My First LeadDev LDX3 2025 Experience - Day 1

 I’ve been trying to attend LeadDev for the last three years. I’ve submitted CFPs every time, hoping to be selected as a speaker, but it hasn’t happened yet. I’m not giving up, though; I’ll keep trying. This year, I finally got the chance to attend in person, and it felt special. Big thanks to CFC for making this happen.

As it was my first time attending LeadDev, I wanted to be well-prepared and make the most of the experience. Checked my travel route, laid out my notebook and favourite pen (yes, I still love handwritten notes!). The organisers had an app where I could plan my schedule in advance. That really helped me as it meant I didn’t have to make last-minute decisions during the day and could just focus on being present. I found that really useful. 

I spent some time looking up the talks and the speakers ahead of time and built my schedule based on what I was most interested in. The event had three main stages—Ways of Working, Organisational Leadership, and Technical Strategy. There was also a Solutions Stage with vendor demos, community spaces, office hours, and a chance to meet authors. I didn’t manage to attend everything, but I’ll share what I experienced.

🧡 The day started with a lovely catch-up with Christine Pinto. We’ve met before, but it’s always such a joy to connect in person, especially with someone who’s part of the quality community I deeply value.

Day 1 kicked off with the session I attended first: “How to Keep Everyone Happy (on a Shoestring)?” by Neslihan Şirin Saygılı.

Neslihan shared her journey managing teams without formal management training, facing many real-world constraints: limited budget, limited headcount, limited time, limited life and the added pressure when C-level executives want Friday launches. She described these as “dominoes vs avalanches,” highlighting how small issues can cascade into bigger crises if not managed well.

Her approach starts with taking a wide view. She created a “happiness sparse matrix”. She also talked about “rotating priorities” like pizza trade-offs where each sprint prioritises a different team’s needs, with a “time currency” paid upfront(people respected the fairness)

A bigger perspective came from framing the challenge as a “constraint satisfaction problem,” one without a perfect numerical solution but solvable through heuristics and teamwork. She reminded us it’s okay to have “good enough” plans, It's better to be 70% right today than than 100% right too late. Keep the stakeholders informed all the time.

Her practical advice included focusing on root causes, not blaming individuals, and fixo ne thing fully, not 10 things badly. Keep the big picture, don't let the crisis blind you to the others. She encouraged establishing some principles like casual coffee breaks, sharing credit, listening, being accessible, and supporting personal growth through books and side projects to keep the “emotional bank account” topped up.

Quote from Regina Phalange:

“Our experiences are similar in pattern but unique in detail. I believe we need tailored solutions.”

Managing tech crisis on a shoestring isn’t about being a hero, but being a human.

What resonated most with me was how much this isn’t about having all the answers or being perfect. It’s about understanding the real, messy challenges teams face every day and finding practical, human ways to navigate them and you don't have to do it alone, find help!

The next session I attended was “Better Software, Faster” by Laura Tacho.

Laura opened strong with a clear message: “We need to think about using AI on an organisational level to see the organisational benefits.” She quickly made it clear that AI isn’t about producing more lines of code—because we already know lines of code aren’t a meaningful measure. Instead, it’s about improving the developer experience.

She described how many leaders right now are sitting in a “disappointment gap”—expecting AI to replace engineers or bring instant transformation, but the reality doesn’t match the hype. That contrast was summed up with humour: “The milk is actually shaving cream,” which got a good laugh in the room.

This hype around AI is the biggest barrier for adoption. Engineers might even start seeing it as competition, which only builds more resistance. But as Laura pointed out: data beats hype—every time. Leaders need to set realistic expectations about what AI can and can’t do, and be able to explain those clearly to boards, execs, and development teams alike. While AI can be transformative, that’s not what most companies are seeing in their day-to-day work—yet.

Quote from Brian Houck (SPACE framework co-author):
“The hype around AI is in many ways the biggest barrier for adoption.”

She shared stats showing that advanced organisations in the top quartile have about 60% adoption of AI tools on a daily or weekly basis—but there’s still a huge gap between them and the rest. Laura stressed that if you invest the effort and resources into AI adoption, usage will go up. The average reported time savings is already about 3 hours and 45 minutes per developer per week in the first half of 2025.

