Leadership Launchpad

Matt Gjertsen - Better Every Day Studios
  • 0.0 (0)
  • ADMINISTRACIÓN
  • CADA DOS SEMANAS

Welcome to the Leadership Launchpad where we help technical managers improve themselves, their teams, and their organizations. Host Matt Gjertsen — former Air Force instructor pilot and head of training and development at SpaceX — brings hard-won lessons from the world's most demanding organizations to help new managers lead with clarity and confidence. Each episode cuts through the noise with practical frameworks, real stories, and straight talk on what it actually takes to build high-performing teams in aerospace, defense, and beyond. Whether you're managing engineers, navigating organizational chaos, or just trying not to let your team down, Leadership Launchpad gives you the tools to get better every day.

  1. HACE 4 DÍAS

    The Data Problem No One Solved with Austin Spiegel

    Most teams don’t realize they’re missing critical data until something goes wrong. In this episode, Austin Spiegel, co-founder and CTO of Sift and former SpaceX engineer, dives into why telemetry, simple in concept, a value and a timestamp, can become a massive problem in hardware. Miss even a fraction of a second, and you lose the story. Software engineers have plenty of tools to solve this. Hardware engineers haven’t, until now. We also talk leadership, what it’s like stepping into management early, why teams can actually be too flat, and how your role shifts from doing the work to connecting context. On hiring, Austin explains why pedigree doesn’t equal talent, and how Sift focuses on practical, real-world ability. And throughout, one theme emerges: speed. Not just moving fast, but learning and iterating faster than anyone else. If you’re building complex systems or leading technical teams, this one hits on a lot of things that don’t usually get said out loud. Episode Highlights 00:00 What telemetry actually is (and why it fails) 05:07 Why hardware never got its “Datadog moment” 12:05 The real challenge of high-frequency data 17:43 Becoming a manager too early at SpaceX 22:27 Interviewing for skills and values over pedigree. 26:59 The shift from doing work to providing context 31:32 Motivating engineers through customer impact Key Takeaways Telemetry is simple in theory but breaks at scale and speed.Hardware teams lack the modern data tools software teams take for granted.Flat organizations can create decision bottlenecks.Great managers connect context more than they give answers.Pedigree is a weak signal, practical ability matters more.Interviews should mirror the actual job, not abstract problems.Speed is really about learning faster than everyone else.Engineers move faster when they’re closer to the customer. Links & Resources Austin Spiegel LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/austin-spiegel/ Sift Website: https://www.siftstack.com/ Matt Gjertsen Website: https://www.bettereverydaystudios.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewgjertsen/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BetterEveryDayStudios

    36 min

  2. 31 MAR

    Why Constraints Make Teams Better with Dr. Thomas Zurbuchen

    Most technical teams think they have a technology problem. They usually don’t. In this episode, Dr. Thomas Zurbuchen, former head of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, talks about what actually goes wrong after overseeing dozens of missions and tens of billions in spend. We get into why canceling missions isn’t failure. It’s what makes risk possible in the first place. If you don’t kill things, one bad bet can quietly consume everything around it. He also breaks down something that feels backwards at first. Constraints are what make teams better. Not more time. Not more people. Not more budget. Constraints. There’s a moment where he talks about realizing he could actually destroy teams by giving them more funding. That shift from “provide resources” to “protect focus” shows up again and again in how he thinks about leadership. We also get into what happens as organizations scale. How they drift toward safety. How bureaucracy creeps in without anyone intending it. And why speed is usually the first thing you lose. On the team side, we talk about why adding people when you’re behind often makes things worse, not better. And how much of leadership is just making sure the right people are in the right roles, not trying to turn everyone into something they’re not. There’s also a really practical piece on creating a culture where ideas get challenged hard, without people feeling attacked. What that actually looks like in a room, and why most teams get that balance wrong. And probably the biggest takeaway: It’s not the technology. It’s the people system around it. If you’re leading engineers, running complex projects, or trying to move faster inside a system that keeps slowing you down, this one will feel very familiar. Episode Highlights00:00 Why canceling missions enables risk 06:40 How organizations drift toward safety 12:05 Constraints vs resources 18:20 Why adding people slows you down 24:10 Getting the right people in the right roles 29:30 Attacking ideas not people 34:45 The real reason projects fail Key TakeawaysConstraints drive innovation more than resources ever will.Adding people to a late project usually makes it later.Most failures are people problems, not technical ones.You can’t turn every leader into every type of leader.If ideas aren’t being challenged, you’re not moving fast enough. Dr. Thomas ZurbuchenLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zurbuchen/ Website thomaszurbuchen.comfederationspeakers.com Matt GjertsenWebsite: https://www.bettereverydaystudios.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewgjertsen/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BetterEveryDayStudios

