The Engineering Leadership Podcast

How do you apply your leadership skills to a new, mission-driven industry and effectively lead teams across multiple technical domains? In this episode, Simone Kalmakis (VPE @ Viam) shares her playbook for successfully transitioning between industries from health-tech and climate to her current work in robotics and AI. We deconstruct the leadership models she uses to prioritize her time, manage multiple technical experts, and why she focuses on "depth with 1-2 teams > breadth". Plus, her framework for onboarding in a new domain, the lifecycle of a leadership "deep dive," and communication practices that build trust and empower your entire organization to stay aligned and motivated.ABOUT SIMONE KALMAKISSimone Kalmakis is the VP of Engineering at Viam, a platform unlocking AI, data, and automation for devices in the physical world. She has deep experience applying AI and machine learning to big data and big missions, and is known for building healthy engineering organizations that drive business value and real-world progress.Prior to Viam, Simone was Senior Director of Engineering at Arcadia, a climate tech company building an API platform for residential utility data to power solutions that fight climate change. Before that, she served as Director of Engineering at Flatiron Health, where she helped accelerate the development of cancer treatments through real-world data.Simone began her career at Microsoft, developing machine-learned relevance algorithms for Bing. She’s also a successful founder––after Microsoft, she built and sold Symbi, a roommate-matching startup. She holds a degree in Mathematics and Economics from Yale University. ToolHive Unlocks the Full Value of MCP & Your AI AgentsSo you’ve invested in AI agents for code generation, but they’re limited to experiments or even stuck on the shelf. To do real, valuable work, those AI agents need access to your data and systems.ToolHive helps you confidently connect the pieces by making it simple and secure for you to use the Model Context Protocol (MCP).ToolHive includes a pre-vetted registry of MCP servers, containerizes every MCP server for consistency and leans on built-in security to keep your secrets safe.Leaders trust ToolHive to put MCP into production and put their AI agents to work.ToolHive is open source, so get started for free at toolhive.dev Join us at ELC Annual 2025ELC Annual is the premier event for engineering leaders. This is our biggest event of the year: 1,000+ CTOs, VPs & Directors in San Francisco @ ELC Annual 2025 for two days of leadership breakthroughs, tactical peer learning & curated connections!🔗 Get your ticket now → https://sfelc.com/annual2025 SHOW NOTES:Simone’s eng leadership journey from health-tech to climate to robotics (3:25)Lessons from being a founder & how it led to Viam (5:27)Co-founding lessons that Simone continues to apply (7:22)Navigating the transition from Flatiron Health to Arcadia (9:20)Transitioning from Arcadia to Viam (12:06)Use cases of physical devices impacting the environment through data / AI (14:28)How Simone sees Viam potentially working in a day-to-day capacity (15:42)How to structure your time when entering a new industry (17:51)Onboarding with a personal project to build user empathy, alignment & motivation (20:34)Finding where your expertise is the highest-leverage for your org (22:34)“The goal is not to maintain the same level of depth in each of your teams” (24:18)How to decide which teams get your deep focus (27:15)Building trust through transparent communication about your priorities (29:19)The lifecycle of a leadership “deep dive” from start to exit (32:20)Advice for leaders adopting this hands-on, flexible approach (36:15)Key questions to ask when seeking a more mission-aligned industry (38:01)Rapid fire questions (40:33)LINKS AND RESOURCESViam - a full-stack solution for the kinds of devices that exist anywhere from your home, your office, in cars or boats, in warehouses or factories, at arenas, or other public places.This episode wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our incredible production team:Patrick Gallagher - Producer & Co-HostJerry Li - Co-HostNoah Olberding - Associate Producer, Audio & Video Editor https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-olberding/Dan Overheim - Audio Engineer, Dan’s also an avid 3D printer - https://www.bnd3d.com/Ellie Coggins Angus - Copywriter, Check out her other work at https://elliecoggins.com/about/

"If we were building Box today, what would we do?” Ben Kus (CTO @ Box) deconstructs their playbook for enterprise AI innovation. We cover their journey to reimagine & reorient the company to a new technical vision, how they run a “multi-speed” org that balances startup agility and & enterprise-grade stability, and their “platform first” approach to build AI features. Ben also explains why security/compliance was foundational from "day negative one" in their AI strategy, the evolution of agentic AI, determining the right guardrails for AI agents & the future of multi-agent systems, enterprise trends & more. ABOUT BEN KUSBen Kus is the Chief Technology Officer at Box, where he leads technology and AI strategy to help enterprises securely unlock insights from their unstructured data. Ben’s career spans engineering, product leadership, and startup innovation—including co-founding Subspace (acquired by Box) and being an early employee at BigFix (acquired by IBM), where he later served as Chief Architect of Mobile Security. Ben holds a degree in Computer Science from UC Berkeley. ToolHive Unlocks the Full Value of MCP & Your AI AgentsSo you’ve invested in AI agents for code generation, but they’re limited to experiments or even stuck on the shelf. To do real, valuable work, those AI agents need access to your data and systems.ToolHive helps you confidently connect the pieces by making it simple and secure for you to use the Model Context Protocol (MCP).ToolHive includes a pre-vetted registry of MCP servers, containerizes every MCP server for consistency and leans on built-in security to keep your secrets safe.Leaders trust ToolHive to put MCP into production and put their AI agents to work.ToolHive is open source, so get started for free at toolhive.dev Join us at ELC Annual 2025ELC Annual is the premier event for engineering leaders. This is our biggest event of the year: 1,000+ CTOs, VPs & Directors in San Francisco @ ELC Annual 2025 for two days of leadership breakthroughs, tactical peer learning & curated connections!🔗 Get your ticket now → https://sfelc.com/annual2025 SHOW NOTES:How Generative AI sparked Box’s reoriented vision, by unlocking the value of unstructured data (3:29)Using GenAI to create structure out of unstructured data (5:28)Internal & external conversations that inspired Box’s new direction (7:18)Box’s “platform first” approach to building a secure and scalable foundation for all future AI features (10:02)Why security and compliance must be built in from "day negative one" not added on later (12:40)How to set a technical vision that can respond to future developments you can't yet predict (14:46)The “multi-speed” business model: Using a small, fast-moving internal group to test ideas before they enter the normal, slower development cycle (17:47)Example of a successful project: AI-driven data extraction & the evolution to critical feature (20:26)The story of an abandoned project and the challenge of knowing which ideas are revolutionary versus which aren’t worth continuing (22:17)Ben’s long-term vision for AI agents and why he believes they are an incredibly powerful technology paradigm (23:58)State diagrams & the journey behind building Box’s initial agentic AI systems (26:50)“Context Engineering”: The new paradigm of programming and the mental model shift required for engineers to adopt it (29:07)The future of AI benchmarks: Measuring what a person can accomplish with an agent, not just the agent’s performance alone (31:03)How to balance development speed with security risks, especially when agents can take actions and change the environment (34:00)Key questions to ask to determine the right guardrails for AI agents, including thinking about the worst-case scenario (36:41)Enterprise technology trends to watch, and why multi-agent systems will become the new “org chart” (37:56)Rapid fire questions (39:03)LINKS AND RESOURCESHarry Potter and the Methods of Rationality - Eliezer Yudkowsky’s alternate-universe Harry Potter fan-fiction wherein Petunia Evans has married an Oxford biochemistry professor and young genius Harry grows up fascinated by science and science fiction. When he finds out that he is a wizard, he tries to apply scientific principles to his study of magic, with sometimes surprising results.This episode wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our incredible production team:Patrick Gallagher - Producer & Co-HostJerry Li - Co-HostNoah Olberding - Associate Producer, Audio & Video Editor https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-olberding/Dan Overheim - Audio Engineer, Dan’s also an avid 3D printer - https://www.bnd3d.com/Ellie Coggins Angus - Copywriter, Check out her other work at https://elliecoggins.com/about/

