Thoughtworks Technology Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Exploring SQL and ETL Sep 21, 2023

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The evolution of SQL and the ease of access to ever larger sizes of computational power has made SQL and ETL a useful pairing for practitioners in the data space. But how do they work together exactly? And what challenges can it pose?

Bharani Subramaniam and Madhu Podila discuss these issues and much more with hosts Neal Ford and Rebecca Parsons on the latest episode of the Thoughtworks Technology Podcast.

Driving innovation in radio astronomy Sep 07, 2023

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Radio astronomy — a subfield of astronomy that studies the sky using radio frequencies — is data-intensive. That poses a challenge for radio astronomers: building and then communicating scientific insights requires significant processing and analytical work. Thoughtworks has been working with Dr. Neeraj Gupta from the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) in India to develop solutions to these challenges, including a data processing pipeline, a collaborative platform for analysis and a digital catalog for publishing and communicating research.

In this episode of the Technology Podcast Dr. Gupta joins Justin Jose of Thoughtworks India's Engineering for Research (E4R) team as they speak to hosts Rebecca Parsons and Prem Chandrasekaran about their work together. Dr. Gupta explains the benefits of Thoughtworks work from an astronomer perspective, while Justin highlights the challenges of building software solutions in a highly specialized domain.

XR with impact: Building experiences that drive business value Aug 24, 2023

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XR is a potentially transformative technology, but it needs to be leveraged in a way that drives value. That isn't straightforward — given effective XR initiatives often require significant experimentation and exploration, simply aligning XR with strict organizational goals and aims will often make it harder to achieve success. How can technologists and product leaders get the balance right?

In this episode of the Technology Podcast, Vaibhav Tikekar and Shea Clark-Tieche join hosts Rebecca Parsons and Ken Mugrage to discuss how to use XR effectively, talking through their experiences working with clients in recent years and providing their perspectives on how experimentation and innovation can be brought in alignment with organizational goals and objectives.

Leadership styles in technology teams Aug 10, 2023

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Leadership is an important if often-overlooked quality in the technology industry. However, it is also a complex and multi-faceted thing: it isn't a discrete set of skills, but rather an ability to respond and adapt to the needs of a situation, team or individual.

In this episode of the Technology Podcast, Ricardo Cavalcanti (Caval) and Arturo Santos from Thoughtworks Brazil join hosts Alexey Boas and Scott Shaw to discuss their experiences of leadership and offer their perspective on the value of building a diverse repertoire of leadership styles.

Making design matter in technology organizations Jul 27, 2023

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Design leader and Thoughtworks alumnus Emma Carter recently published her second book, DesignedUp. In it, she explains how designers can win a seat at the leadership table inside technolology organizations and become effective evangelists and advocates for good design principles and practices.

In this episode of the Technology Podcast, Emma joins hosts Rebecca Parsons and Scott Shaw to discuss her new book and talks through some of the challenges designers face in even the most forward-thinking technology companies. She highlights that design is, today, far more than just UI design — it can, and should, touch many parts of an organization, ensuring that products and services are properly aligned with the aims, goals and needs of users.

You can find Emma's book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/DesignedUp-Emma-Carter/dp/1032202017/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Generative AI and the future of knowledge work Jul 13, 2023

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Thoughtworks recently established a new role — Chief AI Officer. Taking up the position is Mike Mason, a veteran of Thoughtworks with over 20 years at the company, in technology roles spanning developer to technology strategist and author (and occasional Technology Podcast host). Mike will help guide Thoughtworks AI strategy and ensure that we're equipped to support clients trying to leverage AI.

In this episode of the Technology Podcast, Mike talks with hosts Neal Ford and Prem Chandrasekaran about his new role and explains why it's important that the company has someone leading on AI. He also discusses the hype, opportunities and risks of generative AI that — high on everyone's agenda at the moment — and explores how it might change knowledge work in general and software engineering more specifically. Listen as Mike talks through some of his own experiments with ChatGPT and offers his perspective on its likely impact on jobs in the months and years to come.

