Tech Lead Journal

“A Tech Lead is a person with a technical background, typically an engineer who is leading a team and particularly responsible and accountable for their technical direction." Patrick Kua is a seasoned technology leader and is passionate about accelerating the growth and success of tech organizations and technical leaders. Before going independent recently, Pat was the CTO and Chief Scientist of N26 (Berlin, Germany), where he transformed the early stage startup culture and led the Product & Technology teams for hypergrowth. Before N26, Pat spent 13+ years in ThoughtWorks as a Technical Principal Consultant, where he researched deep into the Tech Lead role and became a thought leader about it. Pat is a frequent keynote and conference speaker and also an author. In this episode, I had an amazing learning conversation with Pat about the Tech Lead role and discussed deep with him on what it takes to become a good Tech Lead. Pat also shared his journey as a CTO and Chief Scientist of N26, the challenges he faced there and what he did to transform the Product & Technology teams to align for hypergrowth. This is one of those conversations you definitely not want to miss to learn how to become a great technical leader! Listen out for: What Pat is up to - [00:04:22] Pat’s career journey - [00:07:37] Tech Lead definition - [00:16:46] Why Pat is interested about Tech Leads - [00:18:02] Tech Lead attributes - [00:21:58] Effective Tech Lead - [00:26:12] Examples of Tech Lead measures - [00:29:53] Tech Lead business angle - [00:36:27] Pat’s N26 story as a CTO - [00:38:51] How Pat grew N26 engineering team - [00:44:03] How Pat balanced his responsibility and time as a CTO - [00:51:10] Target Operating Model (TOM) - [00:53:05] Why Pat switched to become a Chief Scientist in N26 - [00:57:58] Tech Lead resources - [00:59:38] Pat’s 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [01:01:05] _____ Patrick Kua’s Bio Patrick Kua is a seasoned technology leader with almost 20 years of experience. 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 and as a Technical Principal Consultant at ThoughtWorks. He is a frequent keynote and conference speaker, author of three books, and runs the free popular newsletter for leaders in tech, “Level Up” and the “Tech Lead Academy“, offering training for technical leaders, or running his very popular “Shortcut to Tech Leadership“ workshop. Follow Pat: Website – https://patkua.com LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/patkua/ Twitter – https://twitter.com/patkua Our Sponsors Are you a startup in software development which is less than 5 years old? If yes, our sponsor at JetBrains has a 50% startup discount offer which allows Startups to purchase multiple products and subscriptions for up to 10 unique licenses over a period of months. To find out more, go to https://www.jetbrains.com/store/startups. Like this episode? 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/9.

“There is no permanent failure and there is no guarantee of success either. What you define as success, what you define as failure is just a definition." Sau Sheong is the CEO of SP Digital, an energytech company, part of SP Group, the leading energy utility in Asia Pacific and one of Singapore’s largest corporations. In this episode, Sau Sheong shared with me about the digital transformation journey that he embarked in SP Digital, including some success and failure stories. His achievements during this transformation journey led him to winning the “Executive of the Year for Utilities” award at SBR Management Excellence Awards 2019. Sau Sheong also shared his interesting career journey from being a software engineer, to being a CTO, and to becoming a CEO in SP Digital. Sau Sheong has written multiple programming books, and he mentioned what drives him to write those books, and why he is also very active in the tech communities. Don’t miss his sharing on some unique experiences that he had with his readers! Listen out for: Sau Sheong’s unconventional career journey from being a software engineer to becoming a CEO - [00:04:36] How SP Digital went through digital transformation - [00:09:49] Why Sau Sheong took up SP Digital CEO role - [00:25:05] Some failure stories during SP Digital digital transformation - [00:26:33] Sau Sheong’s personal awards and recognitions - [00:29:57] Why Sau Sheong dedicates his time for community contributions - [00:32:18] Sau Sheong’s writing passion and why he likes writing, including authoring books - [00:35:47] Sau Sheong’s Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:40:06] _____ Chang Sau Sheong’s Bio Sau Sheong runs SP Digital, the digital business subsidiary of SP Group. In his 25 years of industry experience, he has lead engineering teams at PayPal, Yahoo, and HP to build software products. He was previously a co-founder in a software company and was involved in startups for more than 10 years. He is active and contributes to many technology communities in Singapore and Southeast Asia (especially Go and Ruby) and has written 4 programming books. Sau Sheong has a bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering and a Masters in Commercial Law. Follow Sau Sheong: LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/sausheong Twitter – https://twitter.com/sausheong Website – http://sausheong.github.io/ Our Sponsors This episode is brought to you by JetBrains. Are you a startup in software development which is less than 5 years old? If yes, our sponsor at JetBrains has a 50% startup discount offer which allows Startups to purchase multiple products and subscriptions for up to 10 unique licenses over a period of months. To find out more, go to https://www.jetbrains.com/store/startups. 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/8.

