Leadership Launchpad

In this episode of Leadership Launchpad, listeners are guided through practical strategies for delegation—a skill often cited by technical leaders as particularly challenging. The discussion covers the "Minimum Viable Manager" framework, explaining the importance of building trust, setting expectations, and providing feedback before tackling delegation. Real-life stories, including an example from...

In this episode of Leadership Launchpad, the conversation explores why giving and receiving feedback is challenging, especially for technical managers. The discussion focuses on evolutionary and social reasons behind feedback anxiety and emphasizes the importance of a structured approach to feedback. Drawing from lessons in the book Minimum Viable Manager, listeners are introduced to actionable st...

In this episode of Leadership Launchpad, Matt Gjertsen delves into the importance of setting expectations for technical leaders and their teams. He explains why clear expectations are vital for productivity, motivation, and engagement, referencing research from Gallup’s Q12 survey and Daniel Pink’s book Drive . The discussion covers practical frameworks such as commander's intent for defining task...

In this episode of Leadership Launchpad, listeners are introduced to key concepts from the book Minimum Viable Manager. The episode focuses on the importance of building trust within technical teams, emphasizing it as the foundational element for productive conflict and high performance. Drawing on real-world examples such as Ford’s turnaround under Alan Mulally and research initiatives like Googl...

In this episode, Susan Stone, CEO of Blue Current, discusses the company's journey in developing high-performance, silicon-based solid-state batteries for electric vehicles and energy storage. She shares insights on the technical and cultural challenges of scaling from R&D to commercialization, emphasizing the importance of communication, cross-team collaboration, and creating flexible feedbac...

This episode of Leadership Launchpad delves into the leadership principle known as "the line," a concept discussed by Travis Kalanick, founder of Uber, during his conversation on the David Senra podcast. The episode explains how leaders can find the balance between too few and too many rules within their teams and organizations. Drawing from real-world examples at companies like Uber, City Storage...

In this episode, Gabrielle Rufrano, a doctoral candidate in Industrial and Organizational Psychology at Clemson University, shares insights from her experiences in both large organizations like NASA and fast-paced startups in the energy sector. She discusses the fundamentals of industrial and organizational psychology, emphasizing the importance of evidence-based practices and organizational cultu...

In this episode, Shan Mohta, co-founder and CEO of Vendra, discusses his journey building a manufacturing platform aimed at streamlining the process of ordering custom parts in the US, with a focus on aerospace and defense. Shan Mohta shares how Vendra leverages software to match customer designs with the best-fit suppliers, improving supply chain resilience and reducing lead times. He provides in...

In this episode, Rich Phipps, former manager of technicians and development tests at SpaceX’s McGregor test facility and a veteran submariner, shares his leadership journey from the Navy to SpaceX. He discusses transitioning from a technician to a leadership role, the differences and similarities between leading in the military and in a high-tech environment, and the importance of influence, commu...

This episode of Leadership Launchpad celebrates a milestone: surpassing the 200th episode mark. The conversation features a recap of top insights and leadership lessons from previous standout guests, including Steph Bertmer (Pinterest), Megan Galloway (EverLeader), Matt Kuda (Voyager Technologies), Holly Betke (StockX), General John Teichert (Edwards Air Force Base), Jesse Kleekamp (K2 Space), Bri...

In this episode of Leadership Launchpad, Lindy Elkins-Tanton, Director of the Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory and Principal Investigator of NASA’s Psyche mission, shares insights on leading high-stakes, technical teams. She explains the objectives and significance of the Psyche mission—humanity’s first deep exploration of a metal-rich asteroid—and offers a detailed look at her role as principal...

Everyone talks about ownership. Very few people can actually explain what it looks like. Seth Kovnat spent six years at SpaceX helping scale Falcon launches from 24 to 148 missions a year before joining Impulse Space as Director of Vehicle Engineering. Along the way, he developed a way of thinking about engineering that goes far beyond technical ability. At the center of that mindset is the Respon...