Engineering leadership is undergoing a seismic shift, requiring playbooks to be rewritten, in real-time. In this special episode, hosts Patrick Gallagher and Jerry Li give you an inside look at the ELC Annual 2025 experience, and how the two-day conference will equip you with new mental models, skills, and frameworks required to lead.Get a preview of tactical takeaways from deep operational dives into companies like OpenAI, Amplitude, and HeyGen. Discover how the conference will help you redesign your innovation engine, transform your team's workflows, and blur the lines between engineering, product, and business to drive impactful change. Through a unique mix of tactical sessions, peer-led roundtables, and curated mentorship, you'll learn how to find the community and coaching needed to lead through uncertainty and invest in your own career growth.To learn more & get tickets, go to sfelc.com/annual2025Use code podcast15 for 15% off tickets - group tickets / discounts available. ABOUT ELC ANNUALThe playbook for engineering leadership is being rewritten. ELC Annual 2025, happening September 10-11 in San Francisco, is where you'll gain the insights, strategies, and deep connections needed to lead in this new era. 50+ speakers, 50+ peer-led roundtables discussions, 1:1 matching to expand your network. Insights, connections & support.Join the community of engineering leaders who are co-creating the future of our field.Listener Discount → Use code podcast15 for 15% offGroup Tix → For teams looking to attend together, special group discounts can be found under the 'Tickets' section of our website!Secure your ticket at sfelc.com/annual2025 ToolHive Unlocks the Full Value of MCP & Your AI AgentsSo you’ve invested in AI agents for code generation, but they’re limited to experiments or even stuck on the shelf. To do real, valuable work, those AI agents need access to your data and systems.ToolHive helps you confidently connect the pieces by making it simple and secure for you to use the Model Context Protocol (MCP).ToolHive includes a pre-vetted registry of MCP servers, containerizes every MCP server for consistency and leans on built-in security to keep your secrets safe.Leaders trust ToolHive to put MCP into production and put their AI agents to work.ToolHive is open source, so get started for free at toolhive.dev Join us at ELC Annual 2025ELC Annual is the premier event for engineering leaders. This is our biggest event of the year: 1,000+ CTOs, VPs & Directors in San Francisco @ ELC Annual 2025 for two days of leadership breakthroughs, tactical peer learning & curated connections!🔗 Get your ticket now → https://sfelc.com/annual2025 SHOW NOTES:The ground is shifting: Why the old playbooks for engineering leaders are being rewritten (0:55)Moving beyond AI hype to harnessing its real power in your products and workflows (2:44)How are teams & workflows changing? Redefining roles and upskilling your team for the AI era (9:06)Why the smartest insights don't come from the stage, but from deep, honest conversations with peers in roundtables (13:36)How curated one-on-one matches help you build a trusted network to rely on for years to come (16:08)ELC Annual isn't a tech conference; it's a career conference to invest in yourself and your leaders (17:49) This episode wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our incredible production team:Patrick Gallagher - Producer & Co-HostJerry Li - Co-HostNoah Olberding - Associate Producer, Audio & Video Editor https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-olberding/Dan Overheim - Audio Engineer, Dan’s also an avid 3D printer - https://www.bnd3d.com/Ellie Coggins Angus - Copywriter, Check out her other work at https://elliecoggins.com/about/

What if your engineering team didn’t just write code, but owned product discovery, wrote the launch messaging, and handled early sales? In this episode, Michael Grinich, CEO and founder of WorkOS, deconstructs their playbook for collapsing the product/engineering stack: no design leads, only one PM, and engineers who own product end-to-end. Michael breaks down how they teach product thinking, build with deep customer insight, and why his most important job is often to "cut scope." You’ll learn how to remove the "lossy translation layers" between teams, build a culture of curiosity and customer obsession, and ship higher-quality products, faster.ABOUT MICHAEL GRINICHMichael is the founder and CEO of WorkOS, a developer platform that enables companies to become Enterprise Ready through features like Single Sign-On (SAML). Their customers include many of the fastest-growing startups including Webflow, Drata, Loom, and +200 others. Before WorkOS, Michael co-founded Nylas and studied CS at MIT. ToolHive Unlocks the Full Value of MCP & Your AI AgentsSo you’ve invested in AI agents for code generation, but they’re limited to experiments or even stuck on the shelf. To do real, valuable work, those AI agents need access to your data and systems.ToolHive helps you confidently connect the pieces by making it simple and secure for you to use the Model Context Protocol (MCP).ToolHive includes a pre-vetted registry of MCP servers, containerizes every MCP server for consistency and leans on built-in security to keep your secrets safe.Leaders trust ToolHive to put MCP into production and put their AI agents to work.ToolHive is open source, so get started for free at toolhive.dev Join us at ELC Annual 2025ELC Annual is the premier event for engineering leaders. This is our biggest event of the year: 1,000+ CTOs, VPs & Directors in San Francisco @ ELC Annual 2025 for two days of leadership breakthroughs, tactical peer learning & curated connections!🔗 Get your ticket now → https://sfelc.com/annual2025 SHOW NOTES:Marketing technical products exclusively to other tech companies (2:39)Building products end-to-end without PMs (6:36)How WorkOS utilizes fun, user feedback, and cohesive storytelling in their product-building process (9:31)Hiring engineers for curiosity & comfort operating in ambiguity (12:48)How engineers owning product discovery & directly engaging w/ users improve product insights (16:31)Using Slack for real-time integrated support & rapid product iteration (19:38)The complexities of creating simple, elegant products and marketing messaging (21:54)Cut scope ruthlessly to ship faster and better (26:20)Small, simple, deeply useful features make the biggest impact (30:30)The weekly cadence that keeps engineering aligned (32:52)Behind the scenes of MCP Night: A protocol party for devs (38:20)Rapid fire questions (41:29)LINKS AND RESOURCESMCP Night**WorkOS Launch Week**WorkOS AuthKitThe Business Value of Computers: An Executive's Guide - Paul A. Strassmann addresses the practical needs of executives responsible for planning, budgeting and justifying information technology expenditures. It shows that there is no direct relation between spending on computers, profits or productivity.This episode wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our incredible production team:Patrick Gallagher - Producer & Co-HostJerry Li - Co-HostNoah Olberding - Associate Producer, Audio & Video Editor https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-olberding/Dan Overheim - Audio Engineer, Dan’s also an avid 3D printer - https://www.bnd3d.com/Ellie Coggins Angus - Copywriter, Check out her other work at https://elliecoggins.com/about/

