“Knowing and understanding are very different things. Unless I practice it along with good guidance, I may not increase my understanding." There are several Agile misconceptions in the industry lately. It has even come to a point where people are being skeptical and starting to doubt the actual value of Agile methodologies and practices. In this episode, I had a conversation with Stanly Lau, one of the early leaders of the Agile Singapore community, about these Agile misconceptions and what we can do to bring back Agile to what it was originally intended for. Stanly is an Agile Coach in Odd-e and he enjoys helping others to produce better quality software sustainably. Stanly also shared Odd-e unique culture and how it is challenging the status quo by experimenting for other ways of building and operating a successful company. Listen out for: How Stanly initially bumped into Agile - [00:03:41] Why Stanly decided to join Odd-e and why Odd-e has such a unique culture - [00:09:41] The origin of Agile, its essence and biggest misconceptions - [00:15:55] Why Stanly brought thought leaders to Singapore for Agile Conferences and workshops - [00:22:35] Stanly’s experiment going back to the industry as employee to gain self-awareness, empathy, and thus becoming better coach - [00:25:27] Stanly’s 3 Tech Lead Wisdoms - [00:32:56] _____ Stanly Lau’s Bio Stanly Lau is an experienced software development coach and trainer at Odd-e. He helps organisations become more agile by adopting better development and people practices through experiments and congruent actions. He is also one of the early leaders of the Agile Singapore community. Follow Stanly: Email (stanly@odd-e.com) LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/stanlylau/) Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/stanlylau) 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/3.

Hear from Singapore's prominent community builder, Michael Cheng, on how to contribute to communities, and learn more about his latest passion for mentoring junior developers. _____ “Rather than being passive about it, why don’t I take a proactive approach to try and find people who are like-minded, who share the same ideals and goals and let them come together and just share." Michael Cheng has been a prominent community builder in Singapore, having created communities such as Engineers.SG, PHP User Group, iOS Dev Scouts, and recently JuniorDev.SG. There are many people who have benefited tremendously from his communities, and importantly, those communities have also helped to accelerate the growth of the tech and startup scenes in Singapore in the last few years. In this episode, hear from Michael on why he created those communities and what made him started in the beginning, including the challenges he was trying to solve. Michael also shared the impact that his initiatives have brought both to the communities and to him professionally. We also discussed JuniorDev.SG and how some of its programmes have been helping junior developers towards the goal of dropping their “junior” title. Listen out for: How Michael started his community contributions and why he started them? - [00:03:40] Michael’s strategy to ensure that his meetups have good traction - [00:06:35] Why Michael created Engineers.SG and the impact that it brings to the community - [00:08:00] How community contributions have impacted Michael’s professional career - [00:20:14] Why Michael created JuniorDev.SG and how it differs from the other groups he created before - [00:22:49] JuniorDev.SG activities, e.g. mentoring programme, developer’s gym - [00:27:31] Michael’s 3 Tech Lead Wisdoms - [00:35:33] _____ Follow Michael: Twitter (@coderkungfu) Website (https://coderkungfu.com/) Mentions & Links: Engineers.SG (https://engineers.sg/) JuniorDev.SG (https://juniordev.sg/) The Singapore PHP User Group Meetup (https://www.meetup.com/sgphpug/) Singapore iOS Dev Scout Meetup (https://www.meetup.com/Singapore-iOS-Dev-Scout-Meetup/) The Geek Path (https://thegeekpath.com/) Geek Brunch SG (https://geekbrunch.sg/) Confreaks (https://confreaks.tv/) 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/2.

"Leading others is leading yourself first. That's a very big work of self awareness, and you should always do that." Jerome Poudevigne is a serial CTO who has co-founded multiple startups with multiple successful exits. Recently, he has been working at Google Cloud and AWS to help startups grow and make the most of cloud technologies. In this very first episode of Tech Lead Journal, Jerome shares with us his startup wisdom from his lessons learned; advice for hiring, building culture, pitching, and managing stakeholders. He also shares with us his "Rule of 50%", a practical strategy that you can use to build your startup/product from zero scale to planet scale. Moreover, Jerome shares his interesting anecdotes about cultural differences between different regions based on his experience. Listen out for: Jerome's career highlights, lowlights, and his lessons learned - [00:04:03] How to pitch yourself to (potential) investors, and how to assess good investors - [00:06:49] Some tips for hiring, especially in a startup, and how you can assess someone's personality and culture fit - [00:09:37] How to ensure that everyone works towards the same vision of the company - [00:16:37] "Jerome's Rule of 50%" - how to build your startup from zero scale to planet scale - [00:20:49] How you should not get distracted by the latest technologies when you're starting up - [00:21:07] Stakeholders management, and how to explain about technology to non-technical stakeholders - [00:28:42] Anecdotes about cultural differences between different regions - [00:32:40] Jerome's 3 Tech Lead Wisdoms - [00:43:56] _____ Jerome Poudevigne's Bio Jerome got his first computer when he was 12 and got into programming games, hacking copy protection schemes, and putting together electronics during his school years. He decided that computers and software were too much fun, so he got a CS degree and started doing it professionally, building radar systems and avionics for Airbus.   In the mid-90s, he moved to the Silicon Valley where he got the startup bug, and soon after he co-founded his first startup, Kermeet, a Web-based event management. After it was acquired, he very soon started another one, acquired too, and then a third one, that is still growing. In-between co-founding companies, he was an independent software consultant helping out clients solving tough technical problems and other start-ups to take off the ground.    Since 2017, Jerome has been working at Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services, helping startups make the most of cloud technologies. When not traveling around Asia to a meet-up, he spends time running his small social enterprise helping people with autism. Follow Jerome: LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jpoudevigne/) 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/1.

"Great technical leadership requires more than just great coding skills. It requires a variety of other skills that are not well-defined." In this trailer episode, your host Henry Suryawirawan explains why he created this brand new podcast and what you can expect and learn from it. 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/0.