    36 min

  3. 24 MAR

    How the Best Teams Drive Innovation with Matt Gjertsen

    Most people ask what makes SpaceX different. It's a fair question. But the answer isn't what most people expect. In this solo episode, Matt breaks down the two qualities that separate organizations that thrive in chaos from the ones that get buried by it — and why most teams are unknowingly doing both of these things wrong. The trigger was Jared Isaacman's changes to the Artemis program and a framing that came out of the Off Nominal podcast: nobody said they were the constraint. So Isaacman said, fine — let's go faster and find out who is. That's not just a NASA story. That's a story about how high-performing teams actually work. The first quality is being willing to push people hard enough that they fail. Not because failure is the goal, but because failure is the only way to find the constraint. If everyone's comfortable, you don't actually know what's holding the team back. You just think you do. The second quality is what happens next. Once you find the constraint, you have to disregard hierarchy and throw whatever resources are required at that one thing. Because by definition, fixing it raises the ceiling for the entire system. Then you find the next one and do it again. This is what founder mode actually looks like in practice. Not chaos. Not ignoring process. It's knowing what the constraint is at all times, and having the authority and willingness to go solve it personally. There's also a piece here on trust that Matt keeps coming back to. You can't push a team to failure in an environment where people are afraid to admit they're failing. The job isn't to make people comfortable. It's to make them comfortable being uncomfortable. If you're trying to figure out why your team keeps hitting the same ceiling, this episode is probably going to feel very familiar. Key Takeaways You can't find the constraint if you never push the system past its limits.Trust isn't about comfort — it's about making people comfortable with discomfort.Once you find the constraint, hierarchy stops mattering. Resources go there, full stop.The difference between what's impossible for a director and easy for a VP is just authority, not complexity.Every high-performing team is doing these two things: finding constraints and eliminating them, over and over.

    18 min

  4. 10 MAR

    Going from Buddy to Boss with Brian Ippolito

    Most engineers don’t start their careers thinking, “I can’t wait to manage people.” They want to build things. Tinker. Solve hard problems. See hardware fly. In this episode, Brian Ippolito from Marotta Controls talks about what it’s been like to grow inside a third-generation aerospace company that grew from about 130 people to nearly 1,000 during his career. We talk about the moment you stop being someone’s peer and become their manager, and how uncomfortable that shift can be. Brian shares what actually changes when you move from leading a team to leading leaders, and why simple advice like “hit the forward button more” is harder to put into practice than it sounds. He also explains the very real “Bob from Valves” problem in manufacturing. When critical knowledge lives in one person’s head, it feels efficient until it becomes a risk. That’s part of the reason they built “Valve Camp,” an onboarding program that brings engineers, technicians, and even HR closer to the product so everyone understands the mission. Throughout the conversation, Brian reflects on how Marotta has kept its family-company culture while competing in aerospace and defense for more than 80 years, building hardware that has flown from the Apollo era to today’s heavy-lift rockets. If you are an engineer moving into management, leading technical teams, or trying to scale without losing what makes your company special, this episode is for you. Marotta Controls continues to grow across engineering, manufacturing, and support roles. If you want to work on aerospace systems that go from design to flight, take a look at their open positions. Episode Highlights00:00 From engineer to leader inside a growing aerospace company 07:45 The “buddy to boss” transition 11:30 Why delegation feels uncomfortable at first 14:42 Finding purpose when you stop doing the hands-on work 19:19 The “Bob from Valves” problem 24:40 Why documenting the “why” matters more than the “how” 27:13 Valve Camp and building technical talent from day one Key TakeawaysDelegation is a multi-year transition, not a flip of a switch.Technical leaders still need a way to “scratch the itch”, just maybe not at work.Tribal knowledge should constantly be converted into shared knowledge.Training isn’t overhead. It’s leverage.Culture compounds the same way leadership does. Brian Ippolito LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/brian-ippolitto-62325029Marotta Controls: https://marotta.com/ Matt Gjertsen Website: https://www.bettereverydaystudios.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewgjertsen/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BetterEveryDayStudios

