Trust, Delegation and Managing Managers with Raghavendra Prabhu

Jan 16, 2020

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According to Raghavendra Prabhu, CTO of Thumbtack, making the transition from programmer to manager isn’t too much of a stretch since you already understand the issues and stakes of your project. When you take it a step further and begin managing other managers, you’re getting further from the work and making a more indirect impact.

On today’s episode of CTO Connection, Raghavendra discusses what it’s like making the transition to higher levels of leadership and how to balance his desire for control with the need for delegation. Tune in for insights on how to successfully climb the leadership ladder.

[00:20] - How Raghavendra started his career at Microsoft
[02:09] - Why search is compelling
[03:23] - The culture shift moving to Google
[05:29] - Moving from Google to Twitter
[08:40] - Scaling teams at Pinterest
[13:22] - Hiring managers as engineers
[16:56] - Transitioning from manager to director
[20:52] - Implementing the mentorship program
[23:28] - Anticipating and planning
[26:17] - Fixing the hiring process
[29:06] - What kind of CTO is Raghavendra?

Raghavendra Prabhu (RVP) is the CTO of Thumbtack and was previously the head of infrastructure at Pinterest and a senior software engineer at Twitter, Google, and Microsoft. Thumbtack is an online services marketplace enabling hundreds of thousands of local professionals from plumbers to DJs to build sustainable businesses by connecting them to millions of customers nationwide.

CTO Connection is where you can learn from the experiences of successful engineering leaders at fast-growth tech startups. Whether you want to learn more about hiring, motivating or managing an engineering team, if you're technical and manage engineers, the CTO Connection podcast is a great resource for learning from your peers!

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