Iteration or Target State Planning
This episode explores the dichotomy between iterative planning and target state planning in software development, discussing the benefits and drawbacks of each approach and providing decision factors to help you choose the most appropriate method for your situation.Understand the core difference between iterative planning, which emphasises agility and responding to change with short planning horizons, and target state planning, which involves laying out a more defined long-term direction.Discover that while iterative planning is often considered the "right way" for software development, target state planning can be valuable for setting a general direction, which can be updated as you learn.Learn why addressing problems atomically in an iterative fashion can be valid, but that evaluating multiple potential improvements together with a target state in mind can lead to better coordination, efficiency, and consistency.Explore the decision factors that might lead you to favour iterative planning, such as high uncertainty, learning-focused work (discovery, prototypes), and fast feedback loops.Understand the decision factors that might lead you to favour target state planning, such as clarity on the problem, working in production with high coupling, regulatory/safety risks, slow feedback loops, high cost of mistakes, broad scope of impact, and high coordination costs.Learn why choosing a planning method by default is a warning sign, and that considering the usefulness of upfront planning without being limited by dogma is important.Understand that upfront planning (target state) can enable adaptation as you learn, and that negative perceptions of it often stem from costly, incorrect plans that were difficult to change.Discover that the choice between iterative and target state planning is a spectrum rather than a pure dichotomy, and that a target state doesn't necessarily need to be a long-term plan.🙏 Today's Episode is Brought To you by: Wix Studio Devs, if you think website builders mean limited control—think again. With Wix Studio’s developer-first ecosystem you can spend less time on tedious tasks and more on the functionalities that matters most:● Develop online in a VS Code-based IDE or locally via GitHub. ● Extend and replace a suite of powerful business solutions ● And ship faster with Wix Studio’s AI code assistant All of that, wrapped up in auto-maintained infrastructure for total peace of mind. Work in a developer-first ecosystem. Go to wixstudio.com📮 Ask a QuestionIf you enjoyed this episode and would like me to discuss a question that you have on the show, drop it over at: developertea.com.📮 Join the DiscordIf you want to be a part of a supportive community of engineers (non-engineers welcome!) working to improve their lives and careers, join us on the Developer Tea Discord community by visiting https://developertea.com/discord today!🧡 Leave a ReviewIf you're enjoying the show and want to support the content head over to iTunes and leave a review! It helps other developers discover the show and keep us focused on what matters to you.
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Listener Question - Abdul Asks About How to Balance Career Strategy Between Money, Meaning, and Skill Transitions
Today, we are tackling the natural tension between the desire to make more money—getting a raise, finding financial stability—and the desire to have meaningful, purpose-driven work.
Published: 2/24/2026
Length: ~35m↓ Download this Episode
AI-Era Employability and Job Security for Software Engineers - Mental Models for Finding a Competitive Advantage Without Selling Out
I've been delaying this episode for a long time because the topic is genuinely difficult and, for many of us, scary. AI is threatening not just to our livelihood, but to our sense of self-worth as creators.
In this episode, I don't offer false guarantees about job security. Instead, I frame the problem through the lens of microeconomics and rational incentives to help you understand how to remain employable. We discuss why you must separate your ego from your current skill set and how to position yourself not as a competitor to AI, but as a force multiplier.
Published: 2/18/2026
Length: ~41m↓ Download this Episode
Why Getting Paid Stole Your Drive and How to Get Into the Flow Again (Career Growth Accelerator)
Do you remember the early days of your career? You likely spent hours coding late into the night, fueled not by a paycheck, but by the sheer joy of building. But somewhere along the way, that intrinsic fire faded, replaced by the extrinsic motivators of Jira tickets, performance reviews, and salary negotiations.
Published: 2/11/2026
Length: ~22m↓ Download this Episode
The Meta-Habit of High Performers: How Outer Loops Unlock Growth (Career Growth Accelerator)
In today's episode, we are discussing one of the most common habits I see in high-performing managers and senior engineers. It isn't a single trick, a morning routine, or a specific productivity hack—it is a meta-habit. It is a specific way of thinking about how you spend your energy and time to avoid the burnout that comes from working hard without seeing commensurate gains,.
