Latest
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New study suggests major productivity boost when using Cursor’s coding agent
Is this the massive productivity benefit we’ve been waiting for?
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Why introverts get overlooked (and what to do about it)
Introverts have natural abilities that can make them the strongest leaders, but getting the visibility on these skills is the key.
Editor’s picks
What is a staff engineer? Technical leaders who aren’t managers
Staff engineers are technical leaders who have deep domain knowledge, walking the line between tech and the business.
Deadline: January 4, 2026
Call for Proposals for London 2026 is open!
Essential reading
On our StaffPlus playlist
How to master the four Staff archetypes and elevate your impact
While the specifics of the job can vary widely, Will Larson has famously categorized the Staff+ experience into four archetypes: Tech Lead, Architect, Solver, and the Right Hand.
Understanding the role as a Staff engineer
How to define, develop and deliver in your role on the technical track.
How to balance technical direction and leadership work
But as is often the case in business, priorities constantly shift and where you focus your efforts will too. So how do you strike the right balance between working on the technical direction of the business and those tasks that require you to put your leadership hat on?
Start with an exit in mind: How to be effective by being selfish as a staff engineer
Staff engineers often get overwhelmed by long-term ownership of critical projects. This talk explores how to avoid burnout by starting every project with an exit strategy—whether transferring ownership, pausing or bootstrapping a team.
The festival for modern engineering leadership
London • June 2 & 3, 2026
More for Staff engineers
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Build a productive code review culture
Code reviews can be tense and stressful if done incorrectly. Avoid bikeshedding and set good cultural standards with these nine simple steps.
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Engineering leadership is not just about code
If you’re looking to move into an engineering leadership position, you’ll have to do more than brush up on code!
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Influencing influencers: Powerful strategies to scale your impact at work
If you looking to widen the breadth of your impact, you’ll want to brush up on some of these areas to see the best results.
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The best feature management and experimentation software 2025
Feature flags and experimentation are critical for progressive developer teams who want granular control over their feature delivery. But which tool is the right one for you?
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How to handle difficult conversations as a leader
Difficult conversations are never anyone’s favorite pastime. For many, it can be an anxiety-inducing trip…but it doesn’t have to be.
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Be careful with ‘open source’ AI
Open source AI models may be appealing for developers, but there are still plenty of complex risks to assess.
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Should the daily stand-up die?
Will the real agile developers please stand up? Please stand up. Please, stand up.
Videos for Staff engineers
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In partnership with LaunchDarklyFrom code tsunami to controlled innovation: Launching software in the age of AI
How to harness the explosive speed of AI-driven development without losing control, compromising safety, or putting customer experience at risk.
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Mind the gap: Navigating the staff+ performance cliff
Explore why new Staff+ leaders often feel lost and how to rebuild confidence, clarity, and impact after the transition.
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“Us vs. Them” thinking
Why us vs. them thinking arises, how to spot it, and how – and why – to bridge the divide.
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Scaling AI for high-stakes, real-time payments
What does it take to run real-time AI in Stripe’s core payment flow? This is the story of scaling ML in a latency-critical system used by billions and built by multiple engineering orgs.
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From classroom to commit: How a one-year, industry-co-designed fellowship equips engineers to ship in the AI era
From classroom to commit: How a one-year, industry-co-designed fellowship equips engineers to ship in the AI era and the simple onboarding patterns partner teams use to turn early talent into durable performers.
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Coherent impact: The art of strategy
Explore how to turn short-term chaos into long-term impact through practical strategies for resilient, grounded engineering leadership.
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Scaling systems, scaling influence: Lessons from distributed architecture
Scaling systems and scaling influence share the same principles. Learn how distributed systems thinking can help you become a more effective technical leader at scale.
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In partnership with FastlyThe silent infrastructure crisis: AI bots and the future of web performance
A technical deep dive into AI bot traffic’s infrastructure, security, and performance impacts, backed by Fastly’s large-scale 2025 analysis.
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Anti-Misalignment: Nobody knows what “alignment” is
Most “alignment” efforts just react to misalignment. This talk reframes alignment as group flow, explores why misalignment is so viscerally felt, and shares practical tools to move from reactive coordination to proactive clarity and autonomy.
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You can big bang!
Explore when rewriting code from scratch actually works and how to plan a successful, high-impact system redesign.
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Leading a team through 0-1 product development
In this talk, we will discuss tips for leading an engineering team through developing a new product fast, especially when there are a lot of unknowns.
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In partnership with AntithesisBuild bravely: Delivering risky projects
Learn how clear specifications and property-based testing help engineers take bolder roadmap risks, ship faster, and collaborate safely with LLMs.