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Good afternoon, everybody! Here to tell you about someone with seven years of experience working with student tech and teams.
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Chantelle Isaacs is currently a career coach, working with junior Rails developers entering the industry, as well as the teams that hire and mentor them.
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She also plays well.
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Hi everyone! Thanks so much for being here.
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I am really excited to be here. As Joh said, my name is Chantelle.
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I am a career coach and provide career services at Le Wagon Academy, where our students learn Ruby on Rails.
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I've been coming to these conferences; this is my fourth year.
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It's really exciting to be up on stage this time. So, let's get started!
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Welcome to "Dungeons and Developers!" We’re going to talk about how Dungeons & Dragons and its analogies can help us in building diverse engineering teams.
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Before we get started, I hope you all saw the pieces of paper that were on your chairs.
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If you didn't get a piece of paper on your chair, please either steal one from an empty chair or raise your hand, and Joh will give you one.
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Secondly, I’d like to poll the audience.
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I assume that coming to a conference like this, there’s a good overlap between people who play D&D and those who attend.
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However, I don't want to just assume that. So, if I could get everyone to use your hands.
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Please put up zero fingers if you have no clue what D&D is and you’re just here because a friend dragged you, up to five fingers if you are a level 18 D&D player.
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I’m seeing a lot of fingers—this is good! I see a couple twos, a zero in the back, a couple ones, but mostly threes and fours.
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The good news is that even if you have no clue about Dungeons & Dragons, you should still be able to take away some valuable insights from this talk.
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If not, please talk to me later, and I can give you a quick rundown on how to play the game in about 15 minutes.
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So, for everyone's orientation: Dungeons & Dragons is known as a tabletop role-playing game.
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You have a group of people who've decided they want to go on an adventure in a pretend land together.
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There’s someone who narrates this adventure—your Dungeon Master—who guides you through the characters you meet, the troubles you face, and the treasure you find.
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Together, you are collaboratively creating a story.
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It's all about working together to achieve the goals set by your Dungeon Master.
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This means you need to build a diverse adventuring party. In short, it’s playing fantasy for fun with rules.
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Those rules usually involve rolling dice, introducing elements of chance and risk to the game that we can’t always represent in real life.
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I'm not going to be talking about dice-rolling here today, but we’ll cover a lot that’s relevant to all of you.
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Now, why would I bring D&D into RailsConf?
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Thankfully, I'm not alone; if you attended the talk before lunch, you’ve probably gotten a nice dose of D&D here at RailsConf!
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My reasons for discussing D&D stem from the parallels I've observed between the roles people play on a team and those in an adventuring party.
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It's crucial to have diverse individuals fulfilling these roles to have multiple perspectives and insights.
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The skills people bring into tech often stem from varied backgrounds, as I work mainly with career transitioners—those who’ve had different careers before.
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Let’s face it, most of us did something else before entering tech: maybe flipping burgers, landscaping, or working in retail.
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We all bring unique experiences that contribute to the skills we've developed over the years.
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No one wants someone who only knows how to push code; collaboration is essential in a development team, just as it is in D&D.
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You can ruin everyone’s fun if you suddenly decide to do your own thing.
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Working together and understanding your team dynamics is something I’ve noticed as particularly important.
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Finally, diversity within an adventuring party strengthens the team experience.
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It lets you know who you can rely on, and who brings new perspectives to the table.
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Just like with engineering teams, the more diversity you have, the better the solutions we can create.
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You don’t want everyone to think, act, or look the same; otherwise, you create blind spots.
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With more diversity, you cover a wider range of unknowns.
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Now, regarding those paper pieces on your tables: if you did not receive one, there’s a QR code.
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I finally figured out how to make a paper PDF, so feel free to grab that.
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We’re going to fill this out together.
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First, let’s fill this out for yourself, as it’s best to know how you'd fill this out.
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Let’s start with our developer background.
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As I mentioned, nobody starts knowing how to code. What are the origins you bring from your previous career?
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It could relate to your upbringing or your parents' work.
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Your background significantly influences what you contribute to a team.
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In the Dungeons & Dragons universe, there are many more races than just humans.
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The roles you might fit into could vary.
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For instance, if you have a background in leadership or management, you could be seen as a Dragonborn.
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Similarly, if you come from service or hospitality, congratulations, you are a Halfling!
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If you have a background in engineering or construction, you would be recognized as a Dwarf.
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And if you transitioned through tech and startups, you might classify as an Elf.
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If there’s a mix between backgrounds, you might identify as a Human.
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There is actually merit in acknowledging your multi-disciplinary background.
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I’m also curious about how many of you put Dragonborn.
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I see a couple of hands, not many. Own it! How many of you identified as Halflings?
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Perfect, I see quite a few. What about engineering backgrounds, anyone here as Dwarves?
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And those from creative industries, any Elves in the room?
