Sustaining the Engineering Culture in Hyper Growth

Why do new teams often repeat the old mistakes? In hyper growth phases, the valuable lessons of a core team can get lost, leading new hires into avoidable errors. Standardized 'How we work' training seldom translates into deep understanding, as true comprehension requires witnessing these practices in action. Moreover, rigid processes can stifle innovation, conserving ineffective practices and losing valuable ones.

In this session, I'll unveil the story behind an internal Bootcamp I developed at a previous company, crafted not just to familiarize new engineers with our systems but to deeply immerse them in our core practices and principles. This approach ensured the preservation of our culture's integrity even amidst rapid scaling. It's a story not just about growth but about growing correctly. Attendees, whether leaders in burgeoning startups or engineers in expanding teams, will gain practical strategies for nurturing a vibrant culture at every growth stage, without sacrificing innovation to standardized procedures.

Talks similar to this one were presented previously by me, but this is a new improved take on the topic.

The previous version was voted second best talk at Clean Code Days Munich 2017

I implemented Game of Life 100+ times! Let's explore the 3 most interesting takes...

Explore a mind bending feature of functional programming, how you can easily get started with GPU programming, and learn about under appreciated SQL features that you didn't know you need.

Having facilitated code retreats for years, I’ve witnessed a myriad of solutions to a single, seemingly straightforward problem: Conway’s Game of Life. While varying constraints often lead to different approaches, the most intriguing aspect lies in the valuable lessons these solutions impart, shaping our programming practices for years to come. Join me as we delve into three distinct implementations of this captivating problem. If you join me for this session, you'll have 3 new tools under your belt to write code that impress your colleagues.

Presented only once at Heapcon, Belgrade

How to sell a big refactor or rewrite to the business?

In the world of software development, dealing with legacy code is often a necessary evil, especially for successful, fast-growing companies. But how do we tackle this challenge smartly? This talk delves into the often-misunderstood realm of large-scale refactoring and rewrites, presenting a nuanced approach that contrasts with the traditional 'never rewrite' dogma.

We'll delve into real-world case studies where companies have successfully navigated their technical debt, uncovering crucial insights. Specifically, we will identify two key properties of these successful rewrites that can make or break your efforts. Understanding these properties enables us to strategically manage technical debt without losing our competitive edge. This session is not just a theoretical discussion but a practical guide, concluding with a systematic approach for your team's refactor or rewrite projects.

The Microservices Problem No One Warned Us About (And How You Can Avoid It)

Tired of firefighting when a downstream service throws a curveball? We were too, so we figured out a way to build microservices that expect the unexpected. In this talk, I'll share our journey from fragile systems to an architecture where resilience is the norm, not the exception.

Get an honest glimpse into our early microservices struggles – how our initial approaches led to chaos, and the breakthrough architectural pattern that changed everything.

This talk isn’t just a war story; it’s a blueprint for resilience. You'll walk away with a crucial pattern that you can immediately apply to your systems, turning potential disasters into manageable events, and achieve a 99.999% uptime.

Lean Poker: Master Short Lead Times

Under pressure to deliver more, faster? This Workshop Is for You!

Lean Poker isn't a traditional training; instead, it puts you and your team in the heart of the action, competing to create the best poker bot on the market. This dynamic, hands-on experience helps you explore the true value of agility, DevOps, and short lead times in a fast-paced environment, providing a level of understanding that traditional training can't match.

While coding, Ivett—the creator of Lean Poker, with over 15 years of experience in the software industry as both an engineer and a leader—will be there to spotlight growth opportunities and offer actionable advice to boost your team's effectiveness.

You Will Gain:
- Hands-on experience with deploying, seeking out immediate feedback, and iterating.
- The ability to quickly adopt to changing market demands and project requirements and with less stress.
- An understanding of your current most important growth opportunities.
- Actionable advice on how you can help your team deliver more impact and gain a competitive advantage.

This workshop is ideal for software engineers and engineering leaders feeling the burn of relentless demands, as well as agile or technical coaches seeking impactful ways to foster team development.

Lean Poker offers a holistic view, highlighting areas for personal and team growth and demonstrating what effective software development truly looks like. The over 100 events across 4 contents have already transformed the working style of thousands of engineers worldwide, showcasing the universal value and adaptability of this gamified approach to education.

Lean Poker isn't just about doing; it's about learning to do better, faster, and with less stress.

- Hands on workshop, and requires a minimum of 6 hours.
- This is what I do for a living, so I charge for this session, won’t run it for free. However I’m open to revenue sharing if you’d like to mitigate risk.

Writing Code Isn't Your Job

With the rise of AI, many claim that software engineers will soon be obsolete, replaced by machines that can write code faster, cheaper, and better. But software engineering is far more than just converting ideas into code. In this talk, we’ll explore the critical nuances that the "AI will replace software engineers" narrative misses. The truth is, we already have a tool that turns detailed requirement documents into executable programs: it’s called a compiler. The true value of a software engineer goes beyond tasks that AI has made simpler. So, if writing code isn’t your job, what is? And how can you ensure you stay relevant in an evolving field? Join me to discover why you’re far more irreplaceable than the AI hype suggests.