What Engineering Leaders Can Expect In 2024
Plus, explaining Kubernetes to your Uber driver, time management, and Google's flagging culture
What trends do engineering leaders need to pay attention to, and how will they impact your teams in 2024?
This week, co-host Conor Bronsdon is joined by LinearB co-founder and CEO Ori Keren to discuss his predictions for next year.
Together, they discuss why dev team metrics are here to stay, how the rise of gen AI written code will create a problem for development pipelines everywhere, the potential friction points inherent to remote work, and why Ori thinks engineering efficiency should replace developer productivity.
Ori concludes the episode by offering advice to engineering leaders and startup founders on the need to adopt a metrics program or risk getting left behind.
“The times where I was an engineering leader and I went to my CEO and said, ‘Hey, I need two or three more people,’ and I convinced him by just talking about hunches and not with data are over.”
Episode Highlights:
01:00 Trends & predictions for 2024
04:00 Role of data in engineering leadership
11:00 The impact of AI on software development
16:00 Importance of efficient code reviews
22:00 Starting a metrics program
26:00 Advice for founders and eng leaders
The Download
The Download is engineering leadership content we’re reading, watching, and attending that we think you might find valuable.
1. There’s more to leadership than time management
Author and Director of Engineering at Shopify James Stanier argues we’re spending too much time obsessing over time management when we should be obsessing over capacity, which he defines as the ability to do our best work.
Like many things in life, the tradeoff comes down to quality vs quantity - and in this debate, James is pro-quality.
2. Yeah, I should be able to explain that…
You’ve probably heard of the concept Explain Like I’m Five (if not, I’ve got a subreddit for you), but have you heard of “explain it to me like I’m your Uber driver?”
After attending a 3-day convention on Kubernetes, Jessica Wang ordered an Uber back to her hotel, only to find herself faced with the daunting question: “What’s the convention about?”
Realizing her understanding of the technology was incomplete, she reimagined a response to her driver in this delightful post:
Read: Explaining Kubernetes To My Uber Driver
Your DORA Metrics. 100% free. Forever.
High-performing software engineering teams love DORA metrics. But it’s not always simple for leaders to access up-to-date data on their teams — and it’s often expensive.
Not anymore. LinearB is introducing Free DORA metrics for all.
All-Inclusive Access: Get all four DORA metrics – Cycle Time, Deploy Frequency, Change Failure Rate (CFR), and Mean Time to Recovery (MTTR) with no restrictions on team size, contributors, or repos.
Benchmark & Improve: Compare your performance against industry benchmarks and enhance team efficiency with additional metrics like Merge Frequency and Pull Request Size – crucial for assessing quality and efficiency.
Forever Free: Gain these invaluable insights at no cost. No credit card, no strings attached.
Elevate your team's capabilities today. Sign up for your free DORA dashboard and let data-driven insights guide your team to new heights.
3. A guide to engineering metrics
Friend and contributor to the podcast, Lena Reinhard, has written an excellent guide to help engineering leaders answer the question: “What metrics should I use?”
While noting that context is key, she acknowledges that seeing what others have done is helpful. You can read the first edition in her multi-part series below:
Read: What Engineering Metrics Should I Use? A guide for Engineering Managers, Directors, and VPs
4. Google’s cultural woes
Among the mega-cap tech titans, Google seems to have lost some of its luster, with many questioning what the future holds for a company that shaped the internet.
“Today, I don't know anyone at Google who could explain what Google's vision is. Morale is at an all-time low. If you talk to therapists in the bay area, they will tell you all their Google clients are unhappy with Google.”
What’s more, does it still believe in the once-proud mantra “Don’t be evil."?
Read: Reflecting on 18 years at Google
Upcoming Events
December 4-5 | Berlin, Germany
Highlights: Conference themes include: 1) Skills for leading in a downturn; 2) Doing more with less; 3) Preparation techniques for change; and 4) Crafting agile, ambitious, and achievable workflows.
Thank you for the callout! Looking forward to doing our guest post together soon. 🙏