OfferZen Podcast

Many developers say that growth opportunities are one of the most important things for them when it comes to staying in a job. However, for a tech lead figuring out how to cater for everyone’s career goals can be hard. That’s why Julian Springer, Technical and Career Manager at Singular Systems, has set up ‘contribution sessions’ with his developers every month to track progress and solve any niggles before they become bigger problems. Here’s how he does this. Watch the video, and read the blog post here! (http://bit.ly/3aPgiHM)

When scaling one’s responsibilities as a tech leader, it can be hard to not feel anxious about whether or not you have the leadership experience you need to thrive — be it moving from startup to enterprise, or vice versa. Calvin Hawkes, former Product Lead at Trivago, says that even though he moved from a startup to an enterprise, his experience as a product lead at a startup actually made him a better product lead at an enterprise. In this conversation, he shares the lessons he applied from his startup experience to his enterprise leadership role, and how it gave him a unique strength.Watch the video here! (https://bit.ly/3aLNorQ)

Being a remote leader is hard enough, but being a remote leader in a different time zone is even harder. Ashley Sanders is Signific’s Director of Tech, and sits roughly eight hours behind his tech team, in another country. In this conversation, he shares the operating system he’s developed for himself, and his team, to ensure that he is not a blocker to his team’s productivity, that his team can still ask him for support, and that he can still provide his team with what they need to thrive.Watch the video here! (https://youtu.be/5ZkPGJw4dRs)

As tech teams around the world embrace remote work to varying degrees, tech leaders need to adapt their leadership to suit the new environment. Understanding what that means in practice, however, is hard. Mike Scott, CEO and co-founder at NONA, learned an important lesson in his time as a remote leader, namely that: Remote leadership is not the same as remote work, and strategies for the latter won’t necessarily work for the former. Being a remote leader requires a new approach, and in this conversation Mike shares what he’s found effective for getting this right.Watch the video here! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9IJuYS974I&feature=youtu.be)

When communication structures and organisation design happen by accident — ie. they are not set up in parallel to each other — it tends to result in greater cognitive loads on developers, slower development speeds, and suboptimal workflows and productivity. This is why Richard Bailey, Executive VP of Engineering at Entersekt, used intentional organisation design to construct a new team structure around Entersekt’s product architecture so that his teams’ communication could mirror their architecture’s communication structures, and reduce cognitive load on developers. Here's how he did that.Watch the video, and read the blog post here! (http://bit.ly/2ORq4AC)

Being a leader can make it hard to take time off, and feel confident that your team will continue to thrive without you there. Chiedza Muguti, Head of Product at Penta, experienced this first hand when she had to take 10 weeks of medical leave, and saw how her team's systems failed when she wasn't around. Since then, she has set up a competency framework and a succession — or handover — plan that she uses to help her team succeed with or without her there. Here, she shares what this framework looks like and how it’s helped her team become more independent.Watch the video and read the blog post here! (http://bit.ly/3olrwY1)

Many technical recruiters acknowledge that hiring developers is particularly hard. They often don’t have a background in tech, and traditional approaches to recruiting often don't work because of how a developer thinks and what they're looking for in their careers. That's why Mark Deubel, Senior Tech Recruiter at Elastic, has found it useful to collaborate with his hiring manager and their team to learn more about the candidates that he's reaching out to. Here's how he approaches this.Watch the video and read the blog post here! (http://bit.ly/3pLklts)

Technical interviews are part of most companies' hiring process, and are one of the most important stages. But Ed O’Reilly and David O’Reilly, COO/Co-founder and CTO at NONA respectively, have found that they’re often limited in focus, and treated as a screening procedure more so than an engagement opportunity. In their experience, this reduces their efficacy and negatively impacts candidate experience. Here are three ways they make their tech interviews more interactive, get a better understanding of a candidate, and still leave them with an engaging experience.Watch the video and read the blog post here! (http://bit.ly/3r1nSEx)

