In this episode of CTO Insights, host Katerina Trajchevska is joined by Allison McMillan, Fractional VP of Engineering and Leadership Consultant. Together, they navigate effective strategies for planning and budgeting from a CTO perspective, how to enhance team productivity through better meeting practices, and the challenges of scaling high-performing engineering teams. Allison is the Founder of Tavlin Consulting and serves as a Fractional VP of Engineering for various organizations. With a ric...
Feb 12, 2025•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast I had the pleasure of hosting Sven Peters, Developer Advocate at Atlassian to discuss Developer Experience, a topic that increasingly catches the attention of engineering leaders. We start the discussion with some mindblowing stats from the recent Developer Experience report, released by Atlassian. According to it, 69% of developers lose eight or more hours per week to inefficiencies . 69%. That’s a full day lost weekly due to the inability to organize work in a way that empowers productivity. S...
Nov 21, 2024•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast I had the pleasure of hosting David Heinemeier Hansson, co-owner and CTO at 37signals. Known for its commitment to work-life balance and focusing on outcomes over hours, 37signals has set a strong example in the industry. So, I was thrilled by the opportunity to hear David’s take on team performance, especially how to achieve more with less. In our conversation, we explore why overwork often signals poor organization and how to build a culture that enables people to accomplish more while working...
Nov 07, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Transcript available on Metacast I had the pleasure of hosting Manuel Pais, co-author of Team Topologies - the book that reshaped how companies structure their teams for high performance. With years of hands-on experience working with global organizations, Manuel specializes in optimizing team interactions, reducing complexity, and driving value. We discussed the challenges of traditional team structures and the importance of intentional team organization. Manuel emphasized the need for continuous evolution in organizations, un...
Oct 25, 2024•41 min•Transcript available on Metacast I had the pleasure of hosting Gregor Ojstersek for a conversation on the less-emphasized aspects of high performance: great culture, good processes, and a positive mindset. He believes that the best teams have good relationships and can collaborate effectively, focusing on performance as a driver of the whole business, not solely on individual achievements. With a unique stance on the notion of the '10x developer', Gregor challenges what the industry values in their highest performers. Does this...
Sep 26, 2024•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast Tune in for valuable insights into what it takes to succeed as a CTO with Drew Falkman, Principal at Moves the Needle, a product consulting company. Drew is also a former CTO, advisor to multiple startups, product consultant, and LinkedIn instructor whose CTO course has been watched by over a quarter million engineering leaders worldwide. Drew emphasizes that the CTO role is, above all, a people job. As counterintuitive as it may be, Drew explains why skills like delegation, planning, and managi...
Sep 13, 2024•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast I had the pleasure of hosting J.B. Rainsberger, Business and Software Coach helping companies profit sooner from their software projects while empowering individuals to navigate the complex world of work. His approach is all about less stress and more energy to bring to the parts of the job that create value. The notion of “Programming is the easy part” comes again as a focal point of the discussion as we dig into what the actual difficult parts of work are. J.B. explains how, when he’s coaching...
Jul 19, 2024•1 hr•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode, I’m speaking with Natalia Tepluhina, Principal Engineer at GitLab, Vue.js core team member, and Google Developer Expert in Web Technologies. I’ve always been fascinated by Gitlab and the async culture they foster, so I was really looking forward to exploring how working asynchronously might benefit the team's performance. And Natalia had a lot to share on the topic. The biggest highlight for me is how ruthlessly they eliminate meetings by keeping a disciplined approach toward wh...
Jul 04, 2024•59 min•Transcript available on Metacast I had the pleasure of hosting Kent Beck, one of the key people who shaped Software Engineering as we know it. Kent is the creator of Extreme Programming (XP) and one of the 17 original signatories of the Agile Manifesto. He introduced Test-Driven Development, Software Design Patterns, and created JUnite. Embarked on a personal mission to help geeks feel safe in the world, Kent continuously introduces concepts that aim to empower high performance while instilling a sense of safety in engineers. I...
Jun 20, 2024•1 hr 13 min•Transcript available on Metacast Mite Mitreski is the CTO of Signicat, the leading provider of digital identity solutions in Europe. Before Signicat, Mite was an engineering director and part of the CTO office at Klarna. He brings extensive experience in engineering leadership and great insights into high-performing teams. In our conversation, Mite emphasizes the importance of team autonomy in driving progress at Signicat. They have certain standards, but every team is generally free to choose their own processes. Their most su...
Jun 07, 2024•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast Ryan Singer is the author of Shape Up, a framework that has changed the way modern leaders approach planning and managing software development. As part of the founding team of Basecamp, Ryan deeply influenced the early software-as-a-service industry. Over 17 years, he designed features used by millions and invented processes for designing, developing, and shipping software, evolving from UI Designer to Head of Strategy. He’s now fully focused on supporting product and engineering leaders to enha...
May 23, 2024•1 hr 11 min•Transcript available on Metacast Tune in for an insightful session with Anne-Laure Huin, VP of Engineering at Mollie and former Senior Engineering Manager at Uber. In this conversation, we dive into the challenges of scaling teams and hiring new talent in a changing economic environment. Episode highlights: * When scaling teams with limited resources, paying attention to the candidate’s alignment with the company’s vision and values can take you further than assessing tech skills only. * Shipping new features with limited resou...
May 09, 2024•59 min•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to the first episode of CTO Insights, a podcast on engineering leadership that brings you insights from senior engineering leaders and experts on creating a culture of high performance. Tune into the discussion with Kamil Dziublinski, CTO at Xapo Bank - a digital-first bank that makes it simple for members to bank with Bitcoin. Kamil comes from a very innovative space and brings unique insights into scaling teams and creating a culture of high performance. This episode is brought to you ...
Apr 24, 2024•56 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
