Shows
SimpleLeadership PodcastEngineer Your Teams for Impact with Ashish AggarwalHow do you build an engineering team of A-players? What does a well-rounded high-performing team look like? Why is engineering for impact more important than solving hard problems? In a world where engineers are looking to pad their resume and solve cutting-edge problems, Ashish Aggarwal shares the one thing that is far more important: solving your customer’s problems. In this episode of Simple Leadership, he walks through building high-performing teams, solving customer problems, and the best way to maintain technical excellence. Do not miss this one. Ashish Aggarwal is the Co-Founder and CTO of enterprise SaaS man...
2021-01-1141 min
Simple LeadershipPodcast – Simple LeadershipEngineer Your Teams for Impact with Ashish AggarwalHow do you build an engineering team of A-players? What does a well-rounded high-performing team look like? Why is engineering for impact more important than solving hard problems? In a world where engineers are looking to pad their resume and solve cutting-edge problems, Ashish Aggarwal shares the one thing that is far more important: solving […]
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2021-01-1141 min
SimpleLeadership PodcastA Discussion of Good Technical Debt with Jon ThorntonJon Thornton worked at some small companies in NYC before he ended up at Squarespace. He’s been able to build a new product and new team—their email marketing product. He launched that and has since been supporting other products. Throughout his career, he’s learned how to manage technical debt. What is the difference between technical debt and good technical debt? What is a framework for using technical debt? Listen to this episode of Simple Leadership for Jon’s advice on managing technical debt. Jon has been solving problems with software for over 20 years and leading e...
2020-12-1425 minSimple LeadershipPodcast – Simple LeadershipA Discussion of Good Technical Debt with Jon ThorntonJon Thornton worked at some small companies in NYC before he ended up at Squarespace. He’s been able to build a new product and new team—their email marketing product. He launched that and has since been supporting other products. Throughout his career, he’s learned how to manage technical debt. What is the difference between technical […]
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2020-12-1425 min
SimpleLeadership PodcastRedefining Parental Leave with Matt NewkirkBeing in a management position in any industry can often leave you overwhelmed. Striking a balance between your work and personal life is already difficult. So how does a manager take parental leave? Matt Newkirk—the engineering lead for Etsy’s International Customer Experience initiative—has worked out some of the kinks. I’m the father of three girls. During their birth, I was fully involved in startups and was never able to take parental leave. Not only did I miss out, but as a manager I feel I can’t help my team plan a successful leave becau...
2020-10-0542 minSimple LeadershipPodcast – Simple LeadershipRedefining Parental Leave with Matt NewkirkBeing in a management position in any industry can often leave you overwhelmed. Striking a balance between your work and personal life is already difficult. So how does a manager take parental leave? Matt Newkirk—the engineering lead for Etsy’s International Customer Experience initiative—has worked out some of the kinks. I’m the father of three girls. […]
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2020-10-0442 minSimple LeadershipPodcast – Simple LeadershipHiring Engineers: Junior or Senior? Johnny Ray Austin Shares His TakeIf you’re an engineer in a leadership role where you’re dealt with the task of developing teams, the hiring process can be daunting. Do you hire junior engineers that you can shape and mold? Or senior engineers who are experienced, but come with baggage? And how do you throw boot camp graduates into the mix? […]
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2020-08-2444 min
SimpleLeadership PodcastHiring Engineers: Junior, Senior, or Boot Camp Graduates? Johnny Ray Austin Shares His TakeIf you’re an engineer in a leadership role where you’re dealt with the task of developing teams, the hiring process can be daunting. Do you hire junior engineers that you can shape and mold? Or senior engineers who are experienced, but come with baggage? And how do you throw boot camp graduates into the mix? Johnny Ray Austin joins me to lend his thoughts on the hiring process, including what he looks for in an engineer. Don’t miss it! Johnny is an experienced engineering executive and international public speaker. Johnny claims he got into leader...
2020-08-2444 minSimple LeadershipPodcast – Simple LeadershipTechnology Leadership Begins with These Traits with Emad GeorgyToday’s guest—Emad Georgy—is passionate about technology leadership. He’s a CTO Consultant and the Founder and CTO of Georgy Technology Leadership. Emad has been in the tech industry for over 25 years. His hybrid approach to technology management—focusing on both the practical and cultural elements of leadership—makes Emad a trusted and valued partner helping both domestic […]
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2020-04-2040 min
SimpleLeadership PodcastTechnology Leadership Begins with These Traits with Emad GeorgyToday’s guest—Emad Georgy—is passionate about technology leadership. He’s a CTO Consultant and the Founder and CTO of Georgy Technology Leadership. Emad has been in the tech industry for over 25 years. His hybrid approach to technology management—focusing on both the practical and cultural elements of leadership—makes Emad a trusted and valued partner helping both domestic startups and global enterprises scale and grow. In this episode of Simple Leadership, we chat about what cultivating leaders looks like. Sometimes, it involves making difficult decisions for your team. You must also embrace your values and lead your tea...
2020-04-2040 minSimple LeadershipPodcast – Simple LeadershipOvercoming Engineering Leadership Challenges with Farhan ThawarTransitioning an engineering leadership position to a work-from-home model can be a challenge. For some engineers, working remotely is the norm. For others, such as those working for Shopify, being forced to work from home because of the Coronavirus is a whole new ballgame. In this episode of Simple Leadership, Farhan Thawar joins me to […]
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2020-04-0644 min
SimpleLeadership PodcastOvercoming Engineering Leadership Challenges with Farhan ThawarTransitioning an engineering leadership position to a work-from-home model can be a challenge. For some engineers, working remotely is the norm. For others, such as those working for Shopify, being forced to work from home because of the Coronavirus is a whole new ballgame. In this episode of Simple Leadership, Farhan Thawar joins me to chat about his transition into working from home and how Shopify has made the process manageable. We talk about the benefits of coding in pairs, whether or not managers should still code, and what he looks for when hiring engineering leaders. Farhan b...
