The Iron Triangle: Integrating Product, Engineering, and Design | Alberto Silveira - E26

Alberto Silveira is a seasoned engineering leader with a diverse career spanning companies like IBM, Kaplan, Amplify, OnDeck, and currently, HireVue. He is also the author of the book, Building and Managing High Performance Distributed Teams. Alberto discusses the differences between leading small and large engineering teams, the importance of creating a positive engineering culture, and the nuances of hands-on leadership. He also shares his passion for distributed teams, the challenges of scaling team culture in a remote environment, and his philosophy on balancing immediate deliverables with long-term team health. Alberto reflects on his career journey, the lessons learned from writing his book on high-performance distributed teams during the pandemic, and offers advice on overcoming organizational challenges by taking an inclusive leadership approach. 

Key Takeaways:

• How can you humanize work culture in a remote environment?

• How can you create focused teams to improve delivery and outcome?

• How the Iron Triangle allows founders to align product, engineering and design teams

• Identifying problems and suggesting solutions empowers team members and builds a strong team culture

Key Timestamps:

(00:00) - Introduction

(04:40) - Hands-On Leadership as a CTO

(08:45) - Defining and Building Engineering Culture

(010:44) - Challenges of Scaling and Remote Work

(25:49) - Balancing Change and Delivery

(31:39) - Engineering vs Product Leadership

(37:27) - The Iron Triangle Concept

(39:18) - Importance of Design in Product Development

(43:06) - Building High-Performance Distributed Teams

(48:57) - Leadership and Team Motivation

(60:26) - Entrepreneurship is a Journey

Key Topics Discussed:

Funds and Founders, Abhinav Sinha, Abhi, Austin Texas,, Venture Capital, Ecosystem, Culture, Company Values. Collaboration, Distributed Teams, Scalability, Engineering, Technical, Product, Leaders, Product-Driven, Early-Stage, SaaS

Mentions:

LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/asilveira/

Mentions: Who: Building and Managing High Performance Distributed Teams, The A Method for Hiring by Geoff Smart and Randy Street, Lean Inception, Scale Up

Check out the Funds & Founders Community:

Reach out to Abhi at abhinavsinha.podcast@gmail.com

Website: fundsandfounderspodcast.com