Eddie Jaoude

This one's for all you fans of my 'I rustled up this blog post at lunchtime' genre of blog posts - making school term dates easier for users, and ultimately easier for ourselves - https://lnkd.in/eRn9EQ4q #UCD #UserCentredDesign #ContentDesign #UserExperience #Schools #LocalGovDigital #LocalGov

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🌟 This Week's Diary of a CTO! 🌟   Interestingly, since changing my role title to CTO, I've been invited to more events, roundtables, and debating sessions, further feeding my imposter syndrome. Do I really have something useful to say in a room full of more technical people who have worked their way up to CTO? (Hopefully, only time will tell!).   I recently joined a gathering of CTOs and CEOs that looked a bit like Oakland - small and mid-sized consultancies serving the enterprise market. The hot topic? AI....obvs! Initially dubbed the shiny solution in search of a problem, it seems the hype has simmered down, and things are starting to settle, with a market analyst in the room observing that attention is moving away from tactical proof points to more considered strategic adoption of AI, echoing Gartner's recent sentiments.   But here's where I differ. As a CTO, I feel obligated to steer our clients toward understanding AI's true potential and targeting the right challenges. Sure, AI sparks excitement. Can it alter human history? Perhaps. Will it deliver substantial ROI? The verdict's still out. But here's the crux: regardless of the tech, the key lies in pinpointing the right problem.   I believe the goldmine lies within the vast amounts of unstructured data yet to be explored and exploited. Tools like LLMs can enable businesses to elicit insights better. And the growing AI Agent frameworks are a great next step in this space (more on that in future posts!). But this still needs to be fed back into a process to drive a different outcome and ultimately result in a benefit. And you need to know that the process (patient) can adopt the AI (implant). This is the hard bit!    While news of slowing interest rates is a relief, business leaders' pressure to justify IT spending has never been more intense. The stakes are high—miscalculating AI deployment could prove astronomically costly.   So, the next time you're hit with "Why aren't we using AI?" or "AI can handle that, right?" think about: 1 - Do I understand the problem we think it can solve, and is there a benefit if we resolve it? 2 - Can the process we'd implement survive the adoption/inclusion of AI?  3 - If we solve the problem and quantify the benefit, can we communicate that to leaders in a way they'll understand (this is an entirely different post altogether!) It all boils down to clarity—a notion I recently discussed with Greg Freeman in our latest video. Stay tuned for more insights! 😉 #CTO #AI #TechLeadership #DataInsights #EverythingData

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⏰ 1 week until this month's webinar on Asking Better User Interview Questions. We just crossed 100 registrations 🚀 I plan to go deep in the webinar. It's not going to be your user interviewing 101 content. I will be going deep into the mechanics of structuring, designing and running user interviews to maximise their impact. Whilst user interviewing is something primarily lead by Product Design, User Researchers and Product Management, it's something the whole team should be involved in! So whether you're an engineer, designer, product manager, delivery manager, agile coach, etc - it's worth coming and learning more about this skill! Register here and I will see you there! 👉 https://lnkd.in/gYcquKXe

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THE TIMES - IR35: Taxman should stop dragging freelancers through court [Paywall] Where small businesses are involved, including individual contractors, the argument is, given the complexity of IR35, that if the individual wins at the first-tier tax tribunal, that should be the end of it. But, as we have seen, HMRC are pursuing every IR35 case to the (company)death, using unlimited access to the public purse, so they can win at all costs. Of the last seven IR35 cases won by taxpayers, HMRC has appealed 6 of them. HMRC are always using barristers at first-tier now, against individuals trying to defend themselves. In Kaye's case, it went to four hearings, until HMRC gave up. HMRC paid for (with taxpayers money) for three barristers at the final FTT hearing. That's not fair. That's David v Goliath territory. Looks a bit post-officey. #ir35 #offpayroll

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HM Revenue & Customs STOP WASTING TAX PAYER MONEY. This HAS to stop! If the Government won't modify this utter shambles of tax legislation, to obtain the goal that was supposedly intended (greater tax revenue) the last thing they should be doing is dragging small Company Directors through a court system that only benefits barristers and solicitors Not only is it incredibly costly for small businesses and risks litigating them into insolvency, it's incredibly stressful (destroys people's mental health) AND it's an utter waste of tax payer money HMRC are simply trying to bully small businesses into submission even when HMRC fail at first tier. It's a strategy straight out of Donald Trumps' arsenal - litigate small businesses into oblivion to 'win' at all costs But HMRC aren't Trump, they're supposed to be protecting & supporting the Country & its Citizens, via unbiased & fair activities, yet they allow large international corporates like Amazon to pay Zero tax whilst spanking tax payers taxes on witch hunts that don't stand up in court. Their actions demonstrate a clear agenda: - Enable large scale tax evasion from international corporates - Bully & kill small UK business The resources are far better placed on increasing HMRC staff numbers so citizens aren't waiting 6 month for tax rebates Typical Tory bullying #IR35

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If you’re an engineering leader, this report about the current state of tech has some great insights. It’s super fascinating to see what the current common themes are.

