Geeks Who Lead Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Transforming Education Through Technology with James Kenigsberg Dec 05, 2019

Show notes

When James Kenigsberg immigrated to America, he quickly found that technology could make learning easier and more fun. This desire to create educational tools led him to help found 2U, a company that partners with universities to deliver online learning programs that are university quality.
James sat down with Peter ahead of his talk at the New York CTO Summit to discuss the future of education technology, why he loves software that helps with focus, and explains why future maintenance needs should be on your mind when you’re working on transformative projects. Tune in!

[01:23] - Falling in love with education technology
[04:35] - From coding to management
[05:44] - Promotion at The Princeton Review
[07:53] - Start, stop, continue
[09:54] - Founding 2U
[18:14] - Run, grow, and transform
[24:03] - Measuring tasks differently
[25:40] - Managing transformative projects

James Kenigsberg is the founding chief technology officer (CTO) at 2U, Inc., a global leader in education technology that partners with great universities to build, deliver, and support world-class online graduate programs and certificates at scale. As founding CTO, Kenigsberg directs 2U’s technology functions and efforts to build an academic product that delivers positive student outcomes, an efficient client relationship management system, and a secure, resilient, and configurable architecture.
This episode is sponsored by Clubhouse.io. Clubhouse lets you manage software projects with the perfect balance of simplicity and structure, so you and your team can be happier, less stressed, and hyper-focused on building products that customers love. It’s free for up to 10 users, plus you can get two free months on any paid plan at https://clubhouse.io/CTO.
CTO Connection is where you can learn from the experiences of successful engineering leaders at fast growth tech startups. Whether you want to learn more about hiring, motivating or managing an engineering team, if you're technical and manage engineers, the CTO Connection podcast is a great resource for learning from your peers!
If you'd like to receive new episodes as they're published, please subscribe to CTO Connection in Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a review in Apple Podcasts. It really helps others find the show.

Podcast episode production by Dante32.

The Importance of Technical Due Diligence with Jason Mongue Nov 28, 2019

Show notes

Technical due diligence is the process of studying a technology product and evaluating its value and feasibility. You’d think that such an important process would be part of the business plan from the outset, but most companies only undergo the process when they begin VC fundraising. Jason Mongue, founder of The Clover Group, is here to talk about the process and why it should start early.

[00:11] - Velocity by Code Climate
[01:03] - Technical due diligence
[02:31] - Starting the process
[05:08] - Dress rehearsal
[09:18] - Ask questions
[11:18] - Security awareness
[15:02] - Disaster recovery plan
[17:32] - How to think about scaling
[20:31] - Health check for technology organizations
[22:07] - Velocity by Code Climate

CTO Connection is where you can learn from the experiences of successful engineering leaders at fast growth tech startups. Whether you want to learn more about hiring, motivating or managing an engineering team, if you're technical and manage engineers, the CTO Connection podcast is a great resource for learning from your peers!
If you'd like to receive new episodes as they're published, please subscribe to CTO Connection in Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a review in Apple Podcasts. It really helps others find the show.

Podcast episode production by Dante32.

Managing Large Remote Teams with Asana’s Prashant Pandey Nov 21, 2019

Show notes

As products and companies develop more name-brand recognition, expansion is inevitable. Prashant Pandey has experience working at companies large and small and in his current role as Head of Engineering at Asana, he knows what it’s like to navigate the growing pains of managing expanded teams.
On today’s episode, Prashant talks to Peter about what to take into consideration when judging a team member’s contribution, why failure is the single best learning tool, and how to manage expanding teams across time zones. Tune in for Prashant’s thoughts.

[00:11] - Velocity by Code Climate
[00:49] - Internship at Loudcloud
[03:25] - Research at IBM
[05:11] - Managing teams at Vdopia
[06:53] - Learning through failure
[09:27] - Getting up to speed with Amazon's best practices
[10:54] - Viewing metrics
[13:47] - Measuring impact
[16:21] - Joining Asana
[19:51] - Bifurcation challenges
[24:28] - Remote vs distributed teams
[26:28] - Collaboration tools
[28:13] - Managing a successful rewrite
[36:32] - Velocity by Code Climate

