In this episode, we’re joined by Adrienne Braganza Tacke — software engineer, author of “Looks Good To Me”, and developer advocate at Viam. From her inspiring journey into tech, to demystifying the code review process and building team empathy, Adrienne shares the hard truths on how we can make code reviews faster, kinder, and more effective.We talk about her triple-R feedback pattern, cultural differences in feedback, and why your team needs a living working agreement.This episode is a must for engineering leaders, team leads, and developers navigating feedback fatigue or aiming to build a dev culture where everyone can grow from helping each other write better code.

⏱️ Timestamps: [00:00] Adrienne’s intro + unconventional tech journey [02:22] From helpdesk to .NET developer to DevRel at Viam [03:33] Why Adrienne wrote a book on code reviews [06:04] The emotional layer of code reviews [10:36] Cultural nuances in feedback and code review etiquette [14:11] Giving great feedback: objectivity, support, outcome [17:14] Why teams argue over code reviews & the power of working agreements [22:45] In-person vs async reviews + pair programming as pre-review [29:06] Startups vs enterprises: customizing code review processes [37:38] Should AI review our code? Adrienne’s take on AI tooling [45:07] Measuring dev productivity with caution [50:13] Adrienne’s shortcut: the Triple R Pattern [52:45] Tagging review comments: "needs fix", "nitpick", and more [54:01] Wrap-up + final thoughts on dev culture and feedback📚 References & Resources: Looks Good to Me by Adrienne Braganza, https://www.manning.com/books/looks-good-to-me Paul Slaughter’s Conventional Comments AI tool: CodeRabbit AI Developer Productivity Metric Concerns: GitHub Engineering Blog Book Reference on Feedback Culture: Radical Candor by Kim Scott