Quoted in the Press

Are you fairly paying and promoting members of minoritized groups in your organization? Find frameworks and strategies to do so in this edition of Increment Magazine.

Demystifying Public Speaking

Don’t think public speaking is for you? It is—whether you’re bracing for a conference talk or a team meeting.

Demystifying Public Speaking helps you identify your fears and effectively face them, so you can make your way to the stage (big or small). Get clear, practical advice through every step, from choosing a topic and creating a presentation, to gathering and distilling feedback, to event-day prep. You’ll feel confident and equipped to step into the spotlight.

Foreword for JavaScript for Web Designers

I was blown away by Mat Marquis’ JavaScript for Web Designers, and honored when he asked me to write the foreword. If staring down JavaScript leaves you unsteady, take heart. Mat Marquis is at your side, offering a detailed yet approachable tour around this essential language. Make your way through plenty of practical examples, as you pick up syntax rules, the fundamentals of scripting, and how to handle data types and loops. You’ll emerge clear-eyed and confident—and ready to get to work.

Helping VIPs Care About Performance (24 Ways)

“What metric(s) do your VIPs care about?” This question is often met with blank stares and raised eyebrows. But it’s also our biggest clue to what we need to do to help empower others to care about performance and work on it. Every organization and executive is different. This means that three major things vary: the primary metrics VIPs care about; the language they use about measuring success; and how change is enacted. By clueing in to these nuances within your organization, you can get a huge leg up on crafting a successful pitch about performance work.

Building a Device Lab, the book

At Etsy, Destiny Montague and I built a device lab with 30+ devices and iterated upon the lab as we learned more about how developers and designers use it. Building upon our workshop, Destiny Montague and I wrote this book to help others build out their labs as a product for their coworkers.

Performance: Showing Versus Telling (A List Apart)

Take your message to the next level. Help those around you feel the impact that performance has on your overall user experience. Showing is so much more compelling than telling; showcasing the real user experience is much more powerful than staring at numbers or bar charts. So how can we show performance? Use videos of your site loading, and wall monitors! This article shows you how.

The Pastry Box Project

I contributed a monthly article to The Pastry Box Project. My posts:

Foreword for Brave New Girls

Brave New Girls is a collection of young adult sci-fi tales featuring tech-savvy heroines, from starship mechanics to hackers to electrical engineers and beyond. All proceeds will be donated quarterly to a scholarship fund for girls through the Society of Women Engineers. I was fortunate enough to be invited to write a foreword for the book.

Designing for Performance

I’m the author of Designing for Performance. This practical introduction to performance from a designer and front-end developer perspective has been featured in Netmag’s “Need list” and reviewed on CSS-Tricks. It covers:

The basics of page speed: requests and how browsers render content, and how it impacts your site, brand, and users
Optimizing images, HTML, CSS, and fonts for performance
Implementing responsive web design with an eye on performance
Tactics for weighing aesthetic choices and their performance impact
Tools for measuring and iterating on performance
Methods for shaping an organization’s performance culture

The book is available for purchase from O'Reilly in both ebook and print version. I'm donating all of the proceeds from the book to various charities focused on supporting underrepresented people in tech. You can also read the book online for free.

Calendar Hacks (Code as Craft)

As an engineering manager, there’s one major realization you have: managers go to lots of meetings. After chatting with a bunch of fellow engineering managers at Etsy, I realized that people have awesome hacks for managing their calendars and time. I wrote up the best ones from a recent poll of Etsy engineering managers.

Front End Performance series (O'Reilly Programming Blog)

In this series of posts, I focus on the basics for optimizing the number and size of requests it takes to load your site quickly. As you build out sites, sometimes you’ll make choices that favor page load time, other times you’ll make choices that favor aesthetics. The key is to always be thinking in terms of user experience–including performance–and what will have the biggest impact for your site. The first two articles were also cross-posted on Forbes Technology (1, 2).

Etsy's Device Lab (Code as Craft)

I share how we built Etsy’s mobile device testing lab, complete with communication techniques, challenges like power supply, what we learned about how to make it intuitive for developers and designers to use, and pictures!

