Perspectives In Leadership

Dr. Cat Hicks, VP of Research Insights for Pluralsight Flow, joins Adam to discuss her recent developer presentation, “It’s like coding in the dark.” In this discussion, Cat and Adam discuss how development leaders can (and must) build a sustainable developer culture. This includes proper documentation, psychological safety, and creating open discussion forums where ideas are welcome.  In a current climate where new talent is impossible to find, it’s important that your developer team is set up to grow as a unit and individuals while being open and honest with each other. Cat has spent her career working to understand the human element of productivity and that shines through in this discussion. If you’d like to learn more about how Pluralsight can help your organization build a healthy team culture and improved developer experience, check out our software delivery solutions page.  And be sure to check out Pluralsight’s new podcast, (TECH)nically Possible, to stay up to date on all the latest news and trends in the tech industry.

Danielle Vansia has taken a unique route to her career in technical writing. She started out in higher education before seeing an article about the jobs available in the tech space. She grew to love the documentation aspects of technical writing and pursued the new career to great success.  In this episode, Danielle sits down with Adam to discuss the myriad tech careers beyond “just” being a developer. Now, in addition to her job as a technical writer, she’s also writing courses for the development world and you can view her recent course here. Danielle and Adam also discuss the importance of tech fluency, Pluralsight’s new Tech Foundations courses, and how organizations can find hidden talent on their “non-tech” teams.  For more information on driving digital transformation at your organization, check out Pluralsight’s recent Tech Foundations on-demand webinar.  And be sure to check out Pluralsight’s new podcast, (TECH)nically Possible, to stay up to date on all the latest news and trends in the tech industry.

Farhan Thawar understand burnout. He's spent his career working long hours in the world of engineering and now leads a team of thousands of of talented individuals that he is responsible for their success, experience, and team culture. He has learned several ways to avoid burnout in his own life by creating a healthy work/life separation. As a leader, he's learned how to spot burnout in his teams and, in this discussion, offers tips on how to do the same at your orgniazation.  For more information on avoiding burnout and setting your teams up for success, be sure to check out Pluralsight's Solutions pages about engineering onboarding and software delivery.

Lauren Domnick, Senior Director Data Science at Northwestern Mutual, understands the power of data. At Northwestern Mutual, they were faced with a massive problem at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic: How can they continue to underwrite insurance policies without access to medical records? The answer was data.  Northwestern Mutual is leading the way in using artificial intelligence and machine learning to improve not only the policies they write for their clients but also the daily lives of their underwriters and agents. By developing predictive models, they've been able eliminate much of the tedious work that comes with standard policies, leaving their underwriters more readily available to tackle much more challenging cases. In this discussion, Lauren and Adam discuss the process of implementing these tools, how the pandemic changed the way they work, and how they sustained their culture of communication and trust throughout the process. Interested in learning more about how your organization can make a dynamic and agile move towards more forward thinking technologies? Pluralsight can help.

In this episode of Perspectives in Leaders, Alex Draper, Founder and CEO of DX Learning, joins Adam to discuss the importance of creating a psychologically safe work environment that empowers people to give open and honest feedback. The discussion ranges from the challenges that lie within providing feedback up the chain, how to overcome imposter syndrome, and the essentiality of managing the fear of negative consequences.  While at surface level, these may all be “soft” skills, the hard impacts that result from a healthy and open organization include overall improved culture, a more sustainable developer experience, and a more productive workforce.  Pluralsight has a number of tools available for organizations looking to improve their culture and developer satisfaction. Be sure to check out our engineering onboarding, distributed teams, and talent mobility solutions to learn more.

In this episode of Perspectives in Leadership, Adam sits down with two leaders from the Bank of Montreal (BMO) to discuss their organization's upskilling journey. BMO’s Christine Crouch, Director, Future of Work, and Larissa Chaikowsky, US CHRO and Head, Talent, Reskilling and Acceleration, share their experiences implementing an upskilling strategy for their employees as well as the importance of tech fluency for their teams.  Adam shares stats from Pluralsight’s State of Upskilling report as Christine and Larissa offer examples of how their organization combats talent churn by digitizing and personalizing the employee upskilling experience.  You can download the full State of Upskilling report here to learn more about how Pluralsight can help drive digital transformation and tech fluency at your organization. BMO is a leading North American bank driven by a single purpose: to Boldly Grow the Good in business and life. Our Purpose informs our strategy, drives our ambition, and reinforces our commitments to progress: for a thriving economy, a sustainable future and an inclusive society. As the 8th largest bank in North America by assets, we provide personal and commercial banking, wealth management and investment services to more than 12 million customers. We’re proud to be fueling progress for individuals, families and businesses across North America.

