LeadDev's PriorityZero

Matt Boyle, an engineering manager at Cloudflare, joins the show to talk about joining the tech giant during the pandemic, how that influences his management style, and the vital importance of regular retrospectives. 06:00 The difference between working at big and small companies 09:00 The terrifying transition from IC to manager 15:00 The vital importance of retrospectives 18:00 Managing distributed teams and the importance of asynchronous work 21:00 Matt's Priority Zero: Ensuring high availability 24:00 The importance of continuous improvement after incidents Matt's recommendation: Acquired podcast

Dan Blundell, Engineering Director at Gymshark, joins the show to talk about his journey from an aspiring musician to self-taught developer. He reflects on his experiences in the public sector, including working on the UK's Covid-19 test and trace application, and his transition to the fast-growing retailer Gymshark, where he has learned the importance of understanding business needs, hiring for culture, and the significance of maintaining leadership capacity during periods of rapid change. 00:00 The MySpace years and discovering the spark 09:00 Becoming an accidental manager 12:00 Lessons learned from the public sector 15:00 The fear of joining Gymshark and navigating leadership challenges 21:00 The importance of understanding business needs 24:00 Dan's Priority Zero: Scaling at Gymshark 27:00 Hiring for culture and values Dan's recommendation: The Engineering Leader by Cate Huston

Director of Engineering at Trainline, Gary Stevens, joins the show to talk about the role of machine learning in the travel booking experience, the importance of engagement as an engineering leader, and mentoring vs coaching. 00:00 Gary's journey to director of engineering and learning from great managers 09:00 Coaching vs. mentoring 13:00 The importance of engagement in engineering and the importance of celebrating good work 21:00 Machine learning and the future of travel user experiences Gary's recommendation: The Hard Fork podcast

Alicia Collymore, a Senior Engineering Manager at Incident.io joins the show to chat about entering the industry without a formal computer science degree, transitioning from tech lead to management, setting goals for people who don't want them, and her priority zero of a big Microsoft Teams integration. 03:10 From self-learning to getting her big break 06:00 Transitioning from Tech Lead to Engineering Manager 12:00 The key to good hiring 15:00 Setting goals for engineers 17:30 Delivering a big MS Teams integration project Alicia's recommendation: Medusa by Rosie Hewlett