QCon New York June 15-19, 2020 | | Sink or Swim - Effective Collaboration between Eng & Product

This presentation is now available to view on InfoQ.com

Abstract

Cross-functional teams are the norm in modern software development organizations. The prototypical leadership team consists of Engineering Lead, Product Manager, and (often) Design Lead. Being able to be an effective partner when working with Product Managers and Designers is a key skill for sr. engineers and engineering leaders. In this talk, we will explain the nature of the relationship, key principles of effective collaboration, the roles and responsibilities of each.

We will then go over some examples of conflict between the roles (and us!), and go over a few actual situations of tendons we experienced, and how we ultimately became an effective partnership.

Speaker: Jean Barmash

VP Engineering @KomodoHealth

Jean Barmash is VP of Engineering at Komodo Health, where he is working to reduce the global burden of disease using Big Data and Machine Learning technologies. Prior to that, he was Director of Engineering at Compass, and VP of Engineering, Apps Platform & Marketplaces at Tradeshift. Jean has over 19 years of experience in software industry, and has been part of 6 startups, three as CTO / VPE and one of which he co-founded. Prior to his entrepreneurial adventures, Jean held a number of progressively senior roles in product development, integration consulting, and team leadership, working with Fortune 100 companies like Ford, Microsoft, BofA, Citi, IHG, and Adobe.

Jean is passionate about raising the level of technical leadership in the industry, and for the last six years has been organizing CTO School New York meetup, an organization he co-founded and grew to over 2,500 members. Jean lives in NY with his awesome and supportive wife and two hilariously-funny kids.