    31 min

  5. 3 MAR

    Why Management Is Still the Hardest Problem with Casey Handmer

    Managing people is still the hardest problem in business. We’ve built rockets, nuclear reactors, and AI systems… but getting humans to coordinate? Still unsolved. In this episode, Casey Handmer talks about what leadership actually looks like when real stakes are involved when families depend on payroll, when bad decisions compound, and when “being liked” can quietly kill performance. He shares what he’s learned building Terraform Industries, why most management books aren’t that useful, and why firsthand accounts from people like General Groves hit differently. This conversation gets into hard feedback, demanding standards, and first principles thinking and why leaders need the social permission to push people without becoming jerks. If you care about building things that actually work, this one’s for you. If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to the show and share it with one person who’s building something hard. That’s how this grows. Terraform Industries is hiring across multiple technical roles. If you want to work on synthetic fuels, energy, and real world hardware problems, check out their website for open positions. Episode Highlights 00:00 Why management is still humanity’s unsolved problem 08:53 Managing people is kind of the perennial problem 15:06 Coaching high performers even when they’re better than you 18:13 “Being liked is optional. Succeeding is mandatory.” 21:39 How to argue hard without attacking the person 23:30 Why most teams don’t practice real first principles thinking 28:18 What makes outlier companies different 34:09 The power of simply being present as a leader 38:10 Terraform’s next milestones Takeaways Coordination is the real bottleneck in big problems.Avoiding short term discomfort creates long term damage.First principles thinking requires structure, not slogans.Coaching isn’t optional even for top talent.Leadership compounds over time. Small edges add up. If this conversation resonated with you, make sure you’re subscribed and send it to someone who needs to hear it. Terraform Industries is actively hiring engineers and operators who want to work on synthetic fuel, methanol production, and large scale energy systems. Learn more at their official site. Casey Handmer Website: https://www.caseyhandmer.com/X / Twitter: linkedin.com/in/casey-handmer-60183262LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/casey-handmer-60183262Terraform Industries: https://terraformindustries.com/ Matt Gjertsen Website: https://www.bettereverydaystudios.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewgjertsen/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BetterEveryDayStudios

    41 min

  6. 10 FEB

    How to Set Clear Expectations For Employees

    In this episode, Matt Gjertsen shares practical advice for managers on how to set clear expectations for their teams. Drawing from his experience as a former Air Force instructor pilot and talent development leader at SpaceX, he introduces the concept of "commander's intent," a military technique for effective delegation and communication. The episode breaks down the three essentials for communicating tasks: context (explaining the purpose and impact), outcome (defining what success looks like), and constraints (clarifying timelines, resources, and check-in points). Listeners will learn how these steps help ensure team members understand what is expected of them at work, leading to better engagement and performance.

    5 min

  7. 3 FEB

    3 Questions to Help Develop Your Employees

    In this episode of Leadership Launchpad, Matt Gjertsen shares practical strategies for developing talent within teams. Drawing on his military experience, Matt Gjertsen explains why building talent internally is often more effective than hiring externally. He emphasizes the importance of employee development in driving engagement and productivity, referencing Gallup research on workplace engagement. Matt introduces three simple questions leaders can use in one-on-one conversations to support employee growth: identifying one thing to improve, choosing an action to develop that skill, and setting a follow-up date. The episode offers actionable advice for managers looking to foster both team improvement and engagement.

    6 min

  8. 27 ENE

    Why Managers Need to Stop Talking

    In this episode, host Matt Gjertsen shares a personal story about a mistake made early in her management career—talking too much and not empowering her team members. She explains how new managers often feel the need to prove themselves and end up dominating conversations, which can undermine team trust and engagement. Matt offers practical advice on shifting from providing all the answers to asking questions and encouraging others to contribute. The episode highlights the importance of stepping back, listening more, and allowing team members to have a voice, ultimately fostering a stronger, more confident team.

    7 min
Ver todo (180)

Acerca de

Welcome to the Leadership Launchpad where we help technical managers improve themselves, their teams, and their organizations. Host Matt Gjertsen — former Air Force instructor pilot and head of training and development at SpaceX — brings hard-won lessons from the world's most demanding organizations to help new managers lead with clarity and confidence. Each episode cuts through the noise with practical frameworks, real stories, and straight talk on what it actually takes to build high-performing teams in aerospace, defense, and beyond. Whether you're managing engineers, navigating organizational chaos, or just trying not to let your team down, Leadership Launchpad gives you the tools to get better every day.

Información

  • Creador
    Matt Gjertsen - Better Every Day Studios
  • Años de actividad
    2020 - 2026
  • Episodios
    180
  • Clasificación
    Apto
  • Copyright
    © Better Every Day Studios - Matthew Gjertsen
  • Mostrar sitio web
    Leadership Launchpad

También te podría interesar