Sydney Tech Leaders
@sydtechleaders.bsky.social
We are a professional group focused on Technology Leadership. A place for CTOs, Dev Managers, Directors and Team Leads (and those aspiring to those positions!) to go and share ideas, discuss problems, network, and provide/receive mentoring.
And now it’s time for our patented #sydtechleaders Q&A panel! We’ve already had questions about distinguishing good vs bad productivity; how to respond when you ask someone if they’re okay and they say “no”; how to respond when the request is for YOU to do something differently…
October 2, 2025 at 9:38 AM
And now it’s time for our patented #sydtechleaders Q&A panel! We’ve already had questions about distinguishing good vs bad productivity; how to respond when you ask someone if they’re okay and they say “no”; how to respond when the request is for YOU to do something differently…
So what is effective recovery? Move (rather than exercise), create (and play), connect (with people and places and yourself), reflect, rest… and repeat. #sydtechleaders
October 2, 2025 at 8:58 AM
So what is effective recovery? Move (rather than exercise), create (and play), connect (with people and places and yourself), reflect, rest… and repeat. #sydtechleaders
Bodies don’t differentiate between paid and unpaid work. Stress in your personal life contributes too. You do your best to manage it, but the tank never manages to get topped up. With burnout, you’re always drawing down. #sydtechleaders
October 2, 2025 at 8:49 AM
Bodies don’t differentiate between paid and unpaid work. Stress in your personal life contributes too. You do your best to manage it, but the tank never manages to get topped up. With burnout, you’re always drawing down. #sydtechleaders
Our second speaker for the night is Navin Keswani talking about burnout - a topic really important to most of us in the room. The pandemic hit many in tech hard. #sydtechleaders
October 2, 2025 at 8:42 AM
Our second speaker for the night is Navin Keswani talking about burnout - a topic really important to most of us in the room. The pandemic hit many in tech hard. #sydtechleaders
Our first speaker is Saliya Kutungu-Moran talking about leading with kindness and creating space for mental health conversations. She’s an RUOK ambassador with lots of experience in tech, and we’re so glad she’s here. #sydtechleaders
October 2, 2025 at 8:22 AM
Our first speaker is Saliya Kutungu-Moran talking about leading with kindness and creating space for mental health conversations. She’s an RUOK ambassador with lots of experience in tech, and we’re so glad she’s here. #sydtechleaders
Reminder that we are still looking for Lightning talk speakers for our Nov. 6 meetup. Great for first timers, and we’ll even give you some mentoring if you like! #sydtechleaders
October 2, 2025 at 8:17 AM
Reminder that we are still looking for Lightning talk speakers for our Nov. 6 meetup. Great for first timers, and we’ll even give you some mentoring if you like! #sydtechleaders
Tonight’s STL is kicking off at Atlassian! Nice big crowd for an important topic - mental health. Thanks as always to Atlassian for hosting! #sydtechleaders
October 2, 2025 at 8:07 AM
Tonight’s STL is kicking off at Atlassian! Nice big crowd for an important topic - mental health. Thanks as always to Atlassian for hosting! #sydtechleaders
Engineers like to focus on their little patch of the code base and getting it just right, but leaders need to remind them of the bigger picture. And sometimes you have to make a trade-off, and it just sucks. #sydtechleaders
September 4, 2025 at 9:26 AM
Engineers like to focus on their little patch of the code base and getting it just right, but leaders need to remind them of the bigger picture. And sometimes you have to make a trade-off, and it just sucks. #sydtechleaders
Right into the AI questions! Jeroen thinks that smaller teams might struggle to take advantage of agentic coding assistants because they will quickly run out of the expertise to review all the suggestions appropriately. #sydtechleaders
September 4, 2025 at 9:16 AM
Right into the AI questions! Jeroen thinks that smaller teams might struggle to take advantage of agentic coding assistants because they will quickly run out of the expertise to review all the suggestions appropriately. #sydtechleaders
It’s time for the patented #sydtechleaders panel!
September 4, 2025 at 9:13 AM
It’s time for the patented #sydtechleaders panel!
