SESSION

How Google Uses Bathroom Breaks to Improve Developer Knowledge and Productivity

Tech on the Toilet is a weekly one-page publication about software development that is posted in bathrooms in Google offices worldwide and is read by tens of thousands of Google engineers.

It is one of the most effective ways to quickly spread software development knowledge across Google. It covers topics such as code quality tips, unit testing best practices, and developer productivity tools.

This talk will give an overview of the Tech on the Toilet program, and share lessons learned that can be applied at other companies.

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PRESENTED BY
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    Andrew Trenk

    Senior Software Engineer @ Google

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    Kanu Tewary

    Technical Program Manager @ Google

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Develocity

Take it further with Develocity

Andrew and Kanu describe how a small group of Google engineers successfully spread testing best practices to thousands of fellow engineers, ultimately changing and improving attitudes towards testing and code quality. One important takeaway from this talk—having smart people and good tooling is not enough. It’s equally important to share best practices and educate engineers how to effectively use the tools available to them. Develocity is one such tool that helps speed up build times, reduce time spent troubleshooting, and provide visibility into productivity bottlenecks, and Gradle’s DPE University provides free training on how to make the most of Develocity’s suite of features.

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The slides

How Google Uses Bathroom Breaks to Improve Developer Knowledge and Productivity — slide 1How Google Uses Bathroom Breaks to Improve Developer Knowledge and Productivity — slide 2How Google Uses Bathroom Breaks to Improve Developer Knowledge and Productivity — slide 3How Google Uses Bathroom Breaks to Improve Developer Knowledge and Productivity — slide 4How Google Uses Bathroom Breaks to Improve Developer Knowledge and Productivity — slide 5How Google Uses Bathroom Breaks to Improve Developer Knowledge and Productivity — slide 6How Google Uses Bathroom Breaks to Improve Developer Knowledge and Productivity — slide 7How Google Uses Bathroom Breaks to Improve Developer Knowledge and Productivity — slide 8How Google Uses Bathroom Breaks to Improve Developer Knowledge and Productivity — slide 9How Google Uses Bathroom Breaks to Improve Developer Knowledge and Productivity — slide 10How Google Uses Bathroom Breaks to Improve Developer Knowledge and Productivity — slide 11How Google Uses Bathroom Breaks to Improve Developer Knowledge and Productivity — slide 12How Google Uses Bathroom Breaks to Improve Developer Knowledge and Productivity — slide 13How Google Uses Bathroom Breaks to Improve Developer Knowledge and Productivity — slide 14How Google Uses Bathroom Breaks to Improve Developer Knowledge and Productivity — slide 15How Google Uses Bathroom Breaks to Improve Developer Knowledge and Productivity — slide 16How Google Uses Bathroom Breaks to Improve Developer Knowledge and Productivity — slide 17How Google Uses Bathroom Breaks to Improve Developer Knowledge and Productivity — slide 18How Google Uses Bathroom Breaks to Improve Developer Knowledge and Productivity — slide 19How Google Uses Bathroom Breaks to Improve Developer Knowledge and Productivity — slide 20How Google Uses Bathroom Breaks to Improve Developer Knowledge and Productivity — slide 21How Google Uses Bathroom Breaks to Improve Developer Knowledge and Productivity — slide 22How Google Uses Bathroom Breaks to Improve Developer Knowledge and Productivity — slide 23How Google Uses Bathroom Breaks to Improve Developer Knowledge and Productivity — slide 24How Google Uses Bathroom Breaks to Improve Developer Knowledge and Productivity — slide 25How Google Uses Bathroom Breaks to Improve Developer Knowledge and Productivity — slide 26How Google Uses Bathroom Breaks to Improve Developer Knowledge and Productivity — slide 27How Google Uses Bathroom Breaks to Improve Developer Knowledge and Productivity — slide 28How Google Uses Bathroom Breaks to Improve Developer Knowledge and Productivity — slide 29How Google Uses Bathroom Breaks to Improve Developer Knowledge and Productivity — slide 30How Google Uses Bathroom Breaks to Improve Developer Knowledge and Productivity — slide 31How Google Uses Bathroom Breaks to Improve Developer Knowledge and Productivity — slide 32How Google Uses Bathroom Breaks to Improve Developer Knowledge and Productivity — slide 33How Google Uses Bathroom Breaks to Improve Developer Knowledge and Productivity — slide 34How Google Uses Bathroom Breaks to Improve Developer Knowledge and Productivity — slide 35

Meet the speakers

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    Andrew Trenk

    Andrew has been a software engineer at Google since 2008, mainly on Google Search and Ads.

    Andrew is involved in various efforts at Google to spread knowledge about software engineering best practices. He leads Tech on the Toilet, a weekly one-page newsletter about coding tips that is posted in Google bathrooms worldwide. He also contributes to Google’s unit testing best practices documentation, and is the author of a chapter about unit testing in the Software Engineering at Google book.

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    Kanu Tewary

    Kanu is a technical program manager at Google, with extensive experience in tools and infrastructure. Kanu’s most recent role is in the Office of Cross-Google Engineering, driving the evolution of Google’s infrastructure to best serve the needs of its internal developer community. Kanu volunteers for Tech on the Toilet, a community effort to spread engineering knowledge throughout Google by placing one-page articles in restrooms. Prior to Google, Kanu has had several years of experience as a compiler toolchain engineer at Cisco, and Sun Microsystems. She has taught various university courses, including software engineering for the Cybersecurity Cohort program at San Jose State University. Kanu enjoys mentoring students and early-in-career technologists, and has done so through several organizations including Technovation Challenge, Built By Girls WAVE, and the Grace Hopper Conference.