Humans+Tech

Aaron Randall, Amy Phillips

Hi, we're Aaron and Amy! We’ve been managing tech teams for a combined 12 years, and over this time have learnt (often painfully) what does and doesn’t work. In this podcast we'll be talking to the people we turned to for ideas, advice, and encouragement. Join us as we learn how to be better tech leaders.

Episodes

  1. 06/17/2022

    Chris Evans

    Chris Evans, Co-founder and Chief Product Officer of Incident.io joins us to talk about all things incident-related. Chris, previously the Director for Platform and Reliability at Monzo is a regular conference speaker and author of a number of articles about incident management and observability. In this episode, we discuss The origins of Incident.io, including Monzo's open-source tool, Response [00:01:50]Building incident management tools as a way of expanding an incident management rota [00:02:38]Why existing incident management tools haven't managed to solve the problem of painless incident management [00:08:07]Chris's dream of building a tech company from the ground up [00:09:56]What it was like to move from Monzo to Incident.io [00:12:47]What does good incident management look like? [00:18:20]At what point should a company be setting up on call rotas? [00:20:52] Metrics and incidents - how to do it well [00:24:06]How to make incident management a better dev experience [00:27:20]On why we should all be speaking at conferences [00:39:48]You can see the doodle of Chris, plus find all the links and show notes over on https://humansplus.tech/podcast-chris-evans/

    47 min

  2. 04/06/2022

    Sarah Wells

    We're joined by the incredible Sarah Wells. Sarah's most recently worked as Technical Director for Engineering Enablement at the Financial Times, where she spent the last 11 years leading tech teams as well as defining the tech strategy and product roadmap inside the FT. Sarah's also a frequent conference speaker presenting on topics ranging from microservices to engineering productivity.  In this episode we discuss Sarah's experience of working at the Financial Times, learn the secrets behind successful Engineering Enablement, and learn how to create a Golden Path. Sarah also shares how the FT increased diversity in tech plus shares some great new book recommendations.

    56 min

  3. 12/09/2021

    Kelsey Hightower

    We're thrilled to be joined by the incredible Kelsey Hightower!  Kelsey is a Principal Engineer at Google, an author, and a prolific speaker and tweeter of tech trends. Kelsey is a vocal Kubernetes advocate and has played a massive part in teaching the Tech industry about the power and intricacies of Kubernetes. Kelsey is also possibly the kindest and most helpful person in Tech today! In this episode we discuss:  How Kelsey became known as the nicest person in tech [00:01:57] Kelsey's background and how he got to where he is today [00:05:59] How to go from running your own company to joining the big enterprise world [00:08:53] How Kelsey stays up-to-date on tech [00:12:33] On how to give people advice [00:15:12]Self-taught vs University education [00:19:01]Dealing with frustration when learning [00:21:01]Kelsey's experience of going from a data center to Principle engineer. How to move from step A to step B [00:27:57]Responding when you feel like you're the token under-represented person [00:32:18]The one thing Kelsey wishes everyone would take-away to help Tech become a better place [00:35:55]Open Source as a model for collaboration and a framework for disagreements [00:39:08]Kubernetes, and whether it has lived up to the hype [00:41:58]How to influence [00:46:49] You can see the doodle of Kelsey plus find all the links and show notes over on https://humansplus.tech/podcast-kelsey-hightower/

    53 min

  4. 03/03/2021

    Michael Lopp

    We're excited to be talking to the one and only Michael Lopp, aka Rands from the incredible https://randsinrepose.com/. Rands is an engineering leader at Apple, having previously been VP of Engineering at Slack, head of engineering at Pinterest, as well as being the author of a number of amazing tech leadership books, including Managing Humans and The Art of Leadership, small things done well. Full show notes and the doodle are over at humansplus.tech/podcast-michael-lopp/ In this episode we cover: Surviving the fall as a new manager [00:01:30]Rands's vision of feedback [00:09:51]Working with people who have different communication styles and the post Rands wrote about it, Lost in Translation [00:14:20]Why and how to Say the Hard Thing [00:21:37] Hearing the hard thing and the three types of feedback [00:28:34]How introverts can level the playing field [00:40:55]How to manage your energy as an introverted manager [00:44:08]The OODA loop [00:48:57]

    53 min

  5. 10/29/2020

    Jon Topper

    Jon Topper, CEO and CTO of The Scale Factory joins us to chat about scaling, AWS, Kubernetes, and why we should all be thinking about boring tech.  In this episode we cover The Scale Factory, how they help companies with the foundational tech.Scaling, and why Kubernetes isn't the answer to all your scaling concerns.Boring tech and why we should all probably we using it.Innovation days at work.Pioneers, Settlers, and Town Planners.Jon's experience with therapy and why we should all be seeking to understand who we are. Visit humansplus.tech/podcast-jon-topper/ to see Jon's doodle plus you'll find links to all the books, talks, and other great things Jon referenced in the show.

