Heartifacts 2020

Engineering managers are, almost by definition, highly capable and strongly driven individuals. These traits are indispensable to success in leading software engineering teams, but they are also the very traits that make engineering managers susceptible to burn out. People who can get things done often find themselves overwhelmed by their to-do lists. This talk will combine the understanding from the trenches of Anjuan Simmons (who has been an engineering manager for more than 20 years) with the academic understanding of his wife, Dr. Aneika Simmons. Together, they will provide a framework for reducing burnout and consistently keeping stress levels in a managed state.

Keeping It Human: Swapping Code for Connections is a talk about the pivot from a decade of software development to a product role through the use of Design Thinking and an affinity for people. Too often we see the negative impact of the "move fast; break things" model in tech and how disconnected we, as developers, can often find ourselves from the human experience. In my talk, I'll highlight my nontraditional shift out of code and how I became passionate about business and people problems (internally and externally!) with the help of my cross-cutting skills. My goal for this talk to is to offer a new path for folks in tech and be the living example of how you can apply your skills in ways that might not seem viable in the traditional, linear tracks. Let's shake things up and connect the missing dots!

Come join us for a stretch in the hallway track!

Starting a new job is hard, but what about starting a new job in a new country? Some folks think that the culture of the country they were raised in, especially if it's a dominant culture like US, is easily understood and represented. They also often don't have the awareness of how even small differences can accumulate and cause a lot of stress for new immigrants - stress which can often be alleviated by answering a few questions and pointing them in the right direction. Some immigrants think that the cost of moving to a new country should be solely on them and they put a brave face on when dealing with everyday frustrations. It can affect their mood and ability to be a great team member, and perform in their role the way they'd like to. In this talk, I'm going to identify areas in which new immigrants on your team might need support from you and how to help them navigate those issues. If you'd like for your co-workers to bring their whole selves to work, helping them feel safe and supported is key, especially while they learn the culture of their new chosen country. I'm also going to talk about my personal experience as a recent immigrant, that might be helpful for other folks dealing with that new reality. Naming problems and talking about my path can help them realize that it really is hard, there is no shame in asking for help!

Bring your pet and show them off, or come look at the cute animals!

It's 2020. We know that burnout is real, self-care is important, and “rockstar” techies are at least cryptids, if not outright myths. Right? I'm a recovering rockstar. It wasn't enough for me to make a career change and transition into tech, I had to /win/ at it. On top of my full-time job, I taught, spoke, networked, organized, tweeted, blogged, appeared on TV... “no” wasn't in my vocabulary. Turns out there's only so long I can keep up that sort of behavior without developing problematic mental health issues and wrecking my relationships (oops!). In this session, I'll talk through learning how to accept my limitations, to recognize burnout and be kind to myself, and to responsibly re-engage after taking a self-care break. I've made the mistakes so you don't have to!

A strength of the tech industry is its ability to facilitate remote work. Remote work helps people — particularly people who are part of marginalized communities, such as folks who are undergoing a gender transition. We often talk about how to foster inclusive teams and remote work can be a big factor in that! In this talk, you’ll learn about barriers that disproportionately affect underrepresented folks in tech, like health concerns, financial/geographical logistics and emotional burnout, as well as the ways working remotely can ease those burdens, and how to promote healthy distributed teams.

Silly group photo happening in the hallway track :D

When we scale our system and they break, we have procedures in place to understand, document, and fix the issues. 2020 has amplified our what marginalized communities have been saying for years. These systems where never made with us in mind. It’s time for to acknowledge the role technology plays in changing the systems that never worked everyone.

The C&S Compensation Survey Working Group will present the results of the nationwide comprehensive survey of compensation, commute, job satisfaction, role, hiring, and so much more.

Goal of the conversation for Heartifacts 2020: People would have entry-level knowledge about the brain and basic cognitive processes which directly impact the work they do (and how they process information) on a routine basis so they might be able to “hack” their own brain. Why does it matter? Before the tech, is always the human. We bring ourselves to whatever it is we do. 1. Managing ourselves results in better output. We manage so many aspects of our lives, but many people don’t consider the role of their brains as it relates to what it is they do.If I know better, I can do better. Focus on skill acquisition as it pertains to your body and your brain. Awareness is where it begins. 1. Cognitive Control - frontal lobe in attention, concentration, problem solving and decision making. Insight and awareness too. 2. Emotional Control - limbic system/mammalian brain 3. Relational Control - Empathy, respect and compassion and boundaries. What’s the science behind it? 1. The frontal lobe — Role of executive function in decision making, prospective planning. All of these things require energy and consideration around the allocation of resources. Bottom up/top down processing. 2. Limbic system and the mammalian brain - The emotional center of the brain. My emotions impact my decision making, attention, memory and resiliency. “Name it, to tame it.” The better we are at naming what we feel, the better we are at navigating ourselves and our relationships. Left/right hemispheric integration, the amygdala and the hippocampus. 3. Relationships - How can I manage myself and others better? 1. Mirror neurons and empathy…and respect too. 2. Compassion and boundaries - leading with understanding while setting parameters/clear expectations for performance and feedback. What’s the practical application? So what, now what? Where do I begin? Ask yourself, where am I having trouble or what area of my work do I want to improve? Ask for feedback from your top 3. We all benefit from having a “board of advisors.” Who in your life do you permit to tell you about who you are and what you can do and where you struggle? 1. How are you performing in your job? Are you able to focus/concentrate/attend to the things you want to or are there distractions that continue to interfere with your performance? When do you tire and have trouble “keeping up” in the way you desire? 1. Then do this—examine your self-expectations and how you allocate energy. What things in your life (work, home, relationships, etc.) demand the most of you? Are there feelings or stressors in life that may be contributing to or interfering with your performance? 2. The value of emotions and the WHY behind what we do. Ask yourself if it’s worth it? Is whatever job your doing/task you’re assigned to, workplace you’re in, is it valuable enough for to you to embrace the obstacles that you encounter on a regular basis? This gets at emotional seat of what you’re doing. Emotions always count—they’re just data. Data that needs to be considered and not omitted. How we respond to this data is important. Strategies for improved emotional control: Mindfulness, gratitude, exercise (movement as a bartering of emotional energy), and more. 3. We never lose when we start with curiosity. Can you practice being curious about others when you don’t understand them and why they do or say what they do? If I’m not willing to look beneath the surface, I’ll end up being distracted by the behavior I find ……….fill the blank (aversive, upsetting, irritating, annoying, etc.). Perspective taking and empathy. → Not “my perspective” of someone’s experience or challenges, but THEIR perspective. I have to be willing to move to the other side of the table when I “look” at what they’re doing. Per Kristin Neff at the University of Texas, leading researcher on compassion, how might I practice being compassionate when I want to be demanding or hold others to the expectation of output? The interplay between my response to myself and flipping the lens to that of the other? How can involve them in the process of choice and decision-making, so that they feel and believe that their actions impact their situation and that of the team. **When I level up, and manage myself effectively, I increase the likelihood of others following suit and leveling up themselves. We lead by example.

