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The Tech Leader’s Guide to questions that require context to answer, from the creators of CTO Craft and Skiller Whale. We talk about what needs to be considered when you’re tackling tech decision topics like: ”should we use Kubernetes?”, or management topics like ”how do I address diversity in my team?” or process topics like ”are daily stand-ups a total waste of time?”
Episodes
Monday Jul 05, 2021
Monday Jul 05, 2021
In this Episode, Hywel and Rob evaluate the pros and cons of using the Spotify model in your organization, when it is appropriate, and how. Should you have a front-end team, a back-end team, and a mobile team? Or should you really just have squads, guilds, tribes, and chapters? Listen to this episode to find out what you should be aiming for when introducing the model, and why that’s crucial to your success.
Rob Elkin is the Founding Partner at Rational Partners a customer behavior software. Having been in technology for over 15 years, Rob started out as a developer for front-end and back-end tech, DevOps before it was DevOps, and then moved into leadership roles. He ran tech at Just Eats before moving on as CTO at Busuu. Today, he’s a consulting CTO, advisor, and entrepreneur. Read more about his work here.
Hywel Carver is the Co-Founder and CEO of Skiller Whale, a SaaS company enabling development for developers. Hywel was a CTO for a variety of VC-backed companies for over 10 years, ran Tech Leader Dinners, and coached other CTOs. He’s a published curriculum author and avid blogger.
Dave, Hywel, and Hayley created Skiller Whale out of the frustration that learning for developers is broken; Learn more about the company and sign-up for a free trial here.
Monday Jun 21, 2021
Monday Jun 21, 2021
Is ‘legacy’ always a bad thing? In this episode, Hywel and Rich discuss whether re-platforming is really worth it, and how you know if, and when it is. They discuss the cost of re-platforming and how to prepare for its impact.
Rich Kershaw is an experienced, multi-disciplined creative technologist with 20 years of experience, 17 of which are as a CTO. Over the years, Rich has covered an enormous range of different projects; from payments and UX to mobile app and website development, IoT and transit. Today, he combines due diligence consultancy for investors with working as a consulting CTO for companies in need of a long-term processing strategy. Specializing in technology strategy and mentoring, Rich works with startups, scale-ups, and mid-market companies on scaling tech, UX & product road mapping, and streamlining development processes to build sustainable growth and funding. Read more about him here.
Hywel Carver is the Co-Founder and CEO of Skiller Whale, a SaaS company enabling development for developers. Hywel was a CTO for a variety of VC-backed companies for over 10 years, ran Tech Leader Dinners, and coached other CTOs. He’s a published curriculum author and avid blogger.
Dave, Hywel, and Hayley created Skiller Whale out of the frustration that learning for developers is broken; Learn more about the company and sign-up for a free trial here.
Monday Jun 07, 2021
Monday Jun 07, 2021
In this episode of Primarily Context-Based, Hywel is joined by Emanuele Blanco to discuss the role of coding in leadership technology positions. Is it true that “if you’re coding, you’re not truly a CTO”? They discuss different versions of the CTO position, and how the choice to code or not to code impacts strategy and leadership, as well as the ownership, trust, and accountability of the development team.
Emanuele Blanco is a technology leader with over 10 years of experience helping businesses in sectors such as government, finance, and e-commerce to deliver value to their customers via modern technology practices. Originally from Italy, Emanuele started his career as a software engineer in the UK before moving into consulting. He worked with companies such as Klarna, HMRC, and Sky before rising up the ranks at Moneyfarm, a pan-European digital wealth manager, where he is now the CTO. Learn more about his approach to leadership on this Digital Innovation Chat podcast episode and in the following articles:
CTO Craft Con - ‘From Zero to CTO’
FinTech Magazine - (interview)
Hywel Carver is the Co-Founder and CEO of Skiller Whale, a SaaS company enabling development for developers. Hywel was a CTO for a variety of VC-backed companies for over 10 years, ran Tech Leader Dinners, and coached other CTOs. He’s a published curriculum author and avid blogger.
Dave, Hywel, and Hayley created Skiller Whale out of the frustration that learning for developers is broken; Learn more about the company and sign-up for a free trial here.
