Prost! Wayne Du Toit chats with developer Zinzan van der Merwe to unpack project leadership from the coder’s side. They dive into taking ownership, navigating bad teams, must-have process rituals, and training junior devs—plus how passion and grit keep you from hating your job. Real talk, no fluff, straight from the trenches.

Zinzan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zvdmerwe/

Wayne: https://www.linkedin.com/in/waynedutoit/

Prost, project success and training (www.prost-app.com)

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ProstProjects

Chapters

00:01:20 Start

00:01:59 Getting started today

00:11:20 Delivery mindset, balance?

00:13:51 Ownership

00:15:44 Putting forward your opinion

00:20:18 Leadership styles

00:29:50 Leadership style summary

00:31:10 Dev perspective of a PM

00:36:00 PM Ownership

00:37:54 What if the PM/PO is not capable

00:43:16 Project Styles

00:45:24 Waterfall Agile

00:46:40 Transformation to desired state

00:47:27 How much process do you need

00:48:35 Focus Illusion

00:50:45 Must have process rituals

00:54:29 Wayne's must have rituals

00:56:58 3 key rituals

00:58:27 Distributed training junior devs

01:07:30 Swarming

01:09:15 Final thoughts

01:12:00 Leading the journey

01:12:25 How not to hate your job

01:14:51 Zinzan's hot take

01:17:04 Suck it up