Culture
June 9

Unleash the power of technical empathy

Technical empathy provides a shift in mindset and culture that cultivates greater clarity of responsibility, increases the empowerment of both implementers and integrators, and ultimately helps build and maintain trust between software delivery teams.
Talk abstract

The software industry is rife with examples of APIs that place an undue burden on the integrator. Poor design, unclear requirements, short-sighted objectives, and failure to encapsulate volatility lead to brittle, fragile systems that are frustrating and costly to extend and maintain. The temptation to deliver leaky abstractions is great since victory can be claimed for "shipping," especially in situations where most stakeholders do not have the design skills and systems training to differentiate a poor abstraction from a good one.

Good abstractions put the hard work where it belongs: On those shipping the API, not on those integrating with it. 

Technical empathy provides a shift in mindset and culture that cultivates greater clarity of responsibility, increases the empowerment of both implementers and integrators, and ultimately helps build and maintain trust between software delivery teams.

This session applies systems thinking, leadership principles, and deep industry experience to help software professionals understand the need for technical empathy and how to cultivate it in their own context.