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Engineering Unblocked

Swarmia

Keeping software engineers in flow and unblocked is one of the key responsibilities of software development leaders. In each episode of the Engineering Unblocked podcast, Rebecca Murphey interviews leaders who have navigated challenges of scale, complexity, and growth. You’ll hear from people with lived experience across the software development ecosystem, from CTOs and VPEs to directors and line managers to product managers, program managers, tech leads, and more.

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  • 21 episodes
  • Avg 45 min
  • English

Episodes 21

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  • #31
    Wednesday · 1 hr 9 min

    Writing the same book three times with Rebecca Murphey and Otto Hilska

    In this special episode, former Engineering Unblocked host Rebecca Murphey returns — now at Honeycomb — alongside Swarmia CEO Otto Hilska, to talk through the third edition of Build: Elements of an Effective Software Organization: what changed between editions, what didn't, and where the industry is headed. Rebecca looked at a few thousand pull requests at Honeycomb and found that somewhere in the order of 90% were unaffected by human review. Her team now has a goal of merging a quarter of all pull requests without a human reviewer by the end of the year. Otto describes the same bottleneck from the other side: what he calls the AI paradox, where individual developers 10x and the organization gets 10%. They also get into where the constraint goes next. Otto thinks quality is the under-discussed topic of this era, and that cost and ROI math needs to become standard in every engineering organization. Rebecca thinks the question has stopped being about effective software organizations and started being about effective businesses. (0:00) The AI paradox: individual developers 10x, the organization gets 10% (0:32) Introduction (1:55) Why Build needed a third edition (4:03) Why the constraint has moved beyond engineering (5:51) Non-engineers writing code (7:42) Enablement, platforms, and making it safe to build (12:06) Same fundamentals, new reality (15:25) Rethinking teams and roles (21:32) The first step for engineering leaders (26:05) Individual versus organizational productivity (30:11) Sharing AI knowledge across the organization (32:53) Developer productivity in the AI era (34:18) Constraints over code (35:03) Why one productivity metric will never work (37:23) How quality drives speed (41:29) AI costs and the ROI math (47:21) What happens to metrics when agents write the code (53:31) Rethinking code review (1:01:08) Platform teams and blast radius (1:03:36) Why change stalls (1:06:53) The next books Follow Otto on LinkedIn Follow Rebecca on LinkedIn Read Build for free on the Swarmia website Find the full transcript on the Swarmia website

  • S3 · E30
    February 11 · 48 min

    AI's unglamorous wins for developer productivity with Tara Hernandez from MongoDB

    In this episode, Tara Hernandez shares what 18 months of rigorous AI experimentation taught her at MongoDB — including why the initial results showed negative ROI, and where her team eventually found the real productivity wins. Tara explains how AI saved developers an hour a week on coding but had zero impact on product velocity, why the unglamorous outer loop improvements (Slack bots, log analysis, ticket generation) deliver bigger impact than code generation, and how developer productivity ultimately comes down to information flow between humans. She also gets into why developer experience matters more now than during the hiring frenzy, and why curiosity is what defines good developers. (0:00) Introduction (1:04) How Tara became MongoDB’s first VP of Developer Productivity (6:42) Teaching Pixar how to do software development in 2002 (11:06) Tara's three pillars of developer productivity: tools, communication, and process (18:52) How the internet changed infrastructure from “not real engineering” to essential (22:00) MongoDB’s 18-month AI journey: from skepticism to scientific measurement (25:11) The surprising truth: AI saved coding time but had zero impact on velocity (27:03) Where AI actually wins: senior engineers with agentic programming (30:04) What developer productivity teams should focus on in the AI era (34:14) Why the outer loop matters more than the inner loop (37:08) Measuring the cost of human-to-human communication (40:14) Developer productivity is really about information flow (41:13) Why developer experience matters more now, not less (44:33) The ethical problem with celebrating AI-driven layoffs Follow Tara on LinkedIn Follow Rebecca on LinkedIn Find the full transcript on the Swarmia website

