Level-up Engineering cover image

Level-up Engineering

Latest episodes

undefined
Oct 16, 2024 • 55min

Building a new engineering team by turning another one around - Tips from Tinder

Transforming teams doesn’t go without its challenges.Let’s look at Tinder’s example. In this episode, Chris O'Brien, Director of Engineering at Tinder, shares his insights on building and leading engineering teams, particularly focusing on turning around existing teams. He discusses transforming teams, transitioning into a leadership role, Tinder’s culture and hiring process and a lot more.Sign up to the Level-up Engineering newsletter!In this interview we're covering:Building a new team by turning another one aroundTransitioning into a leadership roleTinder’s cultureKeeping business, customer and team needs alignedTinder’s hiring processExcerpt from the interview:“Change isn't easy for anyone, especially in the workplace where stability and predictability matter. Switching teams suddenly can be unsettling, and it takes time for people to adapt and build trust with their new colleagues. That's why I've always believed in prioritizing relationship-building. It's something my mentor taught me early on, and it's proven to be invaluable. When there's already a foundation of trust and camaraderie, transitions become smoother, and teams become stronger.”
undefined
Sep 18, 2024 • 44min

Scaling Startups: Behind the Scenes of Fleetio’s Growth

Scaling engineering teams can happen in a lot of different ways. Let’s take a look at a real-life example, how Fleetio scaled their product and team over the years.Their Principal Software Engineer, Richard Young shares what challenges they faced, the strategies they implemented and gives valuable tips to those who consider joining or scaling a startup. Sign up to the Level-up Engineering newsletter!In this interview we're covering:Fleetio’s approach to scalingFleetio’s approach to hiringMentorship programsScaling as a startupCross-functional collaborationBonus advice for scaling engineering teamsAdvice for engineers joining startupsExcerpt from the interview:“Unlike many startups driven by external investor pressure to rapidly expand, Fleetio charted its own course, prioritizing autonomy and organic growth. This autonomy allowed us to make decisions aligned with our vision and pace of development, a significant draw for me when I joined the company.Navigating the demands of a small engineering team posed its own set of challenges. With just a handful of us, balancing the delivery of customer features with support across various departments like sales, marketing, and product marketing became crucial. Our engineering efforts weren't limited to coding; we had to be nimble in assisting other teams to ensure customer satisfaction and sustained growth.”
undefined
May 15, 2024 • 48min

Beyond the Bias: The Truth About Remote Work vs. Returning to the Office

Liam Martin, Co-Founder of Time Doctor, debunks myths around remote work and shares valuable tips on managing remote engineering teams so they remain well-aligned in an asynchronous environment. Sign up to the Level-up Engineering newsletter!In this interview we're covering:Finding unbiased informationSocial implicationsState of remote workingAsynchronous team managementRemote work is here to stayExcerpt from the interview:"If you try to force employees back to the office, you'll likely end up with a team of B players, as the top talent will have the freedom to choose how they want to work. Right now, it's a seller's market, especially for engineers.For managers uncomfortable with leading a remote engineering team, I don't have any comforting solutions. The reality is, if you insist on running your engineering team from the office, it's likely to fail. It's a tough truth, but there's no way around it."
undefined
Apr 17, 2024 • 51min

Core Engineering Principles for Customer-Centric Design

Ian Tien, CEO and Co-Founder of Mattermost, talks about these core principles and their impact on his company. He highlights the importance of customer obsession, self-awareness, transparency and earning trust, just to name a few.Sign up to the Level-up Engineering newsletter!In this interview we're covering:Customer-centric approach and its impactEngineering principlesFollowing the engineering principles in day-to-day processesStories of the engineering principles in real life The role of managersFinding the right engineering principles for MattermostAre engineering principles set in stone?Excerpt from the interview:“Great companies are always changing and improving. We never reach a point where we say, "That's it, we've learned everything we need to know." Our values and principles are always evolving as we learn more and as our needs change. For example, we used to have a principle called high standards. It was important when we were struggling with quality issues early on. But as we improved our quality and introduced other principles like earned trust, having high standards started to cause confusion.High standards were sometimes in conflict with our other values. For instance, it clashed with customer obsession when we needed to release features quickly. It also conflicted with high impact when we focused too much on polishing things instead of delivering important changes. So, we decided to remove high standards from our principles. We realized that its role could be filled by other values and that it was causing more confusion than clarity.This shows that our values aren't set in stone. We're always willing to reassess and make changes when needed. Our goal is to create a culture that meets the needs of our team and our customers both now and in the future.”
undefined
Mar 13, 2024 • 1h 9min

We’ve Adopted Modern Practices, Why isn’t Product Development Great yet? - Challenges in Product Development

