Join Annie Cheng, VP of Engineering at Waymo; Claire Hough, CTO at Carbon Health; and Lisa Gelobter, CEO of tEQuitable, as they share their inspiring journeys navigating a male-dominated industry. Discover their wisdom on taking bold risks in career transitions and overcoming imposter syndrome. They discuss the importance of work-life balance, mentorship, and support systems, while challenging societal norms around assertiveness in women. This engaging conversation empowers listeners to embrace their uniqueness and celebrate their successes.

In this episode, Cal Henderson (Co-Founder & CTO @ Slack) and Maria Kazandjieva (Co-Founder @ Graft) discuss strategies for how to be a force multiplier within your organization! They cover Cal’s leadership journey & the early days of Slack, how to identify lateral inflection points, aligning your people throughout periods of change, tips for personal retrospectives on where you invest your time, and more. Additionally, Cal & Maria share plenty of frameworks for both identifying if you are currently a force multiplier & how to identify opportunities to inspire productivity in others.This is a featured session from ELC Annual 2022 - check out all of the sessions here: elc.community/public/contentABOUT CAL HENDERSONCal Henderson (@iamcal) is the co-founder and CTO of Slack. He oversees Slack’s world-class engineering team and sets the technical vision for the company.In 2019, he was named a Fortune 40 Under 40 honoree and recognized by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader.Previously, Cal built and led the engineering teams at Flickr, through its acquisition by Yahoo. An experienced technology leader and a popular speaker on engineering scalability, he authored the best-selling O’Reilly Media book Building Scalable Websites. Cal was also a pioneer in the use of web APIs, and created the basis for OAuth and oEmbed, now used by YouTube, Twitter and many others.Cal was involved in London’s early online network through his work with digital creative communities and the blogosphere. He has a BS in Computer Science and has received an Honorary Doctorate from Birmingham City University. He now resides in San Francisco."What every leader needs to do is recognize when the things that you are spending your time on aren't aligned with what's really important or what's the most value that you can get out of your time. I think it's very easy to fall into the trap of having a very full calendar, feeling very busy, feeling like there's so many things to do and the things that you do don't move the needle in any way.”- Cal Henderson   ABOUT MARIA KAZANDJIEVAMaria (@stranger_quark) is a co-founder and an engineering leader at Graft, an early-stage AI startup. Prior to that, Maria worked at Netflix, where her team earned two Emmy awards for technical achievement. She holds a PhD in Computer Science from Stanford University. Outside of work, you can find Maria kickboxing & trail running, baking & eating carbs, or relaxing with a non-fiction book and her two feline supurrvisors, Foosball and Gemma.Looking for ways to support the show?Send a link to the show to your marketing team! https://sfelc.com/podcastsIf your company is looking to gain exposure to thousands of engineering leaders and key decision-makers, we have sponsorship opportunities available.To explore sponsor opportunities, email us at sponsor@sfelc.comInterested in joining an ELC Peer Group?ELCs Peer Groups provide a virtual, curated, and ongoing peer learning opportunity to help you navigate the unknown, uncover solutions and accelerate your learning with a small group of trusted peers.Apply to join a peer group HERE: sfelc.com/peerGroupsSHOW NOTES:Cal describes the early days & founding of Slack (2:24)The many hats an eng leader wears during a company’s early stages (4:20)How Cal identified key inflection points as Slack evolved (6:31)Essential frameworks for successful reorgs (8:31)Tips for getting more comfortable with delegating (10:49)Why you should spend time & resources on developer productivity (13:31)Defining the leadership version of dev tools (16:52)Strategies for quickly aligning organizations through periods of change (20:04)How to align your calendar with what is most important as an eng leader (22:01)Cal and Maria’s tips for personal retrospectives on where you invest your time (24:54)Audience Q&As: why Cal no longer codes for Slack (25:56)Questions to help you identify opportunities to be a force multiplier (27:20)How to measure the success of developer productivity (30:58)Tips for handling force multiplier “killers” (34:33)Why the most brilliant engineers are not only individually productive but also inspire productivity in others (36:50)

