about

Hi, I’m teffer.

I lead a large team of people building software with AI in AWS. At night and on the weekends I am using AI tools to create things in my personal life. I write about leadership, building, and the messy work of figuring out how to lead and ship in the age of AI.

I have created video games. Built new services for games at scale. Led an AWS group in immersive technologies — gaming services, rendering for visual effects, simulation, and tools for scaling 3D solutions. Led a team pushing the boundary of machine learning and AI for frictionless retail experiences. Now I am working on the future of work at the intersection of human and AI collaboration, creating AI teammates.

While AI is an exciting new dimension, work has become increasingly less about the tech for me — and increasingly more about the people. I like to tell people on my team that my role as a leader is to hire great people and help everyone be the best version of themselves. Building great teams, going after ambitious challenges, and pushing the boundaries of what is possible is where I find the most joy. This is my “why”.

I feel very fortunate to have worked on so many ambitious projects, my teams have won industry awards and helped generate billions in revenue. Along the way I have learned a great deal through successes and failures. I enjoy mentoring colleagues and sharing what I’ve learned along the way.

Outside of the blog, I spend most of my free time outside. We live in the Pacific Northwest. I ski at Crystal Mountain with my wife and our two daughters, and we hike and backpack together year-round. I have recently gotten into backcountry skiing with my sister and my brother-in-law, including helicopter-in hut trips. I lift in a home gym most mornings, ride a handful of century rides on the bike each summer, and wake surf or e-foil on Lake Sammamish when the lake is calm. I’m currently training for a Mount Rainier summit attempt this June. When I’m indoors I’m probably gaming. Some of this will show up on the blog eventually — the lessons from time outside tend to travel.

I often get asked why I go by teffer. It’s been my lifelong nickname and gamertag. It started when I was a small child and my mom would call me “chris T fer” instead of my full first name christopher. My sisters were young and just called me “T fer” and never stopped. I wanted to use teffer for my blog as it’s more personal and unique than chris or christopher. It just feels right.

I also have been asked why I made it a .dev blog… This is more about who I want to be. I started my career writing code, then spent more than a decade not writing much of it. This is me pushing back into development with AI, learning, and reconnecting with software engineering.

I read everything that lands at teffer.dev@proton.me. Send a hello, send a hard question, send a disagreement — all welcome.