Level-up Engineering

Interview with Lloyd Moore, VP of Engineering at Blockdaemon. He talks about building and keeping well-aligned teams, planning for success, and reacting to the quick changes of the blockchain field.  Sign up to the Level-up Engineering newsletter! In this interview we're covering: Introducing Blockdaemon Preparing for scaling Building successful teams Outsourcing 101 Leadership challenges at...

Interview with Somer Esat, Senior Engineering Manager at Blizzard. He talks about the role of engineering managers in engineer coaching and career development. Sign up to the Level-up Engineering newsletter! In this interview we're covering: Managers in engineer coaching Daily engineer coaching Coaching engineers in their career development Steps in engineers' career development Coaching engineers...

Interview with Jehanzeb Khan, Senior Software Engineering Manager at Electronic Arts. He shares his tips and experience on implementing OKR performance management. Sign up to the Level-up Engineering newsletter! In this interview we're covering: OKR performance management 101 OKRs in practice OKR-driven vs. non-OKR-driven organizations Choosing the right goal-setting method Introducing OKRs to you...

Interview with Ritendra Datta, Director of Engineering at Meta. He gives valuable advice on improving cross-functional collaboration by holding empathy sessions and scaling cross-functional teams mindfully. Sign up to the Level-up Engineering newsletter! In this interview we're covering: Different cross-functional roles Cross-functional collaboration in practice Tips to improve cross-functional co...

Interview with Tyler Hartley, Director of Software Engineering at Johnson & Johnson. He talks about the philosophies, habits and challenges of truly agile organizations. Sign up to the Level-up Engineering newsletter! In this interview we're covering: The definition of agile Characteristics of agile organizations Truly agile practices Behaviours to encourage When not to choose agile Agile prod...

Interview with Steve Tauber, CTO at madewithlove. He shares his secrets to productive IT audits from preparation to execution. Sign up to the Level-up Engineering newsletter! In this interview we're covering: The basics of tech audits Different approaches to IT audits Making the most out of the IT audit process Flexmail's tech audit story What auditors observe How to prepare for an IT audit Excerp...

Interview with Pau Minoves, CTO at Typeform. He talks about leaders' role in managing culture change in the workplace during rapid growth in a company's scaleup phase. Sign up to the Level-up Engineering newsletter! In this interview we're covering: Establishing the right environment for growth Culture change management as a leader Benefits of strong company culture Challenges of culture change in...

State of Engineering Management 2022 report Interview with Dylan Hansen, Senior Director of Engineering Enablement & Engagement at Salesforce dicussing the results of the State of Engineering Management 2022 report. We analyze the most interesting findings to get more insight and commentary from a fellow engineering leader. In this interview we're covering: Self-improvement in leadership Hirin...

Interview with David Siegel, CEO at Meetup. He talks about ways the leaders at Meetup and he has been utilizing to motivate employees and combat the Great American Resignation. Sign up to the Level-up Engineering newsletter! In this interview we're covering: Takeaways from the pandemic Improving employee retention and motivation Communication in a hybrid environment Supporting leaders at Meetup Im...

Interview with Charles Roman, Technical Director at Respawn Entertainment. He talks about setting up, leading, and scaling the engineering team behind Respawns' upcoming Star Wars FPS with no official title yet. Sign up to the Level-up Engineering newsletter! In this interview we're covering: The path to Respawn Entertainment Adapting to remote management Hiring video game engineers Process change...

Interview with Zoe Sobin, Senior Engineering Manager at HubSpot. She tells her story of turning an engineering project into a centralized platform solution and how he managed communication, prioritization and every other challenge along the way. Sign up to the Level-up Engineering newsletter! In this interview we're covering: Signs that you need a platform Getting buy-in for a platform product Com...

Interview with Anand Safi, Senior Engineering Leader at Mark43. He covers methods and metrics for building trust in virtual teams while telling his story of taking over a newly founded remote team and scaling it up. Sign up to the Level-up Engineering newsletter! In this interview we're covering: Definition of trust in the workplace Differences between building trust in virtual teams vs the offic...

