BUILDING AN INDUSTRY, ONE UNEXPECTED PROMOTION AT A TIME
James Gibson
"Success: where preparation meets opportunity."
~ Someone on the internet
“Opportunity does not waste time with those
who are unprepared.”
~ Idowu Koyenikan
Things People Have Said
“If somebody offers you an amazing opportunity but you are not sure you can do it, say yes – then learn how to do it later!” ~ Richard Branson
But what if opportunity arrives before you're ready?
Who am I?
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Director of Engineering @ Flowhub
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6 years software engineering, 12 years programming
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Twitter: @thenodester -
Github: james-gibson
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Denver Devs Slack: james.the.nodester
Original
My Professional 5 Year Plan
Current
My Professional 5 Year Plan
Why did I join Flowhub?
"Incredible API's"
The power of "no"
Teachable CEO
Why do we get to define the industry?
Questionable legality at the federal level
Prevents big money from moving into the space
Current best practice includes manual data entry
Set the bar high to prevent other companies from catching up
Difficulties I faced:
Hired as the Platform Architect but everyone thought I was the API guy
After I was promoted to Director of Engineering, Team thought I was there to oust/fire them
Usual startup pains
Running three official products
(4 iOS apps, 3 electron clients, 2 web apps, and an API [in a pear tree])
Strategies
Multiply your efforts with automation and delegation
Identify patterns in your daily life that are automate-able
Trust your experiences and your team to inform decisions at crunch time
Decision Fatigue
Red, Green, Refactor
no really.
Premature Optimization is truly the root of something.
Identify how something should work.
Make it work.
Make it better.
Automate All the Things!
Does your boss ask for the same report every week?
Do you have to manually create database records for that 'special' client?
Setup email bots to help control your inbox
Teach a bot to curate your daily reading
Making Decisions for Future You
Our product team identified a task that took 20 minutes per device.
We have hundreds of devices to update.
Through updating our tech stack we were able to cut it down to approx 1.5 min per device
Ticket Everything
If you can describe it in a ticket, you can estimate it
If you can estimate it, you deliver with accuracy
If you deliver when you say you will, everyone is content
Empower your team
"Every person for themselves" is a relic of a bygone age
If the team succeeds, YOU SUCCEED!
Put a bunch of smart devs in a room and the largest ego tends to win
Put a bunch of humble, smart devs in a room and watch the best idea surface
Achieve multiple goals
Identify patterns in tasks that when completed could also be used to solve other issues
By improving our build pipeline, we saved support time and effort
By upgrading old tech, we made our lives easier AND prepped our API launch
...and automate some more
Don't touch your thermostat
Don't touch your light switches
Autopay all of your bills
Use a service like Mint.com
...wait, you saw this talk this morning
Personal Life Retro
End session with action items
Reflect on areas of weakness, stress, repetitive actions
Strategize ways to minimize impact of stress and anxiety, and avoid situations that cause them
Work Life Retro
Implementing CI (continuous improvement)
Request coworkers provide regular feedback
Reflect on where communication has broken down recently
Reflect on tough decisions and how to decide better next time
Count the wins as well as the losses
Recap
Enable those around you
Reflect and Iterate
Be open to constructive feedback
Fall back on your habits
Thanks!
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Twitter: @thenodester -
Github: james-gibson
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Slack: james.the.nodester