2020-04-0644 minSimple LeadershipPodcast – Simple LeadershipHow to Manage Remote Teams [and Help Them Thrive] with Dana LawsonIf you’re in a leadership position in the engineering industry and have suddenly been thrust into working remotely, it may feel like your world has been turned upside down. In this episode of Simple Leadership, Dana Lawson and I discuss a few tips to help you manage remote teams. You want your team to thrive […]
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2020-03-2348 min
SimpleLeadership PodcastHow to Manage Remote Teams [and Help Them Thrive] with Dana LawsonIf you’re in a leadership position in the engineering industry and have suddenly been thrust into working remotely, it may feel like your world has been turned upside down. In this episode of Simple Leadership, Dana Lawson and I discuss a few tips to help you manage remote teams. You want your team to thrive and be successful during a time of great uncertainty. Dana describes herself as an atypical engineer. She wanted to attend college to be an artist but soon realized the ‘starving artist’ lifestyle wasn’t going to cut it. She took the ASVAB te...
2020-03-2348 minSimple LeadershipPodcast – Simple LeadershipHow to Implement Good Software Development Processes with Eric ElliottA management role in software development can be difficult to navigate. You need to keep a high-level perspective on projects while making sure they go smoothly. Eric Elliott, today’s guest on the show, believes that you need to implement coding quality practices such as test-driven development. In this episode, we talk about why software development […]
The post How to Implement Good Software Development Processes with Eric Elliott appeared first on Simple Leadership.
2020-03-0948 min
SimpleLeadership PodcastHow to Implement Good Software Development Processes with Eric ElliottA management role in software development can be difficult to navigate. You need to keep a high-level perspective on projects while making sure they go smoothly. Eric Elliott, today’s guest on the show, believes that you need to implement coding quality practices such as test-driven development. In this episode, we talk about why software development processes such test-driven development makes an impact and why it’s important to remove bugs. We’ll also talk about how to train developers and keep them happy—and why it’s inherently important not to rush the process. Eric Elliott has been i...
2020-03-0948 min
SimpleLeadership PodcastFollow These Steps to Combat Loneliness in Leadership with Suzan BondIf you are transitioning into an executive or leadership role in an organization, you can find yourself dealing with incredible loneliness. You also deal with a change in power dynamics, gaps in information, and a lack of support systems. It is difficult to prepare for the change from “getting work done” to being an “influencer”. As a former COO, today’s guest, Suzan Bond, understands the struggle of the transition. She joins me today to share some ways you can combat loneliness and ease the transition. Suzan is an executive coach and organizational strategist who has spent over a decade i...
2020-02-2443 minSimple LeadershipPodcast – Simple LeadershipFollow These Steps to Combat Loneliness in Leadership with Suzan BondIf you are transitioning into an executive or leadership role in an organization, you can find yourself dealing with incredible loneliness. You also deal with a change in power dynamics, gaps in information, and a lack of support systems. It is difficult to prepare for the change from “getting work done” to being an “influencer”. […]
The post Follow These Steps to Combat Loneliness in Leadership with Suzan Bond appeared first on Simple Leadership.
2020-02-2443 min
SimpleLeadership PodcastHow to Manage Efficiently Through a Merger or Acquisition with Loïc HoussierEffectively leading a team through an acquisition or merger can be shaky ground to navigate. You aren’t just dealing with merging teams, tech stack, and processes—but also a culture. Your team needs leadership that is open, honest, and transparent about the process. If your company is going through a merger or acquisition and you want to arm yourself with some tools to manage your team efficiently through the process, learn from the expertise of today’s guest, Loïc Houssier. In this episode of Simple Leadership, Loïc and I discuss what he’s learned about leadership, what his m...
2020-01-2745 minSimple LeadershipPodcast – Simple LeadershipHow to Manage Efficiently Through a Merger or Acquisition with Loïc HoussierEffectively leading a team through an acquisition or merger can be shaky ground to navigate. You aren’t just dealing with merging teams, tech stack, and processes—but also a culture. Your team needs leadership that is open, honest, and transparent about the process. If your company is going through a merger or acquisition and you want […]
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2020-01-2645 minSimple LeadershipPodcast – Simple LeadershipCultivating Diversity in the Workplace with Tess Hatch and Jess MinkCultivating diversity in the workplace is at the forefront of challenges that starts-ups face. Creating diversity in race, ethnicity, gender, and even opinions and skill sets is something every business must implement. You need to build a team with diverse perspectives in different backgrounds. Tess Hatch from Bessemer Venture Partners and Jess Mink with Auth0 […]
The post Cultivating Diversity in the Workplace with Tess Hatch and Jess Mink appeared first on Simple Leadership.
2019-09-3052 min
SimpleLeadership PodcastCultivating Diversity in the Workplace with Tess Hatch and Jess MinkCultivating diversity in the workplace is at the forefront of challenges that starts-ups face. Creating diversity in race, ethnicity, gender, and even opinions and skill sets is something every business must implement. You need to build a team with diverse perspectives in different backgrounds. Tess Hatch from Bessemer Venture Partners and Jess Mink with Auth0 lend me their expertise in today’s episode of Simple Leadership. We’ll cover everything from hiring the right people, what investors wished managers knew more of, and being an ally and sponsor. Tess Hatch earned a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engine...
2019-09-3052 min
SimpleLeadership PodcastWhy Becoming An Effective Leader Involves Changing The Language You Use, with Krister UngerböckBeing an effective leader is about more than just managing people efficiently. Krister Ungerböck (unger-bahk) joins us today to talk about why being a leader is about changing the language you use. Krister is a keynote speaker, CEO Coach, and global expert in The Language of Leadership. Prior to retiring at age 42, Krister was the award-winning CEO of one of the largest family-owned software companies in the world. His expertise in the Language of Leadership is based upon his unique experience as a global CEO leading teams in three languages while observing and doing business with executives in o...
