Veteran Software Development Leader Eric Hess has evolved technical expertise into client-facing wins and team performance lift.  Over 15 years, he’s built, managed and grown software development teams working in advertising, consulting, and retail industries.  Noted as a positive and resourceful leader, he’s earned praise for keeping one hand in daily operations details while strategically steering the organization. He’s Joining us today to share some stories from his people leadership journey and walk us through a couple key techniques he uses with his own staff.   He’ll discuss the nuances in moving from Engineer to Engineering Manager  – especially when you oversee previous peers! You’ll also hear him outline his unique approach to setting goals that includes mechanisms for soft-skills improvement. 

I’ve invited Eric to the ManagerMirror because of the high-praise he’s earned from leading and developing technical professionals in the software development world. Eric started out designing online ads for the Arizona Daily Star and Tuscon Newspapers before moving into his first people-leadership role developing client websites at McFadden/Gavender Advertising in 2010.  He moved from manager to individual contributor role when he started as a Lead UI Software Developer with CDK Global in 2013 and was promoted back into people-leadership as the Software Development Manager from 2016 -2018.  Eric led teams in their largest growth area and was responsible for establishing goals, growth plans, training, and hiring.   Eric will tell you his “vision” is balancing business commitments with dedication to quality, and his past employees will add that he’s developed those same pillars in their careers along the way. Today, you’ll find him at REI where he’s the Senior Manager of Content Platform and Visual Platform Engineering.  He’s here to share his unique experience leading technical professionals and hopefully a few techniques aspiring people managers can put into practice.  Follow Eric on LinkedIn and Twitter to continue hearing about his journey!