Scaling Tech - The blueprint for successful tech teams

Is your performance review process hindering your team’s optimal performance?In assessing performance, companies often share OKRs equally among team members and then review individual performance at the end of the year based on these shared OKRs. But this approach seems to offer no incentive for teamwork or higher performance.So, how should tech leaders review team performance without hurting teamwork?My guest, Fabio Lessa, is here to help us identify the best strategies for creating a performance-oriented culture within tech teams. Fabio leads Duolingo’s platform engineering team and has over 15 years of experience building engineering teams at startups and large companies, such as Spotify and SoundCloud.In this episode, Fabio shares Duolingo’s recent experience with the “tiger teams” approach to boosting performance. Forming a tiger team involves freeing specialists from regular responsibilities to focus on a particular task. Fabio observed that tiger teams outperform average teams because all team members pay undivided attention to the task. In fact, one such tiger team exceeded performance expectations by completing a 3-month task in just 2 weeks!The key? Tech leaders must create a distraction-free environment and break down complex tasks. Tech leaders must also set clear goals and communicate how the project’s scope contributes to the company’s goals.Tune in for this and more insights on how to boost your team’s performance."The main way to impact performance is at the environment level, not at the individual." ~ Fabio LessaIn This Episode:- Team leadership lessons from the Tiger Teams approach- Causes of poor team management and how to fix them- How to create a culture of performance in teams- Why team predictability and continuous improvement are critical- Team characteristics that support a culture of performance And more!Connect with Fabio Lessa- LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/fabiolessa Connect with Debbie Madden:- LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/debbiemadden1/- LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/stride-consulting/

How do you achieve a company’s mission and financial success in tough economic times? My guest, Anil Beniwal, is here to help us navigate this balance.Anil is Arcadia's CTO and has over two decades of experience in the tech industry. He shares valuable insights on why financial understanding is crucial for CTOs, VPs of Engineering, and Heads of Products.Financial literacy enables CTOs and other leaders to assess the potential ROI of investment, mitigate financial risks, and prioritize spending on projects that bring the highest value to the company.Financially literate leaders communicate more effectively and collaborate with other departments, including finance, operational, and commercial departments. Effective communication is also critical for leaders to demonstrate the value of technology investments and secure funding from stakeholders.Anil also highlights the importance of financial transparency, especially with employees. Transparency builds trust between employees and leaders. Employees make better decisions when they understand the impact of their decisions on the bottom line. However, CTOs must balance transparency and discretion to avoid misinterpretation of financials.Where do you draw the line in financial transparency as a CTO? My guest has valuable insights on this and more, so tune in!"Financial literacy equips the CTO with the ability to make really informed decisions that align technology investments with strategic goals." ~ Anil BeniwalIn This Episode:- The role of employee financial literacy in achieving a company’s mission- How to balance financial outcomes with technical outcomes- How financial literacy contributes to a tech leader's success- Strategies for enhancing financial literacy among tech leaders- How to balance financial transparency with discretionAnd more!Connect with Anil Beniwal:- LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/abeniwal Connect with Debbie Madden:- Website - https://www.stride.build/- LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/debbiemadden1/- LinkedIn Page - https://www.linkedin.com/company/stride-build/

In times of financial constraint, how can tech companies strike the right balance between innovation and efficiency? As budgets tighten and resources become scarce, leaders must make tough decisions about where to invest their time and money.One strategy that has proven effective for many organizations is platform reuse. By building internal platforms that can be leveraged across multiple teams and projects, companies can reduce duplication of effort, improve time to market, and free up resources for more innovative pursuits.Today’s episode guest, Marcus Frödin, VP of Engineering for Music at Spotify shares his insights on how to identify the best candidates for platform reuse, how to communicate the benefits to stakeholders, and how to navigate the challenges of shifting from a mindset of abundance to one of constraint.Drawing on his experience at Spotify, Marcus provides real-world examples of how platform reuse has contributed to operational efficiency and faster time to market for new products like Spotify for Podcasters and Spotify for Audiobooks.Whether you're a tech leader looking to optimize your resources or an engineer curious about the benefits of platform thinking, this episode is packed with valuable insights and practical advice. Join us as we explore the art and science of balancing innovation and efficiency in constrained times."Constraint breeds innovation. And so I think as a technology industry... when you have more tight boundaries, it forces leaders to make more explicit trade-offs." ~ Marcus FrödinIn This Episode:- Introducing Marcus Frödin- Shifting from abundance to constraint and how it affects platform reuse decisions- How to identify the best candidates for platform reuse- Amortization of reuse- Preventing security and vulnerability risks in platform reuse- Communicating platform shifts across the organization- Addressing team concerns during platform changes- Balancing innovation and efficiency in platform reuse- Leveraging constraints to drive innovation in tech teams- Successful examples of platform reuse contributing to operational efficiency- Spotify's platform reuse strategy for faster time to marketAnd more!Connect with Marcus Frödin:- Website - https://leaddev.com/community/marcus-frodin - LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcusfrodin/ Connect with Debbie Madden:- Website - https://www.stride.build/- LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/debbiemadden1/- LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/stride-consulting/

