ELC Annual 2023

When building digital products and enhancing user experiences through AI, gathering user feedback is crucial. However, traditional methods such as surveys often aren’t enough to generate explicit feedback. In this session, Amplitude's Shadi Rostami and Dusty Pierce will explore the important role that user behavior tools play in effectively capturing user feedback and improving AI models. The audience will walk away with an understanding of the challenges associated with gathering user feedback, how user behavior data can better inform our AI models, and how organizational shifts can also be an effective tool in orienting a company around CX. In this fireside conversation, Shadi and Dusty can also share practical insights and strategies for integrating user behavior tools into the development process.

Generative AI is the "it" productivity tool of the moment, but we're still at the very early stages of incorporating it into everyday workflows. In this session, Shailesh Kumar, SVP of Engineering at ClickUp, and Kelly Ehret, Latitude, will contemplate how engineering teams can take advantage of the "Era of AI" and use it to optimize and accelerate their work. Specifically, Shailesh can share his own experience as an engineering lead at ClickUp, offering anecdotes and advice on how generative AI has helped his team work more collaboratively across departments. He will also share his perspective on encouraging more AI adoption across teams and how to measure success. Listeners will walk away from this session with a tactical understanding of how to motivate engineers to use AI in their day-to-day to achieve meaningful productivity gains.

The GenAI WAVE will dramatically alter organizational structures, your customers, the market, your team's roles and needs, and yours. Waiting to “see how it plays out” is simply not an option for leaders and companies that want to survive it. Why not lead it? Join Andrew Lau (not ChatGPT) as he discusses the evolving roles of engineering as the toolsets change, the changing demands of the engineering function as the industry leverages GenAI, case study on how CoPilot truly impacts an engineering team's productivity, the shifts in leadership requirements and skill sets from hiring to the boardroom, how to use experimentation and empirical data to learn what works for your org and what doesn’t, and why it’s more important than ever to highlight and protect innovation. Transformative technology will continue to change the world, but supporting it with empirical data is essential. And even more importantly, this is all happening right now; if you aren’t paying attention, you must.

The choice between building an in-house solution and buying from a third-party never goes away. Engineering bandwidth is precious and there’s no shortage of SaaS options promising easy deployment and big returns. In this panel, experienced leaders get together to talk about how they tackle this challenge. We’ll go beyond the obvious and share how our panelists approach these decisions and reflect on the outcomes.

For high-level engineering leaders, navigating the onboarding of new talent into a company's existing legacy codebase is a universally recognized challenge. As a critical stage, the onboarding process not only shapes the efficiency and integration speed of teams but also greatly influences the overall success of projects. This talk seeks to dissect these challenges, highlighting their impact on team productivity and organizational innovation. In this talk, I'll be your guide through the twists and turns of the codebase onboarding journey. By sharing real-life war stories and shedding light on common missteps, we’ll uncover the impact these hurdles can have on team spirit and company-wide innovation. But don't worry, it's not all doom and gloom. You'll walk away with a treasure chest of strategies, hands-on tools, and tested methods to not just survive but thrive amidst these challenges. Let's flip the script together, turning legacy codebases from a dreaded beast into a catalyst for success. This is about putting you, the leader, back in the driving seat - making onboarding a boost for your team's innovation, performance, and resilience.

Claus Moberg, VP of Engineering at Roblox, has scaled his engineering team from a group of eight to a team of 300+ in a short timespan -- all while hiring for roles and addressing technical challenges that have never been solved before. In this fireside chat, Claus will share engineering leadership lessons learned, tips for engineering leaders starting to scale their teams, and insights on how Roblox has implemented a unique, unbiased system and cognitive assessment for selecting the best technical talent.

The generative AI moment is turning traditional software development on its head, and coding as we know it today may look as obsolete as punch cards in a few short years. This session is an invitation to wild speculation: what will the work of software engineering and software project management look like in 10 or 20 years? This panel brings together seasoned technology practitioners who’ve weathered past paradigm shifts in the industry. They’ll explore other questions like: How, and how long, will humans be in the coding / testing / debugging loop? What will be the core skills for building technology (and managing technologists? What should a college freshman study next year if they aspire to be a software engineer? Will there ever be a new programming language again?

Why should you stay in startup companies your entire career? How do you identify, evaluate, and decide on the right startup opportunity? How do you navigate and endure the tumultuous operating environment? This fireside chat between serial startup engineering leader Claire Hough (CTO @ Getlabs) and Ali Irturk (VPE @ CommerceHub) covers why and how Claire stayed in startup companies for her long-standing career - we’re talking at 12+ startups! Learn how to keep the excitement, engagement, and resilience through the ups and downs of startups. Plus how to set the right goals for yourself, ask the right questions, and find the right role that enriches you throughout your career.