Sourcing for Innovation: Recent Episodes
Catalyte
Sourcing for Innovation explores new and innovative ways to advance human potential for the digital economy. Hosted by Catalyte, discussions include enterprise software development, human capital, the future of work, talent sourcing and management, public/private partnerships and more. Tune in and find out what is being done to create more economic opportunity while improving software delivery.
Vendors are racing to coin their own terms or carve out a specific niche when it comes to AI. To be able to select the correct service for your business, you need to understand what all these services mean/entail. This conversation will explore:- The landscape of AI services/technologies (eg: productivity, concierge, platform enhancements, ML/predictive analytics).- The use cases for these AI services/technologies.- How organizations can determine which service/technology is right for them.Similar episodes:- Beyond generative AI: https://www.soundcloud.com/catalyte-sourcing-for-innovation/beyond-generative-ai- AI risk management: https://www.soundcloud.com/catalyte-sourcing-for-innovation/ai-risk-management- Probabilistic vs deterministic systems: https://www.soundcloud.com/catalyte-sourcing-for-innovation/probabilistic-vs-deterministic-systems- The impact of different data types on AI implementation: https://www.soundcloud.com/catalyte-sourcing-for-innovation/data-impact-ai-implementation For more information on Catalyte’s AI advisory services, visit: https://www.catalyte.io/services/solutions/ai-advisory-services/
Most people are aware that any AI system is only as good (accurate and unbiased) as the data that was used to train it. What people often overlook is that “data” isn’t a monolith, and neither is AI. The differences in data types and structure impact how they can be used for AI. And, the different types of AI impact how you need to structure your data.This conversation explores:- How organizations can connect the dots from data to AI.- The questions organizations should be asking about data/AI technologies in order to gain maximum benefit from both.- How different AI models require different data.- How customers/users play a role in your data/AI strategy.Similar episodes:- Beyond generative AI: https://www.soundcloud.com/catalyte-sourcing-for-innovation/beyond-generative-ai- AI risk management: https://www.soundcloud.com/catalyte-sourcing-for-innovation/ai-risk-management- Probabilistic vs deterministic systems: https://www.soundcloud.com/catalyte-sourcing-for-innovation/probabilistic-vs-deterministic-systems- What AI do you need?: https://www.soundcloud.com/catalyte-sourcing-for-innovation/what-ai-do-you-need For more information on Catalyte’s AI advisory services, visit: https://www.catalyte.io/services/solutions/ai-advisory-services/
Uncertainty equals risk in IT systems, so the issue is the uncertainty inherent in AI. This is perhaps the single greatest difference between AI and everything that has come before. It is a paradigm shift from deterministic to probabilistic systems.This conversation explores:- Definitions of probabilistic vs deterministic systems.- How organizations have managed deterministic systems.- Why AI is probabilistic and not deterministic.- What that shift means for organizations.- How organizations can manage the uncertainty/ambiguity that comes with probabilistic systems.Similar episodes:- Beyond generative AI: https://www.soundcloud.com/catalyte-sourcing-for-innovation/beyond-generative-ai- AI risk management: https://www.soundcloud.com/catalyte-sourcing-for-innovation/ai-risk-management- The impact of different data types on AI implementation: https://www.soundcloud.com/catalyte-sourcing-for-innovation/data-impact-ai-implementation - What AI do you need?: https://www.soundcloud.com/catalyte-sourcing-for-innovation/what-ai-do-you-need For more information on Catalyte’s AI advisory services, visit: https://www.catalyte.io/services/solutions/ai-advisory-services/
With the rapid growth and availability of artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, many organizations are eager to leverage them for business optimization, profitability and customer engagement. However, there are significant barriers to AI adoption in terms of ethics, security, fairness and accountability. Organizations are looking to adopt standards and frameworks that address these risks and provide assurance to executive and legal stakeholders that they are implementing AI the right way.This conversation explores: - Potential risks when adopting AI with detailed examples.- How to set up/complete an AI risk assessment.- Risk mitigation strategies and frameworks.- Benefits of risk mitigation.Similar episodes:- Beyond generative AI: https://www.soundcloud.com/catalyte-sourcing-for-innovation/beyond-generative-ai- Probabilistic vs deterministic systems: https://www.soundcloud.com/catalyte-sourcing-for-innovation/probabilistic-vs-deterministic-systems- The impact of different data types on AI implementation: https://www.soundcloud.com/catalyte-sourcing-for-innovation/data-impact-ai-implementation - What AI do you need?: https://www.soundcloud.com/catalyte-sourcing-for-innovation/what-ai-do-you-need For more information on Catalyte’s AI advisory services, visit: https://www.catalyte.io/services/solutions/ai-advisory-services/
