Nicky Wrightson

Head of Eng @topi_eu formally a Principal @SkyscannerEng @FT. I'm a tech tinkerer, public speaker, passionate skier, pasta obsessive. She/her

[Nicky Wrightson @NickyWrightson]

I had a really hard time finding a principal engineer role after I left the FT. I had some wrong turns on the journey but it all helped me get real clarity in understanding what I expected in this role. I finally got around to writing up my experiences: https://t.co/q65MqP2PVa

[Nicky Wrightson @NickyWrightson]

@russmiles Legacy is anything older than a few months that even the authors can't remember the nuts and bolts regardless of test coverage or not - right? Tests help your future self understand what the fuck you were trying to achieve

[Nicky Wrightson @NickyWrightson]

Fabulous blog post about platform engineering. I've seen many "platform" teams de-evolve into running a platform rather than solving a real problem or enabling others.

[Sam Newman @samnewman]

So, rather than screaming into the void regarding my thoughts on Platform Engineering, I thought I'd just scream those thoughts into a blog post instead - Don't Call It A Platform: https://t.co/oEEKARTR4Y

[Nicky Wrightson @NickyWrightson]

This looks like an incredible starup that is looking at the factors that affect long covid - Meaning folk can track their condition

[Visible @visible_health]

Today, we're launching the Visible Beta app for #LongCovid and #MECFS.

We want to make tracking your condition and taking part in research available to as many people as possible, as soon as possible.

Here's more about what we're building:👇🧵1/7

https://t.co/EbAVpBwHsG

[Nicky Wrightson @NickyWrightson]

@GergelyOrosz I've just joined a startup and I cannot express the joy and relief at realising that I didn't need to deal with the companies way to use jira. Linear all the way from me

[Nicky Wrightson @NickyWrightson]

I've always struggled with scrum as it felt artificial to jam the work into a sprint and amount of ceremony time felt so wonky. Matters were worse at one company where we had to do weekly sprints! I love how @SergioRocks articulates how this just doesn't work for async

[Sergio Pereira @SergioRocks]

Why I don't use Scrum to manage my Remote Teams?

TL;DR: It adds at least 8 hours of meetings per Sprint. That's 2 full days of lost productivity, per team member, per month!

This is what I do instead 👇

[Nicky Wrightson @NickyWrightson]

So I cope with the peri-menopausal levels of anxiety day to day but didn't quite comprehend how hard it would to learn to dive with it. Many panic attacks later I got as far as a certified scuba diver. May I finally convince the doctors for HRT to complete my open water :)

[Nicky Wrightson @NickyWrightson]

Oh @holly_cummins thank you so much for this memory, it was such a fun panel filled with some great perspectives from different experiences from the audience and us :)

[Holly Cummins ([email protected]) @holly_cummins]

Eek, that’s me!

Two super things about this all-women panel.
1. It passed the conference Bechdel test - the topic was microservices, not DEI.
2. It was accidental :) I mean, of course you’re going to want @sarahjwells and @NickyWrightson and @devstefops on your panel.

[Nicky Wrightson @NickyWrightson]

@galvionie @danielbryantuk No Staging or pre-production replica for testing

[Nicky Wrightson @NickyWrightson]

@danielbryantuk @galvionie At Skyscanner they have no lower environment for testing thier microservices - automatic rollbacks though and a slew of other stuff to avoid deployments causing outages.

[Nicky Wrightson @NickyWrightson]

@valla_uk is providing such an amazing service to those going through the traumatic grievance process here in the UK. I've seen first hand the incredible stress these situations cause and often folk have no idea how to handle them.

[Teacher Mum Done @teachermumdone]

Just discovered @Valla_UK whilst doing some reading to try and support me during the grievance process. Such a great tool to help organise all your docs and info in one place in case things do end up going to tribunal. #flexwork #lifeafterno #motherhoodpenalty #TeacherShortage

[Nicky Wrightson @NickyWrightson]

Interviewing well is a skill that gets rusty very quickly... It would be great to have community where folk can be mock interviewed in a sensible manner that is relevant to the roles and companies they want to work at.

[Nicky Wrightson @NickyWrightson]

@GergelyOrosz Some food for thought but the FT has no dual path and the responsibilities are shared amongst principals, tech leads and delivery managers. @annashipman wrote a great article on how this works well for them: https://t.co/X74e5knrWw

[Nicky Wrightson @NickyWrightson]

@SergioRocks Live coding with folk I have no psychological safety terrifies me.... I end up with quite acute performance anxiety and imposter syndrome

[Nicky Wrightson @NickyWrightson]

Perhaps part of the problem is some folk take the term "individual contributor" too literally. Staff+ roles are a move to enabling others rather than immediate individual delivery. To do that effectively they need to exhibit certain behaviours. https://t.co/4vLFQZvEbs @InfoQ

[Charity Majors @mipsytipsy]

The work done by staff engineers and principal engineers is supposed to be different than the work done by senior engineers. It's much more people-y. More emphasis on the "socio" of sociotechnical.

(I have ranted about levels elsewhere, like here: https://t.co/eSZPRMUkkh)

[Nicky Wrightson @NickyWrightson]

@seporaitis @thiagoghisi @Lethain Startups don't tend to need these roles because communication and alignment is easier amongst a smaller group of folk. I see tech leads at startups demonstrating these behaviours which lead to them defining the career framework for this role as the startup scales.

[Nicky Wrightson @NickyWrightson]

@patkua @eludadev @simonw @klintron @myusuf3 @ntcoding @alexeheath @cartwrightian @boicy @lilyraynyc Thank you for including my article. Your trident model of tech progression was the perfect analogy to help my thinking on the topic. We need to think beyond management and IC. A big thanks goes to @InfoQ for helping me edit the article :)

[Nicky Wrightson @NickyWrightson]

@seporaitis @thiagoghisi I would love to hear your thoughts on it :) https://t.co/4vLFQZvEbs

[Nicky Wrightson @NickyWrightson]

@thiagoghisi Great you liked it. One thing though I didn't mention in the article was the necessity for doing more than lip service to these behaviours. Companies need to train and incentivise for these behaviours, not to mention measure the impact when it's no longer purely tech based.

[Nicky Wrightson @NickyWrightson]

@suhailpatel I tried using one once but my vanity got massively in the way.... They are not the most flattering on a curvy woman. I should really get over that and try again after seeing this :)

[Nicky Wrightson @NickyWrightson]

Becoming a Staff+ engineer you go from being a good engineer to helping others become great engineers. It can be easy to continue the behaviours that got you to this role without adopting new ways of working. So I wrote up what I think that transition to Staff looks like

[InfoQ @InfoQ]

Transitioning into the Staff+ Engineer Role - from Player to Coach https://t.co/CfzOgFOh1i authored by @nickywrightson, reviewed by @BenLinders