Improving UX Through Front-End Performance (A List Apart)

In this front-end performance 101, I walk through designing and coding for performance, focusing on optimizing requests and how to measure the results.

Complex `table` responsive design

I used nth-of-type:before and colspan*=x in media queries to creatively display table headers and context on smaller screen sizes in this responsive web design technique.

Improve UX By Tracking Errors (Smashing Magazine)

Tracking and optimizing error messages will help you measurably improve your website’s UX. I detail implementation, data gathering and analysis to help you figure out how to improve your error message drop rates. This article was also included in the book UX Practical Techniques. See the article within the book here.

A Primer on A/B Testing (A List Apart)

Data is an invaluable tool for web designers who are making decisions about the user experience. A/B tests, or split tests, are one of the easiest ways to measure the effect of different design, content, or functionality. A/B tests allow you to create high-performing user experience elements that you can implement across your site. This article details techniques and examples to help get you started.

Interviews

The M Dash - It’s Time to Rethink Your 1:1 Meetings

The M Dash interviewed me for tips to make your weekly 1:1 the most impactful meeting of your week.

Huffington Post: How To Pick The Perfect 'Fun Fact' For Icebreaker Questions

If you’ve ever panicked when it’s your turn to share a “fun fact about yourself” at work, you’re not alone. I and five other career experts revealed a different strategy for picking what to reveal in getting-to-know-you exercises, and how to design a reduced-stress icebreaker experience.

Intercom podcast

We covered a range of topics including planning your one-on-ones, navigating team friction, giving successful feedback, and building your network of support.

PM for the Masses

We started with a brief conversation about coaching and how it’s different than mentoring, then launched into a real coaching session!

Huffington Post: Is It OK To Tell Your Boss That You're Unhappy At Work?

There are four questions you should ask yourself to determine whether a conversation with your manager could help change how you are feeling:

What’s the No. 1 thing you need right now, such as rest, support or clarity?
If you could wave a magic wand and change one thing about your work, what would it be?
What’s the No. 1 thing your manager cares or worries about, such as attrition or deadlines?
Where’s the overlap between what your manager cares about and what you need?

The Digital Workplace podcast

We talked about what it’s like to be managers in the “digital age,” particularly when it comes to facilitating digital meetings. We also talked a bit about humans’ core needs at work and how to switch between mentoring, coaching, and sponsoring your teammates.

For the Love of Work podcast

Anyone can create meaningful change at work, even you. Yes, you! You don’t need positional authority to practice leadership. The secret is learning how to wield influence. Spot the difference between authority and power, and learn how to use your new skill set for good, regardless of your job title.

From creator to coach: Founders share lessons from the transition to CEO

While there’s no one right way to navigate the transition to CEO, there are lessons to be learned from other founders who have made the shift successfully.

The Changelog: Leading leaders who lead engineers

The majority of our conversation focuses on the four primary hats leaders and managers end up wearing; mentoring, coaching, sponsoring, and delivering feedback. We also talk about knowing when you’re ready to lead, empathy and compassion, and learning to lead.

Coding Sans podcast on performance reviews

We talked through building feedback delivery skills from the ground up, the step-by-step process of writing and delivering performance reviews, preparation tips, mistakes you might make, and more.

Distributed: the secret to being a successful manager

Are companies setting up their managers for success? What are BICEPS? How do you assemble your colleagues like a management Voltron? I talked with Matt Mullenweg, CEO of Automattic, on his podcast.

Productivity & Engineering Podcast by Veamly

Whether you are a seasoned engineering manager or a software engineer considering the option way down the road, there are certain aspects of management that make the job tough especially with what’s going on with the world right now. Veamly’s CEO Emna Ghariani sat down with me to discuss the essence of building resilient teams that rise in times of crisis.

Scaling Software Teams Podcast

A resilient manager is the foundation of every successful team. How do you become a more resilient manager? In this episode, I provided Wes with some 1:1 coaching on his management style and uses the BICEPS framework to help him better understand resistance patterns he may see in his daily work.

Programming Leadership: Rise of the Resilient Manager

Are you a resilient manager? Do you want to become one? In this episode of Programming Leadership, Marcus and I discuss what it means to be a resilient manager. We discuss some effective management skills and thought processes, and introduced Marcus to the idea of the manager Voltron.

