Talks and Podcasts

I enjoy teaching and telling stories, especially around software design and development. I’ve been lucky enough to be invited to do so at a couple dozen conferences and podcasts over the years. If you run a conference or podcast and would like to chat, get in touch.

A slide from a talk I gave in 2017 at Microsoft.

I usually teach the same kinds of topics that I write about: what I’ve been learning as I build products and teams. Most often I talk about product, design, applying LLMs, lessons learned, engineering leadership, or startups.

Also, on occasion, I’ll MC a conference or show.

Talks

Here’s a recent example – Post-chat UI: Human-Centric Patterns for AI UX

Here are some others:

• Testing the Untestable at Infer Vancouver in 2024, on automated testing for LLM-powered apps
• Native.js, at JSConf EU 2013 in Berlin
• A playlist of some of my other talks

Podcasts

I enjoy guesting on podcasts – they’re most of the fun of giving a talk, with a lot less work. Here are some shows I’ve been on:

• The It Shipped That Way Podcast, where I interview product leaders about what they’ve learned. Example episodes:
  • Ep. 6, Solving Engineering Problems with DuckDuckGo’s Cate Huston
  • Ep. 12, The Intersection of Business and Design, w/ fmr. Shopify Product GM Lynsey Thornton
• The Fun Fact Podcast, where Arik Devens and I discussed important facts. Example episodes:
  • Ep. 56, A Hippo Astronaut
  • Ep. 66, We Gotta Blow It Up
• The Xcoders Podcast, March 2020, where I talk about starting Vancouver Xcoders, and approaches for sharing code across platforms.
• The Omni Show 64, where I talk about how I manage tasks, and focusing on what’s important rather than just urgent.
• Giant Robots 264, where we talk about building great product teams.
• Clockwise 174, where we discuss iPad, Apple Watch, Apple-produced original content, and iTunes
• Release Notes 190, where I talk about our products, and 191, where I talk about client work.
• Up Up Down Down, the game development podcast I co-hosted.
• Cinema Gadfly 7 and 8, where Arik Devens and I discuss Terry Gilliam’s Brazil and Steven Spielberg’s Catch Me If You Can.
• Incomparable Radio Theatre 1.10, as Charles Babbage
• Iterate 80, an episode where we discuss Steamclock, our apps, and mobile app design
• Unprofessional 52, “The Taco Bell Unprofessional”
• Lining Things Up 6, my first podcast appearance