Pluralsight’s recently released Technology Skill Development workbook is an interactive strategy guide for your organization’s workforce transformation. In this discussion, Heather MacDonald, a Principal Consultant of Workforce Transformation at Pluralsight, dives deep into the workbook, breaking down  several subjects including:   -Assuring your entire organization is onboard and excited about your change management strategy -Feedback loops that are closed so that the feedback is actually heard and implemented  -Identifying what roles look like in the organization’s current iteration vs. what they will look like after your transformation  -Redefining performance management and making space for individuals with soft skills -Supporting the contiunous process of upskilling, continuously    You can download the workbook here to get started with your transformation.  https://www.pluralsight.com/blueprint/technology-skills-development-workbook

Elsa Vane has spent her life thinking about and advocating for disability rights. She’s written and taught extensively about the subject and now works at Pluralsight as an Accessibility Specialist, helping to assure our products, websites, and meeting spaces are accessible to our employees, partners, and users. In this conversation, Adam and Elsa discuss what accessibility looks like by the letter of the law as well as what organizations can do that extends beyond that bare minimum. Elsa offers tips and suggestions for developers about how they can assure the content they create is accessible to all and discusses how thinking about accessibility can drive creativity as well.After listening to this discussion, be sure to check out some of Pluralsight's many courses on accessibility in action.

Barry O’Reilly has built a career on unlearning. So much so that he’s literally written the book on the concept. Throughout his tech journey, he’s found success through not being precious with the knowledge he’s learned. Rather he looks at that previous knowlesge and how it relates to the things he’s seeking to learn to continue finding success.  In this discussion, Barry and Adam talk about organizations growing comfortable with unlearning as a vital upskilling tool for executives and employees alike. They focus on the fact that you don’t just have one shot to succeed but rather you have many.  If you stick to, “what has always worked” for your organization, the world will change and so will the demands of your customers. It’s vital that you grow comfortable with letting go of the knowledge that brought you success in the past in order to continue succeeding in the present and future. To learn more about embracing and managing change within your organization, be sure to check out this impactful series of Pluralsight Skills courses.

Today’s episode of Perspectives in Leadership is a discussion with Luke Dion, the VP of Engineering Operations for Cox Automotive Inc. Over the years, Luke’s team have experienced something many technologists have at some point or another in their careers- organizations mergers and acquisitions led to the need for multiple teams, across multiple time zones, to come together and find a way to synchronize. In this discussion, Luke shares how the Cox Automotive teams use Pluralsight Flow to focus on the engineering metrics that matter most and how the platform enables them to scale their communication and cohesion. Adam and Luke discuss how transparency and trust can be gained through data-driven meetings and how standardizing measurements across teams has drastically improved Cox Automotive’s communication and culture.  You can learn more about how Flow can do the same for your org do the same thing by taking a virtual tour of the product.  For more information on how you can holistically improve the developer experience at your organization, download our new Team Health Insights white paper.

In this episode, Carla is joined by Travis Wickesberg, a Senior Solutions and Services Director, to discuss Pluralsight's new Tech Talent report. The report found that 77% of tech leaders believe that upskilling is a powerfully effective tool in retaining top talent but we also know that workforce transformation is goes even further. In this all-encompassing discussion, Carla and Travis touch on: Psychological safetyProduct driven marketingData transparency both within an organization and outside of it Enabling and empowering your employees to make decisions for themselves and the company creates initiative and fosters creativity at every level or your org. Learn how to foster that culture of learning and improved process in this report and this discussion.

Thibault Imbert, VP of Marketing and Growth at GitHub, joins Adam to walk through how his organization “drinks their own champagne” and creates internal product champions. They discuss product lead growth opportunities and creating essential product feedback loops for their developers and their end users.  Thibault expresses the importance of customer empathy before they discuss the pros and cons of omni-channel marketing vs. focusing on one or two specific verticals. They finish with Thibault offering advice connected to the concept of “progress over perfection”. At the core of healthy team culture is communication. To learn how Pluralsight Flow can help improve how your teams interact, take a virtual demo of the product today.