Influencing without authority is the hidden superpower of security leadership—and a crucial skill every engineering leader must master. In this episode, Srinath Kuruvadi (Head of Cloud Security @ JPMorgan Chase) breaks down how to influence without formal authority and advocate when ROI isn’t immediately clear. We cover tactics for shaping problems from the POV of other stakeholders, Plus, strategies to establish shared outcomes, insights on optimizing your time, emerging AI x security trends, and how his team is operationalizing curiosity & experimentation through The Innovation Lab.ABOUT SRINATH KURUVADISrinath Kuruvadi is a globally recognized cybersecurity executive and cloud security leader with over two decades of experience driving security innovation at some of the world’s most influential technology companies, including Netflix, Meta, Google, Lyft, and JPMorgan Chase. Currently serving as Managing Director and Head of Cloud Security at JPMorgan Chase, he leads the enterprise-wide security strategy across APIs, containers, and cloud platforms, shaping the future of banking technology.Srinath’s approach blends deep technical expertise with executive-level risk management. At Netflix, he headed cloud security for one of the largest AWS environments globally, pioneering scalable governance and identity systems that supported massive data throughput. At Meta and Google, he led the development of custom infrastructure security systems protecting billions of users, including Facebook’s Blackbird SIEM+SOAR platform.Beyond his executive roles, Srinath is a strategic advisor and angel investor, with five successful startup exits including Bridgecrew, Lightspin, Oxeye, Gem Security, and Kivera. He is also a trusted advisor to venture capital firms like YL Ventures and Glilot Capital Partners, and served on Amazon’s Global CISO Advisory Council.He holds multiple patents in web application security, database protection, and abuse detection, and has authored research on algorithmic solutions in industrial systems. Srinath is also multilingual and committed to lifelong learning, exemplified by a sabbatical that took him to over 35 countries for cultural, linguistic, and creative growth.With a Master’s degree in Computer Science from North Carolina State University and a Bachelor's from BITS Pilani, Srinath is known for transforming security from a blocker into a business accelerator.Join us at ELC Annual 2025ELC Annual is the premier event for engineering leaders. This is our biggest event of the year: 1,000+ CTOs, VPs & Directors in San Francisco @ ELC Annual 2025 for two days of leadership breakthroughs, tactical peer learning & curated connections!🔗 Get your ticket now → https://sfelc.com/annual2025 SHOW NOTES:The hidden art of influencing without authority in security leadership (3:29)Why influencing remains an underestimated skill (5:08)Shifting from accidental to intentional influencing (6:53)Frameworks for aligning problems from other stakeholder’s POV (8:40)How to effectively influence without formal authority (11:14)Common pitfalls in identifying & aligning shared outcomes - and how to avoid them (14:10)Srinath’s strategy for clearly defining and aligning on shared outcomes from the start (15:42)Making a compelling case when immediate ROI isn’t clear (17:47)Practical prioritization frameworks for assessing security needs (20:55)Insights on personal time management for engineering leaders (22:53)Navigating current trends and potential pitfalls in AI for security (26:29)Inside the Innovation Lab: Operationalizing curiosity and AI experimentation (29:57)Rapid fire questions (33:47)LINKS AND RESOURCESFAIR methodology risk assessment - a research-driven not-for-profit organization dedicated to advancing the discipline of cyber and operational risk management through education, standards and collaboration.The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels - Michael D. Watkins gives you the keys to successfully negotiating your next move—whether you’re onboarding into a new company, being promoted internally, or embarking on an international assignment.Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World - David Epstein’s compelling case for actively cultivating inefficiency. Failing a test is the best way to learn. Frequent quitters end up with the most fulfilling careers. The most impactful inventors cross domains rather than deepening their knowledge in a single area. As experts silo themselves further while computers master more of the skills once reserved for highly focused humans, people who think broadly and embrace diverse experiences and perspectives will increasingly thrive.Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion - Dr. Robert Cialdini explains the psychology of why people say "yes"—and how to apply these understandings. You'll learn the six universal principles, how to use them to become a skilled persuader—and how to defend yourself against them. Perfect for people in all walks of life, the principles of Influence will move you toward profound personal change and act as a driving force for your success.How to Win Friends & Influence People - Dale Carnegie’s timeless bestseller, packed with rock-solid advice that has carried thousands of now famous people up the ladder of success in their business and personal lives.This episode wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our incredible production team:Patrick Gallagher - Producer & Co-HostJerry Li - Co-HostNoah Olberding - Associate Producer, Audio & Video Editor https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-olberding/Dan Overheim - Audio Engineer, Dan’s also an avid 3D printer - https://www.bnd3d.com/Ellie Coggins Angus - Copywriter, Check out her other work at https://elliecoggins.com/about/

John Amaral (CTO and co-founder @ Root.io) joins us to discuss the evolving role of engineering leaders and why vision-first leadership & building your “vision” muscle is more critical than ever. We dive into why “shift left” is dead and why SaaS is being replaced by “do-it” as a service. John also unpacks how to think in outcomes, apply the Jobs-To-Be-Done framework to eliminate toil, and reimagine product experiences. Plus, we look inside Root.io’s approach to building AI-native security products that ship daily. Whether you’re rethinking your org design or exploring the frontier of AI-powered engineering, this episode will reshape how you think about building, leading, and scaling teams.ABOUT JOHN AMARALJohn Amaral, CTO and co-founder of Root.io, is a veteran cybersecurity leader with a proven track record of scaling and exiting successful companies. At Cisco, he led Product for Cloud Security—its fastest-growing Security and SaaS business. Before that, he ran product and engineering at CloudLock through its acquisition by Cisco in 2016. Earlier, as SVP of Product at Trustwave, John led its industry-leading security portfolio, culminating in a strategic acquisition by Singtel. Today, he’s building Root.io—a next-gen cybersecurity platform pioneering Agentic Vulnerability Remediation (AVR) to automate and eliminate software vulnerabilities at scale. Join us at ELC Annual 2025ELC Annual is the premier event for engineering leaders. This is our biggest event of the year: 1,000+ CTOs, VPs & Directors in San Francisco @ ELC Annual 2025 for two days of leadership breakthroughs, tactical peer learning & curated connections!🔗 Get your ticket now → https://sfelc.com/annual2025 SHOW NOTES:The evolving role of engineering leaders (2:13)“Shift Left is Dead” - Why it’s time to “Shift Out” (5:59)Applying Jobs-To-Be-Done & offloading toil with AI (11:00)Root.io’s AI-driven approach to security (15:03)Vision First Leadership (22:36)Empowering developers & shipping daily (27:38)Rethinking product & engineering orgs and building your vision muscle (30:47)Unlocking creativity through hobbies (36:37)Rapid fire questions (41:14)LINKS AND RESOURCESThe All-In Podcast - When the pandemic prevented four friends from convening their weekly poker game, they took to the airwaves to socialize and discuss the news of the day. What started on a whim has quickly become one of the top-ranked podcasts in the world.This episode wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our incredible production team:Patrick Gallagher - Producer & Co-HostJerry Li - Co-HostNoah Olberding - Associate Producer, Audio & Video Editor https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-olberding/Dan Overheim - Audio Engineer, Dan’s also an avid 3D printer - https://www.bnd3d.com/Ellie Coggins Angus - Copywriter, Check out her other work at https://elliecoggins.com/about/

We’re pausing the pod this week as we gear up final planning for ELC Annual 2025 - the premier event for engineering leaders. New episodes return next week (on a biweekly schedule!). This is our biggest event of the year… 1,000+ CTOs, VPs & Directors in San Francisco @ ELC Annual 2025 for two days of leadership breakthroughs, tactical peer learning & curated connections! We’d love for you to join us. 🎟️ Early Bird pricing ends soon – secure your spot at the best rate. 🔗 Get your ticket now → https://sfelc.com/annual2025