Scaling mobile delivery Jun 29, 2023

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It seems obvious to say that mobile usage has grown dramatically over the last decade, but for businesses that have to move to accomodate this type of user behavior, it presents many challenges. While some have successfully gone all-in on mobile experiences, for others, trying to build effectively for multiple channels is as much an organizational challenge as it is a product one.

In this episode of the Technology Podcast, hosts Scott Shaw and Birgitta Böckeler are joined by Head of Technology Alexandra Lovin and Principal Mobile Consultant Andres Kievsky to discuss the current state of play in mobile development. They discuss the challenges of scaling mobile delivery, taking in everything from addressing privacy issues to application architecture.

Making privacy a first-class citizen in data science Jun 15, 2023

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A changing regulatory environment has made it more important than ever for organizations to embed privacy in their data infrastructure. Doing so, however, can be complicated — that means data scientists have an vital role to play in ensuring privacy is a key concern from both a technical and commercial perspective.

Thoughtworker and data scientist Katharine Jarmul is eager to help fellow data scientists master privacy principles and techniques. Her new book, Practical Data Privacy, covers everything from the fundamentals of governance and anonymization through to advanced approaches to data privacy like federated learning and encrypted computation.

In this episode of the Technology Podcast, Katharine joins hosts Rebecca Parsons and Birgitta Böckeler to discuss the book and explain why data scientists need to be on the frontline in the fight for privacy.

Find Practical Data Privacy on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Data-Privacy-Enhancing-Security/dp/1098129466

Multi-cloud: Exploring the challenges and opportunities Jun 01, 2023

Show notes

When cloud first hit the mainstream more than a decade ago, its attraction was rooted, in part, in its apparent elegance and simplicity. As it has become an established norm in the industry, such simplicity has given way to more fragmentation and complexity. The growth of "multi-cloud" and adjacent terms such as "hybrid cloud" and "poly cloud" mean that cloud is a field that needs to be sensitively navigated by technology leaders and their organizations.

In this episode of the Technology Podcast, hosts Neal Ford and Prem Chandrasekaran discuss multi-cloud with Thoughtworks colleagues Rashmi Tambe and Sunit Parekh, who co-lead the Enterprise Modernization, Platforms and Cloud service line. In the episode they discuss terminology, the challenges of migrating to multiple cloud platforms, governance issues and some common antipatterns. They also offer advice for teams considering exploring the potential of multi-cloud.

Scaling up at Etsy May 18, 2023

Show notes

Global craft marketplace Etsy has grown at an impressive rate in recent years. From 2019 to 2021 sales and revenue tripled. This growth has been enabled by a significant technology modernization project which, amazingly, was completed just weeks before the Coronavirus pandemic erupted in March 2020, the start of a period in which millions of people took to Etsy to purchase cloth face masks. Without the modernized systems and infrastructure, Etsy would have struggled to cope with consumer demand.

In this episode of the Technology Podcast, Mike Mason is joined by Etsy's Chief Architect Keyur Govande, the company's former CTO Mike Fisher and Thoughtworks North America Technical Director Tim Cochran to discuss how Etsy tackled the challenge of scaling to meet the needs of its expanding market. They talk through the technical challenges and the organizational focus required to scale in a way that was sustainable for the business yet impactful for Etsy's users.

Read Tim Cochran's article about evolving Etsy's culture on martinfowler.com: https://martinfowler.com/articles/bottlenecks-of-scaleups/etsy-product-delivery-culture.html

...And his piece on using the cloud to scale: https://martinfowler.com/articles/bottlenecks-of-scaleups/etsy-cloud-scale.html

Learn more about Thoughtworks partnership with Etsy: https://www.thoughtworks.com/clients/retail-ecommerce/etsy-scaling

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