There’s a myriad of complexity involved in building systems. However, two decades in software engineering taught me what truly makes or breaks a system: decisions. It’s not the programming language, the data store, the deployment model, or [insert your favorite tech here]. It’s about the decisions made and the ripple effects they cause. We spend endless hours trying to keep up with the latest and greatest in an industry that sprints faster than a caffeinated cheetah... But how much time was invested in questioning, improving, or, essentially, debugging our thinking process?

How do you structure your decisions, and how do they affect the software you build? When suboptimal decisions occur, do you reflect on the decision-making process itself? I've spent the last few years debugging my decision-making thought process, placing breakpoints to inspect which assumptions got me here and what alternatives I may have missed. As a result, my thought process became much more structured and streamlined, leading to better-balanced decisions. Join me in this session to explore how critical thinking can transform our decision-making process and elevate the quality of the solutions we build for our users.

Keynote session