  • S3 · E29
    January 19 · 41 min

    What a year of hands-on AI coding teaches you about good software with Lada Kesseler

    In this episode, Lada Kesseler shares what she’s learned from a year of hands-on experience building with AI coding tools — including the three fundamental challenges that define how these tools work, and why understanding limitations is what makes you better at using them. Lada explains why “focus” is the critical concept most developers miss, how a dedicated committer agent will catch issues that a general-purpose copilot never does, and why software craftsmanship matters more now than ever. She also gets into why using AI to critique itself produces dramatically better results, and how AI works as an amplifier that speeds up both good and bad engineering practices. Find the transcript at: https://www.swarmia.com/podcast/lada-kesseler-logic2020 (0:00) Introduction (2:46) The five fundamental gaps in AI development (7:15) “You’re absolutely right!” (8:00) The anti-pattern of the distracted agent (11:09) Do agile best practices still matter in the age of AI? (14:48) Why software craftsmanship is more important than ever (15:46) Managing complexity: Can AI do it, or do we still need humans? (18:19) The difference between vibe coding and craft (20:24) How AI is an amplifier — for better or worse (21:23) Good practices that are suddenly essential (23:02) The superpower of refactoring (25:36) Documentation: harder to maintain but more important than ever (26:58) When developers don’t write code anymore (32:49) AI costs and the coming reckoning (33:54) When AI is not the right choice (36:06) Three things senior leaders need to understand about AI (39:46) Will we still be talking about this in a year’s time? Watch Lada’s talk Augmented Coding: Mapping the Uncharted Territory See the interactive map on Lada’s website Follow Lada on LinkedIn Follow Rebecca on LinkedIn

  • #28
    January 7 · 54 min

    Being a CTO when everything is exploratory with Rob Zuber from CircleCI

    In this episode, Rob Zuber shares what he’s learned from over a decade as CTO at CircleCI — including why the current market requires CTOs to be more hands-on than ever, and why he doesn’t even know who his competitors are anymore. Rob explains how his team deliberately encourages AI tool sprawl to find the gaps, how CircleCI went from instant product-market fit to navigating constant transformation, and why boring technology still wins for infrastructure even as everything else changes. He also gets into why AI works as an amplifier that speeds up both good processes and bad ones. Find the transcript at: https://www.swarmia.com/podcast/rob-zuber-circleci(00:00) Introduction (01:00) What it means to be a CTO right now (03:09) The evolution of software development since 2011 (06:07) The mobile revolution and iOS tooling (08:28) JavaScript frameworks and the rise of containers (12:03) Staying competitive in a crowded CI/CD market (15:32) AI is changing everything about software delivery (18:17) Setting goals and priorities in uncertain times (28:58) What the board holds CTOs accountable for (34:27) The ZIRP era and its aftermath (38:45) Why headcount became the wrong metric (41:22) AI as an amplifier — for better or worse (44:03) Will companies without fundamentals survive? (46:00) The reverse camera problem (51:52) Do we still need to understand how things work? Links and mentionsFollow Rob on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robzuber/Follow Rebecca on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rmurphey/

