People-First Development
According to a CareerBuilder study, only 40% of new tech leaders receive formal training when they become a leader for the first time. The rest are forced to get scrappy to quickly equip themselves with new skills, techniques, and mindsets to effectively transition into their new roles. This talk was designed to fill this gap by providing tactical techniques and resources for both new and seasoned technical leaders. By definition, technology itself exists to solve business and everyday problems. Those solutions impact and improve the lives of many people. Therefore, people-first leadership must be deeply rooted in your technical organizations if you want your teams to reach their full potential. This session will cover seven different ways to practice people-first leadership. You will learn tactics such as hands-on activities and discussions around the importance of diversity and inclusion on our dev teams, removing blockers, empowering your team, effective developer onboarding experiences, and more.
Kate Wardin is a currently a Senior Engineering Manager at Target Corporation in Minneapolis, MN. She leads a team of amazing engineers who build front end applications for Supply Chain HQ and Field users. Outside of her day job, she enjoys organizing events that enable young women to develop a passion and build confidence for future careers in technology. She also enjoys disrupting the norms of traditional leadership by spending time researching, testing out, and advocating for various techniques to tenaciously put developers first. In 2019, she founded Developer First LLC and continues to partner with organizations to research and implement new techniques for effective technical leadership.