As eng leaders, there are many things outside of our control – however, Megan Kacholia (VP of Eng @ Google) believes being deliberate can help you realize the many factors you DO have control of. Megan provides real-life lessons from her own leadership journey on how to take ownership of your time/calendar, tips for saying “yes” & knowing when to say “no,” and strategies for communicating with authenticity. Megan also covers why it’s important as an eng leader to feel comfortable with feeling uncomfortable, frameworks for having difficult conversations, communicating with empathy, and how she balances her role in a part-time capacity.This is a featured session from ELC Annual 2022 - check out all of the sessions here:https://hubs.la/Q01wHBrS0ABOUT MEGAN KACHOLIAMegan Kacholia is a Vice President of Engineering within Google's Core organization.  She is a leader in the Cross-Google Engineering (xGE) effort, which is responsible for company-wide technical coordination. Her passion is building effective teams and addressing barriers to help Googlers do their best work.Previously, Megan was and VP in Google’s Research organization, where her team’s work spanned machine learning in research as well as production, including products such as TensorFlow, and prior to that she had a long tenure in Google’s Ads organization, where she ran the serving system for Google’s DisplayAds business.  Megan has a Bachelor's of Science in Computer Science from UIUC.“They ask you, 'Okay! You know, we need to get this thing really done by Friday!'Okay, fine. So I send my manager note, 'I'm taking care of that. But however... this, and this will not get done this week. Or I'm gonna delegate them to so-and-so. This is the trade-off I've made. Speak now or forever hold your peace. Here's what I'm doing.'And we move forward. People seem very surprised by this sometimes, but this has been one of the best ways I have found in engaging with not only my managers but my peers. In terms of making very clear, what's on MY plate.”- Megan Kacholia   Looking for ways to support the show?Send a link to the show to your marketing team! https://sfelc.com/podcastsIf your company is looking to gain exposure to thousands of engineering leaders and key decision-makers, we have sponsorship opportunities available.To explore sponsor opportunities, email us at sponsor@sfelc.comInterested in joining an ELC Peer Group?ELCs Peer Groups provide a virtual, curated, and ongoing peer learning opportunity to help you navigate the unknown, uncover solutions and accelerate your learning with a small group of trusted peers.Apply to join a peer group HERE: sfelc.com/peerGroupsSHOW NOTES:Megan’s leadership journey with Google & how she balances her role in a part-time capacity (02:39)Questions to determine how to best spend your time (5:07)Frameworks for saying “yes” – and why that also means saying “no” (8:40)Be wary of situations where one person is the “lynchpin” (13:04)Advice on providing honest, authentic feedback (14:27)Strategies for having difficult conversations & knowing when to take a step back (16:25)Embrace different perspectives (19:45)Why it’s important as an eng leader to get used to discomfort (21:44)Final thoughts on how to make deliberate decisions (24:23)Audience Q&As: judging the quality of a decision separately from its outcome (26:07)Examples of how saying “yes” helped fuel Megan’s career growth (27:44)Techniques for communicating with empathy (30:30)How to decide between the safe vs. difficult choice (31:44)Megan’s advice on giving peer-to-peer feedback (33:10)Tips for communicating appropriately & speaking out in the moment (35:50)How Megan navigated a traditionally non-linear career move (38:33)What to do if “no” in an unacceptable answer (41:36)

Reorgs are never easy, often impacting eng teams – and that’s why they should always be a last resort. However, sometimes they are necessary for an org’s success! Mike Tria (Head of Eng @ Atlassian) joins Aaron Erickson (Co-Founder & CEO @ Orgspace) to discuss frameworks & strategies for implementing a successful reorg, why eng leaders should be involved throughout the entire reorg process, alternative solutions to reorgs, who is accountable when a reorg goes poorly, how to improve communication channels throughout a reorg, and implementing smooth transitions.This is a featured session from ELC Annual 2022 - check out all of the sessions here: https://hubs.la/Q01wHBrS0ABOUT AARON ERICKSONAaron Erickson (@AaronErickson) is Co-Founder and CEO at Orgspace. Before Orgspace, he spent 30 years working in leadership roles, most recently as VP Engineering at New Relic. Over the course of his entire career, he has been an advocate for building better software. He spent a decade at ThoughtWorks, where he drove digital transformation via application of agile and continuous delivery. Aaron lives and works in San Francisco."As managers when we've gone through reorgs they tend to be so painful and difficult to pull off that by the time we finish the reorg, all we wanna do is wipe our hands of it and be like, 'All right, I wanna move on to the next thing. Reorgs over!'How do you know it's successful? 'The changes are made in Workday. We sent the email. The reorg therefore is successful.'No, it is not! You have inserted an organ into the patient. You do not know if the organ will be accepted.