Huffington Post: The 4 Biggest Mistakes First-Time Managers Make (And How To Avoid Them)

“Generally, when we become a manager, we are just trying to do our best, and the shortcut to doing our best is, ‘Well, what would I want in this situation? What would I need?’ It’s very natural to leap from that to assuming that everybody else is going to want or need the same needs that you do.” But it turns out: that doesn’t work!

Humans+Tech Podcast

In this episode of the Humans + Tech podcast, we cover how to get feedback from your team, dealing with times of crisis, a gross metaphor for growth, and so much more.

CodeNewbie: How to be a good manager and a good employee

You can be an amazing developer, but a terrible manager. We discuss why becoming a manager isn’t necessarily a promotion, and some of the most important skills people need to not only be good managers, but in any supporting role.

Presentable podcast

We discuss the qualities that help teams thrive and how you can contribute whether you’re a leader … or aspire to be.

Track Changes podcast

Focus on Core Needs: I joined Paul and guest host Gina Trapani to chat about my new book and about leadership in the workplace. I walked through a framework for managing different types of people and gave tips on how to adapt your management style. I also gave Paul some useful advice on where he should sit in the office and explained why moving desks can be so traumatic.

Strong Feelings podcast

Did your first management gig come with a small pay bump and zero training? Ours too! But being good at doing a job doesn’t mean you’ll automatically be good at managing people doing it. We cover: why there’s more to managing than just mentoring, why moving desks in your office seems like a pretty small thing but is actually often a Big Deal in the workplace, and why it’s a must to get to know people who aren’t just like you in the workplace and find ways to sponsor them in their areas of interest.

Build by Femgineer

Just when you thought you had a handle on your job… it’s time to lead a team! Time to be responsible for others. Their career growth, emotional well-being at work, and job satisfaction. We cover a ton of ground in this video!

Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots

We discuss finding my ideal job coaching and mentoring, evaluating for management alignment, what makes for a strong manager, the value of role-play for difficult conversations, constructive feedback, and my upcoming book, Resilient Management.

Frontier Podcast

We talk about the surprising human emotions that crop up at work, how to navigate them as a manager, and how to know to create your own Manager Voltron.

Software Engineering Radio

Travis Kimmel talks with Lara Hogan and Deepa Subramaniam about evidence-based tactics that leaders can use to increase clarity and build healthier, high-performing organizations. Their conversation covers: diagnosing and treating problems that are slowing product, design, and engineering teams; “organization smells”; clarifying roles and responsibilities; improving documentation; facilitating better meetings; improving inter and intra-team dynamics. Audio

Open Questions: Lara Hogan (NYT Open)

Nick Rockwell (CTO of the New York Times) interviewed me about my work in technology, managing technologists and “roaming the wilds” as a consultant.

6 lessons from Lara Hogan on humanizing management

In this interview with GitPrime, I reflect on my experience to share lessons I’ve learned about honing the craft of management including delivering feedback, developing a new internal barometer of success, optimizing for long-term relationships, and more.

Indiedotes Podcast

I shared how I found my publishers, finding my writing routine, how I received feedback, how I found the angle of my book and how long it took me to write it.

CodeNewbie: What makes a good speaker?

We share our personal speaking stories (and nightmares!), how we prepare our talks, and the common mistakes we see first-time speakers make.

CodeNewbie: Why is my website slow?

You’ve got an amazing website. It’s beautiful, functional, but it takes forever to load. What do you do? Where do you even begin to debug that? I break down common web performance issues, tools you can use to diagnose the problem, and how to use AB testing to measure your results, in this podcast.

Women in Tech Show

Edaena Salinas, a Software Engineer and host of The Women in Tech Show, conducts a weekly podcast featuring technical interviews with prominent women in tech. We talked about engineering teams and leadership and my book, Demystifying Public Speaking.

Non Breaking Spaces Show

Christopher Schmitt of the Non Breaking Space Show interviewed me about Demystifying Public Speaking.

