The Engineering Leadership Podcast

• Leading transformation, inspiring vision & empowering teams to operate autonomously w/ Kevin Stewart #212

  ABOUT KEVIN STEWARTKevin Stewart is an engineering executive focused on building teams to build products. He has helped shape the engineering culture at a number of startups, digital agencies and cloud companies. Kevin is particularly experienced in leading remote and distributed teams to consistently deliver quality products. Although he currently resides in Seattle, Kevin is a lifelong New Yorker with dreams of relocating to a sunny island in the Caribbean.SHOW NOTES:Determining what you think is broken vs. what is actually broken (2:57)Focusing on the root issues around leadership & decision-making (4:46)Strategies for identifying the root cause of what is broken (9:08)A framework for diagnosing issues, making a compelling case to stakeholders, and driving high-impact change (10:59)Factors that impact decision making authority on your teams (13:53)Signals that your org faces learned helplessness & how to override it (16:13)Kevin’s advice for leaders who realize they contribute to a fearful environment (18:26)Kevin’s journey @ Splice and aligning personal values with the company mission (21:02)Challenges behind new strategy rollouts and the need for a customer-centric “north star” (26:26)Witnessing the emotional impact of your product on customers (29:44)Repetition is key when it comes to reinforcing your org’s vision (30:48)Prioritizing your time & resources between strategic and tactical work (32:32)Frameworks for aggressively auditing your calendar (35:47)How to empower your team and delegate. so they can operate autonomously and you can shift your focus to strategy and business objectives (37:37)Rapid fire questions (41:38)LINKS AND RESOURCESThe Nvidia Way: Jensen Huang and the Making of a Tech Giant - Tae Kim’s deeply reported business history of the chip-designer Nvidia—from its founding in 1993 to its recent emergence as one of the most valuable corporations in the world—explaining how the company’s culture, overseen by cofounder and CEO Jensen Huang, has powered its incredible success.This episode wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our incredible production team:Patrick Gallagher - Producer & Co-HostJerry Li - Co-HostNoah Olberding - Associate Producer, Audio & Video Editor https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-olberding/Dan Overheim - Audio Engineer, Dan’s also an avid 3D printer - https://www.bnd3d.com/Ellie Coggins Angus - Copywriter, Check out her other work at https://elliecoggins.com/about/

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• Accelerating & upskilling your AI learning journey w/ Maher Hanafi #211

  ABOUT MAHER HANAFIMaher Hanafi is a seasoned technology engineering leader, driving digital transformation and delivering impactful SaaS solutions. As Senior Vice President of Engineering at Betterworks, he leads the AI vision and applications for their AI-powered performance management software, overseeing the integration of AI tools that enhance HR functions like performance reviews, goal setting and employee development.Maher's passion for technology centers on the transformative potential of AI, particularly Generative AI. He views it as a powerful tool capable of learning, adapting and solving real-world problems, and champions its responsible development to empower individuals.Maher's vision extends beyond technology, aiming to revolutionize tech workplaces by fostering human potential alongside cutting-edge solutions. He employs a people-centric leadership style, building collaborative environments that empower teams to excel. This commitment to empowerment extends to mentoring fellow engineering leaders and sharing his knowledge through public speaking.ABOUT COREY COTOCorey Coto is a creative, data-driven, and innovative executive. He founded Kaizen Insights to help enterprises create business intelligence with their people. Corey was SVP of Product, Design and Engineering at a Vista Equity Partners portfolio company and held engineering leadership roles at Amazon, CoStar Group, and Liberty Mutual. He is a Founder Institute Mentor, an ELC Seattle Chapter Lead, and a startup advisor. Software is his favorite artistic medium because of its power to quickly move the needle on big ideas that can benefit people and the planet. He believes there has never been a better time to build. The future is bright!SHOW NOTES:When Maher realized he needed to rethink his approach to AI & upskill quickly (3:38)Milestones across Maher’s AI knowledge progression (7:42)Set aside time for your eng team to experiment & apply AI learnings (11:09)Why intentionally building different use cases leads to better outcomes (14:22)The importance of revisiting AI decisions as a team (16:53)Frameworks for determining how deep to go into each learning area (19:37)How to navigate the challenges of going from proof of concept to production (22:43)Evaluating the ROI of AI applications (26:47)Strategies for deciding which resources / operating expenses go toward AI use cases (29:24)Tips for developing stakeholder confidence in your AI strategy (32:36)How non-technical experts can build AI awareness & confidence (36:22)Betterworks’ AI roadmap for 2025 (38:48)Rapid fire questions (40:58)LINKS AND RESOURCESDrive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us - Drawing on four decades of scientific research on human motivation, Daniel H. Pink exposes the mismatch between what science knows and what business does—and how that affects every aspect of life. He examines the three elements of true motivation—autonomy, mastery, and purpose—and offers smart and surprising techniques for putting these into action in a unique book that will change how we think and transform how we live.This episode wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our incredible production team:Patrick Gallagher - Producer & Co-HostJerry Li - Co-HostNoah Olberding - Associate Producer, Audio & Video Editor https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-olberding/Dan Overheim - Audio Engineer, Dan’s also an avid 3D printer - https://www.bnd3d.com/Ellie Coggins Angus - Copywriter, Check out her other work at https://elliecoggins.com/about/