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Just registered "voteaware.co.uk" and hoping to build an educational resource in the lead up to the 2024 UK general election, helping people learn to spot election misinformation, information about registering to vote, information about voter id, information about safe canvassing practices and laws, etc. If anyone would like to contribute anything to it, feel free to get in touch. Will likely build the site in Hugo deployed to Cloudflare Pages via Github. Feels like a good way to ensure performance and security (particularly knowing a previous election information site I helped build was a constant hacking target). Technical knowledge not required to contribute, but useful!

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I asked a few of our techtable community members why they attend our roundtable events. These are a few of the reasons they shared 👇 As a tech leader, can you relate? Do you want to also join a group of peers for monthly engaging conversations? Our next event is on 27th June from 12-1pm 📅 We'll be exploring two questions: 1️⃣ Software Ownership and Rapid Team Deployment: Adapting to Business Change 2️⃣ The Impact of “cost efficiency” in the Tech Industry DM me to secure your spot (spaces limited) You in? 😄 #techtable #poweredbyparley #roundtable

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This report is certainly useful, and made a really interesting talk. There were several elements that, for me, really highlighted a need for greater support and understanding in relation to learning. For example, ⭐ People are experiencing a huge amount of change (66% of respondents having experienced a reorg in the past 2 years.) ⭐ Many Engineering Managers have experienced an increase in the scope of their role, leading them to work longer hours and take on more responsibilities. ⭐ There is something of a herd mentality in tech, whereby everyone is "following where the puck has been", meaning people are increasingly expected to do/be many things without adequate training or support, to the detriment of genuine learning and innovation. For me, all of these things point to a need for greater investment in learning - not as a cost centre, but as a value centre. Thanks Lena Reinhard, Scott Carey and LeadDev for sharing these insights.

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BREAKING: Freelancers Manifesto for Growth Launched today, ContractorCalculator is promoting 5 policies for the parties to consider: [1] Abolish Off-payroll IR35 Reforms [2] Ban Zero-RIGHTS Employment (not banning zero hours) [3] Establish a Taxpayer Bill of Rights [4] Champion the Self-Employed [5] Regulate Umbrella Companies The essence of 5 reforms is simply: Fair treatment for flexible workers and the self-employed. DOWNLOAD HERE: https://lnkd.in/eBhmHkFy #freelancers #generalelection

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5x #IR35 policies for Keir Starmer & Rishi Sunak to take onboard if they want the votes of 1.9m contractors. If you truly want to kick start the economy, support small business, want to increase tax revenues & stop billions leaving the UK economy, here is your chance to prove it #Contractors #Recruitment #Tech #Politics #UKEconomy

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Join me next week at #LeadDev London to talk about "How do you know where to focus your attention as a staff+ leader?"

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🚢🚢🚢🚢 Things are getting busy We are constantly adding new knowledge to our core library as well as working with our clients on their bespoke knowledge needs and asks We are really focusing on providing context to our knowledge that is focused on recruiters and recruiting so we give them the knowledge they need to take action Interested in learning more then hit me up for a chat #recruiterenablement

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The Developer Success Lab at Pluralsight Flow, led by Cat Hicks, PhD does some really thought provoking and thorough work. If you're in software engineering, like 🚀 Dan Blundell mentions here, I highly recommend that you spend some time reviewing some of their research. You can find Cat and the Team's work here: https://lnkd.in/gV8vyaAv #DeveloperExperience #LeadDev #Engineering #softwaredevelopment #digitaltransformation

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In a few weeks I will be speaking about AI at RecFest UK. My session is all about Navigating the AI Galaxy. There are so many tools and things you can do with AI, but where to start your journey? And how to conquer AI within you recruitment strategy?

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So you now REALLY don't need to be a prompt engineer to get something reasonable from GAI. Anthropic now support prompt generation both inside claude and the developer console. What does that mean? Take the analogy of me and how shit I am at cooking anything, I can say I want to make a paella but I can't then execute on that in any level of detail. If I wanted I could tell a chef (or ai) I wanted to make a paella and it could print me the recipe. This new tool is the same - you give it your general intent and it gives you a well crafted prompt that (should) give you the output you are looking for. Great to see the barrier to entry made even lower than it already was. P.S. for more great stuff, check out 🔔https://lnkd.in/eN5Zi4yK🔔, for educators, leaders and innovators.

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