Engineering Unblocked

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

    5 DAYS AGO

    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
  2. Mastering operational health with Iccha Sethi from Vanta

    SEP 4

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

    AUG 8

    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
  4. What makes a Platform Team work with Mason Jones from Zapier

    MAY 28

    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/

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

    MAY 13

    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

    43 min
  6. The evolution of data engineering in the age of AI with Colleen Tartow from VAST Data

    APR 30

    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/

    33 min
  7. Building scaleups without hero culture with Andrea Corey from Homebase

    APR 8

    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/

    38 min
  8. Change: It’s a long game with Liz Hustedt from ActBlue

    MAR 20

    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/

    46 min
See All (19)

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 - 2024
  • Episodes
    19
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Swarmia
  • Show Website
    Engineering Unblocked

You Might Also Like

To listen to explicit episodes, sign in.

Stay up to date with this show

Sign in or sign up to follow shows, save episodes, and get the latest updates.
Select a country or region

Africa, Middle East, and India

Asia Pacific

Europe

Latin America and the Caribbean

The United States and Canada