Melanie Frank, Capital One's Managing Vice President of Cyber Engineering, has spent twenty-two years learning and adapting in the ever-changing environment of the fintech world. In that time, she's developed a leadership style that is driven by continuous investment in her employees and creating a culture where continuous learning and testing is encouraged.  In this conversation, Melanie and Adam discuss the 2022 State of Upskilling, Capital One's work in automating processes, the unexpected team building aspects of hybrid work, and shifting organizational mindsets from goal achieving to one of constant improvement.

It's an absolute necessity for security to be top-of-mind when writing and deploying software. In an ideal world, developers would also have the responsibilities of security engineers and build the appropriate risk-mitigation features into their software applications.  In this conversation, Shea Stewart from GigaOm breaks down the things you need to consider when looking at the tools to hit your DevSecOps needs.  You can read the full report here.

Tony Holmes is focused on creating the best possible solutions for tech organizations and a major part of that is understanding how to build successful and creative engineering teams. Software development, and technology as a whole, continues to advance at lightning fast speeds which makes bringing in qualified talent even more challenging. How can you hire for a position when the qualifications didn't exist even six months earlier? The solution is to rethink how you engage with candidates. In this conversation, Tony discusses the types of questions he asks, the traits he looks for, and the best ways to understand the evolving world of technology from a talent acquisition standpoint. For more information on the current landscape of the tech world, be sure to read Pluralsight's 2022 Forecast for Technology Trends report.

James Caplin has coached CTOs and CIOs at some of the largest companies in the world. He's well known for his ability to help everyone from established executives to first time managers look inward to discover how they can become better leaders for their teams and organizations. In this conversation, Adam and James talk about the fact that leadership looks different for everyone, provide tips for first time leaders, and walk through some exercises that have helped them both in their careers. You can learn more about James and his work at jamescaplin.com.

Adam interviews Kimberly Jones, and internationally recognized social activist, New York Times bestselling author, entrepreneur and filmmaker on the latest episode of the podcast. Kim became a global phenomenon when her passionate andspontaneous video, How We Can Win, went viral in 2020 and she has since wrote a book with the same title.   Kim and Adam discuss how organizations can better connect with their community and best practices for helping employees get involved in movements they believe in. Kim is the founder of The People's Uprising, an org that dedicated to connecting private organizations and the community they reside in. Their mission is creating opportunities for a more equitable society. Kim closes with advice about how companies need to pick something they're passionate about and focus on it.  Learn how Pluralsight is working to improve our global community by visiting https://www.pluralsightone.org.

In this episode, Adam interviews Christian Boer about his groundbreaking font he designed for people who suffer from Dyslexia. They discuss the fascinating way he used his own experience as a dyslexic person to build out the font and Christian explains how uniformity can be a problem in accessibility. They end the episode by talking about modern websites and why it's important to build experiences for the end user and not the client. You can see his font and download the chrome extension version of the font at https://www.dyslexiefont.com.   View one of Pluralsight's accessibility courses to learn how to implement these important factors into your own products as well.

On this episode, Adam's coworkers Raphi and Ned, who are Cloud Strategy Architects, interview Drew Firment about how to drive a success cloud transformation. Drew is a wealth of knowledge as he was previously he was the Director of Cloud Engineering at Capital One where he led enterprise cloud operations within their Cloud Center of Excellence and migrated the early adopters of Amazon Web Services (AWS) into production. Drew is recognized by Amazon as an AWS Community Hero for his ongoing efforts to build inclusive and sustainable learning communities. In this discussion, Drew talks through key considerations from vendor selection to measuring success, shares his learnings and tips for success and highlights the importance of talent development for driving change.

On this episode, Adam is joined by Kari Harbath to discuss her new Pluralsight course, Understanding Ableism in the Workplace. According to WHO, about 15% of the world's population lives with a disability, meaning to create a truly diverse and inclusive workforce you must be inclusive of people with disabilities. The conversation opens with Kari's background as well as her story about raising her daughter Sloan. You can learn more about them at http://sloanstrength.com. They then discuss the content within her course and how to approach conversations about ableism in your own life.  Preview Kari's course   Book mentioned by Kari during our discussion: Demystifying Disability by Emily Ladau