While your talent pool for high quality developers increases when you open up your hiring remotely, so does the competition. Now, companies across the world — from small startups, to ‘big tech’ — are trying to attract the same developers. In this audio documentary, we get advice from the best in tech hiring at Codility, Recruitee, and co., and unpack what companies getting remote hiring right are doing. Here is what it takes to hire top tech talent in a remote world.To read OfferZen’s full ‘Developer Remote Work’ report, download it here! (http://bit.ly/3iGqFA5)And check out the blog post here! (https://bit.ly/3sRumHM)

Undergoing a tech transformation is a big undertaking for any tech team. Sadhana Gopal, Engineering Manager at Independer, has learned that being able to measure the value of the transformation is just as important as the technical roadmap you create for actually carrying out the transformation. She unpacks how she measures the value of a tech transformation while it’s happening, so that her team can stay agile and adapt to changes as they arise. Watch the video and read the blog post here! (http://bit.ly/34fnau9)

Every team has a mix of roles, and a range of technical to more non-technical people. This can make it challenging for software developers and data scientists to communicate effectively with each other, as well as with other people in their broader team, in a way that they understand. Daphne Cheung, Data Scientist at Disney, has used her background in business to hack communication in a way that lets her communicate better with anyone. This is her advice to help leaders help their teams do it too.⭐️ You can download Daphne’s 5-slide presentation template here! (https://bit.ly/3gqYSlQ) ⭐️ And you can watch the video and read the blog post here! (https://bit.ly/3m3xP18)

We spoke to Maarten Mantel, MD of MOHARA Ventures (SA), on our first ever LIVE podcast event! He joined us for a live podcast recording at one of our team's *WTF Lunches*, where we pick the brains of thought-leaders and learn about what they're doing in their industries. Maarten unpacked some of his lessons in scaling team culture, adapting one's ways of working in a remote setup, as well as some advice for companies with international offices and international teams.Check it out on the blog here! (https://bit.ly/3krPFdR)

Amos Haviv joined 3D Hubs as Senior Engineering Manager after lockdown was implemented, when teams were already working fully-remotely. Although he’s had years of leadership experience, leading a brand new team, while being onboarded into a new role and being completely remote, came with a new set of challenges.This meant that Amos had to reassess how he approached his new role as an engineering manager. Instead of trying to get involved and figure out everything about the company at once, he decided to focus on one core thing: Building up trust within his new team through solid communication. This meant he could get to know his new team really well and really quickly, and understand how he could best support them remotely. This article is a summary of our conversation on the podcast.Watch the video and read the blog post here! (https://bit.ly/3mqfooZ)

COVID-19 has had a major impact on companies around the world, and as a result many of them have been forced into survival mode. This has inevitably impacted how they think about their product roadmaps, and the gut instinct for many has been to save money wherever possible. Dimitra Retsina, CPO (a.i.) at ReceiptBank, however, has found that relying on gut feeling alone — especially during such uncertainty – won’t benefit your company in the long run. Instead, she relies on data to inform her decisions. Here’s how she approaches working with data to build out sustainable roadmaps during this transition into what she calls ‘phase two of COVID-19’.Watch the video, and read the three-part blog series here! (https://bit.ly/3k3hUzf)

Marian Jarzak has been passionate about employee engagement and employer branding for a number of years, and spends his days helping teams communicate better. In his experience, companies often invest too much time in their public messaging, and not enough time in how they communicate internally. In this article, Marian shares the very first step companies can take towards improving the way they communicate internally, why it matters so much — especially as workforces become remote-friendly — and some practical advice for getting it right.Watch the video, and read the blog post here! (https://bit.ly/32bJiFd)

At our third Facts + Snacks lunchtime event with SA’s leading entrepreneurs, we chatted to Trevor Gosling, Co-Founder & CEO of Lulalend, about how his team goes about building strong tech partnerships with customers like Yoco, Takealot, Vodacom and Payfast.Watch the video here! (https://bit.ly/3brw0Hz)

Agustin D. Bianchi is the Senior Director of HR Tech and Operations at Activision Blizzard King EMEA & APAC, and his mission is to transform the way his team does HR. In his experience, HR teams spend too much time doing the repetitive, ‘hand-hold’ admin tasks required in hiring and other employee’s life-cycle activities. By automating and streamlining their processes using technology and tooling.In this article, Agustin shares how tools like CRM and ATS help automate and streamline his team’s hiring process, in order to speed up their time-to-hire, and enable HR and hiring teams to actively contribute their expertise to hiring the best talent out there.Watch the video and read the blog post here! (https://bit.ly/3hVXTKe)

