Tech Lead Journal

“Just because the network is unreliable doesn’t mean a monolith is reliable either. It’s a fallacy to assume that you can build an error free system. You deal with it by accepting that the system overall has a baseline error rate, and that’s a business requirements issue." Richard Rodger is the author of “The Tao of Microservices”. In this episode, Richard shares a unique philosophical and pr...

“Where the CTOs usually struggle is holding people accountable. The other things are leadership, strategy, vision, and being an executive. Most of the CTOs are swamped with work from their day-to-day job." Stephan Schmidt is a CTO coach and the author of “Amazing CTO”. In this episode, we delve into the multifaceted world of the CTO role and discuss what it takes to become a great CTO. Stepha...

“The three change dimensions of the product operating model are changing how you build, changing how you solve problems, and changing how you decide which problems to solve." Chris Jones, Partner at Silicon Valley Product Group (SVPG) and co-author of “TRANSFORMED: Moving to the Product Operating Model,” joins me to discuss how organizations can transform and innovate like top tech companies....

“Contract testing is a form of testing where you are verifying two systems have the same shared understanding about the expectations." Lewis Prescott is the coauthor of “Contract Testing in Action”. In this episode, join us to demystify contract testing and its critical role in modern software development. Discover how contract testing ensures reliable software integration, particularly in co...

“Strong teams embrace conflict. They use it as a tool, and they have their great way of handling disagreements." Hari Haralambiev is co-founder of SoftSkillsPills.com and author of the leadership newsletter “A Leader’s Tale”. In this episode, we discuss essential elements of team leadership and dynamics. Hari begins by sharing his insights on what makes a great software development team, emph...

“We have 10 different aspects of quality, and testing is just a subset of activities in the overall quality culture. You need to have a good testing practice, but it’s just a tiny part of quality culture." Janet Gregory and Selena Delesie are the co-authors of “Assessing Agile Quality Practices Using QPAM”. In this episode, we discuss how to elevate and improve our organization’s quality cult...

“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 tec...

“Learn the difference between activities and impact. Sometimes we spend our career trying to get really great at activities. Always ask yourself, what is the impact of the work I’m doing?” From Google Distinguished Engineer to early retirement, Kelsey Hightower has a career journey filled with lessons for tech professionals at every stage. In this episode, Kelsey reflects on his journey, revealing...

“As a startup, as a scaleup, you often get one chance. If the first impression is something that’s slow, doesn’t work, is down entirely, people will move on and go find some other way to solve that problem." Tim Cochran and Kennedy Collins are the co-authors of the “Bottlenecks of Scaleups” series published on Martin Fowler’s website. In this episode, we explore several key challenges faced b...

“99% of us aren’t working in big tech. There’s this impression that everybody works in big tech. There’s a huge world of software development out there that almost gets forgotten about in social media." John Crickett is the creator of “Coding Challenges” and a seasoned software engineer with over 30 years of experience. In this episode, John shares his diverse career path, including transitio...

“Every software gets more complex over time. What we need to do as engineers is to find ways so that we can work with increasing complexity, but not increasing the cost of maintaining the software." Mauricio Aniche returns to the podcast for the second time and discuss with me his latest book, “Simple Object-Oriented Design”. Our discussion explores the intricacies of software design and shar...

“Always remember that system design interview is not about perfection. It is about trade-offs and being able to communicate them clearly and concisely." Zhiyong Tan is the author of “Acing the System Design Interview”. In this episode, he joins me in demystifying the system design interview process. He shares insights into what to expect, how to tackle common challenges like time management,...

“All data scientists and analysts should spend more time in the business, outside the data sets, just to see how the actual business works. Because then you have the context, and then you understand the columns you’re seeing in the data." David Asboth, author of “Solve Any Data Analysis Problem” and co-host of the “Half Stack Data Science” podcast, shares practical tips for solving real-world...

“Raise the bar of the team so that they bring sustainable practices. If your code stinks, no matter how you desire to be agile, you cannot respond to the change." Dr. Venkat Subramaniam is a renowned figure in the software development community, an award-winning author and founder of Agile Developer, Inc. In this episode, Venkat sheds light on the frequently overlooked challenges of software...

“Three characteristics of an organization that is operating with maximal effectiveness are value, clarity, and flow." Are you feeling the strain of growth? Struggling to maintain alignment and efficiency as your organization scales? In this episode, I sit down with Steve Pereira and Andrew Davis, authors of the groundbreaking new book, “Flow Engineering”. Learn why traditional scaling methods...

“The quality is connected to the risk, and the risk is connected to the testing. If we don’t keep an eye on quality, our testing and development will drift, because we are no longer building the thing that people care about anymore." Mark Winteringham is a quality engineer and the author of “Testing Web APIs”. In this episode, discover how holistic, risk-based testing strategies can transform...

“Bureaucracy in itself is neither good nor bad. However, it often gets in the way and prevents important things you need to do. A good bureaucracy is lean, learning, and enabling." Mark Schwartz is an Enterprise Strategist at AWS and the author of multiple books from IT Revolution. In this episode, we discuss his two latest books on the topics of bureaucracy and ethics. Mark begins by sharing...

“Soft skills are always going to be those ladders for you to climb in your career, whereas your tech skills can turn into snakes, meaning you’ve got to start again with another skill." Jacqui Read, author of “Communication Patterns,” joins in this episode to discuss why strong communication skills are crucial for developers and technical leaders, often surpassing the importance of merely tech...

“As technology has become more and more pervasive, experience has become more and more important. And if companies don’t think of the experience, then users don’t think of the company." Satyam Kantamneni is the CEO of UXReactor and the author of “User Experience Design”. In this episode, Satyam delves into the power of user experience design to drive business growth and value. Satyam explains...

“If you can outsource it and if it’s not something that makes you different, you should use a service, because you’ll always be asked to do more things than you can build that are differentiated to your organization.” Are you ever frustrated by your software development team getting bogged down doing undifferentiated tasks, leaving less time for innovation? In this episode, Joseph Emison, co-found...

“A blind spot is the gap between your intention and your impact. The more you can narrow the gap, the more you’re going to be able to be effective in your role and drive more performance." Marisa Murray is the CEO of Leaderley and the author of “Blind Spots”. In this episode, Marisa delves into blind spots and explains why leaders must uncover them to become truly effective and great. She des...

“Kanban is a strategy for optimizing the flow of value to your customers by focusing on three main goals: efficiency, effectiveness, and predictability." Colleen Johnson is the CEO of ProKanban, and in this episode, we delve into the fundamentals of Kanban and how you can use it to optimize your workflow. We start by defining Kanban and exploring its core principles. You’ll learn why work ite...

“As software engineers, only a fraction of your time is spent coding. A lot of your time is spent thinking. And I’m not seeing LLMs taking that away from us anytime soon, at least, for now." Can AI help you learn to code? Will AI take your developer job? Join me discussing these topics with Leo Porter and Daniel Zingaro, the co-authors of “Learning AI-Assisted Python Programming”. In this epi...

“The number one result of a good lead is reduced technical debt. Seeing technical debt just melts away and then stops occurring in the future. If you are a good lead, your systems will be stable all the time.” Are you a developer ready to step up and lead? Join us as we explore the world of lead development with Shelley Benhoff, author of “Lead Developer Career Guide”. In this episode, Shelley she...

“The whole idea of being intentional is instead of being reactive or unintentional and just letting your life come to you, we have this opportunity to choose what we want to do and who we want to become." Are you tired of feeling uninspired and disengaged in your engineering career? If so, this episode is for you! Jeff Perry is back again for a second episode with his latest book, “The Intent...