- Mike Tria   ABOUT MIKE TRIAMike Tria is the Head of Engineering for Platform at Atlassian. Mike oversees Atlassian's global cloud infrastructure, identity & front-end platforms, enterprise offerings, and our third-party developer ecosystem. Mike has 15+ years of experience as a software engineer and leader, ranging from work at cloud-native startups to larger companies. He's built and run all facets of product development, including product management, design, engineering, QA, and SCM/release, but has mostly focused on SaaS, e-commerce, and building communities. As a former comedian, Mike also brings high energy and a sense of humor to the tough challenges he faces. He holds a B.S. in Computer Science from the Georgia Institute of Technology.Looking for ways to support the show?Send a link to the show to your marketing team! https://sfelc.com/podcastsIf your company is looking to gain exposure to thousands of engineering leaders and key decision-makers, we have sponsorship opportunities available.To explore sponsor opportunities, email us at sponsor@sfelc.comInterested in joining an ELC Peer Group?ELCs Peer Groups provide a virtual, curated, and ongoing peer learning opportunity to help you navigate the unknown, uncover solutions and accelerate your learning with a small group of trusted peers.Apply to join a peer group HERE: sfelc.com/peerGroupsSHOW NOTES:Aaron & Mike’s experiences with good & bad reorgs (2:39)Types of reorgs – starting with the quota reorg (5:03)Defining the trend-chaser & its challenges (6:16)The zombie reorg & why only 20% of reorgs find success (7:20)How management by rumor reorgs can hurt your product & org (9:10)The best reorg framework: strategy, organization, then people last (10:37)Two major qualities of a successful reorg (13:58)Involve your eng leaders early in the reorg process (18:02)Traits of a reorg in wartime vs. peacetime (20:28)Defining the reverse Conway maneuver (23:24)Who should be held accountable when a reorg goes poorly? (25:04)Audience Q&As: entering a reorg with a KPI thesis (28:08)Improving the chain of communication & involvement during a reorg (30:19)Alternatives to reorgs (32:39)Strategies for setting your org up for success throughout continuous pivots (34:39)Aaron & Mike’s views on functional vs. mission team structures (37:04)How to support a reorg as an eng leader (39:35)Tips for implementing smooth transitions throughout a reorg (41:32)LINKS AND RESOURCES“The Re-org Rag” - video by Forrest Brazeal (@forrestbrazeal)

This is a special episode from our new show “Engineering Founders” - Should you build B2C or B2B? What about implementing a top-down or a bottoms up sales strategy? How do you think about pricing? These are many of the dilemmas early founders face in the early stages. We sit down with Abi Noda to explore his experiences co-founding DX and Pull Panda and examine the differences, trade-offs and considerations behind building for consumer vs. B2B, pricing, early sales and product adoption strategies! For more episodes of Engineering Founders, subscribe here: https://engineering-founders.simplecast.com/P.S. The Engineering Leadership Podcast will return after the winter holidays on January 3rd!ABOUT ABI NODAAbi Noda is the CEO and co-founder of DX, the world's first developer experience management platform. He was previously the CEO and founder of Pull Panda, which was acquired by GitHub in 2019. At GitHub he led research collaborations with Dr. Nicole Forsgren, McKinsey, and Microsoft Research, which was the impetus for founding DX."It's really good to try to sell starting on day one. That's probably, in my opinion, the best way to validate an idea, a B2B idea, is to try and go sell it and by sell it I mean literally go get money for like pre-committed customers. So it really de-risks a huge component of, I think, why these types of businesses fail, which is they just aren't able even identify, reach and successfully convert buyers.”- Abi Noda   ABOUT DXDX is the world’s first developer experience management platform, helping organizations measure and improve top drivers of developer productivity and engagement.DX is designed by leading software engineering researchers, providing science-backed metrics, workflows, and education that empower teams to improve.Interested in joining an ELC Peer Group?ELCs Peer Groups provide a virtual, curated, and ongoing peer learning opportunity to help you navigate the unknown, uncover solutions and accelerate your learning with a small group of trusted peers.Apply to join a peer group HERE: sfelc.com/peerGroupsSHOW NOTES:Abi's journey founding DX and Pull Panda (3:07)Building your business as a side-project for consumers vs. enterprise software (6:07)If you just got laid off and want to start a business, you need to hear this (10:02)The best way to validate a B2B idea (12:44)Differences with how you talk about your product in a competitive vs. uncompetitive market (15:58)How to think about pricing for bottoms-up or top-down sales motion (17:17)Choosing the right persona to pursue as customers (20:58)How experience at large companies can help you understand