How can we effect change in our tech teams to become more agile? Perhaps you've tried Scrum Agile and found that you're stuck with new vocabulary for the same old problems. If so, you may be ready for Agile Kata! Originating in martial arts, a 'Kata' involves deliberate, repetitive practice to master a form. By practicing business agility with Agile Kata, an organization can build new habits and skills to shift a corporate culture. It certainly worked for Toyota.Today's guest is Joe Krebs, the creator of the Agile Kata certification program, host of the Agile.fm podcast, and founder of Incrementor which specializes in agile training. There couldn't be a more knowledgeable person to speak on the virtues of Agile Kata than Joe!  Today's episode is sure to make you consider how you can incorporate the patterns of change management into your tech team and business! It's a fresh, hot topic that we are sure you will enjoy. Please join us."You can see it (Agile Kata) as a pattern of change management towards any kind of agility." ~ Joe KrebsIn This Episode:- What is Agile Kata? - Agile Kata in four steps- How to get from your current condition to your target condition- How to combine Agile Kata with Scrum- How to use Agile Kata instead of Scrum- Agile Kata as a grassroots movement- Where does Agile Kata fit in with OKRs?- How do I know if I need Agile Kata for my tech team? - Do you need an Agile Kata coach for implementation? And more!Connect with Joe Krebs:- Agile Kata Book - https://www.agilekatabook.com/- Agile Kata Certification - https://www.agilekata.pro/Connect with Debbie Madden:- Website - https://www.stride.build/- LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/debbiemadden1/- LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/stride-consulting/

How can we break down dev team silos for increased communication and a better-quality end product? Reversing Conway's Law is one way to go about it, and today's guest has a wealth of experience on how to do just that! Krishna Bala is the Senior VP of Engineering at Proscia, a medical imaging startup that is fighting cancer with AI-enabled Digital Pathology. Using the case study of Proscia itself, Krishna outlines the benefits of building common elements across teams and handling change management when reorganizing roles and teams.There is also an in-depth explanation of Conway's Law as well, for those tech companies looking to break down the barriers to better communication between their teams and not be limited in their output by their organizational structure. Higher quality product by design awaits. We just have to reverse a law to do it. Krishna's knowledge of how to build your organization to achieve its goals will surely be appreciated. Please join us."As humans, I think we're just comfortable staying in that hierarchy, staying in our own little system. Work is hard enough, challenging enough that you basically say, 'Okay, this is my box; I'm going to innovate within that box'." ~ Krishna BalaIn This Episode:- Why are silos bad? - What is Conway's Law?- Reversing Conway's Law: what does that entail?- What good comes from breaking down siloes?- How is Krishna using this thinking in his work today?- Organizing a deliberate common core team - Changing the tires while the car is moving!- Appreciating the importance of change management- Figuring out the release cadence for your common core teamAnd more!Connect with Krishna Bala:- LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kbala97/- Website - https://proscia.com/Connect with Debbie Madden:- Website - https://www.stride.build/- LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/debbiemadden1/- LinkedIn Page - https://www.linkedin.com/company/stride-build/

