Tech Done Right

Teaching Testing and Design Guests Betsy Haibel (https://twitter.com/betsythemuffin): CTO at Cohere (https://twitter.com/wecohere). Blogs at betsyhaibel.com (https://betsyhaibel.com/). Avdi Grimm (https://twitter.com/avdi): Head Chef at RubyTapas (https://www.rubytapas.com/). Blogs at avdi.codes (https://avdi.codes/). Penelope Phippen (https://twitter.com/penelope_zone): Works at Google, makes Rubyfmt (https://github.com/samphippen/rubyfmt), helps make RSpec (https://rspec.info/), and is on the board of Ruby Central (https://www.rubycentral.org/). Blog (https://penelope.zone). Summary After the discussions on testing and design in episodes 68 and 69, I had so much I still wanted to talk about in testing, design, and teaching testing and design. So I convened a panel with previous Tech Done Right Guests Avdi Grimm, Betsy Haibel, and Penelope Phippen to help me think through all these topics. I was very happy to have all of them on the show, and I think it's a great conversation. Stay tuned until the very end f

Supporting Innovation With Mike Todasco Guest Mike Todasco (https://twitter.com/Todasco): Senior Director of Innovation at PayPal (https://paypal.com) Summary Today on the show we have Mike Todasco, the Senior Director of Innovation at PayPal. We talk about what innovation means at a company, and how to encourage innovation both if you are a PayPal sized company and if you aren’t. Mike also shares some information about PayPal’s internal innovation tournament and how they offer incentives for innovation. Notes 01:38 - What does the Senior Director of Innovation at PayPal do? 02:32 - Why should companies innovate? 04:29 - Who should be innovating? 08:26 - Assisting and Guiding in Innovation 11:15 - Introducing Innovation to Companies and Teams: Vulnerability 16:06 - Encouraging Innovation 18:44 - The Concept of Global Innovation Tournaments 24:34 - Giving People Opportunity and Exposure 28:40 - Innovation Tokens 30:59 - Innovation For Small Companies 32:39 - Interesting Innovations Special Guest: Mike Todasc

How To Buy Software With Ashley Quinto Powell Guest Ashley Quinto Powell (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleyquinto/): Director of Business Development at Table XI (https://www.tablexi.com/). Summary Today on the show, we have Ashley Quinto Powell. Ashley and I have run a workshop together called How to Buy Software aimed at people who want to buy custom software but aren't sure what the process will be like. In this episode, we try to compress a four-hour workshop into a 45-minute podcast. Ashley will talk about what to expect from the sales process and then Ashley will interview me about what it's like to work with a development team. I hope you like it. Notes 01:40 - How do you buy software? 02:47 - Common Misconceptions When Starting the Process 04:20 - Preparing for a Conversation About Buying Software 06:42 - Terminology To Know Offshore / Nearshore - Agile / Waterfall - Time and Materials Contract / Fixed Contract 16:08 - Interacting with a Development Team 18:28 - Estimation 28:16 - Signs Things Are Go

Teaching and Learning with Sandi Metz Guest Sandi Metz: (https://twitter.com/sandimetz): Author of Practical Object-Oriented Development in Ruby (http://www.informit.com/store/practical-object-oriented-design-an-agile-primer-using-9780134456478?ranMID=24808) and 99 Bottles of OOP (https://www.sandimetz.com/99bottles). sandimetz.com (https://www.sandimetz.com/) Summary Today on the show we have Sandi Metz, author of Practical Object Oriented Design in Ruby and co-author of 99 bottles of OOP. I’ve literally been trying to get Sandi as a guest since we started recording the show and I’m thrilled that we’ve finally been able to connect. We talk about OOP and TDD, maybe going down a test-driven rabbit hole for a while, and also talk about what it’s like to teach and coach about OOP and TDD. I enjoyed this talk very much and I think you will, too. Notes 02:46 - Keeping Up With Tech 04:58 - Object-Oriented Design 09:53 - Why do we write tests? 17:53 - Teaching Yourself TDD 22:11 - Procedures and Patterns 34:07 - CI

Pragmatic Programmer at 20 with Dave Thomas and Andy Hunt Guests Dave Thomas (https://twitter.com/pragdave) and Andy Hunt (https://twitter.com/PragmaticAndy): Authors of The Pragmatic Programmer (https://pragprog.com/book/tpp20/the-pragmatic-programmer-20th-anniversary-edition) and publishers of The Pragmatic Bookshelf (https://pragprog.com/). Summary I’m very excited to have Dave Thomas and Andy Hunt on the show today. Dave and Andy are the authors of the Pragmatic Programmer, which has a 20th anniversary edition that is out now, and they are the publishers of the Pragmatic Bookshelf, where they have (full disclosure) published my books a time or two. We talk about what’s changed in the new version, what being a Pragmatic Programmer means, whether there’s still a role for tech books, and how to make automated testing pragmatic. Somehow I avoid telling the slightly embarrassing story about the bad impression I made the first time I met Dave. Enjoy. Notes 02:52 - Revisiting the Book 20 Years Later and What Ha

