In this episode of the Frontmatter podcast, Len Epp interviews Pete Zerger, a cybersecurity strategist and Chief Information Security Officer, and author of the LeanPub book, CISSP: The Last Mile. Pete shares his career journey from IT into cybersecurity, discussing the turning points that led him into cloud security, and ultimately, cybersecurity strategy. Pete explains that his book, CISSP: The Last Mile, is designed for those pursuing the CISSP certification, a highly-regarded credential...

In this episode of the FrontMatter podcast, Len Epp interviews Leah Paulos, founder of Press Shop PR and Book Publicity School. With over 25 years of experience in media and book publicity, Leah shares her journey from magazine journalism to book PR, highlighting her career’s evolution, especially as media and publishing landscapes have shifted dramatically. Leah reflects on how she moved from magazines like Condé Nast to running Press Shop PR, where she’s worked on major campaigns for books...

In this interview, Leanpub co-founder Len Epp talks with Maciej “MJ” Jedrzejewski, author of the Leanpub book Master Software Architecture: A Pragmatic Guide. MJ, based in Switzerland, is a software developer, architect, and tech lead with extensive experience in the IT industry. He discusses his background, starting from his early fascination with hardware and overclocking processors in Poland, to his transition into software development and architecture, now working in Switzerland. The...

Todd Miller and Ryan Ripley are the authors of the Leanpub book Fixing Your Scrum: Practical Solutions to Common Scrum Problems. In this episode of the Frontmatter podcast, Ryan and Todd share their individual career journeys to becoming expert trainers in the Scrum framework and their deep insights in how to improve when things go wrong in your organization. Ryan, based in Indiana, reflects on his time working in various industries, including work on medical devices, and the pivotal moment...

Eric Elliott is the author of the Leanpub book The Art of Effortless Programming: Unleashing the Power of AI Driven Development. In this interview, Leanpub co-founder Len Epp talks with Eric about his early fascination with AI, starting from when he was six years old, writing text-based adventure games, and developing his first neural network in the late 90s. Eric shares his career journey, from pioneering AI-driven development, to his role at Adobe Firefly, focusing on generative AI. He...

Michael Feathers is the author of the Leanpub book AI Assisted Programming. In this episode of the FrontMatter podcast, host Len Epp interviews Michael Feathers, founder of R7K Research and Conveyance. Michael delves into his career journey, from his early interest in technology to becoming a prominent voice in software design and the challenges of working with legacy code. The conversation begins with Michael sharing his background, detailing how his fascination with technology evolved...

In this episode of the FrontMatter podcast, host Len Epp interviews Eric Wise, author of Effectively Learning to Code: A Brain-Based Approach. Based in Cleveland, Eric is a software architect turned learning expert who has founded and led successful companies while honing his passion for creating impactful learning experiences. His book bridges the gap between cognitive science and coding education, offering strategies rooted in brain science to help aspiring developers learn to code more...

Gojko Adzic is the author of the Leanpub book Lizard Optimization: Unlock Product Growth by Engaging Long-Tail Users. In this interview, Leanpub co-founder Len Epp talks with Gojko about what he’s been up to since he was first on the podcast, managing hugely successful products with really small teams, and his new book about how to think about outlier customers. This interview was recorded on August 8, 2024. The full audio for the interview is here:...

Thad McIlroy is the author of the Leanpub book The AI Revolution in Book Publishing: A Concise Guide to Navigating Artificial Intelligence for Writers and Publishers. In this interview, Leanpub co-founder Len Epp talks with Thad about about his new book, and many of the important questions for both authors and books publishers in our current era of technological innovation in the area of artificial intellegence. This interview was recorded on August 6, 2024. The full audio for the interview...

Peter Stevens is the author of the Leanpub book The Illustrated Guide to Scrum: Scrum Explained Through Infographics. In this interview, Leanpub co-founder Len Epp talks with Peter about his background and career, manufacturing innovations and what it means to be a “Musk” company, Scrum, and about his approach to writing and illustrating for professionals. This interview was recorded on July 18, 2024. The full audio for the interview is here:...

Leo Tam is the author of Truth Engine: Applying AI to Investing. In this interview, Leanpub co-founder Len Epp talks with Leo about his background and career, his academic research and his time working at NVIDA, the deep applications of AI in investing, and about his writing process. This interview was recorded on June 17, 2024. The full audio for the interview is here: https://s3.amazonaws.com/leanpub_podcasts/FM-295-Leonidas-Tam-2024-06-17.mp3. The Frontmatter podcast is available on our...

Stephan Schmidt is the author of the Leanpub book Amazing CTO: The Missing Manual for Managing. In this interview, Leanpub co-founder Len Epp talks with Stephan about his background and career, his book and the challenges of being a CTO, and how to prepare for and thrive in that role, and also about his writing process. This interview was recorded on June 12, 2024. The full audio for the interview is here: https://s3.amazonaws.com/leanpub_podcasts/FM294-Stephan-Schmidt-2024-06-12.mp3. The...

