Detroit Labs Podcast

On this episode, the Detroit Labs’ Talent Specialist team shares their experience recruiting, evaluating, and supporting candidates from well before they apply on through the entire application process, and beyond. Team members Nicole Minaudo, Pedro Gutierrez, and Rowan Blaisdell discuss evolving recruiting practices, ways your organization can restore balance to the candidate-to-organization relationship, and above all else, finding great people.

OUTLINE

• What are you currently seeing in the hiring market?
• What avenues do you use to connect with candidates?
• How do you attempt to stand out when reaching out to candidates?
• What is your process in matching candidates with opportunities that interest them?
• What does the hiring process at Detroit Labs look like?
• What are you looking for in a candidate?
• After building rapport with the candidate, how do you keep that connection throughout the process?
• The value of a company is in the people that work there
• Tell us about the concept of ‘interviewing the company as much as they are interviewing you’. What should a candidate ask? Why?
• Open opportunities at Detroit Labs

RESOURCES

Learn more about our Colabs developer community: https://www.detroitlabs.com/colabs/

Learn about our open job opportunities: https://www.detroitlabs.com/careers/

On this episode, Detroit Labs team members Derek Quinn, Katrina Ohlemacher, and Kitty Garrison join Dan and Tobi to discuss accessibility in software, its importance in a “complete” software product, and best practices for planning and implementing digital products that are accessible to all users.

OUTLINE:

• Introductions
• What is accessibility as it relates to software?
• Why would we want to make our apps/websites accessible?
• Who are software accessibility features for?
• Governing laws around software accessibility
• What types of tools are out there to help build accessible products?
• Live example of what an app looks like without built-in accessibility features
• Google and Apple accessibility frameworks
• Accessible software design naturally leads to a good user experience
• Accessible software design is a mindset, not a checklist
• What makes you passionate about software accessibility?
• Software accessibility training at Detroit Labs
• It’s never too late to begin implementing software accessibility features
• Closing remarks

RESOURCES:

📌  Web Content Accessibility Guidelines

📌  Digital accessibility training

On this episode, Dan and Tobi talked with guests John Rondini, Co-Chair Cybersecurity & Data Privacy at Brooks Kushman, and Detroit Labs team members Jackie Michl and Brian Munzenberger. The group discussed preparing for, preventing, and responding to security breaches through an understanding of the laws and how your organization can incorporate secure thinking into your everyday practice.

On this episode, hosts Dan and Tobi will be joined by Detroit Labs Co-Founder and Chief People Officer, Nathan Hughes. As a VitalSmarts certified trainer in Crucial Conversations, Nathan will lead Dan and Tobi through a role-playing exercise in which we’ll learn how to manage conflict through effective communication.

On this special year-end episode of Labs Live, the entire Labs Live production team joins the stream to reflect on this past season's content. They'll talk about the wins and challenges in producing a stream like this, as well as notable moments from our 2020 streams, both on-screen and behind the scenes.

On this episode of Labs Live, Dan and guest host Erika Languirand, Director of People Development at Labs, lead a panel discussion about the value and role of apprenticeships in this modern software industry.

Do apprenticeships make sense for your organization? How do you create an apprenticeship program? What are the best practices to ensure the success of such a program and your new apprentices?

Panelists:

• Taharah Saad, Employee Development Program Manager at Ford Motor Company
• Claire Sands, Director, Community Communications & Engagement at Postmates
• Jennifer Le, Senior Program Manager, Engineering Apprenticeship Program at LinkedIn

On this episode of Labs Live, Dan and Tobi welcome Detroit Labs Delivery Lead Shannon Kubenez and Technical Program Manager Chris Trevarthen. The discussion will focus on the process of scaling a team and navigating the challenges all teams face when adding new team members to an existing software team.

On this episode of Labs Live, Dan and Tobi welcome Jackie McLaughlin & Karen Liska-Evans from our OnSite team. They’ll discuss how hiring and onboarding has changed now that most companies are working remotely.

On this episode of Labs Live, Dan and Tobi welcome Katrina Ohlemacher and Jon Guest, Quality Engineers at Detroit Labs. They’ll discuss the role of Quality Assurance (QA) at Labs, the myth that the QA's job is to break things, and how QA's role leads to superior product experiences.

On this episode of Labs Live, Dan and Tobi welcome Bob Walters, President and COO of Quicken Loans. We’ll be talking through Bob’s unique perspective on the future of lending and see how Quicken Loans has positioned itself as an industry leader.

🎙Labs Live is a stream hosted by Detroit Labs’ very own Dan Ward and Tobi Adebisi, where they bring on guests from the Labs team and our clients to talk about the latest in technology, software design and development, and whatever else comes to mind.