Velocity by Code Climate is an engineering analytics tool that takes commit and Git insights and turns it into actionable metrics and dashboards for engineering leaders. Use concrete data to help you answer questions like:
- How fast are we moving?- Did a recent change in our process have a positive or negative impact on efficiency?- Who are my top-performing teams and why?
Sign up at https://codeclimate.com/ctoconnection/ and mention CTO connection to get a free month of the product.
CTO Connection is where you can learn from the experiences of successful engineering leaders at fast growth tech startups. Whether you want to learn more about hiring, motivating or managing an engineering team, if you're technical and manage engineers, the CTO Conneciton podcast is a great resource for learning from your peers!
If you'd like to receive new episodes as they're published, please subscribe to CTO Connection in Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a review in Apple Podcasts. It really helps others find the show.

Podcast episode production by Dante32.

Balancing Delight and Metrics in Product Design with Adam Nash Nov 14, 2019

Show notes

On CTO Connection, we mostly focus on the engineering side of tech, but today, we’re taking a break to look at product. Our guest Adam Nash, Vice President of Product and Growth at Dropbox, discusses the importance of defining the role of product in a tech company and why he believes delighting customers is just as crucial as making decisions based on metrics.
Tune in to learn why Adam believes so strongly in the concept of delight and how he balances metrics with listening to customer requests when crafting product strategy.

[01:06] - Transitioning to product management
[04:20] - Strategy, prioritization, & execution
[06:50] - Articulating strategy
[09:53] - Driving product teams
[13:51] - Making prioritization easier
[17:18] - The three bucket system
[17:44] - Metrics movers
[18:37] - Customer requests
[22:25] - Delight features
[27:37] - Making delight part of team practice

This episode of the CTO Connection Podcast was sponsored by Velocity by Code Climate. Velocity by Code Climate is an engineering analytics tool that takes commit and Git insights and turns it into actionable metrics and dashboards for engineering leaders. In a few weeks, they're releasing Velocity 3.0 with Jira, which will combine Git and PR data with Issue data for the first time to give engineering executives a complete understanding of how their team works. You can now see the status of every initiative, without manual reporting, and know exactly which engineering projects get off track and why. You can request early access by going to https://codeclimate.com/ctoconnection/.
CTO Connection is where you can learn from the experiences of successful engineering leaders at fast growth tech startups. Whether you want to learn more about hiring, motivating or managing an engineering team, if you're technical and manage engineers, the CTO Connection podcast is a great resource for learning from your peers!
If you'd like to receive new episodes as they're published, please subscribe to CTO Connection in Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a review in Apple Podcasts. It really helps others find the show.
Podcast episode production by Dante32.

Staying Immersed in Technology as a Tech Leader with Hector Aguilar Nov 07, 2019

Show notes

According to Hector Aguilar, President of Technology at Okta, if you get too far away from technology, you can’t be an effective leader of technology. But when your day-to-day job is focused more on managing individuals, it can be hard to find the time to code.
On today’s episode, Hector and Peter discuss how making coding mandatory for all managers can help instill company values and culture. Hector also shares how he prioritizes personal projects and learning to ensure he stays on top of the technology at work.

[00:53] - Hector's origin story
[02:42] - Stay close to the technology
[04:02] - The challenge of keeping up
[06:52] - Prioritizing what to learn and how
[09:09] - The importance of credibility
[09:49] - Interview code testing
[16:38] - Measuring managers
[19:23] - Clear expectations
[21:41] - What does Okta do?
[23:27] - Scaling an organization
[25:52] - Keeping the quality bar high
[27:49] - Culture of commitment
[29:46] - Automate yourself and become a power mobile user

This episode of the CTO Connection Podcast was sponsored by Velocity by Code Climate. Velocity by Code Climate is an engineering analytics tool that takes commit and Git insights and turns it into actionable metrics and dashboards for engineering leaders. In a few weeks, they're releasing Velocity 3.0 with Jira, which will combine Git and PR data with Issue data for the first time to give engineering executives a complete understanding of how their team works. You can now see the status of every initiative, without manual reporting, and know exactly which engineering projects get off track and why. You can request early access by going to https://codeclimate.com/ctoconnection/
CTO Connection is where you can learn from the experiences of successful engineering leaders at fast growth tech startups. Whether you want to learn more about hiring, motivating or managing an engineering team, if you're technical and manage engineers, the CTO Connection podcast is a great resource for learning from your peers!
If you'd like to receive new episodes as they're published, please subscribe to CTO Connection in Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a review in Apple Podcasts. It really helps others find the show.

