The Leadership Exchange

Rob Ocel interviews Cassidy Williams, the CTO at Contenda and startup adviser. Cassidy shares her journey to becoming a startup adviser and CTO, and how Contenda pivoted from mailing stickers to creating Brain Story, an AI-powered brainstorming app. Rob and Cassidy discuss the importance of being willing to be wrong and to hear out other perspectives, and the importance of adapting and pivoting in life and in one's career. Sponsored by This Dot LabsWatch this episode on Youtube.Read more on our blog.

Tracy Lee and Rob Ocel discuss the concept of 'owning the middle' in engineering leadership and the importance of leaders having opinions and fighting for them. They talk about making people unhappy in deliberate ways, and leading with intentionality and purpose. They also cover the need for self-awareness and self-introspection in leadership. Sponsored by This Dot Labs Watch this episode on our YouTube Channel! Read more on our blog!

Rob Ocel interviews Dr. Joye Purser, the Global Lead Field CISO at Veritas Technologies. Dr. Purser explains the need for passionate problem solvers in the private sector and outlines the three key elements of security leadership. She discusses the rising threat of cybersecurity attacks in the private sector and what organizations are doing to address them, and what skillsets are needed to hire leadership in this area. Sponsored by This Dot Labs Watch this episode on YouTube Read more on our blog

Rob Ocel interviews Dylani Herath about championing change within organizations and how to effectively lead transformation efforts within organization. She shares her career journey and talks about the best practices she implements when working to align the team’s technology capabilities with organizational objectives. Sponsored by This Dot Labs Watch this episode on our YouTube Channel! Read more on our blog!

Charity Majors, CTO at Honeycomb challenges engineers and engineering managers to ask themselves this question: “Why would anyone want to be an engineering manager?” Charity discusses the importance of engineering management, the rising standards engineering managers are held to, the emotional labor, and how big of a mindset shift successful engineering management is from being a developer. They also discuss the need for strong social support systems for engineering managers and advice for people considering whether to become or remain an engineering manager. Sponsored by This Dot Labs Watch This Video on YouTube Subscribe to Our YouTube Read More About Charity's Interview on Our Blog

On this episode of the Engineering Leadership podcast, Rob Ocel interviews Joe Essey, the Director of Engineering at Popmenu, about how to create a high-performing championship team environment. Joe draws on his experiences in sports, the restaurant industry, and his time at Liberty Mutual Insurance, Salesloft, and Popmenu to discuss the need for a good pipeline, the right people in place, and a focus on team success over individual success. Sponsored by This Dot Labs

On this episode of Engineering Leadership, Rob Ocel interviews Charlie Isaacs, CTO for Customer Connection at Salesforce. Charlie talks about his career journey, his technique of 'spaghetti flinging', digital transformation, and how rapid prototyping helps leaders move from vision to action quickly.

Rob Ocel hosts the Engineering Leadership Series with Kathy Keating, co-founder of CTO Levels. Keating shares her tech journey, leadership insights, and the vital role of swift trust-building. They discuss transitioning to leadership, effective communication, and matching CTO roles to a company's stage.

On this episode of the Engineering Leadership series, Rob Ocel interviews David Cramer, co-founder and CTO of Sentry. They discuss the importance of making decisions and taking risks, the success of Sentry, and the challenges of developing and defending opinions in the software engineering industry.

Rob Ocel talks to Matteo Collina, Platformatic's co-founder and CTO, about leadership and risk perception. Matteo discusses how Platformatic manages risk using their tools and emphasizes the overlooked advantages of embracing open source contributions in organizations. Sponsored by This Dot Labs.