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
Making Better Decisions with Denise Iglesias
When you join a team in a management role, you may find yourself grappling with bad decisions made by your predecessors. Today on CTO Connection, Denise Iglesias, Senior Direct...
Creating a Successful Labs Program with RC Johnson
Incubator or labs programs tend to come with various issues. How do you navigate failure? How do you source engineers? RC Johnson has helped create an innovative incubator program at Indeed. ...
Giving Effective Feedback with Chelsea Troy
Feedback is an integral part of work performance across all industries. Effective feedback can help an employee improve at a job or skill. But at the end of the day, feedback is universally dicey. Emotions can run high and people can take feedb...
How to Build an Inclusive Culture with James Turnbull
Many companies see the benefits of diversity and inclusion but don’t know that their own policies and culture are often the reason that women and people of color don’t come on board. James Turnbull, VP of Engineering at Glitch, is passionate ab...
Creating Inclusive Workplaces with Joann Anderson
Joann Anderson, VP of Engineering at Scoop Technologies, had a unique childhood in that her mother was a programmer so it never seemed abnormal to Joann that she was a woman in a male-dominated...
Breaking Codes, Designing Jets, and Building Teams with Randy Shoup
Randy Shoup has led engineering teams at a range of top companies including Oracle, eBay, and Google, as well as newer startups like Stitch fix and WeWork.Randy talks to Peter about h...
Creating a Better Product using Tactical Empathy with Andrea Goulet
There are many routes to c-suite but Andrea Goulet has taken one of the most non-traditional paths we’ve seen on CTO Connection. As the Co-Founder and CEO of
Cultivating Cross-Functional Teams with Cai GoGwilt
Cai GoGwilt took a fast-tracked, non-traditional road to becoming a CTO at Ironclad. As a non-traditional CTO, Cai sees his role as helping others on the team get unblocked from an...
Balancing Coding and Management with Dhruba Borthakur
Dhruba Borthakur is the Co-founder and CTO at Rockset but still manages to write code, on a good week, 50% of the time. In today's interview, Dhruba explained ...
Trust, Delegation and Managing Managers with Raghavendra Prabhu
According to Raghavendra Prabhu, CTO of Thumbtack, making the transition from programmer to manager isn’t too much of a stretch since you already under...
Balancing Engineering Craft with Customer and Company Needs with Ryan Graciano
Ryan Graciano got his start working for a small company that was acquired by IBM. Having been on the employee side of a large merger, Ryan has been able to take what he learned to his role as ...
Challenges Facing CTOs of Large Organizations with David Schwartz of Ripple
Tech organizations with more than 100 employees have a unique set of challenges. When you’re in the business of innovation, it can be hard to say no to exciting new opportunities. In this week’s episode of CTO Connection,
How to Build a Culture of Security with Nick Streaker
Whether it’s private communications or a product that handles sensitive information, every company needs to foster a culture of security. Our guest this week, Nick Streaker, is the CTO...
From Engineer to General Manager with Mike Reust
Mike Reust never pictured himself in management. But after several years at Betterment, the opportunity presented itself. Mike joins us this week on...
Engineering Apprenticeships and Ongoing Education with Andy Britcliffe
The customer service reps at Holiday Extras spend their days talking to customers on the phone. Andy Britcliffe, CTO of Ho...
Transforming Education Through Technology with James Kenigsberg
When James Kenigsberg immigrated to America, he quickly found that technology could make learning easier and more fun. This desire to create educational tools led him to help found 2U, a company that partners with universities to deliver online...
The Importance of Technical Due Diligence with Jason Mongue
Technical due diligence is the process of studying a technology product and evaluating its value and feasibility. You’d think that such an important process would be part of the business plan from the outset, but most companies only undergo the...
Managing Large Remote Teams with Asana’s Prashant Pandey
As products and companies develop more name-brand recognition, expansion is inevitable. Prashant Pandey has experience working at companies large and small and in his current role as Head of En...
Balancing Delight and Metrics in Product Design with Adam Nash
On CTO Connection, we mostly focus on the engineering side of tech, but today, we’re taking a break to look at product. Our guest Adam Nash, Vice President of Product and Growth at Dropbox, di...
Staying Immersed in Technology as a Tech Leader with Hector Aguilar
According to Hector Aguilar, President of Technology at Okta, if you get too far away from technology, you can’t be an effective leader of tec...
Setting Up Infrastructure to Scale with Adam Miller
When Adam Miller joined the Roblox team as the Vice President of Engineering, he assumed everything would just get saved to the cloud. Instead, he found that the Roblox platform’s unique infrastructure needs would necessitate more in-house deve...
Investing in Your People Pays Dividends with Scott Parker
Scott Parker has seen a lot over his 15 year career having transitioned from engineer to manager to executive. In this episode of the CTO Connection podcast, Peter and Scott discuss Scott’s approach to people management, differences in building...
Learning and Developing as an Engineering Leader with Stacy Gorelik
This week Peter invites long-time technology leader and CTO Summit speaker Stacy Gorelik to the podcast. Stacy is currently the Director of Engineering at Flatiron Health, a health-tech company committed to fighting cancer.Peter and...
Attracting and Developing Engineering Talent with Johnny Austin, Engineering Director @ Mapbox
In this episode of CTO Connection, host Peter Bell sits down with Johnny Austin, Engineering Director of Navigation at Mapbox, to discuss the best and mo...
Engineering Team Cohesion at Scale with Han Yuan, SVP of Engineering @ Upwork
This week, Peter Bell is joined by SVP of Engineering at Upwork, Han Yuan. Han and Peter dive into what it’s like to run an engineering team that spans countries, building a good engineering culture for a remote team and how he brings on new en...