how to approach enterprise product adoption (24:44)Investor expectations with bottoms-up/top-down sales and identifying ICPs (32:06)Incentivizing users to adopt new features (34:12)Closing deals and getting to the implementation stage (37:51)How Abi maximized advisor relationships (40:04)Rapid fire questions (45:27)LINKS AND RESOURCESLenny Rachitsky’s Newsletter - a weekly advice column about product, growth, and your career.7 Powers: The Foundations of Business Strategy - Hamilton Helmer’s comprehensive business strategy guide centered around power and the conditions that create the potential for persistent differential returns.Nail It Then Scale It - Nathan Furr and Paul Ahlstrom’s guide to increasing success and reducing risk when launching a high-growth company.

We cover building community & digital transformation with Yvette Pasqua, CTO @ Exos! She shares her leadership journey from MeetUp to Exos and how her experiences shaped her views on the importance of community and effective networking. We also discuss principles for creating authentic meetup experiences, how Yvette navigated her Head of Eng search without a recruiter, the importance of asking others for help, and how Exos navigated the opportunities & challenges through their digital transformation.ABOUT YVETTE PASQUAYvette (@lolarobot) is the CTO of Exos where she leads the product and engineering teams with a focus on continuous improvement, iteration, and using data to launch products that help our members become healthier and achieve their wellness, life, and work goals.Prior to joining Exos, Yvette led Product and Engineering at Haven, a health tech startup, and was the CTO at Meetup. Yvette’s career has included leadership roles at startups and product development firms building products like Grindr and the Olympics video player. She’s on the Board at Chloe Capital, a VC firm that invests in women-led seed-stage companies.Yvette lives in Brooklyn and Rhinebeck, NY with her wife, daughter, and wheaten terrier.“Yeah, of course during the conversation I will bring up, ‘Hey, I'm looking for a head of engineering. do you know anything? Do you have any advice? What have you thought of are the best characteristics for someone in that role?”It's a long-term play, but I think the important thing is to be really upfront with your intention for the chat. And to deliver on that in an authentic way. And to not BS someone and say, ‘Hey, I wanna network!’ And then throw a job in their face and a job description.-Yvette PasquaInterested in joining an ELC Peer Group?ELCs Peer Groups provide a virtual, curated, and ongoing peer learning opportunity to help you navigate the unknown, uncover solutions and accelerate your learning with a small group of trusted peers.Apply to join a peer group HERE: sfelc.com/peerGroupsSHOW NOTES:Building technology with community in mind at MeetUp and Exos (2:20) (0:07)How community and in-person experiences inspire Yvette’s career decisions (5:40)What Yvette learned about networking / community building from MeetUp (7:10)Principles for creating meaningful, authentic gatherings (10:54)Why setting boundaries & expectations encourages group psychological safety (12:38)How Yvette successfully navigated her Head of Eng search without a recruiter (14:32)Strategies for targeting potential hires that you haven’t met before (17:40)Ask others for advice (21:31)Tactics for reaching out to people in an authentic way (23:40)Prioritizing time for networking conversations (27:55)Behind the digital transformation at Exos from a primarily coaching model (32:37)How Exos continuously models growth mindset (37:42)When digital transformation reaches a turning point (39:44)Rapid fire questions (42:38)LINKS AND RESOURCESThe Pragmatic Engineer by Gergely Orosz (blog/newsletter) - The #1 technology newsletter on Substack. Highly relevant for software engineers and engineering managers, useful for those working in tech. Written by engineering manager and software engineer Gergely Orosz who was previously at Uber, Skype/Microsoft, and at high-growth startups. (follow Gergely on Twitter @GergelyOrosz)Software Lead Weekly by Oren Ellenbogen (newsletter) - A weekly email for busy people who care about people, culture and leadership.Level Up by Patrick Kua (newsletter) - Level Up delivers a curated newsletter for leaders in tech. Ideal for busy people such as Tech Leads, Engineering Managers, VPs of Engineering, CTOs and more.Lenny’s Newsletter by Lenny Rachitsky - A weekly advice column about product, growth, and your career.The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker (book) - Priya argues that the gatherings in our lives are lackluster and unproductive — and they don't have to be. At a time when coming together is more important than ever, Parker sets forth a human-centered approach to gathering that will help everyone create meaningful, memorable experiences, large and small, for work and for play. (Patrick’s most gifted book)

