Building Technical Education Programs

There are not enough senior programmers in the world to satisfy the needs of our organizations; but educating your own developers is crazy expensive and hard, right?

It turns out there lots of effective, low-cost, low commitment ways to inject education into your organization, I'll show you some of the low commitment ways to engage your peers, how to evaluate your needs, how to measure your progress, and how to plan for future ed needs.

Transcript

1. BUILDING KICK-ASS INTERNAL EDUCATION PROGRAMS CHUCK LAUER VOSE RAILSCONF ’14 - CHICAGO
2. “When I raise my hand like this, <demonstrate>, please also raise yours. This is how I’ll get your attention.” –me. presently.
3. “Please stand up and take a 3 min stretch break. Introduce yourself to your neighbors. You’re going to talk to them a couple times” –me. presently.
4. INSPIRATION
5. “Internal education is easy! I’m going to start on Monday” –Hopefully you by the end of this talk One-point takeaway
6. Two-point takeaway You don’t need to know everything to teach Education isn’t expensive or hard to implement
7. COVERT EDUCATION: SNEAKING EDUCATION IN WITHOUT “THEM” KNOWING CHUCK LAUER VOSE RAILSCONF ’14 - CHICAGO
8. HOW TO EDUCATE WHEN YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT THE HELL YOU’RE DOING CHUCK LAUER VOSE RAILSCONF ’14 - CHICAGO
9. Who is this guy? Chuck Lauer Vose Bright hair Keywords: ferrets, food, photography Founder of Portland Code School Education Engineer at New Relic Also magnets. And ponies. And pets wearing clothes. We love you Chuck.
10. AKIRA MATSUDA STORY TIME PHOTOS BY T-SETO, SHINTARO KAKUTANI. CC-BY-ATTRIBUTION
11. How did you start? /me blushes.
12. EVE’S LEARNING CURVE ATTRIBUTION UNCLEAR - PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOU KNOW THE AUTHOR EVE University
13. Eve Online 80-person guild Weekly speaking events by prominent players First time I’d done public speaking Way more intense and addicting than space piracy and PvP.
14. Burnside Digital 40-person company Education without a mandate Didn’t realize I was educating yet Started small, shared success
15. Portland Code School Formed out of an internship program gone horribly wrong Didn’t know how to teach, but I did know the content Create a space where people can learn Most inspiring and proud experience of my life
16. New Relic Internal education for engineers that are way more knowledgeable than me Create a space for learning Help create teaching content for engineer teachers Help organize learning events for engineer teachers
17. “Make the already awesome engineers at New Relic, awesomer.” –New Relic’s Education Team Mandate
18. “Hoo, wow. Um… Crap. I don’t have the first idea how to do that.” –Me; immediately after hearing my new mandate.
19. YOU DON’T NEED TO KNOW EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO BE PASSIONATE, INSPIRING, GIVING. ! I STILL DON’T KNOW WHAT I’M DOING. BUT I’M LEARNING TOO.
20. BECOMING AN INSPIRING EDUCATOR
21. ACTIVITY 1 Spend 30 seconds thinking about an effective educational experience from your past. ! ! ! Share this with your neighbors. (2 minutes until hand raise)
22. A GOOD EDUCATOR: PUSHES PEOPLE OUT OF THEIR COMFORT ZONE IMAGE BY HABITSFORWELLBEING.COM
23. A GOOD EDUCATOR: INSPIRES AND CREATES SPACE TO LEARN PHOTOS BY ED SCHIPUL, NASA/BILL INGALLS
24. A GOOD EDUCATOR: GIVES OF THEMSELVES OUT OF LOVE IMAGE BY SEAN MACENTEE
25. ACTIVITY 2 Turn to your neighbor and give them a high-five ! ! ! You’re here because you love your teammates
26. BECOMING AN EFFICIENT EDUCATOR
27. THE WORD “EFFICIENT” IS MY FAVORITE NERD SNIPE COMIC BY RANDALL MONROE OF XKCD.COM, CC-BY-ATTRIBUTION
28. Lightning Talks 30-60 min before lunch on Friday 5-10 minute talks on any topic Demo a product, show off a new gem, inspire others around you “If you feed them, they will come”
29. Mob Refactoring / Code Review Select some code to review Select a style or problem to look for Rewrite the code together Throw out the code afterwards Review the code, not the author
30. Pair Programming 2 brains, one problem Tradeoff of speed for quality Chuck’s method: Sneaky monitor method Emily’s method: Opt-in workshops
31. Workshops Choose a theme as a group (refactoring? testing?) Find a screencast before workshop Watch screencast together Show an example from your code Split into pairs for 40 min to practice Demo progress in last 20 min
32. Fishbowl Discussions Most experienced engineers discuss a difficult problem Anyone can listen in over a speaker system (or just stand nearby) Benefits: Others can discuss and clarify Hearing how our elders discuss Normally closed doors discussions
33. On-boarding Mentors Point person for new hire’s first 2-4 wks Helps setup machine / get running Sets aside time to answer all questions Comfort and confidence, not just tech
34. Dedicated Trainers When education does become full time When quality of trainings is critical When you can spare an engineer When it must be efficient
35. EFFICIENT EDUCATION YOU DON’T NEED TO EDUCATE ALL DAY TO BE EFFECTIVE
36. Turn to your neighbor and ask them which of these formats they’ve tried. Did any work really well? ! ! ! Educators need a support group, everyone in this room is now backing you. #eduonrails? ACTIVITY 3
37. CHUCK’S EDUCATION PLAN FOR YOUR ORGANIZATION
38. Chuck’s Easy Peasy Methodology Start lightning talks next week – next friday at 11:30 Ask your team to review your code – bring snacks Set aside 2 hours to pair each week – bring your monitor Be a new hire mentor – bring your high-five gloves
39. “Internal education is easy! I’m going to start on Monday” –You. Right now. One-point takeaway
40. Two-point takeaway You don’t need to know everything to teach Education isn’t expensive or hard to implement
41. “Please clap now” –Akira Matsuda
42. THANK YOU! @VOSECHU ! CHUCK@NEWRELIC.COM VOSECHU@GMAIL.COM