Civic Software with Alex Pedersen and Abhi Nemani Guests Alex Pedersen: Co-founder of Polco (https://info.polco.us/). Abhi Nemani (https://twitter.com/abhinemani) Founder of EthosLabs (https://ethoslabs.us/). Summary This week, we have Alex Pedersen of Polco and Abhi Nemani of EthosLabs. They're both involved in various uses of technology to increase civic engagement. We'll talk about how technology can improve the public sector and why technologists should be interested in public sector work. Notes 02:09 - Technology and Civic + Political Engagement 06:14 - Risks of Making the Government More Technological 10:01 - Balancing Conversations Amongst Citizens 12:18 - Building and Designing Software for Government vs Commercial Use 14:39 - Getting Involved in Government, Civic Engagement, and the Public Sector - Code For America (https://www.codeforamerica.org/) - Chi Hack Night (https://chihacknight.org/) - Abhi's Course Notes in Civic Tech (https://abhinemani.com/civictechcourse/lectures/) Special Guests: Abhi

Stories and Community with Ariel Caplan Guest Ariel Caplan (https://twitter.com/amcaplan): Co-Host of Dev Empathy Book Club (https://devempathybook.club/), Backend Developer at Cloudinary (https://cloudinary.com/), and Flatiron School (https://flatironschool.com/) Alum. Personal Site (https://amcaplan.ninja) Summary Our guest this week is Ariel Caplan. Ariel is a developer at Cloudinary and the Founder of the Dev Empathy Book Club. At RailsConf this year, Ariel gave a keynote about culture and stories using examples from Israeli and American children's literature. In our conversation, we focus on the stories that developers tell ourselves about who is successful, what it takes to be successful, and what people and skills are left out of those stories, and how we might be able to change them. Notes 02:18 - Stories We Tell New Members of the Community - RailsConf 2019 - Keynote: The Stories We Tell Our Children by Ariel Caplan (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKqvtAxGQOs) 04:17 - The Myth of the Lone Genius 06:

Managing Pain and Suffering at Work with Amy Newell Guest Amy Newell: (https://twitter.com/amynewell): Director of Engineering at Wistia. Previous Director of Engineering at PatientsLikeMe (https://www.patientslikeme.com/). RailsConf 2019 - Failure, Risk, and Shame: Approaching Suffering at Work by Amy Newell (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRG6uIkHH8c) Summary Our guest this week is Amy Newell. Amy is the Director of Engineering at Wistia, and she gave a talk at RailsConf this year entitled “Failure, Risk, and Shame: Approaching pain and suffering at work”. We have what I hope is an uplifting conversation about failure and pain, how to recognize it, and how to skillfully manage those feelings to be more resilient, prevent additional pain, and ultimately be more satisfied with your job. Notes 01:56 - Why Use Words Like “Pain” and “Shame” When Talking About Work Experience - Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman (https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Fast-Slow-Daniel-Kahneman/dp/0374533555) 04:21 - Specific K

AI and Privacy with Bärí A. Williams Guest Bärí A. Williams (https://twitter.com/BariAWilliams): VP of Legal, Business, and Policy Affairs at All Turtles (https://www.all-turtles.com/), a startup advisor in the tech industry, and a published author in the New York Times, WIRED, Fortune, and Fast Company. Bärí writes at bariawilliams.com (https://www.bariawilliams.com/). Summary Our guest this week is Bärí A. Williams, the VP of Legal, Business, and Policy Affairs at All Turtles. She provides legal guidance to startups working with Artificial Intelligence. Bärí was a keynote speaker at RailsConf this year, you can see the video at https://youtu.be/HBAra5J5c90. She and I talk about writing ethical terms of service, and how to collect and use data properly. We talk about facial recognition and other data mining and machine learning topics in the news, and how having a diverse user and testing base can prevent damaging mistakes. Notes 01:48 - The Intersection of Law and Tech Bärí's RailsConf keynote: Ethical Iss

Software Consulting With Chad Pytel Guest Chad Pytel (https://twitter.com/cpytel): CEO, Co-Founder, and Developer of thoughtbot (https://thoughtbot.com/). Summary Our guest this week is Chad Pytel. Chad is the CEO of thoughtbot, which is a design and development firm known in the world for its support of open source projects like paperclip and shoulda. Chad and I talk about how to make short consulting projects work, the importance of hiring, why thoughtbot makes their internal guides public, and how they continue to be able to support open source. It's a great conversation about how thoughtbot approaches the world. Notes 02:09 - How thoughtbot Works as an Integrated Design and Development Team 06:50 - Handling Discovery Phases and Product Design Sprints 11:40 - When Clients Aren’t a Good Fit and Setting Expectations 14:12 - Hiring for Values - Beyond the Whiteboard Interview (https://youtu.be/8FkkMkeJKU8) 21:05 - The thoughtbot Playbook (https://thoughtbot.com/playbook) 26:43 - Client Communication During Pr