AI hype has become synonymous with generative AI (GenAI). Many businesses don’t see the benefit of this narrowly defined technology. It takes a more nuanced understanding of, and hybrid approach to, AI for many organizations to start to see its worth their time, money and resources. But gaining that understanding can be a steep learning curve.This conversation:- Unpacks the hype around generative AI and how it fits into the larger AI picture.- Defines and gives examples of what a comprehensive hybrid approach to AI entails.- Lays out the business case and potential pilot projects organizations can implement when adopting a hybrid approach to AI.Similar episodes:- AI risk management: https://www.soundcloud.com/catalyte-sourcing-for-innovation/ai-risk-management- Probabilistic vs deterministic systems: https://www.soundcloud.com/catalyte-sourcing-for-innovation/probabilistic-vs-deterministic-systems- The impact of different data types on AI implementation: https://www.soundcloud.com/catalyte-sourcing-for-innovation/data-impact-ai-implementation- What AI do you need?: https://www.soundcloud.com/catalyte-sourcing-for-innovation/what-ai-do-you-need For more information on Catalyte’s AI advisory services, visit: https://www.catalyte.io/services/solutions/ai-advisory-services/
The success of your product, whether it’s external or internal, often hinges on a well-crafted product management plan. Without this, companies risk:- Failure to launch or achieve desired outcomes.- Disorganization, misalignment and wasted resources.- Budget overruns, schedule delays and unmet expectations.To mitigate these risks, and set the product up for long-term success, a product management plan will focus on three key areas: people, process and technology. Clark Pope, director of consulting services at Catalyte, discusses these three key areas, how they overlap and how organizations can create a product management plan that lays the groundwork for innovation, fosters collaboration and drives business value.
A recent study showed that employers were close to 10% more likely to select resumes with “distinctively white” names for a job interview than resumes that had “distinctively Black” names.On top of this fundamental bias issues, the problem with resumes is that they don’t reflect or predict who will be a high performer once hired. But HR departments and hiring managers still use them like diving rods to make some of their most consequential decisions: who to hire into the organization.Catalyte CEO Matt Derella discusses this disconnect and why CEOs, CHROs and corporate boards should be pushing their organizations to use an AI, data-driven approach to hiring. Unless they want to be named in the next negative study on resumes.
Data design is the backbone of decision-making, strategy and innovation. However, harnessing the power of data isn't easy. It requires deliberate planning, strategic thinking and the right technology. Do it right and it will save you time, money and lead to better business outcomes. Do it wrong and it can create security risks, increase costs and lead to misguided decision-making. Chris Sorel, director of technology services at Catalyte, explains how to design for data the right way.
Many organizations look to leverage the cloud to move their business forward. But the promise of the technology (lower costs, more flexibility, greater scalability) can often be at odds with reality (spiraling costs, vampire applications, vendor confusion). Without careful consideration, cloud costs can quickly spiral out of control.Controlling cloud costs starts by focusing on three critical areas: cloud vendor costs, cloud migration costs and cloud optimization/maintenance costs. This podcast dives into those three areas, uncovering hidden costs traps and providing recommendation on how to control cloud costs while maximizing your technology budgets.
Senior software engineers, architects and team leads might be skeptical about working with apprentice software developers. They might think the apprentices will slow them down or result in more overhead to manage.Jason Foster, principal architect at Catalyte, explains why the opposite is true. Working with apprentice developers makes work faster, easier and reduces total costs. He explains why apprentices don't need hand holding, how they come vetted for quality and how they make life easier for seniors and management.
Employers need talent that can immediately contribute value and be productive the moment they start. Anything less means employers are losing time and money getting new hires up to speed.We talked with Dan Reuther, director of learning and development at Catalyte, about how our apprenticeships discover, develop and deploy day-one-ready talent that can hit the ground running, and how this process creates a "win-win-win" for everyone involved.
While the transition to skills-based hiring not an easy by any means, there are a few practical, concrete steps any organization can implement to align its skills-based hiring rhetoric and practices.We spoke with Catalyte CEO Matt Derella about how employers can make this transition. He highlights three practical area, the right incentives, technology and partners, that can help align skills-based hiring practices and rhetoric, and set your organization up for a long-term, sustainable competitive advantage.
Catalyte apprentices bring a flexible, agile mindset to every client engagement. Couple that with our rigorous, customizable technical development and clients quickly trust the work that apprentices deliver.We caught up with three of these public sector apprentices who are building an essential health care platform for a public sector client. The work they’ve done to date has had an incredible impact on their local community, driving improved outcomes and accessibility. We discussed their first year on the project, what they’ve learned and how they’ve grown during that time.