“Continuous Integration is when you are integrating with the other developers on the code base as soon as possible. Continuous Delivery is when your code is in a deployable state and functionally correct." In this episode, I had a long deep conversation with Sriram Narayanan (Ram for short), a Principal Consultant at ThoughtWorks Singapore. Ram is one of my mentors and someone that I always enjoy listening to for all his wisdom and vast amount of experience in the industry. Ram has an illustrious versatile career, successfully transforming his role repeatedly, from being a developer, build & release engineer, system administrator, Agile consultant, and recently Continuous Delivery consultant. We discussed in depth about what Continuous Delivery is, including several important concepts in the DevOps world, such as Testing Pyramid, Value Stream Map, and Segregation of Duty. Ram also gave his valuable tips on how to become a successful consultant and how to manage client stakeholders well. We also touched on a few fun discussions on how one should keep up with the rapid changes in technology and deal with a plethora of industry buzzwords. Do not miss the insightful archery analogy anecdote in our conversation! Listen out for: Ram’s career journey and how he progressed in ThoughtWorks - [00:05:14] What Continuous Delivery is - [00:20:50] What Testing Pyramid is - [00:38:34] Ram’s view on “buzzword driven development” - [00:48:07] Why and how one should keep up with technologies - [00:53:27] Importance of Value Stream Map and Segregation of Duty - [01:02:41] How to be a successful consultant and deal with imposter syndrome - [01:17:55] Tips on managing stakeholders - [01:24:40] Ram’s 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [01:31:15] _____ Sriram Narayanan’s Bio Sriram “Ram” Narayanan has worked for 24 odd years in the IT and non-IT in various roles and capacities. He has run his own businesses, and has helped others succeed in theirs. He is a self-taught programmer and enjoys learning all the time. In his professional capacity, he currently helps customers on their journey to Continuous Delivery. In his personal time, he is working on a book on Continuous Delivery, and is a student of approaches to reverse climate change. Follow Sriram: Website – https://www.sriramnarayanan.com LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/sriramnrn GitHub – https://github.com/sriramnrn Our Sponsors Are you a startup in software development which is less than 5 years old? If yes, our sponsor at JetBrains has a 50% startup discount offer which allows Startups to purchase multiple products and subscriptions for up to 10 unique licenses over a period of months. To find out more, go to https://www.jetbrains.com/store/startups. 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/7.

“The thing about becoming a Tech Influencer is, content is Queen and consistency, quality and value matter. That’s the trifecta of creating content that sticks." In this episode, I had a fun conversation with Stephanie Wong, a Developer Advocate from Google Cloud. Stephanie is well known for her online developer contents ranging from YouTube videos, podcast and blog posts. She also hosts her own YouTube channel called “Steph You Should Know” where she talks about career, tech and productivity tips. Stephanie shared her story on how she started in technology even without technology education background and what led her to her current role. She also shared great tips on public speaking, storytelling, building a personal brand, and CV writing. She also gave her view on how to empower women to thrive in technology and dealing with imposter syndrome. Listen out for: Stephanie’s career journey and how she started in tech - [00:03:31] What DevRel is - [00:08:29] How to be a good Tech Influencer - [00:16:04] Tips on public speaking - [00:21:04] Importance of storytelling - [00:25:23] Tips on career advice and personal branding - [00:29:43] Women in technology and imposter syndrome - [00:33:28] Interesting DevRel experience - [00:40:29] Stephanie’s 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:42:18] _____ Stephanie Wong’s Bio Stephanie Wong is a speaker, writer, and architect with a mission to blend storytelling and technology to create remarkable online developer content. She is the creator of the Google Cloud Youtube series Networking End-to-End, Kubeflow 101, and Eyes on Enterprise, and the host of Google’s Next onAir broadcast. Before Google she helped businesses implement cloud technologies at Oracle. Born and raised in San Francisco, Stephanie’s active in her community, supporting women in tech and mentoring students. She hosts her own Youtube Channel called “Steph You Should Know” where you’ll find career, tech, and productivity tips and advice. She’s a former pageant queen, Hip Hop dance gold medalist, and has an unhealthy obsession with dogs. Follow Stephanie: Twitter – https://twitter.com/swongful LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/swongful/ Medium – https://medium.com/@swongful Website – https://www.stephrwong.com/ Our Sponsors Are you a startup in software development which is less than 5 years old? If yes, our sponsor at JetBrains has a 50% startup discount offer which allows Startups to purchase multiple products and subscriptions for up to 10 unique licenses over a period of months. To find out more, go to https://www.jetbrains.com/store/startups. 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/6.