In this episode, we go inside Commure’s engineering org w/ Dhruv Parthasarathy (CTO @ Commure & Athelas). We cover how to push decision-making down to move faster and reduce risk, structure teams for rapid iteration, and turn customers into product co-creators. Dhruv also shares how they cultivate polymath capabilities across EPD to accelerate velocity, why scope is one of the most underrated sources of leverage in engineering, and the frameworks they use to identify compound wins. If you’re scaling an eng org, leading in a complex domain, or designing your team for speed—this episode is packed with tactical frameworks you can apply immediately.ABOUT DHRUV PARTHASARATHYDhruv Parthasarathy has spent the last 8 years focused on applying modern software and machine learning techniques in healthcare. Dhruv currently serves as the CTO of Commure, HATCO, and Augmedix. In the role of CTO, he leads product, engineering, and design teams. Prior to this, Dhruv helped found Athelas which eventually merged with Commure.In these roles, Dhruv has designed and developed end-to-end solutions for revenue cycle automation, ambient documentation, patient engagement, and at-home diagnostics for oncology.Before this, Dhruv was the Director of Machine Learning Programs at Udacity, where he led the development of the AI, Self-Driving Car, Deep Learning, and Machine Learning Nanodegree programs.Dhruv also worked as a Product Engineer at Udacity, where he rebuilt the main signed-in experience and was responsible for the backend development. Dhruv obtained a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2013. Following this, they pursued a Master's degree in Computer Science with a concentration in Artificial Intelligence at MIT from 2013 to 2014.Join us at ELC Annual 2025ELC Annual is the premier event for engineering leaders. This is our biggest event of the year: 1,000+ CTOs, VPs & Directors in San Francisco @ ELC Annual 2025 for two days of leadership breakthroughs, tactical peer learning & curated connections!🔗 Get your ticket now → https://sfelc.com/annual2025 SHOW NOTES:How the Commure team moves with speed & momentum (3:26)Commure’s operational strategy / key leadership principles (4:57)Hiring & cultivating multi-talented individuals (7:16)How to optimize decision-making, push decisions down & minimize risk (8:40)Why speed is a core principle for building successful eng orgs (11:36)Getting unstuck in your decision-making as an eng team (13:07)Challenges faced while building a high-performing eng team in healthcare (15:47)Tactics for hiring less experienced engineers & bringing them up to speed (18:22)Customization as a product principle and how it manifests in EPD (20:55)Why the polymath style approach to engineering is more vital now than ever (23:47)Lessons learned around scope & using it to create leverage (26:06)Frameworks for assessing areas most likely to create a compound win (28:22)Rapid fire questions (30:35)LINKS AND RESOURCESCinema Speculation - The long-awaited first work of nonfiction from the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling Once Upon a Time in Hollywood: a deliriously entertaining, wickedly intelligent cinema book as unique and creative as anything by Quentin Tarantino.This episode wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our incredible production team:Patrick Gallagher - Producer & Co-HostJerry Li - Co-HostNoah Olberding - Associate Producer, Audio & Video Editor https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-olberding/Dan Overheim - Audio Engineer, Dan’s also an avid 3D printer - https://www.bnd3d.com/Ellie Coggins Angus - Copywriter, Check out her other work at https://elliecoggins.com/about/

Loïc Houssier (VP Engineering @ Superhuman) shares his evolving playbook for driving velocity in eng orgs today, building product-minded teams, and cultivating product taste. We cover leading culture / mindset transformation, creating exceptional product experiences, operational excellence when product quality is increasingly subjective. Plus the evolution of productivity tools!ABOUT LOÏC HOUSSIERLoïc Houssier is an engineering executive with 20 years of leadership experience spanning startups, scale-ups, and global enterprises. He specializes in helping high-growth companies scale with speed and discipline, combining technical depth with a strong operational mindset.He currently leads engineering at Superhuman, the most productive email app ever made, where he joined at a pivotal moment in the company’s growth. Loïc brought a new level of executional rigor — embedding a culture of speed not just in the product (where every interaction happens in under 100ms), but in how the team ships, scales, and makes decisions.Previously, he held senior engineering roles at Productboard, Firstbase, and DocuSign, where he led global teams through platform expansion, org design, and M&A. With a background in cryptography and early experience as a security researcher, Loïc is also a frequent mentor and speaker on engineering leadership and building resilient, high-velocity teams.Join us at ELC Annual 2025ELC Annual is the premier event for engineering leaders. This is our biggest event of the year: 1,000+ CTOs, VPs & Directors in San Francisco @ ELC Annual 2025 for two days of leadership breakthroughs, tactical peer learning & curated connections!🔗 Get your ticket now → https://sfelc.com/annual2025 SHOW NOTES:How Loïc built a reputation for building high-velocity engineering orgs (2:14)The underweighted value of board member continuity (4:58)Defining velocity in the AI age (6:23)Loïc’s evolving playbook that drives velocity (9:10)Implementing the velocity playbook @ Superhuman (11:04)An example of incorporating domain focus effectively within an eng team (12:49)Strategies for changing core principles / managing culture shock (16:17)Knowing when you made the correct change vs. signals it’s not working (19:06)Tools & tactics to promote a velocity mindset in engineering orgs (21:10)Build credibility with influential eng leaders in your org (23:37)Frameworks for cultivating product thinking within an eng org (27:03)How to cultivate great product taste inside engineering orgs (30:24)The importance of having a strong leader who sets the product taste standard (32:20)Key elements of exceptional product experiences @ Superhuman (34:34)Loïc’s perspective on navigating product complexity & quality expectations w/ AI (36:28)The future of productivity tools: paradigm shifts in AI & productivity (39:29)Rapid fire questions (41:20)LINKS AND RESOURCESDays at the Morisaki Bookshop - Satoshi Yagisawa’s moving international sensation about new beginnings, human connection, and the joy of reading.Zone to Win: Organizing to Compete in an Age of Disruption - Geoffrey A. Moore’s high-powered tool for driving your company above and beyond its limitations, its definitions of success, and ultimately, its competitors.This episode wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our incredible production team:Patrick Gallagher - Producer & Co-HostJerry Li - Co-HostNoah Olberding - Associate Producer, Audio & Video Editor https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-olberding/Dan Overheim - Audio Engineer, Dan’s also an avid 3D printer - https://www.bnd3d.com/Ellie Coggins Angus - Copywriter, Check out her other work at https://elliecoggins.com/about/

When Nissim Lehyani (VP of Product at Life360) used AI to build a math game for his son, he didn’t just prototype a game, he rewired how he thinks about product development and the relationship between engineering, product, and design. In this episode, Nissim shares how that personal “aha” moment sparked a shift in how his teams build, collaborate, and ship. We dive into how AI is accelerating product iteration from months to hours, why it’s time to drop the “M” from MVP, and how prototypes are replacing PRDs as the central artifact of product work. Plus how product rituals and building cadence are evolving, strategies for scaling a prototype-first workflow, and we deconstruct the “lightning pod” model and how it’s changing the dynamics of product building & EPD collaboration.ABOUT NISSIM LEHYANINissim Lehyani is the Vice President of Product at Life360, where he leads product strategy for the family safety platform used by over 60 million users worldwide. With more than two decades of experience across startups, global tech companies, and entrepreneurial ventures, Nissim is known for scaling impactful products that blend technical depth with business strategy.Prior to Life360, he was Senior Director of Product at Indeed, where he oversaw a portfolio of 13 consumer products reaching 300M+ monthly users, and led a team of 40+ product managers across global markets. Nissim previously held leadership roles at GoDaddy, where he helped 18M+ SMBs grow their businesses through strategic partnerships with Facebook, Yelp, and Google.As a founder, he built and led two ventures: Shopial (acquired by Magento) and Urban Place, raising millions to support small businesses and entrepreneurs. He also brings deep technical roots from his engineering leadership at Cisco and early career in Israeli Military Intelligence.Nissim is a 2024 Product Leader Award winner and active mentor in the startup ecosystem through roles at Mixpanel and SV101 by ICON. He’s passionate about user-centric innovation, data-driven growth, and the intersection of AI, engineering, and product management.Join us at ELC Annual 2025ELC Annual is the premier event for engineering leaders. This is our biggest event of the year: 1,000+ CTOs, VPs & Directors in San Francisco @ ELC Annual 2025 for two days of leadership breakthroughs, tactical peer learning & curated connections!🔗 Get your ticket now → https://sfelc.com/annual2025 SHOW NOTES:How Nissin & Patrick got connected (2:19)Nissin’s light bulb AI moment (4:03)Building first & defining later (5:33)How AI accelerates product iteration from months to hours & fills skill gaps (6:49)Recognizing your AI aha moment (9:44)Why it’s time to drop the “M” from MVP (11:21)New expectations for the first iteration of a product (13:37)Nissim’s #1 product principle (15:56)Why prototyping is replacing PRDs (17:57)Strategies for socializing a prototype-first workflow in your org (19:54)Tactics for inspiring AI adoption: find one annoying thing & show vs. tell (22:22)Rethinking product cadence and how product rituals are evolving (24:08)Defining the “lightning pod” model (25:29)How “lightning pods” change the dynamic between engineering, product & design (27:20)A live AI product demo: recreating Nissim’s original aha moment (29:10)Iterating product in real-time (31:06)How Nissim evaluates code & product outcomes (33:38)Rapid fire questions (34:15)This episode wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our incredible production team:Patrick Gallagher - Producer & Co-HostJerry Li - Co-HostNoah Olberding - Associate Producer, Audio & Video Editor https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-olberding/Dan Overheim - Audio Engineer, Dan’s also an avid 3D printer - https://www.bnd3d.com/Ellie Coggins Angus - Copywriter, Check out her other work at https://elliecoggins.com/about/

