Senior Director of Engineering at Datadog, Nuno Antunes, joins us to talk about a highly requested topic: Transitioning from Software Engineer to Engineering Leader. From striking the right balance between being a people vs. process-oriented leader to the challenges of building teams in fast-growing companies, this episode is jam-packed with teachable moments, workshop approaches, and the organizational shifts we've witnessed through the years. Deep dive into the topics discussed in this episode...
Jan 11, 2022•38 min•Season 1Ep. 14
Dagger Co-Founder, and Docker’s former VP of Engineering, Sam Alba, joins us for a retrospective on company culture and how early-stage teams should develop it as their companies evolve. As Dagger grows from a founding team of three to ten and so forth, Sam, Jason, and Eiso, share their views on building companies, leading by example, and the importance of embracing culture in a genuine way. Deep dive into the topics discussed in this episode at go.developingleadership.co/ep13 Join the discussio...
Dec 28, 2021•43 min•Season 1Ep. 13
Erik Bernhardsson joins us on the podcast to chat about building engineering teams and the delicate balance between innovation and productivity as organizations grow. Erik has been scaling engineering teams for years. In its early days, he managed the analytics and machine learning teams at Spotify. Next, he grew Better's engineering team from 0 to 300, where he was CTO until the beginning of 2021. Erik is now working on a yet-to-be-named project that will bring exciting new tools to data teams....
Dec 14, 2021•44 min•Season 1Ep. 12
Community creator and engineering leader at Apple, Michael Lopp (aka rands), joins Jason and Eiso to chat about the power of storytelling for engineering and the state of content for engineering leaders. The author of "Small Things Done Well" shares his opinions on video conferencing, distributed work, and how managers can create more authentic connections with remote teams. Discover how writing can make you a better leader and the importance of explicit communication as we navigate the challeng...
Nov 30, 2021•42 min•Season 1Ep. 11
On our 10th episode of Developing Leadership, Eiso and Jason present a conversation dedicated to CEOs and everything they need to know about their engineering organization and leadership. From tech debt to dependency management and communication styles, understand engineering team's infrastructures, the timings and expectations of building product, and much more. If you want to be a better CEO for a company that builds tech, this one is for you. If you're an Engineering Leader or work in Softwar...
Nov 16, 2021•39 min•Season 1Ep. 10
On this episode of Developing Leadership, Sam Lambert, CEO of PlanetScale and previously VP of Engineering at GitHub, joins us to talk about building high-performance teams. We chatted about leading with influence, advocating for your team, creating delightful hiring experiences, knowing when to fire people and how to keep your software engineers close to your end-users to build great products. One of the biggest takeaways from this episode is that you have to start with yourself if you want to ...
Nov 02, 2021•43 min•Season 1Ep. 9
Jason and Eiso wrap up their three-part series on Engineering Leadership roles by taking a deep dive into engineering managers and tech leads. Learn how to hire your first engineering manager, whether to hire your engineering leaders from inside the company, and how the roles of tech leads change as your company grows. We also covered some communication techniques and how to design your teams as the company scales and communication lines increase. Learn more about some of the topics discussed on...
Oct 19, 2021•37 min•Season 1Ep. 8
Jason and Eiso continue their deep dive on different engineering leadership roles, sharing their thoughts on CTOs, VPs, and Managers, how to hire for these roles, and adopting organizational structures that promote transparency and trust in the decision-making processes that shape your business. Learn more about some of the topics discussed on this episode at go.developingleadership.co/ep7 Developing Leadership is a podcast presented by Athenian. We are introducing the world of engineering to me...
Oct 05, 2021•49 min•Season 1Ep. 7
In this episode of Developing Leadership, we kick off our deep-dive series on different Engineering Leadership roles. Jason and Eiso discuss how CTOs, VPs of Engineering, and Engineering Managers should navigate through the various stages of their company. From prioritizing at different seed rounds to developing a go-to-market strategy, building their company’s architecture, and the day-to-day of each of these roles. Learn more about some of the topics discussed on this episode at go.developingl...
Sep 21, 2021•51 min•Season 1Ep. 6
Former GM of Snyk, Anton Drukh, recently became a mentor for VPs of Engineering and joined us on this week's episode to discuss his experiences leading a team split between two very different cultures. His journey as a leader working with teams in Israel and the UK is a lens into how diversity of mentalities can be an essential asset for tech companies and how it played a role in Snyk's success. In this episode we spoke candidly about promotions, how teams evolve as companies shed their skin and...
Sep 07, 2021•44 min•Season 1Ep. 5
Neo4j just raised the biggest round in database history and their CEO, Emil Eifrem, joins us on the podcast to tell us about his experience transitioning from a day one CEO to running a company with more than 500 employees. In this episode, Eiso and Jason start to scratch the surface on the importance of data and metrics for software engineering teams and how engineering leaders can use data to ask the right questions and help their companies to thrive. Dive deeper into the topics discussed on t...
Aug 24, 2021•58 min•Season 1Ep. 4
Jason and Eiso share the frameworks that have helped them navigate big and small decisions through the years and look back at how key decision-making moments shaped how they operate as leaders today. Making good decisions is one of the pillars of exceptional leadership and a practice that can make or break an organization at any stage. Through company politics, difficult conversations, promoting employees, and raising equity, there are several approaches to staying grounded and keeping your team...
Aug 10, 2021•39 min•Season 1Ep. 3
How do we make sure that we are deliberate about the culture of our organization and not find ourselves pushing for outcomes without care of how we achieve them? Jason and Eiso go through the building blocks of positive company culture and explore how companies and leaders can adapt as their teams grow from two people in a garage to thousands of employees. From setting priorities to communicating effectively to operating in first-team mode, there are countless ways engineering leaders can make a...
Jul 27, 2021•39 min•Season 1Ep. 2
In the first episode of Developing Leadership, Eiso Kant and Jason Warner talk about how the roles and perceptions of engineers and engineering leaders have changed over the decades. From the catastrophic offshoring trend of the early 2000s to the golden age of development, the tools, the processes and the culture shifts. Eiso and Jason share their experiences in the world of tech and the lessons that have stayed with them through the years. Check out this episode's show notes at go.developingle...
Jul 06, 2021•37 min•Season 1Ep. 1