Food and Design Thinking TableXI is now offering training for developers and products teams! For more info, email workshops@tablexi.com. Guests Rex Chekal (https://twitter.com/rexerr): Director of Digital Strategy and Product Designer at Table XI (https://www.tablexi.com/). Jessie Shternshus (https://twitter.com/TheImprovEffect): Founder and Owner of the Improv Effect (https://improveffect.com/). Chemia Davis: Innovation Methods Conductor and Member of the Tyson Foods Innovation Lab (https://www.tysonfoods.com/innovation/food-innovation/innovation-lab). Santi Proano: Experimental Brand Dreamer for Yappah Foods (https://www.yappah.com/) and Member of the Tyson Foods Innovation Lab (https://www.tysonfoods.com/innovation/food-innovation/innovation-lab). Summary In this episode, we have a slightly different topic for Tech Done Right - food. Table XI has been working to adapt our design sprint process out of the realm of custom software and into more general product design. In particular, we've worked with Tyson

Tech For Good With Andrew Means and Sean Marcia TableXI is now offering training for developers and products teams! For more info, email workshops@tablexi.com. Guests Andrew Means (https://twitter.com/meansandrew): Data Analysts 4 Social Good (https://t.co/dWOGuNxRiP), The Good Tech Fest (https://www.goodtechfest.com/), Big Elephant Studios (https://www.bigelephant.io/). Sean Marcia (https://twitter.com/seanmarcia): Ruby For Good (https://rubyforgood.org/), Code For Good (http://codeforgood.io/). Summary Our guests this week are Andrew Means of Data Analysts for Social Good and Sean Marcia of Ruby for Good. Both of them run organizations that are involved with using technology to helping non-profits that could use even some simple software or data assistance. We’ll talk about what kinds of work their organizations do, how non-profits differ from for-profit work, how they try to keep projects running over time, and how you can get involved working with technology for good. Notes 02:01 - The Shared Mission of

Jumpstarting Your Side Project With Dicko Sow TableXI is now offering training for developers and products teams! For more info, email workshops@tablexi.com. Guest Dicko Sow (https://www.yodinaturals.com/): Founder of Yodi Naturals (https://www.yodinaturals.com/). Summary Our guest this week is Dicko Sow. Dicko is a software developer at a technical consultancy, but recently she has been spending her time building out a side project called Yodi Naturals. We talk about how she chose the project, how important it was to plan the project, the technical decisions, and what Dicko learned putting together the launch page. If you’re trying to decide whether to try a side project, this episode has some good information about how to put that together. Notes 01:58 - Wanting to do a Side Project; Deciding on Said Side Project - Jumpstart your sideproject! -- Dicko Sow (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTSN3TbmDrE) - PearConf (https://twitter.com/PearConf) 03:59 - Yodi Naturals (https://www.yodinaturals.com/) 05:56 - Gett

Building Git With James Coglan TableXI is now offering training for developers and products teams! For more info, email workshops@tablexi.com. Guest James Coglan (https://twitter.com/mountain_ghosts): Author of Building Git (https://shop.jcoglan.com/building-git/) and JavaScript Testing Recipes (https://shop.jcoglan.com/javascript-testing-recipes/). More at jcoglan.com/ (http://jcoglan.com/). Summary Our guest today is James Coglan. James has written an extraordinary programming book called Building Git. In it, he describes the inner workings of the Git source control tool by re-implementing a substantial part it in Ruby, including commits, diffs, branching, and networking. Along the way he shows not just how Git works, but also details of some of the algorithms it uses. There’s also a lot about building complex systems generally. And it has some great examples of test-driven development. James and I also talk about implementing in a high-level language like Ruby, versus a lower-level language like C. It’s

Agriculture And Technology with Orlando Saez TableXI is now offering training for developers and products teams! For more info, email workshops@tablexi.com. Guest Orlando Saez (https://twitter.com/saezmatter): Co-founder and CEO of Aker Technologies (https://www.aker.ag/). Summary Our guest today is Orlando Saez. Orlando is the co-founder and CEO of Aker, a precision crop diagnostic data and service company. We're going to talk about what that means and more generally, about how technology and agriculture intersect. We'll talk about how Orlando got into the agriculture and technology space and who his customers are and what they learn from using specialized drones to monitor their crops. It's an interesting deep dive into a part of the technology world that I, for one, did not know very much about and I hope you enjoy it. Notes 01:44 - What Aker Does; The Tech/Agriculture Sector - Becoming a Senior Engineer with Jamey Hampton (https://www.techdoneright.io/51) 03:30 - Technology: IoT, Drones, and Machine Lea