In the second edition of our Facts & Snacks lunchtime events, we chatted to Alexandria Procter, the Founder and CEO of DigsConnect about how this non-product tech CEO creates a helpful remote environment for her product team to thrive and perform.Check out the video of our conversation here! (https://bit.ly/3hyUWiR)

Jason Grishkoff is the CEO and founder of the music community platform SubmitHub — and he’s also the entire development team. As a CEO-and-solo developer combo, Jason’s approach to developing features for his company is a little different to most.In this article, Jason shares his strategies for developing and releasing new features as a solo developer who’s also the CEO. He discusses how not having a team of developers helping him decide which features to build means he relies a lot more on his relationship with his users, and how he has to timeblock his productivity in order to maximise the quality of time he spends coding when he’s not ‘CEO-ing’.Check out the video and read the blog post here! (https://bit.ly/2YE32PQ)

At our first Facts & Snacks lunchtime event with SA’s leading entrepreneurs, we chatted to Sumarie Greybe, co-founder of Naked Insurance about how COVID-19 has impacted the local insurance space, her best advice for disrupting traditional industries, and what’s next in AI-powered InsurTech innovation.Check out the video here! (https://bit.ly/3htCd80)

Christian Gill is a senior software engineer at Catawiki. He’s been a fan of using TypeScript, and even spearheaded its integration into his previous company’s tech stack. At Catawiki in particular, he enjoys TypeScript because of its ease-of-use across their vertical and horizontal team systems. Not only does it make it easy for his teams to work across codebases, but it also lets them easily scale their systems and free up a lot of their time as developers.In this conversation, Christian shares why he likes using TypeScript, and highlights some of the benefits he enjoys. He also shares some advice on how to get started with it.Watch the video, or check out the full transcription here! (https://bit.ly/3aBLdp2)You can also reach out the Christian via his website!

Companies are increasingly hiring remotely, which can open the talent pool of developers from hyper-local to international. However, selling top candidates on your company's mission and team culture without meeting them in person can be really hard. When hiring remotely, it’s incredibly important to focus on how you tell your company’s story, and the way you position a role to a candidate.We spoke to two top tech sourcers, Sjamilla van der Tooren and Vanessa Raath, to discuss the opportunities and challenges that come with sourcing and hiring tech talent remotely. Sjamilla has worked for companies like Zenly, and now sources tech talent at Dutch bike company VanMoof, and Vanessa freelances from South Africa and hosts recruitment workshops for hiring specialists around the world. Both have presented at conferences and meetups, and both are active members of the tech recruitment space. Some of the questions we explored in our discussion include: How do I know if someone can actually work effectively in a remote team? If developers can work remotely for any company in the world, how do I compete with tech ‘giants’?How do I present my company to a candidate when I can’t bring them into the office?Check out the full conversation Q&A, or watch the video of our discussion here! (https://bit.ly/2XYkUEr)

At our final Future of Fintech fireside chat, we spoke to Razaq Ahmed, the Co-Founder and CEO of Cowrywise about how FinTech can empower everyone – including first time users of financial services – to save and invest. He shares more about how the YC company – that has over 100 000 downloads of its investment app – is working to grow opportunities for all generations in Nigeria, Africa and beyond.Watch the video, or check out the blog post here! (https://bit.ly/2XuhdGy)

While establishing their product-market fit, Primephonic worked with a dev agency to spin up and trial different features of their product. Once it took off, however, they realised that they would need a dedicated in-house team to keep growing and improving their product — migrating code, as well as a lot of the contextual knowledge across the teams, turned out to be a major challenge. Here’s how Henrique Boregio, Primephonic’s CTO, navigated this. Watch the video and read the blog post here! (https://bit.ly/3f49Yeg)

In our latest fireside chat, we spoke to Lyndon Subroyen, Global Head of Digital & Technology at Investec, about how FinTech partnerships help drive digital transformation and innovation at the global asset management company.Find out more about how Lyndon is thinking about the future of FinTech in Africa and beyond in this episode!You can also watch the video, or read the transcript, here! (https://bit.ly/32KoSUn)

