ELC Annual 2024

Slides available here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/17d7QqIvEEMdXAxFtgACChst5FQmlLLl8vtASlpQZxaI/preview#slide=id.g2835c5d763d_0_2481 In this preview of our upcoming Engineering Leadership Academy, engineering leaders from Jellyfish will walk us through how they equip their managers with the knowledge to select, implement, and analyze key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics. What is the “Engineering Leadership Academy?” ELC and Jellyfish have partnered with top engineering practitioners to share their best practices, skills, and leadership principles with those who aspire to build and lead world-class engineering teams in a more formalized, structured way. This course aims to develop the next wave of top-tier engineering leaders through a robust catalog of content taught by those with a wealth of technical knowledge and experience. This session is a special preview of future curriculum for the program.

Slides available here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1DsEfFML_VDXx7CFWWyb2qSCAdIaEXTnqWUPK0K-foz8/preview#slide=id.p The idea of accumulating marginal gains transformed British cycling from a century of also-ran irrelevance to a decade of world dominance, today every team in every major sport recognizes this as the table stakes of success. Software isn't a sport, but still: we can have that. A revolution of that caliber is within our grasp. But not if we're measuring CI throughput and doing surveys every six months; by then, all the decisions that matter have already been made. So let's talk about how we can see into our developer processes early, learn how to interpret those signals, and build world-beating teams out of the engineers and leaders you already have.

Early product-market fit is often difficult for start-ups to find. We’re going to talk to WorkOS and Graphite about their path to finding product-market fit.

Slides available here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/117bAKUv25nYqNyKW642V7eOCgbFjOzMiiDhD3gW5-Vs/preview#slide=id.p One of the most critical roles we can play as leaders is to provide a sense of stability to the people we support, especially in times of instability and unprecedented change. Yet we receive little to no guidance (or training) on how to do this for ourselves, let alone others. In this session, Kelly Ehret (principal coach at Latitude Consulting and former senior executive engineering leader at Dropbox, PayPal and LivingSocial) will share an innovative approach that will help you manage stress better and stay connected to the bigger picture during challenging times. We will explore simple, yet powerful strategies and tools for self regulation that will not only enhance your personal resilience, but also that of your teams, creating conditions for them to thrive in even the most challenging circumstances.

When technology evolves, market conditions shift, or goals change, your culture often needs to transform too. But how do you change culture at a massive scale to maximize the opportunities these industry shifts create? In this fireside chat, Dave Richardson (SVP of Software & Services Engineering @ GM) and Kathryn Vandiver (Former VP of Engineering @ Quanata) discuss culture change at massive scale. They’ll discuss inspiring teams regardless of size, introducing a startup subculture of speed and action in established companies, and how to keep teams focused during industry or company transformations. Plus forming high-performing teams, how to push decisions down to scale, how to be decisive and blunt while maintaining focus and inspiration within the team, and how to earn and lead with respect vs. fear. Whether you’re a startup or an established company this session will equip you with insights to help you transform and evolve your culture.

Roblox’s infrastructure currently supports nearly 200 different ML models that run in real-time, 24/7 around the world — empowering creators to build immersive 3D experiences, keeping our users safe, and helping users discover amazing experiences. Powering AI at this scale requires a massive amount of computational power, novel problem-solving, tremendous cross-team coordination, and cost-effective planning. In this fireside chat, Anupam Singh (VP of AI & Growth Engineering @ Roblox) and Maria Kazandjieva (Co-founder @ Graft) will talk about Roblox’s journey to scale AI infrastructure, tools, and features to millions of daily active users. He will also share actionable insights on how engineering leaders can most effectively: Decide when to run inference on CPUs vs GPUs Scale inference to more than 30,000 queries per second Build a stack that is portable between private and public clouds Use open source extensively to benefit from the entire community Progress from first demo to a scalable product offering

Slides available here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1QO07d1ye1u8zS2-bXXYCAZGPlvFh28WyedadCJZuzWw/preview#slide=id.g2834eff1d11_3_268 Join Andrew Lau, Co-Founder and CEO of Jellyfish, as he delves into the critical disconnect between tech engineers and executives regarding AI adoption, productivity, and burnout. Using customer benchmark data, Andrew will share insights on the REAL adoption, utilization, and impact of GenAI on engineering.

