alphalist.CTO Podcast - For CTOs and Technical Leaders

In this engaging discussion, Daniel Bartholomae, CTO at Optilyz, shares insights from his journey in tech and leadership. He reveals how cross-functional team dynamics can enhance efficiency without traditional roles, replacing product managers to accelerate sprints. Daniel discusses the effectiveness of tools like Miro and Asana over Jira and emphasizes the importance of hiring team members with diverse skills. He also introduces Architectural Decision Records (ADRs) as a key method for documenting technical choices, promoting clear communication and collaboration.

Eric Bowman, CTO at King, brings a wealth of experience from gaming and e-commerce. He delves into the importance of balancing outputs and outcomes for impactful results. The conversation touches on organizing teams effectively to boost productivity and minimize bottlenecks. Eric also discusses the concept of adjacent possibilities in innovation, especially concerning AI. He emphasizes the need for clear problem definitions and strategic goal-setting to foster a culture of continuous improvement. Tune in for practical insights for technical leaders!

Rebecca Murphey, Field CTO at Swarmia and co-author of "Build: Elements of an Effective Software Organization," shares her insights from her roles at Stripe and Indeed. She discusses aligning engineering work with business outcomes and the significance of developer experience. Topics include using queuing theory to evaluate workflows, the ethical implications of tracking developer metrics, and the balance between immediate optimization and future consequences. Rebecca emphasizes the need for effective communication and the importance of team metrics over individual ones.

Claire Fautsch, CTO at Joblift, shares her expertise in cloud cost optimization. She reveals how Joblift reduced its monthly cloud expenses from €100K to €30K without sacrificing performance. Claire discusses building effective dashboards and aligning cloud costs with business KPIs. She emphasizes the importance of involving the entire team in cost management, avoiding over-provisioning, and making impactful technical tweaks. The conversation also touches on cultivating cost sensitivity within tech teams and maintaining financial efficiency without a dedicated FinOps team.

How DevOps has Changed QA Keep an eye on the latest trends in this CTO podcast episode featuring Hannes Lenke (CEO and Co-founder of Checkly). Hannes shares insights from over a decade of shaping the testing and monitoring landscape. From AI-powered mobile testing to cloud-based browser testing to synthetic monitoring, he has seen it all. Listen to find out: 👀 What is "Monitoring as Code"? How does it differ from traditional observability? 🔄 Has DevOps changed QA forever? Is there still a place for dedicated QA teams in an automated world? 🚀 How did Checkly evolve into a PLG company with a sales team? ⚙️ How do they run customer code at scale across 21 global data centers? Listen here BROUGHT TO YOU BY SmartRecruiters Timestamps (00:00) – Introduction to Alphalist Podcast (02:05) – Meet Hannes Lenke (05:13) – Hiring the Right People (07:50) – Hannes’s Journey into Computing (12:30) – TestObject: AI for Mobile Testing in the Early 2010s (16:33) – Globalizing a Berlin-Based Business (21:01) – The Birth of Checkly and Monitoring as Code (23:00) – How DevOps Changed QA (30:52) – The Right Observability Stack for SaaS (37:39) – Cross-Functional Teams vs. Dedicated QA (43:10) – Challenges of Executing Customer Code at Scale (49:08) – How Teams are Arranged at Checkly (50:51) – PLG with Enterprise Sales (53:52) – Lessons Learned as a Second-Time Founder: Pace Yourself About Hannes Lenke Hannes is the co-founder of Checkly. former CEO and Founder of TestObject and General Manager EMEA Sauce Labs. Addicted to devops and passionate about all things tech. About our sponsor SmartRecruiters Want to make recruiting more efficient with AI? Smart Recruiters offers a comprehensive global recruiting solution. They cover applicant management, CRM, talent onboarding, CMS, and reporting. Fossway calls it "the leading platform for talent acquisition." Use their AI-driven solution for active sourcing and candidate selection. Smart Recruiters helps you identify top talent in internal and external databases, providing detailed applicant analysis with weighted matching and scoring. Their AI system also recommends suitable positions for new applicants and improves through user feedback. It ensures bias-free, objective analysis and compliant operations worldwide, supporting over 4,000 companies, including LinkedIn, Visa, Bosch, Axel Springer, and SIXT. Their platform is highly rated by recruiters, hiring managers, and candidates for its intuitive design and easy integration. Ready to elevate your recruiting process? Visit the Smart Recruiters website for free resources on AI and recruiting trends. Book a free consultation and mention the alphalist.CTO podcast for a 10% discount. Just go to: https://link.alphalist.com/smartrecruiters QUOTE: "As a second-time founder, you always think it's so much easier to fall into a second business. I think it's not… the expectations are just larger."