Leonard Mahlangu, Tech Recruitment Consultant at Investec, believes that building a human connection with candidates is important for a ‘high-touch’ hiring approach. In light of COVID-19, the team had to move their recruitment process online, and this meant they had to figure out how to keep human connection a priority through a completely virtual interaction. This is a summary of our conversation with Leonard about his team’s experience, and the three key lessons he’s learned about tech hiring in a remote-first world.Watch the video interview, and read the blog post, here! (https://bit.ly/2CrmTK9)

Sanjukta Barooah, COO at Finturi, believes that having a product roadmap is essential for any tech team because without it, it’s hard for an organisation to align which, in turn, makes it hard to drive growth in a meaningful way. Over the years, she’s found that the best product roadmaps incorporate creative thinking into their process.In this episode Sanjukta shares how she’s used creative thinking in building product roadmaps, and what she needs in order for that approach to be successful.Read the blog post here! (https://bit.ly/3e9qCbS)

Glen Ansell, Intelligent Automation Lead, and his team at Tangent Solutions worked on a project whereby they used artificial intelligence (AI) and robotic process automation (RPA) to help speed up x-ray screening for potential COVID-19 cases. In order to build an effective solution, though, Glen’s team had to make sure their solution was non-invasive, rolled-out quickly, and built robustly without room for error.In this conversation, Glen outlines the project’s problem statement, the technical requirements, the unique challenges and constraints his team faced, and how they approached their solution given their specific context.Check out some of the key takeaway lessons, or read the full transcript, on the blog post here! ()Chapters[04:50] Rapidfire ‘warm up’ questions[08:04] Introduction to Tangent Solutions: What problems do they solve?[13:15] Defining AI and RPA in the context of this project specifically[16:21] Project outline: The problem statement, constraints, and challenges[20:21] The project’s technical requirements and “main goal”[22:16] Contextualising the project’s goal within the technical constraints and challenges[25:42] High-level project approach: Critical considerations, and step-by-step process[32:34] Guiding principles: What does “non-invasive” tech mean?[37:06] How unique challenges and constraints affected workflow and development[41:00] Closing thoughts: Potential of this tech going forward

We chatted to Shola Akinlade, CEO and Co-founder at Paystack, about what his team is currently focusing on to ensure that they are equipped to successfully enable their customers to ambitiously grow their businesses. They do this by making it quick and easy for users to get started on Paystack and accept payments across Africa.Find out more about how Paystack uses tech tooling, community support networks, and data-driven industry insights to grow their business and help their customers. Read the transcript, or watch the video here! (https://bit.ly/2AcFpVk)

Levelling up as a developer can be overwhelming: The tech industry moves fast, and with so many podcasts, videos, forums, blog posts and online courses out there, it can be hard to know what content to prioritise, and how to make time for it in an already busy schedule. Malini Chetty, Development Team Lead at Investec, divides her learning into three ‘circles of influence': growing her own skills, understanding what's relevant for her business context, and understanding the world around her. This lets her be selective about what she learns, and helps her make dedicated time for it too. Here’s how she makes levelling up a daily practice.Read the blog post here! (https://bit.ly/3eE10Fk)Resources:Here are some of the resources Malini mentioned in the interview, that she uses for her own learning:TEDXTalks“The DevOps Handbook” by Gene Kim (Amazon | Audible)“A Seat at the Table” by Mark Schwartz (Amazon | Audible)“Software Craftsmanship” by Pete McBreen (Amazon)"Clean Code" by Robert C. Martin (Amazon)