In this episode, we discuss frameworks & strategies for building a “startup-within-a-startup” with Heidi Williams, Head of Engineering for Grammarly Business @ Grammarly! She shares stories about her leadership style while revealing the benefits of & considerations for creating a startup-within-a-startup, sourcing ideas & hosting knowledge-sharing meetings, identifying adjacencies in your user base, communicating challenges between individuals & teams, developing leading indicators, and more.ABOUT HEIDI WILLIAMSHeidi Williams (@Heidivt73) is Head of Engineering for Grammarly Business, our product offering for professional teams and organizations.At Grammarly, Heidi is inspired by the potential impact the product can have as a platform, with the opportunity to help reduce conflicts and misunderstandings in communication and educate people on how to be more inclusive and equitable.Before coming to Grammarly, Heidi served as VP of Platform Engineering at Box, founded WEST Diversity and Inclusion, and was co-founder and CTO of tEQuitable, a confidential platform addressing issues of bias, discrimination, and harassment in the workplace. Heidi was at Adobe for 17 years and most notably was a founding engineer on Dreamweaver, which democratized web development in the late 1990s.Heidi volunteers as a technical advisor for PaymentWorks and Raise For Good. Her expertise and perspective have been featured in Built In SF and the podcasts Stayin’ alive in Technology, Dev Interrupted, and CTO Connection.As a lifelong soccer player, Heidi’s often on the pitch; she’s also an avid hiker, bicyclist, and kayaker. She once hiked with her husband across England, 192 miles coast to coast (with B&Bs and pub stops along the way).Heidi studied at Brown University, where she earned a BS in computer science. She also attended Stanford University’s Executive Institute.And so now you have this chasm where we'd have these weird conversations around what machine learning features should we build for Grammarly business? And neither side could understand what the other person's context was to come up with an idea.We struggled with that for a little bit until we really just put people in a room and, and it did exactly that. We said, "Here is the user research, five critical communication challenges within a company. You know what technology you have. You know how organizations work. Get together and just talk about, you know, your peanut butter, your chocolate. What can we make here? Let's have a Reese Peanut butter cup...!"-Heidi WilliamsInterested in joining an ELC Peer Group?ELCs Peer Groups provide a virtual, curated, and ongoing peer learning opportunity to help you navigate the unknown, uncover solutions and accelerate your learning with a small group of trusted peers.Apply to join a peer group HERE: sfelc.com/peerGroupsSHOW NOTES:Heidi’s favorite “startup-within-a-startup” moments with Grammarly & Grammarly Business (1:56)What you can learn from the “PDF as MVP” approach (4:36)How early conversations impacted the final product & eng team functions (5:40)The benefits of building a startup-within-a-startup (9:21)Considerations when making the decision to become a multi-product company (11:19)Identifying the adjacencies within your current user base (13:24)The difference between discovering a new market & building the next feature (14:32)How to source new ideas & encourage innovation in your eng team (15:31)Frameworks for communicating challenges across different teams / individuals (21:02)Strategies for facilitating knowledge-sharing meetings (24:55)Fostering a culture of healthy, positive idea jams (26:50)Heidi’s advice on the cadence of idea jams for a startup-within-a-startup (28:15)What the execution / maturity pathway process looks like (29:49)Heidi’s hypothesis behind merging a product with the greater business (33:04)How to navigate dependencies when your product is in the incubator phase (35:51)Keys for determining the end game of a product – pathway to success or time to wind down? (40:09)Why it’s important to develop leading indicators to determine your product’s success (42:16)Rapid fire questions (43:40)LINKS AND RESOURCES99% Invisible - 99% Invisible is a sound-rich, narrative podcast hosted by Roman Mars about all the thought that goes into the things we don’t think about — the unnoticed architecture and design that shape our world.Code Switch - This podcast tackles the subject of race with empathy and humor. They explore how race affects every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, food and everything in between.Freakonomics Radio - Discover the hidden side of everything with host Stephen J. Dubner , co-author of the Freakonomics books. Each week, Freakonomics Radio tells you things you always thought you knew (but didn’t) and things you never thought you wanted to know (but do) — from the economics of sleep to how to become great at just about anything, plus the true stories of minimum wage, rent control, and the gender pay gap.Hidden Brain - This podcast explores the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior and questions that lie at the heart of our complex and changing world.

