Making Tech Better - Made Tech

Latest Episodes:

Product management and STEM Diversity, with Karl Dickman Apr 12, 2022

Show notes

Why is product management the perfect background for a STEM ambassador? In this final episode of Season One Clare Sudbery talks to Karl Dickman, Senior Product Manager at the Department for Work and Pensions, about what good product management looks like, and how to make sure that people from all backgrounds know what choices are available in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).

Karl Dickman is Senior Product Manager at DWP Digital. He’s a self-proclaimed Product nerd, instrumental in taking ideas from the drawing board and making them an operational reality. His personal mantra is designing with his users and not for them.

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Our theme tune is “For The Miles” by Richard Murray.

Episode links: DWP Digital, John D. Carmack, STEM Northeast, Stemettes, Anne-Marie Imafidon, Spacefest (at NET Zero), Dawn Ross.

Visit https://tinyurl.com/podcast-making-tech-better for links and info.

Servant leadership, with Katy Armstrong Mar 29, 2022

Show notes

What is servant leadership, and how can you use it to help your teams fly? Clare Sudbery talks to Katy Armstrong about how to empower teams to do their absolute best work, by removing blockers, identifying vision and giving them everything they need.

Katy Armstrong is Head of Digital Delivery at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. She’s led digital teams at the Home Office, the Valuation Office, and GDS.

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Our theme tune is “For The Miles” by Richard Murray.

Episode links: Emma Charles, Clare Young, Richard Blake, Jason Yip, Katy’s blog about assessment, alpha assessment report, Spotify engineering culture, pairing and micromanagement, Nayeema Chowdhury, DLUHC jobs.

Visit https://tinyurl.com/podcast-making-tech-better for links and info.

LGBT+ History, with Alex Herbert Mar 15, 2022

Show notes

What does the current landscape look like for LGBT+ people working in IT? Clare Sudbery talks to Alex Herbert about some inspirational LGBT+ figures in our industry, and about how employees and colleagues can create a welcoming environment to enable people across the LGBT+ spectrum to come to work as themselves.

Alex is a senior engineer at Made Tech, and has been heavily involved in working to make the organisation more diverse, inclusive and equitable for all its colleagues. She is a volunteer at a local charity and a local trans healthcare pilot. Alex enjoys chess, local and independent music, fine teas, comfy chairs and videogames.

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Our theme tune is “For The Miles” by Richard Murray.

Episode links: Katie Neeves, LBGT+ History Month, Stonewall, Stonewalls Diversity Champions, Alan Turing, Sophie Wilson, Lynn Conway, Angelica Ross, Pose, TransTech, Sally Ride, Audrey Tang, Tim Cook, LGBT Foundation, What The Trans!?, What The Trans?! Podcast, Owen Bush & Bushfire Forge.

Visit https://tinyurl.com/podcast-making-tech-better for links and info.

Open source landscape, with Ryan Bergman Mar 01, 2022

Show notes

How is Open Source Software maintained? Clare Sudbery talks to Ryan Bergman about the OSS landscape – how open source is licensed and maintained, how to respond to security threats and why continuous integration improves your ability to keep everything up to date.

Ryan Bergman is a software developer, public speaker, and open source maintainer. Senior Staff Engineer at John Deere Intelligent Solutions Group, he works on systems that allow farmers to control, share and analyse their agronomic data.

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Our theme tune is “For The Miles” by Richard Murray.

Episode links: Ryan’s blog, Tim Ottinger, Jeff Langr, Chris Matts, Liz Keogh.

Visit https://tinyurl.com/podcast-making-tech-better for links and info.

Inclusive teams, with Dr J Harrison Feb 15, 2022

Show notes

How do you make your teams inclusive? Clare Sudbery talks to Dr. J Harrison about mental health, pronouns, the difference between diversity and inclusion, unconscious bias, creating safe spaces and how to be an ally to those in under-represented groups.

Dr. J Harrison is ThoughtWorks’ Harbinger of Change. Out as Transgressive Non-Binary GenderQueer for over 10 years, they bring queer theory (with a slice of humour) into the tech space, focusing on inclusivity and intersectionality and taking a strategic view of cultural change in Technology.

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Our theme tune is “For The Miles” by Richard Murray.

Episode links: Dr J Harrison, Kief Morris, Infrastructure as Code, Queer House Party, It is complicated (podcast).

Visit https://tinyurl.com/podcast-making-tech-better for links and info.