"With Infrastructure as Code, you’re not trying to kind of reverse engineer or understand what ended up somehow onto each system, you’re actually saying, this is how the system is built and because it’s built from that code. So there is no difference." In this episode, I had an in-depth discussion with Kief Morris, the author of the O’Reilly “Infrastructure as Code” book. We started from what is Infrastructure as Code and why we should implement this important concept for managing our infrastructure, especially in the cloud era. We also discussed Infrastructure as Code principles, patterns, anti-patterns, pipeline, testing, and also recent new tools in this space. Kief also mentioned about his upcoming 2nd edition of the Infrastructure as Code book and what new changes that he is introducing. Do not miss our Pet vs Cattle discussion! Listen out for: Kief’s career journey and how he started doing infrastructure as code - [00:03:22] How Kief got into writing Infrastructure as Code Book - [00:07:24] What is Infrastructure as Code and why - [00:10:35] Pet vs Cattle - [00:18:56] Infrastructure as Code principles & patterns - [00:20:15] Automation fear - [00:27:06] Refactoring infrastructure code - [00:30:49] Infrastructure as Code pipeline & testing - [00:36:17] Pulumi and CDK - [00:48:29] Infrastructure as Code anti-pattern example - [00:50:07] 2nd edition of Infrastructure as Code book - [00:51:40] Infrastructure as Code reverse engineering - [00:53:40] Kief’s 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:55:02] _____ Kief Morris’s Bio Kief is a Global Director of Cloud Engineering at ThoughtWorks. He enjoys helping organisations adopt cloud age technologies and practices. This usually involves buzzwords like cloud, digital platforms, infrastructure automation, DevOps, and Continuous Delivery. Originally from Tennessee, Kief has been building teams to deliver software as a service in London since the dotcom days. He is the author of “Infrastructure as Code”, published by O’Reilly. Follow Kief: Twitter (https://twitter.com/kief/) LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/kiefmorris/) GitHub (https://github.com/kief/) Website (http://kief.com/) 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/5.

"With the kind of security breaches and attacks that we are witnessing in this era, it becomes of prior importance that we prioritize security at the top." In this episode, I am joined by Neha Malhotra who has recently been awarded one of the Top 20 Women in Cybersecurity in Singapore 2020. Neha is deeply passionate about cybersecurity and has an extensive experience in driving initiatives across multiple cybersecurity domains. She is also very active in the cybersecurity community groups and kindly volunteers her time to promote cybersecurity awareness to more people and also to champion for women in cybersecurity and technology. Listen out for: How Neha won the Top 20 Women in Cybersecurity in Singapore 2020 - [00:03:03] Some important security practices for one and all in the current digital world - [00:07:23] Why Neha is interested in cybersecurity - [00:10:45] How one can transition into cybersecurity - [00:15:16] Why Neha is active in doing community contribution and volunteering - [00:21:01] Neha’s message for women in technology - [00:23:08] Discussion on security trade-off, social media, and fake news - [00:31:27] Neha’s 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:37:21] _____ Neha Malhotra’s Bio Neha Malhotra is a passionate information & cyber security enthusiast, and she has recently been recognized as one of the Top 20 Women in Cybersecurity in Singapore. She works as a Cybersecurity Program Manager and volunteers to serve as a Communications Director on the Exco board of (ISC)²Singapore chapter, & is actively involved with the Singapore community across initiatives driven by Cybersecurity Agency of Singapore, (ISC)², WoSec Singapore, AISP (Association of Information Security Professionals), Division Zero, Cyber Risk Meetups, Google Developers Space. She was on the Judges Panel for The CyberSecurity Awards (TCA) 2019. Neha holds CISSP, CISM, PMP certifications and is currently researching on cloud, container security, blockchain security and IoT security. Follow Neha: LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/nehamalhotrapm/) 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/4.

“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.