Speaker

Daniel Davis

Daniel Davis

ELEV8ED - Founder, Partner, Lead Consultant

Detroit, Michigan, United States

Daniel Davis serves as the founder, a partner and lead consultant at ELEV8ED, a distinguished firm dedicated to elevating the impact of technology on organizational business value. With a wealth of experience specializing in Business Improvement, particularly within the technology domain, Daniel has cultivated a diverse professional background spanning the e-commerce, financial, automotive, insurance, judicial, logistics, and scholastic industries.

As a seasoned information technology professional, Daniel excels in enterprise Agile/Lean Adoption, Strategic Business/IT Portfolio Management, Coaching (Leadership, Team, XP, Agile/Lean), Business Intelligence, Data, AI/ML, and XP/Clean Code Development Practices. Over the past nearly three decades, Daniel has engaged in various roles, showcasing his versatility as a Executive Consultant, CEO, CTO, Director, Lean Startup Coach, Delivery Lead, Product Manager, Developer, Designer, Multi-Media Marketer, and Photographer.

Daniel's overarching passion lies in helping both businesses and individuals to unearth authentic and meaningful value in their endeavors. His commitment to driving excellence in the business and technology realms has positioned him as a respected leader and catalyst for positive organizational evolution.

Area of Expertise

  • Information & Communications Technology
  • Business & Management

Our Code, Their Code, Low Code, No Code

With so many options for getting our product code created and to market these days, how do we know what's best for our organizations? In this session we will explore each of these code approaches to better understand them, then dig into each to explore their advantages and disadvantages. Then finally we'll use all that new intel to look into if we might be able to make some changes around our own coding practices, which we can bring back to our teams to help us get to market faster and with less spend/effort.

Your Career Is Wacked & Why That's OK

This thought provoking session takes an in depth look at the wacky thing called a career in the ever evolving technological world. First, it explores how modern processes and practices fit into the the mix and whether it's for the better or for the worse. Then it illustrates how the career path has changed over the years and offers a perspective on what it might be like in the future. Lastly, it highlights some of the current concerns and what can be done to ultimately achieve success over the long haul. It's possible you could walk away with more questions than answers from this session, as it pushes you to explore just how messed up your tech career really is and if you should even really care!

The best code, is the code never written.

In the modern realms of software where getting to market fast and with minimal issues is a must in order to stay competitive, we need all the advantages we can get. One such advantage is to limit the amount of actual code produced and shipped. During this session we'll explore some of the practices, tips and tricks for helping you avoid writing the code that you never knew you didn't need.

Knowing When To Move On & Find Something New

Per the wise advice of the Gambler - "...know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em, know when to walk away, and know when to run." Whether you are all in and committed to a full time position or rolling the dice as an independent, this session is going to help you always walk away a winner. Not only will you gain expertise in identifying the signs that indicate it's time to leave, but you'll also learn how to take positive and constructive steps forward based on them. Additionally you'll acquire some helpful (perhaps not quite legal in casinos) tips and tricks to making sure you have a poker table full of folks ready to wager on you in the event the game goes south and you need a back up plan.

Is everybody lost? What's with all the Mapping Tools?

There are so many mapping tool options nowadays. You've got "Value Mapping", "Journey Mapping", "Story Mapping", "User Mapping", "Experience Mapping" and thats naming a handful of them. How do you know which is the right one, for the right purpose, at the right time. In this pre-compiler session we'll take an in-depth look at each of the most popular mapping tools to better understand their differences. We'll also take some time along the way to actually build an example of each to get a real life feel for them. Expect to walk away with a new set of honed mapping tools to lead on your next business/software adventure.

Data Booby Traps

Just like in the movie The Goonies, where the character Data is always dealing with "booby traps" (whether intentionally or unintentionally), we too always seem to be struggling with the same in our ever evolving new world of all things data. Join in this session to explore some of the data booby traps that are plaguing our current organizations, products and systems (also intentionally or unintentionally). Then stick around to hear some solutions which may help us from getting caught in them ourselves. Who knows, they may even save us from facing the same fate of Chester Copperpot.

Complacency - A Silent Code Killer

As writing high quality clean code has started to become more the standard for software, we are now starting to face a whole new area of trouble and concern within our code. Similar to some of those other dynamics of clean code, this new threat also stems from us humans who do the creating of it. Join in this discussion as we explore what complacency in code looks like, how you go about acknowledging it and how we can go about fixing it, in past code, present code and future code.

Common Characteristics of the Greatest Developers

This session takes a deep dive exploration into the common characteristics of the greatest developers of last century. As well as learning who the best of the best are, you can expect to cover a wide range of topics, from old school habits, to new school tricks, from wacky hacks, to vetted practices. Plan to leave with some new found insight into aspects you can put directly into your own work, all in hopes that you too can become one of the all time greats.

Code Is Easy, Humans Are Hard

When it comes to software these days code is becoming more and more the easy part. Just think of all the options you have when it comes to languages, tools, and sites to visit for learning or questions. In this session we’ll take a deep dive into exploring the human characteristics behind good software development and learn how we can better support them, both for within ourselves and our organizations for improved future success.

clean != easy || cheap

High quality clean code doesn't come easy and it certainly isn't cheap. Anyone that has attempted to shift towards a "cleaner code" approach can assert that it is usually challenging to say the least. In this session we'll review the top characteristics of clean code, look at what it takes to get it there, and go over what it might cost us along the way. We'll also discuss the payoffs this will bring us in both the near term and over the long haul if done correctly. If high quality clean code is something you find yourself striving for, then this is a session for you.

Complacency - A Silent Product Killer

Since writing high quality clean code has finally stared to become the standard for how our products get created, we are now starting to face a whole new area of concern. Similar to some of the other dynamics which lead to lesser quality products, this new threat also stems from us humans who do the creating of it. Join in this discussion as we explore what complacency in our products looks like, how we can go about acknowledging it, and then examine ways we can go about fixing it. Whether it's in past, present and/or future products, be wary of this silent killer lurking in the shadows.

Daniel Davis

ELEV8ED - Founder, Partner, Lead Consultant

Detroit, Michigan, United States