Maximizing Engineering Efficiency with Netlify's CTO Dana Lawson

In this episode of Never Too Early, hosted by Lauren Ipsen, talent partner at Decibel, Dana Lawson, CTO of Netlify, shares insights on understanding the productivity of your engineering organization. Lauren and Dana cover topics such as measuring technical output, the role of AI in productivity, the best structure for your team, and how to determine when to hire or promote internally. Dana also stresses the importance of maintaining an objective, inclusive approach in hiring and promotions to ensure equity in the workplace.

00:00 Introduction to Never Too Early

00:20 Meet Dana Lawson: CTO of Netlify

01:21 Dana's Personal Side: Fun with Chickens

02:52 Top 5 Questions from Founders

03:20 Question 1: How do you measure the output or effectiveness of your organization? Dana and Lauren discuss different metrics and tools you can use to analyze how your technical organization is performing as a whole. 

05:54 Question 2: How do you know when it’s time to hire or when your current team is not doing enough? Dana shares guidelines she follows on how to scale your team thoughtfully and effectively.

08:01 Question 3: How has AI changed expectations of your team? Lauren and Dana discuss how this is the time of 5Xing your productivity in tech, not 5Xing your headcount.

12:24 Question 4: How do you determine the best structure for a given technical org? Dana talks about how to evaluate the right format for your team at given phases of growth and how to keep a pulse on what your organization needs.

15:22 Question 5: How do you know when to promote internally and when to hire externally? Dana talks about being a woman in tech and how essential it is to equal the playing field and stay true to your process and avoid biases. 

20:37 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

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