In this episode, we talk to a tech leader who has turned a technical ship around. Her leadership resides in a cancer intelligence organization that uses data science to help oncology care teams better personalize treatment and improve drug toxicity management for their patients. Denali Lumma, the VP of engineering at Project Ronin, shares her story and her leadership. Particularly on how she, her peers, and team pivoted a troubling technical situation and created a state of technical flow in the organization. The best part is the improvements in care for patients. Feedback loops of care went from a month to days. Allowing carers to be agile in improving the conditions of patients and enhancing their quality of life. Maybe even saving lives.

Key takeaways from the podcast with Denali are:

• The concept of technical-debt-event-horizon (the point of no return)

• How Agile can absolutely work. It can be a success if you keep going, learn from mistakes, and don't see it as some magic formula out of the box. You have to be agile about Agile. Let it guide you, rather than dictate

• The huge power of healthy feedback loops. Find the important ones and enhance them

• How systems and industries create incentives that really aren't helpful. Even damaging

Our Guest: Denali Lumma
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/denali-lumma-1330061/
Website: https://www.projectronin.com/

Intro and background music: Craig MacArthur - Power Shutoff (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x74iB_jtauw)