How to Increase Adoption of Internal Developer Tooling | Bloomberg’s Luis Vega
Plus, how to become a CTO, balancing a large number of direct reports, and how to stop wasting developers time.
This week, guest host
sits down with Bloomberg’s Engineering Manager, Luis Vega, to discuss the initial challenges of enhancing developer engagement with internal tooling. Luis also outlines his approach to building internal applications that are as intuitive and engaging as Bloomberg's client-facing solutions and how applying UX design principles plus branding for tools dramatically increased adoption.Luis also reflects on transitioning from a hands-on developer to a managerial role, emphasizing the importance of understanding team dynamics and fostering a culture of support and innovation within Bloomberg.
I was so excited about it because it was such a technical challenge that I started coding, and I didn't realize I was literally blocking the team.
That realization of like, you're not here to be the star in the code. You're here to make sure they become the star. When it really hit me that like I just needed to get out of the way of the tough technical coding, things really started happening.
Episode Highlights:
01:14 What is Bloomberg?
02:52 How do you get developers to embrace internal tooling?
06:58 Giving applications mascots
12:28 Helping developers be more productive with internal tooling
18:31 What was the biggest challenge to tackle when developing internal tooling?
25:41 Luis' journey into development
32:07 What's next for Bloomberg's internal tools?
The Download
The Download is engineering leadership content we’re reading, watching, and attending that we think you might find valuable.
1. How to become a CTO
The CTO role differs greatly between companies, but every CTO is tasked with the same baseline responsibility of creating a great technical strategy aligned with the business.
If becoming a CTO is one of your goals,
outlines 6 ways to get there, including:Start a company
Become a founding engineer
Go through the management path
Go through the architecture path
Go through the IC path
Become a CTO through other roles, mostly Product
2. Balancing a large number of direct reports
How many direct reports you can take on is highly dependent on the scope of your role, the structure of your org, and the system you build to accommodate your direct reports.
’s recent shares her insights on how she handles 10 direct reports, including scheduling strategies, note-taking, and more.
How to Drive Developer Productivity and Profitability with Software Engineering Intelligence (Sponsor)
How can you drive developer productivity, lower costs, and deliver better products? On June 20th and 27th, LinearB is hosting a workshop that explores the software engineering intelligence category.
Get hands-on, practical guidance on streamlining your team’s workflows, enhancing collaboration, and accelerating your development cycles while improving quality.
3. How to stop wasting developers' time
Solving your customers’ problems means actually listening to their problems and not just promoting your product or features. As
points out in a recent article:“It boils down to this: you aren’t allowed to tell them what their problem is, and in return, they aren’t allowed to tell you what to build. They own the problem, you own the solution.”
4. Is Internal Tooling Holding Your Team Back? with DevZero
Going along with this week’s episode on internal developer tooling, we’re throwing it back to last year’s episode with CEO & Co-founder of DevZero, Debo Ray.
Debo outlined how teams can find the right internal developer tooling and ways to promote adoption.
Upcoming Events
June 10th - June 14th | Online
Highlights: Join this year’s PlatformCon to see the top DevOps and platform engineering leaders on one virtual stage, including sessions from Dev Interrupted alumni like Manuel Pais and Bryan Finster.
How to Drive Developer Productivity and Profitability with Software Engineering Intelligence
June 20th or 27th | Online
Highlights: How can you drive developer productivity, lower costs and deliver better products? On June 20th and 27th, LinearB is hosting a workshop that explores the software engineering intelligence category.