Given the challenging times that we live in, how do we scale tech teams that stand the test of time? Brian Lanehart is President, CTO, Chief Risk Officer, & Co-Founder at Momnt. Pronounced 'moment', Momnt is a fintech platform that makes lending easy for your business and financing easy for your customers. Launching in March of 2020, this is a fascinating story that involves coders answering phones to deal with customers while building out their roadmap and starting to scale on the eve of a global pandemic.Brian's experience, coupled with his co-founders' investment in company culture, holds the key to how Momnt has been able to scale so quickly. Today's episode of Scaling Tech covers everything from trauma bonding to the intersection between data models and generative AI, not to mention an appreciation of the holistic approach that is required to build a team (and data model) that is robust enough to stand the test of time. Please join us. "I'm gonna take all the complexity on the delivery team so the user's perspective can be as simple as humanly possible. And so every time we make a decision: is this going to make someone's life better, more secure, faster, or easier? That was the decision driver." ~ Brian LanehartIn This Episode:- How do you build in preparation for a fast scale?- Momnt's lean, phone-answering team at launch - Can novice entrepreneurs pull off coding this complex?- Overcoming the burden of legacy code- How is generative AI changing things?- How has rapid growth affected employee morale? - Creating a culture that allows you to go off-script- What is critical to Momnt's success going forward? And more!Connect with Brian Lanehart:- Website - https://www.momnt.com/about-us- LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianlanehart/Connect with Debbie Madden:- Website - https://www.stride.build/- LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/debbiemadden1/- LinkedIn Page - https://www.linkedin.com/company/stride-build/

How do you build your tech stack so that your underlying systems are strong enough when you scale? Today's guest has 20 years of experience building scalable and robust technology stacks for companies across the board – he’s ideally suited to answer that question.Heman Duraiswamy is the Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Circa, building stronger communities through payment innovation. In a nutshell, his company is revolutionizing the rent collection process in the multi-family real estate industry. Heman shares his experience transitioning from working for a multi-billion dollar enterprise to starting his own business, and the challenges and differences he faced in building a tech stack for a big company versus a startup. He also talks about the importance of product-market fit, the factors to consider as a technical founder, and the role of monitoring and iterating in the success of a startup. If you're looking to make sure that your tech stack isn't a liability as you 10X and scale, this one's for you!"The single most important thing (as a technical founder) that you cannot compromise is making sure that you're building your architecture, your underlying systems... that are scalable." ~ Heman DuraiswamyIn This Episode:- How Heman transitioned into starting his own business- The key ingredients needed to be a successful technical founder- How Circa payments work in helping with rent cashflow- How to hedge against your tech stack liability- The importance of proper monitoring (correlation IDs)- It's not what you build, it's how you build itAnd more!Connect with Heman Duraiswamy:- Website - https://www.wearecirca.com/- LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/hemananthan/Connect with Debbie Madden:- Website - https://www.stride.build/- LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/debbiemadden1/- LinkedIn Page - https://www.linkedin.com/company/stride-build/

What is it like being a female founder in a post-COVID business landscape, trying to raise venture capital while also trying to raise your kids? Jean Smart is the founder and CEO of Penelope, a venture-backed 401(k) platform that's focused on serving the five million American micro and small businesses. Those of us who have worked for a small company will know what a struggle setting up a 401(k) can be. And so, at the height of COVID, Jean gave up her salaried career as a Wall Street exec working in financial services to found Penelope and help folk (like her immigrant parents) invest in their retirement. Like most business owners who work for themselves, the '9 to 5' quickly becomes a '6 to 6'. Compromises need to be made about who you spend your time with outside of work and how you break down the goals you are trying to achieve into a manageable maths problem of time best spent. There's a self-confidence and self-esteem that Jean exemplifies as she has come into her own as a female founder, unafraid to raise venture capital, make big decisions, not dwell on her mistakes, and create impact with her business. This inspiring episode provides valuable insight into the mindset we need to run our own businesses while still running our own lives. Please join us.  "If everything's been easy, then starting a company's really hard. But if you've already been doing hard things, then you got this." ~ Jean Smart In This Episode:- What's it like being a female founder?- What's been the most surprising aspect of the job?- Learning not to dwell on your mistakes as a business owner- The advantages of being a female founder- Jean's advice on how to secure VC funding - Reducing your goals to a manageable maths problem- What are the keys to Jean's success?And more!Connect with Jean Smart:- Website - https://penelope.co/news- LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeankimnewyork/Connect with Debbie Madden:- Website - https://www.stride.build/- LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/debbiemadden1/- LinkedIn Page - https://www.linkedin.com/company/stride-build/

