Shift thinking from academic lessons to real-world problem-solving, business awareness, and leadership thinking.

Demystify how young professionals step into leadership roles—not through titles, but through influence, ownership, and initiative. Join Marc Ian, Jon David Frilles, Maki Villano, and Kayne Rodrigo as they share real-world experiences on leading projects, earning trust within teams, and driving impact early in their careers. The discussion focuses on practical lessons, mindset shifts, and everyday actions that help engineers grow into leaders while continuing to build strong technical foundations.

Demystify AI careers — what’s real, what’s hype, and how beginners can actually get started.

Join Piolo Justin Cabigao, Samantha Servo, Luis Maverick Gabriel, and Jayz Carillo as they explore the core skills that define today’s engineering baseline, from cloud fundamentals and Kubernetes orchestration to practical AI integration. The conversation cuts through the hype to clarify what new engineers actually need to learn early in their careers, how these technologies fit together in real-world environments, and where to focus for long-term impact. The episode highlights hands-on experience, architectural thinking, and building adaptable skills that scale with rapidly evolving teams and platforms.

Dive into the strategies and practices that make IT systems resilient, scalable, and reliable. Guests will share insights on cloud architecture, operational workflows, AI monitoring, and IT audit processes that ensure systems perform consistently under pressure or during unexpected incidents. The discussion focuses on practical lessons, cross-functional collaboration, and how to design systems that grow with your business, without framing it around cybersecurity.

Explore what defines good software engineering in 2025. This episode unpacks modern engineering philosophies, from choosing the right architectures and frameworks to writing clean, maintainable code that stands the test of time. In this episode, Jhon Morales, Maverick Gabriel, Jed Tan, and Marc Ian discuss how developers balance speed with quality, design for scalability from day one, and adapt systems to evolving technologies and business needs.

Understand how passion projects become real opportunities: jobs, startups, or major differentiators in competitive industries.

Explore the truth behind breaking into tech today — do degrees still matter? Are bootcamps enough? What actually gets someone hired in 2025?

Uncover the truth about freelancing and remote work — the freedom, the burnout, the money, and the emotional rollercoaster behind it.

This episode explores how platforms like TikTok are reshaping the way tech professionals learn, teach, build credibility, and find opportunities. We’ll discuss whether short-form content can drive real career growth, help launch projects, attract clients, and even influence how companies hire or evaluate talent.

This episode shines a spotlight on Bisaya tech professionals who grew up, studied, or started their careers in Visayas and Mindanao, then took bold steps into larger tech ecosystems—whether Manila, overseas, or remote global roles.

We explore what makes Bisaya talent resilient, resourceful, and highly competitive in tech, and the unique challenges faced when leaving home—culture shifts, language barriers, confidence gaps, financial risks, imposter syndrome, and navigating bigger corporate environments.

At the same time, we celebrate their wins: breaking into top companies, earning certifications, mentoring others, and proving that world-class tech talent doesn’t only come from big-city schools.

We look at the power of open-source philosophy as the competitive edge for modern companies. This episode explores how transparent development, shared knowledge, and active community mentorship accelerate innovation far more effectively than closed, proprietary systems. Our guests discuss the economic benefits, ethical responsibilities, and cultural shifts required to truly embrace an open future.

Is your job just a job, or is it a calling? This episode explores the concept of purpose-driven careers in technology, where professionals seek meaning beyond standard metrics like salary or job title. Our guests share their personal journeys on aligning their values with their work, transitioning to roles with higher social impact, and sustaining motivation through meaningful contributions.

We challenge the conventional view of leadership as being tied to a job title. This episode explores how influence, mentorship, and driving initiatives happen at every level in open and agile organizations. Our guests share insights into contributing value beyond defined roles, taking ownership of problems, and cultivating a culture where everyone feels empowered to step up and lead change.

Software development is a team sport, and this episode shines a light on the crucial roles outside of coding. We celebrate the professionals—from QA testers and technical writers to product owners and support specialists—who ensure technology is functional, reliable, and user-ready. Our guests discuss career paths, the unique skill sets needed, and how non-developers directly drive the success of a product.

The best code is built by the best teams. This episode explores the vital role of engineering culture in driving success. We discuss how high-performing teams foster trust, handle constructive conflict, and establish psychological safety, moving beyond just technical excellence. Our guests share actionable strategies for leaders and members to cultivate an environment where collaboration thrives.

On this episode, we have Ryana Que, Jaime Hing III, and Dominique Villafuert joining us to discuss "Empathy by Design" and how human-centered tech drives meaningful change.

We dive into the philosophy of human-centered design, where technology is built with the user's real-world context and needs in mind. This episode explores how empathy leads to more inclusive and impactful products, discussing the difference between building something that works and building something that genuinely serves humanity. 

How can engineers and designers actively build empathy for users whose backgrounds are vastly different from their own? (Generalization)

Engineers and designers can actively build empathy through immersive research and intentional exposure. This involves moving beyond simple surveys to conduct field studies, contextual interviews, and "shadowing" users in their natural environments. Another effective technique is persona creation that includes socioeconomic, cultural, and technological access details, forcing the team to design for constraints they don't personally share. Furthermore, incorporating diverse users into the testing and feedback loops—not just at the end, but throughout the design process—is crucial for recognizing and mitigating personal biases.

