Brenda Jin, Senior Platform Engineer at Slack, shares her story of transitioning from a professional opera singer to a successful engineer, highlighting the importance of transparency, improvement, and force of will in her work. She discusses how Slack's backend architecture supports its user-friendly design through organization, consistency, and reliability, and what makes ideal developer experience for developers using the Slack API, including seamless workflows and minimal disruption to their workflow. Jin also shares her favorite Slack API integrations and reflects on the commonalities between musicology and engineering, emphasizing the importance of curiosity, collaboration, and continuous improvement.