We cover how to sustain long-term transformational projects with Paul Dix, CTO & Founder @ InfluxData! This high-energy conversation reveals the history behind InfluxDB and its multi-phase, long-term transformation over the past 10 years. Plus we discuss how to know when it’s time to take your company to the next level, identifying the right people for your eng teams, integrating multiple teams into an org re-architecture, and building open-source products/communities!ABOUT PAUL DIXPaul (@PaulDix) is the creator of InfluxDB. He has helped build software for startups, large companies, and organizations like Microsoft, Google, McAfee, Thomson Reuters, and Air Force Space Command. He is the series editor for Addison Wesley’s Data & Analytics book and video series. In 2010 Paul wrote the book Service Oriented Design with Ruby and Rails. In 2009 he started the NYC Machine Learning Meetup. Paul holds a degree in computer science from Columbia University."What I need is a small team of focused people who are on board, who can be focused on getting this done and we'll prove it out as we go.And I think the mistake I made with the 2.0 cloud product was we got way too many of people involved way too quickly, right? I think for the initial phases of project, it's actually advantageous to have a smaller team.- Paul Dix   Interested in joining an ELC Peer Group?ELCs Peer Groups provide a virtual, curated, and ongoing peer learning opportunity to help you navigate the unknown, uncover solutions and accelerate your learning with a small group of trusted peers.Apply to join a peer group HERE: sfelc.com/peerGroupsSHOW NOTES:The history behind InfluxDB & its multi-phase, long-term transformation (1:53)InfluxDB’s first transformational phase featuring time series data (5:48)Phase 2.0 & shifting to a cloud-first delivery model (7:50)Challenges & opportunities faced in the current phase of InfluxDB (9:31)How Paul decided it was time to take the company to the next level (11:38)Making a bet on Rust (14:25)Why making an early announcement helped push Phase 3.0 forward (16:02)Strategies for identifying the right people for your eng team (19:06)How to optimize community insights when tailoring your vision (21:56)Tips for resolving disagreements between eng team members (24:45)Frameworks for executing long-term vision & achieving alignment (26:21)Processes for integrating other teams into an org’s re-architecture (29:55)The impact of Conway’s Law on team structure & open-source software (32:07)Considerations for managing large, open-source projects (36:40)Rapid fire questions (37:56)LINKS AND RESOURCES“The Happiness Hypothesis” by Jonathan Haidt - Each chapter is an attempt to savor one idea that has been discovered by several of the world’s civilizations -­ to question it in light of what we now know from scientific research, and to extract from it the lessons that still apply to our modern lives.“The Fate of Rome” by Kyle Harper - How devastating viruses, pandemics, and other natural catastrophes swept through the far-flung Roman Empire and helped to bring down one of the mightiest civilizations of the ancient world

We cover how to uplevel your eng team with Elaine Zhou, CTO @ Change.org! She shares some of her favorite frameworks and strategies for creating self-sufficient teams, amplifying high-performers, performing self-assessments, and hosting prioritization conversations. Plus Elaine shares the story behind how she got involved with Change.org, navigating different operating constraints in your business model (from non-profit to VC-funded contexts), and what it’s like investing in high-impact areas with no revenue expectation.ABOUT ELAINE ZHOUChange.org CTO Elaine Zhou joined the platform for change in 2020. Prior to Change.org, she was at Vidado as CTO, and has held leadership positions for over a decade at companies including HomeStore, PlanetOut, IAC and more. She’s been a longtime mentor at Upwardly Global. Follow her on Twitter at @softwired."High performance need to be in that fail safe environment so they're willing to explore and to iterate. So really help them to do that, the way that I solve the problem with them is not just that, “You are good, you're good.” Just pump them up. No, it's actually, “Let's look at a problem. I actually agree with your solution and this is why I like your solution.”Help them to gain the confidence and give them that kind of hard opportunity to try that and you know they will build their confidence so much.”