Empathy-Driven Development

Empathy is a technical skill. Don’t worry; you read that correctly. While empathy is often cited as a critical “soft skill,” it doesn’t stop there. Empathy is also an incredibly technical topic that is more accessible to analytical engineers—and more vital to building software—than you might think. Andrea Goulet, a noted expert on communication in the software industry, will debunk several myths around empathy, including that empathy is just a feeling, that technical folks can’t access empathy, and that empathy is just a high-level, touchy-feely fad. Andrea will demonstrate how empathy is a crucial skill for all developers of software, and she will give you practical and immediately actionable advice for making empathy a central focus of your daily software development communication practices. She'll also explore the place for empathy while you’re coding and testing. You’ll walk away with a solid understanding of what empathy is (and isn’t), how you can build your empathy skills, and a framework around having empathic conversations. It’s all about improving your communication by putting others in mind first.