2019-07-2936 minSimple LeadershipPodcast – Simple LeadershipWhy Becoming An Effective Leader Involves Changing The Language You Use, with Krister UngerböckBeing an effective leader is about more than just managing people efficiently. Krister Ungerböck (unger-bahk) joins us today to talk about why being a leader is about changing the language you use. Krister is a keynote speaker, CEO Coach, and global expert in The Language of Leadership. Prior to retiring at age 42, Krister was […]
The post Why Becoming An Effective Leader Involves Changing The Language You Use, with Krister Ungerböck appeared first on Simple Leadership.
2019-07-2936 min
DistantJob PodcastEP16: Simple (Remote) Leadership with Christian McCarrickTodays’ guest is Christian McCarrick, VP of Engineering at Auth0 and host of the SimpleLeadership Podcast. Christian has been a technology leader for almost two decades, and through his Simple Leadership Podcast, has learned from dozens of the best in the industry. We dive into topics as varied as how to make sure to hear the opinions of introverts in your team, how to write like a leader and beat the Slack “rumour mill,” what’s the difference between brainstorming for discussion and brainstorming for decision, and much more!
2019-06-2657 minSimple LeadershipPodcast – Simple LeadershipHow to Improve Your Management Skills with Jocelyn GoldfeinWhat does it take to up your game and improve your management skills? Do you need to read better books or get around the right environment? Here to help us dig in and understand some key aspects of an effective manger is, Jocelyn Goldfein. Jocelyn is a technology executive and investor. She is the managing […]
The post How to Improve Your Management Skills with Jocelyn Goldfein appeared first on Simple Leadership.
2019-06-1050 min
SimpleLeadership PodcastHow to Improve Your Management Skills with Jocelyn GoldfeinWhat does it take to up your game and improve your management skills? Do you need to read better books or get around the right environment? Here to help us dig in and understand some key aspects of an effective manger is, Jocelyn Goldfein. Jocelyn is a technology executive and investor. She is the managing director and a general partner at venture capital firm Zetta Venture Partners. Previously she was a director of engineering at Facebook and vice president of engineering at VMware. Jocelyn is passionate about scaling products, teams, and companies, and she cares deeply about...
2019-06-0950 minSimple LeadershipPodcast – Simple LeadershipHow to Create an Empowering Work Environment with Scott CarletonWhat does it look like to create a work environment where employees can succeed and thrive? Are there steps you can take as a leader to encourage and support your team members in a meaningful way? Here to help us understand what makes Asana a, “Top 5 Best Place to Work” is my guest, Scott […]
The post How to Create an Empowering Work Environment with Scott Carleton appeared first on Simple Leadership.
2019-05-2742 min
SimpleLeadership PodcastHow to Create an Empowering Work Environment with Scott CarletonWhat does it look like to create a work environment where employees can succeed and thrive? Are there steps you can take as a leader to encourage and support your team members in a meaningful way? Here to help us understand what makes Asana a, “Top 5 Best Place to Work” is my guest, Scott Carleton. Scott is currently the Site Lead of Asana’s NYC office, dedicated to enabling all teams to collaborate effortlessly. Previously, Scott was the VP of Technology at Andela, empowering engineering talent across Africa. Scott co-founded Artsicle as CTO, building a global community of vis...
2019-05-2742 minSimple LeadershipPodcast – Simple LeadershipAn Inside Look at How a Distributed Company Operates with Zapier’s Bryan HelmigAs the economy and various business sectors continue to evolve, many leaders are looking at how transitioning to a distributed company might be the best option going forward. I had the pleasure of sitting down with Zapier’s Bryan Helmig to discuss all the benefits and some of the challenges involved with running a distributed company. […]
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2019-05-1346 min
SimpleLeadership PodcastAn Inside Look at How a Distributed Company Operates with Zapier’s Bryan HelmigAs the economy and various business sectors continue to evolve, many leaders are looking at how transitioning to a distributed company might be the best option going forward. I had the pleasure of sitting down with Zapier’s Bryan Helmig to discuss all the benefits and some of the challenges involved with running a distributed company. Bryan co-founded Zapier in late 2011 with his friends Mike and Wade, and they were soon admitted to Y Combinator’s YCS12 batch. Zapier is a web automation application, with Zapier you can build Zaps which can automate parts of your business or l...
2019-05-1346 minSimple LeadershipPodcast – Simple LeadershipGreat Leadership Can Be Learned with Johnathan and Melissa NightingaleThere’s good news for all you tech leaders who feel you got thrown into management without much preparation – leadership can be learned. My guests on this episode of SimpleLeadership are Johnathan and Melissa Nightingale, the founders of Raw Signal Group – a company with a simple promise, “We Build Better Bosses.” They are also […]
The post Great Leadership Can Be Learned with Johnathan and Melissa Nightingale appeared first on Simple Leadership.
2019-04-2947 min
SimpleLeadership PodcastGreat Leadership Can Be Learned with Johnathan and Melissa NightingaleThere’s good news for all you tech leaders who feel you got thrown into management without much preparation - leadership can be learned. My guests on this episode of SimpleLeadership are Johnathan and Melissa Nightingale, the founders of Raw Signal Group - a company with a simple promise, “We Build Better Bosses.” They are also best-selling authors of the book, “How F*cked Up Is Your Management?: An Uncomfortable Conversation About Modern Leadership.” I can't think of two people better suited to talk to about the challenges of tech leadership. Prior to founding Raw Signal Group, Johnathan...
2019-04-2948 minSimple LeadershipPodcast – Simple LeadershipBest Practices for Managing Remote Teams with Steph SmithSteph is the Head of Publications at Toptal, a serial maker, and a supporter of women in technology. Outside of leading a remote team of a few dozen, she is a self-taught developer that builds projects related to women in technology, remote work, and self-improvement. She’s launched products that have hit #1 on Product Hunt, articles that have trended the […]
The post Best Practices for Managing Remote Teams with Steph Smith appeared first on Simple Leadership.
