After two and a half years of hectic growth and rebuilding the platform at Flagstone, Lee Provoost is now focused on stability and improving developer experience and productivity. Having put the inevitable era of dealing with scaling and migration issues behind him, the aspiration is to invest in foundational elements that foster a healthy and happy engineering organisation for the future. Things like enhancing deployment pipelines, improving products, and exploring new tools.
Lee feels two fundamental shifts will redefine the Chief Technology Officer’s role in the next few years. The first is the end of “easy free money” for many tech companies. With a new focus on profitability, leaders can no longer simply add more engineers to solve problems but must instead prioritise efficiency and sustainable growth.
The second is the unprecedented pace of change driven by AI. Unlike previous technological disruptions, the rapid acceleration of AI is challenging companies and society to adapt.
“It will have a big impact on the workforce. I’m very worried about the new generation of grads coming into the workplace already battling with a challenging time when it comes to the economy and opportunities for young people.
AI is going to make that more challenging, both from an opportunity point of view, but AI also has the potential risk of shaping the mindsets of young people so that they may become less critical (thinkers)”.
“AI also has the potential risk of shaping the mindsets of young people so that they may become less critical (thinkers).“
Perseverance and Connection
“Technology is still a human business”, built on relationships, communication, and emotional intelligence. In an increasingly remote-first world, this art of human interaction is at risk of being forgotten.
Lee holds a strong belief that perseverance and grit are what truly make people successful. “You know, the people who are the most brilliant in organisations that make the biggest impact, for me, aren’t the most brilliant gifted coders or scientists or technologists, they need to have people who can push through when things are a little bit hard, and, you know, the people who accept that, buckle up, strap in our seatbelts, and push through, it’s a bit of a rocky road, but we’ll come through and come through at the other end … those two (are the) things that I’ve learned the hard way, from my mentors and managers, and those are the things I try to pass on to the next generation of leaders and engineers in the industry.”
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