The Future Of The Future

Besides doing the Future of The Future Podcast, I run a software development company out of South America, called Xseed.One of the reasons I started this podcast was to be able to talk to technology leaders from different places of the world, about cutting edge topics that would add value to my network.As 2023 comes to an end, I wanted to talk to some of the experts and leaders that work with me at Xseed on a daily basis, about trends in 2023 and what’s coming next, in the world of UX, Mobile and Front End Development, Backend Development and QA.These are my colleagues and friends. I could spend hours just listening to them talk about their trades. So much passion, so much knowledge they want to share. We talked about technology trends, leadership, growing in your profession, and so much more.Our participants are:- Aarón González - Product Design Lead at Xseed. - Stiven Suarez - Technical Lead at Xseed.- Nicolás García - Software Architect at Xseed.- Diego Castro - QA Automation Lead at Xseed.I hope you can learn and enjoy as much as I did! 

Nuclear Fusion. Combining two light atoms to form a larger atom, releasing energy in the process.Clean, renewable, safe energy.The stuff of Science Fiction… right?Even if some experiments exist, a technology that is at least 15 years away from any sort of commercial adoption… right?Well… Think again.Hunter Bjork is here to tell us about the reality of Nuclear Fusion today, and the future of energy it will enable.What is nuclear fusion? What's the difference between fusion and fission? Why does it matter? Are there any functioning nuclear fusion reactors today? What types of nuclear fusion exist? What are the potential applications? What do people know or think they know? How are different global players reacting to these new technologies? Why?Hunter is the Founder and CEO of ISA, a collective of entrepreneurs and engineers who believe that all energy should be inherently sustainable, affordable, and decentralized. Hunter is focused on the re-imagination of how we power our world, and the commercialization of breakthrough clean technology. Are we closer to nuclear fusion than we think? Listen, and embark on a never ending learning path.So much to learn from this episode, I hope you can enjoy it as much as I did!

Layoffs suck.The era of remote work is not making them any better.The way layoffs are being communicated seems to deteriorate by the minute, with grim stories of badly coordinated zoom meetings, improvised messaging by leaders, and immediate and clumsy access removal for remote workers.Is there a better way?Sara Seabourne says yes, definitely yes. And she has been talking about “compassionate layoffs” for a while.I asked her to be a part of the show, and I am glad she said yes. Sara is a People and Culture Executive who has worked in global HR and leadership roles in the tech industry for over 15 years. She has a proven track record of leading successful leadership, diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging initiatives (DEIB).She’s done multiple layoffs and she was affected by a few herself. She knows how to communicate better, how to provide time and support to those affected, so that everyone can get on their feet as soon as possible.In this episode, we’ll talk about what it means to be an HR Leader, how she got there, and how we can elevate the HR function by listening to hard learned lessons from leaders that have walked the talk, like her, and how she is now helping other Leaders through her Fractional People Executive role at Cascade People Partners.You can’t miss this one. And you’ll love Sara’s energy and clear message.Enjoy!

Leading large teams requires a LOT of energy, and passion. You can’t possibly be effective at leading large operations, if you don’t like the people side of things.My friend Aaron Kuney, leads a team of dozens of professionals and technicians, and a vendor network 4500+ strong, dealing with property services, for one of the biggest property management companies in the US. You know what gets him out of bed every single day? The chance he gets at elevating and developing people in his team. Watching them learn and grow, and solve challenges they didn’t think they could solve.In this episode, we talked about what it means to be an Operations Leader, the Real Estate industry’s current status and where it’s going from here, technology and its place in the industry, and many other interesting topics. Aaron is a Real estate investment and operations executive with extensive experience in investment management, capital markets, asset management, portfolio management, brokerage, construction management, and property management in the single-family and multi-family asset classes. He has a proven track record of innovation through the use of data and technology as well as building and leading top-performing teams within the institutional single family rental (SFR) space.I worked with Aaron in the past, and I learned tons from him back then. But  I learned even more as I got to interview him for this episode.Enjoy!

A Product Manager role in a Technology Company, is a Political Role, like or not.There are lots of negotiations happening all the time. What are we building next? What are we leaving behind? Why? Who gets to decide and how?There are, however, different ways to go about this.The good way involves a lot of transparency. Real transparency and context, so everyone knows what we are doing and why.What are the Company Goals? How does the Company make money? Why is it important to build A instead of B, or vice versa?My friend Lee Zukor, has built great products, teams, and companies over his 25+ years of experience in Product. He is passionate about solving big, complicated problems in creative new ways. And he has done these things at very large public companies and at very small private ones (including his own startup), in industries that include eCommerce, retail, SaaS, payments, food, youth sports, healthcare, and publishing. His key to success? building and supporting high-performing teams that are aligned, empowered, focused, and given the context they need to do their best work. Wherever he is, Lee will lead with trust and transparency. And we are lucky enough to have him in our show, so we can learn more about his super powers, through a very relaxed and honest conversation about what it means to be a Product Manager and how to be great at it.If Product matters to you, invest the time and enjoy. The ROI is well worth it.