January is National Mentoring Month. We talked with three mentors at Catalyte, all at different points in their careers, about what mentoring means to them. Find out what traits/characteristics make for the best mentors (and mentees), why you're never too old to be a mentee, the importance of vulnerability and empathy in mentoring and how coaching and mentoring are similar, but different.
“Enterprises may be systems, but they are not machines. The most important element in any enterprise is the human element: the people contributing to it.”This perspective comes from Curt Schwab, Catalyte's President of On Demand, in his upcoming book "The Responsive Enterprise: Transform your organization to thrive on change". In this podcast, Curt lays out why talent is the key to creating a responsive enterprise, the three systemic elements that make up a responsive enterprise and what is the ultimate business value of becoming a responsive enterprise.
The past few years have changed the ways many organizations source and hire talent. These changes have stemmed from both pragmatic (the Great Resignation) and altruistic (realization that resume-based hiring is fundamentally biased) reasons.It’s fantastic that companies are starting to invest in alternative pathways to hiring. However, what’s happening so far is not enough to make the difference we need, either in companies’ bottom lines or in our society.Companies should view apprentices not as part of their “nontraditional” or emerging hiring strategies, but as core to their talent strategies. Doing so will unleash a plethora of benefits for businesses and our communities.
The idea of coaching in apprenticeships is so fundamental that it almost becomes invisible. But without it, apprentices don't get the structure and support they need to contribute now and advance in their careers. When done right, it helps deliver better talent to employers faster, without any additional effort on their end.Apprentice Program Manager Christine Fox discusses the importance of coaching in apprenticeships, how employers benefit from it without even knowing and why her coaching style in 95% Phil Jackson and 5% Bobby Knight.
Most companies run an internship program. So why not an apprenticeship?Catalyte CEO Matt Derella discusses why apprenticeships can go beyond an internship, helping employers find higher-quality talent faster and cheaper.
Employers face the increasing challenge of finding, hiring and retaining top technology talent. Most still use "traditional" sourcing methods that rely on resumes or existing skills. This limits the quantity and quality of candidates needed to advance business outcomes.
This episode explores new and innovative approaches to sourcing technology talent. Listen to Catalyte CEO Jacob Hsu discuss how employers can benefit from sourcing models that focus on a person's aptitude and attitude. Learn how to create more productive, diverse, affordable and longer-lasting workforces with nontraditional talent.
A Navy veteran with an established technology career, Karl was not a typical candidate for Catalyte's software developer training and apprenticeship program. However, with his specialized area of expertise no longer in demand, Karl spent nearly a decade looking for a way back into the industry. A Craigslist ad promising "software developer training – no experience necessary" proved to be that way back in.
Listen to Karl describe his journey, how Catalyte has its thumb on the pulse of diversity and inclusion and how he advocates for other non-traditional developers in this Sourcing for Innovation podcast episode:
Jamar Johnson was a mixed martial arts instructor when we discovered Catalyte in the mid-2000's. A successful graduate of our software developer training program, Jamar has continued to succeed in the technology industry. He is currently the director of quality and release management, HR technology and information strategy at Comcast. He also chairs Comcast's Black Employee Network.
In this candid conversation, Jamar shares his developer journey from a non-traditional background to leading teams at one of America's largest companies. He recounts how Catalyte helped him launch that journey.
He also dives into how the tech industry as a whole can do a better job using technology to create a diverse talent pool and build more equitable companies. Hint: everyone speaks "green."
Managing a remote workforce has its challenges and rewards. If you've been thrust into a remote working situation as a result of COVID-19, or are looking for ways to maintain company cohesion, Tom Iler, CPO of Catalyte and leader of Surge, a Catalyte company, has advice on how to maintain a unified company culture across a remote workforce.
For more information on how to establish, grow or maintain a remote workforce, please visit https://www.surgeforward.com/blog/ or https://catalyte.io/news-ideas/
The concept of an apprentice or apprenticeship goes back centuries. Traditionally, they were a way for people to learn a trade from a master craftsman, in return for helping that craftsperson with their business.
The technology industry is now applying that same concept to software developers – offering on-the-job-training as an apprentice instead of paid training at college or a coding bootcamp.
How do these apprenticeships work? What are their advantages for employers and employees alike? And where in an overall talent sourcing strategy does an apprentice model fit?
Eliot Pearson, Catalyte's VP of technical development, discusses the different apprenticeships and how companies can take advantage of this modernized form of training.
According to Forrester Research's Future of IT 2018 report, 50% of all digital transformations fail. With success being no more reliable than a coin flip, why even bother to undergo this process?
Greg Kintzele, principal of business strategy for digital transformation at Catalyte, explains why transforming isn't optional and how to ensure that your organization falls on the right side of the 50/50 digital transformation divide.