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• Data governance, adversarial testing & more - Essential strategies to scale AI responsibly in a shifting regulatory environment w/ Jim Palmer #210

  ABOUT JIM PALMERJim Palmer is the Chief AI Officer at Dialpad. Previously he was CTO and Co-Founder of TalkIQ, a conversational intelligence start-up with expertise in real-time speech recognition and natural language processing, acquired by Dialpad in May of 2018. Prior to TalkIQ, he was the founding engineer on the eBay Now local delivery service.SHOW NOTES:Tips and cheat codes for navigating AI governance (3:30)Breaking down red teaming & adversarial testing in AI governance (8:02)Launching and scaling adversarial testing efforts (11:27)Unexpected benefits unlocked with adversarial testing (13:43)Understanding data governance and strategic AI investments (15:38)Building resilient AI from concept to customer validation (19:28)Exploring early feature validation and pattern recognition in AI (22:38)Adaptability in data management and ensuring safe, ethical data use while adapting to evolving legal and governance requirements (26:51)How to prepare data for safe and sustainable long-term use (30:02)Strategies for compliant data practices in a regulated world (32:43)Building data deletion systems with model training in mind (35:14)Current events and trends shaping adaptability and durability in the AI ecosystem (38:38)The role of a Chief AI Officer (41:20)Rapid fire questions (44:35)LINKS AND RESOURCESGenius Makers: The Mavericks Who Brought AI to Google, Facebook, and the World - With deep and exclusive reporting, across hundreds of interviews, New York Times Silicon Valley journalist Cade Metz brings you into the rooms where these questions are being answered. Where an extraordinarily powerful new artificial intelligence has been built into our biggest companies, our social discourse, and our daily lives, with few of us even noticing.This episode wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our incredible production team:Patrick Gallagher - Producer & Co-HostJerry Li - Co-HostNoah Olberding - Associate Producer, Audio & Video Editor https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-olberding/Dan Overheim - Audio Engineer, Dan’s also an avid 3D printer - https://www.bnd3d.com/Ellie Coggins Angus - Copywriter, Check out her other work at https://elliecoggins.com/about/

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• Capturing & synthesizing unbiased insights from users, your open source community & yourself w/ James Campbell #209

  ABOUT JAMES CAMPBELLJames Campbell is the co-founder and CTO at Great Expectations, the leading open-source data quality product. Prior to his life at a startup, James spent nearly 15 years working across a variety of quantitative and qualitative analytic roles in the US intelligence community, ultimately serving as Chief Data Scientist at CIA. He studied Math and Philosophy at Yale, and international security at Georgetown. He is passionate about creating tools that help communicate uncertainty and build intuition about complex systems.This episode is brought to you by Clipboard HealthClipboard Health is looking for the next generation of exceptional software engineering leaders, not just managers. They’re a profitable unicorn, backed by top-tier investors, and they take the craft of engineering management seriously.Clipboard Health matches highly qualified healthcare workers with nearby facilities to fulfill millions of shifts a year - revolutionizing healthcare staffing with a fast, flexible, and user-friendly platform.Learn more & browse their open roles at clipboardhealth.com/engineeringSHOW NOTES:The origin story of Great Expectations & James’ founding journey (3:28)Pitching / validating your idea through community (6:24)Transitioning from federal government to co-founder of a company (9:20)Recommendations when considering the founder / collaboration path (11:30)James’ experience starting with open source & getting 10k stars on GitHub (13:15)Engaging with your audience to drive growth & share your product’s message (15:17)How open source impacts Great Expectations’ marketing / communication (16:58)Navigating the tension between product vision & product roadmap (19:21)Where that tension showed up in Great Expectations’ early days (22:11)Capturing & synthesizing insights from your users (23:54)Strategies for removing biases from product-related decisions (25:37)Finding the balance between your perspective & community insights (27:13)James’ perspective on different levels of product analysis (29:54)Lessons learned from Great Expectations’ phase changes (31:22)Takeaways from the org’s latest experience / transition (34:51)Defining the “Heilmeier Catechism” & how it impacts James’ leadership style (37:07)Rapid fire questions (40:40)LINKS AND RESOURCESCIA Guide to Analytic Tradecraft - Primer published by the CIA to assist analysts in dealing with the perennial problems of intelligence.American Prometheus - Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin’s definitive biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer, one of the iconic figures of the twentieth century, a brilliant physicist who led the effort to build the atomic bomb for his country in a time of war, and who later found himself confronting the moral consequences of scientific progress.This episode wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our incredible production team:Patrick Gallagher - Producer & Co-HostJerry Li - Co-HostNoah Olberding - Associate Producer, Audio & Video Editor https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-olberding/Dan Overheim - Audio Engineer, Dan’s also an avid 3D printer - https://www.bnd3d.com/Ellie Coggins Angus - Copywriter, Check out her other work at https://elliecoggins.com/about/