Christian Vogel, Software and Product Engineer at DAN.com, says that creating their own React pattern at DAN has helped them streamline their software development. In short, it removes the need to make state management a priority, which not only makes Christian’s coding faster, but also — he says — more fun. In this podcast conversation, he shares what the DAN React pattern looks like on a component level, how it’s set up, the practical impacts it’s had on his team’s workflow, and some things to consider when setting up your own React pattern.Follow our conversation by using the chapter breakdown below, or check out the full transcript of the episode on the blog here! (https://bit.ly/2BHhRIo) Also, we encourage you to reach out to Christian after listening! Make notes during the episode of any questions or comments you think of, and message him via LinkedIn or Twitter — he’ll gladly answer any questions you have!Podcast chapters:[03:42] Intro to Christian’s role at DAN.com, and what they do as a company[06:32] What is the DAN React pattern?[09:07] Benefits of the DAN React pattern for DAN.com’s software development[12:56] How the DAN React pattern works: Components and setup[16:57] Use cases for when (and when not) Redux might be the better pattern[18:36] Why the simplicity of the DAN React pattern is so useful[20:21] How this pattern helped build a live, internal ‘alert system’ within two weeks[23:19] The potential for this kind of React pattern[24:22] Christian’s advice for anyone wanting to build their own React pattern[27:12] Final summary, takeaway points, and closing thoughts

Boxfusion’s development team was tasked with helping the Gauteng Health Department manage mass-screenings of South Africa’s COVID-19 cases. Despite extreme time pressure and uncertainty, their team managed to ship the first version of a working solution over a weekend. Managing Director, Ian Houvet, shares how his team used one-to-one customer research, quick feedback loops, and complexity minimisation in order to follow an MVP approach and work effectively during extraordinary conditions. Read blog post here! (https://bit.ly/2BX5cS3)

As a developer, you need to be able to communicate effectively in many different contexts and with many different people. Parham Doustdar, Team Lead at Booking.com, has learned that having a clear strategy on how to communicate is helpful for dealing with diverse stakeholders and avoiding conflict. In this article, he shares a 3-step process that he uses with his team to improve communication between developers, team leads and product managers.Read the blog post here! (https://bit.ly/2BtK05L)

We are chatting to leaders in the FinTech space about what their teams are doing to adjust to the "new normal" and how they’re making the most of the opportunities that are currently available to them. In this fireside chat, we spoke to Malan Joubert, Co-founder of OfferZen, who was involved in the founding of SnapScan, Luno and Root.Check out the transcription and video of the interview here: https://bit.ly/3dmznjb

Responding to a crisis is much easier to do when you’ve already planned for it, and know exactly who is involved and what steps to take. This is why Amber Freeman, Legal Manager at Aerobotics, uses risk and scenario analyses to build crisis management plans, like the one they used in response to COVID-19. It not only helps her team find the weaker points of their systems, tech processes, and workflows, but helps them respond faster and more effectively if and when a crisis hits.Here is Amber’s advice on how to set up your own crisis management plan using a scenario analysis, and what impacts it had for her team in responding to COVID-19.Do your own risk and crisis management plan - for yourself, or for your team - by downloading Amber’s template here!And check out the blog post here! (https://bit.ly/2BaMhTp)

Even with sufficient notice, pivoting a real-life tech conference to an online forum comes with a lot of challenges: Organisers need to ensure that their digital events are accessible for different audiences as well as start thinking differently about how to enable attendees to engage with speakers and each other in authentic ways. Our events team spoke to Jos Gerards, Head of Events at Frontend Love in Amsterdam, and Robert MacLean, Director of DevConf in South Africa, about how they tackled these challenges in moving their conferences online.Check out the transcription and video of the discussion here: https://bit.ly/2WF6Pvy

Working full-time, and being a full-time parent while working from home, can make it really hard to manage all your responsibilities and still find productivity and focus. Everyone’s personal situations are different, which means there’s no ‘silver bullet guide’ on how to do it. That’s why we brought together three ‘developer parents’ from Prodigy Finance to find out how they’ve approached integrating their parental responsibilities with their day-to-day work at Prodigy. In our conversation, Sarah Brittan (Team Lead), Ruberto Paulo (Development Manager) and Richard Archer (Senior Development Manager) share some of their own experiences, and shed light on the strategies that have helped them so far.Read the blog post here! (https://bit.ly/3dXGlv4)

When the COVID-19 pandemic put a stop to all in-person events and social gatherings, Toasty had to adapt, or die. Kevon Cheung, Toasty’s CEO and Co-founder, decided to move the entire platform online and within four weeks, his team launched their new remote team engagement platform. He shares how they maximised prioritisation as a strategy in order to pull this project off in the time they did.Read the blog post here! (https://bit.ly/3bv97l5)

