s direction and goals using outcomes instead of using activities or outputs. In the latter half of the episode, we discussed the concept of a self-managing team, what characteristics and attributes it has, and the important role of catalytic leadership in such teams. Kurt also explained how to measure the self-management spectrum of a team by measuring decision latency and shared some advice on how to reduce decision-making dependencies in organizations.

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:06:08]
• Empiricism in Agility - [00:09:35]
• Going in the Right Direction - [00:16:17]
• Agile for Complex Problems - [00:22:18]
• Self-Managing Team - [00:26:26]
• Leadership vs Management - [00:32:40]
• Decision Latency and Dependencies - [00:35:18]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:47:50]

_____

Kurt Bittner’s Bio
Kurt Bittner has been delivering working products in short, feedback-driven cycles for nearly 40 years, and has helped many organizations do the same. He is the author or editor of many books on agile product development, including Mastering Professional Scrum, The Zombie Scrum Survival Guide, The Nexus Framework for Scaling Scrum, The Professional Scrum Team, and Professional Agile Leadership, as well as The Guide to Evidence-Based Management, and The Nexus Guide.

Follow Kurt:

• LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/kurt-bittner-882b203/
• Twitter – @ksbittner
• Blog – https://www.scrum.org/resources/blog?uid=330
• The Professional Agile Leader Website – https://theprofessionalagileleader.com

Our Sponsors

DevTernity 2022 (devternity.com) is the top international software development conference with an emphasis on coding, architecture, and tech leadership skills. The lineup is truly stellar and features many legends of software development like Robert "Uncle Bob" Martin, Kent Beck, Scott Hanselman, Venkat Subramaniam, Kevlin Henney, and many others! The conference takes place online, and we have the 10% discount code for you: AWSM_TLJ.

Skills Matter is the global community and events platform for software professionals. It is an easier way for technologists to grow their careers by connecting you and your peers with the best-in-class tech industry experts and communities. You get on-demand access to their latest content, thought leadership insights as well as the exciting schedule of tech events running across all time zones.
Head on over to skillsmatter.com to become part of the tech community that matters most to you - it’s free to join and easy to keep up with the latest tech trends.

Like this episode?
Subscribe on your favorite podcast app and submit your feedback.
Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.
Pledge your support by becoming a patron.
For more info about the episode (including quotes and transcript), visit techleadjournal.dev/episodes/98.

“A highly functional team defines the right environment and has what they need to be the best professionals they can be. And that always includes agency and psychological safety."

Jim Benson is the co-author of “Personal Kanban” and is currently working on his upcoming book “The Collaboration Equation”. In this episode, we started by discussing Personal Kanban, how it differs from a to-do list, and its two main rules, i.e. visualizing our work and limiting our work-in-progress. Jim also shared practical tips on managing our personal backlog, doing prioritization, and limiting our work in progress. In the latter half of our conversation, we discussed Jim’s new book, “The Collaboration Equation”, starting with the discussion about the common collaboration challenges and why professionalism and psychological safety are prerequisites to building high-performing teams. Jim also explained the concept of collaborative leadership and gave practical tips on how we can measure effective collaboration.

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:06:42]
• Current State of Productivity - [00:08:17]
• Obeya - [00:10:12]
• Rules of Personal Kanban - [00:12:44]
• Kanban vs Todo List - [00:14:46]
• Managing Backlog - [00:17:07]
• Limiting Work in Progress - [00:24:26]
• Collaboration Equation - [00:27:36]
• Professionalism - [00:31:06]
• Psychological Safety - [00:33:21]
• Collaborative Leadership - [00:36:39]
• Collaborative Process - [00:41:04]
• Measuring Collaboration - [00:46:09]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:51:09]

_____

Jim Benson’s Bio
Jim Benson is the CEO of Modus Cooperandi, and co-founder of Modus Institute. A pioneer in applying Lean and Kanban methodologies to knowledge work, Jim is the creator of Personal Kanban and Lean Coffee, and co-author of Personal Kanban: Mapping Work | Navigating Life, winner of the prestigious Shingo Research and Publication Award. His other books include Why Plans Fail, Why Limit WIP, and Beyond Agile. His upcoming book The Collaboration Equation will be out in Summer 2022.

Follow Jim:

• Twitter – @ourfounder
• LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimbenson
• Modus Cooperandi – https://moduscooperandi.com/
• Modus Institute – https://modusinstitute.com/

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