Engineering Unblocked
Rising to engineering leadership challenges at Honeycomb with Emily Nakashima from Honeycomb
Aug 8, 2024
Emily Nakashima, VPE at Honeycomb, dives into the nuances of engineering leadership and collaboration. She discusses the tough decisions leaders face when structuring their teams and the pivotal shift from monitoring to observability. Emily emphasizes the importance of cross-functional collaboration, revealing stories of successes and missteps. She shares insights on effective goal-setting, innovative hiring practices, and the value of a strong communication culture in scaling teams. Tune in for her hot takes on tech trends and organizational challenges.
45:43
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Quick takeaways
- Effective engineering leadership involves navigating structuring challenges while fostering cross-team collaboration to enhance organizational efficiency.
- Establishing clear goals through processes like OKRs and KPIs is vital for aligning engineering efforts with overarching business objectives.
Deep dives
Leadership and Structural Challenges in Engineering
An engineering leader must navigate the complexities of structuring and restructuring their organization to enhance efficiency and effectiveness. This involves making tough choices about team composition and the balancing act of maintaining daily operations while contributing to strategic decision-making at the executive level. Such leaders often transition through various roles, gaining insights from their previous experiences, which can uniquely inform their approach to management. For instance, Emily Nakashima's journey at Honeycomb showcases how she evolved from a front-end engineer to Vice President of Engineering, learning the intricacies of leadership along the way.
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