Philip Gannon is the author of the Leanpub book Become a Senior Developer: A concise guide to succeeding as a Senior Software Developer. In this interview, Leanpub co-founder Len Epp talks with Philip about his background and career, how he first got interested in technology, his book and the challenges faced by developers when they get promoted to senior roles, and his experience as a writer. This interview was recorded on June 10, 2024. The full audio for the interview is here:...

Phil Sturgeon is the author of the Leanpub book Surviving Other People’s APIs. In this interview, Leanpub co-founder Len Epp talks with Phil about what he’s been up to since he was last on the podcast, co-founding the environmental charity Protect Earth, and his latest book, Surviving Other People’s APIs. This interview was recorded on May 23, 2024. The full audio for the interview is here: https://s3.amazonaws.com/leanpub_podcasts/FM292-Phil-Sturgeon-2024-05-13.mp3. The Frontmatter podcast...

Isaak Tsalicoglou is the author of the Leanpub book The Incredible Story of Deft: What Nobody Told You About Business Hype (Lean, Agile, etc.). In this interview, Leanpub co-founder Len Epp talks with Isaak about his background and career, his books, how frameworks like Agile and Scrum can be corrupted, using Plato’s allegory of the cave to explain how startups can compete against incumbents, and about his work as a writer. This interview was recorded on April 12, 2024. The full audio for...

Barry O’Reilly is the author of the Leanpub book Residues: Time, Change, and Uncertainty in Software Architecture. In this interview, Leanpub co-founder Len Epp talks with Barry about his background and career, Complexity Science and its connection to his fascinating concept of Residuality theory in the fields Software Architecture and Computer Science, and his experience as a writer. This interview was recorded on April 9, 2024. The full audio for the interview is here:...

Luca Minudel is the author of the Leanpub book Succeed over difficult problems by embracing Complexity-Thinking: Micro-guide to thriving in everyday complexity by breaking free from ordered and linear approaches. In this interview, Leanpub co-founder Len Epp talks with Luca about his professional background, the challenges of high-pressure work, what it was like working on the software side of the Ferrari F1 team, his book, and his approach to writing. This interview was recorded on March...

Viktor Farcic is the author of the Leanpub book Crossplane: The Cloud Native Control Plane. In this interview, Leanpub co-founder Len Epp talks with Viktor about what he’s been up to since his first appearance on the podcast, and his latest book, on Crossplane, explaining how using the service you create, for people in your company, a platform that would provide them with the same experience they have when working with AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, or any other public Cloud provider. This...

Marc Bless is co-author of the Leanpub book Agile Games and Simulations: Field-tested games for Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches. In this interview, Leanpub co-founder Len Epp talks with Marc about his background and career, his book, the nature and power of Agile games and simulations for improving team productivity, and his experience as a co-author. This interview was recorded on March 11, 2024. The full audio for the interview is here:...

Paul Hammant and Luc Courage are the authors of the Leanpub book Value Stream Mapping for Software Delivery Teams. In this interview, Leanpub co-founder Len Epp talks with Paul and Luc about their backgrounds and careers, how they decided to collaborate on a book together, the history of manufacturing and the development of Value Stream Mapping, their book, and their writing process. You can find the image discussed in the video here. This interview was recorded on March 7, 2024. The full...

Joaquim Torres is the author of the Leanpub book Digital Transformation and Product Culture: How to put technology at the center of your company’s strategy. In this interview, Leanpub co-founder Len Epp talks with Joca about his background and career, managing digital transformations in different industries, including internet services, real estate, and more, as well as his book, Digital Transformation and Product Culture; and at the end, he talks about his approach to writing books. This...

Helene Gidley is the author of the Leanpub book The Art of Agile Living: A Simple And Powerful Approach To Tame Your Overwhelm. In this interview, Leanpub co-founder Len Epp talks with Helene about her background and career, how she gained expertise in Agile and how you can apply it to your day-to-day life to become more productive, her book, and her experience as an author. This interview was recorded on December 28, 2023. The full audio for the interview is here:...

Wim Deblauwe is the author of the Leanpub book Modern frontends with htmx: Use htmx with Spring Boot and Thymeleaf to build dynamic and interactive web applications. In this interview, Leanpub co-founder Len Epp talks with Wim about his background and career, his book, the revolutionary promise of htmx, a technology that redefines frontend development, and his experience as an author. This interview was recorded on December 13, 2023. The full audio for the interview is here:...

In this special year-end episode of the podcast, Leanpub co-founder Len Epp talks with special guest Dan Holloway about some of the major events in the book publishing industry in 2023, including many of the questions raised and the opportunities presented by the rise of AI. As promised in the episode, here’s a link to Dan’s great project WhatWeNeed.Support. The aim of this project is to describe the changes, reasonable adjustments, and support needs that disabled and vulnerable consumers...