Shows
The Engineering Leadership PodcastRewriting the Engineering Leadership Playbook: An ELC Annual 2025 Preview #229Engineering leadership is undergoing a seismic shift, requiring playbooks to be rewritten, in real-time. In this special episode, hosts Patrick Gallagher and Jerry Li give you an inside look at the ELC Annual 2025 experience, and how the two-day conference will equip you with new mental models, skills, and frameworks required to lead.Get a preview of tactical takeaways from deep operational dives into companies like OpenAI, Amplitude, and HeyGen. Discover how the conference will help you redesign your innovation engine, transform your team's workflows, and blur the lines between engineering, product, and business to drive impactful change...
2025-08-1923 min
Engineering FoundersBalancing shifting priorities, leveraging your founder network, and navigating cost vs. value w/ Sumeet Vaidya @ CraftingIn this episode, we cover some of the most important founder challenges, including engineering management, prioritization / time management principles, analyzing the market, and making the decision to sell to enterprise early on with Sumeet Vaidya, Co-founder & CEO @ Crafting. He unpacks the story behind Crafting & the decision to found it along with how he knew he was the right person to lead this org. Patrick & Sumeet dissect GTM strategies when it comes to enterprise sales, how funnel optimization for sales works, and making business decisions while navigating cost vs. value. We also chat about the importance of forming founder-to-founder connections...
2025-07-3142 minThe Engineering Leadership PodcastVision-first leadership & reimagining product w/ “Shift Out,” Do-It-as-a-Service & Jobs-to-Be-Done w/ John Amaral #226John Amaral (CTO and co-founder @ Root.io) joins us to discuss the evolving role of engineering leaders and why vision-first leadership & building your “vision” muscle is more critical than ever. We dive into why “shift left” is dead and why SaaS is being replaced by “do-it” as a service. John also unpacks how to think in outcomes, apply the Jobs-To-Be-Done framework to eliminate toil, and reimagine product experiences. Plus, we look inside Root.io’s approach to building AI-native security products that ship daily. Whether you’re rethinking your org design or exploring the frontier of AI-powered engineering, this episode will res...
2025-07-0844 minThe Engineering Leadership PodcastScaling decision-making, designing eng orgs for speed & scope as underrated leverage w/ Dhruv Parthasarathy #225In this episode, we go inside Commure’s engineering org w/ Dhruv Parthasarathy (CTO @ Commure & Athelas). We cover how to push decision-making down to move faster and reduce risk, structure teams for rapid iteration, and turn customers into product co-creators. Dhruv also shares how they cultivate polymath capabilities across EPD to accelerate velocity, why scope is one of the most underrated sources of leverage in engineering, and the frameworks they use to identify compound wins. If you’re scaling an eng org, leading in a complex domain, or designing your team for speed—this episode is packed with tactical framew...
2025-06-2537 minThe Engineering Leadership PodcastThe evolving velocity playbook, building product taste & exceptional product experiences in the AI era w/ Loïc Houssier #224Loïc Houssier (VP Engineering @ Superhuman) shares his evolving playbook for driving velocity in eng orgs today, building product-minded teams, and cultivating product taste. We cover leading culture / mindset transformation, creating exceptional product experiences, operational excellence when product quality is increasingly subjective. Plus the evolution of productivity tools!ABOUT LOÏC HOUSSIERLoïc Houssier is an engineering executive with 20 years of leadership experience spanning startups, scale-ups, and global enterprises. He specializes in helping high-growth companies scale with speed and discipline, combining technical depth with a strong operational mindset.He currently leads engineering at...
2025-06-1746 minThe Engineering Leadership PodcastRapid Prototyping, Lightning Pods & the End of PRDs: Redefining product development & EPD in the age of AI w/ Nissim Lehyani #223When Nissim Lehyani (VP of Product at Life360) used AI to build a math game for his son, he didn’t just prototype a game, he rewired how he thinks about product development and the relationship between engineering, product, and design. In this episode, Nissim shares how that personal “aha” moment sparked a shift in how his teams build, collaborate, and ship. We dive into how AI is accelerating product iteration from months to hours, why it’s time to drop the “M” from MVP, and how prototypes are replacing PRDs as the central artifact of product work. Plus how product...
