
Ep 43 – Telco’s Pinball Wizard: Neil McRae
BT Chief Architect Neil McRae talks about the company's digital transformation and strategies for working with hyperscalers … and pinball, of course!
Telcos, nothing is going to make or break your success with the public cloud more than the quality of your software talent. I’m talking about the programmers and engineers who are going to do all the heavy lifting you need to make this migration successful. While most of these people will come from your existing ranks, you’ll probably need to also add new people from outside. Both groups will need to be trained in new skills – ramping a set of people in telco knowledge or another group with software skills for the public cloud – in order to ensure success with your move to the public cloud.
A coding technique called pair programming is a great approach to skill up in a short period of time. Similar to pilots in a cockpit, pair programmers work side by side. Instead of flying a plane, they’re writing code. To the uninitiated, having two people write one set of code may sound inefficient. But listen to this episode to understand why it’s not. Pair programming can boost your team’s engagement and the quality of the work they produce. What better way to kick off your journey to the public cloud?
This is the second episode in my HR series about the people-side of change. Our guest, Shopify’s VP of Engineering Farhan Thawar, uses pair programming to recruit and train new hires, increase employee morale, and improve work quality. Listen now to learn:
When you’re done listening, don’t forget to check out the first episode in The HR Series, when I talk to leadership-guru Jim Abolt about the effect of big change on the people inside an organization.
You can find the transcript for this episode here.
Farhan Thawar is VP, Engineering at Shopify via the acquisition of Helpful.com where he was co-founder and CTO. Previously he was the CTO, Mobile at Pivotal and VP, Engineering at Pivotal Labs via the acquisition of Xtreme Labs. He is an avid writer and speaker and was named one of Toronto’s 25 most powerful people. He has held senior technical positions at Achievers, Microsoft, Celestica, and Trilogy. Farhan completed his MBA in Financial Engineering at Rotman and Computer Science/EE at Waterloo.
The Telco in 20 podcast won a 2022 Gold Hermes Award and was recognized on Forrester’s 2021 list of the Top 100 Channel Podcasts and Feedspot’s Top 10 Telecom Podcasts list.
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