What is one non-obvious example of a product where a lack of empathy led to a critical failure? (Generalization)

One non-obvious example is the early design of some biometric or facial recognition systems that exhibited much higher error rates for individuals with darker skin tones. The failure wasn't malicious, but a lack of empathy in the training data—the developers, often unconsciously, used datasets that disproportionately featured lighter-skinned individuals. This lack of inclusive data empathy led to a critical failure where the technology was effectively less functional and inherently biased against a significant portion of the global population, causing ethical and practical failures.

In the race for speed, how do teams ensure they don't sideline inclusivity and accessibility checks? (Generalization)

To prevent sidelining these checks, teams must integrate them as non-negotiable, automated steps within the development pipeline. This means adopting a "shift left" approach, where accessibility and inclusivity are baked into the definition of "done" for every feature, not treated as a final-stage QA step. Utilizing automated accessibility tools in continuous integration and making compliance with global standards (like WCAG) a core requirement for code review ensure these checks are a fundamental part of speed, rather than a separate hurdle.

What role does thoughtful design play in mitigating the negative ethical or social impacts of new technology? (Generalization)

Thoughtful design serves as the first line of defense against negative ethical and social impacts. It involves proactively considering the "worst-case scenario" or unintended consequences of a product—not just how it can be used, but how it could be misused. By employing ethical design principles (e.g., designing friction to slow down harmful actions, prioritizing privacy by default, and making AI decisions transparent), designers can build guardrails into the user experience. This helps steer user behavior toward positive outcomes and minimizes opportunities for misuse or social manipulation.

On this episode, we have Ryana Que, Waffen Sultan, Paolo Mahomuri, and Josan Astrid Dometita joining us to discuss building for impact beyond the 9-to-5 through passion projects and community-driven innovation.

Not all great tech starts in the office — sometimes it begins as a personal itch to solve a problem. In this episode, we explore how passion projects, volunteer work, and community-driven innovation can evolve into tools that impact citizens, businesses, and government. Hear how simple curiosity, grit, and a desire to help can scale into mission-driven technology with real-world influence.

On this episode, we have Ryana Que, Andrew Concepcion, and Waffen Sultan joining us to discuss "Code for the People: Inside the BetterGov Movement" and how open-source developers are reshaping digital governance in the Philippines.

The Philippines' digital infrastructure has long been a source of frustration for its citizens, with outdated websites and confusing processes creating barriers to essential services. We explore the BetterGov Movement, a grassroots, volunteer-driven initiative using open-source technology to build a more user-friendly and transparent national government portal. We talk to these civic tech advocates about turning citizen frustration into collaborative action.

What was the specific moment of frustration that compelled you to stop waiting and start building BetterGov.ph? (Generalization)

The compelling moment of frustration is typically an experience with a broken or confusing government online service. This often involves a simple task, like checking requirements for a document or finding an official form, that becomes unnecessarily complicated by outdated websites, broken links, or conflicting information. The realization is that the problem isn't technical complexity, but a lack of user-centric design and cohesion. This leads to the thought, "If I can build a better user interface in a weekend, imagine what a community could do," thus starting the initiative.

How do you maintain quality and consistency when the entire project is built and maintained by volunteers? (Generalization)

Maintaining quality in a volunteer project relies heavily on strong processes, clear governance, and community culture. This involves strictly enforcing code review standards, utilizing continuous integration tools to automate quality checks, and maintaining comprehensive, accessible documentation. Consistency is ensured by establishing a design system and style guide early on. Crucially, the community culture must prioritize learning and mutual respect, where constructive feedback is the norm and veteran volunteers mentor newcomers to ensure code quality is a shared responsibility.

What is the biggest lesson the government could learn from an open-source, community-led project like this? (Generalization)

The biggest lesson is the power of transparency and iterative development. The community model thrives on open communication, allowing citizens to see progress, suggest improvements, and hold the project accountable. This contrasts with traditional government projects that are often opaque. By embracing open-source principles, the government could learn to launch early, iterate based on user feedback (citizens), and leverage the collective intelligence of the nation's developer pool to rapidly improve essential digital services.

What is the biggest challenge of working with public data and making it truly accessible to the non-technical Filipino citizen? (Generalization)

The biggest challenge is the poor quality and fragmented nature of the source data. Government data often resides in silos, lacks standardization, is not machine-readable, or is simply outdated. Making it accessible requires more than just displaying it on a website; it means translating complex bureaucratic language into simple, actionable information and designing user interfaces that require zero technical skill to navigate. The difficulty lies in sanitizing and unifying disparate data sources so the non-technical citizen can easily find definitive answers to their essential questions.

Winning isn't the only goal. This episode is for everyone who is nervous about joining their first hackathon. While most people talk about how to win, we're focused on what you can learn from losing. We'll share our own stories of not winning and explain why it's not a failure, but a crucial step toward building new skills, expanding your network, and setting yourself up for future