Welcome to a new episode where we share stories from the field. For the first time, we're thrilled to welcome guests to the show!

This week, we're joined by Elena Stojmilova, Technical Lead at Open GI, and Peter Hunter, Technical Architect at Open GI, alongside our Hosts Andrea Magnorsky and Kenny (baas) Schwegler. Elena shares her personal journey and lessons learned from implementing a decentralised decision-making process within her team at Open GI, including the shift to autonomous teams and the introduction of Architectural Decision Records (ADRs).

Elena provides a candid look at the challenges and triumphs of moving from a software engineering focus to taking on full architectural decision-making authority.

• Decentralised Decision-Making: The necessary move to create independent, autonomous teams and empower Technical Leads to make architectural decisions.
• The Mindset Shift: Moving from a coding focus to considering the broader impact of decisions, including cost and system-wide effects.
• The Power of Support: The crucial importance of technical and soft skills guidance when transitioning into a new leadership role.
• Architectural Decision Records (ADRs): The process introduced to formalise decisions, helping guide the team and ensuring accountability.
• Navigating the Advisory Forum: The challenge of managing many strong opinions initially, and the evolution toward receiving more constructive advice.
• Facilitating Advice: The techniques used to manage opinionated discussions, including asking questions to uncover the reasoning behind feedback.
• Cultural Change: How the process promoted a culture of knowledge sharing between teams and the need for architects to adapt their role from "broadcasting" to facilitating.