Engineering Unblocked

Swarmia
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Engineering Unblocked

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.

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

    JUN 30

    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/

    46 min
  2. Navigating developer productivity at Netflix with Kathryn Koehler

    JUN 24

    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/

    43 min
  3. Preserving culture and delivery speed through growth with Julianna Lamb from Stytch

    JUN 11

    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/

    43 min
  4. Developer productivity drivers and detractors with Max Kanat-Alexander from Capital One

    JUN 4

    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/

    49 min
  5. The science of developer experience with Kristen Foster-Marks from Depot

    JAN 3

    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/

    43 min
  6. The state of DORA and developer productivity with Nathen Harvey from Google Cloud

    12/16/2024

    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

    47 min
  7. Mastering operational health with Iccha Sethi from Vanta

    09/04/2024

    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/

    45 min
  8. Rising to engineering leadership challenges at Honeycomb with Emily Nakashima from Honeycomb

    08/08/2024

    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/

    46 min
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About

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.

Information

  • Creator
    Swarmia
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2025
  • Episodes
    24
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Swarmia
  • Show Website
    Engineering Unblocked

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