Our new podcast, "The People Behind Your Favorite Apps," shines the spotlight on the developers, testers, and others who work tirelessly to bring amazing technologies to market. How they come up with solutions to big challenges, collaborate at scale, and deal with high-pressure deadlines and increased expectations from the business and customers alike.
In this premiere episode, Noel Wurst and Frank Kilcommins from SmartBear talk about some of the personas they look forward to having as guests, the technologies and methodologies that will be regularly discussed, and how the listening audience can help shape the future of the show.
Noel and Frank discuss:
- How this show came to be
- Why APIs and software testing will play a prominent role
- The need for greater empathy in software development
Ready to learn more about the human stories behind your favorite tech? Let’s dive in.
“It doesn't matter what type of software is being built, it takes people to build it.”
— Frank Kilcommins
Storytelling and technical evangelism
People crave immersive experiences, the newest shiny thing, and the latest apps.
But they also want more personalization, an organic customer journey, comfort, and convenience. A delicate balance is needed.
The developers working tirelessly to make this all possible are facing challenges and utilizing tools that the average consumer often knows nothing about. This podcast will explore the intersection of digital transformation, business, and the teams that are behind it all.
As the Director of Storytelling at SmartBear, Noel leverages their impressive talent and expertise to build strategies that reach far beyond your usual lofty corporate lingo. They’re personally invested in creating a more diverse, inclusive, and equitable industry.
A resident of Galway, Ireland, Frank jokes on Twitter that he’s a “failed footballer.” He’s also a proud dad and a technology architect who’s fascinated by the endless facets of the problem-solving process.
Embracing open source
To prepare for this new adventure in podcasting, Noel and Frank did some foundational research into which apps are the current must-haves for people in a wide variety of industries.
When Noel asked our own developers here at SmartBear what their favorite apps were, they were intrigued by how many were open source.
“Open source doesn't mean free; it takes a lot to build a good community and good open source software.”
— Frank Kilcommins
Stewardship
Frank believes those who labor to develop these popular and accessible applications are sadly underappreciated.
The People Behind Your Favorite Apps podcast will not only recognize their efforts but also encourage them to share valuable knowledge that will “help people achieve more for less,” as he points out.
As a “non-developer with zero coding skills,” Noel is looking forward to digging deeper with guests who are truly committed to building and managing more inclusive online communities.
Fresh perspectives
While this isn’t exclusively an API-focused podcast, APIs are bound to be discussed frequently, as they’re so intertwined into, well, everything.
From early days ideations, and throughout the entire development, testing, and software delivery lifecycle, this podcast will explore unique points of view from a diverse collection of guests with a wide variety of experiences.
Noel loves to learn anything and everything about exploratory software testing. They first entered the tech world as a content creator and editor, interviewing industry leaders and sharing their stories across a broad swath of demographics.
They’re especially interested in amplifying the voices of the testing community and delving into every aspect of software quality.
“Everyone is under more and more pressure now with delivering software.”
— Frank Kilcommins
Digital immediacy
The workers behind the world’s most-used applications are under constant, accelerating demands from the business and users who want, and expect, bigger, better, faster, and more in every new release.
Everyone is under a ton of stress these days. That’s why it’s vital for team managers to make the well-being of their people their number one priority. Frank and Noel are looking forward to learning more about how to build highly supportive cultures.
It’s all about empathy. People are the most important asset to any app development.
Shared goals
Openness is more than a core value for SmartBear. Respectful collaboration, empathy, and the free exchange of feedback is a driving force here.
As hosts of this exciting new podcast, Noel and Frank want their guests to feel comfortable with sharing their ideas, life experiences, successes, failures, and to always pay it forward by lifting up others when they have the opportunity to do so.
Until next time!
The People Behind Your Favorite Apps is available through Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify. Listen, like, and subscribe today!