From Twitter Spaces to Independent Artists: Leading Org-Based Innovation w/ Pablo Jablonski

Also: Atlassian's State of Teams Report, PlatformCon, 8 problems with becoming a team lead, and why hustle culture is overrated

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May 23, 2023

Editor’s note: This is our first Dev Interrupted Download, where in addition to featuring our latest podcast, we’ll highlight other engineering leadership content we’re reading, watching, and attending… and think you should, too! Read the full post to check it out.

Imagine a future where anyone can be a musician. Now ask yourself what that has in common with building Twitter Spaces. The answer? Org-based innovation.

On this week’s episode of Dev Interrupted, we’re joined by the talented Pablo Jablonski, the engineer responsible for leading the team behind Spaces. Today, Pablo is reshaping the music industry as the VP of Engineering at United Masters.

In this free-flowing conversation, we unravel the intricacies of building Spaces, discuss Twitter’s pivotal role in public discourse and break down some of the historic challenges faced by Twitter’s engineering team.

Pablo also explores how United Masters is bridging the gap between artists and their dreams, empowering them to take control of their own destinies. Taking cues from his time at Twitter, Pablo and his team are building a platform that aims to dismantle the music industry’s traditional hierarchies.

Episode Highlights:

(2:00) Building Periscope & Spaces at Twitter
(7:10) Twitter's 10 Rules for Communication
(12:59) The impact of modeling behaviors
(15:55) Twitter today
(22:54) United Masters
(26:14) Applying lessons learned at Twitter
(34:24) Any problem can be interesting
(37:30) Future of the music industry

Pablo Jablonski: The thing that I've not only taken from Twitter to United Masters, but just have always believed my entire time as an engineering leader, is that you can't build effective teams if the mission statement is the technology. The mission statement has to be the people that we're serving and the customer problem that we're solving.

Read the full transcript here.

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The Dev Interrupted Download

Hustle culture is overrated

In addition to being one of Dev Interrupted’s favorite guests,

Jean Hsu

has her own Substack Tech And Tea. She’s one of the best minds in how to connect with, motivate, and lead engineers, and it’s on full display in this takedown of hustle culture and poor project management. 👇

Tech and Tea

Hustle culture is over-rated

I’ve long had this story about myself that I haven’t worked very hard in my life. It’s a story that I haven’t brought up often except to those close to me, because I worry about its impact. Will people think that I’m bragging — that I didn’t need to work hard to get where I am? Or will people think I’m lazy and not someone who will do the work needed in a role…

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The State Of Teams

With the return-to-office vs. work-from-home debate getting very heated, it’s time to revisit what the data actually says about the best work environment for engineers. In this interview, modern-work evangelist Mark Cruth takes us through Atlassian’s groundbreaking State of Teams report, highlighting what leaders should and shouldn’t be doing office-wise to get the most out of their teams.

Your First Team Lead Role

In case you missed it, last week Dan Lines shared with us the challenges he had when he was first promoted to team lead.

If you’re one of the many people in our community looking to move from an individual dev role into engineering leadership, this article is a must-read as you head toward your first team lead role - or if you want to look back fondly (or not so fondly) on that transition.

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I was 24 years old. A baby. Three years into my software engineering career and loving it. Life was great. I lived in a small apartment in Southie (Boston) with my college roommate “Q.” I had a good job at a tech start-up called CloudLock. I hammered out code 12-14 hours a day. I worked so much that I never knew what day it was, and my bosses had to for…

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Join Dev Interrupted @ PlatformCon

PlatformCon is the largest platform engineering conference of the year, and Dev Interrupted is joining the conference as a media partner. Building on the success of last year, this year’s free virtual event promises to be even bigger and better, with over 150 talks and 140 speakers. Our very own Dan Lines will be hosting a session on “Scaling Developer Efficiency,” don’t miss it!

Attendees will be able to watch all talks at their own pace and join live virtual kickoff events for their region. Speakers will be available for Q&A on the Platform Engineering Slack channel during the conference, providing a unique opportunity for attendees to engage with the experts.