Thomas Betts talks with Dave Rael about working for an organization focused on customer service, delivering delight to customers, viewing failure as opportunity, and embracing new ways of working and thinking
Thomas Betts is a senior software engineer at Nordstrom with almost two decades of professional software development experience. His focus has always been on providing software solutions that delight his customers. He has worked in a variety of industries, including finance, health care, defense and travel. Thomas lives in Denver with his wife and son, and they love hiking and otherwise exploring beautiful Colorado.
Chapters:
- - Dave introduces the show and Thomas Betts
- - Thomas's definition of value
- - The things that "light Thomas up"
- - How Thomas grew in programming and became a software professional
- - Thomas's story of failure - emphasis on failure as learning experience and embracing it
- - Thomas's success story - digging into a new technology stack, delivering with it, and creating a great culture and team with great relationships
- - Pair Programming
- - How Thomas stays current with what he needs to know
- - The many faces of mentoring relationships
- - Thomas's book recommendation
- - The things that have Thomas most excited
- - Thomas's experiences with Mob Programming and using it to bring Behavior-Driven Development and Domain-Driven Design
- - Thomas and public speaking and getting involved
- - Thomas's greatest sources of pain
- - The things about which Thomas likes to geek out
- - Thomas's prediction for the future of software
- - Thomas's top 3 tips for delivering more value
- - Keeping up with Thomas
Resources:
- Arthur C. Clarke and Clarke's three laws
- The Gift of Failure: How the Best Parents Learn to Let Go So Their Children Can Succeed - Jessica Lahey
- The Cucumber Book: Behaviour-Driven Development for Testers and Developers - Matt Wynne, Aslak Hellesoy
- Woody Zuill on Developer On Fire
- Matt Wynne on Developer On Fire
- Aslak Hellesøy on Developer On Fire
- The Agile Manifesto
- Scott Wlaschin on Developer On Fire (Scott quoted Jerry Weinberg, not Woody Zuill)
- Jerry Weinberg on Developer On Fire
- Ward Cunningham's collection of Gerald Weinberg quotes
- Jeff Atwood on the Gerald Weinberg quote
- Johannes Gutenberg and the Printing Press
- IFTTT (If This Then That)
- Zapier
- ER (TV series) - Michael Crichton
Thomas's book recommendation:
Thomas's top 3 tips for delivering more value:
- See one
- Do one
- Teach one