We just launched the ELC Forum — a new space for engineering leaders to dive deeper into real challenges and get peer support It’s a discussion board (like Reddit) but focused on eng leadership. We’re sharing takeaways from recent episodes and kicking off new discussions. Plus, AMAs with guests are coming soon. See you in the Forum!Click here to explore the forum, ask questions, & share insights and takeaways!https://elc.community/home/forum

How do you go from deeply technical IC to leading 100+ engineers - and still stay close to the tech? Prashant Ramarao, SVP of Engineering & Head of AI @ Yahoo shares lessons from his unconventional leadership journey, exploring the mindset shift from expert IC to executive! We cover how to scale your leadership while maintaining technical credibility and how to effectively communicate with GMs & other non-technical stakeholders. Plus, Prashant shares personal AI projects that enhanced his technical credibility, leadership skills & understanding of how to integrate AI into products If you’re navigating the leap from technical to strategic, or scaling your leadership, this one’s for you.ABOUT PRASHANT RAMARAOPrashant is a hands-on technology executive with extensive experience in software engineering, leading large organizations, specializing in AI / ML, and large-scale systems architecture. With advanced degrees in computer science and engineering leadership, he excels at defining technical strategies that align with business goals, delivering results, and fostering high-performing, cross-functional teams. He cares about engineering excellence, leveraging cutting-edge technology to solve complex problems and scale operations for long-term growth. He has a lifelong passion for learning and looks for opportunities to challenge the status quo to drive change. He loves the outdoors and is a self-proclaimed podaholic - going on long hikes in Bay Area while listening to his podcasts is one of his favorite activities.Join us at ELC Annual 2025ELC Annual is the premier event for engineering leaders. This is our biggest event of the year: 1,000+ CTOs, VPs & Directors in San Francisco @ ELC Annual 2025 for two days of leadership breakthroughs, tactical peer learning & curated connections!🔗 Get your ticket now → https://sfelc.com/annual2025 SHOW NOTES:Behind Prashant’s rapid leadership evolution (3:26)Transitioning from IC to management: early steps and surprises (5:51)Navigating the mindset shifts from tech expert to people leader (7:31)Friction points in moving from informal to formal leadership (11:00)Skills for communicating with less technical audiences (13:46)Learning to talk with GMs & other non-technical leaders (16:32)Frameworks for effective meeting planning (19:03)Examples of communicating technical work to execs (20:08)Learning the impact of the “observer effect” (21:59)Incorporating feedback gathered by observing (27:03)Strategies for maintaining technical credibility as a senior leader (29:29)Why personal projects and experimentation matter for leadership growth (32:21)How Prashant’s personal projects enhance technical credibility & leadership skills (36:59)Rapid fire questions (37:57)This episode wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our incredible production team:Patrick Gallagher - Producer & Co-HostJerry Li - Co-HostNoah Olberding - Associate Producer, Audio & Video Editor https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-olberding/Dan Overheim - Audio Engineer, Dan’s also an avid 3D printer - https://www.bnd3d.com/Ellie Coggins Angus - Copywriter, Check out her other work at https://elliecoggins.com/about/

AI is reshaping the fundamental economics of startups—lowering product development costs, compressing GTM cycles, and rewriting the rules of competition. In this episode, Craig McLuckie (Co-Founder & CEO @ Stacklok, co-creator of Kubernetes) unpacks “the epoch of the startup,” a moment of massive disruption where fast-moving founders have a unique edge over incumbents. We explore how Craig is navigating this new era from rethinking cost structure, value capture, and defensibility to leveraging open-source, community, and asymmetric advantages as core pillars of Stacklok’s strategy. Craig shares lessons from pivotal product shifts, frameworks for identifying moats, and the broader societal implications of AI-driven disruption. Whether you’re leading a startup, pivoting in the face of AI, or thinking about your next big move, this conversation offers a strategic playbook for thriving in today’s shifting landscape.ABOUT CRAIG MCLUCKIECraig is the CEO and co-founder of Stacklok, where his team is working to tip AI code generation on its side, from vertical, closed solutions to horizontal, aligned systems. Craig was previously CEO and co-founder of Heptio, which was acquired by VMware in 2018; he has also led product and engineering teams at Google and Microsoft. Craig is a co-creator of Kubernetes and he bootstrapped and chaired the Cloud Native Computing Foundation. xJoin us at ELC Annual 2025ELC Annual is the premier event for engineering leaders. This is our biggest event of the year: 1,000+ CTOs, VPs & Directors in San Francisco @ ELC Annual 2025 for two days of leadership breakthroughs, tactical peer learning & curated connections!🔗 Get your ticket now → https://sfelc.com/annual2025 SHOW NOTES:Why this moment is “the epoch of the startup” (2:03)How AI shifts startup economics: from cost structures to value capture (4:18)Why incumbents struggle during disruption—and how startups can win (8:17)The origin story behind Stacklok & lessons from Craig’s pivot (11:04)Frameworks for identifying asymmetric advantages as a founder (14:48)How to map your unique asymmetric advantages to new opportunities and secure stakeholder buy-in (16:34)Rethinking defensibility & value capture in the AI era (16:29)How Craig applied cost, GTM & product perspectives to strategic pivots @ Stacklok (18:07)Building investment theses: Aligning cultural strengths & asymmetric advantages with evolving opportunities (20:05)Determining your startup’s investment themes (22:53)Structuring experiments & validating opportunities (24:15)Defensibility & building community-driven moats in early ideation phases (26:54)Signals of early community-product alignment (31:24)Conversation frameworks to assess asymmetric advantages (32:22)Societal implications of AI disruption & the “startup epoch” (35:14)Rapid fire questions (38:12)This episode wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our incredible production team:Patrick Gallagher - Producer & Co-HostJerry Li - Co-HostNoah Olberding - Associate Producer, Audio & Video Editor https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-olberding/Dan Overheim - Audio Engineer, Dan’s also an avid 3D printer - https://www.bnd3d.com/Ellie Coggins Angus - Copywriter, Check out her other work at https://elliecoggins.com/about/