Published: 2/3/2026
Length: ~26m↓ Download this Episode
Career Growth Accelerator - Promotion Roadblocks and Knocking it Out of the Park During Performance Review Season
It is review season, and you might be finding yourself confused: you received high ratings and "exceeded expectations," yet the promotion you expected didn't happen. In this episode of the Career Growth Accelerator, I break down exactly why high performance doesn't always lead to promotion, helping you identify the structural roadblocks and strategic shifts necessary to move from senior individual contributor to staff, principal, or leadership roles,.
Published: 1/28/2026
Length: ~32m↓ Download this Episode
Career Growth Roadmap - De-risking Your Career By Understanding Your VulnerabilitiesPublished: 1/20/2026
Length: ~15m↓ Download this Episode
Career Growth Accelerator - Assessing Yourself - Using a Nine-Block to Map Your Skill, Potential, and Energy Investment
Evaluating what you are uniquely good at is more than just making a list of your current skills; it requires looking at your past, your future potential, and what actually energises you. In this episode, I introduce a practical tool called the Nine-block to help you map out your skills across performance and potential, while adding critical dimensions of energy and risk to help you break through career stagnation.
Published: 1/13/2026
Length: ~29m↓ Download this Episode
Career Growth Accelerator: Going from Autopilot to Purpose
This episode marks the 11th anniversary of the show, and I want to celebrate by continuing our Career Growth Accelerator series. Today, we’re moving beyond the "autopilot" mode that many engineers find themselves in and learning how to define goals that are uniquely yours so you can find the specific challenges that will actually move the needle.
Published: 1/5/2026
Length: ~29m↓ Download this Episode
Announcing - Career Growth Accelerator, Episode Zero - Getting Out of Your Own Way
This episode kicks off the Career Growth Accelerator series, focused on the specific hurdles faced by mid-to-senior level engineers, managers, and leaders who are looking to move to the next level. Before diving into specific strategies, I’m addressing the fundamental prerequisite for real growth: getting out of your own way. We often block our own progress because our ego conflates our self-worth with our career position, making it impossible to see the real problems or lessons we need to learn. In this episode, I share a vital mental exercise to help you disconnect your identity from your job title and begin diagnosing your career challenges honestly.
Published: 12/18/2025
Length: ~21m↓ Download this Episode
Announcing: The Career Growth Accelerator Series
Are you a mid-to-senior level engineer or leader who has hit a career roadblock or found yourself stagnated? I'm launching the new Career Growth Accelerator series, focused on the difficult, non-obvious hurdles that prevent you from moving to the next level.
In this foundational Episode Zero, I cover the critical prerequisite for growth: Getting Out of Your Own Way. Our ego often protects our self-worth by blaming external factors for failures, making honest diagnosis impossible,.
• Learn why protecting your ego is the most dangerous way to control your career.
• Discover the fundamental shift: disconnecting your self-worth from your career aspirations to gain clarity.
• I introduce a distancing thought experiment to help you diagnose the real problems blocking your path.
• Start focusing on the diagnostic aspect—What happened and why?—to build real momentum.
Subscribe now so you don't miss out on this series!
Published: 12/16/2025
Length: ~3m↓ Download this Episode
Problem Definition As A Path for Career Growth
When you hit a career roadblock, the methods that worked for you before often stop working. Today, I’m diving into why that happens, and why the first and most critical step in progressing past stagnation isn't doubling down on skills, but clearly defining the problem standing in your way.
Published: 12/11/2025
Length: ~15m↓ Download this Episode
You Know The Hard Thing You Need to Do Next - Here's Why It's Worth Doing Now
We often look for ways to reduce the load on our brains, seeking shortcuts and optimizations to get ahead. Sometimes this works, reinforcing the belief that we can hack our way around every problem. However, this episode addresses the truth that many fundamental aspects of your career require something difficult, messy, slow, or inefficient, demanding deep thought and repeated failure.
