Bhavini Soneji, VP of Product Engineering @ Cruise, shares her leadership journey & how she gained cross-functional experience working at both large & small organizations. We cover how to gain product experience alongside engineering, deciding which elements of your org to mature/invest in, why you should examine the role of fear in your decision-making, and strategies for asking for more experience & opportunities to gain confidence.
Bhavini loves using human-centered design with streamlined automation to create experiences that improve people’s lives. Previously, she has led teams through different growth stages at Microsoft, Snapchat, Headspace, and Heal. Additionally, she enjoys giving back to the community, advising C-level executives, mentoring at Techstars, First Round, and has also founded a group of Women Technology Executives in Los Angeles to support and foster this group while playing an active role in the LA CTO Forum. When she’s not working, she loves the outdoors and enjoys boogie boarding with her husband and twins.
"Just knowing kind of the imposter syndrome that is holding you back. For me, it is like I'm always having a very high bar so am I hitting myself more and how do I be kind to myself? How do I support myself better? So I think that's one thing first, looking back and saying, 'No. I've done this, this, this. So my fears are not true, otherwise, I wouldn't be here.'”
- Bhavini Soneji
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SHOW NOTES:
- Bhavini’s leadership journey & gaining cross-functional experience (2:47)
- How Bhavini tactically transitioned from each role into the next (7:24)
- Watch for fears & biases throughout your decision-making (11:53)
- Frameworks for identifying fears that are holding you back (13:41)
- Examples of how cross-functional leadership differs at large vs. small orgs (16:32)
- Conversation tips for getting stakeholders back on track (20:08)
- Determining which elements of an org to mature/invest in (21:32)
- Questions to consider when investing in technology or processes (24:03)
- What to invest in when an organization’s scale starts picking up (26:06)
- Why investing in the people element can be trickier than processes or tooling (29:26)
- Strategies for asking for new experiences (32:03)
- Bhavini’s favorite question for identifying/clarifying what you want next (34:22)
- Rapid fire questions (35:52)
LINKS AND RESOURCES
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/
The Engineering Leadership Podcast