Paul Dowman

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I build technical products and teams.

Previously led engineering for multiple developer-facing products at Shopify, and then led engineering for the newly-formed Blockchain area. Led engineering for user-facing apps at Polygon.

I like adventures and I like solving problems. I have built many products, led software development teams and organizations, led technology at a startup with a successful exit, founded and operated a successful company for 8 years, and helped lead and scale one of the fastest-growing large engineering organizations in the world at Shopify. I have created popular open source projects, organized conferences with hundreds of people, built a successful training program, and built trust with all whom I have worked with.

I love to talk about software engineering and building great products, the business of technology, and anything related to decentralized infrastructure and blockchain tech. If you're working on similar things, or have an interesting technology, process, or culture problem/opportunity send me a message and let's talk.

Featured Writing

All Writing

DECEMBER 13, 2022

Permissionless public infrastructure

Many people today believe that open source software is positive for our society, but fear the logical next steps: open state, open execution…

SEPTEMBER 14, 2022

What a high performing team looks like

First, how do we define “high performing”? High performing teams ship quickly with no blockers. New ideas and changes get into production…

MARCH 26, 2022

Working across time zones

I have worked with many teams that span from Europe to the west coast of North America, both at Shopify and at my previous company. 9 AM PST…

JULY 18, 2020

Verified commits: sign your Git commits and avoid impersonation risk

A Git commit’s author might not be who you think it is. I’m old enough to remember when it was easy to spoof the email sender (send fake…

JUNE 26, 2020

Scaling yourself: meeting or async?

Would a few more hours in your day be useful? Or less interruptions? Whether it’s maker time, big-picture thinking time, or just the ability…

MAY 09, 2020

Effective remote pair programming

Pair programming is an old idea that’s counter-intuitive but refuses to go away because it actually works. And it can work just as well…

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2023 © Paul Dowman