What is DevSecOps, and how can we embrace it as we continue improving our systems development cycle?To answer this important question is Sean D. Mack, a transformational technology leader who has literally written the book, ‘The DevSecOps Playbook: Deliver Continuous Security at Speed’.Appreciating the crucial role that security (at speed!) plays in your DevOps process begins with understanding company culture. It’s not so much about understanding the tools (“moving to the cloud”) as it is about the People, Process, and Technology. All the stakeholders need to appreciate that prioritizing security upfront will save time and money in the long run. It’s not a case of security being something too hard to understand so you think that if it’s out of sight, it’s out of mind. Ask yourself: what could go wrong if we don’t prioritize security? This is increasingly more prevalent with AI writing code and far fewer eyeballs on the software development process. Learning how to begin with the end in mind, ask the right questions, and embrace collaboration are all key issues that Sean helps us to understand. Getting things to market faster, better, and now more secure is sure to see DevSecOps gain traction as we learn that it’s not too complex a term to understand. How we start employing it in our systems development cycles is something that (thankfully) Sean is giving us some great pointers for, straight from his playbook. Please join us.  “One of the things that’s important with dev sec ops (and powerful about it) is that it’s not just about security. It’s about secure at speed.” ~ Sean D. MackIn This Episode:What is DevSecOps? How is it different to DevOps?How Sean helps businesses keep their businesses secure (People, Process, and Technology)Understanding process: begin with the end in mindHow important is continuous deployment?What are the most costly mistakes of DevSecOps?The power of employing a DevOps coach (but not outsourcing the internal change needed)Building security into how we work, upfrontHow do non-technical stakeholders think about DevSecOps? How do we educate ourselves about DevSecOps? And more!Connect with Sean D. Mack:- LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/seandmacknyc/- Twitter - https://twitter.com/SeanDMackNYC- Sean’s Book - Amazon.com: The DevSecOps Playbook: Deliver Continuous Security at Speed (Audible Audio Edition)Connect with Debbie Madden:-a...

What does it take to build a high-performing technology organization? For Nick Maiello, it's a combination of data-driven decision-making, having cross-functional teams, and getting your culture right.And Nick should know. He has a range of experience, from starting technology companies to scaling out multiple digital transformations in a number of different industries, including consumer travel and e-commerce.Currently the Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer for Chargely, Nick goes so far as to say that the term 'technology organization' is an outdated one.We should be 'cutting edge organizations' as we leverage technology and other tools at our disposal to adopt a customer-centric approach to our businesses.Once you understand your company's 'why', what qualities should you look for when hiring talent to navigate technology's changing landscape? And when it comes to software solutions, do you custom-build or go for off-the-shelf?Balancing the long-term plan with being iterative, and learning to stay the course with a strong leadership team are more of the ingredients required for a high-performing organization.Debbie and Nick show that when efficiency is driven by necessity, things start to click. Please join us on this week's impactful episode of Scaling Tech! "Embracing P&T (Product and Technology) means embracing a customer-centric approach. Understanding the priorities of the customer comes first and you do this using customer feedback and data analytics." ~ Nick MaielloIn This Episode:- How can companies embrace the role of Product and Technology in today's digital landscape? - How can big-picture thinking benefit software engineering solutions?- Why is there a need to shift towards custom-built, cutting-edge technologies?- Understanding 'Build, Borrow, or Buy'- Why you need passionate people on board for your digital transformation- Is software eating the world? - The importance of being lean and fast in a startupAnd more!Connect with Nick Maiello:- E-mail - nickmaiello@chargely.app- LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickmaielloConnect with Debbie Madden:- Website - https://www.stride.build/- LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/debbiemadden1/- LinkedIn Page - https://www.linkedin.com/company/stride-build/

