Tech Lead Journal

“Creativity at work is a type of thinking and a process of developing ourselves and our ability to create and bring novelty to our professional life." Oana Velcu-Laitinen is the author of “How to Develop Your Creative Identity at Work”. In this episode, Dr. Oana shared how we can develop our creative identity at work and in our personal life. She first started by describing the definition of creativity in her book, its relation with intelligence, and explained why creativity is important for maintaining our sense of engagement and motivation. Dr. Oana outlined the 4 different types of thinking that can help us foster our creative diversity and shared several tips on how to explore our creativity by channeling our curiosity, choosing our audience, finding time for creative work, and overcoming the fear of rejection. Dr. Oana also shared some potential barriers hindering our creativity at work and why we should avoid them to foster more creative innovations. I also shared my own creative journey, including how I ended up doing this podcast. If you are looking to exercise more of your creativity or thinking of starting your creative journey, check out this episode. Listen out for: Career Journey - [00:05:01] Definition of Creativity - [00:07:35] Creativity for Engagement and Motivation - [00:11:07] Creativity and Intelligence - [00:13:55] Fear of Rejection - [00:16:14] 4 Types of Thinking for Creative Diversity - [00:18:46] Channeling Curiosity - [00:21:17] Importance of Audience - [00:27:08] Creativity Barriers at Work - [00:30:49] Finding Time for Creative Work - [00:34:13] Creative Belief - [00:40:15] Tips to Explore Creativity - [00:42:33] 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:48:08] _____ Oana Velcu-Laitinen’s Bio Oana Velcu-Laitinen is a NeuroLeadership coach and trainer focusing on creative thinking to enhance work performance. Her clients include researchers, change leaders, entrepreneurs, and individuals seeking career growth. Oana holds a PhD in Economics from the Hanken School of Economics in Helsinki, Finland. In 2016, she disrupted her academic career to become a knowledge solopreneur. The book “How to Develop Your Creative Identity at Work” reflects Oana’s curiosity to keep abreast of the latest research on creative identity, mindsets and beliefs and turn it into actionable principles for ambitious knowledge workers. Her motto is, “To know job satisfaction, know your creativity.” Follow Oana: Website – velcu.fi LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/oana-velcu-laitinen-phd-6081084 Email – oana@velcu.fi _____ Our Sponsors 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. Are you looking for a new cool swag? Tech Lead Journal now offers you some swags that you can purchase online. These swags are printed on-demand based on your preference, and will be delivered safely to you all over the world where shipping is available. Check out all the cool swags available by visiting techleadjournal.dev/shop. And don't forget to brag yourself once you receive any of those swags. Like this episode? Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. Pledge your support by becoming a patron. For episode show notes, visit techleadjournal.dev/episodes/121.

“Everything in software architecture is a trade-off, and the why is more important than how." Neal Ford is a Director and software architect at ThoughtWorks. In this episode, we discussed all things about software architecture covering his three most recent books: “Fundamentals of Software Architecture”, “Software Architecture: The Hard Parts”, and “Building Evolutionary Architectures”. We first discussed the definition of software architecture and how it relates to software design. Neal then described the two important laws of software architecture related to trade-offs and the why. Neal then explained why software architecture is difficult and discussed the hard parts, such as finding the least-worst combination trade-offs, understanding the importance of data, and managing coupling. Towards the end, Neal shared about the evolutionary architecture concept and some of its principles to support making incremental change across multiple software architectural dimensions. Listen out for: Career Journey - [00:04:25] Definition of Software Architecture - [00:10:48] Software Architecture vs Design - [00:14:29] Laws of Software Architecture - [00:16:24] The Hard Parts of Software Architecture - [00:20:55] Least-Worst Combination of Trade-offs - [00:26:42] Importance of Data - [00:29:51] Coupling and The 3 Co’s - [00:35:54] Evolutionary Architecture - [00:40:11] Incremental Change - [00:45:26] Principles of Evolutionary Architecture - [00:49:32] 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:52:01] _____ Neal Ford’s Bio Neal Ford is Director, Software Architect, and Meme Wrangler at ThoughtWorks. He is also the designer and developer of applications, articles, video presentations, and author and/or editor of an increasingly large number of books spanning a variety of subjects and technologies, including the two most recent Fundamentals of Software Architecture and Building Evolutionary Architectures. His professional focus includes designing and building of large-scale enterprise applications. He is also an internationally acclaimed speaker, speaking at over 700 developer conferences worldwide, delivering more than 3000 presentations. Follow Neal: Website – nealford.com Twitter – @neal4d _____ Our Sponsors 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. Are you looking for a new cool swag? Tech Lead Journal now offers you some swags that you can purchase online. These swags are printed on-demand based on your preference, and will be delivered safely to you all over the world where shipping is available. Check out all the cool swags available by visiting techleadjournal.dev/shop. And don't forget to brag yourself once you receive any of those swags. Like this episode? Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. Pledge your support by becoming a patron. For episode show notes, visit techleadjournal.dev/episodes/120.

