Category: Leadership
How Readability Reduces Errors in Judgment
No small number of keystrokes have been spent enumerating the whys and hows of writing readable code. Readability improves the developer experience and makes seeing potential issues much easier. We might even say that by writing readable code, we reduce errors in judgment. To illustrate the point, let’s consider the following example of using the…
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The Life of the Product Owner
Life is a funny thing; I fell into a product manager role several years ago and, in the process, inherited the role of product owner (PO). As of late, I have found myself providing guidance on what it means to be a product owner to various organizations of different sizes and products. The common theme…
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Experimentation: In Support of “Be the Change You Seek”
At Don’t Panic Labs, we regularly lean into our four core values: Change has, and always will be, a constant. There is immense power when we can channel that force. To that end, I initiated a “meta experiment” around defining a process to track, check in on, and amplify the effects of improvements at Don’t…
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Have You Ever Jumped Out of a Plane?
In 2016, I was in Colorado attending a wedding. While at the wedding, my wife’s cousin mentioned he planned to go skydiving in the morning and invited any family members who wanted to join him. Without hesitation, I said, “I’m in!” The next morning, I found myself in a car heading to the Mile-Hi skydiving…
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A Model for Team Decision-Making
Every day, we face many different decisions. Some are small, while others have the potential to impact the course of our lives. We strive to make the best decisions we can and in the most efficient ways possible. Much of what I learned in college regarded making decisions as an individual—seeking out information, weighing pros…
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Reflections on Attending the Kansas City Developer Conference (KCDC 2024)
The Kansas City Developer Conference (KCDC) consists of a full day of participatory workshops, two days full of talks, an evening mixer, a whole lot of sponsor booths, some regretful karaoke, great barbeque, great bars, and at least one actual magician. Today, we’re talking about my attendance at the 15th annual KCDC, held June 26th…
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The SWEBOK and Its Applications for Software Developers
Musings On Career Development in Software I have spent a fair amount of time over the last 5-10 years thinking about how our industry views and supports professional development. My own journey has given me an opportunity to see and experience what it takes to go from no education (other than a FORTRAN class in…
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Challenges Women in STEM are Facing Today
Earlier this month, I attended the Nebraska Women in STEM conference in Omaha, and it was my first time experiencing it. I wanted to share a few thoughts with others regarding the conference. First, seeing so many women in one place was powerful; the second observation I had was that whether it was intentional or…
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Getting to the Core
During a recent 1-on-1, I was asked about how I developed my ability to summarize thoughts succinctly and how that person could develop that skill as well. The question candidly caught me a little off guard. The question came from a recent meeting where a partner had spent a solid 5-10 minutes outlining the challenges…
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A Snapshot of Software Developer Maturity and Non-coding Skills
What skills and knowledge are developers lacking? How do developers view their current skill sets? How do we help developers add to their toolbox of skills? How can we promote better software engineering practices? At a time when qualified development talent is at a premium, any organization with a development team must be asking these…
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