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• Upskilling: practices to improve hiring, storytelling & structuring personal/leadership problems with engineering principles #208

  ABOUT COLLEEN TARTOWColleen Tartow, Ph.D. is Field CTO and Head of Strategy at VAST Data and has 20+ years of experience in data, analytics, engineering, and consulting. Adept at assisting organizations in deriving value from a data-driven culture, she has successfully led diverse data, engineering, and analytics teams through the development of complex global data management solutions and architecting enterprise data systems. Her demonstrated excellence in data, engineering, analytics, and diversity leadership makes her a trusted senior advisor among executives. An experienced speaker, author, valued mentor and startup advisor, Colleen holds degrees in astrophysics and lives in Massachusetts.ABOUT JIM LIUJim Liu is an accomplished engineering leader with a track record of driving business outcomes at companies like StockX and Nordstrom. He is also an active community builder with Engineering Leader Community and Angel Investor communities. Jim and his family reside in Seattle, WA.ABOUT DIVYA ALAVARTHIDivya Alavarthi is an experienced engineering and business leader with 14+ years of expertise in architecture, engineering, product delivery, pre-sales, professional services, and organizational leadership. She developed Salesforce Platform architecture standards, best practices, and minimal viable architectures. She supported a talent pool of 5000+ architects and developers resulting in improved strategic agility, speed to market, and business value in large-scale multi-cloud implementations.This episode is brought to you by Clipboard HealthClipboard Health is looking for the next generation of exceptional software engineering leaders, not just managers. They’re a profitable unicorn, backed by top-tier investors, and they take the craft of engineering management seriously.Clipboard Health matches highly qualified healthcare workers with nearby facilities to fulfill millions of shifts a year - revolutionizing healthcare staffing with a fast, flexible, and user-friendly platform.Learn more & browse their open roles at clipboardhealth.com/engineeringSHOW NOTES:The importance of leadership in hiring (1:29)The Tartow Method Explained: Key aspects of a successful hiring practice (3:57)How to build out the interview process & ask the right questions (6:14)Behavioral Interviews and good responses: Tips for gaining clarity from interviewees on abstract skills (7:52)Where eng leaders can start building their hiring skill set (9:16)Colleen’s experience co-leading ELC Boston & advice for 1st time event attendees (10:36)Understanding how to model problems as engineering challenges (14:41)How to use an engineering mindset to tackle personal problems (16:35)Jim’s process for deconstructing problems & solving them like an engineer (18:38)Tips for building / applying your skill set around abstracting problems (21:27)Jim’s perspective on getting involved with a local ELC community (24:36)Ways to help make the most out of your first ELC local experience (27:05)Divya shares about the power of storytelling in engineering leadership (30:07)Build the narrative about your product’s business impact (32:24)An example of bringing different demos & storytelling together (34:09)Frameworks for effective storytelling: build a narrative around a product / demo (36:16)How to start improving your storytelling today (37:35)Divya’s favorite moments with the ELC Seattle chapter & how to get involved (39:42)LINKS AND RESOURCESCheck out all of our local chapters & get involved here: elc.community/home/clubsThis episode wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our incredible production team:Patrick Gallagher - Producer & Co-HostJerry Li - Co-HostNoah Olberding - Associate Producer, Audio & Video Editor https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-olberding/Dan Overheim - Audio Engineer, Dan’s also an avid 3D printer - https://www.bnd3d.com/Ellie Coggins Angus - Copywriter, Check out her other work at https://elliecoggins.com/about/

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