“If you have self-organizing teams, your power as a leader is determined by your ability to enable others to grow and take responsibility." Ron Eringa is a leadership developer and the co-author of “The Professional Agile Leader”. In this episode, we discussed insights from his book on how one can become a professional agile leader. Ron started by sharing his view of why agile transformations usually fail and gave advice on how companies should adopt agile in a more effective way. Ron then described characteristics of a professional agile leader, including how to apply situational leadership by understanding the 4 different leadership styles (combative, compliant, competitive, catalytic). Ron also explained how leaders can build high-performing teams by being aware of the two domains (visible & invisible) the teams are operating in and by understanding the interconnection between structure and culture. Towards the end, Ron shared his utopia view of how organizations would look like if they already become fully agile and also shared some patterns for effective leadership. Listen out for: Career Journey - [00:04:50] Why Agile Transformations Fail - [00:07:47] Changing to Agile Culture - [00:10:19] Professional Agile Leader - [00:15:56] Importance of Learning - [00:20:37] 4 Leadership Styles - [00:22:56] High-Performing Team - [00:27:16] Visible & Invisible Domains - [00:30:05] Structure & Culture - [00:32:08] What Full Agile Looks Like - [00:35:41] Self-Perpetuating Change - [00:38:43] Effective Leadership Patterns - [00:41:34] 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:47:23] _____ Ron Eringa’s Bio Ron Eringa is a Leadership Developer. His mission is to create organizations where people love to work and where real customer value is created. He is realising this mission by developing Leadership on all levels in the organization: by creating autonomous and mature teams, by developing leadership in teams and at the management level, and by helping management to create an environment where teams can become autonomous. In 2022, Ron co-wrote ‘The Professional Agile Leader’ to help leaders build mature agile organizations. Follow Ron: LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/reringa Twitter – @roneringa Website – roneringa.com Evolutionary Leadership – EvolutionaryLeadership.nl _____ Our Sponsors 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. Are you looking for a new cool swag? Tech Lead Journal now offers you some swags that you can purchase online. These swags are printed on-demand based on your preference, and will be delivered safely to you all over the world where shipping is available. Check out all the cool swags available by visiting techleadjournal.dev/shop. And don't forget to brag yourself once you receive any of those swags. Like this episode? Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. Pledge your support by becoming a patron. For episode show notes, visit techleadjournal.dev/episodes/119.