  • #27
    Sep 12, 2025 · 49 min

    Managing up, down, and the robots with Michael Lopp aka Rands

    In this episode, Michael Lopp shares what he's learned leading engineering teams at Slack, Pinterest, and Palantir — including why AI is delivering real but modest productivity gains, and why junior engineers churning out AI-generated code is probably slowing teams down. Michael Lopp (Rands) brings three decades of engineering leadership experience to the AI conversation — revealing why he thinks we're experiencing another bubble similar to the dotcom era, but moving much faster. He's bullish on the technology but realistic: AI enables 5-10% productivity gains for complex work, not the revolutionary changes some expect. His framework emphasizes that good leadership still requires empathy, one-on-ones, and actually listening to your team. Find the transcript at: https://www.swarmia.com/podcast/michael-lopp-rands/ (0:00) Introduction (2:45) Are we living in another dotcom bubble? (11:12) AI doesn't replace critical thinking (15:34) The problem with measuring the productivity impact of AI (18:01) Your job as a human is to know when you're being lied to (19:40) What junior engineers need to learn now (24:16) Assessing team health and psychological safety at scale (28:12) What happens at 150 headcount (30:21) Are companies buying AI tools without a hypothesis? (33:11) The fakers (35:22) Rands’ advice on leading through hard times (42:18) Why telling managers to stop coding was a bad idea (45:25) Rands’ hot take on the industry Follow Michael on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaellopp Follow Rebecca on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rmurphey/

  • S3 · E26
    Jul 31, 2025 · 46 min

    Develop, deploy, operate: Three stages of delivering business value with Titus Winters from Adobe

    In this episode, Titus Winters discusses his framework for optimizing software’s commercial value, why having humans in the deploy phase is pure toil, and how to think about engineering productivity investments. Titus Winters brings infrastructure thinking to software economics — revealing why manual deployment processes are pure overhead and how to quantify the true cost of defects with a (sometimes) simple formula. His framework splits software into three phases: creative development, factory-like deployment, and operational maintenance, arguing that humans belong only in the first. Find the transcript at: https://www.swarmia.com/podcast/titus-winters-adobe/ (0:00) Introductions (3:58) Why Titus is drawn to this space (6:21) How do you measure the impact of preventing a bug? (8:36) How this paper came to be (10:45) Why is it so hard for non-technical leadership to understand engineering? (12:42) How relevant is the framework for smaller organizations? (13:52) Estimating the true cost of defects (17:40) Measure systems, not individuals (18:25) Why humans in the deployment loop are pure toil (22:17) Why DORA doesn’t measure the squishy, creative part of software development (27:26) Infrastructure investment below 10% kills companies (29:39) Changes in regulations that affect software companies (31:36) How much should organizations spend on ‘platformization’ (36:00) Why teams should run at 70% capacity, not 100% (40:15) Product vs engineering responsibilities (42:04) Titus’ hot take on AI (44:55) Where to find the paper Follow Titus on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tituswinters/ Follow Rebecca on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rmurphey/

  • S3 · E25
    Jul 22, 2025 · 36 min

    How to hire normal engineers and help them do great work with Charity Majors from Honeycomb

    In this episode of Engineering Unblocked, Rebecca talks with Charity Majors, CTO of Honeycomb, to explore the myths of engineering productivity and the importance of building systems that enable “normal” engineers to succeed. Charity Majors tears down the myths of engineering exceptionalism — challenging the tech industry's worship of “10x developers” and advocating for systems that empower everyday engineers. She reveals how true organizational effectiveness emerges from resilient teams and a genuine connection between technical work and business strategy. Find the transcript at: https://www.swarmia.com/podcast/charity-majors-honeycomb/ Timestamps (0:00) Introductions (1:26) Hiring normal engineers over the '10x developer' (4:40) The fundamental attribution error: looking at individuals over the system (6:24) What non-engineering leadership need to know about engineering (7:28) The ingredients of a normal-engineer optimized system (8:40) Why diverse teams are resilient teams (9:26) What creates 10x leverage? (11:42) Developer productivity metrics and what actually matters (14:20) Charity's take on the 'sh*t umbrella' school of management (16:30) How Honeycomb creates space for productivity to happen (19:28) The IC to manager journey (21:44) Why becoming a manager out of reaction can harm your team (23:19) Is the engineering manager level being eliminated? (25:23) Going back to being an IC isn't career limiting (30:45) Why Charity chooses to speak up and out (32:00) Charity's current hot-not-hot-take on the software industry Follow Charity on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charity-majors/ Follow Rebecca on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rmurphey/

  • S3 · E24
    Jun 30, 2025 · 45 min

    Growing engineering headcount in the world of AI with Allan Leinwand, CTO of Webflow

