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Systems of record, systems of engagement, and systems of intelligence. What exactly are these various systems and why are they so vital to success? Today, we take a look back and a deeper dive into episode 66 to examine the way these particular systems build upon one another and why it's so crucial for tech leaders to understand them.

TSP Moments from the Thoughtful Software Podcast takes a look back at episode 64 and Status Meetings. Research shows that status meetings aren't just making us feel bad; they may destroy our productivity and possibly even our mental and physical health. Fortunately, there are ways to stop this and relieve the stress and difficulties of excessive meetings. Join Andrew and Fahad as they discuss Status Meetings with Jim Thomas of Freedom Financial. 

Andrew and Fahad are Live from SaaStr 2021 to discuss various Systems such as Systems of Intelligence, Systems of Record, and Systems of Engagement, how they work together to build the foundation for organizations, and why these types of systems are so crucial for tech leaders to understand. 

Taking a look back as well as a deeper dive into episode 41 where Andrew and Fahad discuss Collaboration Architecture, why it's important, what it means for the future, and how to embrace Collaboration Architecture today to prepare for the challenges that lie ahead.

TSP Moments, from the Thoughtful Software Podcast, is both a look back as well as a deeper dive into some of the subjects discussed during the Thoughtful Software Podcast. We're taking a look back at episode 65, where Andrew and Fahad sat down with Chris Dix of the BBC to discuss emerging tech in media and entertainment as well as how deepfakes can play an ethical role.

Our guest today is Chris Dix, Head of Technology Transformation for Audience Products at the BBC. With a career spanning over 20 years in the communications, broadcast, and media sectors, Chris is a proven leader in the Media and Entertainment industry, transforming ideas and technology into groundbreaking next-generation solutions through a broader perspective supported by world-class talent. The hyper-personalization of technologies like machine learning and AI have forever changed the software landscape. As this technology grows, new innovations such as synthetic media, AR/VR, and Blockchain, have the potential to tailor the way media and technology are consumed.  Andrew and Fahad sit down with Chris to discuss these types of emerging tech, as well as how technology like this can be used ethically and responsibly to establish a culture of sustainable engineering.

Jim Thomas is a Senior Manager of Product and brings over 15 years of experience in operations, project, and product management to the discussion. Jim’s leadership drives strategy, transparency, and a great customer experience delivering products that are simple, scalable, and sustainable. Together Jim, Andrew, and Fahad discuss overcoming the project management pitfalls that can hinder productivity and kill innovation, as well as what steps can be taken to ensure that every project delivers value.

Despite the availability of many project management tools, there is still a 70% failure rate within the software industry. Join us as Andrew and Fahad discuss the issues that stem from using project management tools, whether they are genuinely effective, and how to use these tools without undermining the ability to innovate and succeed. Show Notes: Why is there so much failure in software? There are more than fifty different project management tools on the market such as Asana, Monday, Atlassian, and Service Now. If the failure rate continues to climb do these tools really work? While data is readily available, the actual complexity of a project is not necessarily represented in the data. Modern technology has become very intricate, but the intricacy isn't being tracked anywhere. The best-performing organizations have built great habits and their habits are driven by their culture. The culture is driven by good ideas and usually good leaders within the organization.Set the culture, what do you want to become? What is your goal? What is the outcome you want while you're measuring to get there? And then what system is going to help you achieve those metrics? What is the cost of failure rate and why is it acceptable in this industry?  The returns are so high that when a company does succeed the failures almost become a rounding error.  This won't last forever, especially as better alternatives arrive. Thoughtful Software does not mean move fast and break things, but move thoughtfully and break the status quo.At Skiplist we want to do something to curve the 70% failure rate. Want to see how we’re doing it? Click here Interested in this topic and want to hear more? We have even more resources available on our Insights page Drop us a comment and let us know how we're doing. We read and respond to every comment and email.

