Randy Shoup
VP Engineering
WeWork (former Stitch Fix, eBay, Google)
location_on United States
Member since 1 year
Share
Randy Shoup
Specialises In (based on submitted proposals)
Randy is VP Engineering at WeWork. Previously, he has been VP Engineering at Stitch Fix, Engineering Director at Google, and Chief Engineer at eBay. Randy is a frequent keynote speaker and consultant in areas from scalability and cloud computing, to analytics and data science, to engineering culture and DevOps. He is particularly interested in the nexus of people, culture, and technology.
-
keyboard_arrow_down
Breaking Codes, Designing Jets, and Building Teams
50 Mins
Talk
Intermediate
Throughout engineering history, focused and empowered teams have consistently achieved the near-impossible. Alan Turing, Tommy Flowers, and their teams at Bletchley Park broke Nazi codes, saved their country, and brought down the Third Reich. Kelly Johnson and the Lockheed Skunk Works designed and built the XP-80 in 143 days, and later produced the U-2, the SR-71, and the F-22. Xerox PARC invented Smalltalk, graphical user interfaces, Ethernet, and the laser printer. What can this history teach us? Well, basically everything.Effective teams have a mission - a clearly defined problem which the entire team focuses on and owns end-to-end.Effective teams collaborate without hierarchy, across disciplines and between diverse individuals. It should be no surprise that Bletchley was an eclectic mix of "Boffins and Debs" - almost 75% women at its peak; or that Skunk Works' founding team included the first Native American female engineer.Effective teams rapidly learn and adapt. Constant experimentation, tight feedback loops, and a policy of embracing failure are all part of the recipe of success. Innovation does not arrive on a waterfall schedule.If this sounds a lot like DevOps, or true little-a agile, that's no coincidence. But too few organizations actually practice these three-quarter-century-old ideas despite the overwhelming evidence that they work. As Santayana wrote, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." So let's relearn those history lessons. -
-
keyboard_arrow_down
Breaking Codes, Designing Jets, and Building Teams
50 Mins
Talk
Intermediate
Throughout engineering history, focused and empowered teams have consistently achieved the near-impossible. Alan Turing, Tommy Flowers, and their teams at Bletchley Park broke Nazi codes, saved their country, and brought down the Third Reich. Kelly Johnson and the Lockheed Skunk Works designed and built the XP-80 in 143 days, and later produced the U-2, the SR-71, and the F-22. Xerox PARC invented Smalltalk, graphical user interfaces, Ethernet, and the laser printer. What can this history teach us? Well, basically everything.Effective teams have a mission - a clearly defined problem which the entire team focuses on and owns end-to-end.Effective teams collaborate without hierarchy, across disciplines and between diverse individuals. It should be no surprise that Bletchley was an eclectic mix of "Boffins and Debs" - almost 75% women at its peak; or that Skunk Works' founding team included the first Native American female engineer.Effective teams rapidly learn and adapt. Constant experimentation, tight feedback loops, and a policy of embracing failure are all part of the recipe of success. Innovation does not arrive on a waterfall schedule.If this sounds a lot like DevOps, or true little-a agile, that's no coincidence. But too few organizations actually practice these three-quarter-century-old ideas despite the overwhelming evidence that they work. As Santayana wrote, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." So let's relearn those history lessons. -
-
keyboard_arrow_down
Breaking Codes, Designing Jets, and Building Teams
50 Mins
Talk
Intermediate
Throughout engineering history, focused and empowered teams have consistently achieved the near-impossible. Alan Turing, Tommy Flowers, and their teams at Bletchley Park broke Nazi codes, saved their country, and brought down the Third Reich. Kelly Johnson and the Lockheed Skunk Works designed and built the XP-80 in 143 days, and later produced the U-2, the SR-71, and the F-22. Xerox PARC invented Smalltalk, graphical user interfaces, Ethernet, and the laser printer. What can this history teach us? Well, basically everything.Effective teams have a mission - a clearly defined problem which the entire team focuses on and owns end-to-end.Effective teams collaborate without hierarchy, across disciplines and between diverse individuals. It should be no surprise that Bletchley was an eclectic mix of "Boffins and Debs" - almost 75% women at its peak; or that Skunk Works' founding team included the first Native American female engineer.Effective teams rapidly learn and adapt. Constant experimentation, tight feedback loops, and a policy of embracing failure are all part of the recipe of success. Innovation does not arrive on a waterfall schedule.If this sounds a lot like DevOps, or true little-a agile, that's no coincidence. But too few organizations actually practice these three-quarter-century-old ideas despite the overwhelming evidence that they work. As Santayana wrote, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." So let's relearn those history lessons. -
-
keyboard_arrow_down
Attitude Determines Altitude - Engineering Yourself
50 Mins
Talk
Intermediate
Success is not determined by our aptitude -- our skill at a particular task. Instead, it is determined by our attitude -- how we go about it. It is far less the contributions of genetics, or education, or circumstance than it is how we approach challenges, limitations, and opportunities in our lives. Through real science and some very personal stories, we will discuss how you can use your attitude to improve yourself.We begin by discussing Growth Mindset - Carol Dweck's idea that we can improve ourselves through sustained effort. Focus and attention will help us put in the 10,000 hours of deliberate practice that allow us to achieve mastery.We then discuss Trust - by trusting others to do their part and to do it well we can achieve both greater personal happiness and better business results. Generative organizations and psychological safety in teams are key themes.We finally discuss Confidence - from the underconfidence of the Impostor Phenomenon to the overconfidence of the Dunning-Kruger effect. Most importantly, we conclude with practical ways you can build and sustain your own confidence in yourself. -
-
keyboard_arrow_down
Attitude Determines Altitude - Engineering Yourself
50 Mins
Talk
Intermediate
Success is not determined by our aptitude -- our skill at a particular task. Instead, it is determined by our attitude -- how we go about it. It is far less the contributions of genetics, or education, or circumstance than it is how we approach challenges, limitations, and opportunities in our lives. Through real science and some very personal stories, we will discuss how you can use your attitude to improve yourself.We begin by discussing Growth Mindset - Carol Dweck's idea that we can improve ourselves through sustained effort. Focus and attention will help us put in the 10,000 hours of deliberate practice that allow us to achieve mastery.We then discuss Trust - by trusting others to do their part and to do it well we can achieve both greater personal happiness and better business results. Generative organizations and psychological safety in teams are key themes.We finally discuss Confidence - from the underconfidence of the Impostor Phenomenon to the overconfidence of the Dunning-Kruger effect. Most importantly, we conclude with practical ways you can build and sustain your own confidence in yourself. -
-
keyboard_arrow_down
Attitude Determines Altitude - Engineering Yourself
50 Mins
Talk
Intermediate
Success is not determined by our aptitude -- our skill at a particular task. Instead, it is determined by our attitude -- how we go about it. It is far less the contributions of genetics, or education, or circumstance than it is how we approach challenges, limitations, and opportunities in our lives. Through real science and some very personal stories, we will discuss how you can use your attitude to improve yourself.We begin by discussing Growth Mindset - Carol Dweck's idea that we can improve ourselves through sustained effort. Focus and attention will help us put in the 10,000 hours of deliberate practice that allow us to achieve mastery.We then discuss Trust - by trusting others to do their part and to do it well we can achieve both greater personal happiness and better business results. Generative organizations and psychological safety in teams are key themes.We finally discuss Confidence - from the underconfidence of the Impostor Phenomenon to the overconfidence of the Dunning-Kruger effect. Most importantly, we conclude with practical ways you can build and sustain your own confidence in yourself. -
-
No more submissions exist.
