The Women in Tech Show: A Technical Podcast

The way software companies operate and develop software has changed dramatically in the last decades. Lisa Reeves, Senior Vice President of Product at Zenefits, started her career in technology in the early 90s. We talked about her time at SAP, a company that builds enterprise software since the 1970s and how software was developed at the time Lisa was there. Lisa also talked about her role as CEO...

Cloud computing technologies are changing how network services are developed. These services had been traditionally deployed in physical boxes and required more maintenance. Heather Kirksey, VP of Community and Ecosystem for the LFNetworking, explains how network services moved from hardware to virtual machines and now to containers. We talked about how this is implemented and the benefits of this...

Learning from data is something that is being used to improve processes across different industries. Kelley Rivoire, Engineering Manager at Stripe, explained how machine learning is used for payment processing applications. We talked about what machine learning is, and about Stripe’s real-time machine learning based system to evaluate user risk. Kelley also explained the process of deploying machi...

Running software at scale comes with its own challenges. Deepthi Sigireddi, Software Engineer at PlanetScale explained what database scaling consists of. We talked about different types of databases, horizontal and vertical scaling, and how to reason about what to choose. Deepthi also talked about her experience working across companies of different sizes.

Technical marketing is an area that has changed a lot with the development of new technologies. Kim McMahon, Marketing Strategies and Communications for McMahon consulting, explained different marketing strategies. We also talked about the importance of the message and how that can affect your market strategy. Kim also explained how social media and messaging tools are being used in technical mark...

Starting a technology company and leading product development is a process that is constantly evolving. Christine Spang, CTO of Nylas explained various stages of leading a tech company. We talked about developing software in areas like Email, finding initial clients, and evaluating the product. Christine also talked about the importance of wellness and gave advice on things that she does that have...

There are many paths to working on technology and software development. Some people get exposure when their young, others through high school or college, and others learn after they worked in other industries. Leah Petersen, Engineer at Two Sigma explained her trajectory from professional motorcycle stunt rider to software development. We also talked about cloud computing and Kubernetes, which is...

Virtual Reality allows us to experience simulated environments. Mar Gonzalez Franco, Researcher at Microsoft Research explained what Virtual Reality is. We talked about the role of human perception and how sensors create and enhance simulated environments. Mar also explained various brain mechanisms that enable users to believe that a computer generated world is effectively real.

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The combination of art and technology can lead to interesting innovations. Kitty Yeung, Manager of the Microsoft Garage at Silicon Valley, talked about how she infuses technology in fashion. Kitty explained how to embed technology in clothing and the challenges faced by the fashion industry. We also talked about tools and open source projects in hardware.

Product forecasting involves data analytics and making recommendations. Pooja Sund, Data Analytics Group Manager at Microsoft explained the data that financial analysts look at for product forecasting. We talked about what financial models are and how software is being used to help financial analysts. Pooja also talked about management, technical training and diversity and inclusion.

To develop and maintain software we can have systems that allow us to deploy to production and respond to incidents. Hannah Foxwell, Associate Director at Pivotal, explained the impact these systems can have on the developers and their health. We talked about extreme cases where deployments are done overnight requiring the engineers to be at the office. Hannah explained how processes can be improv...

In cloud computing one way to develop and deploy applications is by using containers. Kaslin Fields, Cloud Advocate at Oracle explained what containers are and how they are similar to chocolate chip cookies. We talked about the advantages of containers and how they compare to using virtual machines. At the end we also talked about Software Quality and the role of a Quality Assurance Engineer.

Cloud computing enables sharing resources between an organization or with entities outside an organization. Multi-tenancy helps enable this. Tasha Drew, Product Line Manager at VMware and co-chair of the Kubernetes Multi-tenancy group explained what multi-tenancy is. We talked about the benefits of multi-tenancy and how it relates to Kubernetes. Tasha also over scenarios where it is used.

The early days of the internet were very different than what we have today. The internet was primarily accessible only to people in academia or the government. Mitchell Baker, Co-Founder and Chairwoman of Mozilla explained how the internet evolved and made its way to consumers. At the time, Mitchell was working on Netscape, which was the dominant browser for consumers. We talked about the browser...

The growth of an application leads to changes in various areas of its architecture. Shraya Ramani, Senior Software Engineer at BuzzFeed explained how the growth led to changes in the microservices architecture and in the way these services were being secured. We talked about Single Sign-On ( also known SSO), and BuzzFeed’s SSO open source project. Shraya also explained the process of releasing cod...

In the early 2000s, after the Dot-com bubble burst, it was difficult for and entry-level software developer to find a job. Nivia Henry, Senior Engineering Manager at Spotify talked about her time as a recent graduate during the Dot-com bubble. We then talked about her experience in Project Management, Software Testing, Quality Assurance, and Bias in Machine Learning. Nivia also explained concepts...

The process of designing a Software Architecture involves different aspects such as the type of project, the organization involved, the people involved and many others. Stefania Stefansdottir, Lead Developer and Consultant at ThoughWorks, explained through a series of examples what Software Architecture Design can consist of. We talked about how one can start tackling a project and the role of the...

Security and compliance are two fundamental components of software. Wendy Knox Everette, Senior Security Advisor at Leviathan Security explained what security and compliance are. We talked about the software development cycle and how security can be involved throughout the cycle. Wendy also explained what compliant software means and the process of making software compliant.

Data analysis of the human genome is more accessible thanks to advancements in technology. In this episode I talked to two Senior Product Scientists and Managers at 23andme: Jamaica Perry and Alisa Lehman. Jamaica an Alisa talked about the human genome and areas of research in this. We also talked about data that can be generated from analyzing it and the ways in which this can be presented to a c...

Cindy Warner, Senior Vice President at NetApp has a career in technology that spans over 30 years. We talked about various technology transformations. Cindy explained how data and data analysis became fundamental to businesses. We also talked about the process of building software, data services, and the ethical side of data.

The insurance industry is incorporating technology to reduce bottlenecks, improve experiences and bring to market new solutions. Vivian Li, Principal, Corporate Ventures, Capital & Labs at CSAA, explained recent advancements in the insurance industry. We also talked about Corporate Venture Capital and different types of investments such as early stage financing and seed capital. Vivian explain...

Infrastructure as Code is an important approach used in cloud computing. Kerry Munz, Director of Engineering at HubSpot explained what Infrastructure as Code is. Kerry also talked about leveraging multiple cloud providers and migrating more than 400 SQL databases from AWS to Google Cloud Provider. At the end we talked about ways to evaluate the impact of the new computing environment.

Technological advancements are improving many industries, one example is the finance industry. Trisha Price, EVP of Product Development and Engineering at nCino gave an overview of the bottlenecks in financial services and examples of how these can be improved with technology. We also talked about cloud-based solutions for banking leveraging the Salesforce platform.

Running an application in the cloud involves different tools and technologies, a lot of which are open source. Priyanka Sharma, Director of Technical Evangelism and Cloud-Native at GitLab, explained the tooling panorama in the cloud ecosystem. We talked about different tools and the challenges in integrating them to have an end-to-end cloud workflow using GitLab as an example. We also talked about...