Unlearn With Barry O'Reilly TableXI is now offering training for developers and products teams! For more info, email workshops@tablexi.com. Summary Our guest today is Barry O’Reilly, author of the book “Unlearn: Let Go of Past Success to Achieve Extraordinary Results”. In it, he sets out a process for defining outcomes, identifying behaviors that might help or hinder reaching the outcomes, and then unlearning existing behaviors and relearning new ones. We talk about how that process works, how to use it yourself, how it might fail, and what Barry unlearned for himself in the process of writing the book. We’d like to hear from you. What’s something you’ve needed to unlearn to reach success? Let us know at techdoneright.io/57 or on Twitter at @tech_done_right Guest Barry O’Reilly (https://twitter.com/barryoreilly): Author of Unlearn: Let Go of Past Success to Achieve Extraordinary Results (https://amzn.to/2EJtfBy). Unlearn website (http://www.unlearn.online). Author of Lean Enterprise: How High Performance Org

Developer Hiring TableXI is now offering training for developers and products teams! For more info, email workshops@tablexi.com or find us at http://tablexi.com.workshops Today on the show, we're talking about hiring with Jennifer Tu and Zee Spencer of Cohere, Thayer Prime of Team Prime, and software consultant Matt Patterson. We talk about the entire developer hiring process from how to advertise your company to potential candidates, through coding tests and interviews, and all the way to the final decision process. It's a great conversation with a lot of different perspectives and a lot of good advice. We’d like to hear from you. What do you look for when hiring developers? Let us know at http://techdoneright.io/56 or on Twitter at @tech_done_right Guests Jennifer Tu (https://twitter.com/jtu): Cofounder of Cohere (http://wecohere.com). Zee Spencer (https://twitter.com/zspencer): Cofounder of Cohere (http://wecohere.com). Thayer Prime (https://twitter.com/Thayer): Founder of Team Prime (https://team-prime.co

Engineering Management With Allison McMillan TableXI is now offering training for developers and products teams! For more info, email workshops@tablexi.com or visit the web at http://tablexi.com/workshops. Guest Allison McMillan (https://twitter.com/allie_p): Engineering Manager at GitHub (https://github.com/); Atom (https://atom.io/); Creator of the Parent Driven Development Podcast (https://www.parentdrivendevelopment.com/). Blogs at DayDreams in Ruby (http://daydreamsinruby.com/). Summary Today on the show we’re talking about engineering management. Allison McMillan is an engineering manager for the Atom team at GitHub. We talk about what her role is within the team, how she helps her team grow and improve, and how the management role is different from her previous developer jobs. We’d like to hear from you. What makes a great engineering manager? Let us know at techdoneright.io/55 or on Twitter at @tech_done_right Notes 01:48 - What does an Engineering Manager do? 05:29 - Having Effective and Successful

Code Style and Community with Sam Phippen and Justin Searls TableXI is now offering training for developers and products teams! For more info, email workshops@tablexi.com or visit http://www.tablexi.com/workshops. Guests Sam Phippen (https://twitter.com/samphippen): Developer Advocate at Google and member of the RSpec (https://github.com/rspec) Core Team Justin Searls (https://twitter.com/searls): Cofounder of Test Double (http://testdouble.com/) Summary On this episode, we’ve got Sam Phippen and Justin Searls back for their third round on the show. Both of them have been working on new Ruby tools to better standardize your team’s style and code formatting. We talk about why they’ve decided these tools are important, what their philosophy of coding style is, how coding style relates to the Ruby community, and how they evaluate code when given a code sample to look at. We’d like to hear from you. How does your team handle differences of opinion in code style? Let us know at techdoneright.io/54 or on Twitter

Tribal Knowledge and On-boarding with Annie Sexton TableXI offers training for developers and product teams! For more info, email workshops@tablexi.com. Guest Annie Sexton (https://twitter.com/anniethesexton): Core Support Engineer at Heroku (https://www.heroku.com/). Traveler. Amateur graphic novelist. More at momotarocomic.com/ (http://momotarocomic.com/). Summary Developers and teams build up a lot of knowledge about their code and their process which never gets written down and which makes it harder together to get new team members up to speed. Our guest, Annie Sexton, is a support engineer for Heroku and has to deal with not only Heroku’s vast amount of knowledge, but also the unwritten information of many of her support customers. We’ll talk about the practical things Annie recommends to help make this knowledge explicit, and how your team can improve its group memory and team on-boarding. We’d also like to hear from you. Is there something your team has done to write down the things everybody knows?