    In this episode of Engineering Unblocked, Rebecca sits down with Allan Leinwand, Chief Technology Officer at Webflow and serial engineering leader who has scaled teams at Slack, ServiceNow, and Shopify. Allan shares his unique perspective on what it takes to be a successful “scaling CTO” — the type of leader who comes in at inflection points to help companies hockey-stick their growth. Allan also offers insights on navigating the AI revolution in engineering — from how it’s changing the hiring process and accelerating junior developer growth, to using it for everything from code completion to writing performance reviews. With his background spanning from early Cisco networking to modern SaaS platforms, Allan brings a unique long-term perspective on technology evolution and what it means to build engineering organizations that can scale to serve millions of users worldwide. Find the transcript at: https://www.swarmia.com/podcast/allan-leinwand-webflow/ Timestamps (0:00) Introductions (1:37) Allan's role as CTO (6:04) Staying in touch with the reality of software engineers (8:40) Similarities between leadership roles (11:09) Encountering founder mentality (13:00) The key to success as a CTO (16:23) How Webflow uses AI (19:37) How AI is affecting the hiring process (21:44) Hiring juniors (25:35) How AI is changing other roles (27:22) Webflow's approach to performance management (32:32) Mitigation strategies to maintain productivity (36:27) How Allan approaches reorgs (39:46) Who Allan feels accountable to (42:58) Creating a culture of accountability Follow Allan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aleinwand/ Follow Rebecca on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rmurphey/

  • S3 · E23
    Jun 24, 2025 · 42 min

    Navigating developer productivity at Netflix with Kathryn Koehler

    In this episode of Engineering Unblocked, Rebecca sits down with Kathryn Koehler, Director of Developer Productivity at Netflix, to explore the unique challenges of scaling engineering at a 20-year-old company. The conversation dives deep into the complexities of building versus buying solutions, managing migrations across a multi-repo environment, and maintaining Netflix’s culture of freedom and responsibility, while providing the standardization that enables productivity at scale. Kathryn offers practical insights on everything from measuring productivity (hint: it’s not about lines of code) to navigating the current AI hype cycle with a level head. Find the transcript at: https://www.swarmia.com/podcast/kathryn-koehler-netflix/ Timestamps (0:00) Introductions (1:14) Kathryn's background and journey to Netflix (5:27) Solving problems at a 20-year-old company (9:01) Defining productivity and platform (13:05) Kathryn's approach to standardization (16:50) How Netflix handles migrations (20:36) Deciding what to work on (23:26) Maintaining utility per engineer (27:36) The importance of mindset (31:25) Metrics of productivity (36:25) What Kathryn is accountable for (37:50) Kathryn's thoughts on AI Follow Kathryn on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kakoehler/ Follow Rebecca on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rmurphey/

  • S3 · E22
    Jun 11, 2025 · 42 min

    Preserving culture and delivery speed through growth with Julianna Lamb from Stytch

    In this episode of Engineering Unblocked, Rebecca sits down with Julianna Lamb, co-founder and CTO of Stytch, to explore the challenges of building and scaling engineering culture at a fast-growing startup. Julianna shares her journey from Plaid to founding an authentication and fraud prevention platform, and dives deep into the cultural decisions that shaped Stytch's 30-person engineering team. From establishing quality practices and developer experience from day one to navigating the balance between speed and reliability, Julianna offers practical insights on maintaining culture through growth. They also discuss how AI is reshaping engineering interviews and the evolving role of junior developers in 2025. Find the transcript at: https://www.swarmia.com/podcast/julianna-lamb-stytch/ Timestamps (0:00) Introductions (0:32) Julianna's background and path to Stytch (3:08) About the structure of Stytch (5:30) Julianna's approach to team growth (9:30) Early investments as a start-up (12:36) About Stytch's culture (17:10) Ensuring quality through testing (19:58) Ownership of internal tooling (22:24) Maintaining a culture of speed (25:09) Managing quality through growth (28:23) The importance of culture fit (31:53) AI's impact on junior engineers (35:00) How Stytch interviews in 2025 (40:32) Julianna's ambitions for the future Follow Julianna on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliannaelamb/ Follow Rebecca on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rmurphey/