2019-04-0800 min
SimpleLeadership PodcastBest Practices for Managing Remote Teams with Steph SmithSteph is the Head of Publications at Toptal, a serial maker, and a supporter of women in technology. Outside of leading a remote team of a few dozen, she is a self-taught developer that builds projects related to women in technology, remote work, and self-improvement. She’s launched products that have hit #1 on Product Hunt, articles that have trended the top of Hacker News, and was nominated for Maker of the Year in 2018. She actively supports women in technology by speaking about the psychology behind inclusion and through building resources like FeMake and is a judge for the Toptal Women’s Scholarship. On t...
2019-04-0848 minSimple LeadershipPodcast – Simple LeadershipHaving a Growth Mindset with Patrick PenaPatrick has spent his career applying his engineering talents to the healthcare industry. In that time he’s focused on learning and growing as an engineer, a teammate, team lead, and more recently as an engineering manager. He considers himself a people gardener and coalition builder and believes in people-first leadership. Patrick loves teaching and tackling […]
The post Having a Growth Mindset with Patrick Pena appeared first on Simple Leadership.
2019-03-1800 min
SimpleLeadership PodcastHaving a Growth Mindset with Patrick PenaPatrick has spent his career applying his engineering talents to the healthcare industry. In that time he’s focused on learning and growing as an engineer, a teammate, team lead, and more recently as an engineering manager. He considers himself a people gardener and coalition builder and believes in people-first leadership. Patrick loves teaching and tackling people and process opportunities to help teams and individuals grow. On today's show we discuss communication, psychology, having a growth mindset and his upcoming conference talk. Contact Info: twitter: patrickjpena medium: https://medium.com/@patrick.pena...
2019-03-1838 minSimple LeadershipPodcast – Simple LeadershipBootstrapping Inclusion with Jason WongJason Wong is a proven engineering leader, diversity & inclusion consultant, and doughnut enthusiast. With almost two decades of experience in building and scaling web applications, he has worked in a range of industries from academia to online media and e-commerce. He helped establish web development and administrative computing at Columbia College, led development of […]
The post Bootstrapping Inclusion with Jason Wong appeared first on Simple Leadership.
2019-02-2500 min
SimpleLeadership PodcastBootstrapping Inclusion with Jason WongJason Wong is a proven engineering leader, diversity & inclusion consultant, and doughnut enthusiast. With almost two decades of experience in building and scaling web applications, he has worked in a range of industries from academia to online media and e-commerce. He helped establish web development and administrative computing at Columbia College, led development of premium video streaming services at Yahoo! Sports, and spent seven years at Etsy leading their Infrastructure Engineering team. He currently works with engineering leaders to improve their engineering management practices and establish inclusive cultures. Contact Info: JWong Works Website ...
2019-02-2538 minSimple LeadershipPodcast – Simple LeadershipHow Culture Can Help Your Teams Scale with Eric ElliottEric Elliott is a distributed systems expert, and author of the books “Programming JavaScript Applications” and “Composing Software”. He builds and advises development teams for crypto projects, and has contributed to software experiences for Adobe Systems, Zumba Fitness, The Wall Street Journal, ESPN, BBC, and top recording artists including Usher, Frank Ocean, Metallica, and many […]
The post How Culture Can Help Your Teams Scale with Eric Elliott appeared first on Simple Leadership.
2019-02-0400 min
SimpleLeadership PodcastHow Culture Can Help Your Teams Scale with Eric ElliottEric Elliott is a distributed systems expert, and author of the books "Programming JavaScript Applications" and "Composing Software". He builds and advises development teams for crypto projects, and has contributed to software experiences for Adobe Systems, Zumba Fitness, The Wall Street Journal, ESPN, BBC, and top recording artists including Usher, Frank Ocean, Metallica, and many more. He spends most of his time in the San Francisco Bay Area with the most beautiful woman in the world. On today's show we discuss the leader's role in setting the tone and culture of teams and how important...
2019-02-0353 min
SimpleLeadership PodcastRunning Remote Teams with Liam MartinLiam is the co-founder and CMO of TimeDoctor.com, Running Remote Conference and Staff.com. After graduating with a masters in Sociology from McGill University, Liam opened a small tutoring company which grew to over 100 employees, and looked to solve a problem with remote employees not reporting accurate work data which turned into Staff.com. He consults on outsourcing and process design and is passionate about how to gain insights into the inner workings of how people work. On today's episode we discuss running remote teams, including hiring, performance, management, culture and mental health. Liam's...
2018-12-1754 min
SimpleLeadership PodcastPurpose, Motivation and Empathy with John RoudaJohn Rouda is an IT Leader and Computer Science Professor. Currently, he is an IT Director and he teaches as an adjunct professor at both York Technical College and Winthrop University. John has spoken at numerous conferences and is currently on the board of the Interface Cyber Security Conference. John’s past experiences include more than a decade of Technical management in both software development and network infrastructure. In 1999, John Rouda and 2 partners founded a business developing, hosting and marketing websites. The business was profitable each year until it was sold in 2007 to a larger competitor. John has developed do...
2018-12-0346 min
SimpleLeadership PodcastThe Importance of Relationships with Saurabh DaftarySaurabh is currently an Engineering Manager at Twilio. He joined Twilio about 4 years back as a senior engineer. He then moved into a tech lead position and then transitioned into management about 1.5 years ago. Since then, he has grown into managing multiple engineering teams within Twilio's Messaging organization. Before joining Twilio, Saurabh worked in a couple of fin-tech startups in the Boston area mostly in an Individual Contributor role. He has a strong passion for engineering leadership and is always looking for avenues to give back to the community. Other than computers, he is fond of reading, cars, astrophysics...
2018-11-1942 min
SimpleLeadership PodcastThe Importance of Training Junior Developers with Michelle BrennerMichelle is a Senior Backend Engineer at ChowNow, helping local restaurants grow their business by strengthening relationships with their customers. She has previously served as both an engineer and a manager for the last 7+ years in entertainment technology. She has worked tirelessly to help movies and television get made faster and cheaper, saving productions millions of dollars. A Philadelphia native, she has a background in Media Arts and is a self-taught Python developer. Michelle is now working to give back to her community through mentorship and conference speaking. Contact Info: michellebrenner.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/michellebrenner/ h...
