81: The Culture Playbook for High-Performing Engineering Teams — with CTO Pasha Jam

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Feb 3, 2026

Pasha Jam, CTO of Bumper who scaled engineering from a few people to 110 across countries, prioritizes people-first leadership. He discusses psychological safety, how culture beats tech for hiring and retention, practices that build camaraderie like blameless incident response and AMAs, and scaling culture across remote offices while avoiding micromanagement.

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INSIGHT

Culture Is The Core Competitive Advantage

Culture can be the strongest competitive advantage, outranking architecture, roadmap, or raw talent.
Building culture intentionally influences retention, performance, and long-term team health.

ANECDOTE

People Leave, Then Come Back

Many people who left Bumper said they missed the culture and later returned to the company.
Pasha treats those returns as evidence that the culture he prioritizes is working.

INSIGHT

Psychological Safety Enables Clarity

Psychological safety means people can question stakeholders and surface business or product risks without fear.
Safety enables clarity, more questions, and ultimately better performance and innovation.

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What if the strongest part of your engineering organization isn’t your tech stack, but the culture you protect every day?

In this episode, I’m joined by CTO Pasha Jam, who has grown an engineering team from three people to 110, expanded internationally, and navigated company acquisitions while keeping culture a central focus. We define what a healthy engineering culture looks like, and why it consistently outperforms strategy and process.

Culture became a priority after working in environments that were difficult to enjoy, even when the products and compensation were strong. Psychological safety is explored through the lens of engineering teams, including the ability to ask questions, raise risks, challenge decisions, and fail without fear.

Culture’s impact on hiring, onboarding, and communication across teams in multiple countries is explored, along with why people who leave often say they miss the culture and sometimes choose to return.

If you’re responsible for engineering teams and want to think more intentionally about culture, leadership, and long-term team health, this episode offers practical perspective grounded in lived experience.

You’ll Learn:

[00:00] Introduction

[05:18] Why job dissatisfaction often traces back to culture instead of pay or products

[06:42] What psychological safety looks like when engineers challenge decisions without fear

[11:07] How empowerment leads teams to take ownership without being pushed

[24:21] Why fixing incidents together matters more than assigning blame

[28:36] How putting people before process changes commitment and delivery

[30:14] Why micromanagement quietly erodes trust and culture

[33:09] What it looks like when leaders carry culture forward without seeking credit

[35:27] Why culture must evolve as teams scale and contexts change

Resources Mentioned:

Agile Manifesto | Website

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You can connect with Pasha Jam on his Linkedin

Find more from Adam on LinkedIn and YouTube, and check out Adam's CTO coaching company here.