  • S3 · E21
    Jun 4, 2025 · 49 min

    Developer productivity drivers and detractors with Max Kanat-Alexander from Capital One

    In this episode, Rebecca sits down with Max Kanat-Alexander, Executive Distinguished Engineer for Developer Experience at Capital One, to explore the nuances of developer productivity and experience. The conversation dives deep into what actually drives — and what kills — productivity in engineering organizations. Max shares hard-won insights about why most developer experience initiatives fail (hint: it’s about not understanding your users), the critical difference between being productive as individuals versus as teams and organizations, and why treating engineers as “ticket takers” destroys software quality. Find the transcript at: https://www.swarmia.com/podcast/max-kanat-alexander-capital-one/ Timestamps (0:00) Introductions (0:48) Max’s journey to Capital One (2:58) Unsuccessful developer productivity (5:37) Doing the ‘right’ work (11:01) Ticket-taker culture (15:25) Drivers of productivity (20:32) Performing KTLO work (25:40) Drivers and detractors of effective software delivery (33:16) Setting goals (40:42) The future of coding with AI (46:36) Max’s advice to junior engineers Follow Max on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mkanat/ Follow Rebecca on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rmurphey/

  • S1 · E20
    Jan 3, 2025 · 42 min

    The science of developer experience with Kristen Foster-Marks from Depot

    In today’s episode, Rebecca chats with Kristen Foster-Marks, Head of Developer Experience at Depot. They discuss questionable “ghost engineer” research, why ethical, rigorous studies matter, and how developer experience makes a difference—even in a tough economy. Find the transcript at: https://www.unblocked.fm/episodes/kristen-foster-marks-depot/ Timestamps (0:00) Introductions (0:56) Kristen’s role at Depot (3:44) Defining science in developer experience (8:56) The “ghost engineers” controversy (16:02) Balancing peer review with research (19:17) What Kristen wants from quality research (22:09) Why developer experience matters (25:46) Developer experience in the modern world (29:58) The need for empirical studies (34:23) How sample sizes affect research validity (37:18) Replicating qualitative research (39:18) Applying research in practice Follow Kristen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristenfostermarks/ Follow Rebecca on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rmurphey/

  • S1 · E19
    Dec 16, 2024 · 46 min

    The state of DORA and developer productivity with Nathen Harvey from Google Cloud

    In today’s episode, Rebecca talks with Nathen Harvey who leads the DORA group at Google Cloud. Nathen shares insights from the 10th annual DORA report, covering topics like the relationship between AI adoption and software stability, the importance of transformational leadership, and the role of quality documentation. Find the transcript at: https://www.unblocked.fm/episodes/nathen-harvey-google-cloud/ Timestamps (0:00) Introductions (0:24) Nathen’s journey to DORA (3:21) The 10th annual DORA report (6:20) How DORA collects data on AI (11:52) Testing hypotheses with qualitative data (13:49) Communicating technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders (20:04) The importance of transformational leadership (26:08) Qualifying productivity and value in developers (32:15) About quality documentation (35:45) Handling engineers who are afraid of DORA (38:55) Setting goals and continuous improvement Follow Nathen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathen/ Follow Rebecca on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rmurphey/ Links and mentions • DORA Accelerate State of DevOps report: https://cloud.google.com/resources/devops/state-of-devops