    1h 2m

  6. 08/30/2020

    Julia Evans

    In this episode, we're so excited to be talking to the incredible Julia Evans. Julia is a software engineer and also an amazing illustrator and storyteller. She's the creator of Wizard Zines, the famous comics that explain complex tech in a short, simple and beautiful way. We chatted to Julia about how her inspiration and process for creating zines, deep dived into her "Help! I have a Manager!" zine as well as discovering why we should all be writing brag documents.  You can find all the links and shownotes over on https://humansplus.tech

    50 min

  7. 05/30/2020

    Pat Kua

    Pat Kua joins us to chat about Tech Leadership and engineering culture. Pat’s an incredibly experienced tech leader, most recently as CTO at N26. He’s also a regular keynote speaker, mentor, author of 3 books, and curator of the awesome Level Up newsletter. He recently launched the Tech Lead academy with his first course - Time Management for Tech Leaders.  Pat gave us some new book recommendations, shared his top tips for tech leads, and gave us a behind the scenes look at how N26 scaled their team and culture from 50 to 370 people. To see the full show notes and the all-important doodle head over to https://humansplus.tech/podcast-pat-kua

    49 min

  8. 04/29/2020

    Meri Williams

    We're joined by the amazing Meri Williams, previously CTO of Monzo, MOO, and M&S, as well as host and co-curator of the incredible LeadDev conferences. Meri's an experienced technical leader, one who's really technical - check out her story of soldering satellites! In this episode, we chat about creating fantastic conference line-ups who also happen to be diverse, pressures of being a high-profile CTO, ways to build and maintain an incredible network as well as all the usual book recommendations. You can find all the show notes plus the all-important Meri doodle over on HumansPlus.Tech

    1 hr

  9. 04/10/2020

    Kim Scott

    Kim Scott, author of the New York Times & Wall Street Journal bestseller Radical Candor, talks to us about feedback, growth management and why reading novels is a great way to improve your management skills.  Kim has been a CEO coach at a number of tech companies including Dropbox, Qualtrics, and Twitter. Previously, Kim led AdSense, YouTube, and Doubleclick Online Sales and Operations at Google. Known for her ability to generate billions of dollars in revenue from millions of small customers while keeping her team happy and margins high, her unofficial title was High Priestess of the Long Tail. After Google, Kim joined Apple to develop and teach a leadership seminar.

    48 min

  10. 03/16/2020

    Camille Fournier

    Join us in this episode of Humans+Tech as we chat to the incredible Camille Fournier, managing director of Two Sigma and author of the books The Manager's Path and 97 Things Every Engineering Manager should know.

    40 min

  11. 01/25/2020

    Patty McCord

    The Incredible Patty McCord, former Chief Talent Officer of Netflix, coauthor of the viral Netflix Culture Deck, and author of the book, Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility joins us on Humans+Tech to share her lessons from working at Netflix and in Silicon Valley.

    55 min

  12. 01/18/2020

    Lara Hogan

    In this episode of the Humans+Tech podcast we spoke to the mighty Lara Hogan about her latest book, Resilient Management. Lara, previously VP of Engineering at Kickstarter, Engineering Director at Etsy, more recently founded Wherewithall, where she coaches managers and leaders across the tech industry.

    44 min
  • 12 Episodes

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
3 Ratings

About

Hi, we're Aaron and Amy! We’ve been managing tech teams for a combined 12 years, and over this time have learnt (often painfully) what does and doesn’t work. In this podcast we'll be talking to the people we turned to for ideas, advice, and encouragement. Join us as we learn how to be better tech leaders.

Information

  • Creator
    Aaron Randall, Amy Phillips
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2022
  • Episodes
    12
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2022 Humans+Tech
  • Show Website
    Humans+Tech