Join Marcel Weekes, VP of Engineering at Figma, for a conversation with Arquay Harris, former engineering leader at Webflow and Slack. Explore how collaborative team rituals—and tools—can create a more efficient and engaging engineering culture.

AI is transforming the way products are built, necessitating new forms of collaboration across teams and fueling a wave of product innovation. In this session with Anurag Agarwal (VPE, Google Workspace @ Google) & Lizzie Matusov (Co-founder & CEO @ Quotient) Anurag will share how he's fostering cross-functional collaboration in Google Workspace, while cultivating a culture of deep innovation in the age of AI.

Slides available here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1nabg-fr8Z_6RueiZHQDZR2GpvVEXoTW2AinkNT5n0ak/preview?usp=sharing As an engineering leader, you’ve definitely been asked by your CEO about your approach to AI and you’re already building something. This talk dives into how to reflect on early learnings and take a step back to strategically evaluate generative AI's potential within the context of your business. At FOX, Melody is responsible for crafting offensive strategies to drive AI innovation and expand FOX’s creative execution and distribution reach while also implementing defensive measures against the emergent threats to the media ecosystem. As you can imagine, there is no shortage of ideas and opinions on AI within sports, news and entertainment, but how do you prioritize the projects that matter? She’ll discuss how to use your role as a technologist to set a comprehensive AI strategy that both enables your organization to thrive and springboards you personally to operate at a higher level with a seat at the broader business table.

In this session, we explore lessons on engineering culture and operational excellence across experiences from large companies to startups with Shibani Sanan (CTO @ Ladder), Rakesh Rajan (VPE @ Rippling) & Thanos Diacakis (Software Engineering Effectiveness Coach & Technical Leader @ Cosmic Teacups)! They’ll share insights on scaling systems and platform strategy to encourage speed, innovation and to minimize dependencies. Plus perspectives on shaping culture for engineering and operational excellence covering expectations for managers, production operational reviews, rewarding excellence, prioritization and more.

LinkedIn has been using AI for more than a decade. In that time, it has seen the use of ML and AI accelerate and evolve in ways that challenge every organization, but especially a professional network that has reached 1B members and 67M companies. Generative AI has only heightened the interest in wanting to infuse AI into product experiences that must scale, which is why engineering leaders should be thinking about the foundations needed to help their companies reach a new level of impact with AI. Ya Xu (VP of Engineering, Head of Data and AI @ LinkedIn) and Melody Meckfessel (CTO @ Jasper) discuss the three foundational elements every leader should consider - Platforms, Expertise and Culture.

Security leaders Srinath Kuruvadi, Swathi Joshi & Nate Lee translate their engineering-forward security practices born from internet-scale environments to the mission critical needs of large-scale enterprises. Drawing from their rich experiences at tech innovators like Netflix, Facebook, FireEye and Google, alongside their current roles at enterprise giants JPMorgan Chase and Oracle - the discussion will dive into key areas where security and product engineering intersect, strategies for fostering a culture of shared security responsibility, and the evolution of concepts like "paved roads" for security.

This session explores the realities most engineering metrics programs face: that having the dashboards and numbers in no way guarantees success or lasting results in performance or productivity. We'll discuss when and why metrics initiatives fail, and what we can do about it as leaders to operationalize metrics and build a winning data-driven culture.

We will discuss how GenAI enables changing of processes and saves 35% of engineering time on average on top of the regular GitHub Co-Pilot savings. We will also go through how a Fortune-1,000 company was able to break through and jump from 100% manual testing and delivery every quarter to 91%+ test coverage and deployment several times a day with the help of GenAI tech.