WITTalks

We covered a ton of ground in this podcast, including: public speaking, book writing, “thought leadership”, ignoring trolls, and developing yourself as a manager. Audio and transcript

Track Changes

Paul Ford and Rich Ziade talked to me about my most recent book, Demystifying Public Speaking, which aims to help get more diverse voices onstage in the tech world. Topics covered include overcoming specific fears before getting onstage, how to process feedback, and some of my own experiences onstage, from highlights on down to one particular public-speaking horror show. We also discussed my career at Etsy and the joys and challenges of management. Audio and Transcript

Netmag Voices

I was featured in the February 2017 issue of Netmag’s “Voices Interview” (PDF). We discussed web performance, honing management spidey senses, strength training, and public speaking.

Inside Intercom podcast

We covered a range of topics including managing developers, managing with empathy, tech’s diversity problem and how to handle speaking at conferences.

Claim the Stage podcast

Claim the Stage is a podcast for creative, entrepreneurial women who want to be inspiring speakers who get paid.

Interviewed for Technical.ly Brooklyn

Failure without blame, empowering junior developers and above all, an emphasis on humans. A look at what drives Etsy’s engineering team.

TypeThursday

TypeThursday sat down with me to discuss how fonts affect a website’s performance.

Popular Mechanics

I was interviewed for the April 2016 issue of Popular Mechanics’ special section, “Technology’s Secret Weapon is Women” (PDF). The article interviewed a number of women in tech about their contributions to the industry. I’m especially honored that the magazine chose to include a photo of the first device lab that Destiny Montague and I built together.

ShopTalkShow podcast

I had a blast talking with Monika Piotrowicz, Chris Coyier, and Dave Rupert about career paths - where we started from doesn’t always equal where we’ve landed. Freelancer? Go to university or college? Find a mentor? It’s a common ShopTalk Show question and we did our best to answer from our experiences.

An Event Apart Interview

An Event Apart’s Eric Meyer caught up with me to talk about some of my favorite tips, tools, and techniques, and to find out what attendees at An Event Apart Seattle and An Event Apart Boston can look forward to.

DesignEDU Today

Design Edu Today is the podcast series discussing topics concerning the state of interactive design education at institutions of higher learning.

The Start

In this conversation we talked about my background, career in the web and how I’ve carved out a fun little space in the performance world. We even spoke a bit about donuts and cookies.

The Path to Performance

The Path to Performance is a podcast dedicated to fostering a culture around web performance in organizations. Katie and Tim talk to guests who have successfully integrated performance as part of their culture and the benefits they have seen. I talk about how our team at Etsy works to help performance stay top of mind throughout the product development process, and how we celebrate performance wins. Audio and Transcript

Netmag Exchange

Net Magazine’s “Exchange” section includes practical advice from industry experts. I was invited to answer questions about performance in their April 2015 edition (pdf).

The Dirt

This super-deep interview from the kind folks at Fresh Tilled Soil focused on many aspects of performance, from inlining CSS to its impact on experience design to the kind of bird that’s on the cover of Designing for Performance. Audio

The Ticking Clock - An Etsy Engineering Manager Describes Tech Culture

The American Association of University Women (AAUW) interviewed me about my experiences as a woman in technology. I shared some stories of sexism in addition to what it’s like working for a tech company that is focused on diversity issues.

Code: Debugging the Gender Gap

CODE documentary exposes the dearth of American female and minority software engineers and explores the reasons for this gender gap. CODE raises the question: what would society gain from having more women and minorities code? View the trailer

Popforms

Popforms Leader Of The Week is a feature on their blog where they highlight an outstanding leader and share their insights on leadership, career, and being awesome at your job. I wrote about taking the high road, having an awkward career trajectory, and what I look for in a great hire.

How to Hold a Pencil

How to Hold a Pencil is an interview show with self-taught designers and developers. Its purpose is to inspire and empower individuals who are already learning to make things and to help others get off the sidelines.

Velocity NY, O'Reilly video

From the 2014 Velocity Conference in New York City, an interview with me on why device labs are necessary, the role of software emulators, and how to get people on board with web optimization.

The Setup (Uses This)

The Setup is a collection of nerdy interviews asking people from all walks of life what they use to get the job done. I cover what software and hardware I use daily for work, home, and writing the book.