Anush Elangovan (VP of AI Software @ AMD) is helping lead a strategic evolution at AMD, from silicon/components provider to a systems and solutions company built for the AI era. In this episode, we explore the first principles behind AMD’s unified AI hardware and software strategy and how the company is building a fully open-source AI ecosystem. Anush shares how his team creates a tight feedback loop between core engineering and customer deployment, and the daily rituals they use to operate at the speed of AI. We also unpack the leadership mindset required to navigate the tension between fast-moving AI software & slower hardware development cycles. Plus: building in public, integrating community feedback, and favorite examples of AI’s impact on everyday human experiences.ABOUT ANUSH ELANGOVANAnush Elangovan leads the Artificial Intelligence Group (AIG) as Corporate Vice President of AI software and solutions.Anush has 23 years of industry experience in AI, computer science, compilers, network security, operating systems, math, and its materialization on complex hardware systems. This co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Nod.ai oversaw product strategy and the overall business until AMD acquired Nod.ai (see related article here) today.Anush will lead the acceleration of deploying AI solutions optimized for AMD products while aligning with AMD’s AI growth strategy centered on an open software ecosystem. In the near term, he and his team will introduce the code generation (CodeGen) capabilities from the Nod.ai flagship software, Shark, to unlock customer engagements via the ROCm™ and Vitis™ AI platforms. Over time, Anush will lead the contributions of the Nod.ai team to the AMD Unified AI Stack.Before starting Nod.ai, Anush was instrumental in the graphics stack on the first ARM Chromebook. He led the movement of the Chrome operating system from Debian to Gentoo Linux to enable Google to gain full control of the shipping software. Previously, he was Principal Engineer for Agnilux, which Google acquired. The Agnilux team became crucial to the Chrome OS team, building a fusion of Android and Chrome OS.Previously, Anush was a technical lead at Cisco Systems in its Datacenter Group, creating the first distributed virtual switching platform. He has also been an early member of FireEye, where he led in-memory taint-check analysis for networking and security in virtualized environments. He started his career in an earlier stint at Cisco, contributing to metro Ethernet initiatives.Anush holds a Master of Science in computer science from Arizona State University and a Bachelor of Engineering in computer science from the Mepco Schlenk Engineering College at Madurai Kamaraj University in India. He has earned 10 patents. In his spare time, he enjoys skiing, mountaineering, and trail running. Anush lives with his family, including three children and two dogs, in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area.Join us at ELC Annual 2025ELC Annual is the premier event for engineering leaders. This is our biggest event of the year: 1,000+ CTOs, VPs & Directors in San Francisco @ ELC Annual 2025 for two days of leadership breakthroughs, tactical peer learning & curated connections!🔗 Get your ticket now → https://sfelc.com/annual2025 SHOW NOTES:AMD’s AI hardware + software strategy, explained (2:24)From startup founder to leading AI software at AMD (3:50)How AMD is unifying hardware through a shared AI stack (6:01)What the VP of AI Software @ AMD owns across software & customer enablement (7:17)AMD’s daily standup and real-time prioritization rituals (10:32)Strategies for building a unified AI ecosystem from first principles (13:06)How to approach building for complex technical workflows (15:38)Navigating hardware ecosystem requirements & aligning AI software (17:48)Challenging legacy software assumptions & why AI requires a new mindset for software development (19:38)AMD’s integration of community contributors into product cycles (21:21)AMD’s approach to cultivating an open-source ecosystem & community experience (22:48)Open-source & AMD’s ecosystem strategy: Building trust by building in public (26:57)How AMD collects and acts on user feedback fast within a community ecosystem (29:24)AI’s impact on everyday human experiences (32:15)Rapid fire questions (34:50)This episode wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our incredible production team:Patrick Gallagher - Producer & Co-HostJerry Li - Co-HostNoah Olberding - Associate Producer, Audio & Video Editor https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-olberding/Dan Overheim - Audio Engineer, Dan’s also an avid 3D printer - https://www.bnd3d.com/Ellie Coggins Angus - Copywriter, Check out her other work at https://elliecoggins.com/about/

When Farnaz Azmoodeh (CTO @ Linktree) stepped into her new role, she unexpectedly took on product & design just three months in—owning all of engineering, product, and design during a critical period of change. In this episode, Farnaz shares hard-won lessons from that transition, including the mindset shift from delivery to discovery, balancing data vs. intuition in decision-making, knowing when to pivot your product strategy, and building small / fast-moving cross-functional teams. We also cover applying the 80/20 rule to simplify complex product surfaces, her favorite frameworks for pattern recognition, and how to reset assumptions when pattern-matching can backfire. If you’re navigating ambiguity, expanding your scope, or evolving how your org builds product, this episode will help you lead with more clarity, speed, and strategic focus.ABOUT FARNAZ AZMOODEHFarnaz is the CTO at Linktree, the leading social platform for creators and small businesses. Linktree enables its users to unify, curate, and monetize their online presence. Farnaz started her career at Google, focusing on the ad tech space. Farnaz then joined Snap, leading Snap's AR monetization team before scaling to run Snap's Platform and product engineering. Farnaz earned her bachelor's degree in computer science from Sharif University of Technology before moving to the U.S. to pursue a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Southern California. After fulfilling the credits for a master’s degree, she decided to enter the tech industry where she could contribute to human progress by bringing products to millions of users.Join us at ELC Annual 2025ELC Annual is the premier event for engineering leaders. This is our biggest event of the year: 1,000+ CTOs, VPs & Directors in San Francisco @ ELC Annual 2025 for two days of leadership breakthroughs, tactical peer learning & curated connections!🔗 Get your ticket now → https://sfelc.com/annual2025 SHOW NOTES:Taking on product & design 3 months into a new role (3:01)Going from delivery to discovery: mindset shifts for eng leaders (5:58)Identifying the current state of engineering, product & design (10:59)Decision-making based on anecdotes vs. data (12:50)Pivoting strategies to optimize for small, fast teams to improve cross-functional collaboration (15:04)Signals to pivot your product approach & ****make different bets (16:59)Complementary skill sets for rapid iteration (19:14)How to avoid silencing critical input & transform team frustration into product insight (20:41)Applying the 80/20 rule to complex product surfaces (23:46)Case Study: Reprioritizing the LinkTree product w/ 80/20 approach (25:46)Bringing on a strategic product partner & kicking off org change (27:28)Be honest about your knowledge gaps (29:09)How Farnaz’s experiences at Snap inform her leadership as CTO (33:21)When pattern matching fails: frameworks for checking assumptions (35:22)Where EPD Is headed: cross-functional evolution in the age of AI (38:10)Rapid fire questions (38:58)This episode wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our incredible production team:Patrick Gallagher - Producer & Co-HostJerry Li - Co-HostNoah Olberding - Associate Producer, Audio & Video Editor https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-olberding/Dan Overheim - Audio Engineer, Dan’s also an avid 3D printer - https://www.bnd3d.com/Ellie Coggins Angus - Copywriter, Check out her other work at https://elliecoggins.com/about/

Wade Chambers, Chief Engineering Officer @ Amplitude, joins us to discuss what it looks like to empower individual engineers & overall engineering teams and recommendations for creating a culture that cultivates ownership! First, Wade defines what true ownership looks like – and what it doesn’t look like. We cover frameworks for identifying & cultivating high ownership in individuals & across teams, implementing systems that encourage ownership, communicating shared vision / goals, and coaching engineers when passing the baton of ownership. We also discuss navigating difficult conversations around empowerment / ownership – or lack thereof – and Wade shares examples of impactful questions to ask.ABOUT WADE CHAMBERSWade Chambers will be leading Engineering at Amplitude. Amplitude is the leading digital analytics platform that helps companies unlock the power of their products. Wade has over 25 years of engineering leadership experience, both advising companies and being hands-on in key leadership positions at companies such as Included Health, Twitter, TellApart, Proofpoint, Yahoo, and Opsware. He is a deep technical expert with a proven track record of scaling teams, leaders, market-defining technology innovations, and business growth.Join us at ELC Annual 2025ELC Annual is the premier event for engineering leaders. This is our biggest event of the year: 1,000+ CTOs, VPs & Directors in San Francisco @ ELC Annual 2025 for two days of leadership breakthroughs, tactical peer learning & curated connections!🔗 Get your ticket now → https://sfelc.com/annual2025 SHOW NOTES:Why empowering engineering teams to own their mission matters (3:16)Common traps that prevent eng leaders from empowering teams (5:15)Understanding the “why” behind ownership & systemizing individual ownership (7:09)Systems change for empowerment: Aligning company vision, outcomes, competencies & behaviors (9:48)How to bring someone from low ownership back to high ownership (13:49)Developing trust & having tough conversations around ownership (15:17)Nonobvious factors to that erode ownership over time (17:42)Empowering teams through meaningful missions, clear expectations, defining success, & ongoing check-ins (20:55)Identifying engineers w/ competencies & behaviors that align w/ your org’s vision & goals (24:00)When having too much ownership becomes a problem (27:22)Wade’s process for officially transferring ownership (28:47)Coaching and navigating conversations around ownership (32:01)Impactful questions to ask during the coaching / check in process (34:08)Closing gaps in leadership competencies & behaviors (37:27)Coaching leaders to align personal growth with org goals (39:25)Rapid fire questions (41:34)This episode wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our incredible production team:Patrick Gallagher - Producer & Co-HostJerry Li - Co-HostNoah Olberding - Associate Producer, Audio & Video Editor https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-olberding/Dan Overheim - Audio Engineer, Dan’s also an avid 3D printer - https://www.bnd3d.com/Ellie Coggins Angus - Copywriter, Check out her other work at https://elliecoggins.com/about/