Slides available here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1RuHo0Pfzyy8B1vQ4S2PEZuwplX3-EV5iYPLe5njglIU/preview#slide=id.p A cutting-edge approach to leadership development blends neuroscience, coaching, and consciousness-expanding tools to build new neural pathways and cultivate extraordinary leaders. By understanding and harnessing neuroplasticity, you can adapt and change your brain to more effectively absorb new information and rewire unconscious patterns that may be holding you back. This talk explores an integrated approach that combines deep coaching, meditation, and the potential of plant medicines like psilocybin to tap into expanded states of awareness. Learn how this holistic method can accelerate your journey towards becoming an exceptional leader and propel you and your team to unparalleled success. The key to unlocking your full leadership potential, elevating your team's performance, and building a highly successful 10x team lies in focusing on your own personal growth. Transforming your team begins with transforming yourself: “as goes the leader, so goes the team.” To excel as a leader, you must break free from limiting patterns and align your thoughts, feelings, and actions. As any Olympic athlete can attest, guidance from a skilled coach is essential to achieving your goals. If high-performing leaders are the athletes of the business world, why shouldn't they have coaches too? See how leadership alchemy can unleash your full potential as a transformative leader.

Slides available here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ay3AYMO1dE_kHM7avdliTcoeIpp_aad7s4DwwfEWLpM/preview#slide=id.p Selling to enterprises is notoriously difficult, particularly if you're a small startup, or even a nascent product team within an established company. Enterprises are often the ideal B2B software customer (potential for high $$, lower churn) but come with strict SLAs, extensive data governance and compliance requirements, long sales cycles, and all kinds of red tape, all of which can seem insurmountable to small, fast-moving teams. How do you successfully navigate this process as a small team? In this talk, Aditya shares his perspective on building and selling to enterprises, based on his experience founding Warrant (a highly scalable, centralized authorization service). We'll cover what matters to enterprises, what's negotiable, and how to build a strategy for success.

Slides available here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1gn6Ru0nunSjw0OqI0O3iP2LSn5gbgfWTcB6iyX9z9fY/preview#slide=id.p No-one quite knows what "Platform Engineering" is, let alone why it is now becoming a best practice. On the one hand, you have some vendors claiming that all you need is their developer portals and 4 weeks of integration. On the other hand, you have DevOps and SREs saying they have been doing it all along, and it's just a management fad. In this talk, I will cover my learnings of "what" and "why" from co-authoring a book on Platform Engineering, helping those new to the term evaluate whether they should be doing it, and for those already practising, giving you the context to better justify your value to customers.

This panel discussion covers the transformative potential of integrating AI into DevOps practices, including cutting-edge advancements, emerging trends, and practical applications of AI in automating and optimizing DevOps workflows. Whether you are a DevOps professional, a tech enthusiast, or a business leader, this session will equip you with the knowledge to navigate and thrive in the future of intelligent automation. Join Venkat Thiruvengadam (Founder & CEO @ DuploCloud) & panelists as they explore the intersection of Artificial Intelligence and DevOps.

True success in any workplace requires a commitment to our people. Pedro Canahuati (CTO @ 1Password) and Sue Nallapeta (CTO @ Trusted Health) will discuss how fostering happiness and emotional investment in work amongst engineering teams is vital for crafting exceptional products. Pedro will share ways to unlock happiness and engagement in engineering teams, uncover individual motivations, strategies to boost team engagement, and nurture a culture that embraces risk, failure, and exploration. You'll learn how to apply specific tactics to increase employee engagement, such as holding AMAs and conducting open and blameless postmortems after incidents.

Building, retaining and growing diverse teams is critical to creating the strongest organizations. Learn why and how to build strong teams from the start, how to retain and grow diverse teams, and ways to grow your own career as an engineering leader with Mikaela Smith (Fractional Head of People @ The New Club) and Nancy Wang (former Director of Product & Engineering / GM @ AWS). Presented in partnership with The New Club, a members-only network of 1,700+ women in engineering connecting members with the community and careers to excel.