Have you ever experienced exponential growth?It can get dizzy.How do you go from 3 people to 10? What about 10 to 50? And 100? Have you seen what happens when you try to do this in a matter of months?Anyone can hire a bunch of people and throw them together in a room or a slack channel. But how do you make sure you build and sustain the right engineering culture?What values matter? How do you make sure everyone shares the same values? How do you maintain these as you grow and new people join the team?These are some of the questions I asked Soumya Sengupta, a good friend of mine, when we got together to record episode 36. With 20+ years of experience, Soumya has forged a path as a technology leader, seamlessly blending hands-on software development and the successful management of diverse products across organizations of all sizes. His professional journey encompasses an array of roles and responsibilities, including hands-on development, software architecture, leadership, remote team management, and mentorship.He's been there, done that. And now he is ready to share his experience with all of us.Enjoy! very clear message, lots of learning opportunities.

Have you ever led a Software Development Project?It's hard…Scope WILL change, and with changing scope, there are changes in schedule and cost.And changes in schedule and cost can make stakeholders (specially customers) anxious.What is Sales promising to the customer? What do developers think they can achieve? Where is the truth? How can we get creative to keep everyone happy? Who talks to the different stakeholders involved in the project? How do you set up expectations and manage them afterwards?Welcome to the job of an Engineering Manager… (aka, Technical Project/Program Manager)My friend Amanda Oldakowski has over 10 years of experience as an Engineering Manager and she has seen the good, the bad and the ugly truth of what it really means, and what it really takes, to be successful in this type of role.We talked about her experience, her story and how she got into tech, and her views on the future of the profession.Listen and enjoy! lots of fun anecdotes and lots to learn from her experience. The real deal!

Technology is changing at an unprecedented pace. And it’s only accelerating.From enterprise to web, to mobile, to blockchain, to VR and AR, to AI.Staying up to date is hard. If you are buying technology, or customized development, knowing what partner to choose is a difficult and impactful decision.If you are selling software development and related services, staying up to date with the latest technologies and understanding when to leverage each of them, is not only difficult, but vital to serve your customers the right way.So I sat down with Jordan Gurrieri, CEO at BlueLabel, a digital transformation agency, to learn more about his path as a leader, his vision, and the lessons he learned along the way, as he grew his company from a mobile app dev shop, to a digital product agency, and now to a transformational and innovation partner.Adaptability, relearning, and adopting new skills with sound results, are key to success in this industry. Jordan and I talked about to get these right, what it means to be a CEO at a software company, the keys to success, how to find and attract talent, the hard choices, the loneliness at the top and how to deal with it, and many more topics.I strongly recommend listening to this episode. There are golden nuggets of advice everywhere. And Jordan is not only a very experienced leader with a very clear message to convey on each of the topics we talked about, but also an amazing and fun person to be around with.Enjoy!

We are connected. No matter where you are in the world, as long as you have a mobile phone and an internet connection, you can talk to anyone, anywhere, and consume and share content online.Never in our lives did we have access to so many people and so much information.But this interconnected era brings new risks of its own. False news spread and become contagious in a matter of minutes. Discrimination and violent speech have impacts in real life people. It can become scary…Some people, though, make a living by trying to prevent the spread of threats in this era of information disorder. One of them is my friend Ross Meyer, who works as a CTO at the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI), a leading expert organization in identifying and forecasting the threat and spread of misinformation and disinformation across social media platforms.With degrees in Electrical, Computer Science, and Nuclear Engineering and a specialty in UASs and mobile platforms, Ross is a brilliant hyper-productive professional, super passionate about his craft and what he does at NCRI. He is a fun person to be around, he knows how to bring down the most complex topics to layman terms if needed, and, somehow he finds time during his hectic days to play some drums and rehearse with his band to get ready for weekend gigs.I learned a lot through our conversation. And I am now more devoted than ever to curate the way I consume information on the web, and especially the way I share information and how I educate my kids on these topics.I am sure you will enjoy this conversation, go for it!

Technology for greener buildings keeps evolving. From waste reduction, to sustainable materials, from water efficiency and consumption to energy usage and generation, from travel to and from buildings, to smart building automation…Dream a technology, and chances are it already exists.But many times, the public at large is either unaware of the latest developments in sustainability in Real Estate, or unable to get funding for sustainability projects.This is where Anna Maria Kowalik comes into place. A true people’s person, Italian descendant and first generation american, she knows that Real Estate, like many other industries, is a relationships based industry.Anna Maria Kowalik is a Sr VP - Director of Business Development at Inland Green Capital LLC (“IGC”), an environmental finance and investment company that provides capital for Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) project initiatives nationwide. She is responsible for the business development of PACE initiatives through the marketing, education and implementation of this next generation sustainability financing option. Ms. Kowalik possesses almost 25 years of experience in the commercial real estate and property management industries, including with a former Inland REIT where she last oversaw a portfolio of over 30 retail properties consisting of 3.4 million square feet with more than 500 tenants, and budgets close to a quarter billion dollars. Anna and I talked about sustainability and technology in Real Estate, family, relationships, food, Italy and the US, recipes… you name it.She is an amazing professional, but most importantly, a wonderful person to have a conversation with, someone who clearly understands how to build lasting relationships.I hope you can enjoy this episode as much as I did!