Hey! 👋It’s been a while. Last time I was celebrating life in Amsterdam. And my how things have changed. Since then, I’ve relocated back to the U.S. and I’ve started a new job. I’m working as the Engineering Manager for Mobile Apps at Meetup. This is my first position with no coding required. 😱 I’m adjusting to the change, however. It helps that my schedule is jam-packed every day. No time to think about not coding.
Why Meetup? A few folks have asked me that. I’ll start with a story. When we moved to Amsterdam my husband missed home. More than the rest of us. One thing he missed, in particular, was playing basketball with his friends. I remember telling him, “Use Meetup. They probably have some other guys like you who play basketball.” I was right.
He ended up joining a few basketball groups on Meetup. He got to play basketball around Amsterdam. And he made some new friends along the way. Win-win! I’m happy to work for a company that enables these types of connections.
Beyond that, I was ready to take on new challenges. Managing both Android & iOS developers. Learning from more senior engineers. And helping to move a web company to one that is mobile-first. All of that appealed to me. I miss life in Amsterdam, but I appreciate that I had the experience. I look forward to what's next...
Books I’m Reading
Accelerate - https://amzn.to/2LpuBpx
“Improvements in software delivery are possible for every team and in every company, as long as leadership provides consistent support…” This quote resonated with me. I’ve been on teams where the engineers wanted to improve things, but they didn’t get the support of the business. It never works out.
My manager recommended this book to me. Specifically, I’m hoping to learn more about the key metrics that pertain to software delivery that I should care about. Building a cohesive, high-performing team is my current goal. But how will I know that I’ve achieved that goal without some way to measure the result. I’m excited to see where this goes.
The First 90 Days - https://amzn.to/2LovIpF
What kind of change am I being called upon to lead? That is the most important question to have answered when starting in a new role. The First 90 Days presents the STARS model. It’s a way of categorizing the current state of affairs. This allows you to develop the appropriate strategy for bringing about the desired change.
The book also calls out what you should aim to accomplish in the first 90 days:
* Establish priorities
* Define strategic intent
* Secure early wins
* Build the right leadership team
* Create supporting alliances
Having concrete action items has proven beneficial to me. My first month has gone smoothly. And folks seem genuinely happy with me and my work. If you have no idea how to approach leading a new team, this is the book for you.
Let’s Talk Podcasts
HBR IdeaCast - What Great Coaching Looks Like
In just 25 minutes, I learned so much about what it means to be a great coach. In this episode, Richard Boyatzis talks about how the best coaches focus on long-term values and aspirations. People need help clarifying the “what” and “why” and they can plan out the “how” on their own. This makes sense to me. Often, if I focus on the “how” for someone, it doesn’t stick. There were lots of useful concepts shared in this episode. If you are in a position of leadership, give it a listen.
Fragmented - Testing RxJava, Debugging, and More
In this episode, Donn shares a “controversial" opinion about the Testing Pyramid. He feels that the most important aspect of testing should be to validate that the app works for the user. End-to-end tests, he claims, is the best way to do that. Focusing only on unit testing and code coverage won’t cut it.
This issue of the right mix of tests to write comes up constantly in Android development. As we speak, I’m trying to decide the right mix at my current company. One of the trickiest bits is making sure you have the proper architecture in place to support swapping out dependencies. This is rarely the case in legacy mobile applications. Thus, the testing conundrum persists. Both Donn and Kaushik spoke to this as well. Give it a listen.
Talking Kotlin - Kotlin and Android
Hadi talks with one of my favorite Google Developer Advocates, Florina Muntenescu. He throws all of his most asked Kotlin on Android questions at her. I especially appreciated the discussion of what “Kotlin First” means to the Android team at Google. I didn’t know about many of the nice features that she mentioned are available in the KTX extensions. If for nothing else, listen for the horrible puns. 😜
Recent Courses
Yep, I’m eating cake! 😜 In my latest course, Programming Foundations: Fundamentals I take a step back and start from the basics of programming. I had loads of fun filming this one. There was cake, dancing, terrible jokes, everything I needed to have a good time. If you or someone you know wants to understand what programming is all about. This is a fun way to learn if I do say so myself.
Until next time, thanks for reading!
"My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.”
- Maya Angelou
Blog: http://www.adavis.info
Twitter: https://twitter.com/brwngrldev
Newsletter: http://tinyletter.com/brwngrldev
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