In most forms of entertainment, it all comes down to the story. Whether it’s a good vs evil dynamic or just overcoming adversity, many storytellers embed lessons from real life into their fictional worlds. It is in the most fictional of worlds, professional wrestling and superhero movies, that we find useful patterns to apply in our day-to-day as engineering leaders.

In this talk, I will explore several examples from inside the ring and the big screen that illustrate approaches to building teams and achieving goals. We will also discuss a few real world situations where I have applied these tools. This presentation is applicable to anyone that is part of a software team. No spandex required.