- Elaine Zhou   SHOW NOTES:Why Elaine got involved with Change.org (2:24)The importance of understanding the business / non-profit model for eng leaders (6:29)How business, technology, & financial constraints impact business decisions (9:44)Investing in impact with no revenue expectation (14:42)Strategies for creating self-sufficiency within teams & traps eng leaders fall into when leveling up their team (18:06)Questions to ask yourself during self-assessments to determine priorities (22:05)What you should do as an eng leader after transitioning your team to be self-sufficient (28:10)Frameworks for prioritization conversations (29:14)The technical area Elaine is most focused on growing right now (32:23)Strategies for amplifying & supporting your best performers (33:58)Rapid fire questions (38:35)LINKS AND RESOURCESThe Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses - Eric Reis’ book outlining his strategy for building a start-up that he developed during his time as a founder and start-up advisor.Measure What Matters - John Doerr’s collection of first-person accounts that demonstrates the focus, growth, and explosive growth that OKRs have spurred in many great organizations.

We sat down with Claus Moberg to discuss his career trajectory, from meteorology student and hardware CEO to current VP of Eng @ Roblox! We also cover how to overcome obstacles when scaling leadership, leading teams outside of your technical depth/knowledge, attracting & recruiting top talent, finding “diamonds in the rough,” and how to communicate effectively between business functions & eng teams. Claus also shares his best frameworks for navigating complex conversations and taking measured risks while scaling eng functions.ABOUT CLAUS MOBERGClaus Moberg leads engineering for the Roblox User Group. His teams are responsible for the applications and experiences through which over 58.5 million users explore and experience the Roblox Metaverse every day. Claus has worked at Roblox since the summer of 2016, leading teams across multiple engineering and product disciplines (VR, Consoles, Mobile, Social, Personalization) and geographies (San Mateo, CA and Shenzhen, CN).“The key mistake to avoid is to think that a lack of domain experience is an excuse to not engage at that level of depth, right? It's not.It's actually an obligation to engage at the maximum level of depth that's necessary to solve the problem, but it's an opportunity to engage, avoiding buzz words, and using plain English, and sort of doing it in a way that makes communication more clear as opposed to less clear throughout the organization.”- Claus Moberg   SHOW NOTES:How Claus transitioned from meteorology student to VP of Eng at Roblox (2:17)Utilizing a maximization function for career strategy & decision-making (6:25)Claus’s early days at Roblox (9:03)Looking to the team & product space when facing uncertainties (12:56)Strategies for scaling leadership & building eng teams (14:52)The correlation between an amazing team & an amazing product (17:48)Techniques for building technical depth within eng leadership (19:09)Frameworks for effective communication between eng teams & business functions (21:24)Best practices for navigating complex conversations (25:37)Learn to delegate & let go of responsibilities (26:45)How Roblox recruits/attracts talent outside of typical hiring patterns (29:24)Claus’s advice on identifying competitive advantages in order to attract talent (34:46)Why you should take measured risks while building out eng teams (36:33)How to weigh trade-offs/concessions during the start-up phase (38:57)Lean into asking “stupid” questions & aim to participate in conversations at the deepest level possible (41:33)Rapid fire questions (42:44)LINKS AND RESOURCESSkunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed - Leo Janos and Ben R. Rich’s memoir detailing their nearly two decades of work in Lockheed Martin’s legendary Skunk Works program.