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I love it! And how about generalists?
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Amazing!
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Moving on, a team comprises more than one type of person.
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At RailsConf, I have an idea of where most of you will identify on your sheets.
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Going over the different roles on a development team, aligning them with D&D classes is insightful.
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In D&D, classes are akin to jobs, and different jobs entail different skills and abilities.
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So those of you who are back-end developers, congratulations, you are Wizards!
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Frontend developers: you are Sorcerers.
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If you're in design, you are a Bard.
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If your domain is QA, you are a Barbarian.
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Team leads, you’re Fighters and project managers, you’re Rogues.
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Product managers are Druids, navigating between user needs, business goals, and technical feasibility.
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If you’re in DevOps, you are Clerics.
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Again, why are there only eight roles? I only have 30 minutes!
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What backgrounds and roles resonate with you?
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Now, looking at your role, how do you measure levels?
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I was invited to give a trigger warning before discussing levels, so let’s carefully explore how this can seem daunting.
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Consider two people: one who has a computer science degree and is a senior developer with eight years in the industry.
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The second person is a boot camp graduate that transitioned into tech after teaching for eight years.
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What level would you classify both of these individuals?
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Even with this basic information, I theorize that they are both level 8.
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In this analogy, a level reflects years of experience in a professional environment.
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In tech, we frequently use terms like junior, mid-level, or senior to describe career paths.
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However, in this analogy with Dungeons & Dragons, I believe level actually relates to skills and abilities, not technical capacity.
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So consider how many years you’ve been working in any professional job; that’s your level.
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Shifting into abilities: there are six categories, which include skills.
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The six abilities in D&D are strength, dexterity, constitution, intelligence, wisdom, and charisma.
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To clarify these abilities, think of it from the tomato analogy: strength is how many tomatoes you can carry.
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Dexterity is about dodging tomatoes; constitution is about how many you can get hit by.
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Intelligence relates to knowing that a tomato is a fruit and wisdom is knowing not to put tomatoes in a fruit salad.
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Charisma is being able to create a tomato-based fruit salad.
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Everyone has varying levels of strengths across these abilities, which reflect what we contribute to our teams.
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Use the scale of zero to five for assessing these abilities.
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A zero doesn’t mean you lack it; it just means you haven't honed the skill, while a five represents peak skills.
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Reflect on statistical models for hiring, accounting for both years of experience and ability levels.
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The first ability we’ll discuss is strength, which correlates to technical capacity.
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When hiring for senior developers, you’ll identify minimum technical capacity, which could vary.
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It’s vital to assess individual strengths and the technical capacities that relate to tangible skills.
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Next, dexterity relates to agile problem solving: can you quickly find solutions to issues?
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Can you adapt to shifting requirements? Skills here include adaptability, attention to detail, and discretion.
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The third ability, constitution, relates to resilience and persistence.
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How capable are you of enduring long work hours and remaining productive despite stress?
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Next, we will quantify stress tolerance with hitpoints in D&D—how many challenges can you withstand?
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To rate your constitution, provide a score between zero and five.
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Now moving to intelligence—how innovative are you in problem-solving, and how well can you strategize?
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Intelligence relates to creativity and innovation, which are essential in both engineering and adventure.
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Wisdom pertains to strategic insight; it’s not just about the present but where you need to go.
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Lastly, skills under charisma involve collaborative communication.
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How do you energize and inspire your team? How assertive are you in sharing needs and boundaries?
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As we work through this section, I hope you will assess your skills critically.
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Moving to the next section, let’s address languages.
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Think about the programming languages you can code in and any additional languages you speak.
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Consider communication styles you can adapt; this is especially crucial in a tech-driven environment.
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Next is your inventory—what tools and certifications do you have?
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Now we move on to proficiencies: what skills can you claim expertise in?
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These include project management, negotiation, or even skills from your personal pursuits.
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Once we’ve discussed individual skills, let’s address how to evaluate team dynamics and what everyone brings to the table.
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In D&D, you generally play around a dining room table, adventuring together.
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In the tech world, we certainly gain more foresight regarding our projects, but unexpected issues arise that we must navigate collectively.
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Use a skill distribution chart to evaluate skills essential to your team.
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Identify areas where self-assessments could yield actionable insights.
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Many tools and programs exist to assist teams in exploring their strengths and weaknesses.
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As we assess team dynamics, it will also help you recognize who may need mentorship or professional development.
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Through this exploration, consider the people missing from your table.
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After evaluating both individual and team skills, you’ll uncover areas for growth.
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We look toward hiring decisions and how to best position your team for success.
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As you navigate these discussions, be conscious of culture fit versus culture add.
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Employing fresh perspectives helps build a more dynamic and versatile team.
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So continue to explore your character and assemble your party to embark on adventures.
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Thank you all so much for being developers!