Here's how you can stay relevant in your application developer career by embracing change and innovation.

Look beyond just development languages and tools, build your expertise in product delivery and what makes a good product. It will help you refine your leaning scope and drive to more useful skills.

Today, you can get 90% of a complex app's architecture automatically built simply by asking relevant questions to ChatGPT! There are two secrets to it: 1. You should not treat its answers like Google's results and say, "it doesn't work." Instead, keep asking question after question after question. Treat it like a person and keep debating, and you'll be amazed! 2. You still need to have somewhat of an architect-level understanding, even if you don't know all the details, so you can actually ask those questions. You can about your own questions themselves, kind of like self-talk :) We built a very comprehensive architecture for Funnelmind.ai using this technique. In most cases, I was actually blown away by its answers. Check it out!

That’s simple one line comment for me “ Learn Continuously and have a process to unload and load the knowledge with ever changing technology world”. I would recommend to have hands on experience of every new thing that you are going to adopt in your project . Only reading or training will not help you much and you gain real confidence and knowledge by making your hands dirty in the new technological world.

Continuously upgrading with latest tools and technologies keeps you armed up for all the challenges and new innovations. There is no loss in knowledge increase and no cost or change required to upgrade your human memory and processor, You are gifted with brain embrace the change.

Curiosity and growth mindset are the keys for continuous learning. I recommend all engineering leaders (Individual Contributors/Leads and People leaders) to lead with data - from understanding your business in numbers, to how your systems perform (eg. availability, bug introduction rates). Measure everything and aspire to quantify impact.

In my experience be like a water drop that connect with other water drops and become huge. So, Networking is like creating a bond with others and increasing the opportunities.

Engaging in tech meetups, conferences, and seminars connects you with peers and experts, offering insights into emerging technologies, new problem spaces, and opportunities to relate your skills. For instance, attending a local Applied ML meetup helped me discover a new framework that reduced processing inefficiencies in one of my projects. Keep the connections you make active by making significant contributions. To give back, contribute to open-source projects, offer mentorship, and share knowledge through blogs or talks. Giving back to the community not only uplifts your expertise but also provides opportunities to expand in your career.

Networking is a very critical asset in a developer's career. Meeting people outside our team and company offers insights into industry trends, new technologies, and various problem-solving approaches. When I started attending local DevOps and Cloud meetups, I met like-minded individuals who resonated with my ideas and provided alternative solutions, opening new areas for exploration. Networking also enhances job opportunities, knowledge sharing, collaboration, personal branding, and business development, ultimately contributing significantly to professional growth.

To understand any applications architecture, you can simple ask GPT about a similar application. Try copy pasting the following prompt, one by one. "What are the main components needed for a SaaS application like XYZ?" "Can you describe the overall architecture for a SaaS application?" "What front-end frameworks would be suitable for building the user interface?" "How should we structure the back-end to handle user authentication and data processing?" "What are the best practices for designing a RESTful API?" "How can we ensure data security and compliance with regulations?" "What architecture patterns help in scaling a SaaS application efficiently?" "How can we optimize the database for high performance?" #applicationarchitecture

Learn all of your primary tools (dev tools, IDEs) and support tools (tools like Postman, JIRA/bug tracking, planning tools, sprint/agile tools). Go beyond the obvious interfaces these tools offer and learn to use APIs and other automation capabilities to achieve maximum productivity.

One perspective of being "agile" is not only adopting Scrum, Kanban or the latest methodology, but also being always "production ready" with your codebase. That is, have an explicit CI/CD (continuous integration/continuous deployment) strategy that allows you to deploy to production at any time. This strategy implies that you have the right branching strategy with your code, that testing pipelines are in place to assure that production-only ready code reaches production and that there are failsafe mechanisms like feature flags. You also have to have mechanisms to revert to the previous instance, should something goes wrong. All this encourages agile deployments.

When adopting Agile, it is important to impress on the team that an estimate is not a plan and the goal is to deliver business value, not story points. Changing requirements after discovering complexity can happen and can lead to better solutions. Some flexibility is needed to meet the goals of a sprint. Keep in mind a task that can be pulled in and another that can be taken out. Also, exploratory work can be timeboxed as a spike rather than incorporated into working the task. This allows for collaboration with the team and stakeholders.

Things change so fast.. you better be not just Agile, but SUPER AGILE, or, you'll be history! This is especially true in this age of AI. One of the key ways to be agile is literally talk to customers or prospects and understand. You need to talk to 50 prospects to get some idea about what they want to where they think the future is going to be, so that you can build your product for that future.

We are witnessing a seismic shift in the industry as these technologies open up a vast array of new opportunities. However, it is crucial to not only understand the fundamentals of AI/ML but also to identify the specific value these technologies can bring to an implementation. Equally important is assessing the return on investment (ROI) to ensure that any technological effort is justified and impactful. These technologies are not a one-size-fits-all solution; understanding when and how to leverage them effectively is key to driving innovation and maintaining a competitive edge in the rapidly evolving tech landscape.

Virtually all companies are now AI companies. Just go to conferences and talk to to people and you'll be amazed at the pace of innovation! You can also follow my posts as I mention some really cool companies in this space.

The way I've encouraged curiosity in my (dev) teams is to sponsor a week-long internal hackathon using "cool tech" (that devs would want to play with) and bound it to address "future wishes" that the product side is requesting. For the hackathon, you let people assemble in teams of 2 or 3. It is ideal to have cross functional participation, ie. not just devs. At the beginning, the teams assemble and pitch their idea. During the week you work on your idea. At the end of the week, the idea is presented and demoed. These are judged by invitees from other parts of the org. The winner of the hackathon wins prizes (a gift cert or cool stuff) and bragging rights. I have implemented new features that have originated from internal hackathons.

I'm yet to find a reason to isolate myself from my teams, my immediate peer group, my support group and my organization. Uplift (help others) and support others (appreciate other's contributions, shine a light on other amazing things that happen around you) - in return, others will uplift you!

Focus on Soft Skills Develop communication, teamwork, and problem-solving skills to collaborate effectively and meet client needs. Invest in workshops and real-world practice. Contribute to the Community Share your knowledge through blogs, forums, or speaking engagements. This establishes you as a thought leader and keeps you updated with trends. Embrace Diversity Work with diverse teams to gain varied perspectives and innovative solutions. Inclusivity enhances team dynamics and creativity. Stay Updated with Security Practices Stay informed about security threats and best practices to protect your applications. Leverage Data Analytics Use data analytics to gather insights and make informed decisions for continuous improvement.

Be a friend of change. As the saying goes change is the only constant in the field of technology. Be uneasy when appropriate level of change is not happening in your organization. Its through change, especially the adoption of new technology that one can grow and stay relevant. Adopt a growth mindset and invest time in learning new tools and technology