“When blame is our focus rather than understanding what happened, people spend as much or more energy avoiding the blame and less time to be productive, creative, and energetic." Diana Larsen is the co-founder of Agile Fluency Project and co-author of the latest book “Lead Without Blame”. In this episode, we discussed insights from her book about building resilient learning teams by moving away from blaming culture. Diana first described the definition of blame and its characteristics, and explained the negative impacts it can bring to an organization and its culture. Diana advised that instead of a blaming culture, organizations should build a learning culture by adopting the 3 essential motivators (team purpose, autonomous teams, co-intelligence) and the 4 resilience factors (collaborative connection, embracing conflict, inclusive collaboration, minimizing power dynamics). Listen out for: Career Journey - [00:05:30] Understanding Blame - [00:08:58] Blaming Habit - [00:11:50] Leaders & Accountability - [00:18:12] 3 Essential Motivators - [00:21:21] Essential Motivator: Team Purpose - [00:27:19] Essential Motivator: Autonomous Teams - [00:31:21] Essential Motivator: Co-Intelligence - [00:35:36] Resilience Factor: Collaborative Connection - [00:39:55] Resilience Factor: Embracing Conflict - [00:42:55] Resilience Factor: Inclusive Collaboration - [00:46:40] Resilience Factor: Minimizing Power Dynamics - [00:48:48] 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:52:59] _____ Diana Larsen’s Bio Visionary pragmatist Diana Larsen is a cofounder, chief connector, learning leader, and principal coach, consultant, and mentor at the Agile Fluency Project. Diana coauthored the books Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great; Liftoff: Start and Sustain Successful Agile Teams; and Five Rules of Accelerated Learning. She co-originated the Agile Fluency model and coauthored the book The Agile Fluency Model: A Brief Guide to Success with Agile. For more than 20 years, she led the practice area for agile software development, leading and managing teams, and guiding agile transitions at FutureWorks Consulting. Through the Agile Fluency Project’s programs, Diana shares the wisdom she’s gained in over 35 years of working with leaders, teams, and organizations. To serve her communities, she delivers inspiring conference keynotes, talks, and workshops around the world. Follow Diana: Website – DianaLarsen.com Twitter – @DianaOfPortland LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/dianalarsenagileswd Agile Fluency – AgileFluency.org _____ Our Sponsors 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. Are you looking for a new cool swag? Tech Lead Journal now offers you some swags that you can purchase online. These swags are printed on-demand based on your preference, and will be delivered safely to you all over the world where shipping is available. Check out all the cool swags available by visiting techleadjournal.dev/shop. And don't forget to brag yourself once you receive any of those swags. Like this episode? Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. Pledge your support by becoming a patron. For episode show notes, visit techleadjournal.dev/episodes/118.

“The strength of SRE is in the alignment of operational concerns between the product management, product development, and product operations." Dr. Vladyslav Ukis is the Head of R&D at Siemens Healthineers and author of “Establishing SRE Foundations”. In this episode, Dr. Vlad shared insights on how to establish SRE foundations from scratch based on his firsthand experience at Siemens Healthineers and the concepts described in his book. We started by discussing the basic SRE concept and how it differs from other related concepts, such as ITIL, COBIT, and DevOps. Dr. Vlad then explained in-depth how SRE implementation can help to create an alignment between the product management, product development, and product operations teams. He also shared the importance of having internal SRE coaches to facilitate this transformation and when an organisation can start realizing the benefits of implementing SRE. In the latter half, Dr. Vlad walked us through how we can begin our SRE journey, make further progress in the journey, and measure the success of our SRE implementation. Also, do not miss his sharing on how SRE implementation can help to improve reliability in a stringent industry, such as healthcare. Listen out for: Career Journey - [00:06:04] Getting to Know SRE Concept - [00:08:24] SRE vs Other Frameworks - [00:12:20] SRE Definition - [00:16:48] Ops-Development-Product Alignment - [00:19:26] SRE Coach - [00:26:36] Realizing SRE Benefits - [00:28:52] How to Begin SRE Journey - [00:31:37] SRE Journey Progression - [00:36:15] Healthcare Reliability - [00:41:48] Measuring SRE Implementation Success - [00:46:25] 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:48:44] _____ Vladyslav Ukis’s Bio Dr. Vladyslav Ukis graduated in Computer Science from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany, and later from the University of Manchester, UK. He joined Siemens Healthineers after each graduation and has been working on Software Architecture, Enterprise Architecture, Innovation Management, Private and Public Cloud Computing, Team Management, Engineering Management, Portfolio Management, Partner Management, and Digital Transformation at large. He currently works as the Head of R&D for the Siemens Healthineers teamplay digital health platform, and has shared his DevOps knowledge in his book “Establishing SRE Foundations” published in 2022. Follow Dr Vlad: LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/dr-vladyslav-ukis-5172ba32 _____ Our Sponsors 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. Are you looking for a new cool swag? Tech Lead Journal now offers you some swags that you can purchase online. These swags are printed on-demand based on your preference, and will be delivered safely to you all over the world where shipping is available. Check out all the cool swags available by visiting techleadjournal.dev/shop. And don't forget to brag yourself once you receive any of those swags. Like this episode? Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. Pledge your support by becoming a patron. For episode show notes, visit techleadjournal.dev/episodes/117.

