Leading Tech Teams in Uncertain Times

In this talk, we'll examine the global effects that force us to reason differently about how we organize and lead people; we'll go through a series of valuable skills for leaders in this new climate, especially tech leaders.

As we launch into 2024, we face endless possibilities to build for a new reality while simultaneously experiencing global uncertainty and volatility.

With two major ongoing wars, collapses of US banks, rising interest rates, and an uncertain financial climate, the question on everyone's lips is - how do we make the most of what we have? How do we take the initiative and thrive rather than just survive?

The answer might be closer than we think. 2024 can be the year tech truly moves from a support function to a strategic advantage for our business. We are standing in front of a paradigm shift where we see a possibility to let our teams go beyond pure product delivery. To realize the full potential of our teams, we first need to reshape leadership. This means building trust, leading with context, and moving from output-driven to outcome-driven work. However, the real change is in the team culture and how we view work - what can we do to create products our customers love?

To thrive in 2024, we need to maximize our chances of building the right things, which means working, thinking, and leading differently; by doing this, we can realize the full potential of our teams and create better products with the people at hand.

Coder, Coach, Catalyst - using questions to make people grow

Asking the right questions is more powerful than having the right answers. As technologists, we quickly jump into solution mode and try to help by offering solutions and sometimes even takw on other people's problems as our own.

This is not our fault; we've been trained this way. However, computer problems and people problems are often very different, and solving or taking on somebody else's problem not only burdens us but also robs them of an opportunity to grow.

If you feel like every problem in your organization or team constantly gravitates towards you, if you wonder why people just don't "learn this stuff," or if you are looking to become better at helping others grow, this talk is for you!

In "Coder, Coach, Catalyst," Martin will go over simple and essential coaching skills that help you help others grow - everything from properly listening to asking the right questions. He'll cover different formats from impromptu coaching to more formal coaching arrangements and how to use coaching skills to coach up and sideways.

Come to this talk if you are interested in making the people around you grow and excel and, in the process, create more time to work on your problems, not theirs.

7 Things Technical Leaders can Learn from Disney Princesses

When does learning really happen? Is it at work? In the classroom? At the conference?

Yes! And everywhere else. We can't shut off learning, and we can't stop ourselves from seeing the connection in everyday things.

Learning and inspiration can come from any place, so why not look at the unsung heroes - Disney Princesses and see what we can learn about leading tech teams from them?

Whether it is Raya's quest to create a united Kumandra or Rapunzle's wish to start something, there are lessons for us technical leaders hidden in the depths of the Disney movie tomb.

Join Martin for a fun and entertaining session about what I learned from watching movies, listening to songs, and role-playing princess with my daughter over the last few years.

You will get seven memorable lessons about leadership accompanied by songs (not sung by Martin) to help you remember them.

This presentation contains audio and video that takes advantage of "fair use"; however some automatic algorithms have removed it from YouTube for copyright violations .

The target audience is pretty broad but more specifically it's gauged towards people that are leading teams or have the ambition to one day do so.

The Empowered Software Engineer - unlocking engineering potential

If you or your team spend most of their time writing code, you are most likely a feature factory. The chances are that you are not using the full potential that exists in your team, and the users, are paying the price.

The best teams in the world have known for a long time that great software is not only about great code; it's also about solving the users' problem in a great way.

Becoming an empowered team or an empowered engineer means solving problems rather than shipping features. It means caring about the product, user, and strategy. And it might mean that you and your team need to learn a few new skills. It might also mean you need to rethink what your job is about.

The engineer's future is not only about code and architecture but also about design, leadership, sales, and marketing. It's about using technology to create products users love.

In this talk, we look into the mindset change and skills required to create teams of empowered software engineers.

From Human Computers to AI - the history and future of software developers

What can we learn from history to prepare ourselves for the future?

Before we had machines to do computations, we had human computers—people who sat and calculated long, complex calculations. When computers, as we understand them today, made an appearance, their profession drastically changed.

This was hardly the first time and certainly not the last time an innovation disrupted a profession. However, this disruption gave birth to the concept of the programmer, which evolved and was later rebranded as the software developer.

During the last 70 years, building software has drastically changed, and with that, the profession of the software developer has changed. We are about to change again with the emergence of generative AI and other tools. What is the next step for our profession? What will and won't be possible, and where do we need to position ourselves to keep making meaningful contributions?

In this talk, we go through the history of software development as a profession; we look at some of the major paradigm shifts that have happened historically and dig deep into what it means to be a software developer. Lastly, we look at the implications the emergence of generative AI might have on our profession and what we need to do to embrace this change fully.

This session mainly targets Software Developers but is relevant to everyone working with the production of software. It does not require any deep technical knowledge.