2018-10-2937 min
SimpleLeadership PodcastTips for Scaling Engineering Teams with Darragh CurranDarragh is currently the VP of Engineering at Intercom. (One of my favorite companies). He joined Intercom in early 2012 as a product engineer and Intercom's second outside hire. Fast forward to today, and he is Intercom's VP of Engineering where he has grown and scaled the organization into a world class Engineering team. Prior to Intercom, Darragh worked at numerous other companies including Amazon.com. Darragh is mentor on the Plato network and is passionate about the outdoors and his family. On today’s show we discuss his path from IC to VP of engineering and tips on...
2018-09-1749 min
SimpleLeadership PodcastEngineering Managing and Leadership with Camille FournierCamille Fournier is the head of Platform Engineering at Two Sigma, a financial company in New York City. Prior to joining Two Sigma she was the Chief Technology Officer of Rent the Runway, a transformative brand that offers unprecedented access to designer fashion, disrupting the way millions of women get dressed. She is an open source contributor and project committee member for both Apache ZooKeeper and the Dropwizard web framework. Prior to working for Rent the Runway, Camille served as a software engineer at Microsoft, and most recently, spent several years as a technical specialist at Goldman Sa...
2018-08-2045 min
SimpleLeadership PodcastProper Expectation Setting and Mindful Communication with Lara HoganLara Callender Hogan is an engineering leader, coach, and consultant at Wherewithall. She is also the author of Designing for Performance (O’Reilly, 2014), Building a Device Lab (Five Simple Steps, 2015), and Demystifying Public Speaking (A Book Apart, 2016). Lara champions engineering management as a practice, having built and led engineering organizations as an Engineering Director at Etsy and VP of Engineering at Kickstarter. In her world tour to advocate performance to designers and developers alike, Lara has keynoted the Velocity Conference, presented at Google I/O, and given talks at companies like The New York Times to help s...
2018-08-0542 min
SimpleLeadership PodcastFrom Intern to VP of Engineering with Mihai FonoageMihai Fonoage is the Vice President of Engineering for Modernizing Medicine. In this role he leads a Team of Engineers that are working on building high-quality software for medical practices to increase efficiency and improve patient care. With over 13 years of experience in the technology world, his technical prowess has strongly contributed to Modernizing Medicine’s success. Mihai has a PhD in Computer Science from Florida Atlantic University and was Modernizing Medicine’s first employee. He is a recipient of the Sun Sentinel's 2015 Top Workplace Professionals and the South Florida Business Journal’s 2014 40 Under 40 award. On today's episod...
2018-07-2355 min
SimpleLeadership PodcastManaging Former Peers with Jen DaryJen Dary is the founder of Plucky, an organization that works with companies and individuals to create healthy dynamics at work. She is a leadership coach and speaker; she travels across the US teaching workshops, including her popular course, So Now You’re a Manager, which trains new managers across the country for the complex work of herding humans. Jen lives in Berkeley, CA with her husband and two young sons. On today's episode we discuss one of the tricky challenges of being a first time manager - managing your former peers and friends. We also discuss Pluc...
2018-07-0957 min
SimpleLeadership PodcastSlowing Down to Go Faster with Leonard ChungLeonard is the founder and CEO of Hello Chava, a company reimagining productivity tools for the solo professional. Over the past 25 years, Leonard has recognized emerging markets and launched multiple successful products with a particular focus in SaaS, Cloud Computing, and Collaboration through first gen products such as Hello Chava, Syncplicity, Windows PowerShell, and SETI@home. On today's episode we discuss scaling your leadership, being humble, racing cars and slowing down to go faster. Contact Info: website: http://www.hellochava.com/ Show Notes: How to Talk to Kids Will Li...
2018-06-1146 min
SimpleLeadership PodcastShould Managers Write Code with Leith AbdullaGiven a jar of peanut butter, a spoon and a challenging problem, I feel set up for success! I build and manage happy, healthy engineering teams that ship impactful products without sacrificing the user or developer experience. I like to focus on engineering culture (testing, performance + career growth), creating tools for engineering managers, internationalization, accessibility and improving the relationship between engineering, design, product managers and product support. I'm in a happy place when using storytelling for impact and automating workflows to ensure best practices and culture. born in Minnesota, I have Texas roots, where i graduated from the university of Tex...
2018-05-1445 min
SimpleLeadership PodcastNurturing an Inclusive Environment - Live Plato EventToday's podcast is a recording of a live panel that I moderated which focused on nurturing an inclusive environment at technology companies. It was part of a larger event put on by the tech mentoring company Plato. The fantastic guests that I had a chance to discuss this with were: Shivani Sharma, Senior Engineering Manager at Slack Nick Caldwell, VP Engineering at Reddit Nidhi Gupta, SVP Engineering at Hired I have interviewed both Shivani Sharma and Nick Caldwell on previous podcast episodes and I encourage you to go to my podcast archives and listen to...
2018-05-0739 min
SimpleLeadership PodcastDiversity and Inclusion and Building High Performing Teams with Erica StanleyErica is an engineering manager for the integrations and data analytics teams at SalesLoft – where she’s helping grow the product engineering team for the 4th fastest growing software company in North America and #1 best place to work in Atlanta. During her 18 year career in tech, she’s worked with large companies, including Boeing, FOX Interactive Media and Turner Broadcasting, as well as early-stage startups--of which 2 were acquired, by MySpace and Oracle. Erica works passionately towards diversity and inclusion in tech, via education and exposure to opportunities. In 2013, she started the Atlant...
2018-04-3048 min
SimpleLeadership PodcastHow to Leave a Company as a Manager by Dennis NerushDennis is the Head of Integration at HiredScore, a startup that helps large companies achieve their hiring and recruiting goals using deep system integrations and AI. Dennis is a former team and group leader at Sears Israel working on large scale social e-commerce platform and before that he was a team leader and a full stack developer at the Israeli Air Force. He is passionate about people growth and company culture. On today's episode we discuss the challenges, both logistical and emotional, when a manager decides to leave their team and company. This is based on Dennis' pers...
