Geeks Who Lead Podcast
Hear the inside stories of the "geeks who lead at scale" - Directors, VPs and CTOs running software engineering orgs at larger companies with 100+ engineers, and interviews with domain experts who can help those leaders to manage their engineering orgs more effectively.
I'm your host - Peter Bell, I've been helping senior engineering leaders to connect with and learn from their peers since 2010!
This podcast is designed for engineering leaders who want to learn the latest good practices from their peers who are way too busy operating to write an article or publish a book!
Running a software engineering org at scale is hard! You need to manage stakeholder expectations, attract and retain top talent, align and structure your org effectively and keep up with the latest processes and tooling. And that's before we even try to make sense of the potential impact of LLMs and GenAI on managing technical teams.
Our podcast and weekly newsletter provide you with access to hard-won wisdom from top engineering leaders and relevant domain experts. Learn more at https://geekswholead.com/
Episodes
204 episodes
Why Building for Flexibility is the New Paradigm with Julien Lemoine
Sites like Squarespace and Shopify have simplified the design and engineering process for people who either don’t have the technical skills or the resources to hire a team of engineers. However, there is no one-size-fits-all approach for the to...
Building Robust Commerce Platforms with Justin Dean
When Justin Dean was placed as a network engineer in the Marine Corps, he had no idea that this would lead to a career helping legacy and emerging businesses shape what is possible ...
Effective Mentorship in Early Stage Startups with Rob De Feo
Rob De Feo has spoken to more than 500 startups over the last few years in his role as a startup advocate. These experiences have given him insider knowledge on the patterns leaders in startup...
Attracting Great Talent with Ashish Aggarwal
If you’re a startup or any company that doesn’t have vast name recognition, attracting top talent can be a key concern. Ashish Aggarwal cut his teeth at Microsoft, Amazon, and Postmate...
Why Customer Centricity is Key to Company Culture with Raj Sethuraman
According to Raj Sethuraman, good technology cannot be a successful technology unless it solves customer problems and drives great business outcomes. Raj is currently CTO at Wolters Kluwer...
Growing Individuals on Your Team with Greg Thomas
Greg Thomas is the author of the book, Code Your Way Up. Over the course of his 20 years in software development, he found that there was a void when it comes to developing individ...
Improving Communication between CEOs and CTOs with David Subar
In any industry, communication is a key factor in a team’s success. For CTOs navigating complex problems, effective communication between all stakeholders is paramount. David Subar is both a...
Building a Team of 10x Engineers with Fleming Shi
Fleming Shi has been with Barracuda Networks for more than 15 years. In that time, there has been a profound shift and evolution in the tools and security systems that power his engineering ...
How to Build a Data Science Team with Jon Morra
Data science has increasingly become an integral part of the technical makeup of organizations. However, most CTOs don’t have experience building a data science component from scratch. Jon Morra...
What Does a VP of Engineering Do With Alexandra Paredes
VP of Engineering is an expansive position. But what is it really like on the granular level? Alexandra Paredes is the VP of Engineering at Code Climate and joined Peter to discuss...
Tackling Burnout as a CTO with Andy Skipper
Working nonstop without delegating is not a sustainable way to live or work. Such habits often lead to burnout. CTOs in particular struggle with this problem. Many are young, inexperienced, or desirous of being part of a shippable product to re...
Managing Technical Debt with James Smith
According to James Smith, CEO of Bugsnag, caring about customer experience is what makes for a better software developer. This is especially important when managing technical debt. Today on CTO C...
How to Enact Change Within a Company with Andrew Fawcett
Let’s say you join a new organization. How would you spend your first hundred days if you were to figure out how to enact change and implement your own priorities? Our guest this week on CTO Connection is
Using Engineering Metrics in a Healthy Way with Dalia Havens
We all want our companies to succeed so it’s easy to get fixated on numbers that we believe will help us judge our efforts. However, according to Dalia Havens of Netlify, metrics need to be...
A Playbook for Starting a Startup with Bob Friday
When we think of startups we think of charismatic entrepreneurs plugging away on their passions. But what does it really take to form a startup? Our guest this week on CTO Connection is Bob Frida...
From Private Company to IPO: Managing through Transformation with Rachana Kumar
When companies transition from private to IPO, there are bound to be challenges and learning curves. Rachana Kumar has worked in five countries, two of her positions were in the non-profit...
Continuous Learning in Engineering with Kwame Thomison
Learning doesn’t end once you’ve earned your degree. Developers and engineers must stay up to date with their skills and emerging technologies. But most of the time, employees are expected to take on this additional learning on their own.
Remote Programming During a Pandemic with Kaj van de Loo
When COVID-19 hit, UserTesting was already at a unique advantage: the team was already mostly working remotely. However, as the stay at home orders have increased, UserTesting’s CTO Kaj van de ...
Multiplayer Design and the Future of Work with Kunal Anand
Kunal Anand has an interesting background for a CTO. Despite majoring in business, Kunal got his start at JPL (an offshoot of NASA). From there he worked at Myspace and the BBC. His experien...
How to Hire 100 Engineers in a Year with Cat Miller
Hypergrowth is what every startup dreams of, but actually filling the seemingly unlimited positions available is incredibly taxing on employees. Cat Miller is the Vice Presiden...
10 Mantras for Productive Meetings with Douglas Ferguson
Now that everyone is working remotely, people are starting to realize how much they took meetings for granted. Our guest this week on CTO Connection is Douglas Ferguson, President of
Moving to a Cloud Native Architecture with Tolga Tarhan
Tolga Tarhan got his start single-handedly running all the technology in his high school. Fast forward to today in which his experience during the dot com bust and incremental steps at vari...
Chaos Engineering with Kolton Andrus
There are few jobs where you’re encouraged to break things, but Kolton Andrus has made a career out of “failure as a service.” Kolton is the CEO and Co-founder of Gremlin, a platf...
How to Interview Candidates Remotely with Shannon Hogue
Over the last few weeks, many companies have switched to remote work. But for companies that are hiring and candidates that are looking for new opportunities, what are the best practices for remote interviews? Joining Peter today on CTO Connect...
Building and Managing Fully Remote Teams with David Blair
Before Covid-19, many companies had work from home policies in place, but the vast majority still expected employees to mostly work in an office. Now that everyone is being forced to work from home, many companies and managers are scrambling to...
