Paul Grenyer

One of the most powerful things you can do as a leader is to talk to your team every day. It sounds simple, but it’s often overlooked, especially in distributed teams. Daily conversations help build and maintain relationships, foster trust, and remind your team that they matter as people, not just as task-completers. Let’s be clear: this isn’t a psychological experiment. There’s no hidden agenda or behavioral study behind it. It’s simply about genuine care and human connection. But what should you talk about? It doesn’t have to be complicated. Ask how they are, how their family is, or how life outside work is going. The point isn’t the topic, it’s the connection. I usually start with something like: “Hullo! How’s things?” It often takes a few tries before people realise I’m genuinely asking about them, not their current task. A colleague once raised a concern: Doesn’t this feel like micromanaging? It’s a fair question, and the answer lies in how you do it. This isn’t about checking up ...

  Beyond the Code:  Designing Services That Stand the Test of Time  Wednesday, 4th February 2026   St Aldates Tavern, 108 Saint Aldate's, Oxford @ 6pm   RSVP     As software engineers, it’s easy to get lost in the excitement of implementing clever business logic: the algorithms, the workflows, the elegant domain models. But the success (or failure) of a service rarely hinges on its core logic alone. What really separates a fragile prototype from a resilient, scalable system is everything that happens around that logic: the invisible scaffolding that shapes how a service behaves, communicates, and recovers when things go wrong. In this session I’ll explore the often-overlooked aspects of building robust services. The decisions that make the difference between smooth operations and painful refactors months down the line. I’ll unpack how thoughtful design choices early on can pay dividends in maintainability, observability, and security later. Whethe...

This book was recommended to me by a designer I work with and we’re still friends, so it’s not a bad recommendation! I found many of the ideas fascinating, especially the story of how Red Bull was conceived and marketed. At first glance, some of these concepts seem astounding, but when you dig into the psychology behind them, they make complete sense. The book really flips a lot of traditional marketing assumptions on their head. Rory Sutherland packs the book with insights. Sometimes it feels like every idea he’s ever had is in here. My one criticism is that it’s long and contains a lot of repetition, which goes beyond simple reinforcement. If you have something to sell or even just a product to design, this book is well worth reading. Alchemy: The Surprising Power of Ideas That Don't Make Sense Rory Sutherland ISBN-13: 978-0753551370

On the 5th November this year (2025) I had the pleasure of speaking about deploying Lambdas at  ACCU York . They were a fantastic group of engineers. I had a fantastic time and they shot this video of me.   From Zero to Deployed: Building and Shipping an AWS Lambda with TypeScript, Terraform & GitHub Actions Ever wanted to build a serverless function, but felt there was too much boilerplate to write before it gets interesting? In this talk, we’ll walk through creating an AWS Lambda from scratch, using TypeScript, and show just how clean, fast, and repeatable deployment can be when using Terraform for infrastructure and GitHub Actions for deployment. This practical demonstration will cover: Writing and packaging a simple TypeScript Lambda Defining and provisioning AWS infrastructure with Terraform Automating deployment with GitHub Actions Things I’ve learnt using Lambdas And all in the space of an hour. Whether you’re new to AWS or just looking to try serverless, this talk ...

Alastair Reynolds has long been my favorite author, but this latest book feels like he’s not even trying. Once again, the story revolves around a character who has lost their memory, a trope that’s starting to feel overused. What’s missing is the rich, multithreaded space opera that Reynolds usually excels at. Instead, the narrative feels flat and constrained. The ending doesn’t offer any real sense of closure or hint at a sequel, leaving the whole experience feeling incomplete. It seems that whenever Reynolds steps outside the Revelation Space universe, the magic just isn’t there. Halcyon Years lacks the depth and complexity that made his earlier works so compelling. ISBN-13: 978-1399611763

A Series of Random Context Switches  So You Think You Can Lead A Team? is a firsthand look into what team leadership means. Bringing real world examples into everyday workplace situations, So You Think… offers practical advice and support for those considering a position in leadership, as well as advancement for those already established in their role. Although rooted in software development, this guide can be applied in almost any work scenario where project management, team mentoring and decision making are key. Written by Paul Grenyer, someone who has been led and now leads, the book pulls advice and input from professionals across the full spectrum of software engineering to distill what leadership means in a practical sense, and how best to achieve the best from a team, as well as giving them your best. Foreword by Stephen Cresswell Edited by Harvey Gwynn Illustrations by Sam Berrington Buy Now: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0FVZHWT6X/ ISBN: 979-8-269-11432-3   Praise for ...

As software engineers, it’s easy to get lost in the excitement of crafting clever business logic: the algorithms, the workflows, the elegant domain models. However, the success or failure of a service rarely hinges on its core logic alone. What really separates a fragile prototype from a resilient, scalable and maintainable system is everything else that happens around that logic: the invisible scaffolding that shapes how a service behaves, communicates, and recovers when things go wrong. In Part 1 of Beyond The Code: Designing Services That Stand the Test of Time , I’ll explore project layout and how the physical structure of a codebase affects engineers’ ability to understand, navigate, and maintain the system. Two ideas sit at the heart of this:  Cognitive loa d - the mental effort required to figure out how pieces of a system fit together Cohesion - the principle that things which work closely together should live close together in the project.  Reducing cognitive load (a...