2018-04-2353 min
SimpleLeadership PodcastRemote Teams and the Importance of Employee Mental Health with Katie WomersleyKatie is a Director of Engineering at Buffer, a globally distributed team with no offices, and O’Reilly author. At Buffer, she leads the engineering team focusing on crafting productive, effective teams and delivering a world class software product. She previously worked as software engineer before moving into leadership. Her writing has appeared in The Next Web, Inc Magazine and Fast Company. Contact Info: website: http://katiewomersley.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/katie_womers Medium: >https://medium.com/@kawomersley Show Notes: The Brain-Changing Benefits of Exercise Brene Brown - Listening to Shame Cate Huston Blog Lara Hogan Blog...
2018-04-1646 min
SimpleLeadership PodcastHiring Best Practices and Diversity and Inclusion with Rachael StedmanRachael is an engineering manager for the infrastructure and backend teams at Lever, a collaborative hiring software product helping companies recruit and grow their teams. She joined the team in 2014 as a product engineer and was one of the first employees to kickoff internal discussions around diversity and inclusion. She transitioned into a management role over a year ago and is dedicated to growing engineering teams who have a strong combination of technical and soft skills. On today's episode we discuss best practices in hiring and diversity and inclusion in tech companies. Contact Info:
2018-04-0948 minSimple LeadershipPodcast – Simple LeadershipHow to Become a True Engineering Leader? (Live Plato Event)Four Engineering Managers from Facebook, Kabam, Clever, and Medium shared their tips on becoming a great Engineering Leader during the Plato event hosted on May 15, 2017 in San Francisco. Moderator: Christian McCarrick, CTO/VP of engineering at Telmate Jean Hsu, Engineering Management Consultant, former Engineering Manager at Medium Nikhil Pandit, Engineering Manager at Clever Inc. Richard Sun, Senior Director of […]
The post How to Become a True Engineering Leader? (Live Plato Event) appeared first on Simple Leadership.
2018-03-2600 min
SimpleLeadership PodcastHow to Become a True Engineering Leader? (Live Plato Event)Four Engineering Managers from Facebook, Kabam, Clever, and Medium shared their tips on becoming a great Engineering Leader during the Plato event hosted on May 15, 2017 in San Francisco. Moderator: Christian McCarrick, CTO/VP of engineering at Telmate Jean Hsu, Engineering Management Consultant, former Engineering Manager at Medium Nikhil Pandit, Engineering Manager at Clever Inc. Richard Sun, Senior Director of Engineering at Kabam Yi Huang, Senior Engineering Manager at Facebook This event was sponsored by Plato. Plato matches tech managers to highly experienced engineering leaders to help resolve their challenging management situations. Find out more and sign-up to me mentor...
2018-03-2629 min
SimpleLeadership PodcastEngineering Team Values with Jean-Denis GrezeJean-Denis Greze is Head of Engineering at Plaid, the technology company giving developers access to the financial system and the tools to build many of the most influential applications and services of the modern financial era. Companies such as Venmo + Paypal, Coinbase, Robinhood, Acorns, Betterment, Clarity Money and hundreds more are built on Plaid - whose investors consist of Goldman Sachs, NEA, Citi Ventures, Spark Capital, American Express, and Google Ventures. Prior to joining Plaid, Jean-Denis was Director of Engineering at Dropbox, where he led the growth, identity, notifications, Paper and payments teams. Prior to Dropbox, Jean-Denis wo...
2018-03-1959 min
SimpleLeadership PodcastHow to Change a Team's Culture with Ian MiellIan Miell is a software industry veteran who has written, maintained, managed and architected some of the world's busiest systems. He works in financial services now, and also speaks, writes, teaches, and consults on various subjects, the common theme being how change can be managed within complex organisations and the raw technology that can enable that. On today' s show Ian discusses the steps he took to change a team's culture that he inherited. Contact Information: https://zwischenzugs.com/ https://twitter.com/ianmiell https://www.linkedin.com/in/ian-miell-694496/ https://ian.meirionconsulting.com/ https://leanpub.com/u/meirio...
2018-03-1253 min
SimpleLeadership PodcastHumanizing the Interviewing Process with Emily LeathersIn this episode we discuss having hard conversations, overcoming fear to grow as a technology leader and humanizing the interviewing process. Emily Leathers helps leaders, teams, and communities achieve big goals that make a difference. She’s lucky enough to hold two dream jobs at the same time: as a Director of Engineering at a small startup called Brigade, where she builds web and native apps to help voters make our elected representatives actually work for us, and as an engineering leadership coach and consultant, where she helps engineering leaders at all levels develop the skills, self-awareness, an...
2018-03-051h 00
SimpleLeadership PodcastScaling Engineering Teams with Matias WoloskiMatias Woloski is the CTO and co-founder of Auth0, an identity platform that provides authentication, authorization and single-sign-on as a service. Auth0 was founded in 2013 and it has now 300 employees and it’s a fully distributed company. Since 2013, Auth0 has tripled and doubled its revenue every year, counting with more than two thousand customers and tens of millions in recurring revenue. Before Auth0, he co-founded a high-end consulting business that employed 120 consultants. Matias lives in Buenos Aires, Argentina and he’s built the company from there with co-founder and CEO Eugenio Pace, who lives in Redmond, Washington. In t...
2018-02-2653 min
SimpleLeadership PodcastFrameworks for Improving Engineering Leadership with Edmond LauEdmond Lau is the author of the book, The Effective Engineer — now the de facto onboarding guide for many engineering teams. He's spent the past decade building and leading engineering teams at high-growth companies across Silicon Valley — including at Quip, Quora, Ooyala, and Google. As an engineering leadership coach, Edmond has worked directly with CTO's, directors, managers, and other emerging leaders to unlock what's possible for them and their teams. He's run workshops and seminars at places like Pinterest, Google, Facebook, Quip, and Medium to raise the bar on what it means to be an effective engineering lead...
