ALL SPEAKERS

Hero

Daniel Terhorst-North

Daniel Terhorst-North

Founder & Principal Consultant

Goalwards

AT A GLANCE

Role

Founder & Principal Consultant

Organisation

Goalwards

Category

Hero

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Daniel Terhorst-North invented [Behaviour-Driven Development](/introducing-bdd), co-invented the [build pipeline](https://www.academia.edu/6158670/The_Deployment_Production_Line), and pioneered many of the [Continuous Delivery](https://continuousdelivery.com) practices that software teams now take for granted. These were born out of necessity, on real projects, which is why the ideas stuck. In his thirty-five year career, Daniel has moved from programmer to technical leader to trusted CxO adviser, bridging the worlds of technology and business operations. Since 2012, he has been an independent consultant to organizations from start-ups to household names. A popular keynote speaker at major technology and business conferences worldwide, he has contributed to *The RSpec Book* and *97 Things Every Programmer Should Know*, and blogs at [https://dannorth.net/blog](/blog).

TALK

Am I holding this right?

Oh look, another session about AI! Your social media feeds are already flooded with agentic this and spec-driven that; one-shot rewrites and everyone-is-a-programmer-now. I want to share some models and metaphors that are helping me make sense of this new world: why Ward Cunningham hates printers, how riding a fixie isn’t really cycling, why Claude is just a mercenary contractor, how test-first is the new TDD. Beyond the hype, we should still care about iterative development, bounded contexts, decent tests, intention-revealing names. And AI is not going to replace junior developers any time soon, instead it is something... other. I don’t use genAI to go faster or produce more, at least not primarily. Instead it is helping me do 'adjacent' things, allowing me to focus where I want to rather than where I otherwise would have to. My goal is to give you a more nuanced take on generative AI, to help you cut through all the noise and get actual work done.

MORE VOICES

Other speakers at code.talks

Eric Evans photo
Hero
Eric Evans
Software Designer ·
#Architecture
BIO
Eric Evans
Software Designer ·
More info →
Maja Göpel photo
Hero
Maja Göpel
Geschäftsführerin · Mission Wertvoll
#Impact
BIO
Maja Göpel
Geschäftsführerin · Mission Wertvoll

Prof. Dr. Maja Göpel is a political economist and an influential voice for the sustainable transformation of society, working at the intersection of economy, politics, and society. The policy advisor, bestselling author, and sought-after speaker is a professor for sustainability transformation at Leuphana University Lüneburg and founder of “Mission Wertvoll“. She was Director of Research at The New Institute and Secretary-General of the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU). Before that, she headed the Berlin office of the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment, Energy, after having helped set up the World Future Council for six years as Director Future Justice at the Brussels office and as Campaign Manager Climate Energy in Hamburg. Maja Göpel is a member of the Club of Rome, the World Future Council, the Balaton Group, and a co-initiator of the “Scientists for Future” network. She was a member of the Bioeconomy Council of the German Federal Government. Her work has been recognized with multiple awards in Germany, the most recent ones being the Honorary Award of the German Sustainability Award, the myself Award, and the Science Communication Medal.

More info →
Randy Shoup photo
Hero
Randy Shoup
SVP Engineering · Thrive Market
#Architecture
BIO
Randy Shoup
SVP Engineering · Thrive Market

Randy Shoup is a Silicon Valley veteran with over 30 years of experience building distributed systems and high-performing engineering organizations. Currently the SVP Engineering at Thrive Market, he focuses on scaling technology infrastructures and increasing engineering productivity through DevOps and evolutionary architecture.

Throughout his career, Randy has held executive roles at eBay, Google, and Stitch Fix. He is a frequent keynote speaker and advisor to CTOs, particularly interested in the intersection of people, culture, and technology. Randy is known for sharing practical insights on large-scale systems and the power of simplicity in architecture.

More info →
Malte Ubl photo
Partner
Malte Ubl
CTO · Vercel
#Frontend
BIO
Malte Ubl
CTO · Vercel

Malte Ubl is the CTO of Vercel, where he leads the development and delivery of the company’s suite of tools and features to enable developers to create at the moment of inspiration. Prior to joining Vercel, Malte was the Principal Engineer for Google Search Rendering and Engineering Director for Google’s Search on Laptops, Tablets, and Desktop. Malte has also created the frontend infrastructure for a number of Google Web Apps and the web at large. He is also the founder and curator of JSConf EU.

More info →

See them live — and 100+ more.

One ticket, every track. Nov 4–5, 2026 at Kinopolis Hamburg.

Get your ticket

Let’s connect on LinkedIn.

Speakers, program drops and much more of the community.

A 2-day sweet spot conference for the entire dev team to stay future-proof in the age of AI.

© 2026 code.talks · alphalist GmbH · Hamburg

Let’s connect on LinkedIn.

Speakers, program drops and much more of the community.

A 2-day sweet spot conference for the entire dev team to stay future-proof in the age of AI.

© 2026 code.talks · alphalist GmbH · Hamburg