In this episode, we’re back with more insights from our local community leaders — discussing leadership insights on strategic decision-making, managing technical debt and fostering true cross-functional partnerships! Funmi Oludaiye (New York City) shares strategies for building strong cross-functional relationships between eng & business leaders. Ketan Gupta (London) breaks down the STIR framework for managing tech debt & aligning it with business value. And Sasha Hall (Toronto) works through examples of how to balance decisive (fast) vs. thoughtful (slow) decision-making. You’ll also learn some of these leaders’ best tips for diving in & getting involved with your local ELC community!ABOUT FUNMI OLUDAIYEFunmi is a Managing Director and the Head of the Digital Risk Office for Enterprise Partnerships at Goldman Sachs, where she is pioneering a first-of-its-kind global initiative to embed critical business, security, and engineering risk practices within the engineering organization. With nearly 15 years of experience as a software engineer, architect, and engineering manager, she has a proven track record of leading high-performing teams, delivering innovative technology solutions, and championing best practices in developer experience and productivity across large-scale engineering teams. Most recently, she was the Head of Engineering for Consumer Deposits at Marcus by Goldman Sachs, and prior to that, she led the product engineering teams that built and launched the firm's award-winning credit card partnerships with Apple and later, General Motors. Funmi is a passionate advocate for underrepresented groups in the technology industry and is committed to mentoring the next generation of engineering leaders. Her wealth of experience and dedication to driving positive change make her a sought-after speaker and advisor.ABOUT KETAN GUPTAKetan is a seasoned engineering leader with 13+ years in software development, cloud, architecture, product delivery, and organizational leadership. He excels at building high-performing engineering teams and driving strategic initiatives. As an active community builder, he contributes to the Engineering Leaders Community and champions software craftsmanship.ABOUT SASHA HALLSasha Hall is an Engineering Manager at Planitar Inc, makers of iGUIDE. A University of Waterloo graduate with over 5 years of leadership experience at Pegasus Aeronautics and Deep Trekker, Sasha brings valuable insights on decisive leadership, effective communication, and strategic vision in growing organizations. Their career path through underwater robotics at Deep Trekker, aerial drone systems at Pegasus Aeronautics, and spatial mapping technologies at Planitar showcases a passion for innovative hardware and sensing solutions. This diverse technical background, combined with consistent leadership dedication, has equipped Sasha with a unique perspective on navigating today's complex engineering challenges.Join us at ELC Annual 2025ELC Annual is the premier event for engineering leaders. This is our biggest event of the year: 1,000+ CTOs, VPs & Directors in San Francisco @ ELC Annual 2025 for two days of leadership breakthroughs, tactical peer learning & curated connections!🔗 Get your ticket now → https://sfelc.com/annual2025 SHOW NOTES:Funmi discusses why successful eng leaders build true partnerships between engineering & business stakeholders (1:58)Navigating the dynamics of engineering & cross-functional team partnerships (3:00)Creating alignment / building relationships through fostering trust & curiosity (4:42)How engaging w/ curiosity is key to building cross-functional relationships (7:21)Funmi’s framework to help identify gaps in understanding (8:56)Recognizing knowledge gaps and relying on subject matter experts (10:15)Tips for navigating partnerships with multiple stakeholders (13:14)What’s going on with ELC New York & the power of connecting with eng leaders (14:45)Ketan discusses cloud transformation and AI integration (17:08)Considering challenges w/ security, scalability, cost, flexibility & AI in cloud vs. hybrid migrations (18:05)Explaining the impact of technical debt on organizations (20:04)The STIR framework for managing tech debt during cloud migrations (21:17)Translating tech debt into business value w/ STIR (24:16)Separating continuous improvement / performance from tech debt (27:00)Understanding team strengths & bolstering team motivation (29:21)Ketan’s experience with ELC London (30:55)Have fun with decision-making (33:17)Sasha discusses optimizing team processes amid company growth & new hires (34:06)Effective decision-making - balancing being decisive & thoughtful (37:36)Examples of balancing quick decision-making w/ thoughtfulness (39:05)How to refactor repetitive tasks to improve efficiency (40:32)Balancing time, risk & impact in decision-making processes (42:06)The value of building a network & finding mentors outside your own company (45:03)Advice for jumping into ELC community events (47:41)This episode wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our incredible production team:Patrick Gallagher - Producer & Co-HostJerry Li - Co-HostNoah Olberding - Associate Producer, Audio & Video Editor https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-olberding/Dan Overheim - Audio Engineer, Dan’s also an avid 3D printer - https://www.bnd3d.com/Ellie Coggins Angus - Copywriter, Check out her other work at https://elliecoggins.com/about/

In this episode, Vinod Marur (SVP of Engineering @ Databricks) shares his approach to recalibrating leadership priorities as organizations scale. Vinod breaks down his personal recalibration framework—why he does it every 3–6 months, signals that it’s time to reassess, and how to design communication and collaboration structures that reduce information asymmetry during periods of rapid growth. We dive into rewriting hiring playbooks, tailoring recruitment pitches, and the impact of AI on hiring. Plus actionable strategies for onboarding and empowering senior leaders, identifying the highest-leverage problems to solve, and finding champions to carry key initiatives forward.ABOUT VINOD MARURVinod Marur is the SVP of Engineering at Databricks. He was previously at Rubrik where he served as SVP Engineering and established a mature engineering organization geared for rapid product development and innovation with a deep focus on product quality and organizational development. Prior to that Vinod spent nearly 15 years in leadership roles across some of Google’s most critical business units, including Search, Ads, and Payments as well as tapping into his passion for developer platforms to create and lead the Actions on Google platform, used by third parties to develop for Google Assistant and other Google products.Join us at ELC Annual 2025ELC Annual is the premier event for engineering leaders. This is our biggest event of the year: 1,000+ CTOs, VPs & Directors in San Francisco @ ELC Annual 2025 for two days of leadership breakthroughs, tactical peer learning & curated connections!🔗 Get your ticket now → https://sfelc.com/annual2025SHOW NOTES:Vinod’s process for recalibrating his leadership focus / priorities (2:25)Why routine can be dangerous & the mental shift required to prioritize impact (4:17)Examples of pivoting & how Vinod’s leadership priorities adapted (7:57)Strategies for assessing core priorities when scaling (9:39)Identifying where the most leverage is for your time (11:05)Signals that it’s time to recalibrate your organization’s priorities (13:27)Solving for information asymmetry: designing communication and collaboration structures (16:20)Rewriting hiring playbooks & tailoring recruitment pitches in a shifting market (18:56)Hiring tactics that worked five years ago that don’t anymore (21:21)The impact of AI on hiring practices (22:55)Current factors impacting hiring engineering leaders (25:30)Vinod’s framework for identifying the right problems to solve when transitioning to a new role (27:14)“The best leaders often start small, and progress to tackle larger problems” (28:33)Strategies for accelerating the impact of senior cross-functional partners (29:40)Obsessing over a single organizational goal & identifying champions to carry initiatives forward (31:25)Vinod’s latest obsession: the implementation and evolution of operational reviews (33:48)Rapid fire questions (36:36)LINKS AND RESOURCESACQUIRED - Acquired tells the stories and strategies of great companies, hosted by Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal. Acquired is a depth-first show. Episodes are 3-4 hours long, and are better described as "conversational audiobooks" than "podcasts." Episodes occasionally feature guests, such as the founders/CEOs of NVIDIA, Berkshire Hathaway, Starbucks, Meta, Spotify, Uber, Zoom, CAA, Sequoia Capital, and all five Benchmark partners.This episode wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our incredible production team:Patrick Gallagher - Producer & Co-HostJerry Li - Co-HostNoah Olberding - Associate Producer, Audio & Video Editor https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-olberding/Dan Overheim - Audio Engineer, Dan’s also an avid 3D printer - https://www.bnd3d.com/Ellie Coggins Angus - Copywriter, Check out her other work at https://elliecoggins.com/about/