2025-06-1038 minEngineering FoundersBuilding insight engines, emotionally intelligent AI products & blending PLG / enterprise GTM w/ Aiswarya Sankar @ Entelligence.AIHow do you build an AI product that engineers actually enjoy? ****Aiswarya Sankar, co-founder of Entelligence.AI, reveals how her team is creating an AI-powered “insight engine” that supports (and celebrates) the work of engineering teams. We explore how Entelligence.AI evolved from code search to a full-stack insight engine that reduces merge times, improves code quality, and makes teams more effective. Aiswarya explains how personalization, context awareness, and positive reinforcement drive adoption. Plus Aiswarya unpacks the psychology of feedback, how to make AI feel collaborative (not corrective), and their dual GTM strategy blending product-led growth with enterprise sales. Whet...
2025-05-2941 minThe Engineering Leadership PodcastFrom architect to AI exec: Scaling leadership, maintaining credibility & effective communication to non-technical execs w/ Prashant Ramarao #222How do you go from deeply technical IC to leading 100+ engineers - and still stay close to the tech? Prashant Ramarao, SVP of Engineering & Head of AI @ Yahoo shares lessons from his unconventional leadership journey, exploring the mindset shift from expert IC to executive! We cover how to scale your leadership while maintaining technical credibility and how to effectively communicate with GMs & other non-technical stakeholders. Plus, Prashant shares personal AI projects that enhanced his technical credibility, leadership skills & understanding of how to integrate AI into products If you’re navigating the leap from technical to strategic, or scaling your le...
2025-05-2743 minThe Engineering Leadership PodcastThe Startup Epoch: Rethinking Company Building & Defensibility in an AI World w/ Craig McLuckie #221AI is reshaping the fundamental economics of startups—lowering product development costs, compressing GTM cycles, and rewriting the rules of competition. In this episode, Craig McLuckie (Co-Founder & CEO @ Stacklok, co-creator of Kubernetes) unpacks “the epoch of the startup,” a moment of massive disruption where fast-moving founders have a unique edge over incumbents. We explore how Craig is navigating this new era from rethinking cost structure, value capture, and defensibility to leveraging open-source, community, and asymmetric advantages as core pillars of Stacklok’s strategy. Craig shares lessons from pivotal product shifts, frameworks for identifying moats, and the broader societal implications of AI-dr...
2025-05-2042 minThe Engineering Leadership PodcastLessons Leading EPD: Mindset, decision-making, 80/20 product strategy & pivoting for leverage/speed w/ Farnaz Azmoodeh #219When Farnaz Azmoodeh (CTO @ Linktree) stepped into her new role, she unexpectedly took on product & design just three months in—owning all of engineering, product, and design during a critical period of change. In this episode, Farnaz shares hard-won lessons from that transition, including the mindset shift from delivery to discovery, balancing data vs. intuition in decision-making, knowing when to pivot your product strategy, and building small / fast-moving cross-functional teams. We also cover applying the 80/20 rule to simplify complex product surfaces, her favorite frameworks for pattern recognition, and how to reset assumptions when pattern-matching can backfire. If you’re navi...
2025-05-0643 minEngineering FoundersThe Startup Epoch: Rethinking Company Building & Defensibility in an AI World w/ Craig McLuckie @ StacklokAI is reshaping the fundamental economics of startups—lowering product development costs, compressing GTM cycles, and rewriting the rules of competition. In this episode, Craig McLuckie (Co-Founder & CEO @ Stacklok, co-creator of Kubernetes) unpacks “the epoch of the startup,” a moment of massive disruption where fast-moving founders have a unique edge over incumbents. We explore how Craig is navigating this new era from rethinking cost structure, value capture and defensibility to leveraging open-source, community, and asymmetric advantages as core pillars of Stacklok’s strategy. Craig shares lessons from pivotal product shifts, frameworks for identifying moats, and the broader societal implications of AI-dr...
2025-05-0142 minThe Engineering Leadership PodcastEmpowering Teams & Cultivating True Ownership in Engineering Orgs w/ Wade Chambers #218Wade Chambers, Chief Engineering Officer @ Amplitude, joins us to discuss what it looks like to empower individual engineers & overall engineering teams and recommendations for creating a culture that cultivates ownership! First, Wade defines what true ownership looks like – and what it doesn’t look like. We cover frameworks for identifying & cultivating high ownership in individuals & across teams, implementing systems that encourage ownership, communicating shared vision / goals, and coaching engineers when passing the baton of ownership. We also discuss navigating difficult conversations around empowerment / ownership – or lack thereof – and Wade shares examples of impactful questions to ask.ABOUT WADE CHA...