2018-02-1945 min
SimpleLeadership PodcastProduct and Engineering Team Alignment with Kimber Lockhart and Stuart ParmenterOn today's episode we discuss product & engineering team alignment, deadlines and urgency and ideas for helping under representated groups becoming technology leaders. Kimber Lockhart is Chief Technology Officer at One Medical Group – a rapidly growing model of primary care that integrates innovative design with leading technology to deliver higher quality service while lowering the total cost of care. Previously, Kimber co-founded Increo, a web-based service that allows users to share and review documents in a secure space. Increo was acquired by Box in 2009, and she hired and scaled the web application engineering team over the next four years, ultim...
2018-02-1150 min
SimpleLeadership PodcastImproving Interviewing with Andrew MarshAndrew Marsh, CTO and co-founder of Interviewing.io talks about the poor state of interviewing process in today's tech companies, how to improve them and his company, Interviewing.io Andrew Marsh is co-founder and CTO of Interviewing.io A product designer and software engineer, he previously founded Fifth Column Games and has shipped titles with over 100 million users. Andrew ultimately left games in search of an industry where making a positive impact on the community was more aligned with success. Contact Information: My company website is Interviewing.io My twitter is @andimusprime Co...
2018-02-0543 min
SimpleLeadership PodcastWhy Group Meetings Can Be Time Wasters with Lawrence KrubnerOn today's show Lawrence and I discuss why group meetings can be such time wasters, the importance of one-one-ones and lawrence's book. Over the last 18 years, Lawrence Krubner has been the technical co-founder of 3 different startups that he has led to success. He has also seen millions of dollars wasted on poorly run projects that he have had to turn around and save. Turning around a failing project can go smoothly, so long as everyone on the team can be completely honest about why a project was failing up to that point. He is a proponent of t...
2018-01-2842 min
SimpleLeadership PodcastBuilding & Managing a Distributed Team with Juan Pablo BuriticaJuan Pablo Buritica, VP of Engineering at splice.com, talks about building and managing a distributed team and the benefits of running developer communities. Juan Pablo Buritica is the VP of Engineering at splice.com where he leads a distributed engineering team throughout the US and Latin America that is building the creative hub for the modern musician. Juan Pablo has built effective software engineering organizations by emphasizing Open Source software values, technical excellence, trust, and empathy. He has organized more than 10 software engineering conferences in the US & Latin-America, founded multiple JavaScript meetups, and led...
2018-01-2254 min
SimpleLeadership PodcastEmployee Onboarding with Benjamin JacksonBen Jackson, formally of VICE Media and The NYT, talks about the importance of employee onboarding and his new company For the Win. Ben Jackson has been designing and building consumer-facing products for 20 years. Before founding For the Win, Ben worked as Director of Mobile at VICE Media and iOS Lead at The New York Times. He’s written about design, technology, and psychology for The Atlantic, The New Yorker, and WIRED, among others. Ben studied Computer Science and Fine Arts at the University of Pennsylvania. In today's episode we discuss the importance of...
2018-01-1540 min
SimpleLeadership PodcastFinding Fulfillment at Work with Robert SlifkaRobert Slifka, VP of Engineering at Sharethrough, talks about Calibrate, the conference for software engineering managers he organizes, the importance of finding good fit for both employees and companies and having a more fulfilling work experience.
2018-01-0853 min
SimpleLeadership PodcastThe Importance of Self-Advocacy with Arquay HarrisArquay Harris, Director of Engineering at Slack, and I discuss the importance of self advocacy and taking ownership of your career path.
2017-12-1843 minSimpleLeadership PodcastEngineering Leadership Principals with Oren EllenbogenOren Ellenbogen and I discuss leadership principals, his book "Leading Snowflakes" and "The Software Lead Weekly", his weekly email reading list for engineering leaders. Oren is currently the VP of Engineering at Forter.
2017-12-1153 minSimpleLeadership PodcastGreat Interviewing Practices to Scale Engineering Teams with Tido Carriero and Emily Zahuta In this episode, Tido Carriero and Emily Zahuta discuss the importance of a well planned and executed interviewing process and how important it is to scaling a successful software engineering organization. Tido Carriero: Tido has been the VP of Engineering at Segment for the past two years, where he's spent much of his time growing the engineering team from ~10 to ~55. Prior to Segment, he was an early member of the Dropbox engineering team. At Dropbox, he started the Dropbox for Business product and later led the Product Engineering organization, which was approximately 170 engineers. He graduated with a degree in Computer Sci...
2017-12-0453 minSimpleLeadership PodcastMaking Your Employees Badass with bethanye McKinney Blountbethanye McKinney Blount and I discuss how to be a better manager, how to make your employees more bad-ass and Keanu Reeves... bethanye is the co-founder and CEO of Compass and formally of Linden Lab and Facebook.
2017-11-2751 minSimpleLeadership PodcastSupporting Software Engineer Productivity with Travis KimmelTravis Kimmel, the CEO of Gitprime, and I discuss the power of using data to help make better decisions and improve your team’s productivity.
2017-11-2044 minSimpleLeadership PodcastMy Worst Mistake as a Manager - Plato EventThree great Engineering Leaders (from Datto, Trello, Uber) talk about their worst mistakes as Engineering Managers during the Plato event #1 hosted on May 15, 2017 in San Francisco.
2017-11-1322 minSimple LeadershipPodcast – Simple LeadershipMy Worst Mistake as a Manager – Plato EventThree great Engineering Leaders (from Datto, Trello, Uber) talk about their worst mistakes as Engineering Managers during the Plato event #1 hosted on May 15, 2017 in San Francisco. Moderator: Christian McCarrick — CTO/VP Engineering at Telmate Benjamin de Point — Sr. Engineering Director at Datto Brett Huff — Engineering Manager at Trello Tasneem Minadakis— Engineering Leader at Uber Show Notes: Article about […]
The post My Worst Mistake as a Manager – Plato Event appeared first on Simple Leadership.
