Community insights from our Pop-Up Podcast Booth at ELC Annual! #129
The Engineering Leadership Podcast
The Power of OKRs on Alignment
Gaurav Nagam: The most important thing is to build trust in a team. When there's no risk, there's no art, right? Cynthia Tam: I wish I knew that I didn't have to be light. It's being fair and it's being consistent so the team can trust you.
Welcome to the ELC Annual Pop-Up Podcast Booth! This episode features behind-the-scenes conversations of engineering leaders who joined us at ELC Annual last October. These community members jumped into our recording studio to share their best strategies for good communication and providing critical feedback; using OKRs to realign your org; lessons learned from early leadership days; balancing speed vs. quality within your eng team; how technology shifts / bets impact your org; challenges with rapidly changing workspaces between remote, in-person & hybrid; creating a culture of pride & celebrating wins; and combining empathy with the best engineering qualities to determine what you really want.
Our featured guests include:
- Nate Lee, CISO @ Tradeshift
- Gaurav Nigam, VP of Engineering @ WorkBoard
- Cynthia Tham, VP of Engineering @ GMG Americas
- Mitchell Arnett, Engineering Manager @ Life360
- Jeremy Eastwood (Head of Eng @ Drone Deploy) & Dobromir Montauk (VP of Engineering @ Doxel.AI)
- Lizzie Masutov, Co-Founder & CEO @ Quotient
- Shweta Saraf, Director of Platform Engineering @ Netflix
- Wen Hsu, Founder & CEO at Wen Coaching
Join us at ELC Annual 2023!
ELC Annual is our flagship conference for engineering leaders. You’ll learn from experts in engineering and leadership, gain mentorship and support from like-minded professionals, expand your perspectives, build relationships across the tech industry, and leave with practical prove strategies.
Join us this August 30-31 at the Fort Mason Center in San Francisco
To get early access to tickets - email us at annual@sfelc.com
Join Jellyfish's GLOW conference on 5/16 & 5/17 to maximize engineering impact!
Learn from industry experts, connect and share challenges with peers as you learn effective strategies to expand your leadership!
Register now at https://www.jellyfishglowsummit.com/
SHOW NOTES:
- Why Nate Lee @ Tradeshift believes good communication is critical as an eng leader (7:06)
- Know your audience, meet them where they’re at & learn to communicate up (8:44)
- Strategies for delivering critical feedback (11:00)
- Gaurav Nigam @ WorkBoard: how OKRs can be used to resync your org (14:35)
- Tips for first-timers establishing realistic OKRs (17:56)
- Things Cynthia Tham @ GBG Americas wishes she knew when she started her eng leadership journey (20:21)
- Identifying & maintaining consistent behaviors as an eng leader (22:58)
- Mitchell Arnett @ Life360 discusses speed vs. quality (25:19)
- Components that lead to a culture of success around speed & quality (29:01)
- Jeremy Eastwood @ Drone Deploy & Dobromir Montauk @ Doxel.AI on how tech shifts impact eng orgs (32:41)
- Jeremy & Dobromir’s predictions for the next technology curve (37:14)
- Commit to change & don’t go in half-heartedly (39:55)
- How to navigate hybrid & remote work challenges w/ Lizzie Matusov @ Quotient (48:11)
- Lizzie’s advice for returning to in-person networking (50:42)
- Practices for navigating shifting work environments between remote, hybrid & in-person (53:07)
- Lizzie’s vision for successfully integrating teams & developing a sense of belonging (56:23)
- Tips for starting conversations around belonging within eng teams (1:02:10)
- Shweta Saraf @ Netflix reveals how her org has built a culture of celebration (1:04:11)
- Tips for building moments of self-recognition as an eng leader (1:08:11)
- Strategies for establishing goals & providing clarity (1:10:59)
- Create a safe space for experimentation (1:16:57)
- Wen Hsu on the most important question you can ask yourself (1:19:26)
- Recommendations for taking steps toward what you really want (1:22:33)
- How to prioritize making time to move toward your “north star” (1:25:13)
This episode wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our incredible production team:
Patrick Gallagher - Producer & Co-Host
Jerry Li - Co-Host
Noah 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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