Jon Hyman (Co-Founder and CTO @ Braze) shares the pivotal moments that shaped the company - from being the only person on call in the early years to identifying (and pivoting) product-market fit. Jon discusses how they navigated early-stage failure modes, carved out areas of product ownership, and made the shift to enterprise customers. Plus how leadership priorities evolve pre- vs. post-IPO and the next evolution of Jon’s leadership growth after almost 14 years at Braze.ABOUT JON HYMANJon Hyman is the co-founder and chief technology officer of Braze, the customer engagement platform that delivers messaging experiences across push, email, in-app, and more. He leads the charge for building the platform’s technical systems and infrastructure as well as overseeing the company’s technical operations and engineering team.Prior to Braze, Jon served as lead engineer for the Core Technology group at Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund. There, he managed a team that maintained 80+ software assets and was responsible for the security and stability of critical trading systems. Jon met cofounder Bill Magnuson during his time at Bridgewater, and together they won the 2011 TechCrunch Disrupt Hackathon. Jon is a recipient of the SmartCEO Executive Management Award in the CIO/CTO Category for New York. Jon holds a B.A. from Harvard University in Computer Science.ABOUT BRAZEBraze is the leading customer engagement platform that empowers brands to Be Absolutely Engaging.™ Braze allows any marketer to collect and take action on any amount of data from any source, so they can creatively engage with customers in real time, across channels from one platform. From cross-channel messaging and journey orchestration to Al-powered experimentation and optimization, Braze enables companies to build and maintain absolutely engaging relationships with their customers that foster growth and loyalty. The company has been recognized as a 2024 U.S. News & World Report Best Companies to Work For, 2024 Best Small & Medium Workplaces in Europe by Great Place to Work®, 2024 Fortune Best Workplaces for Women™ by Great Place to Work® and was named a Leader by Gartner® in the 2024 Magic Quadrant™ for Multichannel Marketing Hubs and a Strong Performer in The Forrester Wave™: Email Marketing Service Providers, Q3 2024.  Braze is headquartered in New York with 15 offices across North America, Europe, and APAC. Learn more at braze.com.Join us at ELC Annual 2025ELC Annual is the premier event for engineering leaders. This is our biggest event of the year: 1,000+ CTOs, VPs & Directors in San Francisco @ ELC Annual 2025 for two days of leadership breakthroughs, tactical peer learning & curated connections!🔗 Get your ticket now → https://sfelc.com/annual2025SHOW NOTES:What Jon learned from being the only person on call for his company’s first four years (2:56)Knowing when it’s time to get help managing your servers, ops, scaling, etc. (5:42)Establishing areas of product ownership & other scaling lessons from the early days (9:25)Frameworks for conversations on splitting of products across teams (12:00)The challenges, complexities & strategies behind assigning ownership in the early days (14:40)Founding Braze (18:01)Why Braze? The story & insights behind the original vision for Braze (20:08)Identifying Braze’s product market fit (22:34)Early-stage PMF challenges faced by Jon & his co-founders (25:40)Pivoting to focus on enterprise customers (27:48)“Let’s integrate the SDK right now” - founder-led sales ideas to validate your product (29:22)Behind the decision to hire a chief revenue officer for the first time (34:02)The evolution of enterprise & its impact on Braze’s product offering (36:42)Growing out of your early-stage failure modes (39:00)Why it’s important to make personnel decisions quickly (41:22)Setting & maintaining a vision pre IPO vs. post IPO (44:21)Jon’s next leadership evolution & growth areas he is focusing on (49:50)Rapid fire questions (52:53)LINKS AND RESOURCESWhen We Cease to Understand the World - Benjamín Labatut’s fictional examination of the lives of real-life scientists and thinkers whose discoveries resulted in moral consequences beyond their imagining. At a breakneck pace and with a wealth of disturbing detail, Labatut uses the imaginative resources of fiction to tell the stories of Fritz Haber, Alexander Grothendieck, Werner Heisenberg, and Erwin Schrödinger, the scientists and mathematicians who expanded our notions of the possible.This episode wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our incredible production team:Patrick Gallagher - Producer & Co-HostJerry Li - Co-HostNoah Olberding - Associate Producer, Audio & Video Editor https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-olberding/Dan Overheim - Audio Engineer, Dan’s also an avid 3D printer - https://www.bnd3d.com/Ellie Coggins Angus - Copywriter, Check out her other work at https://elliecoggins.com/about/

ABOUT RUKMINI REDDYRukmini Reddy is the Senior Vice President of Engineering, responsible for managing product and platform delivery, infrastructure, and data science. Reddy joins PagerDuty from Slack where she guided the vision, strategy, and execution of a comprehensive re-architecture, transforming the messaging software into an automation platform that empowered users to streamline their work.Additionally, Rukmini spent over a decade in senior executive roles at various enterprise companies, where she built a strong track record in driving engineering and product strategy during periods of hyper-growth and product transformation across SaaS, B2B, and B2C business models.Rukmini has a master of science degree in computer engineering from the University of Arkansas and earned a bachelor’s degree from Osmania University in computer science and engineering.SHOW NOTES:How the role of engineering leadership has evolved from 2021 to 2025 (2:35)The rising importance of financial acumen & enduring importance of resilience in engineering leadership (5:28)Key questions to ground and align your team with mission, vision, customer impact, and position to win the market (7:04)What it means to become the leader your business needs (9:31)“Hugging the elephant” and overcoming fear & uncertainty in 2021 vs. today (12:26)Five questions to help you lead your team through transitions and change (16:03)How to incorporate this framework to drive org change with empathy (18:10)How to address questions about job security and future roles within an organization (20:21)Strategies to guide your team through unspoken fears & unknowns (23:47)Rukmini’s advice to create high-trust, high-impact sources of support through fear, uncertainty, and doubt for the first time (25:19)Navigating org change from first principles (27:21)How to move from the “informed pessimism” dip to “curious optimism” as a team & org (30:00)Using evangelism & experimentation to tackle common adoption fears (34:07)Examples of enablement & skill development / delivery (37:32)The role of enforcement in the adoption transformation curve (39:07)Rapid fire questions (42:33)LINKS AND RESOURCESGood Strategy Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters -Richard P. Rumelt clarifies the muddled thinking underlying too many strategies and provides a clear way to create and implement a powerful action-oriented strategy for the real world.This episode wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our incredible production team:Patrick Gallagher - Producer & Co-HostJerry Li - Co-HostNoah Olberding - Associate Producer, Audio & Video Editor https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-olberding/Dan Overheim - Audio Engineer, Dan’s also an avid 3D printer - https://www.bnd3d.com/Ellie Coggins Angus - Copywriter, Check out her other work at https://elliecoggins.com/about/