How do we come together and share and learn? And combine that with planning for what we want to do next. Or, to put it another way, how do we take feedback and then actually act on it?Anthony Coppedge is the principal global Digital Sales Agile Lead at IBM, where he guides the training, facilitation, and coaching of sellers, marketers, product owners, and executive leaders globally across all of IBM in how to apply Business Agility. His latest Agile invention is the 'Retrospective Radar', a visualization tool and technique for teams to reflect together in a spirit of continuous improvement. It combines Stephen Covey's 'Circles of Control, Influence, and Concern' with 'The Starfish Retrospective' by Pat Kua as the starting point for quantifying qualifiable information and then turning that color-coded feedback into actionable intelligence! We've all sat through retrospective meetings where we go over what has and hasn't worked in the past quarter and then tried to work out who does what next. And very often, employees grow tired of giving feedback because nothing seems to change. Quite simply, the Retrospective Radar is a more efficient meeting model and work results visualization tool. It combines the Retrospective meeting and Iteration Planning meeting into one team meeting instead of two separate meetings. It is undoubtedly a brilliant way for companies to incorporate and act on employee feedback in a way that leads to meaningful company change! Anthony's invention and resultant insights prove that communication leads to coordination, which in turn leads to collaboration. Company siloes get broken down, time gets saved, and aggregated feedback becomes actionable intelligence. Find out more inside this week's episode of Scaling Tech!   "If you can visualize it, you can talk about it." ~ Anthony CoppedgeIn This Episode:- What is IBM's Retrospective Radar?- The power of being able to pivot from your learnings- How to quantify a qualifiable problem- Understanding Circles of Control, Influence, and Concern- Does feedback lead to change? - The Impact of Actionable IntelligenceAnd more!Resources:- About the Retrospective Radar: https://bit.ly/retroradarintro - Free MURAL template for the Retrospective Radar: https://bit.ly/muralretroradar- Creative Commons usage rights for the Retrospective Radar: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/Connect with Anthony Coppedge:- LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonycoppedge/Connect with Debbie Madden:- Website - https://www.stride.build/- LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/debbiemadden1/- LinkedIn...

Does process change need to be super complicated? Does change work best when it comes from within a team rather than an external influence? And how can we improve conversations around process change from being less inference-based to more data-driven?All these questions are raised as we hear 'the chicken story' from Brian Guthrie in today's episode of Scaling Tech, which explores how a synchronistic process can lead to more staff synchronicity, and even engineer empathy!Brian Guthrie is the CTO and Founder at Orgspace – a people platform for software teams. He's learned to look to improve process through internal change. And so while Brian doesn't come in and wave a magic wand and tell teams what to do, he has previously bought a rubber chicken and a bell, and waited while engineers sit on their hands until the next step in the process is ready to be implemented and evaluated. 'The chicken story' is a neat lesson in being explicit about your goals during process change. Is it okay for staff to wring a rubber chicken's neck while also ringing a bell to say their job is done? Find out in today's insightful episode! Please join us."Asynchronicity has a way of hiding slow processes." ~ Brian GuthrieIn This Episode:- Understanding the goal of engineers being responsible for developing and performing their own merges- Brian buys his own rubber chicken – and bell!- How to improve process through internal change- The need to change the conversation from inference to data-driven- How to create empathy among your engineers- What would Brian do differently now? - Why process change needn't always be super complex And more!Resources:- The Chicken Story - https://www.jamesshore.com/v2/blog/2006/continuous-integration-on-a-dollar-a-dayConnect with Brian Guthrie:- LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/bguthrie/- Twitter - Brian Guthrie (@bguthrie) / XConnect with Debbie Madden:- Website - https://www.stride.build/- LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/debbiemadden1/- LinkedIn Page - https://www.linkedin.com/company/stride-build/

What does transparency in technology look like? What should be hidden, what should not, and what are the expectations?Today's guest is Josh Tatum, the Co-Founder of Carputty (auto financing, reinvented). Josh has been a driving force in the consumer finance and technology industry for the better part of two decades and brings a wealth of educated opinion and insight to the topic of transparency.Did you know that supermarkets are using the Bluetooth on your phones to track your in-store movements and then target you with coupons accordingly? Are you aware of what credit reporting agencies are doing with your data when you get into debt with your student loan, or to buy a car?How do we know that the information we provide tech companies with isn't being sold or used to discriminate against us? And what can we do about the "hyper-targeting" of customers in specific areas and demographic groups?Josh is giving us plenty to think about as he elucidates on the triangle of Technology, Transparency, and Trust. In his opinion, all people should know what information they are giving away - AND what it is being used for.As companies are being forced to slow down and consider the consumer's interests more, now is a great time to protect our engineers by being transparent about what we are creating, while still protecting the 'secret sauce' that is our Intellectual Property.There's an important balance that is worth striving for. Details inside!"Do consumers really know where credit reporting agencies are gathering their data? Is that transparent enough? You can get your report for free, you can get some things for free, but knowing what they actually do with it would actually scare a lot of consumers." ~ Josh TatumIn This Episode:- What does transparency in technology even mean?- How do we give consumers debt? - Can we trust Credit Reporting Agencies?- Who owns your profile, and who is trusted with your financial information?- How the auto industry finances your car deal- What Intellectual Property should be protected from the public?- How supermarkets use your Bluetooth to track your in-store shopping behavior- Learning to always ask 'the why?' and to trust your engineers!And more!Connect with Josh Tatum:- LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshua-tatum-3bb86541/- Website - https://www.carputty.com/Connect with Debbie Madden:- Website - https://www.stride.build/- LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/debbiemadden1/- LinkedIn Page - https://www.linkedin.com/company/stride-build/