2025-04-2944 minThe Engineering Leadership PodcastRecalibrating leadership priorities, leveraging your time & empowering senior leaders w/ Vinod Marur #216In this episode, Vinod Marur (SVP of Engineering @ Databricks) shares his approach to recalibrating leadership priorities as organizations scale. Vinod breaks down his personal recalibration framework—why he does it every 3–6 months, signals that it’s time to reassess, and how to design communication and collaboration structures that reduce information asymmetry during periods of rapid growth. We dive into rewriting hiring playbooks, tailoring recruitment pitches, and the impact of AI on hiring. Plus actionable strategies for onboarding and empowering senior leaders, identifying the highest-leverage problems to solve, and finding champions to carry key initiatives forward.ABOUT VINOD MARUR
2025-04-1540 minThe Engineering Leadership PodcastPodcast Break for ELC Annual 2024!We’re taking a quick break from releasing episodes for a few weeks while we wrap up everything for ELC Annual. We’ll be back in late September with new guests! We have some excellent sessions at the conference - check out the agenda here: https://sfelc.com/annual2024#agendaJoin us at ELC Annual 2024!ELC Annual is our 2 day conference bringing together engineering leaders from around the world for a unique experience help you expand your network and empower your leadership & career growth.Don't miss out on this incredible opportunity to expand your...
2024-08-1503 minThe Engineering Leadership PodcastSpeed v. Quality, Measuring Productivity & Cross-Functional Relationships - Tackling the Top 10 Eng Leadership Challenges! #186This is Part 2 of our Top 10 Challenges series! In this episode, we’re focusing on three common team challenges that eng leaders face: how to increase velocity without losing quality, measure productivity & create meaningful metrics, and work cross-functionally with other teams. We identified these challenges based on conversations with hundreds of eng leaders from podcast episodes, ELC events, and more. For this ep, we’ve pulled insights from various eng leaders, including Richard Wong @ enrich, Fatemah Alavizadeh @ Notion, Andrew Fong @ Prodvana, Randall Koutnik @ Jellyfish, Abi Noda @ DX, Barbara Nelson @ InfluxDB, Laura Fay @ L Fay Associates, and Jeremy Henrickson @ Rippling.
2024-07-0942 minThe Engineering Leadership PodcastThe Top 10 Challenges Engineering Leaders Face: A Sneak PeakAfter surveying hundreds of engineering leaders, we’ve pinpointed the top 10 challenges engineering leaders face! Exciting news - next week marks the launch of our 4-part series, sharing some of the best insights from hundreds of ELC events, podcasts & conference sessions. The finale? A dynamic rapid-fire session with Shopify's VP of Engineering, Farhan Thawar, tackling each challenge head-on.Have solutions of your own? Share your strategies and help spread knowledge throughout our community. Reach out at podcast@sfelc.com or tag ELC in a post/comment on LinkedIn.Join us at ELC Annual 2024!EL...
2024-06-2502 minThe Engineering Leadership PodcastConscious Career Growth w/ Wade Chambers #183In today’s episode, we’re highlighting one of our favorite past conversations, featuring Wade Chambers, CTO & SVP of Engineering @ Included Health. We cover tools for increasing your capacity to win as an eng leader, getting unstuck in your career / moving forward, and applying “conscious growth” and neuroplasticity principles to the career. Wade shares stories of success – and failure – as an eng manager, best practices to measure success as an eng leader, and how to increase your team’s performance & potential.ABOUT WADE CHAMBERSWade Chambers (@wadechambers) is the CTO and SVP of Engineering at IncludedHealth...
2024-06-111h 01The Engineering Leadership PodcastInside ELC Annual 2024: 2 days to recharge, reconnect & empower your growth #180Welcome to a special episode highlighting ELC Annual 2024, our annual conference bringing together engineering leaders from around the world! Tune in to hear how we built this 2-day experience to be the ultimate accelerator of leadership and professional growth. We cover how the conference will expand your perspectives with curated peer-led roundtables and expert-led sessions with people like Thuan Pham (former CTO @ Uber & Coupang), Melody Hildebrandt (CTO @ FOX), James Everingham (VPE @ Meta) Marcel Weekes (VPE @ Figma), Rajashree Pimpalkhare (VPE @ Twilio) and 40+ more speakers! We promise that you will walk away from the event with meaningful connections and actionable strategies...