Most engineers become leaders because they're great at solving problems. Then they get promoted... and suddenly the thing that made them successful starts getting in the way. If you've ever struggled to delegate, found yourself jumping in to fix everything, or wondered why your team keeps bringing every problem back to you, this conversation will probably hit close to home. Ashley Chang started he...

Most companies say they’re developing leaders. But when you look at what actually happens on the floor, or inside a new manager’s first real team, it doesn’t line up. Craig Coyle spent years as an Army aviator and now works with frontline leaders in manufacturing and defense environments. What he saw in both worlds is the same gap, people are promoted into leadership, then left to figure it out in...

Most technical training programs fail before the first technician ever sets foot in the room. Not because the content is wrong. Because the entire design is wrong. Traditional training asks: did they understand it? Technical training asks something harder: can they actually do it? And in aerospace, where it takes a million things to go right and one thing to go wrong. In this first ever live episo...

Most leaders talk about speed. Ian Walsh doesn’t. In this conversation, he separates speed from what actually matters in leadership: velocity, meaning speed with direction. Ian has spent his career in aerospace and defense, from flying Marine Cobra attack helicopters to leading companies through scale and transformation. Now as CEO of FDH Aero , he is operating inside an industry that is growing f...

Most people think leadership starts when someone gives them authority. I don't think that's true. One of the ideas that kept coming up in my conversation with Keith Ferrazzi is that leadership is rarely granted before it's demonstrated. The people who create outsized impact inside organizations aren't waiting for the title, the promotion, or the perfect moment. They're already acting like leaders...

Most teams don’t fail because they lack talent. They fail because they lose their ability to operate under discomfort. In this solo episode of Leadership Launchpad, I look at why the ability to stay effective when things get uncomfortable has become a defining factor in how modern teams perform. I draw a distinction between pressure that sharpens performance and pressure that overwhelms it, and wh...

Most companies don’t fail because they lack process. They fail because they keep the wrong ones alive for too long. Process starts as a survival tool. It reduces chaos, aligns people, and turns scattered effort into repeatable execution. But at scale, the same systems that create clarity slowly become the thing that blocks it. The real challenge isn’t building structure, it’s knowing when it stops...

Most people think leadership in technical companies is about being the most knowledgeable person in the room. Knowing the answers, setting the direction, and solving the hardest problems yourself. But the longer you spend actually doing the job, the more obvious it becomes that this is almost never what matters. The real challenge is much simpler to describe and much harder to execute. Getting peo...

Most leaders think their job is complicated. It’s not. I tend to break it down into three things: get people working together, get them working on the right things, and improve the work over time. The problem is that second one. Getting people focused on the right things sounds simple, but in practice, it’s where most teams fall apart. In this episode, I sit down with Matt Gialich , CEO of AstroFo...

This solo episode explores the challenges and opportunities facing hard tech and leadership in today’s rapidly evolving technology landscape. The host announces the rebranding of their company from Better Everyday Studios to Built, with a renewed focus on training the next generation of hard tech leaders. The discussion covers why large-scale technology projects so often run over budget, highlight...

On this week’s episode of the Leadership Launchpad, we are bringing you a crossover episode from the VHTB podcast. If you enjoy the discussion and want more make sure to check out other episodes. YouTube: https://bit.ly/4sooBQo Spotify: https://bit.ly/3YRPxue Apple: https://apple.co/4q3Zn8k Where’s the line between pushing people to do their best work… and just being an asshole? It’s a question th...

Most teams think leadership at SpaceX is about speed, pressure, and technical brilliance. Hans Koenigsmann, former VP of Build and Flight Reliability and one of the earliest employees at SpaceX, describes something more subtle: it’s about constantly operating outside your comfort zone, and learning how to make decisions when everything is changing at once. In this conversation, Hans reflects on wh...

Most teams don’t realize they’re missing critical data until something goes wrong. In this episode, Austin Spiegel, co-founder and CTO of Sift and former SpaceX engineer, dives into why telemetry, simple in concept, a value and a timestamp, can become a massive problem in hardware. Miss even a fraction of a second, and you lose the story. Software engineers have plenty of tools to solve this. Hard...