How do you tell if you have burnout? Are there key milestones that you should look out for on the way down? And are there healthy indicators to celebrate your recovery? Aldric Giacomoni has been a member of the New York Tech scene for over 15 years and is an old friend and colleague of host Debbie Madden. He also suffered recently from burnout, and in today's episode of Scaling Tech, he's candidly sharing what got him through it in a highly relatable episode. From early warning signs and misdiagnoses, through to the power of having candid conversations with people who know you well enough to point out when something seems amiss, there is almost a methodology of steps and repeatable processes that you can apply as you learn to take care of yourself in the same way as you would your business. Discover what helped Aldric tackle the pile of dirty laundry, get back to job hunting, and beat the pandemic blues in this episode of Scaling Tech that seeks to prioritize mental health by starting a conversation. Please join us. "I had an outsized emotional response to a question that was not particularly emotionally charged. And that's when I realized: this is probably burnout."  ~ Aldric GiacomoniIn This Episode:- When do you know that you have burnout?- What are the misdiagnoses with burnout?- The importance of having meaningful conversations with people who know you- Why you should get preemptive professional therapeutic help- The power of a regular meditation practice- What are the milestones as you start to recover from burnout?- Seeing burnout recovery through the lens of repeatable processesAnd more!Connect with Aldric Giacomoni:- LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/trevoke/Connect with Debbie Madden:- Website - https://www.stride.build/- LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/debbiemadden1/- LinkedIn Page - https://www.linkedin.com/company/stride-build/

How do you balance technical proficiency with stakeholder goals? Who talks to whom, and who owns the process as you build out your product management teams while showing your stakeholders their much-needed ROI? These are some of the challenges Rob Wisniewski has faced over the years as a CTO who has specialized in helping companies scale while automating their big idea. Rob Wisniewski is a Managing Director in Blackstone's Technology and Innovations Group and has worked in a variety of tech leadership roles in multiple industries and at various stages of company growth.Stakeholder sophistication is a key component for Rob as you establish a healthy stakeholder connection while also assessing when to put your product management team in the same room as your stakeholders.Learning that the stakeholders control the process and that as you scale up your effectiveness as a tech organization, you become more human and therapy-driven anyway (which in turn helps your stakeholder approach) are just some of the smart insights that have made Rob a much sought-after CTO. An external valuation can also be important at the right stage of product development as we "learn to get out of the way of our own experiments," as Rob succinctly puts it.There's also good news in this episode for owners looking to tighten their belts as Rob and Debbie comment on the merits of getting better outcomes with a measure of economic restraint. Join us for a lesson in remembering why we create value when we create tech – and how we can protect that process through healthy corporate culture and communication. Please join us. "For me, it's about finding that product management discipline, really putting time, effort into your version of it, and making sure that there's transparency with the stakeholders via that function." ~ Rob WisniewskiIn This Episode:- Appreciating your purpose of creating value with your tech- Who gets to talk to whom when you're building out your product management?- Understanding stakeholder sophistication- Why the process is owned by the stakeholders- What happens when stakeholder needs and priorities conflict?- What has Rob seen insofar as 'mistakes in the making'? - Getting a better outcome with a measure of economic restraintAnd more!Connect with Rob Wisniewski:- Website - https://www.blackstone.com/- LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/robwisniewski/Connect with Debbie Madden:- Website - https://www.stride.build/- LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/debbiemadden1/- LinkedIn Page - https://www.linkedin.com/company/stride-build/