2024-05-2108 minEngineering FoundersEarly-day founding & funding decisions, choosing ideas + using community tools to build a dev-tool company w/ Paul DixPaul Dix, Founder & CTO @ InfluxData, joins us to discuss how to handle the emotional aspects of the founding experience, strategies for engaging with developers & using community tools to build a dev-tool company, and recommendations for approaching open-source & licensable business strategies. Additionally, Paul shares advice based on his experience transitioning from the bootstrapping dream to seeking external funding.ABOUT PAUL DIXPaul (@pauldix) is the creator of InfluxDB. He has helped build software for startups, large companies, and organizations like Microsoft, Google, McAfee, Thomson Reuters, and Air Force Space Command. He is the series editor for...
2023-08-2848 minThe Engineering Leadership PodcastRapid prototyping & developing your product instinct w/ David Crawshaw #135We discuss rapid prototyping & how eng leaders can develop better product instincts with David Crawshaw, CTO & Co-Founder @ Tailscale! He shares his leadership journey from Google to Tailscale and how the early product development days at his startup lead to incorporating rapid prototyping principles within their eng org. We also cover strategies and recommendations for those who are new to rapid prototyping, how to work with design & product teams while quickly iterating, navigating the tension between speed & quality, and how to avoid common pitfalls while implementing the process.ABOUT DAVID CRAWSHAWDavid Crawshaw (@davidcrawshaw) is co-founder...
2023-06-2041 minThe Engineering Leadership PodcastLeading beyond domain expertise & laying early-stage security program foundations w/ Matt Spitz #134Matt Spitz joins our latest podcast to discuss leading beyond domain expertise! As Head of Engineering @ Vanta, Matt shares his experience managing & developing a security program in the early days of Vanta before hiring for a specialized skillset. We also cover strategies on maximizing security at your organization as it grows, developing a company culture that invests in security, identifying when your org is ready to hire a domain expert, and how to effectively communicate with & lead domain experts within your org. In addition, Matt reveals what qualities he believes a security culture expert should possess & how eng leaders...
2023-06-1339 minThe Engineering Leadership PodcastAdopting a GM mindset & building a resilient business w/ Sandeep Chennakeshu #128Sandeep Chennakeshu, Chief Operating Officer @ Uhnder Inc., joins us to discuss how eng leaders can adopt a GM mindset & strategies for building a resilient business. The author of Your Company Is Your Castle, Sandeep also reveals the key structural elements of all successful businesses, methods to improve your business’s financial fitness / cash flow, how to overcome operational inefficiencies, why strong decision-making matters when it comes to saving money, and much more.ABOUT SANDEEP CHENNAKESHUSandeep has spent thirty-four years in three industries and led teams across the globe that pioneered amazing products in wireless (2G...
2023-05-0241 minThe Engineering Leadership PodcastBack in 2 Weeks! Patrick’s Getting MarriedWe’re taking a few weeks off to celebrate Patrick’s wedding! We’re going to be mostly unplugged in the mountains… but when we return, we have some fantastic conversations planned with folks like… Lisa Dusseault (CTO @ Compaas), Luther Kitahata (Founder, Executive Leadership Coach & Fractional CTO/VPE @ Integral Response), Vinay HIremath (CTO @ Loom), Maher Saba (Head of Remote Presence and Engineering @ Meta) & more!Email us if you have ideas for episode 100 at hello@sfelc.comLooking for ways to get involved? Join the conversation in our virtual home at elc.community! Hosted by...
2022-08-1602 minEngineering FoundersMarket validation, making demos work at all costs & designing impossible shapes w/ Bradley RothenbergWhat do you do when your idea is simply too early to market? Bradley Rothenberg (Founder/CEO @ nTopology) shares his journey from watching 3D printing’s potential go unutilized to attracting some of the biggest customers in the world. Plus, how to make customers care about your product, and why you should treat the market like a co-founder.ABOUT BRADLEY ROTHENBERGBradley Rothenberg (@brad_rothenberg) is the founder and CEO of nTopology, an advanced software company based in New York City that focuses on enabling engineers to design, manufacture and ship high-performance products in the le...
2022-03-2546 minThe Engineering Leadership PodcastTransitioning to Crypto with Lewis Tuff, VPE @ Blockchain.com #68Lewis Tuff (VP of Engineering @ Blockchain.com) joins us to share his experience on building a career in the cryptocurrency space! We cover his transition from traditional finance/tech to crypto, how to shift your mindset from centralized to decentralized, qualities that lead to success, tactics to help you gain exposure and experience, AND why it’s not too late to start your career in crypto! ABOUT LEWIS TUFFLewis (@tuffleuk) is the Vice President of Engineering at Blockchain.com where he is responsible for the technology underpinning Blockchain.com’s services. As the 2nd engin...
2022-01-1850 min