You have a great idea for a feature! It’s going to fill a major need for your users, and you just know it’s going to take off. Except…it doesn’t. It fizzles, and it flops, and it doesn’t live up to your (admittedly wild) expectations. Join us - a couple of overly alliterative engineers and one space-obsessed product manager from Handshake - as we discuss how this happened to us, how we’re improving and iterating, and how you can reimagine and reinvigorate your underperforming features as well.

Katie White is a creative and passionate Software Engineer who relishes a challenge. She is a strong motivator and team builder who subscribes to the servant leadership philosophy, believing that empowering others is the key to successful teams. Katie is also a champion for diversity in tech and is frequently outspoken about her beliefs that you need diverse voices in order to build software for a diverse customer base. In her free time, Katie enjoys rotating between one of her many hobbies, mentoring early career devs, and hanging with her two awesome kids.

Gabe Forgie is a Product Manager who’s been with Handshake for 3 years. With a background in customer service and a degree in IT, it took this growing startup investing in its employees for Gabe to learn Product Management existed, let alone that it was an exciting and fulfilling career path. Gabe plans strategy to help other early talent find the right path via Handshake. Outside of work, he spends time with his wife, toddler, dog, and cat, and loves to play games like Rocket League and Destiny.

Austin Biggs is an experienced and determined senior software engineer with a passion for problem-solving. He possesses more than ten years of experience in software development. His competencies include team leadership, solutions architecture, technical leadership and advisory, and knowledge sharing. A few of the technologies he specializes in are TypeScript, React, GraphQL, and Ruby. Outside of his primary job functions, Austin demonstrates a strong emphasis on both mentorship and creating safe spaces. He strongly believes in the diversity of thought, background, and experience. Throughout his career Austin has amassed years of leadership experience, ranging from company ownership, technical knowledge guilds, employee communities, technical workshops, project leadership, and more. In his free time, you can expect Austin to be wielding the Master Sword, learning new technologies, catching Pokémon, reading (er, listening) to fantasy novels, or playing with his energetic Husky.