Hanselminutes

I sat down with Scott Hanselman to explain how to design for page load time, including optimizations to images, fonts, markup, and more. How important is having a culture of performance and executive buy-in? Is a two-second page load time reasonable? How important is A/B testing? Audio

Fluent, O'Reilly video

Performance and… design? Ops and design don’t typically go hand in hand, but they’re more closely related than you may think. “There’s so much that we can do to start thinking about performance from the beginning… there’s a lot that you can actually do to make sure performance is paramount.”

ShopTalkShow podcast

I had a blast talking with Chris Coyier and Dave Rupert on their podcast about front end web design, development and UX. We chatted about performance, conferences and good skill sets front end devs should have to get hired.

Talks

Nov 2024: "Mentorship + Sponsorship" talk at Lead Dev London tickets
Jun 2024: "Mentorship + Sponsorship" talk at Lead Dev London
Aug 2021: "Mentorship + Sponsorship" talk at Refactr
May 2020: "Create Resilience" Fireside Chat at Microsoft for Startups video
Apr 2020: "Leading teams through times of uncertainty and upheaval" panel at The Lead Dev
Apr 2020: "Managing in Uncertainty" Fireside Chat and Q&A at Engineering Leadership Utah Meetup
Nov 2019: "Demystifying Management" workshop at The Lead Dev Austin
Sep 2019: "What humans need at work" keynote at Calibrate Conference video
Sep 2019: "Demystifying Management" workshop at Calibrate Conference in SF
Sep 2019: "Demystifying Management" workshop at NYC
Aug 2019: "Feminist Leadership: Redefining what it looks like to lead and manage" fireside chat at Collective Strength
Jul 2019: "Mentoring, Coaching, and Sponsoring" workshop at 11:11 Supply
Jun 2019: "Navigating Team Friction" talk at Webstock video
Jun 2019: "Demystifying Management" workshop at Webstock
Jun 2019: "Navigating Team Friction" talk at Lead Dev London video
Jun 2019: "Demystifying Management" workshop at Lead Dev London
May 2019: "Demystifying Management" workshop at NYC
May 2019: "Navigating Team Friction" talk at Code Climate Summit
May 2019: "Giving and Receiving Feedback" workshop at 11:11 Supply
Apr 2019: "Demystifying Management" workshop at The Lead Dev NY
Dec 2018: "Navigating Team Friction" keynote at The Lead Dev Austin slides video
Dec 2018: "Demystifying Management" workshop at The Lead Dev Austin
Aug 2018: "Mentorship + Sponsorship" talk at Refactor Auckland slides
Aug 2018: "Dealing with surprising human emotions" workshop at Write/Speak/Code Conference slides
Aug 2018: "Publisher Panel" talk at Write/Speak/Code Conference
Jul 2018: "Navigating Team Friction" talk at An Event Apart (DC) slides
Apr 2018: "Demystifying Management" workshop at The Lead Dev NY
Apr 2018: "Revitalizing a cross-functional product organization" joint keynote at The Lead Dev NY slides video
Apr 2018: "Facilitating Awesome Meetings" talk at Meetup slides
Apr 2018: "Navigating Team Friction" talk at An Event Apart (Seattle) slides
Feb 2018: "Mentorship + Sponsorship" talk at Design Driven slides video
Feb 2018: "Building Vibrant Product Organizations" fireside chat at Skillshare
Dec 2017: "Mentorship + Sponsorship" talk at New York Nasdaq CTO Summit slides
Dec 2017: "Mentorship + Sponsorship" talk at Engineering Leadership Bootcamp slides
Nov 2017: "Mentorship + Sponsorship" talk at BrooklynJS slides
Oct 2017: "Be a mentor, find a sponsor" keynote at Association of Women Surgeons Conference
Oct 2017: "Mentorship + Sponsorship" keynote at Velocity Conference slides video
Sep 2017: "Casper" Q&A for the Engineering and Product teams at Casper
Aug 2017: "Demystifying Public Speaking" talk at Write/Speak/Code Conference slides
Aug 2017: "Writing for Developers" panel at Write/Speak/Code Conference
