How to be Successful as a Manager 🎽 — with Thiago Ghisi
Apr 5, 2024
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Thiago Ghisi, Director of Engineering at Nubank, discusses what makes managers successful, career development in tech, and transitioning from expert to strategist. Topics include productivity, feedback loops, becoming a technical manager, and the Four Ps model for effective management.
Transition to distinguished engineer status involves catalyzing industry transformation through innovative contributions.
Mastering management strategies for diverse company contexts and team dynamics is essential for success.
Tech career advancement involves deepening skills in specific technologies before diversifying to avoid surface-level proficiency.
Deep dives
Becoming a Distinguished Engineer
Becoming a distinguished engineer involves making significant contributions that change industry standards. It requires creating solutions that shape engineering practices and drive significant improvements on a larger scale. Moving up the ranks to staff engineer involves not only platform-level contributions but also aiding the company in expanding engineering capabilities and fostering growth on a 10x basis.
Managerial Success and Development
Successful managers deliver results and retain talent, adapting strategies to the company's stage, team dynamics, and technological environment. Challenges arise as managers transition from problem-solving to envisioning long-term solutions. Effective management involves delivering what the company needs and retaining talent, navigating various success criteria influenced by team stage, company culture, and technological context.
Growth Paths for Engineers
Advancing to distinguished engineer status entails catalyzing industry transformation through innovative contributions. Staff and principal engineers are tasked with problem identification and long-term solution envisioning. Opportunities at higher engineering levels emphasize context comprehension, generalizing skills, and evaluating professional growth beyond company-specific achievements.
Importance of Career Exploration and Adaptation
Adapting to different company cultures and processes is crucial in tech careers. Building relationships and mastering specific technologies are highlighted as essential, with advice to seek diverse career experiences through interviews. Deepening skills in one technology before diversifying is advised to avoid surface-level proficiency across frameworks.
Four P's Framework for Career Development
The Four P's framework, comprising platform, product, process, and people, offers a comprehensive guide for tech professionals' growth. Emphasizing the importance of mastering each pillar, early career focus on platform and product shifts towards process and people for advanced roles. Effectiveness in engineering, understanding business impact, improving processes, and developing people skills are pivotal for career progression.
Today's guest is Thiago Ghisi, Director of Engineering at Nubank.
Thiago has had an incredible tech career. Before Nubank, he worked at Apple, Amex and ThoughtWorks. He is also a deep thinker, hosts a podcast and constantly shares great advice on X and LinkedIn.
During our chat with Thiago, we talked about what makes managers successful, career expectations and frameworks and how to build a great tech career in 2024.
Here is what we talked about:
(01:13) Introduction
(03:11) What makes people in tech productive
(07:57) Beyond the feedback loop
(11:24) Becoming a technical manager
(18:45) How to be successful as Staff+ Engineer
(26:47) From expert to achiever to strategist
(34:46) Know your context but don't attach to it
(46:00) The Four Ps
(56:43) Q&A
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