Still, she was honest about how hard it is to lead in this space right now. The landscape is evolving rapidly, and many leaders feel like they’re constantly guessing. But we’re not alone in that. Laura wants to equip us to show up with clarity and confidence, especially when it comes to separating hype from what’s actually happening.

She reminded us that we have a hard job to do as organisational leaders. Our role and responsibility is to educate around the hype. It’s easy to get distracted by shiny new tools, but when leadership asks “what are we doing with AI?” — we need to have a clear, honest answer. And when we ask “what does it actually take to build better software?” — the answer isn’t just writing code faster. It’s making sure the code is reliable, maintainable, and valuable.

Laura outlined two things we need to do this well:

1. A common definition of engineering performance
2. Clarity on how AI is influencing that performance

We also need AI-specific measures, not just the usual engineering metrics.

Despite all the newness, she reminded us that the fundamentals of software delivery still hold—collaboration, fast time to market, quality, reliability, and security. AI might help accelerate delivery, but without care, it can also accelerate the wrong things. We need to protect our organisations from delayed damage, like producing more poor-quality code, faster.

One big takeaway for me was around aligning the organisation on a shared definition of excellence. Laura introduced DX Core 4, a framework developed by people like Abi Noda and Dr. Nicole Forsgren (from the DORA team), which has already been used by hundreds of companies. It’s been battle-tested, and it shows that Developer Experience (DX) is one of the biggest levers we have to improve engineering performance.

She shared that around 20% of developer time is lost to friction from inefficient tools and poor internal systems. Since time is such a scarce commodity, mapping DX improvements back to saved time and recovered salary makes a solid business case for investing in better developer experience. Biggest wins for utilisation is going from non-using to using AI. Top metric to track in terms of Impact = time savings per week.  AI Measurement Framework = Utilization + Impact + Cost.

As Azra from Block put it:
“These improvements helped us move faster without sacrificing quality or focus.”

Laura wrapped up by debuting an AI Measurement Framework. This session was a real eye-opener. It helped me see how, as leaders, we need to take ownership not just of tools and tech, but of the narrative around them. 

The next session I joined was “From Code to Commerce: Engineering’s Role in Driving Business Growth” by Rodney J. Woodruff.

Rodney started with something simple but powerful -  to write better software and code, we need to talk to people. Engineering isn’t just a department anymore; it’s embedded in every part of the business. IT used to be seen as a cost centre — “people loved to hate us,” as he said. But now, we’re a critical part of how the business moves forward.

He emphasised that our role goes far beyond just building features. We’re influencing decision-making, helping shape products, and directly impacting business outcomes. I loved the point that non-functional requirements  things like speed, reliability, and security  are no longer “nice-to-haves.” They’re becoming critical business imperatives. (Personally, I prefer calling them cross-functional requirements as truly impact user experience.)

Rodney gave a reality check on how teams are expected to constantly do more with less, which makes it even more important to understand the strategic balance between speed, scalability, and cost. He reminded us that we need to pay attention to the core goals of the organisation, not just the engineering roadmap.

He shared a few case studies — one from Shopify, where the team had to carry out major technical upgrades with zero downtime. Another from Madden wanting to get on Amazon in time for Prime Day. Had just gotten feedback in his review that he said yes too much, so he said no immediately. It didn’t fly. It was a good reminder that saying “no” just to prove a point isn’t leadership either it’s about thoughtful decisions that support long-term goals.

“You do not rise to the level of your goals; you fall to the level of your systems.” — James Clear, Atomic Habits

Rodney also talked about tactics for building ownership of non-functional requirements, things we don’t always do well in tech. His advice:

• Translate technical impact into business value
• Co-own goals and KPIs with the wider org
• Quantify risk and reward 
• Use data to tell stories
• Involve stakeholders in trade-offs
• Break traditional boundaries (and don’t take offence when things challenge your space)

This session really reinforced how important it is to step out of your role and look at the bigger picture. Engineering isn’t just about the system anymore  it’s about the business, the people, and the impact. It’s on us to lead with awareness, and make sure the value we’re delivering goes beyond code. 