The Butlerian Jihad is a middle of the road science fiction story. It lacks the gravitas of Frank Herbert’s original Dune series. The story is different in scope and style, and some of the elements, particularly the intelligent, emotionally curious robots, are not convincing at all. Most of the story isn’t focused on the jihad itself and it’s not really a jihad. God is mentioned briefly to try and frame it as such. That said, it is still an enjoyable sci-fi adventure. If you approach it as a standalone story set in the broader Dune universe rather than as a direct companion to Herbert's books, then it’s not so bad.  Brian Herbert, Kevin J Anderson  ISBN 13:  ‎ 978-0804852715

When: Wednesday 3rd December 2025 @ 6pm Where:  The Bradfield Centre , 184 Cambridge Science Park Milton Road, CB4 0GA RSVP: https://www.meetup.com/accu-cambridge/events/311991390/ ACCU Cambridge are making the most of me in December and letting me do a double header - two of my presentations in one night! I'll also have some copies of my book, 'So you think you can lead a team?' to sign and sell. And if I'm not enough, there's free pizza and beer too!  6.30pm - 'So you think you can lead a team?'  Software engineering is hard, and leading a team as an engineer can be even harder. Many of us feel more comfortable writing code than working with people, and we often believe our value lies solely in our technical output. But when you step into team leading, the balance shifts: there are more people than code, and your value changes and, often, grows. Over the last 25 years I was dropped into team leading several times without warning, but three and a half ye...

This evening, I had the pleasure of speaking at ACCU York about lambdas, and what an incredible audience they were. Warm, welcoming, and fully engaged from start to finish. I was enjoying it so much that my 45-minute talk somehow turned into 75 minutes! There were plenty of great questions, insightful discussions, and lots of laughter along the way. It was great to be joined by a colleague from near Harrogate, and to spend time in the beautiful city of York. I’m really hoping they’ll have me back sometime soon!   

Unlearning Masculinity by Cassandra Andrews, is a powerful and thought-provoking read. Full disclosure:I know the author personally. I found the book both useful and genuinely interesting. I only partially overlap with the target audience, as I haven’t reached the level of success where I can stop working or afford a Porsche (yet), but enough of it resonated to make a real impact. What stood out most to me was how the book helped me better understand experiences different from my own. I didn’t grow up with the “boys don’t cry” mindset that so many men did, and reading about those struggles made me feel both grateful and humbled. Cassandra’s writing offers insight not just into the pressures men face, but also into how those pressures ripple outward to relationships, families, and society as a whole. It’s an invitation to reflect, question, and grow. Every man and woman should read this book for the insight it offers. There’s a lot to learn here for all of us. ISBN:  ‎ 978-106840562...

We took our youngest, Ed (14), to see Katy Perry last night, his first ever gig, and he absolutely loved it. Seeing his excitement made the whole evening worthwhile. Katy Perry is undeniably a talented singer and performer, but the relentless, thumping dance-style bass drum soon became monotonous. It all started to sound a little boring after a while. It was very loud too, even compared to a lot of the metal gigs I’ve attended. Visually, the show was impressive. The sci-fi theme was fun and creative, though during the first half it felt like Katy spent more time off stage than on. Things picked up in the second half, especially when she invited three kids from the audience onto the stage. Unfortunately, the sound quality at the O2 was its usual letdown. The mix lacked definition, and the guitars were often lost beneath the booming bass and drums. All in all, I’m glad we went and Ed had a brilliant time. But for me, it felt like there was more show than music, and I wouldn’t be in a hur...

 I first spotted Ego Is the Enemy years ago, sticking out of someone’s bag in the kitchen of an office I rented back in the mid-teenies. The title caught my eye, so I bought the Kindle version there and then. It’s taken me until now to actually read it. It’s a good book, and I think it’s helped me understand what ego really is and, perhaps more importantly, that mine isn’t as bad as I thought. It’s a very American book. A lot of the examples, stories, and metaphors are drawn from American history and sport, and I found myself having to look up quite a few of the references. That detracted from it a little for me. There were also a few too many chapters that felt similar, with long retellings of historical figures who’d come undone because of their ego. Still, I did enjoy learning something new about Kirk Hammett: I hadn’t expected Metallica to make an appearance in a book about philosophy and self-awareness. The biggest thing I took away was the idea of letting go of grudges. Inste...

  In order to gauge the potential audience for my book, So you think you can lead a team? , I conducted a small survey of my colleagues, co-workers and anyone from Linked. I read regularly, for work and pleasure, and assumed everyone else did too but did the responses I received confirm this? I polled 173 people, all within the software engineering field (including Product, etc), with a range of ages and years of experience in their role. What surprised me the most was that the majority of people, young or old, just starting or seasoned, still prefer reading physical books to blogs or e-readers. It also seemed that the older and more experienced were the most keen in learning more, and reading to expand or update their knowledge.  When it comes to reading habits between different roles the survey showed that software engineers and team leads read more regularly for their career than other roles, with 55 years old and over and 16+ years experience being the biggest readers over...