  • S1 · E18
    Sep 4, 2024 · 44 min

    Mastering operational health with Iccha Sethi from Vanta

    In today’s episode, Rebecca talks with Iccha Sethi, the new VP of Engineering at Vanta. They discuss taking stock of an engineering organization as a new VP, how technical engineering managers need to be, and her work at Github, Atlassian, Invision, and now Vanta around operational health. Find the transcript at: https://www.unblocked.fm/episodes/iccha-sethi-vanta Timestamps (0:00) Introductions (0:52) About Vanta (4:55) Engineering and cultural challenges (10:50) Operational health for platform teams (15:19) Communicating with non-tech leaders (18:53) How Vanta handles incidents (23:36) On strategic remediation and incidents (29:14) Involving everyone in the conversation (33:19) Common operational health mistakes (37:06) About being an approachable VPE (40:44) Practices to manage team meetings Follow Iccha on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/icchasethi Follow Rebecca on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rmurphey/ Links and mentions • Vanta: https://www.vanta.com/

  • #17
    Aug 8, 2024 · 45 min

    Rising to engineering leadership challenges at Honeycomb with Emily Nakashima from Honeycomb

    Emily Nakashima, VPE at Honeycomb, shares her experience about the hard choices an engineering leader has to make about how to structure — and sometimes restructure — their engineering org. Emily and Rebecca talk cross-team collaboration, emphasizing eng as an equal partner to other functions, and mistakes that seemed like such a good idea at the time. Find the transcript at: https://www.unblocked.fm/episodes/emily-nakashima-honeycomb/ Timestamps (0:00) Introductions (0:49) Emily’s journey to Honeycomb (4:45) Observability vs. Monitoring (7:55) About being VPE at Honeycomb (10:13) What makes Honeycomb unique (15:50) About Honeycomb’s structuring strategy (19:20) Cross-team collaboration (23:57) Examples of cross-team collaboration (26:20) About ownership challenges (29:01) Setting goals (33:41) Hiring software engineers (38:26) Pros and cons of ‘culture fit’ (42:35) Emily’s hot take on tech Follow Emily on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eanakashima/ Follow Rebecca on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rmurphey/ Links and mentions • Honeycomb: https://www.honeycomb.io/

  • S2 · E16
    May 28, 2024 · 48 min

    What makes a Platform Team work with Mason Jones from Zapier

    Mason Jones recently started a new role at Zapier, where he’s bringing his platform leadership experience from Lattice and Credit Karma. In this episode, Mason shares his thoughts on what makes a platform team work, common tradeoffs in platform development, and the challenges of making your team’s work visible and understandable to the whole organization. Find the transcript at: https://www.unblocked.fm/episodes/mason-jones-zapier/ Timestamps (0:00) Introductions (0:39) Mason’s journey to Zapier (4:39) How Mason joined the platform team (8:48) Naming teams (11:10) The mechanics of reorienting (15:46) Transitioning from infrastructure to platform (20:44) Goal-setting using data (24:39) Mason’s take on product managers (28:48) Detangling a monolith into services (33:49) Federating vs. centralizing (37:04) How Mason approaches standardization (41:22) How to communicate (44:58) The value of case studies (47:08) What Mason wants to achieve in a year Follow Mason on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/masonjones/ Follow Rebecca on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rmurphey/ Links and mentions • Zapier: https://zapier.com/ • Credit Karma: https://www.creditkarma.com/

  • S2 · E15
    May 13, 2024 · 42 min

    Pulling off a multi-month tech debt paydown project with Alice Bartlett from Financial Times

    Alice Bartlett, Tech Director for Customer Products at the Financial Times, shares what it takes to introduce modern technology to a 136-year-old company and how to successfully lead significant efforts to re-architect understandable but unfortunate decisions of the past. In this episode, Rebecca and Alice dig deep on one of those decisions and how she got the work funded and how she got the work done. Find the transcript at: https://www.unblocked.fm/episodes/alice-bartlett-financial-times/ Timestamps (0:00) Introductions (1:06) Alice’s journey to the FT (5:17) About the FT’s pink paper (7:20) The FT’s history of innovation (11:52) Organizational changes at the FT (13:54) How Alice fixed an architectural flaw (19:34) The importance of communication (24:21) Changing an overly-complicated system (27:02) Blameless culture (29:15) How Alice keeps engagement high (32:40) Maintaining the new system (34:53) All-use cases and bugs (39:19) Alice’s take on tech Follow Alice on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alicebartlett/ Follow Rebecca on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rmurphey/ Links and mentions • Financial Times: https://www.ft.com/ • The Pragmatic Programmer: https://www.amazon.com/Pragmatic-Programmer-Journeyman-Master/dp/020161622X