“Emotional intelligence is about knowing yourself, empathizing with other people, and always defining a win-win outcome in everything you do." Trenton Moss is the founder of Team Sterka and the author of “Human Powered”. In this episode, Trenton shared the importance of having good emotional intelligence and people skills in digital product teams. He shared the 6 key skills we need to succeed as outlined in his book: conflict resolution, building strong relationships, leading and influencing, facilitation, storytelling, and outbound communications. Trenton also shared some frameworks we can use to improve some of those skills, such as PLEASE, MASTER, and LEAD frameworks. And throughout our conversation, Trenton emphasized multiple times the importance of achieving the win-win outcome in every interaction we have with each other. Listen out for: Career Journey - [00:05:37] Importance of People Skills - [00:10:07] Emotional Intelligence - [00:12:52] 6 Key Skills - [00:20:45] Win-Win Outcome - [00:22:58] Conflict Resolution & PLEASE Framework - [00:24:59] Improving Conflict Resolution Skill - [00:29:54] Active Listening - [00:33:10] Strong Relationships - [00:36:50] MASTER Framework - [00:38:43] Negative Behaviors - [00:45:05] Leading & Influencing & LEAD - [00:48:47] Over-communication - [00:51:47] 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:55:36] _____ Trenton Moss’s Bio Trenton is a business leader, trainer and coach who inspires everyone around him to achieve more than they think they can. His bestselling book, ‘Human Powered’, was published last year. It helps you gain all the people skills and EQ you need to succeed. He’s the founder and head coach at Team Sterka, a training and coaching business that creates high-performing teams. Previously, Trenton spent 15 years as founder and CEO at one of the UK’s first product design consultancies, Webcredible. When he’s not working, you’ll usually find him running around after his kids. Or sleeping. He loves a post-lunch power nap. Follow Trenton: LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/trentonmoss Twitter – @trentonmoss100 Team Sterka – https://sterka.team/ _____ Our Sponsors 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? Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. Pledge your support by becoming a patron. For episode show notes, visit techleadjournal.dev/episodes/116.

“An engineering manager should make sure that the team has a good balance of delivering things that the business needs with enough capacity to do it sustainably over time." Today's clip is from episode 94 with Patrick Kua. In this clip, we discussed Pat’s latest course, Engineering Manager Essentials.  We discussed what an engineering manager role is, how it differs from a Tech Lead role, and the common manager versus IC career track. Pat also shared his view on why being an engineering manager is not a promotion. Listen out for: Engineering Manager Essentials - [00:00:50] The Role of Engineering Manager - [00:02:46] Difference With Tech Lead - [00:05:43] Manager and IC Paths - [00:07:53] EM Is Not a Promotion - [00:12:27] _____ Patrick Kua’s Bio Patrick Kua is a seasoned technology leader with almost 20 years of experience. His personal passion is accelerating the growth and success of tech organisations and technical leaders. He has had many years of hands-on experience, leading, managing and improving complex organisations and software systems as the CTO and Chief Scientist of N26 (Berlin, Germany) and as a Technical Principal Consultant at ThoughtWorks. He is a frequent keynote and conference speaker, author of three books including “The Retrospective Handbook“, “Talking with Tech Leads“ and “Building Evolutionary Architectures“ and runs the free popular newsletter for leaders in tech, “Level Up” and the “Tech Lead Academy“, offering online training for technical leaders, or running his very popular “Shortcut to Tech Leadership“ workshop. Follow Patrick: Website – https://patkua.com/ Twitter – @patkua LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/patkua/ EM Essentials Course – https://www.patkua.com/em-essentials/ Tech Lead Academy – https://techlead.academy/ Level Up Newsletter – https://levelup.patkua.com/ _____ Our Sponsors Mental well-being is a silent pandemic. According to the WHO, depression and anxiety cost the global economy over USD 1 trillion every year. It’s time to make a difference! Learn how to enhance your lives through a master class on mental wellness. Visit founderswellbeing.com/masterclass and enter TLJ20 for a 20% discount. 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/94.