Podcast episode production by Dante32.

Setting Up Infrastructure to Scale with Adam Miller Oct 31, 2019

Show notes

When Adam Miller joined the Roblox team as the Vice President of Engineering, he assumed everything would just get saved to the cloud. Instead, he found that the Roblox platform’s unique infrastructure needs would necessitate more in-house development and management in order to effectively scale.
In today’s episode, Peter and Adam discuss the challenges of managing hundreds of employees drawing from the same code, scaling infrastructure, and the limitations of cloud storage for the platform model.

[00:53] - Adam Miller, Vice President of Engineering, Technology at Roblox
[01:03] - Making an impact in engineering through leadership
[02:31] - The path to product/market fit
[04:45] - Enabling a new type of human co-experience with Roblox
[06:21] - Architecture of the metaverse
[10:13] - Building a scaling infrastructure
[14:08] - Exposing persistent data
[17:20] - Assumptions about the cloud
[19:08] - Switching to microservices
[23:46] - Flexibility with smaller teams

This episode of the CTO Connection Podcast was sponsored by Velocity by Code Climate. Velocity by Code Climate is an engineering analytics tool that takes commit and Git insights and turns it into actionable metrics and dashboards for engineering leaders. In a few weeks, they're releasing Velocity 3.0 with Jira, which will combine Git and PR data with Issue data for the first time to give engineering executives a complete understanding of how their team works. You can now see the status of every initiative, without manual reporting, and know exactly which engineering projects get off track and why. You can request early access by going to https://codeclimate.com/ctoconnection/
CTO Connection is where you can learn from the experiences of successful engineering leaders at fast-growth tech startups. Whether you want to learn more about hiring, motivating or managing an engineering team, if you're technical and manage engineers, the CTO Connection podcast is a great resource for learning from your peers!
If you'd like to receive new episodes as they're published, please subscribe to CTO Connection in Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a review in Apple Podcasts. It really helps others find the show.
Podcast episode production by Dante32.

Investing in Your People Pays Dividends with Scott Parker Jul 18, 2019

Show notes

Scott Parker has seen a lot over his 15 year career having transitioned from engineer to manager to executive. In this episode of the CTO Connection podcast, Peter and Scott discuss Scott’s approach to people management, differences in building teams at small companies vs. large companies as well as how to demonstrate the value of personal growth to engineers.
Note: Since the recording of this interview, Scott has moved from VP Engineering at Signal to Director of Engineering at Root Insurance.

[00:24] - Using the perspective of investment portfolio management as a lens to view managing people within an organization at scale
[02:09] - Extending the analogy: managing the portfolio of people on your team
[04:08] - Understanding what each person wants out of their career in order to create balanced teams
[07:00] - The winding path from engineering to leadership
[09:19] - Scott’s experience moving into managing "teams of teams"
[11:15] - The need for an engineering-specific focus within manager training
[13:02] - Diving deeper into the new manager onboarding structure
[14:06] - Scott’s focus as the VP of Engineering at Signal
[15:04] - Creating an environment where engineers are excited about personal growth opportunities

You can find Scott on Twitter, LinkedIn and blogging about culture, on-boarding and management over at his own blog.
CTO Connection is where you can learn from the experiences of successful engineering leaders at fast growth tech startups. Whether you want to learn more about hiring, motivating or managing an engineering team, if you're technical and manage engineers, the CTO Connection podcast is a great resource for learning from your peers!
If you'd like to receive new episodes as they're published, please subscribe to CTO Connection in Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a review in Apple Podcasts. It really helps others find the show.
Podcast episode production by Dante32.

Learning and Developing as an Engineering Leader with Stacy Gorelik Jun 28, 2019

Show notes

This week Peter invites long-time technology leader and CTO Summit speaker Stacy Gorelik to the podcast. Stacy is currently the Director of Engineering at Flatiron Health, a health-tech company committed to fighting cancer.
Peter and Stacy discuss her career from individual contributor to engineering management to director, what she looks for when hiring and her recent experiences speaking at the CTO Summit in New York.