Published: 12/2/2025
Length: ~13m↓ Download this Episode
Career Fundamentals - Avoid Career Traps by Focusing on Primary Paths of Improvement
If you're looking to accelerate your career growth, this episode gives you what may feel like hard truths about the path forward. So many engineers fall into traps of overthinking, chasing minor optimizations (like 5% or 10% productivity boosts), or playing the games of politics and networking. While these sideline activities aren't necessarily useless, I want to help you focus on the "big engines" and "primary considerations"—the things that will make the monumental difference in your career building strategy.
Published: 11/25/2025
Length: ~16m↓ Download this Episode
Getting to Senior - Taking Ownership Without Leading Projects
If you're an engineer looking to move into a senior role, you have likely heard that you need to demonstrate "ownership". Unfortunately, this crucial term is often poorly defined and leads to a major misconception: that ownership means being assigned a full project or a Tech Lead role. I want to dispel that myth and explain why ownership is actually a necessary behavior and mindset shift, applicable in almost every action you take, regardless of whether you’re leading a project.
Published: 11/18/2025
Length: ~16m↓ Download this Episode
Part Two - Bryan McCann, CTO of You.com, on AI, Engineering, Art, and Everything In Between
Hey everyone, welcome to today's episode of Developer Tea. This is the second part of my interview with Bryan McCann, the CTO at you.com. If you haven't listened to Part One, I'd encourage you to go back, as it provides crucial context for our continued discussion. In this episode, we dive into how you can think about relating to and integrating the massive changes that AI is bringing to your job, whether you are a software engineer, manager, director, or product professional. Bryan and I discuss his interests beyond research, including art and organizational design.
Published: 11/11/2025
Length: ~36m↓ Download this Episode
Part One - Bryan McCann, CTO of You.com, on AI, Engineering, Art, and Everything In Between
Hey everyone and welcome to today's episode of Developer Tea. It's been quite a while since I've had a guest on the show. Today, I'm joined by Bryan McCann, CTO at you.com. We dive into a wide-ranging discussion, exploring the philosophical origins of his career—from studying meaning and language to working in very early AI research. This discussion is less advice-heavy and more focused on kind of theory and discussion. I hope this is insightful for you and helpful as you crystallize your own philosophies on these subjects.
Published: 11/4/2025
Length: ~35m↓ Download this Episode
Going to War with Burnout - Less Hours Isn't Your Only Option
I'm tackling a massive challenge today: burnout. While the standard advice usually involves working less, I want to show you a practical dimension of burnout you have more control over, focusing on increasing your agency and autonomy to manage chronic workplace stress more effectively. Burnout is classified by the ICD-11 as a syndrome resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.
Published: 10/27/2025
Length: ~18m↓ Download this Episode
The Good and Bad of Choosing Measurements - Traps and Opportunities of Measuring What Matters
In this episode, I dive into the management mantra that "what is measured is managed" and explain why this simple assertion often leads to a complex trap. We discuss why the act of measuring team productivity is never neutral—it's an intervention that immediately changes behavior, often resulting in unintended consequences like gaming the metrics. We'll explore how to collaborate with your team to find measurements that truly drive desired behaviors.
Published: 10/17/2025
Length: ~15m↓ Download this Episode
Engage in Deliberate Practice to Level Up Your Engineering Leadership Skills
I want to dive into the concept of Deliberate Practice, which sets the greatest apart in fields ranging from sports to writing to engineering. I’ll explain why it’s much more than just repetition or experience, and why applying it to your career can lead to rapid improvement. Most importantly, I will provide concrete ways you can apply deliberate practice to level up your engineering and leadership skills, especially in areas that are traditionally difficult to practice, such as communication and strategic decision-making.
Published: 10/7/2025
Length: ~18m↓ Download this Episode
Shift Your Locus of Control to Take Charge of Your Engineering Career
This episode explores the concept of Locus of Control and why developing a more internal locus of control is beneficial for your career and life. You'll learn the difference between internal and external perspectives, why one is more useful than the other, and practical exercises to shift your mindset to believe you have more influence over the outcomes you care about.
Published: 10/2/2025
Length: ~21m↓ Download this Episode
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