“Interactions with domain experts play a key role in implementing software. You have to make sure that you understand the problem you’re solving. You cannot provide a software solution without understanding the problem first." Today's clip is from episode 76 with Vladik Khononov, the author of “Learning Domain-Driven Design”. In this clip, Vladik shared why understanding business domain is crucial in software engineering and how DDD can help build the shared understanding between the domain experts and software engineers. Vlad also explained the importance of DDD's strategic design. Listen out for: Importance of Understanding Business Domain - [00:00:51] How Domain-Driven Design Helps - [00:06:21] DDD Strategic Design - [00:10:30] _____ Vladik Khononov’s Bio Vlad (Vladik) Khononov is a software engineer with over 20 years of industry experience, during which he has worked for companies large and small in roles ranging from webmaster to chief architect. Vlad maintains an active media career as an author, public speaker, and blogger. He travels the world consulting and talking about domain-driven design, microservices, and software architecture in general. Vladik lives in Northern Israel with his wife and an almost-reasonable number of cats. Follow Vladik: Twitter – @vladikk LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/vladikkhononov/ Website – https://vladikk.com/ _____ Our Sponsors Mental well-being is a silent pandemic. According to the WHO, depression and anxiety cost the global economy over USD 1 trillion every year. It’s time to make a difference! Learn how to enhance your lives through a master class on mental wellness. Visit founderswellbeing.com/masterclass and enter TLJ20 for a 20% discount. 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/76.

“The simplest way to describe craftsmanship is pride of workmanship. It is the mindset that you are working on something important and you are going to do it well." Today's clip is from episode 90 with Robert C. Martin, more widely known as Uncle Bob. In this clip, Uncle Bob shared some insights from his latest book, “Clean Craftsmanship”. He shared the current major challenge of the software development industry as a young discipline, which drove Uncle Bob writing the book to help define disciplines, standards, and ethics for software craftsmanship. He also touched on the five key disciplines of clean craftsmanship. Listen out for: Clean Craftsmanship - [00:00:55] Programmer as a Profession - [00:05:32] Craftsmanship - [00:08:46] Disciplines - [00:12:46] _____ Robert C. Martin’s Bio Robert Martin (Uncle Bob) has been a programmer since 1970. He is the co-founder of the online video training company cleancoders.com and founder of Uncle Bob Consulting LLC. He served as Master Craftsman at 8th Light inc and is an acclaimed speaker at conferences worldwide. He is a profilic writer and has published hundreds of articles, papers, blogs, and best-selling books including: “The Clean Coder”, “Clean Code”, “Agile Software Development: Principles, Patterns, and Practices”, and “Clean Architecture”. He also served as the Editor-in-chief of the C++ Report and as the first chairman of the Agile Alliance. Follow Uncle Bob: Twitter – @unclebobmartin Clean Coder – http://cleancoder.com Clean Coders – https://cleancoders.com GitHub – https://github.com/unclebob _____ Our Sponsors Mental well-being is a silent pandemic. According to the WHO, depression and anxiety cost the global economy over USD 1 trillion every year. It’s time to make a difference! Learn how to enhance your lives through a master class on mental wellness. Visit founderswellbeing.com/masterclass and enter TLJ20 for a 20% discount. 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/90.

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." Today's clip is from episode 102 with Marty Cagan, the founder of the Silicon Valley Product Group and the author of “Inspired” and “Empowered”. In this clip, 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. Listen out for: Writing Inspired & Empowered - [00:00:51] Building the Right Product - [00:05:36] Two Inconvenient Truths - [00:06:57] Traits of Good Product Teams - [00:11:19] Engineering Involvement - [00:14:06] Empowered - [00:15:57] _____ Our Sponsors Mental well-being is a silent pandemic. According to the WHO, depression and anxiety cost the global economy over USD 1 trillion every year. It’s time to make a difference! Learn how to enhance your lives through a master class on mental wellness. Visit founderswellbeing.com/masterclass and enter TLJ20 for a 20% discount. 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.