Some technical problems can’t be solved by software or code alone; they are systemic, and require a solution that takes into account the impact that other moving parts have on it as a whole. Lochner Eksteen, Managing Director at EXAH, uses Systems Theory to ensure developers integrate solutions into the entire system for which they’re building. This approach enables them to hone their problem–solving skills, and to build more robust, more integrated, and therefore more impactful solutions. Read the blog post here! (https://bit.ly/2L4xaN1)

Neil Kelly, Director of Engineering at Luno, has seen that if there's one thing that can hurt your hiring, it's rushing through the process. Taking shortcuts to land candidates quickly can lead to making promises that you can't keep, or compromising on things you haven't checked against your team. This article unpacks some strategies Luno uses to be upfront and honest during their hiring process, and why that serves them better in the long run.Read the blog post here: https://bit.ly/3eVaZGC

With the lockdown and COVID-19 prohibition on gatherings, SA tech meetup organisers have had to start thinking out-of-the-box about how they’re going to bring their communities together. Since these events occur more frequently than bigger conferences, the community relies on them to keep connected and informed. This means that organisers have to spend time thinking about the best solutions for bringing their communities together online in a way that actually helps them learn and connect.Our events team spoke to local meetup organisers to find out about the challenges they’re encountering trying to keep their communities engaging, and how they’re planning on adjusting their meetups to add value remotely.The peeps who joined us for this chat were:JoziJS organisers: Gergana Young, Mike Geyser and Sheena O’ConnellShe Can Do organiser: Inez Patel Cape Town Front-End Developers organisers: Justin Slack and Schalk VenterPHP meetup and WordPress CPT organiser: Jonathan BossengerRead the blog post here! (https://bit.ly/2yGoHwg)

Keeping your company’s systems up-to-date is important, but can be especially hard when there’s inherited “Frankenstein” and legacy code. Brandon Pearman, Principal Software Engineer at Wonga, and his team had to overhaul their system to new tech, which had built up a lot of this “Frankenstein” code. It’s been a long process, and a huge undertaking, but they’ve learned some valuable lessons about moving a system over to entirely new tech. In this article, Brandon shares those lessons, and some considerations that might help anyone going through, or thinking about going through, something similar.Read the blog post here! (https://bit.ly/2Krde6t)https://www.offerzen.com/blog/4-lessons-wonga-learned-through-rewriting-system-new-tech?&utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=backtracks&utm_campaign=interview

In Agile, executing is often prioritised over planning. However, not planning enough can be as costly as planning too much. Herman Swart, Custom Project Development Manager at Tangent Solutions, thinks that rigorous planning is critical, even in Agile. The skill, he says, comes in knowing when you’ve planned enough, and he’s set up a process that helps his team reach the optimal amount of planning for every project.Herman says that the misconception in Agile he sometimes encounters is that teams should jump into execution as soon as they can. Although he doesn’t think the entire project should be spent planning, executing shouldn’t come at the cost of sufficient and structured planning stages.Herman’s team has a six step planning process, divided into two phases, for scoping a project before execution. He talks through each step in our conversation, which can be found at the time stamps alongside:1. THE PROPOSAL PHASE[00:22:22] 1.1 The project proposal: Understanding the client’s wants and needs[00:28:33] 1.2 Scope of work: Laying out the delivery 2. THE DEVELOPMENT PHASE[00:41:00] 2.1 Resource allocation: Finding the right people to do the right things[00:45:12] 2.2 Client briefing session: Setting roles and responsibilities[00:50:21] 2.3 Product backlog and feature list: Planning sprints and deliverables[00:57:51] 2.4 Project setup: Setting up environments and addressing dependenciesCheck out the transcript on the blog here! (https://bit.ly/2VwtXdU)

When you need to respond suddenly to a new environment, it's difficult to avoid derailing your roadmap and veering off course. Kurt Kruger, CTO at SnapScan, said that having a careful process in place helped his team stay on track, and not lose focus or motivation. In this episode, we discuss some of the ways in which his team thinks about remote work in order to stay productive, and some advice he has for how to keep a roadmap during uncertain times.FUN FACT: We did this interview asynchronously and remotely. That's a first for the OfferZen Podcast! :DCheck it out on the blog here! (https://bit.ly/2Roe73V)