Monday May 24, 2021
Monday May 24, 2021
In this episode, Hywel and Dave discuss everything data - why pure data is not always as it seems, why modeling data will not always make your predictions more accurate, and why data is contextual. They discuss examples from Sony, Ferrari, and Netflix and share anecdotes of how they learned that quantitative data is not relevant without qualitative data.
Together with Hywel, Dave Millican is the Co-Founder and CTO at Skiller Whale. He has managed data science teams and projects since 2012, including developing data-driven race simulation tools for the Ferrari F1 team and as the Lead Data Scientist for BridgeU.
Hywel Carver is the Co-Founder and CEO of Skiller Whale, a SaaS company enabling development for developers. Hywel was a CTO for a variety of VC-backed companies for over 10 years, ran Tech Leader Dinners, and coached other CTOs. He’s a published curriculum author and avid blogger.
Dave, Hywel, and Hayley created Skiller Whale out of the frustration that learning for developers is broken; Learn more about the company and sign-up for a free trial here.
Tuesday Apr 27, 2021
Tuesday Apr 27, 2021
In this episode, Hywel and Squirrel talk about the right way to do Agile. Having recently published a book called 'Agile Conversations', Squirrel offers interesting viewpoints on what has or has not worked for tech teams in the past. To read more about his book, go to https://www.douglassquirrel.com/index.html or listen to Squirrel's own podcast, Troubleshooting Agile, at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/troubleshooting-agile/id1327456890
Hywel Carver is the Co-Founder and CEO of Skiller Whale, a SaaS company enabling development for developers. Hywel was a CTO for a variety of VC-backed companies for over 10 years, ran Tech Leader Dinners, and coached other CTOs. He’s a published curriculum author and avid blogger.
Dave, Hywel, and Hayley created Skiller Whale out of the frustration that learning for developers is broken; Learn more about the company and sign-up for a free trial here.
Thursday Apr 22, 2021
Thursday Apr 22, 2021
In this episode, Hywel and Jon discuss which contexts are best for adopting Kubernetes (and which aren’t). They discuss the benefits and disadvantages, share experiences and evaluate the challenges of using Kubernetes.
Prior to launching The Scale Factory in 2009, Jon Topper worked as a developer and lead systems administrator at mobile messaging startup Trutap. There he built an infrastructure around practices that would later be referred to as “DevOps”. Having cut his teeth on physical hardware and networks in the data centers – he started his career at Designer Servers (DSVR), one of the first UK companies to offer virtual server hosting – Jon finds the ease and speed of cloud services a joy.
Jon was awarded DevOps Leader of the Year at the 2017 DevOps Excellence Awards. He’s currently recognized as an AWS Partner Network Ambassador.
Hywel Carver is the Co-Founder and CEO of Skiller Whale, a SaaS company enabling development for developers. Hywel was a CTO for a variety of VC-backed companies for over 10 years, ran Tech Leader Dinners, and coached other CTOs. He’s a published curriculum author and avid blogger.
Dave, Hywel, and Hayley created Skiller Whale out of the frustration that learning for developers is broken; Learn more about the company and sign-up for a free trial here.
Thursday Mar 18, 2021
Thursday Mar 18, 2021
In this episode, Hywel and Andy discuss the pros and cons of different approaches to measuring tech team efficiency. They share horror stories about poor incentive strategies, as well as approaches that have worked for them.
Andy Skipper has led startup engineering teams as a CTO since 2006, including Made.com, and was the first CTO at Comic Relief, one of the largest charities in the UK.
He now runs CTO Craft, a mentoring community and coaching practice focussed on CTOs and technology leaders, numbering 1100 and spanning the globe, where he helps technologists get to grips with senior leadership and management, culture, and operations alongside a number of other experienced CTO mentors and strategists.
He also curates the Tech Manager Weekly newsletter for technology leaders.
Hywel Carver is the Co-Founder and CEO of Skiller Whale, a SaaS company enabling development for developers. Hywel was a CTO for a variety of VC-backed companies for over 10 years, ran Tech Leader Dinners, and coached other CTOs. He’s a published curriculum author and avid blogger.
Dave, Hywel, and Hayley created Skiller Whale out of the frustration that learning for developers is broken; Learn more about the company and sign-up for a free trial here.