The end quote - “You have nails. AI is a hammer. Why use a shoe?!”

The next session I attended was “Levelling Up: Transitioning Successfully into a Manager of Managers Role” by Gisela Rossi.

Gisela began by pointing how little guidance there is when moving from Engineering Manager (EM) to Manager of Managers compared to the IC → EM shift.

She explained that many of the core skills carry over, like:

• Supporting people to grow
• Creating conditions for people to thrive
• Adapting to organisational change - visible immediate change and subtle silent shifts over time
• Driving efficient execution

But the deeper shift happens in more subtle ways. Gisela described three silent shifts that aren’t often named:

1. Informational 
2. Temporal 
3. Relational 

With these shifts come three essential new skills to grow:

Perception

No one is going to sit you down and explain everything. You have to read between the lines, connect dots others don’t, and spot patterns early. 

Decisions will happen without you. But your job is to shape what happens both upstream and downstream of those decisions. Help senior stakeholders see what you’re seeing — and why it matters.

Patience

The nature of problems changes. They’re harder, more tangled, and often escalated to you because others have already tried to solve them. Wins take longer to show. Outcomes might not make anyone happy, but might still be the best compromise possible. You need to shift your time horizon from “this week” to “next year,” accept imperfect outcomes, and focus your energy where it matters most.

There will be more issues, more escalations, and more ambiguity. You need to trust your work, prioritise and adapt, and accept that you can’t fix everything for your team, even when you want to.

Presence

This one hit hard: “Sometimes you won’t be in the room, but your thinking will be. That is presence too.”You're an ambassador for your team.

How you show up in the org matters more now than ever. 

• Learn to negotiate
• Accept that progress is often built on compromise
• Build cross-org relationships early — don’t wait until you need something
• Understand what drives people at different levels of the business
• Advocate for your team in the spaces where they can’t speak for themselves
• Be the translator bridge the language of your team and the wider business

A quote she shared tied it all together:

“Growth and comfort never co-exist.” — Ginni Rometty

These are skills. Grow them with intention, focus and practice.

This talk was a great reminder that moving up doesn’t mean having it all figured out — it means learning to lead differently. I'm not an EM or a manager of managers but this talk gave me so much food for thought.

The next talk was on “From Autocomplete to Agents: AI Coding Assistance State of Play” by Birgitta Böckeler from Thoughtworks.

Birgitta took us through the journey of how AI coding assistants have evolved from basic autocomplete suggestions to advanced agentic tools that can interact with your full codebase. What I liked most was how she struck a balance: not hyping AI beyond what it can do today, but also not dismissing its value when used well.

She described how these newer agents aren’t just embedded chatbots. They can orchestrate prompts, take action within your IDE, and make code navigation and task automation more fluid. But to work effectively with them, we need to collaborate intentionally and treat them more like coding partners. That means planning ahead, breaking down tasks clearly, and not expecting magic from vague prompts. Smaller, focused sessions were her tip to avoid cognitive overload and build trust in the assistant's output.

Birgitta also highlighted the risks. Agents can still make serious coding errors, introduce security vulnerabilities, or create blind spots if we stop thinking critically. And because they rely on external services, there’s a trust and dependency tradeoff we can’t ignore.

 

GenAI is in our toolbox now, it is useful, and it is not going away. But we need to figure out as a profession how to use it effectively and sustainably. I just loved this last slide that shows what not to say to an AI enthusiast and for someone is sketic.

Oh, and I have to say this was the first ever conference I’ve attended where halal food was actually served. It might seem like a small detail, but honestly, things like that make such a huge difference. It’s not just about the food, it’s about feeling included. That small gesture meant a lot.


That was a wrap for Day 1 my head was full from everything I had absorbed, full of insights, inspiration and I had some really thought-provoking lunch conversations too (which definitely deserve their own blogpost!). One attendee asked me, “How does it feel now that there's a trend of saying QEs aren't needed anymore?” Now you see why I said that chat needs a blog of its own! 😉 

I'll share reflections and follow up post on Day 2.