For a tech startup, ‘common practice’ is useful as a guideline, but understanding how that maps onto your specific context is crucial for sustainable growth. CTO Mike Jones and his team at Picsa found they had to ensure their operations served their context – not the other way around – in order to save money and reduce risk. They did this by being critical and deliberate about the metrics they tracked, the customers they sold their product to, the tools they used, and the tech they worked with. Here's how they did this.Read the blog post here! (https://bit.ly/2UTQyAS)

Being remote-friendly and being remote-first are two very different ways of working. The latter requires a lot more intentional effort to be successful, and some teams are more experienced at working remotely than others. We got a (virtual) room of representatives from Jumo, Allan Gray, Equal Experts, Matchbox Solutions, Luno and Nomanini together to discuss how each was dealing with going fully remote in response to COVID-19. We spoke about our pains, solutions, and successes with remote work, and shared how teams around the country - and around the world - were making remote work work.Check out the episode on our blog here! (https://bit.ly/3aIdfyo)------------------------------------Links shared in the discussion:These are the ice breaker cards Rob mentioned: https://www.equalexperts.com/blog/ee-life/icebreaker-cards/This is GeoGuessr, which Carmia mentioned: https://www.geoguessr.com/Here's the game Rachel was talking about: https://skribbl.io/To randomise who runs meetings, this is the tool Rob uses: https://wheelofnames.com/

This was Malan Joubert's DevConf2020 presentation, which he gave remotely. Watch his presentation here! (https://bit.ly/2X28uMn)COVID-19 will have many effects on our health, on our society and our economy. We believe that the tech community has the potential and obligation to play a key role in fighting COVID-19 and so does our government: The Presidency has asked OfferZen and the tech community to help reduce its impact in SA. We've set up a dedicated team that both identifies community and government projects that can make a difference, and helps drive them to make an impact. Lets talk about what is already being done, and how you can help!Keen to get involved? Volunteer for COVID-19 projects here! (https://bit.ly/2wTsV3a)

Working remotely can feel really lonely because you don’t have as many in-person interactions. For this reason, Neil Kelly, Director of Engineering at Luno, and his team have been deliberate about fostering human connection since going fully remote in response to COVID-19. By implementing a few simple, daily strategies, Neil and his team create more surface area for checking-in, and feeling less alone. Here’s how they do this.Read the blog post here! (https://bit.ly/33OSiPF)

Antoine van der Lee is a mobile (iOS) developer and team lead at WeTransfer, and believes that it’s impossible for someone to know everything there is to know about a particular topic. In Antoine's case, this is mobile software development. It’s hard to find the time to level up or to improve at a thing, but Antoine says that building deliberate time for learning into his schedule has helped him make leveling up part of his daily routine. That way, he doesn’t have to find the time, because it’s already in his diary.In this article, Antoine shares some of the strategies he uses to help him level up as a mobile developer every day, and what he’s learned about making them as effective as he can.Read the blog post here! (http://bit.ly/39JUyKt)

John Mac Pherson, Managing Director and SQL DBA at Shifttech, says that many people he meets see the online gambling industry as unregulated. However, he says many companies are actually really heavily regulated. This means his team has to think cleverly and proactively about the solutions they build, and that social responsibility is in fact a top priority.In this episode, John clarifies the misconception about the online gambling industry, and discusses three examples of uniquely interesting considerations his tech team has to make while operating in the online gambling industry.

For anyone who works with serverless computing or cloud-based application development, Jacques Chester says Knative frees up a lot of a developer’s time and mindshare. Developers already have to think about many different moving parts when building out a cloud system or application. However, as a Senior Software Engineer at VMware, Jacques believes that there are some decisions that developers shouldn’t have to worry about making.In this episode, Jacques explains why Knative could be the answer to your stressors. He outlines how Knative removes some of the complexities in serverless computing, how that enables developers to work faster, and offers some best use cases for Knative.Read the blog post here! (http://bit.ly/399No1F)