In this episode, Tim LeMaster (Principal Engineer at Pangea Money Transfer and the founder of dev-nops.net) joins the podcast to discuss the Engineering Paradox between building for product-market fit vs building for durability and scale. We explore if the paradox is real or is simply a trap an engineer or product leader can fall into, how to avoid it, and how to ensure everyone in the organization is aligned on trade-offs or decisions that need to be made. We also take some time to explore contemporary topics like engineering learning and how ChatGPT will impact software engineering.

This is a throwback podcast recording from 2019 when Jason Berwanger and I discuss scaling an engineering organization for sustainable growth. We dive into preserving ownership, agility, and culture in a rapidly scaling team. From how the team balances empowerment with bureaucratic processes to developing talent management, this episode tackles the main components of growing a high-performance team in a niche industry. Even though the economic landscape looks completely different than it did in 2019, these approaches are still just as relevant and right today as they were in 2019.

This podcast was part of the Engineering at Root Podcast (Root Insurance) which is unfortunately no longer published.

I have a long discussion with Andrew Ruud about how he identifies big innovation bets. In this discussion, Andrews shares how he uses intersection points to identify non-obvious innovation big bets, how he thinks about build vs acquire, how he executes against big ideas, and the mistakes he sees other leaders make when trying to make big bets. At the end of the episode, Andrew asks me some unexpected questions on building with pragmatism and on how I have learned to identify the right career bets to make that I found very thought-provoking.