What are the skills you take when you go from being CTO to head of business operations – and what are the new skills you acquire? And how can a company benefit from having a former CTO looking at its systems and processes? Nick Rockwell is currently the EVP for Strategy and Operations at Fastly, having transitioned from within the company as CTO. Before that, Nick was CTO at The New York Times, and he's been a CTO for the better part of 22 years! All of this makes him expertly qualified to chat with our host Debbie Madden about the skills an engineering mind can bring to meetings, including how to take a data-informed approach (rather than data-driven) to learning, research, and information, as well as still using data for outcomes. The challenges of being cross-functional, learning how to communicate with your teams once senior management has worked out what is a priority, and even the personal identity shift that occurs when you take on a different role within the same company all provide valuable insight into the day to day operations of a thriving tech company. The human challenges of team cadence and doing the simple things really well to achieve success are all carefully considered and articulated by an engineering mind who is now re-engineering company systems. This episode is for all engineers looking for an insight into what it's like to bring those skills to the boardroom table and take on other company challenges. Please join us. "It stands to reason that if you want to change anything about how the company runs, it's at least 80% a communications challenge." - Nick RockwellIn This Episode:- Nick shares on re-defining his identity within the company - Thinking like a product manager – understanding prioritization- Understanding that every company process is manifested in a system- Appreciating that the mechanics of corporate communication holds the key to change- Nick's insights into cross-functionality- Why a "data-informed" approach is better than a data-driven oneAnd more!Connect with Nick Rockwell:- Website - https://www.fastly.com/- LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickrockwell/Connect with Debbie Madden:- Website - https://www.stride.build/- LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/debbiemadden1/- LinkedIn Page - https://www.linkedin.com/company/stride-build/

Performance Management! Why is it more important now than ever? And how can you make it a top priority in your organization? In increasingly volatile times, is it worth replacing that person on the team who's giving you 20% less than the next candidate could? And when is a good time to do performance reviews?Cat Miller is the CTO of Flatiron Health, leading an organization of over 400 technologists who are working together to reimagine the infrastructure of cancer care. Cat is a software and data engineer by training, with over a decade's experience in data-focused startups and nine years growing the team at Flatiron (through acquisition and beyond).Cat is addressing the issue that most companies either find themselves in a state of hypergrowth or attrition – and in either scenario, there's usually an open headcount.So, if you're growing fast, there seemingly isn't the time to evaluate performance output. And if there's suddenly a hiring freeze, when someone leaves, you don't receive a backfill for that position. Another challenge is that managers are often not incentivized to performance manage because they don't know what's on the other side of that process.But as Cat and Debbie concur (and we can attribute the sentiment to Simon Sinek), feedback is a gift. And so thinking about where the person you are evaluating wants to be in five years can help the process.Good managers care about other people, but it is also about thinking about a person's worth and output from the perspective of the business – and the impact that person's performance has on the rest of their team.This is a fascinating deep dive into the 'Why, How, What, When, Where, and Who?' challenges that performance management throws up. And if we are looking for steady organizational growth and staff prosperity, these are challenges we need to face. Please join us."Product managers really know when their engineering team is delivering – and when it's not." - Cat MillerIn This Episode:- Why Performance Management isn't a Top Priority (when you have open roles to fill)- The challenge of performance managing someone out of a role that then needs to be filled- How can we use business urgency to drive performance? - What are the risks of de-prioritizing performance management?- Who's asking: Is this the best you can do? - When is a good time to do performance reviews?And more!Resources:Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle - https://www.amazon.com/Burnout-Secret-Unlocking-Stress-Cycle/dp/198481706XFeedback is a Gift - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tttv9lRPcLAConnect with Cat Miller:- Website - https://flatiron.com/Connect with Debbie Madden:- Website - https://www.stride.build/- LinkedIn - a...

What is it like to take seven months and interview literally hundreds of founders and co-founders of businesses before taking your next job as a CTO? This is the fascinating story of JP Grace, a seasoned engineering leader who's paved his way in the tech industry with his ability to drive business growth and positive change.JP Grace is the current CTO of Endear, where he's assisting omnichannel retail brands in driving sales with an easy-to-implement clienteling platform. How he got to where he is today is a lesson for aspiring CTOs in being intentional about what they want from their next job – and the lengths they are prepared to go to get it. For JP, this involved reaching out to his network, chatting with VCs, and taking countless interviews just to see if that next company could be the right fit. Along the way, he learned how to incorporate interview feedback so that he could tell his story in a more impactful manner.Learn what chopping wood meant to JP as he figured out how to present his best self and prepare for when the stars aligned with the right career opportunity. Your career trajectory can take off too with the intentionality and directionality that JP and host Debbie Madden are astutely discussing in this entertaining episode of Scaling Tech. Please join us!"You have to spend a couple of hours a week just researching opportunities and understanding 'Is there a business here? What is this company actually doing?'" - JP GraceIn This Episode:- How JP first got inspired by technology and making new things out of nothing- What JP learned from interviewing hundreds of business founders over a period of 7 months- Paying attention to how your message is resonating with the people you're speaking to - Learning how to wait for the right opportunity to present itself- What advice does JP have for aspiring CTOs? And more!Connect with JP Grace:LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/josephpgrace/Connect with Debbie Madden:- Website - https://www.stride.build/- LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/debbiemadden1/- LinkedIn Page - https://www.linkedin.com/company/stride-build/