In this episode of the Thoughtful Software Podcast, Andrew and Fahad discuss team building in software, hiring methods for creating the best team possible, ways to screen for the best cross-functional candidates, and proven methods for instilling quality leadership to help train and mentor junior developers to be the next wave of industry leaders. Show Notes How to build teams for application and development. How should development teams be built from a non-technical founder or executive standpoint?Start by looking at the size and maturity of the organization. Is there a technical founder? What is the maturity of that technical founder? Small organizations and startups should begin with Dynamic Programming languages such as Python or JavaScript. While these languages enable speed they do not often work at scale (number of coders working). Hiring top talent without paying them what Google or Netflix can offer requires new and exciting programming languages like Rust where people can come and learn.Once hiring is figured out then the question becomes "How fast do we want to move?" Senior developers are going to move more slowly than junior developers because they often make better decisions and take their time because they have suffered through bad decisions before. Larger companies can afford to move slower whereas startups may not.The last thing in hiring that must be considered is leadership. First are People Leaders - Managers, Directors, VP's. Second, are Tech Leaders - Engineers, Architects. Most startups need one technical leader.The people being hired in a startup must have a growth mindset or it will crush your team.Hiring at the enterprise level is designed to throw bodies at a problem, they are building to hedge against risk and return money to their shareholders. How can you screen for good candidates? Asking the right questions at the start: "Tell me why you picked this one technology and give me your reasons for doing so?"  Asking someone to defend their choices is the best to understand why people make choices.How important is it now for developers to be cross-functional and understand the context of their code, not just the latest and greatest languages? Understanding the business you are in is important. As a leader, you have to understand where the company is going and where the market might force you to go. Any single agenda can't supersede that of the business. What Does a Good Technical Mentorship Look Like? Pairing on programming is very helpful and explaining and working through errors together with junior engineers rather than leaving a note is a great learning experience. Enabling engineers to confidently sell their ideas and training them to execute. Let people make the mistakes and then help them learn from those mistakes is the constructive loop needed. Great leaders are always training their replacements.Hiring Remote will help optimizing business.  Thanks for listening! What did you think about this episode? Drop us a comment and let us know how we're doing. We take the time to read and respond to every comment and email. Visit our Insights page to hear some previous episodes of our podcast and our Articles written by The Skiplist Team. We’d love to know what you took away from our conversation. Follow us at @fahsho12 and @andrewwwolfe and share your insights and questions with the #thoughtful software.

This is episode is about designing software that enables your vision as an organization to become reality. Although this topic may seem simple, it is a common problem that trips up many projects. Join Andrew and Fahad as they discuss how technology leaders should capture and communicate ideas, approach innovation, and bridge the communication gap that so often exists between engineers and executives.  Show Notes How do we turn our ideas into something tangible, into reality into a valuable asset? We know that 68% 0f all software projects fail, and 70% of executives believe their initiatives are doomed from the start.How Should Technology Leaders Capture Their Ideas? Know the problem first. Explore the problem space completely and understand why it's a problem, and then what opportunities are there to solve that problem.  Knowing the problem first opens multiple avenues and affords opportunities to create a less expensive solution that solves a larger problem.Only move into the solution space once the problem is understood.  Starting in the solution space is easy to do, but doing so may mean that you miss solving for parts of your problem that that was not properly understood at the start.Product vs Project Mindset. A good product life cycle is constantly moving between problem space and solution space. Don't index on things, don't make assumptions, solve for what you know are the issues, and then go back and try to discover the other issues as well. Should Innovation be Incorporated into the Problem Solving Process? No. When you're in the problem space, you should not be thinking about innovation. Innovation is a byproduct of solving a problem.Wayne Gretzky used to say, "skate to where the puck is going to be" and most organizations are not doing that because they are trying to copy what other organizations are doing. Do you try and become SoFi or do you look at where SoFi is going and become that instead?Don't copy innovation, decide if you want to be there, or if they're missing the mark, skate to where you think they should be going, you'll be innovative and market-defining.Understand context. What market are you in? Are you in a leadership position trying to hold on to users or do you understand the problem and are getting out in front of it? What is the best way for technology leaders and executives to communicate ideas? Design and prototypes are powerful because they are quick ways of showing somebody, this is what I interpreted. Now a conversation can take place about what was truly meant. Resources Mentioned SoFiWayne Gretzky AppleTeslaFordFacebookTwittermyspaceUber Thanks for listening! What did you think about this episode? Drop us a comment and let us know how we're doing. Check out the Insights page to hear some previous episodes of our podcast and our  Thoughtful Articles written by The Skiplist Team. We’d love to know what you took away from our conversation. Follow us at @fahsho12 and @andrewwwolfe and share your insights and questions with the #thoughtful software.