Set Your Sights High - Managing Up For Your Team

Management is at its core the traits that it takes to organize a team to achieve a common goal. That privilege usually goes to someone with the title ‘manager’ but in non-hierarchical rapidly scaling teams that is usually not the case. Everyone manages something in their scope that requires the support from your team and those above you in the org chart.

Starting from your sphere of control you can help explain the constraints of a given situation and identify what is within and outside your sphere of control. From this starting point we can fully communicate what you need from all facets of your team and organization. You can provide better support by elaborating your constraints and negotiating the efforts in making a successful project delivery. This talk will lead you through all the essentials of how to support your team and organizational goals by managing up to those who can benefit from your knowledge, managing sideways to team members and being receptive to the directives of others.

Key Takeaways:

Knowing what is and what isn’t in your control
Explaining constraints in your scope and communicating that to management
Delivering and Receiving lateral communication and feedback from other teams
Establishing yourself as a subject matter expert that people in your organization feel comfortable listening to for advice and working with at any level in the org chart

Keywords
management, scaling, discovery, agile, distributed teams, productivity,

How is your talk relevant to our audience?
Managing up can apply to anyone from junior developers to seasoned project managers since communicating goals and objectives is everyone’s responsibility. This is especially true for people with subject matter expertise that need to explain constraints and critical information to other members of their group who may not have that knowledge. In fast growing companies that kind of communication can help avoid bottlenecks in project planning and support mutual cooperation as everyone is empowered to provide feedback on a project. The audience at LeadDev can definitely benefit from that knowledge since controlling every aspect of a project is exhausting and unproductive.

Beyond Blueprints: Building the Future of Cities with Python, Blender, and Generative AI

Digital Tools can empower engineers and architects to push boundaries, save time, and unlock new possibilities. Come discover how Python, Blender, and AI can transform our cities with practical applications by showcasing how these tools can transform engineer and architecture projects. Come get a sneak peak into their potential for urban development to make a better world.

Key Takeaways:

How Scripting Design calculations in Python directly to Blender improves design efficiency
Understand design iterations with algorithms, maximizing efficiency and material usage.
See how AI-powered rendering to take a simple sketch and make for an immersive visual
Explore how AI and game engines test real-world conditions virtual models, ensuring integrity and sustainability.

Seeing is Believing: Solve Communication Gaps with the Lost Art of Diagrams

This talk is about communicating with visuals to make complex ideas simple to understand. Over the years I have produced diagrams, charts, illustrations and other graphics to help people understand sophisticated project concepts. This includes project architecture, standard operating procedures, coding concepts, sprints and roadmaps.

You will be guided through ways of how to make stylized examples of your project code and workflows in easy to follow examples. By using common software for illustrations along with some simple guidelines you too can make easy to follow visual content for your next project.

Understand how to make your technical documentation into visual graphics with diagram design style guides

See examples of how to take technical documentation and create an intuitive diagram of it to share

Come away with an ability to execute a simple (or sophisticated) graphic with essential steps and key requirements

The Road Atlas: Visual Storytelling with Roadmaps

Most people are visual learners who absorb information from visual aides (diagrams, images, compositions, charts) which helps us map that content in our minds. Everyone can benefit from seeing the ‘grand vision’ as a starting point for product launches. The problem is our conventional methods of learning are usually focused on text which may not resonate with people trying to get a sense of what they will be getting into.

One way to address the need to convey critical information to a group who may be visually biased in their learning is to use illustrations like Roadmaps. A Roadmap is a great way to showcase ideas, products and resonate with your team what the big plans are. Beyond just a simple chart or diagram they can be useful as communication documents to align all stakeholders and get ready to dive into the details. Learn what is possible with using an illustrative Roadmap to tell a story and inform your team on all the critical details in an intuitive and fun way.