The panel · 2026

Real names, real pagers.

The Jury Award is decided by named practitioners — not anonymous ballots, not a vendor committee. Cycle one is recruiting an external panel of 5–7 people. Bios and affiliations publish here before nominations open. Judges are ineligible as nominees in the same cycle.

Join the panelWhat it asks of you

The ask

Four to six hours, in the categories you already know

No judge scores all thirteen categories. You take the handful your own work qualifies you to read — the invite names them — and you can hand any of them back. It is asynchronous and it happens in a browser; there is nothing to attend.

4–6Categories, yours to pick
2–3hShortlisting finalists
1–2hScoring in the portal
60mOne optional call

What it asks

  • Shortlist finalists in your categories, from nominations that have already been screened.
  • Score those finalists 1–5 in the judge portal, with a note if you want to leave one.
  • Let us publish your name, photo, short bio, and employer on this page.
  • Tell us when a finalist is close enough to you that you should not be the one scoring it.

What it does not ask

  • No appearance fees, no travel, no fundraising, no sponsor calls.
  • No endorsement of Teller's Tech. Ship It Weekly and On Call Brief are People's Choice–only if entered, and never Jury-eligible.
  • No reading the whole field. Screening happens before anything reaches you.
  • No multi-year commitment. Cycle one is one cycle.

Dates arrive on this page once the panel is confirmed. The charter publishes judge bios before nominations open, so the panel is named first and the calendar follows it.

Confirmed so far

The panel is being built in public

Right now the founding seat is filled. External judges are being recruited — put yourself forward below, name someone else, or pass the page along. Target: 5–7 named practitioners before nominations open. About 4+ external seats still open.

Brian Teller

Producer · founding panel seat

Affiliation: Teller's Tech

Hosts Ship It Weekly and publishes On Call Brief. Building the first LMGT Awards cycle in public — including the conflict rules that keep Teller's Tech People's Choice–only.

Program producer — conflict rules apply to Teller's Tech entries

How judging works

Judges independently score eligible nominations against the category definition, then meet to settle finalists and the Jury Award. Scores are not published; affiliations and People's Choice vote counts are. The People's Choice is decided entirely by confirmed public vote — the panel has no hand in it.

  • Cycle-one judges are fully ineligible as nominees or finalists.
  • Employer / vendor affiliations are printed on this page.
  • Teller's Tech casts no judge vote in any category it has entered.

The full process, in the rules →

Before you answer

Questions judges ask first

Do I have to score all thirteen categories?

No. Each judge takes roughly four to six, matched to what you actually work on, and the invite names which ones. Hand any of them back and they move to another judge.

Can I be nominated as well?

No, and that is deliberate. Cycle-one judges are fully ineligible as nominees and as finalists — it is what keeps the panel's own conflict clean. If your work belongs in a category more than you belong on the panel, say so and we will invite you as a nominee instead.

Will my employer be named?

Yes. Your affiliation prints on this page beside your name. A vendor-neutral program that hides who its judges work for is not vendor-neutral; naming it is the neutrality.

What if a finalist is my colleague, my own project, or a close friend?

Email the producer and that category moves to another judge. In a field this small it is expected, there is no penalty for saying so, and the only real failure is scoring it anyway.

Are my scores published?

No. Scores stay private. What publishes is the roster, the affiliations, and the People's Choice vote counts.

Does it cost anything, or involve travel?

Neither. No appearance fees, no travel, no fundraising, no sponsor obligations.

Do I have to endorse Teller's Tech?

No. The producer's own properties — Ship It Weekly and On Call Brief — are People's Choice–only if they are entered at all, and are never eligible for the Jury Award you decide.

What happens to my email address?

It is never published. It carries the invite and a one-time magic link that signs you into the judge portal, and nothing else.

What if I say yes and then my year falls apart?

Tell us and we backfill the seat. Nothing about you is published without your consent, and there is no multi-year commitment.

Recruiting

Join the panel — or point us at someone

Two doors, one form: tick the box at the bottom if you are putting yourself forward, leave it clear if you are naming somebody else. Either way this is a nomination for the jury, not for an award category. Everything is reviewed privately, and nothing is published without the person's consent.

Judges who join are ineligible as nominees for the 2026 cycle.

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