Hexagonal architecture, with Ted M. Young Feb 01, 2022

Show notes

What is hexagonal architecture, and how can it help to make your code more testable? Clare Sudbery talks to Ted M. Young about the benefits and principles of hexagonal architecture, and how it enables you to keep your domain logic independent from the outside world.

Ted M. Young is a trainer, coding coach, speaker, and author who specialises in getting those new to the industry off on the right foot with a focus on testing, domain-driven design, and learning how to learn.

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Our theme tune is “For The Miles” by Richard Murray.

Episode links: Ted M. Young, Martin Fowler, Michelle Glauser, Techtonica, Alistair Cockburn, Geepaw Hill, Hexagonal Architecture, Clean Architecture, Onion Architecture, Moving Diversity Forward by Vernā Myers.

Visit https://tinyurl.com/podcast-making-tech-better for links and info.

Inspirational stories, with Catt Small Jan 18, 2022

Show notes

How can you avoid designing harmful experiences? Product designer Catt Small talks to Clare Sudbery about her journey from 10-yr-old game developer to successful product designer, and shares many inspirational stories – including the creation of the Game Devs of Color Expo, helping marginalised people to progress in their careers and fundamentally getting things done.

Catt Small is a product designer, game maker and developer who enjoys creating interactive experiences at Asana and helping people to become their best selves.

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Our theme tune is “For The Miles” by Richard Murray.

Episode links: Lara Hogan, Dennis Liaw, Chris Algoo, Shawn Alexander Allen, GJ Lee, Brian Chung, Sara Wachter-Boettcher, Catt on Twitter, Catt’s website, Prism Shell (game), Asana’s design team, Game Devs of Color Expo.

Visit https://tinyurl.com/podcast-making-tech-better for links and info.

Good Services, with Lou Downe Jan 04, 2022

Show notes

What does a good service look like? Clare Sudbery talks to Lou Downe about why placing the user at the heart of everything will lead to good services that are discoverable, will cross organisational boundaries and do exactly what you need them to do.

Lou Downe is the author of the service design bible, Good Services. Previously Head of User Centered Design and Service Standards at the Government Digital Service (GDS), Lou now runs the School of Good Services.

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Our theme tune is “For The Miles” by Richard Murray.

Episode links: Peter Tatchell, School of Good Services, Good Services (Lou’s book), Notes on Nursing, by Florence Nightingale, Sarah Drummond, Section 28

Visit https://tinyurl.com/podcast-making-tech-better for links and info.

Microservices, with Sam Newman Dec 07, 2021

Show notes

Are microservices all hype, or the best choice for delivering software? Kyle Chapman talks to Sam Newman about architectural thought, the importance of experimentation, and some classic technology patterns.

Sam Newman literally wrote the book on microservices, and is an independent technology consultant with a special interest in microservices and continuous delivery.

As mentioned in the episode, we’re giving away a few free copies of Sam’s book – contest entries go to makingtechbetter@madetech.com, closing Tue 21st Dec.

NOTE: Because of the Christmas break there will be no episode on Tue 21st Dec 2021. The next episode will go out on Tue 4th Jan 2022.

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Our theme tune is “For The Miles” by Richard Murray.

Episode links: Martin Falck, Landscape.cncf.io, Kelsey Hightower, Bridget Kromhout, Angie Jones, Martin Fowler, Sarah Wells, Daniel Bryan, Learning.oreilly.com, David Parnas: On the Criteria To Be Used in Decomposing Systems into Modules, Team Topologies, by Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais, Frank Buschmann, Gregor Hohpe

Visit https://tinyurl.com/podcast-making-tech-better for links and info.

How to build an academy, with Craig Bass Nov 23, 2021

Show notes

How do you recruit and train new software engineers? At Made Tech we run a regular academy programme, which allows us to address the IT skills shortage, increase diversity and reap many more benefits. Clare Sudbery talks to Craig Bass about how to run a successful academy.

Applications for our January 2022 academy are now open! Closing date is 30th Nov 2021. All details here.

Craig Bass is a principal technologist at Made Tech, and was responsible for curating and delivering our academy programme before Clare Sudbery took it over in 2020. Craig has helped many of our engineers to kickstart their careers in tech, and is a highly astute technologist.

Join our “Connect” mailing list to find out more about Made Tech and discover which of Craig’s facts was true/false!

Our theme tune is “For The Miles” by Richard Murray.

Episode links: Frank Amankwah, Hillel Wayne, Practical TLA+, by Hillel Wayne, Mutation testing, Kent Beck’s TCR testing method, “Agile Learning” – EduScrum, Netherlands, Apply to join our 2022 Academy.

Visit https://tinyurl.com/podcast-making-tech-better for links and info.