Jun 2017: "Last Lecture" talk at Etsy
Jun 2017: "Leading by Speaking" talk at The Lead Dev UK
May 2017: "Demystifying Public Speaking" talk at Github Campus Experts slides
Apr 2017: "Demystifying Public Speaking" talk at Meetup slides
Apr 2017: "Demystifying Public Speaking" talk at Ladies that UX Durham slides
Mar 2017: "Demystifying Public Speaking" talk at Vox's "Stackalacka" Full-stack Meetup slides
Mar 2017: "Ela Conf Slack AMA" talk at Ela Conf
Mar 2017: "Demystifying Public Speaking" talk at Google's International Women's Day Event slides
Feb 2017: "Leading by Speaking" talk at The Lead Dev NY slides video
Feb 2017: "Empathy and Web Performance" talk at Webstock slides video
Feb 2017: "Demystifying Public Speaking" talk at Mozilla Tech Speakers transcript video
Feb 2017: "One weird trick to get better at public speaking" talk at Queens JS slides
Jan 2017: "Demystifying Public Speaking" talk at Warby Parker slides
Jan 2017: "Lara Hogan Demystifies Public Speaking" talk at Postlight Meetup
Dec 2016: "Demystifying Public Speaking" talk at Code as Craft slides video
Nov 2016: "Optimizing images and type on the Web" talk at Velocity Amsterdam
Oct 2016: "Demystifying Public Speaking" talk at Write/Speak/Code NYC slides
Oct 2016: "Designing for Performance" talk at An Event Apart (Orlando) slides video
Jul 2016: "Designing for Performance" talk at An Event Apart (DC) slides
May 2016: "Designing for Performance" talk at An Event Apart (Boston) slides
Apr 2016: "Designing for Performance" talk at An Event Apart (Seattle) slides
Feb 2016: "Girl Scouts" Q&A at Girl Scouts of Greater New York
Jan 2016: "Designing for Performance" talk at Hillary Clinton's campaign office slides
Nov 2015: "Designing for Performance" talk at An Event Apart (San Francisco) slides
Oct 2015: "Optimizing images and type on the Web" talk at Velocity NY video
Oct 2015: "Designing for Performance" talk at An Event Apart (Austin) slides
Aug 2015: "Designing for Performance" talk at Rent the Runway slides
Jul 2015: "Designing for Performance" talk at Atavist slides
May 2015: "Designing for Performance" talk at The New York Times slides
Apr 2015: "Designing for Performance" talk at Generate Conference slides video
Mar 2015: "Image formats: the nerdy parts" talk at Etsy slides
Feb 2015: "Creating a culture of performance" talk at USV Engineering Leadership Summit
Feb 2015: "Designing for Performance: Can We Have it All?" talk at A List Apart On Air transcript video
Jan 2015: "Product + Performance" talk at Etsy slides
Dec 2014: "Designing for Performance" talk at IDEO slides
Nov 2014: "Building a Device Lab" tutorial at Velocity Barcelona slides
Nov 2014: "Girl Develop It" Q&A at Girl Develop It Leadership Summit
Sep 2014: "Women in Operations" panel moderator at Velocity NY video
Sep 2014: "Building a Device Lab" tutorial at Velocity NY slides video pt 1 video pt 2
Jul 2014: "Mobile Web at Etsy" talk at Breaking Development slides
Jul 2014: "Designing for Performance" talk at Women Who Code NYC slides video
Jun 2014: "Mobile web is not (just) a technical challenge" keynote at Velocity Santa Clara slides video
Jun 2014: "Performance Culture" talk at Google I/O video
Jun 2014: "Building a Device Lab" tutorial at Velocity Santa Clara slides
Jun 2014: "Mobile Performance" panel at Velocity Santa Clara video pt 1 video pt 2
Apr 2014: "Mobile Web at Etsy" talk at IndustryConf slides video
Mar 2014: "Designing for Performance" talk at Fluent slides video
Feb 2014: "Designing for Performance" talk at NY Web Performance Meetup slides video
Oct 2012: "Webperfdays" Web performance case study at WebPerfDays London video
Sep 2012: "A/B Testing for Happy Users" talk at edUI video
Jul 2012: "Improving UX through Front End Performance" keynote at CapitalCamp DC video