Really the goal for teams that want to tackle tech debt is to ESTABLISH TRUST. You want leaders to let you do this again! #sydtechleaders
September 4, 2025 at 9:04 AM
Really the goal for teams that want to tackle tech debt is to ESTABLISH TRUST. You want leaders to let you do this again! #sydtechleaders
And at the end of that project, you need to validate the impact and tell the story of the improvement. Data and graphs can really make that story clear (if they are accurate!). #sydtechleaders
September 4, 2025 at 9:01 AM
And at the end of that project, you need to validate the impact and tell the story of the improvement. Data and graphs can really make that story clear (if they are accurate!). #sydtechleaders
When you get the refactor project approved, don’t rush to get started too quickly. You need to establish some metrics and a baseline to show the improvement! #sydtechleaders
September 4, 2025 at 8:57 AM
When you get the refactor project approved, don’t rush to get started too quickly. You need to establish some metrics and a baseline to show the improvement! #sydtechleaders
The lead engineer needs to be able to SELL the tech debt problem to the manager. Some suggestions are hiring challenges, velocity and cycle time, risk of vulnerabilities and incidents… #sydtechleaders
September 4, 2025 at 8:51 AM
The lead engineer needs to be able to SELL the tech debt problem to the manager. Some suggestions are hiring challenges, velocity and cycle time, risk of vulnerabilities and incidents… #sydtechleaders
“I’m telling y manager that this code is 💩 but they won’t even listen!”
September 4, 2025 at 8:48 AM
“I’m telling y manager that this code is 💩 but they won’t even listen!”
Final talk - Alberto and Fernando from Atlassian talking about how to actually deal with the tech debt that’s been accumulating. Apparently there will be role play!
September 4, 2025 at 8:45 AM
Final talk - Alberto and Fernando from Atlassian talking about how to actually deal with the tech debt that’s been accumulating. Apparently there will be role play!
Jeroen venturing a hot take - he’s a big fan of AI and how it can help ensure code quality! #sydtechleaders
September 4, 2025 at 8:40 AM
Jeroen venturing a hot take - he’s a big fan of AI and how it can help ensure code quality! #sydtechleaders
There are so many ways a project can go wrong and incur debt. Wrong conclusions, optimisation trade-offs, evaluation defects… and especially when bad info ends up in the sales brochure! #sydtechleaders
September 4, 2025 at 8:32 AM
There are so many ways a project can go wrong and incur debt. Wrong conclusions, optimisation trade-offs, evaluation defects… and especially when bad info ends up in the sales brochure! #sydtechleaders
Tech debt takes on a different weight when you are shipping code on chips or physical devices. Once it’s out there, you can’t really push updates. It has to work. #sydtechleaders
September 4, 2025 at 8:26 AM
Tech debt takes on a different weight when you are shipping code on chips or physical devices. Once it’s out there, you can’t really push updates. It has to work. #sydtechleaders
Next speaker is (Dr.!) Jeroen Vendrig from Prooftec. He’s talking specifically about technical debt from R&D. #sydtechleaders
September 4, 2025 at 8:23 AM
Next speaker is (Dr.!) Jeroen Vendrig from Prooftec. He’s talking specifically about technical debt from R&D. #sydtechleaders
There are metrics you can track related to your tech debt too. It’s okay, Inga says, to kill the zombie tickets. If no one’s championed it in 3 months, kill it. Saying “This doesn’t matter anymore” is super powerful. Code you don’t write can’t introduce bugs!
September 4, 2025 at 8:20 AM
There are metrics you can track related to your tech debt too. It’s okay, Inga says, to kill the zombie tickets. If no one’s championed it in 3 months, kill it. Saying “This doesn’t matter anymore” is super powerful. Code you don’t write can’t introduce bugs!
First speaker tonight is Inga Pflaumer talking about the graveyard of tech debt. How do you know what to save or bury? Does it block customer revenue? Does it get worse if you leave it? Will it unlock speed elsewhere?
September 4, 2025 at 8:16 AM
First speaker tonight is Inga Pflaumer talking about the graveyard of tech debt. How do you know what to save or bury? Does it block customer revenue? Does it get worse if you leave it? Will it unlock speed elsewhere?
Breaking news - #sydtechleaders will be hosting lightning talks ⚡️ in November! 5 min talks perfect for first time speakers. We can even provide you some mentorship. Reach out via the new channel on our Slack. Meetup is Nov. 6.
September 4, 2025 at 8:12 AM
Breaking news - #sydtechleaders will be hosting lightning talks ⚡️ in November! 5 min talks perfect for first time speakers. We can even provide you some mentorship. Reach out via the new channel on our Slack. Meetup is Nov. 6.
The amazing Jack is kicking off today’s #sydtechleaders at Atlassian. Great to see so many managed to register via our new home at Luma!
September 4, 2025 at 8:07 AM
The amazing Jack is kicking off today’s #sydtechleaders at Atlassian. Great to see so many managed to register via our new home at Luma!
Lots of great questions tonight about how leaders can better support remote teams, personal superpowers and growth areas, and overcoming resistance to change #sydtechleaders
August 7, 2025 at 9:44 AM
Lots of great questions tonight about how leaders can better support remote teams, personal superpowers and growth areas, and overcoming resistance to change #sydtechleaders