Engineering Unblocked Swarmia

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/

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/

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/

Scott Bonneau is the EVP of Product and Operations at Karat, the end-to-end solution for technical hiring. Before Karat, Scott has worked in various engineering and HR roles at Google and Indeed.

In today’s episode, Rebecca and Scott discuss Scott’s career at the intersection of technology and people, how leaders can win the trust of a team that they’ve inherited, and how the tech industry has changed over the past 30 years.

Find the transcript at: https://www.unblocked.fm/episodes/scott-bonneau-karat

Timestamps
(00:00) Introductions
(02:18) Scott’s journey to his current role
(07:10) About Karat
(11:05) The role of EVP Product & Operations at Karat
(15:43) How to keep everyone close to the ultimate company goal
(22:15) Navigating low-trust environments
(27:15) What has changed in tech industry during Scott’s career
(30:40) How AI is going to change in the tech industry — especially for junior engineers
(35:35) What is changing with regards to the hire-ability of developers
(38:01) Where you can find Scott play music

Follow Scott on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bonneau/

Follow Rebecca on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rmurphey/

Links and mentions
• Karat: https://karat.com/
• Indeed: https://www.indeed.com/
• The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: https://www.tablegroup.com/product/dysfunctions/

Lena Reinhard has been a software engineer, a cofounder, and a vice president of engineering, including leadership stints at Travis CI and CircleCI.

These days, she’s an engineering leadership coach and consultant. On today’s episode, Rebecca and Lena talk about those experiences, and how they’ve shaped Lena’s perspective of engineering management and managing with metrics.

Find the transcript at: https://www.unblocked.fm/episodes/lena-reinhard-introducing-metrics-to-an-engineering-organization

Timestamps
(00:00) Introductions
(00:49) How Lena accidentally got into tech from a finance background
(02:33) Lena’s current role as an engineering leadership coach
(03:00) What drew Lena into developer tools
(05:10) Maintaining situational awareness as a leader of a large engineering organization
(06:15) The two purposes of engineering metrics
(12:20) How Lena helps engineering organizations drive visibility
(17:19) Leading indicators to a visibility problem
(21:23) Introducing engineering metrics in a low-trust environment
(27:25) How (not) to roll out a metrics program
(28:25) The failure mode in running employee engagement surveys
(30:37) Lena’s biggest learnings in rolling out metrics programs
(36:16) How to get in touch with Lena

Where to find Lena
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lenareinhard/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/lrnrd

Where to find Rebecca
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rmurphey/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/rmurphey

Links and mentions
• Lena's website: https://www.lenareinhard.com/
• What engineering metrics should I use? A guide for engineering managers, directors, and leaders: https://www.lenareinhard.com/articles/what-engineering-metrics-should-i-use-a-guide-for-engineering-managers-directors-and-vps
• How to roll out and use engineering metrics successfully: https://www.lenareinhard.com/articles/how-to-introduce-engineering-metrics-successfully

Grant Jenks is a Senior Staff Software Engineer at LinkedIn.

In this episode of Engineering Unblocked, Rebecca and Grant discuss how LinkedIn approaches the challenges of keeping its software engineers (and others) happy and productive, and how the Engineering Insights organization informs its work and the work of teams across LinkedIn.

Find the transcript at: https://www.unblocked.fm/episodes/grant-jenks-linkedin-like-a-fitbit-for-engineering-teams

Timestamps
(00:00) Introductions
(01:00) Grant’s current role and his career journey
(03:51) The origins of the productivity organization at LinkedIn
(05:22) From building “tools” to maintaining critical development infrastructure
(06:40) Incorporating commodity tools
(08:06) Choosing which problems to solve
(09:21) How the team’s metrics inform work across LinkedIn
(12:05) Using the metrics to help teams set goals
(13:30) Choosing the right metrics for the problem
(15:32) Unique user problems at scale
(18:07) Different problems and different perceptions for different personas
(23:09) Working with productivity champions at the team level
(23:40) Defining “happiness” and soliciting feedback
(28:05) Spotting trends in the sentiment data, and choosing the right cadence
(30:26) The product is productivity, and users can do surprising things
(34:00) Making change happen at scale
(38:33) Using metrics in a productivity emergency

Where to find Grant
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/grantjenks/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/Grant_Jenks

Where to find Rebecca
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rmurphey/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/rmurphey

Links and mentions
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/
• GitHub Codespaces: https://github.com/features/codespaces
• Horizontal initiatives at LinkedIn: https://engineering.linkedin.com/blog/2018/03/scaling-decision-making-across-teams-within-linkedin-engineering
• Artifactory: https://jfrog.com/artifactory/