How should a technology company set up a mentoring program? What is the difference between mentoring, coaching and training? Are there differences in how generations of workers approach the mentoring process?
Catalyte's CTO Rob Mansell has established mentoring programs in multiple IT organizations throughout his career. He shares his insights into what works, who should be involved and how to measure the success of such programs.
How development teams are performing is a key metric any IT organization should know. But, as your IT organization grows, and teams adopt their own "flavor" of Agile, it can be hard to compare teams or get a full organizational perspective on performance.
Companies can use organization assessments to look for opportunities to improve multiple teams simultaneously, save time and money while improving agility.
Catalyte's Les Grove explains what goes into creating as assessment, what it should measure and who needs to be involved in the process.
Will artificial intelligence (AI) be a force for good or evil in 2019? Tom Iler, Catalyte's chief product officer, discusses the different paths AI could take and what we can do to make sure it helps, rather than hurts, society.
Keys, credit cards and resumes. What do they all have in common? They are outdated methods we still rely on to perform important roles in society.
Technology is making keys and credit cards obsolete. It should do the same with resumes.
We discuss with Tom Iler, Catalyte's chief product officer, how AI, machine learning and skills-based hiring can replace the resume and create a more productive/diverse workforce.
Catalyte software developer and trainer Mike Mountain is embarking on the ultimate MLB road trip. In just 35 days, he will drive to all 30 MLB ballparks. On his trip he will drive more than 16,000 miles.
Find out how Mike developed an application to solve this logistical Mt. Everest, what parks he's most excited to see and why this diehard Oriole's fan decided to do this in the first place.
The modern internet as we know it didn't just appear fully formed. Many choices and disagreements went into creating and molding the World Wide Web.
George Mauer, director of development at Surge (www.surgeforward.com), discusses the development of the modern web from its creation, how it was structured, designed and made usable and what the future holds.
Erin Flynn, board director of Portland's Innovation Quadrant and associate vice president for strategic partnerships at Portland State University discusses the newly launched Portland IQ initiative. She also examines higher education's changing role in relation to the private sector and how colleges and universities can help foster better, more inclusive technology innovation.
As rising healthcare costs push our economy to a breaking point, organizations are turning to technology as a way to ensure better, more cost-effective outcomes.
Tony Trenkle, head of Catalyte's healthcare practice, discusses ways to use IT to reduce administrative and clinical costs, how to play catch up if you're a digital laggard and the consequences of implementing technology without a strategic plan.
Catalyte is supercharging its growth, enabling it to solve more client problems, put more Americans to work in IT and make the software development industry more diverse and inclusive. In this conversation, CEO Jacob Hsu discusses Catalyte's acquisition of Surge, its $27M funding round, the opening of new development centers, need for local teams/individuals and how all this positions Catalyte to take full advantage of the onshoring software development trend.
In 2000, Michael Rosenbaum founded Catalyte and created the Catalyte Talent Platform, a big data engine that removes the cultural biases from hiring and objectively selects candidates who have the innate potential to become great software developers.
In this episode, Michael discusses the founding of Catalyte, the impact of the Talent Platform and how AI and machine learning can be put to use in skills-based hiring to create better software engineering outcomes.
Resumes are a poor predictor of job success. Evolving to a skill-based hiring process would allow better and more equal access to employment, decrease hiring costs and make businesses more innovative and resilient.
Interview with Chevonne Hall, the principal of the Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women. A moving discussion that dives deeper into STEP's themes of community, perseverance, mentoring, importance of education and technology and how unleash the potential inside every person.
There are many similarities between farm-to-table restaurants and colocated software development teams: local teams working closely with clients to quickly adapt to new technologies and changing user demands.
Tech policy expert, New York Times best-selling author and Maryland gubernatorial candidate Alec Ross discusses preparing Maryland's workforce for the new digital economy, the importance of technical education for all and if the Orioles will make the playoffs this year.
There are many ways to practice Agile, both correctly and incorrectly. Here's how to identify if you're practicing "Faux Agile" and how to fix it.
Digital transformation places extra importance on finding the correct partner who can co-create the enterprise applications that fulfill customer expectations and meet critical business needs.
The difference between good and bad software development or project management is often how an organization implements patterns and anti-patterns.
But there are ways to avoid falling into these destructive management traps. Here are seven project management anti-patterns and how to stop them from infecting your organization.
Developers are more crucial than ever to a company's business success. How do you keep them engaged, motivated and producing on the highest level?
Grant English, Catalyte's director of technology, explains some easy ways to show your developers some love.
Catalyst DevWorks just became Catalyte. CEO Jacob Hsu talks about why this change was made, what it means for clients, how Catalyte differentiates itself in the market and how the company will expand from its core software engineering competency.