A team is not a group of people who work together.
A team is a group of people who trust each other.
Hi, I'm Adam. People First, Always.
I'm an Engineering Manager, a former teacher, and a big believer that great teams are built on great relationships. I treat people as people first, I'm not above being a little silly if it brings a team closer, and I think the truest measure of a team's long-term health is how much its people trust and care about each other. Get that right, and the great software (and the business results) follow.
My Background
I grew up in a small town in Nova Scotia, Canada, as the kid who always had something taken apart on the kitchen table. I built websites, wrote code, and tinkered with anything I could get my hands on, physical or digital. Honestly, not much has changed. After earning my degree in Mathematics and Computer Science, I ...
What I Bring to a Team
Work I'm Proud Of
My favourite projects are the ones where the team grew right along with the product.
Reach Financial
Launching a New Lending Product
Tech Lead · Squad Lead · IC
Two teams of 5–7 engineers · 9 months
At Reach Financial, I worked across two teams over nine months to launch a brand-new lending product, built on new tech stacks and new integrations so we could finally move off our legacy systems. I wore whichever hat the project needed at the time: tech lead, squad lead, or heads-down IC.
Two teams, one launch, and a big step away from legacy systems.
Coconut Software
A Kiosk Experience for Bank Lobbies
Engineering Manager
Team of ~7 full-stack engineers
At Coconut Software, I led a team of about seven engineers working across the full stack to build a brand-new kiosk experience for bank lobbies, rolling out to more than 1,000 branches across the US and Canada. It was a chance to build something people use in person, in the real world, and to grow a team that owned it end to end.
1,000+ branches across the US and Canada, built by a team that owned it end to end.
Coconut Software
Engineering Competency Matrices
Engineering Manager
With 5 fellow EMs, our VP & our CTO
At Coconut Software, I worked with five fellow engineering managers, our VP, and our CTO to create a set of competency matrices used across our whole department of 50+ engineers. They turn career conversations into something concrete, with quantifiable expectations for coaching and mentoring, tracking progress toward goals, and making the path to promotion clear.
The teacher in me loves this one: clear learning goals help everyone grow.
People Who Shaped How I Lead
Nobody figures out leadership alone. These are a few of the voices I keep coming back to.
Simon Sinek
Author & speaker, Start With Why and Leaders Eat Last
At the core of everything Simon talks about is something beautifully simple: employees, colleagues, and coworkers are people. When treating people with humanity is the starting point, you get stronger teams, and stronger teams get stronger results.
Timm Chiusano
NYC-based creator on corporate life, teams & wellbeing
Timm talks about corporate life in a way that's honest and human, covering teams, growth, results, and mental health. He's a constant reminder that strong relationships, real work-life balance, and caring about mental health aren't extras. They're how good teams last.
Howard Gardner
Developmental psychologist, theory of multiple intelligences
Gardner's idea that people are smart in different ways shaped me as a teacher and still shapes me as a manager. It reminds me to look past how someone first presents and understand how they think, so I can support the way they actually grow.
Articles
Things I've been chewing on, mostly about leadership, teams, and the people who make them work.
Teaching & Education
Teaching was my first career and it's still one of my favourite things to do. Here's where I keep sharing what I know with students, teachers, and new developers.