Speakers: Matthew Schnittker
Level: Fundamental, Lecture
Excerpt: Have you ever had a manager who didn’t understand your job? Did you feel that this person was still effective? If you became a manager, would you feel the need to be a technical expert in every part of the organization? Would this make you a good manager?
In this talk I’ll discuss some ways for managers to stay relevant on cross discipline teams by focusing on a core culture, structure, and relationships. I’ll also propose some basic structure that can apply to any IT team.
Description: Let’s say you are a really good Mac Admin and you find yourself leading a team. You may find that your role moves away from managing technology to managing people. As your responsibilities grow, some of the people lead or manage may do work that you have never done. Can you still be an effective manager for them? Are there principals that served you well as a Mac Admin which also can make you a good leader or manager?
In this talk I discuss some of the basic principles I use with my own teams and how I apply them to a wide range of disciplines. They give a basic operating system that can be used to build upon so the team is clear on constraints and structure. For example, I’ll discuss how to help people to prioritize their work, work together as a team and continue learning. I’ll also discuss ways to recognize mainstream trends, and when it makes sense to deviate from them.
(This session will not be recorded.)
About the speaker
Matthew Schnittker (Twitter: @mschnitt) – Manager, Technology – Walt Disney Animation Studios
Matt Schnittker began his association with Walt Disney Animation Studios in 1998, and currently serves as a Manager in the Systems department. His first film contribution was on Disney’s ambitious 2000 animated feature, “Dinosaur,” and he most recently worked on the Studio’s feature release, “Moana”. Schnittker has been involved in both traditional 2D, and fully digital 3D animation pipelines across both Systems and Software teams. He has contributed to several Disney patents and won an International 3D Society Lumiere Award for his work on 3D Pipelines. He currently is a manager in technology systems focusing on web and mobile software development.