2017-11-1200 minSimpleLeadership PodcastThe Benefits of Hiring Code Bootcamp Grads with Ana UlinAna Ulin discusses her path as a manager and the benefits of hiring people from coding bootcamps like Hackbright academy.
2017-11-0640 minSimpleLeadership PodcastManaging Managers with Cate HustonCate Huston, the Mobile Lead at Automattic (makers of Wordpress), and I discuss the challenges of becoming a manager of managers.
2017-10-3043 minSimpleLeadership PodcastBuilding an Engineering Culture That Retains Talent - Live Plato EventListen to the live panel I moderated at a recent Plato event. The topic was building and engineering culture that retains talent. There are some really great responses to the questions and it was a great panel overall.
2017-10-2339 minSimpleLeadership PodcastCareer Coaching with Allen CheungAllen Cheung, Director of Engineering at Affirm and formally at Google and Square, discusses how engineering managers should coach their employees.
2017-10-1645 minSimpleLeadership PodcastThe Engineer - Manager Pendulum with Charity MajorsCharity Majors, co-founder of Honeycomb.io, discusses the engineers who become managers and go back to being engineers and how awesome they are.
2017-10-0948 minSimpleLeadership PodcastTransitioning to Engineering Management with Shivani SharmaListen to Shivani Sharma, a Sr. Engineering Manager at Slack, discuss the transition from individual contributor to Engineering Manager.
2017-10-0255 minSimpleLeadership PodcastEmployee Motivation with Jean HsuJean Hsu formally of Google & Medium and now an engineering leadership coach discusses employee motivation.
2017-09-2443 minSimpleLeadership PodcastTips for New Engineering Managers with Chris PaulChris Paul from HelloSign discusses his tips for new managers, going back to being an individual contributor and psychological safety,
2017-09-1739 minSimpleLeadership PodcastCompassionate Coding and Diversity with April WenselApril Wensel and I discuss the concept of compassionate coding, mentoring, hiring, feedback and diversity.
2017-09-1151 minSimpleLeadership PodcastMaking One-on-Ones Count with David LynchDavid Lynch from Intercom.io discussing how to make one-on-ones count with your employees.
2017-09-0444 minSimpleLeadership PodcastAwesome Resources for New Engineering Managers with Joe GoldbergJoe Goldberg from Energy Savvy and formally of Amazon.com discusses great resources for new and existing engineering managers. Please check the show notes for links to these great resources.
2017-08-2841 minSimpleLeadership PodcastFireside Chat with Nick Caldwell VPE of RedditToday’s special episode is a live fireside chat I moderated with Nick Caldwell who is the VP of Engineering at Reddit. This event was put together by the founder of the San Francisco Engineering Leadership Community, Jerry Li. SFELC is an exclusive and curated community for engineering leaders in the San Francisco Bay Area. Founded in early 2016, they’ve grown to 400 leaders from over 200 companies. Their mission is to create a fundamentally better way for engineering leaders to learn and connect, through community and sharing. This episode is a bit longer than my usual episodes and also includes a Q&A wit...
2017-08-211h 21SimpleLeadership PodcastThe Importance of Technical Leadership with Patrick KuaIn this episode Patrick Kua from Thoughtworks discusses the importance of having good technical leadership on teams. He also discusses his new book, "Talking with Tech Leads: From Novices to Practitioners"
2017-08-1440 min
SimpleLeadership PodcastKeeping Your Technical Skills as a Manager with Joan GamellIn this episode Joan Gamell from LinkedIn discusses how important it is to keep your technical skills as you move into software engineering management.
2017-08-0735 minSimpleLeadership PodcastThe Importance of Mentorships with Quang Hoang from PlatoHQQuang Hoang from PlatoHQ discusses the importance of mentoring and how his company is helping connect engineering managers to experienced leaders for mentorship and guidance.
2017-07-3143 minSimpleLeadership PodcastSetting the Technical Direction for Your Team with James HoodJames Hood, A Senior Software Developer at Amazon.com discusses the importance of setting a well defined technical direction for your team.
2017-07-2547 minSimpleLeadership PodcastCoaching for performance vs. coaching for growth - Jerry LiJerry Li from Groupon discusses the differences between performance coaching and growth coaching for employees. He also discusses his Meetup, the San Francisco Engineering Leadeship Meetup.
2017-06-1238 minSimpleLeadership PodcastThe Importance of Employee Growth - Dan DeMeyereDan Demeyere from ThreadUp discusses the importance of focusing on Employee growth as a manager.
2017-04-1546 min
SimpleLeadership PodcastThe Importance of Employee Feedback - Claire LewClaire Lew, the CEO of KnowYourCompany discusses the importance of gathering and using employee feedback.
2017-02-2244 minSimpleLeadership PodcastTom Bartel InterviewTom Bartel of Trivago discusses moving into engineering management and creating time for writing his very informative blog on engineering management.
2017-01-0645 minSimpleLeadership PodcastSimpleLeadership Episode 0Welcome to the first episode of The Simple Leadership Podcast. I introduce this podcast aimed at giving you the tips to become a top manager and an effective leader.
2016-12-2108 min
One Verse Devotional003: How should a Christian live? | Isaiah 1:17God has always been more concerned with us doing good vs. us not doing bad.
Love, care, compassion. This is what being a Christian is all about. Can we just live however we want? Of course not. But living a Christian life, a life “like Christ” is about showing compassion and care for those in need. Let’s stop telling people what to believe and start by simply caring for them. Do that and there will be plenty of opportunities to have deeper conversations of faith.
2016-02-1003 minSimple LeadershipPodcast – Simple LeadershipSimpleLeadership Episode 0 – Welcome to the Show!Welcome to the first episode of The Simple Leadership Podcast. I introduce this podcast aimed at giving you the tips to become a top manager and an effective leader. Episode Links: https://generalassemb.ly/instructors/christian-mccarrick/3554
The post SimpleLeadership Episode 0 – Welcome to the Show! appeared first on Simple Leadership.
2015-12-1209 min