Insightful conversations. Less snark.

Corey sits down with Duckbill Group Alumnus, Tim Banks. They begin by reminiscing on Tim’s time at Duckbill, and by exploring how the pandemic has affected work culture and work relationships. Tim talks about his management strategies and how giving employees the tools they need to thrive requires so much more than just a great salary. Corey and Tim discuss the importance of solving human problems with human solutions, not technical solutions. Corey talks about one of Tim’s innovations at Duckbill, the creation of a third type of engagement with clients that has been a huge success, and Tim explains how he was inspired to create it.

Corey chats with Anton Chuvakin, Security Strategy Something at Google Cloud. Anton begins by talking about his journey to a technical role at Google prefaced by a position at Gartner, and a job as head of security for a start-up that was acquired by Google. Corey asks Anton for his opinion on the role and positioning of security vendors, and Anton talks about the challenge of deciding when to tell clients they’re on the wrong path and when to help them tread their own path with the least pain. Corey and Anton talk about the hotly debated definition of what XDR actually is, and then move into a discussion about whether or not cloud vendors should view security as a profit center and how cost should be factored into cloud security. Anton shares about his own podcast, “Cloud Security Podcast” and the narratives he’s found interesting lately.

Today Corey talks with Anadelia Fadeev, the Senior Director of Demand Generation at Teleport. Anadelia starts by talking about the three core areas of a marketing team: product, content, and demand generation. Corey and Anadelia discuss the “inbound” and “outbound” aspects of marketing - what is bringing people to you, and what you’re doing to add value and build trust. Anadelia talks about how, in her career, she has ended up specializing in a particular audience versus a specific product. Corey and Anadelia commiserate on marketing woes and talk about the non-linear journey of the consumer, then discuss how building trust is paramount, even when there aren’t measurable results. They finish up by speculating on the fine line of knowing when to build gates into the marketing process, and “thinking about thinking” - understanding how customers think and where they’re going to look to find solutions to their problems.

Today Corey interviews Jeff Smith, Director of Production Operations at Basis Technologies. In a post-2020 world, they discuss the pros and cons of remote work. Jeff talks about the trade-off that gets made when employers allow workers to forfeit face to face time in favor of working from home. Jeff and Corey make the point that often the interactions that are cited as pros — i.e., chatting with a coworker in the hallway — are the very same exchanges employees identify as interruptions to their actual work. They come to the conclusion that the loss of face to face interaction is often still worth the benefits to employees and companies. Corey and Jeff conclude their conversation by talking about what Jeff has learned about the power of telling your story and using your voice since the release of his book, “Operations Anti-Patterns.”

Today Corey chats with promoted guest, CTO for cloud at EDB, Benjamin Anderson. They start by talking about the evolution of the market space for cloud-hosted database services and relational database trends over the years. Corey and Benjamin discuss different philosophies of open source and talk about EDB’s different cloud offerings, including primarily BigAnimal as well as EDB’s newer open source project “Cloud Native PG.” Benjamin explains how EDB approaches maintenance windows and answers Corey’s question about what kinds of workloads are not best suited for BigAnimal. They discuss different database systems and Benjamin talks about working with various systems over the years and why he recommends Postgres. EDB has recently received an investment from private equity, so Benjamin talks about how he feels that will affect the future of the company. Corey and Benjamin conclude with a discussion of the crowded cloud-hosted database market space and how a smaller company can have more specific focus and offer the customer more value for their managed service.

Today Corey sits down with Brandon West, Team Lead for Developer Experience and Tools Advocacy at Datadog. They discuss Brandon’s unique career path, starting at SendGrid, working a stint at AWS, and landing in developer relations at Datadog. Corey and Brandon talk about the problem DevRel often has with successfully telling stories about itself and communicating the need for advocacy. They move into a conversation about the relationship between marketing and DevRel, and how the two are often aligned even if they’re not one and the same. Brandon addresses the challenge of metrics and quantifying success for developer advocates and emphasizes the role of empathy in DevRel. Corey and Brandon chat about the impact of branding on the public perception of Developer Advocacy and the amount of consideration it receives. They end the conversation by discussing uncertainty about your role early on versus later in a career.

Today Corey sits down with Chris Short, a senior Developer Advocate at AWS. They begin by commiserating on the process of writing and releasing their respective newsletters, and then they discuss EKS, billing, and some of AWS’s open source projects. Chris goes into detail about the new project he has co-chaired, OpenGitOps. Corey and Chris talk about GitOps and configuration management, and conclude their time with a discussion about connectivity and Tailscale.

Today, Corey sits down with Sheeri Cabral, Senior Product Manager at Collibra. Sheeri talks about her education, career experience, and being a woman in tech. She then talks about what prompted her transition from working as a DBA to becoming a product manager, and Corey and Sheeri discuss the job market and compensation in the tech industry. They finish the conversation with Sheeri sharing about the accomplishment she’s proudest of - her work with WildAid.

Today Corey chats with Chris Evans, Co-founder and CPO of incident.io. After defining “incident,” they talk about the complexity of systems at organizations and how incident.io comes in and provides communication and structural solutions when networks go down or problems arise. Chris explains how incident.io is more effective and pragmatic than mere documentation when it comes to addressing systemic issues. They have a conversation about circular dependencies, and how incident.io integrates with existing systems to complement and augment them.

Today Corey talks to Maish Saidel-Keesing, an EntReloper— Enterprise Developer Advocate—for container services at AWS. They begin by talking about what an EntReloper is and how developer advocacy differs in enterprises than in startups. Maish delves into some of his tactics for reaching developers where they are, and Corey and Maish compare the varying paths people take to become a DevOps Engineer. They conclude with a conversation about containers and how Maish is seeing AWS customers use them.

Today Corey interviews Chris Norman, co-founder of Common Fate, a company with a mission to simplify and secure cloud identities for DevOps teams. Chris and Corey begin by talking about the tool that Chris helped to develop, Granted. They discuss the importance of user feedback and community involvement, as well as the frustrations with AWS that make Granted and other cottage industries necessary. They conclude the interview with a conversation with what’s next for Granted, and, of course, a feature request from Corey!

Today Corey talks with Linda Vivah, newly employed as developer advocate at AWS. Linda talks about using Tiktok for education and community, and then about her recent career move to AWS. Corey and Linda discuss what it might look like for AWS to transition to offering more short form content, as well as the Tiktok algorithm and “going viral.” They wrap up the interview by talking about the potential challenge of moving from short form content back to long form.