Shows
CTO Insights PodcastHow Zapier Makes Learning the Key to Performance—with Mojtaba Hosseini, VP of Engineering at ZapierBrought to you by: Adeva — Global network of top developers connecting businesses with world-class talent.In this episode of CTO Insights, Katerina Trajchevska is joined by Mojtaba Hosseini, VP of Engineering at Zapier, to explore how Zapier built a culture of strong customer focus, meaningful metrics, and long-term performance — and how they're using AI to drive real impact across the organization.What You’ll Learn- Why engineering is applied science in service of the customer- How customer focus shapes culture and drives engineering decisions- What “high performa...2025-07-2234 min
CTO Insights PodcastFrom 0 to 9-Figures ARR: Julien Lavigne du Cadet on Scaling Tech Without Losing FocusBrought to you by Adeva — a global network of top developers connecting businesses with world-class talent.In this episode of CTO Insights, Katerina Trajchevska is joined by Julien Lavigne du Cadet, CTO behind Zoe’s growth to 9-figures ARR. They discuss the challenges faced at different growth stages, the importance of balancing structure with lean processes, and the strategies for promoting internal talent versus hiring externally. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ctoinsights.adevait.com2025-05-1534 min
CTO Insights PodcastThe CPTO Advantage: How Unified Leadership Accelerates Engineering Teams with Alex KromanIn this episode of CTO Insights, I had the pleasure of hosting Alex Kroman, Chief Product and Technology Officer at AssemblyAI, to explore the evolving role of the combined Chief Product and Technology Officer position and its impact on creating high-performing engineering teams."I very much think about running a product organization as shipping two products - one product is what the customers use and another product is what the developers inside the company use to build that product."Here are the main takeaways from this episode:* Combining the CPO and...2025-04-0937 min
CTO Insights PodcastHow to Build a High-Performing Neurodiverse Team with Georgina ShuteIn this episode of CTO Insights, I had the pleasure of hosting Georgina Shute, Founder of KindTwo, to discuss why diverse teams outperform homogeneous ones. Following her own ADHD diagnosis, Georgina has dedicated herself to empowering leaders and organizations to understand and leverage the unique strengths of neurodiverse teams.We also share common misconceptions about neurodiverse employees, strategies for creating inclusive tech teams, and actionable insights for CTOs looking to leverage diverse thinking styles as a competitive advantage. Georgina points out, "People aren't broken and we don't need to be fixed. I think there are different environments...2025-03-1227 min
CTO Insights PodcastPrioritizing Communication to Scale Successfully with Allison McMillanIn 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 rich background in leadership roles at companies like GitHub and Quarterpath, Allison specializes in enhancing communication and collaboration within engineering teams. Her expertise lies in enhancing...2025-02-1249 min
CTO Insights PodcastTracking Developer Joy to Drive Team Performance - with Sven Peters from AtlassianI 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. Sven argues that developer joy is the single most important factor directly impacting the team's performance. Increasing it re...2024-11-2149 min
CTO Insights PodcastCreating a Culture of Flow to Boost Team Performance-with DHH, CTO at 37 SignalsI 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 less. We discuss the value of flow over busyness, challenge the need for traditional me...2024-11-071h 05
CTO Insights PodcastIntentional Team Organization to Enhance Performance with Manuel Pais, co-author of Team TopologiesI 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, understanding how the team structure and interactions between teams should evolve to enable faster flow. He shared insights on restructuring for high performance, enabling autonomy within the teams...2024-10-2540 min
CTO Insights PodcastThe Real 10x Developer: Multiplying Impact by Empowering Others with Gregor OjstersekI 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 unicorn that performs 10x the regular developer exist? Or is a 10x developer simply someone who knows how to...2024-09-2648 min
CTO Insights PodcastMastering the CTO Role with Drew FalkmanTune 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 managing teams and other executives are just as important—if not more—than technical expertise. I espe...2024-09-1356 min
CTO Insights PodcastProgramming is The Easy Part, with J. B. RainsbergerI 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 teams, the challenges he sees are almost always about peop...2024-07-1959 min
CTO Insights PodcastEnhancing Team Output by Cutting Meetings to a Minimum: Insights from GitLabIn 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 what makes a meeting material. So much so, that even their planning is done async, not surp...2024-07-0458 min
CTO Insights PodcastIncreasing Team Velocity While Improving Quality: A Talk with Kent BeckI 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.In this episode, we discuss Extreme Programming and how it evolved organically from an intuitive...2024-06-201h 13
CTO Insights PodcastDriving Success by Empowering Team AutonomyMite 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 successful teams deploy multiple times per day, and we explore their strategy for expanding this approach across the board....2024-06-0752 min
CTO Insights PodcastShipping Work That MattersRyan 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 enhance the performance of their teams by implementing the Shape Up framework.In this conversation, we break down the framework from a pr...2024-05-231h 10
CTO Insights PodcastThriving amidst hiring slowdowns by focusing on building high-performing teams.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 resources requires a deep understanding of the investment vs. impact of the planned feature.* If y...2024-05-0958 min
CTO Insights PodcastEnsuring high performance by promoting from within and establishing a culture of quality - with Kamil Dziublinski, CTO at Xapo BankWelcome 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 by Adeva, a global talent network that connects the world’s best companies wi...2024-04-2456 min
saas.unboundNavigating talent acquisition in B2B SaaS with Katerina Trajchevska and Ferenc CsonkaTalent acquisition has remained a very hot topic throughout 2023. So we couldn't leave this one behind, and had an AMA about navigating talent acquisition! Tune in to our discussion with Katerina Trajchevska, CEO of Adeva, a global talent network, and Ferenc Csonka, Lead Recruiting Partner at saas.group. Some of the things we've discussed: 1️⃣ effectively attracting top talent in highly competitive markets 2️⃣ the key challenges in hiring remote employees and how to address them 3️⃣ the most effective ways to reduce time-to-hire without compromising the quality of candidates 4️⃣ effective hiring within tight bud...2024-02-2456 min
Software Developers Journey#227 Katerina Trajchevska founded her remote workplaceKaterina placed the start of her journey in her studies when she found where she belonged. She spoke about her first job and how it set up the rest of her career. It led her toward freelancing and then creating her company Adeva. We spoke about how Katerina grew into her CEO role and remains grounded in tech. We talked about remote work and making connections in a remote world. Here are the links from the show:https://www.twitter.com/ktrajchevskahttps://www.linkedin.com/in/trajchevska/https://adevait.com/Credits2022-11-0837 min