Slides available here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1qhQXirB44fCtWemnqrzTJS4ANnCe8vj5xr7GU2bhO8c/preview#slide=id.p When your CFO starts talking about “COGS, margin, Rule of 40, Quick Ratio, ARR, revenue etc…” how does engineering fit into this? In this session, Jayesh Sureshchandra (VPE @ Carta) helps us bridge the gap between finance and engineering! Engineering spend often represents a significant part of a company's budget and is especially important now in today’s non-ZIRP environment. You’ll learn how to comprehend different financial metrics, recognize their trends as your company evolves, and understand how strategic decisions within engineering can influence these numbers.

Despite the prevalence of frameworks like DORA and SPACE, measuring and reporting on productivity is still a difficult challenge for engineering leaders. Join this discussion with Abi Noda (CEO @ DX) and Sridhar Ramakrishnan (Senior Director, Developer Experience & Productivity @ Slack) to learn about the just launched DX Core 4, a unified framework for measuring productivity–from the boardroom to frontline managers–and the backstory of how it was created.

From optimizing tools and workflows to the overall environment, DevEx can streamline processes, reduce friction, and improve job satisfaction. During this panel, we will explore DevEx's benefits, reveal its potential to boost efficiency and discuss how to foster innovation across engineering organizations.

Join our expert panel as we delve into the essential communication strategies that underpin successful incident management. We will explore key strategies to streamline communication flow, share insights on applying these tactics across various functions, and discuss best practices for maintaining clear and decisive communication. This session will not only equip you with the tools to enhance your communication capabilities in incident management, but prepare you to be a more effective communicator in your organization’s most critical moments.

In the rapidly evolving tech landscape, speed & adaptation are key. In this panel discussion, you’ll learn how to assess, build, and adapt high-performing engineering teams fast. Plus, strategies for upskilling and reskilling your teams to respond to new demands. You’ll walk away ready to future-proof your teams and confidently navigate the dynamic tech environment.

Leading engineering teams in 2024 & beyond looks a whole lot different than it did just a few years ago: ai skill proficiency & tool availability, remote/hybrid work environments, and economic turbulence have completely changed the game when it comes to building & scaling high-performing engineering orgs. This panel brings together a seasoned group of senior engineering leaders from Rippling, Slack, Descript, and Hydrolix who have seen it all. We’ll go deep into how they’re navigating these changes today and share actionable insights to help today’s leaders prepare for a very different future.

The best possible outcome for SW teams is to ensure they deliver customer capabilities that matter. In this session we will discuss how to create complete alignment of organizational goals to the stories and sprints of the day to day SW teams. We will also discuss the reality that nearly 1/2 of all software built is rarely or never used and strategies to avoid this unfortunate situation.

In this discussion, panelists will share personal experiences with career biases and the tools they used to overcome them. Audience participation will be key as we discuss and collaboratively find solutions to the biases attendees have faced or are facing. Join us for an engaging and solution-focused conversation! ELC & SheTO are partnering together to support the leadership and career growth of women in engineering leadership! Join us for a special morning gathering on day 2 of ELC Annual for networking and a panel discussion covering strategies to overcome biases. You’ll have the opportunity to build relationships, share insights & gain support with other women in engineering leadership in the SheTO & ELC communities!

Aligning priorities is crucial in any organization, since having people pursue different objectives leads to waste and failure. However, we see many instances of organizations developing their business strategy in isolation from the technology organization. We also see many instances of architecture groups within technology making decisions while not being connected with the teams actually delivering the technology solutions. In this session, Chad Wathington (Chief Strategy Officer @ Thoughtworks) and Kathleen Vignos (VP of Software Engineering @ Capitol One) will describe various strategies for resolving these misalignments, including building a technology strategy that aligns with the business strategy. Strategies such as these give visibility into the rationale behind the decisions, the risks to achieving the overall business goals, and the tradeoffs that are necessary to achieve the goals holistically.