#158 - Sustainable Engineering Lessons From Scaling Up Wise - Balazs Barna
Jan 1, 2024
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Balazs Barna, Head of US Engineering at Wise, shares insights on building sustainable engineering by emphasizing traits of good and bad engineering management, weak code ownership, microservice strategy, stable pace, and building a bench.
Maintaining a steady pace and finding the right balance between speed and sustainability is crucial for building a sustainable engineering team.
Succession planning and building a strong bench within engineering teams are essential for long-term sustainability and growth.
Deep dives
Building a Sustainable Engineering Team
The podcast episode discusses the importance of building a sustainable engineering team. It emphasizes the need to prioritize a static pace for most of the time, rather than always striving for speed. The speaker argues that if everything is important, then nothing is important, and if everything is urgent, then nothing is urgent. The key is for each team to find their own space and pace, aligning with the company's goals and processes. The episode also touches on the traits of good engineering management, such as the ability to get things done, sustainability, and building a bench of talented individuals within the team.
Insights on Scaling Up and Building Sustainable Engineering
This segment of the podcast features an interview with Balaz Barna, the head of US engineering at Wise. Balaz shares his insights on building sustainable engineering from scaling up Wise, a global financial technology company. He discusses the traits of good and bad engineering management and highlights the importance of sustainable tech and teams. Balaz emphasizes practices like weak code ownership, microservice strategy, maintaining a stable pace, and building a bench of talented engineers. The conversation also touches on the challenges of scaling Wise's engineering team and achieving sustainable growth in a rapidly expanding market.
Maintaining a Steady Pace and Focusing on Team Learning
The podcast episode emphasizes the importance of maintaining a steady pace and finding the right balance between speed and sustainability. It highlights the need for teams to have a clear understanding of goals, priorities, and the ability to differentiate between important and urgent tasks. The speaker shares a story illustrating the significance of focusing on a steady pace rather than always rushing to deliver. Additionally, the episode discusses the importance of team learning and growth, encouraging engineers to continually develop their skills and domain expertise. The speaker mentions the role of domain-driven design and creating teams with strong domain knowledge to ensure sustainable product iteration.
Succession Planning and Building a Strong Bench
In this segment, the podcast explores the concept of succession planning and building a strong bench within engineering teams. It highlights the importance of identifying individuals with the potential to assume leadership roles and grooming them for future success. The speaker emphasizes that building a sustainable team involves not only technical skills but also factors such as motivation, energy, clarity, and empathy. Succession planning ensures that the team can function effectively even when leaders move on to other roles. The episode also mentions the significance of creating a culture of continuous learning and improvement, as well as the need to balance technical debt management with regular team sprints and focus on growth-oriented tasks.
“A team has to be able to go fast if they have to. But they should always choose to go at a steady pace, most of the time. In the long run, what we emphasize is for each team to find their own space and pace."
Balazs Barna is the Head of US Engineering at Wise. In this episode, we delved into his insights on building sustainable engineering from scaling up Wise. Balazs started by touching on the engineering management role and described the traits of good and bad engineering management. We then went to discuss two different aspects of sustainable engineering, which are sustainable tech and sustainable teams. Throughout the discussion, Balazs outlined several key practices, such as weak code ownership, microservice strategy, stable pace, and building a bench.
Listen out for:
Career Journey - [00:03:42]
Building on Strengths - [00:05:52]
Traits of a Good Engineering Management - [00:07:11]
Limiting Work in Progress - [00:09:51]
Traits of a Bad Engineering Management - [00:12:33]
Sustainable Tech - [00:14:17]
Weak Code Ownership - [00:19:25]
Transitioning to Weak Code Ownership - [00:24:04]
Microservice per Integration - [00:26:57]
Managing Change Coupling - [00:30:12]
Sustainable Team - [00:32:46]
Dealing With Technical Debt - [00:35:57]
Steady Pace - [00:37:41]
Building a Bench - [00:39:59]
3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:44:51]
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Balazs Barna’s Bio Balazs Barna is the Head of Austin Operations & US Engineering at Wise. At Wise, Balazs oversees the newly formed Austin office and the global engineering team, building the tech and infrastructure needed to facilitate instant, convenient and affordable cross border transactions. Balazs led and helped his team build the company’s historic direct access integration to the Hungarian banking sector’s instant payment system, the first of its kind for a company with a payment service license. He also oversaw and built Wise’s core infrastructure that enables the company’s European operations. Prior to joining Wise, Balazs worked at MSCI and Morgan Stanley. He graduated from Corvinus University of Budapest in Business Information Systems (BSc), and Computer Engineering (MSc) from Pannon University.
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