Interview with Robert C. Martin a.k.a. Uncle Bob. He explains his views and ideas about the need for a set of software engineering ethics, universal quality standards and how they may translate to reality. Sign up to the Level-up Engineering newsletter! In this interview we're covering: Importance of ethics Applying ethics to software engineering Current ethical problems in the software industry S...

Interview with Ankit Patel, SVP of Engineering at Foursquare. He explains how he realized that Foursquare's decision making process requires a rehaul, and what he did to completely restructure the entire organization to create more efficient decision making. Sign up to the Level-up Engineering newsletter! In this interview we're covering: Organizational decision making issues New organization stru...

Interview with Maura Kelly, VP of Engineering at Mailchimp about injecting customer obsession into software engineering. She details organizing an event to actualize customer obsession and promote it across every level of the company and shares everything she's learned along the way. Sign up to the Level-up Engineering newsletter! In this interview we're covering: Customer obsession in software en...

Interview with Mike Seavers, VP of Online Development at Epic Games about becoming a manager of managers. He talks about his hardships as a new director, he tells the story of overcoming them, and shares other stories about coaching other leaders to turn them into great directors. Sign up to the Level-up Engineering newsletter! In this interview we're covering: Differences between managing ICs and...

Interview with Jossie Haines, VP of Engineering and Head of DEI at Tile. She talks about the place of empathy in leadership and in the workplace in general, and shares her stories about mastering empathy and coaching others to lead with empathy as well. Sign up to the Level-up Engineering newsletter! In this interview we're covering: Defining empathy in the workplace Defining empathetic leadership...

Interview with Joseph Gefroh, Engineering Director at HealthSherpa. He goes into detail about preparing a team to scale up. He shares his experiences and tells stories about what processes do you need to put in place, why they're necessary and how you can sell your teams on them. Sign up to the Level-up Engineering newsletter! In this interview we're covering: Defining a team that's ready to scale...

Interview with James Trunk, VP of Engineering at Griffin. He talks in-depth about coming up with his principles of decision making, the ways you can do the same, and their utility in leadership. Sign up to the Level-up Engineering newsletter! In this interview we're covering: Utilizing your principles of decision making Role of decision principles in leadership Using decision principles with your...

Interview with Dylan Hansen, Senior Director of Engineering Enablement and Engagement at Salesforce. He talks about leadership and work-life balance, telling stories and tips about improving it in your own life, and supporting your team in achieving a better work-life awareness as well. Sign up to the Level-up Engineering newsletter! In this interview we're covering: The definition of work-life ba...

Interview with Allison McMillan, Director of Engineering at GitHub. She shares her best virtual offsite ideas, hands out some tips you can try yourself and warns you of the pitfalls to avoid. Real life stories from behind the scenes at GitHub. Sign up to the Level-up Engineering newsletter! In this interview we're covering: Definition of virtual offsites Ground rules for virtual offsites Realistic...

Interview with Jose Roca, VP of Product and Engineering at Prezi. He tells his story about going from shy kid to great engineering leader, building and scaling Prezi's platform team, overcoming internal resistance on different levels, and much more. Sign up to the Level-up Engineering newsletter! In this interview we're covering: Getting into leadership at Prezi Scaling yourself with your company...

Interview with Camille Fournier, Managing Director and Head of Platform Engineering at Two Sigma. She talks about the role of platform teams, the most important skills for platform engineers, creating smooth communication with product teams and more! Sign up to the Level-up Engineering newsletter! In this interview we're covering: Definition of a platform engineering team Differences between produ...

Interview with Erica Greene, Senior Engineering Manager at Etsy about the importance of writing in software engineering. She goes into details about why you need to write well, how to get good at it, how to coach your team in writing and much more. Sign up to the Level-up Engineering newsletter! In this interview we're covering: The importance of writing in engineering management Why is writing im...

Interview with Pat Kua, former engineering leader, current leadership coach about applying systems thinking to management. We start from the defintion systems thinking and discuss applying it to leadership with clear steps and concrete examples. Sign up to the Level-up Engineering newsletter! In this interview we're covering: The definition of systems thinking Applying systems thinking to leadersh...