Gil Broza, Value Delivery & Agile Leadership Expert, gives actionable advice for leaders who want truly great product development. He emphasizes the importance of putting people first, creating a culture of continuous improvement and a lot more.Sign up to the Level-up Engineering newsletter!In this interview we're covering:Why isn’t product development great yet?Improving your software delivery system step by stepPutting people first in practiceThe right mindset for better product deliveryValue delivery system - Next stepsFitness for purposeRevising your value delivery systemReal-life examples of the strategiesExcerpt from the interview:"Success in software development requires continuous improvement, yet many companies seem to plateau after adopting certain methodologies. Few actively strive to enhance their practices throughout the development lifecycle. New methodologies like Scrum, Kanban, and DevOps emerge, but their adoption is often partial and not fully effective. Implementing changes can create unintended consequences, leading to stalled progress. (...)Oftentimes, there's no unified approach to developing successful products, which is concerning for the industry's future success."
undefined
Feb 7, 2024 • 58min

Behind the scenes of a successful mentoring program - Mentoring tips for tech leaders

Magda Miu, Senior Engineering Manager at Adobe, discusses the importance of mentoring and shares her experiences as both a mentor and mentee. She highlights the benefits of mentoring, explains how she created a program at Adobe, and offers tips for others looking to organize something similar in their organization.Sign up to the Level-up Engineering newsletter!In this interview we're covering:Magda’s personal experience with mentoringHow to seek mentorsMagda’s mentoring program at AdobeKey takeaways from the programExcerpt from the interview:"Many people view mentoring as a one-way street, and understanding that it’s actually a two-way street only comes after you’ve been on both sides: being a mentee and a mentor later on. As a mentee, you may think your mentors won’t gain anything from helping you, but the reality is different. Being a mentor improves your communication skills, so that you can resonate with all sorts of people. You also gain knowledge, because your mentee will share stories and challenges from their industry. If there’s an age gap between the mentor and mentee, it’s also a chance to get new perspectives from a different age group. Last but not least, the feeling of helping others and giving back is just extremely rewarding. It’s an amazing feeling to see your mentee improve in their career."
undefined
Jan 24, 2024 • 1h 6min

Leave Toxic Work Environments in 2023: Spotting and Fixing Unhealthy Work Cultures

Dave Yeager, Director of Data Infrastructure at Recurve, shares aspects of healthy organizations, lists some signs of unhealthy ones and gives you actionable tips that you can implement today to make your company a better place to work at. Sign up to the Level-up Engineering newsletter!In this interview we're covering:Creating healthy work environments in bigger vs. smaller organizationsSome aspects of a healthy cultureSpotting an unhealthy cultureThe impact of managersAdvice for managersExcerpt from the interview:“One thing I find very interesting about continuous integration is that it only works if the tests are successful. However, there are endless stories about engineers not understanding why the release failed on the test, so they change the test itself. It’s a good example of a broken company culture - instead of being vulnerable and admitting there’s an unsolved problem that the team needs to address, we just twist the tests around to meet a deadline. This way, nobody’s going to learn anything. Pull requests should be an opportunity for engineers to walk each other through the task, discuss solutions and overcome potential hurdles.”
undefined
Jan 10, 2024 • 58min

Implementing Agile in Big Corporations - Proven Tips from Salesforce

Mayakrishnan Chakkarapani, Senior Director of Software Engineering at Salesforce, shares insights on implementing Agile in big corporations. The podcast discusses benefits of Agile, empowering developers, managing virtual teams, and adapting to remote work. It emphasizes aligning mindset with Agile principles, the value of high performing engineers, and the importance of open communication and feedback for successful agile development.
undefined
Dec 13, 2023 • 1h 9min

Open Source Stories: How OSS Developers and Communities Shape the Future of Software Engineering

Robert Hodges, CEO of Altinity, discusses important aspects of open source software development including decisions companies should make before embarking on an open source journey, unresolved issues within the community, and interesting predictions about the future of OSS.
undefined
36 snips
Nov 29, 2023 • 1h 7min

How to be a Great Leader and Manager: Strategies to Improve your Team - and their Results

Peter Anderton, Founder of Internal Alignment, shares actionable tips to become a better leader by creating alignment, fighting your own ego, improving your listening skills and appreciating the differences within your team. Strategies for leaders, presenting constructive criticism, common mistakes, and the importance of authenticity and alignment are discussed in this podcast.

Get the Snipd
podcast app

Unlock the knowledge in podcasts with the podcast player of the future.
App store bannerPlay store banner

AI-powered
podcast player

Listen to all your favourite podcasts with AI-powered features

Discover
highlights

Listen to the best highlights from the podcasts you love and dive into the full episode

Save any
moment

Hear something you like? Tap your headphones to save it with AI-generated key takeaways

Share
& Export

Send highlights to Twitter, WhatsApp or export them to Notion, Readwise & more

AI-powered
podcast player

Listen to all your favourite podcasts with AI-powered features

Discover
highlights

Listen to the best highlights from the podcasts you love and dive into the full episode