Erica Smith

CTO, StarRez

Guest speaker

Technical work in the product roadmap

Technical initiatives can be tricky beasts. Everyone agrees that the tech is important, but trying to compare a major technical initiative to a new user feature in a roadmap discussion can feel like comparing apples and sports cars. Then, even after you’ve found the time in your plan to start that work, the project is constantly questioned and challenged by stakeholders who are frustrated by its opacity, struggling to see progress towards the company’s goals.

This talk will explain why these issues happen so often, and provide several lenses to help identify and name the business value of technical work, using terms and metrics that make it easy to fit into your company’s road map. It will also include some effective strategies to keep stakeholders engaged in your technical project throughout its entire life cycle.

About Erica Smith

Erica Smith is the Chief Technology Officer at StarRez, a Melbourne-based software company that is currently mid-way through its transition from on-premises software company to cloud based SaaS provider. In this role, Erica is guiding both an architectural shift towards distributed cloud-first systems, as well as a cultural shift towards self-directed software delivery teams.

Over her IT career, Erica has worked in a broad range of fields, including health care, real estate, non-profit, e-commerce, and now higher education housing. Erica is a strong believer in the power of motivated individuals and self-organising teams to achieve extraordinary things, and is passionate about building environments where people can reliably and safely deliver their best work every day.

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