  • S2 · E14
    Apr 30, 2024 · 32 min

    The evolution of data engineering in the age of AI with Colleen Tartow from VAST Data

    Colleen Tartow, Field CTO and Head of Strategy at VAST Data, shares her experience from years in data engineering leadership roles. In this episode, Rebecca and Colleen talk about how “data” has evolved over the years, how AI is turning everything we know about data upside down, and how a PhD in Astrophysics got her started on this path. Find the transcript at: https://www.unblocked.fm/episodes/colleen-tartow-vast/ Timestamps (0:00) Introductions (0:44) Colleen’s background (3:01) About VAST’s approach (7:18) Unique challenges of data engineering (10:56) Setting reasonable expectations (13:34) The importance of process (16:29) The future of data engineering (21:00) What Colleen misses about engineering (22:39) How to set goals for a data organization (25:58) Colleen’s perspective on people in business (29:58) Colleen’s unusual path to data Follow Colleen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colleen-tartow-phd/ Follow Rebecca on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rmurphey/ Links and mentions • VAST Data: https://www.vastdata.com/

  • S2 · E3
    Apr 8, 2024 · 38 min

    Building scaleups without hero culture with Andrea Corey from Homebase

    Andrea Corey is a VP of Engineering for platform engineering at Homebase. In today’s episode, Rebecca and Andrea talk about Andrea’s experience in working at scaleups, the lessons she’s learned, the pitfalls she’s trained herself to avoid, and some of the biggest problems leaders need to solve as their organization grows. Find the transcript at: https://www.unblocked.fm/episodes/andrea-corey-homebase/ Timestamps (0:00) Introductions (0:46) Andrea’s background (4:37) Unlocking potential among teams (7:02) About Homebase’s team strategy (11:26) Tips to make ideas a reality (15:20) How Andrea manages multiple teams (18:11) Countering hero culture (21:44) Incident handling (25:19) Setting goals around incidents (27:23) Avoiding past mistakes (33:45) When to federate vs. centralize (37:01) Who Andrea wants to be Follow Andrea on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreacorey/ Follow Rebecca on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rmurphey/ Links and mentions • Homebase: https://joinhomebase.com/ • FreshBooks: https://www.freshbooks.com/ • Eloqua: https://www.oracle.com/cx/marketing/automation/

  • S2 · E12
    Mar 20, 2024 · 46 min

    Change: It’s a long game with Liz Hustedt from ActBlue

    Liz Hustedt is a Senior Engineering Manager at ActBlue, an American political action committee and fundraising platform established serving left-leaning and Democratic nonprofits and politicians. In today’s episode, Rebecca and Liz talk about how Liz’s early experience as an ICU nurse shaped her leadership skills and style, and about managing change in a way that’s empathetic to where the organization is at the moment. Find the transcript at: https://www.unblocked.fm/episodes/liz-hustedt-actblue Timestamps (00:00) Introductions (00:50) Liz’s background (04:00) About ActBlue and Liz’s experience there (08:55) Understanding team health (12:35) Building trust (15:15) Roadmap planning (20:07) How Liz and her team are evaluated (21:21) About outcome-driven goals (26:26) Tips to transition towards outcome-driven goals (28:59) Skills needed in management (34:34) Managing through change (40:50) Milestones and who Liz wants to be Follow Liz on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lizhustedt/ Follow Rebecca on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rmurphey/ Links and mentions • ActBlue: https://secure.actblue.com/

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