Agile teams work incredibly hard to drive software and processes forward. Sometimes we neglect the emotional side of our hard work, leaving teams brittle and less able to adapt and bend. How do we release tension and form the strong bonds that a good team needs to be successful? As children, we form strong bonds during recess or at play dates. As adults, we lose this sense of companionship and playfulness. Bring it back to your team with targeted fun activities that create a sense of mindfulness, improve skills, and are just downright enjoyable. Team building is the most difficult aspect of leadership--peer or otherwise. One of the best ways to facilitate team building is play! Jenny will present a method for team building outside of the norm in play time. She will show how events can be arranged, when to do them, and what the benefits are for play time--including stronger teams that work better together due to their powerful relationships between team members.

Bring your lunch and come socialize in the hallway track!

Feeling like a fraud, or that you don’t deserve to be in the room, is sadly easy enough in any industry. In the tech landscape it’s that much simpler, with languages to learn, systems to understand, and roles to have experience in - and to my dismay, there’s no mockumentary or fine-tuned HBO show to allay the sentiment. Ideally, there’d be a series where there’s a “diverse and fun-loving group of friends who deal with imposter syndrome in moving up in their jobs and life in the big city”. Nothing brilliant by any means, but utterly relatable. We don’t have that, at least not yet, but I’ve learned that imposter syndrome can be as big a beast as any, and I’ve read and experimented with small steps in how to try and get past those moments in which it causes anxiety. In this talk, I’ll discuss experiences like job applications and networking events, and present my tiny toolkit of steps for handling imposter syndrome in a way that is honest and accepting for what works for you.

The story we’re told is that someone suffering from ADHD is scattered, forgetful, inattentive. They interrupt people, are more likely to be fired from jobs, can’t complete work on time, and absolutely cannot stop talking. Ever. We’re told that people with ADHD flounder to function in the world around them due to these symptoms. But if we take that story at face value, why are there so many people with ADHD who are able to not only function, but flourish? I viewed my symptoms as an added obstacle. One day, I committed to changing this viewpoint - I wanted to know why ADHD was viewed and described the way that it was. The viewpoints I had internalized came from studies done in the early 90s. In 2018, two studies showed ADHD in a different light. Rather than scattered thoughts, we now describe cognitive dynamism: having so many thoughts running through your head that you become energized. Rather than inattentive, we now describe hyper-focus: the ability to become so focused on a task that you disassociate with the world around you. Rather than distractible, we now describe divergent thinking: the ability to generate creative ideas by exploring many different possible solutions. Let’s start a conversation about the positive, impactful side of ADHD. The side that helps us be better at our jobs and in our communities. If you don’t have ADHD, you will be asked to have an honest conversation with yourself about what kind of preconceived ideas you bring when talking to someone with or about a mental health condition. Together let’s look at changing the story for those with ADHD.

Bring coffee, tea, water, pets, yourself, or all the above!

Software engineers rarely think about the safety of their products, but as the world becomes more connected, involves more machine learning and deploys more sensors the potential for harm only increases. How should an engineer think about these challenges? What approaches can be added to the development lifecycle in order to factor in ethics into the process. How has software gone wrong in the past and how have the organizations in charge iterated to prevent misuse of their products? [Content Warning: This talk discusses some aspects of software in the defense space]

Technology has a deep impact on society. When you work in tech, you can see things about society that people without your background can’t see. I’d like to tell a story about my experiences teaching women in prison. I’ll illustrate the difference in my experience before and after working with a public dataset that proves people are kept in prison unjustly. This talk is about how you need to be careful about the things you build, and ask the difficult questions about what it will be used for. But this talk is also about the fact that when building new technology, you MUST make decisions based on research and data. This talk is about my experience playing with data and how that translated to deeper understanding and greater compassion for people.