How getting your hands dirty with code makes you a better business leader @ Vlerick Code Camp

“How getting your hands dirty with code
makes you a better business leader.”
- Linde Vloeberghs
March 2018

Why are you here?
“to broaden your perspective on business,
develop well-rounded knowledge and skill-set
to maximise your future career opportunities”
GENERAL MANAGEMENT
includes technology, data & change… and how these impact people

Why am I here?
● Business Engineer @ KULeuven
● Solo adventure & meditation in India
● Analyst & Program Manager @ HP
LINDE VLOEBERGHS
lindevloeberghs@me.com
● Coding Bootcamp @ LeWagon
● Back-End Web Developer @ startups
& Ruby on Rails Teacher @ LeWagon
● Digital Transformer & Connector
@ Hifluence, Data Science Leuven, ...

Why was coding my best career move so far?
" Abundance: the Linkedin craze for ‘bridges’
● Competitive advantage: scarcity of ‘the crazy’
" Turning tables: I decide - don’t put me in a box
● Learning eagerness & Agility
● Freedom for entrepreneurship
● Job security
● Flexibility: future working arrangements
● Always a job you love
Photo: Source

What will I talk about today?
➔ Changing world requires different thinking - and how coding helps you to:
◆ See the same world differently & see new parts of it
◆ Gain more self-awareness & confidence
◆ Innovate and create
◆ Become a better problem-solver and decision-maker
◆ Become a better, more human leader
➔ Besides a tech mindset, focus on how people work together:
◆ Future-proof organisation structures & operation systems
◆ Personal consciousness

Changing World
Imagination Economy
“intuitive and creative thinking create economic value,
after logical and rational thinking have been outsourced”
Photo: Source

Changing Education
Teach “to invent, to create, and to discover”, to
fill the needs of the world that machines can’t.
4 cognitive capacities
● Critical thinking
● Systems thinking
● Entrepreneurship
● Cultural agility
3 literacies
● Data literacy
● Technological literacy
● Human literacy
learning methods:
● Experiential, project-based: learning by doing

Understanding Technology
“Tell me and I forget.
Teach me and I remember.
Involve me and I learn.”
Knowledge & Way of thinking

Change your thinking
"Everybody in this country should  
learn how to program a computer;
because it teaches you how to think."
"We cannot solve our problems with the same
thinking we used when we created them."
- Einstein
Photo: Source

See the world differently
“The real voyage of discovery consists
not in seeking new landscapes, but  
in having new eyes.”
- Marcel Proust
Discover new layers… .
● Assumptions are everywhere
● Nothing is simple 
Rediscover appreciation
● Rediscover happiness :)
Photo: Source

Know what you don’t know
"The only true wisdom is in
knowing that you know nothing.”
- Socrates
Programming is hard.
● Respect the expert advice
● Know when to shut up
● A developer is not a commodity
Photo: Source

Details Matter
“ I don’t care. Just make it work.”
Exercise
Draw a bike!

Details Matter
Exercise
Draw a bike!
“the illusion of explanatory depth”
or the bias to believe we understand how familiar phenomena work far better than we actually do

Details Matter
Exercise
Draw a bike!
So does curiosity.

Curiosity => Innovation
“Stay hungry. Stay foolish.” - Steve Jobs 
“Much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity
and intuition turned out to be priceless later on.”
● new ways of thinking
● cross-pollination
● serendipity
● ask good questions 
-> common language
See opportunities. .
Photo: Source

Creativity
“the use of imagination or original ideas to create something;  
the act of turning new and imaginative ideas into reality”

Creativity
“the use of imagination or original ideas to create something;  
the act of turning new and imaginative ideas into reality”
getting your hands dirty gets you into the creator’s mindset

Let’s talk about Problem-Solving & Decision-Making
Outside the box thinking
Assumption thinking
Abstract thinking
Logical thinking
Scenario thinking
Big picture thinking
Grit
Confidence
Collaborative thinking
Root cause thinking
Modular thinking
Data thinking
Pragmatic thinking
Long term thinking
Agile thinking MVP thinking
Result thinkingValue thinking
Reusability thinking
Critical thinking

Grit & Confidence
“What I found is that by teaching them to code I had socialized them to be brave.
Coding, it's an endless process of trial and error (...). It requires perseverance. It requires imperfection.”
- Reshma Saujani, Founder of Girls Who Code

Grit & Confidence
● take risks
● try more than once (trial-and-error)
● see failures as steps on the path to success
● => better results
who code

Grit & Keeping Calm
don’t panic; focus and read the error message
follow the trace and learn

Confidence & Abstract Thinking
don’t get lost

Logical Thinking
● Structured thinking
● Scenario Thinking:
‘Mutually Exclusive & Collectively Exhaustive’
'Users are stupid’: include non-happy paths

● Hypothetical thinking: if … -> “what if?”
● Assumption Thinking
Logical Thinking
● Structured thinking
● Scenario Thinking:
‘Mutually Exclusive & Collectively Exhaustive’
'Users are stupid’: include non-happy paths
 
I .
PSEUDO
C O D E

“Build a web application to bring
people in the city of Antwerp
together around books”
Analytical Thinking
break down the big problem and solve many little problems instead
“Find the lowest and highest mark in a class”:
● Read in the marks.
● Sort the marks into ascending order.
● Print out the first mark and the last.
Big problem:
Profits are down
revenues down
costs up
volumes down
prices down
churn up
growth down
...
algorithm program
?
Complex software programs, how
do various applications interact, ...
architecture

