Level Up

Hosted by OpsLevel

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Jun 2024

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About the show

Level Up is the essential podcast for technical leaders looking to enhance their teams and innovate at scale. Hosted by Kenneth Rose, CTO and Co-Founder of OpsLevel , each episode dives into the experiences of top engineering minds discussing how to build world-class teams, optimize developer workflows, and embed best practices in a dynamic tech landscape. Join our community and discover the strategies needed to thrive in today’s ever-evolving technical environment.

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33 recent

June 12, 202435 min

Mastering FinOps: Duolingo’s Secrets to Cost-Efficient Engineering

Join host Ken Rose, Co-founder and CTO of OpsLevel, as he sits down with Vitor Pellegrino, a Staff Site Reliability Engineer at Duolingo. Vitor shares his insights on FinOps, a critical practice for aligning financial accountability with the architectural decisions at Duolingo. With a career spanning roles at PicPay, SeatGeek, and AWS, Vitor discusses the importance of financial operations in ensuring cost efficiency and strategic investments in technology. In this episode, you’ll learn about: The definition and importance of FinOps. Practical steps to implement FinOps in an organization. The role of cost optimization in cloud environments. Strategies for getting stakeholder buy-in and aligning teams around cost-efficiency goals. For more on OpsLevel, visit OpsLevel.com . Tune in to learn how to build more efficient, cost-effective engineering practices from one of the leading voices in the field. Happy building! Connect with Vitor Pellegrino on LinkedIn

May 29, 202436 min

Your Roadmap is NOT Your Strategy

If you're an engineering leader, you've likely struggled with finding a balance between kindness and effectiveness. Author and Advisor Jade Rubick spends his days helping leaders strike that balance. Listen to the episode to learn more about: Roadmap and strategy How to drive effectiveness How to be kind while holding others accountable ...and more! Learn more about the episode: www.opslevel.com/podcasts/can-engineering-leaders-be-both-nice-and-effective Follow Jade on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaderubick/

May 15, 202422 min

Beyond the Hype: A practical guide to internal developer portals

In this episode, we're sharing a live talk that Ken gave at DevOps Live UK earlier this year. The talk covers points like: Streamlining Processes: IDPs consolidate tools and resources, simplifying the development landscape. Enhancing Efficiency: By providing a centralized platform, IDPs enable developers to access necessary tools quickly. Role of Platform Teams: Essential in building and maintaining IDPs to support product developers. Importance of Automation: Automates routine tasks and standard enforcement, crucial for scaling operations. Future Trends: Insights into the growing significance of IDPs and platform engineering, supported by Gartner’s research. To learn more about IDPs, visit opslevel.com.

April 29, 202437 min

Jellyfish CTO: Feelings aren't facts and why DORA doesn't cut it

We sat down with Eli Daniel, Head of Engineering at Jellyfish, to discuss how important measurement is to engineering effectiveness—and culture. By combining quantitative and qualitative data points, engineering leadership can better articulate the entire team’s impact on the organization. Topics discussed in this episode: Productivity metrics provide objective data to measure team performance and inform decision-making. The right metrics depend on the goals and context of the organization. Start by collecting the metrics you have and focus on understanding where time is being spent. As organizations scale, metrics should focus on alignment and resource allocation. DORA metrics are a good starting point, but they don't tell the whole story. Balancing quantitative and qualitative metrics provides a more complete picture of team performance. Jellyfish is a platform that helps engineering leaders translate and maximize the business impact of their teams. To learn more about Jellyfish, visit https://jellyfish.co/ .

January 24, 202439 min

The Secret to DevEx: It’s better to whole-ass one thing than half-ass two

Why your data isn't showing the changes needed for success… We sat down with Laura Tacho , CTO of DX , to break down where measuring developer productivity falls short. Laura shares how organizations should aim to balance making decisions based on both quantitative and qualitative data. Humans are not machines and numbers only go so far. She goes further and encourages companies to collect accurate qualitative data, avoid misalignment with leadership, and improve company culture. Join us as we discuss: Understanding the ‘Why’ behind your metrics A framework for balancing quantitative and qualitative data Using metrics that best fit your current status (probably not DORA)

January 10, 2024Episode 2732 min

Want to fix developer productivity? Then stop focusing on it.

When measuring software developer productivity turns from enlightening to damaging… We sat down with one of our own, Fernando Villalba , to discuss a controversial article on measuring software developer productivity. Fernando walks us through the different errors of this article when it comes to understanding the purpose behind different metrics and regarding low-value tasks as unimportant for a developer. He breaks down the complexities of a developer, and how a successful developer can find balance through communication, productivity, and finding the right flow. Join us as we discuss: Criticizing the lack of detail on developer’s metrics and the implications of different kinds of metrics The limitations that coming with measuring productivity and interpreting different metrics Seeing the value in optimizing for Flow state

December 20, 2023Episode 2640 min

Finding the ROI of developer enablement

Christian Oestreich , Vice President Of Architecture at WEX , joins us to discuss how to prioritize your developer enablement programs, getting comfortable with soft and hard metrics, and best practices for using automation to improve developer enablement and keep your team in the flow. Join us as we discuss: Calculating the ROI of developer enablement How to measure the impact of developer enablement Focusing on getting tasks that take minutes down to milliseconds

December 6, 2023Episode 2544 min

Why the 10x developer is BS with Emily Freeman

Bestselling author and technical leader and Head of Community at Amazon Web Services, Emily Freeman shares her insights around career, community, and business success. She touches upon the importance of the developer experience and its influence on productivity, measuring developer productivity, and different questions around using AI tools. Join us as Ken and Emily discuss: The critical link between the developer experience and business outcomes. How streamlining decisions and reducing unnecessary work to enhance efficiency, developer satisfaction, and ultimately increase profit. Investing in incremental improvements in the developer experience that focus on reliability, security, and performance. The role of AI in developer tools and the automation of repetitive tasks, which can free up time for more creative work.

November 15, 2023Episode 2447 min

How Honeycomb.io improved observability with LLMs

AI and machine learning are becoming indispensable in maximizing system performance- for both developers and end users. But teasing out the right tools and methods can be challenging. Philip Carter, Principal Product Manager at Honeycomb , sits down with us to discuss the developer experience and observability tools in the context of open-source telemetry projects- specifically with OpenTelemetry. He shares the positive impact these projects have had on the software community, especially the improvement in observability through open telemetry standards. He discusses the benefits of open telemetry for both vendors and customers, shedding light on the integration of machine learning into product development. Philip also delves into the role of observability tools in enhancing language models and data querying. Join us as we discuss: How open telemetry and observability drive Innovation for the software community The balance between the challenges and opportunities with AI augmentation By putting developers at the center of software development efforts, companies will provide better products and higher customer satisfaction

November 1, 2023Episode 2340 min

The Flaws in the You Build It, You Own It Strategy

In today’s rapidly developing AI landscape identifying the best strategies for seamless software delivery and optimal tool integration can be challenging. Rob Zuber , CTO at Circle CI , joins us today to provide insights on building and leading a successful growth company. He shares his experience on harnessing the strategic potential DevOps and platform teams, the shift in the You Build It You Own It method, and revolutionizing traditional practices to enhance the developer experience. Join us as we discuss: How to shift your mindset as an engineer into the mind of the customer The importance of learning how to build as your customer base expands The evolution of software engineering, and the challenges and opportunities of microservices and AI in software development.