[00:21] - Stacy’s background
[01:12] - Transitioning from individual contributor to management.
[02:56] - The appeal of an engineering management role
[04:59] - Responsibilities of an engineering manager vs. director
[06:41] - Ideal qualities in a leader
[09:10] - Reflections on growing a platform engineering team
[11:26] - It always comes back to the people
[13:03] - What Stacy looks for in an engineer
[15:15] - Learning and developing in the engineering world
[20:09] - What it’s like to speak at and attend a CTO summit

You can find out more about Stacey on LinkedIn, Twitter and at her blog on Medium.
CTO Connection is where you can learn from the experiences of successful engineering leaders at fast growth tech startups. Whether you want to learn more about hiring, motivating or managing an engineering team, if you're technical and manage engineers, the CTO Connection podcast is a great resource for learning from your peers!
If you'd like to receive new episodes as they're published, please subscribe to CTO Connection in Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a review in Apple Podcasts. It really helps others find the show.
Podcast episode production by Dante32.

Attracting and Developing Engineering Talent with Johnny Austin, Engineering Director @ Mapbox Jun 22, 2019

Show notes

In this episode of CTO Connection, host Peter Bell sits down with Johnny Austin, Engineering Director of Navigation at Mapbox, to discuss the best and most challenging aspects of engineering leadership, practical tips for creating a solid onboarding program and ways to maintain a sense of connection within a distributed team.
[00:30] - The road to engineering leadership at Mapbox
[03:00] - It’s all about the people
[03:46] - What does great potential look like?[06:32] - The Myth of the 10x Engineer, Johnny’s May 2019 CTO Summit Talk*
[07:44] - The first 90 days: communication dynamics when building a team
[11:11] - How Mapbox attracts talent
[12:29] - In the weeds of the recruiting process
[19:36] - Thinking about team member growth beyond just tech skills
[21:58] - Maintaining culture and connection with distributed teams
[24:59] - The thing that keeps Johnny up at night
[25:57] - Setting your team up for failure (it’s not what you think)
*This episode was recorded prior to the Summit
Prior to running engineering for Mapbox's core navigation capabilities, Johnny Austin held engineering leadership roles at Capital One and ISL and is a strong advocate for engineering operational excellence. Johnny is also an international public speaker - speaking on topics such as engineering leadership, system design, and the JavaScript programming language.
He believes, strongly, that technical excellence, inclusion, empathy, and customer obsession are the keys to driving a successful engineering organization.
CTO Connection is where you can learn from the experiences of successful engineering leaders at fast growth tech startups. Whether you want to learn more about hiring, motivating or managing an engineering team, if you're technical and manage engineers, the CTO Connection podcast is a great resource for learning from your peers!
If you'd like to receive new episodes as they're published, please subscribe to CTO Connection in Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a review in Apple Podcasts. It really helps others find the show.
Podcast episode production by Dante32.

Engineering Team Cohesion at Scale with Han Yuan, SVP of Engineering @ Upwork May 24, 2019

Show notes

This week, Peter Bell is joined by SVP of Engineering at Upwork, Han Yuan. Han and Peter dive into what it’s like to run an engineering team that spans countries, building a good engineering culture for a remote team and how he brings on new engineers to the team.
[00:21] - Differences in thinking about distributed teams across multiple companies[02:59] - Communication best practices across time zones & countries[05:22] - Interviewing for long term fit[08:15] - Development environment workflow with an evolving team[09:46] - Code quality & remote collaboration[11:58] - Providing new opportunities for engineers while retaining knowledge[13:42] - Autonomy, consistency and self-organization across teams and services[21:13] - Balancing support and product development teams[24:39] - Onboarding new engineers[28:24] - Building social and cultural cohesion [31:05] - Fostering a sense of connection and community within a big company with a remote team
Han Yuan is currently the Sr. VP of Engineering at Upwork. Prior to Upwork, he’s held Sr. leadership roles at eBay and Netflix. You can find more information about Han Yuan at LinkedIn.
CTO Connection is where you can learn from the experiences of successful engineering leaders at fast growth tech startups. Whether you want to learn more about hiring, motivating or managing an engineering team, if you're technical and manage engineers, the CTO Connection podcast is a great resource for learning from your peers!
If you'd like to receive new episodes as they're published, please subscribe to CTO Connection in Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a review in Apple Podcasts. It really helps others find the show.
Podcast episode production by Dante32.

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