Building Web Applications -
Step 1: scope the thing
MVP with clear goal: test the “neighbours want to borrow and lend books” - hypothesis
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● as a user, I can see the BookMine project info on the homepage (without log in)
● as a user, I can register if I live in Antwerp, and need to upload at least one book
● as a registered user, I can see and edit my personal profile
● as a registered user, I can upload a new book to my bookshelf
● as a registered user, I can browse through books from my neighbours
● as a registered user, I can search for books from my neighbours
● as a registered user, I can click on a book and see the details on the book’s page
● as a registered user, I can send a request to borrow a book from my neighbour
● as a registered user, I can approve or deny a borrow request received for my book
● as a registered user, when I sent a borrow request and it has been approved, I can
send a message to the book owner (‘lender’) to discuss when/where to pick it up
● as an admin, I can see a dashboard with the analytics of the BookMine project
● ...
MVP with clear goal: test the “neighbours want to borrow and lend books” - hypothesis
Step 2: translate to user storiesT
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● button ‘add new book to bookshelf’
● page with form to search for book in Antwerp Library database
● search calls Antwerp Library API (work with their IT department)
● show matching books cover
● user can select a found book -> details loaded automatically (API)
● or can upload a new book -> details need to be uploaded manually
● after book details confirmed: popup with reason form  
‘why did you like this book? why would you recommend it to your users?’
● after reason entered, uploaded book visible on bookshelf
“as a registered user, I can upload a new book to my bookshelf”
Step 2: translate to user stories
Step 3: define the specific requirements for each user story
& break it down into smaller steps
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Step 4: break it down further
Write it all down. Now focus on the first step.
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Step 5: build it
Focus on the first step.
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Step 5: build it
Move one level up and look at the next step.
Focus on the first step.
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Modular Thinking
Photo: Source
Photo: Source
● Break things down
● See the layers
● Take baby steps
See how the whole consists of pieces

Modular Thinking
Photo: Source
● Isolation & Don’t Repeat Yourself (DRY):
■ Write code once, use it often
■ Change code in one place,  
see the change everywhere
● Reusability & mix ‘n match
● Code Reuse: don’t reinvent the wheel
Build things by putting pieces together

Big Picture or and Detail Thinking
remember where you’re going
Photo: Source

Long-Term Thinking
think about next steps & scalability

● code readability
" write tests
" write good commit messages
" automate things
" refactor: improve the readability
and modularity of your code later
Long-Term Thinking
Do it properly now &  
thank yourself later.
Photo: Source
No, you won’t remember.

code readability
● make things explicit
● naming things is hard!
● indentation/formatting
● comments <=> added value
● functions do one thing
● minimize nested if’s
● respect the line length (80 chars)
Long-Term Thinking

Assume Continuous Change
Like software, an organisation is never “ready”

Assume Continuous Change
● single truth with change log: version control
● changeability: agile
-> modularity, isolation, DRY, readability
● “start small, think big”: lean
-> value thinking, customer focus
Like software, an organisation is never “ready”

Quarterly Sales Operations Report Q1’18 - final - V2.2 (11032018).xlsx
Version Control

Understanding Technology
code refactoring
Photo: Source

Understanding Implications
● reflects the implied cost of additional rework,
caused by choosing an easy solution now, instead
of using a better approach that would take longer 
● tradeoff between short-term and long-term value 
● reasons: - budget & time constraints
- miscommunication: short-term specs
=> often: 'business' not code-literate
cutting corners...
!
Technical debt:

Software as a Liability
Seriously.
“Measuring programming progress by lines
of code is like measuring aircraft building
progress by weight.”  
- Bill Gates
The best code is no code at all.
Seriously. Less code = better.

Tech Literate Leadership
“Learning to code has taught me to think like a
developer and made me a better CEO.
Thanks to my coding experience, I deeply
understand the strategic importance of technical
decisions related to our IT architecture, as well as
the technical implications of business decisions.”
Photo: Source
Jonathan Cornelissen
Co-Founder and CEO

Future-Proof Leadership
● Better decisions:
■ understand business & IT interaction: common language
■ agility: optimize for change; plan for progressive insights
■ from ego- to purpose- & data-driven
● Recruitment of tech profiles
● People management:
■ connect & communicate in common language
■ from (micro)managing to servant leadership & trust
■ involve tech teams: co-create, don’t throw specs over the wall
" Partnerships: optimize for creating value; collaborate don’t compete
I .
PSEUDO
C O D E

"If you want to go fast, go
alone. If you want to go far, go
together."
Future-Proof Team Work
Team effectiveness
Project Artistotle by Google
Photo: Source

3 Pillars of Digital Transformation
Technology
● Digitization
● Ecosystems & co-creation
Teal Organisation Structure & Culture
Wholeness, Self-Management, Purpose
Personal Transformation
Ego & Consciousness
"Intelligence is the ability to
adapt to change."
- Stephen Hawking
Photo: Source

Wrapping Up
Photo: Source
World today needs change in how we think.
● how we create and innovate
● how we solve problems
● how we make decisions
" how we work together
" how we lead
● how we cope with change,
both professionally and personally

Wrapping Up
Photo: Source
World today needs change in how we think.
● how we create and innovate
● how we solve problems
● how we make decisions
" how we work together
" how we lead
● how we cope with change,
both professionally and personally
 Coding is an amazing path to get there.
So is collaboration with people.

Thank you!
linkedin.com/in/lindevloeberghs
lindevloeberghs@me.com

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