Tuomas Artman, CTO of Linear, emphasizes the value of sustainable business growth over hypergrowth. He shares insights on maintaining product quality without expanding teams and the risks of feature bloat in customer-driven development. Artman discusses the advantages of prioritizing longevity over early acquisitions and reveals why Linear raised funds after initially planning to bootstrap. He also addresses why Full-Stack Engineers are preferred over QA Teams and the unique benefits of a local-first synchronization engine for a seamless user experience.

Shyam Sankar, CTO of Palantir Technologies, is shaking up the backend with innovative strategies derived from overseeing 150 independent development teams. He shares fascinating insights linking French restaurant management to engineer-led sales approaches. The conversation dives into the distinction between 'artists' and 'hackers' in engineering, while also addressing the importance of data-driven decisions and the power of meritocracy in tech. Shyam advocates for reducing information asymmetry, ensuring diversity and creativity thrive in organizations.

Sabrina Farmer, CTO at GitLab and a tech veteran with 19 years at Google, dives into the evolving landscape of DevSecOps and AI in developer workflows. She discusses GitLab's CEO Challenge to drive innovation while automating outdated processes. Sabrina sheds light on how to cultivate trust and accountability in remote teams through open documentation and personal 'read me' documents. Additionally, she explores using AI to enhance learning moments and making strategic thinking more accessible for developers.

Independent. Direct. Security First Discover the benefits of end-to-end technical independence with Alexander Matthey, CTO of Adyen. Learn why Adyen cherishes its in-house strategy as Alexander shares how Adyen’s extreme technical independence (no third-party vendors) enables efficiency in everything from libraries to security. Listen to find out: Security First: How Adyen makes security a priority for everyone. 🔒 Pick Up the Phone📞: How direct communication makes them more efficient. How Adyen’s long-term vision drives innovation. 🚀 How Conway’s Law is applied to their team structure Listen here Timestamps: (00:00) Introduction to the Alphalist Podcast (00:44) Meet Alexander Matthey, CTO of Adyen (01:34) Adyen's Founding and Growth (02:47) Alex's Nerd Journey (05:42) Transition from Coding to Leadership (07:28) How GenAI is changing coding (10:52) Life in the FinTech space (15:04) How Adyen's Long-Term Vision Drives Innovation (18:12) End-to-End Independence. No third-party vendors. (20:39) Product Discovery - Start with Customer (22:49) How industry has changed (23:43) Adyen Tech Strategy: Have set languages/tools etc. (27:24) Adyen Tech Stack (27:50) Adyen's Organisational Structure & Conway's Law (28:28) -Biggest Concentration on Payments (29:35) -Teams powering Financial Services (30:39) -Data and Platform Engineering (31:48) Transitioning to Smaller Teams (33:06) Starting from Scratch: Building a Payment System not in 100% private cloud (35:33) The Adyen Formula: Direct Communication via Phone (42:13) Security First: Internal Responsibility (46:16) Tools and Monitoring for Security (49:57) Security if start from scratch (54:07) Advice to My Younger Self

David Cramer, Co-founder + CPO at Sentry, discusses evolving roles in tech, devtool marketing, monetizing open source, branding impact, self-serve model success, team dynamics, work-life balance, and career evolution in an engaging CTO podcast.