Which is better: onshore versus offshore hiring? This is an important consideration in today's hybrid world. To answer this question, Scaling Tech's Debbie Madden has brought in Joe Burgess: someone who's tried both approaches in recent months.Joe Burgess started his career as a software developer and teacher at Flatiron School, after which he transitioned into leading teams of data scientists, engineers, designers, and education professionals to build the education product at Flatiron – and then deliver it to tens of thousands of students.Joe then co-founded Ribbon Education where he now focuses on education and sales. Building startup teams is second nature to Joe, but as he found out with some of his offshore hire experimentation, mistakes can be made. This episode is a lesson in, among many things, defining the requirements of the job. Understand those requirements clearly so that a team can communicate at a certain level so that you can attain a certain work level. And as simple as it sounds, for Joe hiring early on via Upwork, the ability of his tech hires to understand English proved to be a stumbling block. Most startups can ill afford the resources to teach someone the job, and walking that fine line between finding someone who is suitably qualified to build you a CRM platform and giving a young coder an opportunity is well-considered and elucidated by Joe and Debbie. How can you go about hiring junior offshore talent? Is timezone important? How do you create the right work culture with a hybrid team? Answers to these questions and more in this week's educational episode of Scaling Tech."When you're a brand new startup (and we're just getting going), it's really hard to allocate the resources to teach someone how to do something." - Joe BurgessIn This Episode:- Joe's early experiences hiring offshore via Upwork- What are the requirements of the job? Defining those clearly- The overlap between teaching and management- The challenges of hiring junior offshore talent- How to tackle timezone issues- Understanding your employment law options when hiring offshore- How to create the right hybrid work cultureAnd more!Resources:- Horsepaste (codenames online) - https://www.horsepaste.com/Connect with Joe Burgess:- LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jmburges- Ribbon Education - https://www.ribbonedu.com/Connect with Debbie Madden:- Website - https://www.stride.build/- LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/debbiemadden1/- LinkedIn Page - https://www.linkedin.com/company/stride-build/

How do we think about innovation? And then, how do we scale it? Matt Holford is a Senior Director of Engineering at Etsy and a technology leader who's had quite a storied career working as a musician and in various creative digital service agencies.As such, he has a unique perspective on how to frame scaling innovation.How do we give staff the space for idea generation? And then, how do we validate and implement new ideas at a company level? For Matt, opening the door for product innovation means being able to have pockets of creative conversation in high-pressure situations.It's about having the right expectation of bandwidth to take on new ideas – something that is completely distinct from how good the new idea may be.Setting goals at the right altitude is also important in today's tough economy. You can set big-level innovation goals that then cascade down to each individual team, but those teams may then feel robbed of the permission to innovate themselves. Looking at innovation through the prisms of the individual, the team, and the organization is one of the creative ways that Matt is coming up with new idea-generation methods. Please join us in this fascinating conversation about the cadence and scalability of innovation.  "The context matters so much in terms of how willing people are to think about technology and engineering as a creative practice." ~ Matt HolfordIn This Episode:- Appreciating how Matt's career has informed his understanding of product development- How do you take on board engineer ideas while satisfying stakeholder interest?- Understanding the practice of generating ideas both inside and outside the business - How comfortable is Matt with 'throwaway ideas’?- How do we scale innovation in today's tough economy? - Seeing the time required for idea generation as a sliding scale - What is the right cadence for idea generation? And more!Resources:- Ideaflow: The Only Business Metric That Matters - https://www.amazon.com/Ideaflow-Only-Business-Metric-Matters/dp/0593420586- Creative Strategy Generation - https://www.amazon.com/Creative-Strategy-Generation-Creativity-Strategies/dp/0071850112#customerReviews- Thinking in Bets - https://www.annieduke.com/books/- The Voltage Effect - https://www.thevoltageeffect.com/Connect with Matt Holford:LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattholford/?trk=public-profile-join-pageConnect with Debbie Madden:- Website - a...