jaredfaris

Practical Communication Strategies for Influencing Non-Technical Decision Makers

It's frustrating when your well-reasoned technical plan is ignored by managers or customers. You know it's the right approach, but they seem almost determined to not understand it. In this talk we'll discuss strategies you can apply to be a more effective communicator, and dramatically increase the odds of getting agreement. We'll cover ideas including leveling based on your audience, reframing your argument around business goals (not tech), and the magic of the pre-wired discussion. I've learned these techniques through a combination of hard lessons, and countless hours of study. They've served me well as I've moved between engineering and sales roles. I'm convinced that you can apply these non-technical strategies to be a more effective technologist!

jaredfaris

Build for the Future When Your Users Are in the Past

You want to build your product or SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) to take advantage of advancements in technology and design, but you have to support users on a wide variety of devices and software. How do you optimize for tomorrow's user while still serving yesterday's? In this talk, we'll discuss emerging technology trends and how to incorporate them into your product both conceptually and technically. You'll leave this talk with specific patterns you can apply today, and a repeatable process you can use as technology continues to advance.

Learning Objectives

• (major) Learn how to balance technology with business needs
• (major) Provide a framework for making technology decisions that's reasoned and repeatable
• (minor) Know how to give team members the opportunity to work with new technology, even if your product doesn't require it

jaredfaris

Rethinking Your Mobile Strategy in the Era of Progressive Web Apps

If your product involves technology, it almost certainky involves mobile devices. This means you have to make the technology investments required to support them. This distracts from solving your customers' problems. The emergence of Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) gives you an alternative. This talk will update you on the changing mobile landscape, and give you the knowledge needed to reanalyze your mobile strategy. You'll leave this talk with the tools necessary to create a PWA roadmap for your product.

Learning objectives

• (minor) Understand why mobile matters
• (major) Understand what Progressive Web Apps are
• (major) Understand how to decide between a traditional mobile strategy and a PWA strategy

jaredfaris

How Can I Be A Speaker Like You? - Panel Discussion

Being a speaker is scary, until you do it a few times. Then, you start to realize it's a skill you can build like any other. This panel of speakers will give you the opportunity to ask questions, hear fun stories, and learn how you too can get started.

jaredfaris

Improve Your Communication Using DISC

Nobody tells new professionals that the most valuable skills they can build are interpersonal ones. This leaves them in a bad place though, because there's no Google search or tutorial to help their communication skills. When they talk to someone who doesn't think the same way as them, they aren't equipped to deal with it. This talk focuses on using the framework of the DISC behavior assessment to look at how people fail to communicate. Using DISC, we'll look at common situations such as face to face conversations, group emails, and presentations. We'll explore how to change your behaviors to more effectively reach those around you. You'll leave being a better team member, a better leader, and way more effective.

jaredfaris

Successful Software Development Is About Relationships, Not Technology

Our industry pays a lot of attention to technology and processes and no time on the single biggest key to successful software development: relationships. Teams with strong relationships have delivered great products for decades, before any of today's tools existed. Meanwhile, teams using the latest frameworks and processes often fail to perform. In this talk, we'll look at why relationships are critical, how they develop, and how you can intentionally grow them both inside and outside your team. You'll leave this talk seeing your job and community in a different light.

jaredfaris

Progressive Web Apps Are the Future

Innovations in web development are quickly replacing the need for mobile apps and the app store experience. Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) are web applications that work seamlessly for every user on every device, and they are ready to change the way we build and deploy our software. Each PWA is an application that works online or offline, on old devices and new, and that users can install just like a native app on your device. This talk will cover PWAs and the technologies that make them possible: Service Workers, Fetch API, and Web App Manifest. You'll leave this talk ready to create new PWAs and add native-like experiences to your existing apps.

jaredfaris

Uh, So I'm A Manager... Now What?

Top professionals often end up managing others. Unfortunately, managers need an entirely new set of skills that don't just appear with promotion. This talk covers what to do if you find yourself in a management position. We'll talk about how to avoid drowning on day 1, how to build your leadership skills, and how to make decisions (or avoid them) to empower your team to be successful. This talk will be valuable to both managers and those who aspire to become managers.

jaredfaris

Building Junior Developers

Junior developers bring a ton of value to your team, but also bring a lot of work. Successfully integrating a brand new dev requires a combination of training, patience, mentoring, oversight, and learning from mistakes. This talk will combine theory with years of experience with junior developers, will help you understand what you have to gain, and help you set your team up for success.

jaredfaris

Fetch and Service Workers - Revolutionizing Web Requests

The future of web requests is here. With the Fetch API, RESTful requests have been made incredibly easy. So easy in fact, that you'll never be tempted to include jQuery just to get them. Even better, the arrival of Service Workers means you can now build background processes to handle caching, offline connections, and even push notifications. This talk will dive into Fetch and Service Workers, show you how to use them, and give some real world examples of their power.