From FedEx to Five Guys: Designing digital experiences with Yext’s VP of Software Engineering

Description

If you have ever tried to find a local branch of a major retailer, left a review on a product page, or talked to an on-page chatbot, you have likely interacted with the frontend of Yext’s Digital Experience Platform. But what goes into the backend for a modular and composable platform that can deliver for enterprises of all sizes? To answer this question, we sat down with Matt Bowman, VP of Software Engineering at Yext. Join as we discuss: ✔️ The biggest changes in the technical landscape over the last 20 years from cloud adoption to application development. ✔️ Leadership principles, hiring strategies, and advice for fostering innovation. ✔️ The challenges and opportunities that come with AI. 00:00 Welcome/Introduction 02:25 Matt’s role as Vice President of Software Engineering at Yext 03:55 What does YEXT do? 07:16 How Matt entered the world of software development 08:58 Does Matt miss hands-on coding? 10:09 Matt on the last 20 years in tech 12:24 Cloud strategy at YEXT 15:35 Thoughts on today’s technical landscape 17:09 Recent projects at Yext 20:28 Building for the EU’s sovereignty goals 22:42 What tools does Yext use for their front-end applications 25:14 Matt on Go 26:06 Matt on the technology in their managed data centers 28:28 Matt on RabbitMQ 30:18 Being open to new technologies 32:02 Piloting AI at Yext 36:40 The limitations and challenges of AI 40:45 Matt’s leadership philosophies 45:28 Fostering innovation for larger teams 48:53 How Matt keeps up with the latest technical trends 51:46 Matt’s advice for engineers Big Ideas In App Architecture presented by Cockroach Labs is a podcast for architects and engineers who are building modern, data-intensive applications and systems. In each weekly episode, an innovator joins host David Joy to share useful insights from their experiences building reliable, scalable, maintainable systems.