WebJoy: Real Stories from Tech About the Struggles and Delights That Made Us Who We Are Today

Mirza joins the show to talk about their origin story, how they started by translating poems, which led into working as a full-time translator. Eventually, they stumbled into product management while at university for their master's degree. Now they manage people who work on Product Strategy.

We discuss how they view product management and product strategy, using Miro versus FigJam, and about their experience being gay in the tech industry and more recently coming out as non-binary.

Discussed Links:

• Miro
• FigJam
• 2Hearts
• Mirza on ADP List
• Looking for Co-Organizers for a Queer Product Meetup
• Mirza's Twitter: @MirzaWriting

Layla joins the show to talk about her origin story, how she started horse-riding as a young girl, eventually doing it professionally before shifting to being a pilates instructor turned software engineer.

We discuss the state of .NET in the world of programming, her 3D worlds she uses for Twitch streaming, and her exploration and joy in game development in Unity. We chat about the differences between web development and game development, and have a couple side-trails into hiding coats in cupboards and not falling off of horses. Finally we talk about the impact that she's having with the Women of .NET community.

Discussed Links:

• Blazor Web Framework
• An example of Layla's 3D studios
• Unity
• Women of .Net Website
• Women of .Net Twitter
• Layla's Twitter: @LaylaCodesit
• Layla's Website

Arely joins the show to talk about her origin story, how she grew up in New Mexico and joined her science club to moving to New York City and joining Amazon as a Front-End Engineer.

We discuss a Twitch community that her friend started during the pandemic, and the joy she gets watching people come together. We also discuss Techqueria, a community of Latinx in Tech.

Discussed Links

• Mimosa Twitch Streamer's Website
• Techqueria

Dan Cole joins the show to talk about his origin story, how he got started in product management by accident and how his passion for helping users find their joy has lead to 20 years in product management, where he is now the VP of Product Management at a Cyber Security software company.

We discuss what it was like building a team during the early days of the pandemic in a fully remote environment and what tools and processes helped him to really connect with his team and compose a team with psychological safety.

Discussed Links

• Google re:Work
• Google re:Work: Set and communicate a team vision
• Miro
• Save A Fox
• Photo of Dan's Backyard Fox

Francesco Ciulla joins the show to talk about his origin story, how he went from being a sports coach to becoming a developer. From learning programming on difficult mode to championing Daily.Dev as a developer advocate, he's been a whirlwind journey.

We discuss his joy for creating content in order to teach other developers. We talk about how and why developers should get out of their comfort zone and work on public speaking, and why we don't have to match the stereotype of a programmer in a dark room wearing a hoodie.

• The tweet about hoodies and dark rooms

Kathryn Grayson Nanz joins the show to talk about her origin story, how she got started in graphic design and after being pulled into the front-end developer life had a surprise turn and became a developer advocate.

We discuss her joy for conferences, the differences between online and in-person conferences as well as what it's like to face rejection and some tips for getting out there and trying it out yourself!

Miriam Isaac joins the show to talk about her origin story, how she got started studying fashion design but found her love for product design after moving from England to Israel, as well as her love for teaching others how learn UX.

We discuss what it was like designing in photoshop with slices back in the day, how responsive design brought about the shift from skeuomorphic to flat designs and how Cleanshot X simplifies Miriam's workday.

Discussed Links

• Cleanshot X
• Miriam's Twitter: @misaac85

Nick Taylor joins the show to talk about his origin story, how he got started working with spreadsheets on a yellow monochrome computer and how his interest in web development and work in open source eventually lead to him working with Forem and the Dev Community.

We discuss putting yourself out there, getting involved in open source, the fears you might run into and how just stepping into it will help let the fear slip away...as well as how horrible out first open source commits were!

Discussed Links

• FirstPR.me
• Nick's HacktoberFest talk
• OpenSauce.Pizza
• Eddie's first PR
• Nick's first PR
• Nick's Livestreams
• Nick's VS Code Community
• Nick's Twitter: @nickytonline

Grace Ling joins the show to talk about her origin story, how she went from running and trying to biohack herself to run faster to working as a Product Designer at Electronic Arts, and everything in-between.

We discuss how to design your life for yourself, juggling all kinds of different hobbies and passions, and how her side project during school became a 40,000 member community called Design Buddies, not to mention their cute mascot.

Discussed Links

• Design Buddies
• Design Buddies' Twitter: @dsgnBuddies
• Grace's Website
• Grace's Twitter: @graceleaf_