Level-up Engineering

Apex Lab
  • 4.5 (11)
  • MANAGEMENT
Level-up Engineering

Level-Up Engineering brings you actionable management insights straight from top tech leaders. Each episode tackles real challenges faced by engineering managers—like hiring, motivating teams, and scaling organizations—and shares how they have navigated them. Discover best practices in management and leadership to master the art of understanding people and organizations, just as well as you understand code. Brought to you by **Apex Lab**, a software development agency creating stress-free, expert-led digital products. Tune in to level up your skills and take your team to new heights! Learn more at [apexlab.io](https://www.apexlab.io/). Got feedback or want to be featured on **Level-Up Engineering**? Reach out to us at [podcast@apexlab.io](mailto:podcast@apexlab.io).

  1. Building a new engineering team by turning another one around - Tips from Tinder

    10/16/2024

    Building a new engineering team by turning another one around - Tips from Tinder

    Transforming teams doesn’t go without its challenges. Let’s look at Tinder’s example.  In this episode, Chris O'Brien, Director of Engineering at Tinder, shares his insights on building and leading engineering teams, particularly focusing on turning around existing teams. He discusses transforming teams, transitioning into a leadership role, Tinder’s culture and hiring process and a lot more. Sign up to the Level-up Engineering newsletter! In this interview we're covering: Building a new team by turning another one aroundTransitioning into a leadership roleTinder’s cultureKeeping business, customer and team needs alignedTinder’s hiring process Excerpt from the interview: “Change isn't easy for anyone, especially in the workplace where stability and predictability matter. Switching teams suddenly can be unsettling, and it takes time for people to adapt and build trust with their new colleagues. That's why I've always believed in prioritizing relationship-building. It's something my mentor taught me early on, and it's proven to be invaluable. When there's already a foundation of trust and camaraderie, transitions become smoother, and teams become stronger.”

    55 min
  2. Scaling Startups: Behind the Scenes of Fleetio’s Growth

    09/18/2024

    Scaling Startups: Behind the Scenes of Fleetio’s Growth

    Scaling engineering teams can happen in a lot of different ways. Let’s take a look at a real-life example, how Fleetio scaled their product and team over the years. Their Principal Software Engineer, Richard Young shares what challenges they faced, the strategies they implemented and gives valuable tips to those who consider joining or scaling a startup.  Sign up to the Level-up Engineering newsletter! In this interview we're covering: Fleetio’s approach to scalingFleetio’s approach to hiringMentorship programsScaling as a startupCross-functional collaborationBonus advice for scaling engineering teamsAdvice for engineers joining startups Excerpt from the interview: “Unlike many startups driven by external investor pressure to rapidly expand, Fleetio charted its own course, prioritizing autonomy and organic growth. This autonomy allowed us to make decisions aligned with our vision and pace of development, a significant draw for me when I joined the company. Navigating the demands of a small engineering team posed its own set of challenges. With just a handful of us, balancing the delivery of customer features with support across various departments like sales, marketing, and product marketing became crucial. Our engineering efforts weren't limited to coding; we had to be nimble in assisting other teams to ensure customer satisfaction and sustained growth.”

    44 min
  3. Beyond the Bias: The Truth About Remote Work vs. Returning to the Office

    05/15/2024

    Beyond the Bias: The Truth About Remote Work vs. Returning to the Office

    Liam Martin, Co-Founder of Time Doctor, debunks myths around remote work and shares valuable tips on managing remote engineering teams so they remain well-aligned in an asynchronous environment. Sign up to the Level-up Engineering newsletter! In this interview we're covering: Finding unbiased informationSocial implicationsState of remote workingAsynchronous team managementRemote work is here to stay Excerpt from the interview: "If you try to force employees back to the office, you'll likely end up with a team of B players, as the top talent will have the freedom to choose how they want to work. Right now, it's a seller's market, especially for engineers. For managers uncomfortable with leading a remote engineering team, I don't have any comforting solutions. The reality is, if you insist on running your engineering team from the office, it's likely to fail. It's a tough truth, but there's no way around it."

    48 min
  4. Core Engineering Principles for Customer-Centric Design

    04/17/2024

    Core Engineering Principles for Customer-Centric Design

    Ian Tien, CEO and Co-Founder of Mattermost, talks about these core principles and their impact on his company. He highlights the importance of customer obsession, self-awareness, transparency and earning trust, just to name a few. Sign up to the Level-up Engineering newsletter! In this interview we're covering: Customer-centric approach and its impactEngineering principlesFollowing the engineering principles in day-to-day processesStories of the engineering principles in real life The role of managersFinding the right engineering principles for MattermostAre engineering principles set in stone? Excerpt from the interview: “Great companies are always changing and improving. We never reach a point where we say, "That's it, we've learned everything we need to know." Our values and principles are always evolving as we learn more and as our needs change. For example, we used to have a principle called high standards. It was important when we were struggling with quality issues early on. But as we improved our quality and introduced other principles like earned trust, having high standards started to cause confusion. High standards were sometimes in conflict with our other values. For instance, it clashed with customer obsession when we needed to release features quickly. It also conflicted with high impact when we focused too much on polishing things instead of delivering important changes. So, we decided to remove high standards from our principles. We realized that its role could be filled by other values and that it was causing more confusion than clarity. This shows that our values aren't set in stone. We're always willing to reassess and make changes when needed. Our goal is to create a culture that meets the needs of our team and our customers both now and in the future.”

    51 min
  5. We’ve Adopted Modern Practices, Why isn’t Product Development Great yet? - Challenges in Product Development

    03/13/2024

    We’ve Adopted Modern Practices, Why isn’t Product Development Great yet? - Challenges in Product Development

    Gil Broza, Value Delivery & Agile Leadership Expert, gives actionable advice for leaders who want truly great product development. He emphasizes the importance of putting people first, creating a culture of continuous improvement and a lot more. Sign up to the Level-up Engineering newsletter! In this interview we're covering: Why isn’t product development great yet?Improving your software delivery system step by stepPutting people first in practiceThe right mindset for better product deliveryValue delivery system - Next stepsFitness for purposeRevising your value delivery systemReal-life examples of the strategies Excerpt from the interview: "Success in software development requires continuous improvement, yet many companies seem to plateau after adopting certain methodologies. Few actively strive to enhance their practices throughout the development lifecycle. New methodologies like Scrum, Kanban, and DevOps emerge, but their adoption is often partial and not fully effective. Implementing changes can create unintended consequences, leading to stalled progress. (...) Oftentimes, there's no unified approach to developing successful products, which is concerning for the industry's future success."

    1h 9m
  6. Behind the scenes of a successful mentoring program - Mentoring tips for tech leaders

    02/07/2024

    Behind the scenes of a successful mentoring program - Mentoring tips for tech leaders

    Magda Miu, Senior Engineering Manager at Adobe, discusses the importance of mentoring and shares her experiences as both a mentor and mentee. She highlights the benefits of mentoring, explains how she created a program at Adobe, and offers tips for others looking to organize something similar in their organization. Sign up to the Level-up Engineering newsletter! In this interview we're covering: Magda’s personal experience with mentoringHow to seek mentorsMagda’s mentoring program at AdobeKey takeaways from the program Excerpt from the interview: "Many people view mentoring as a one-way street, and understanding that it’s actually a two-way street only comes after you’ve been on both sides: being a mentee and a mentor later on. As a mentee, you may think your mentors won’t gain anything from helping you, but the reality is different. Being a mentor improves your communication skills, so that you can resonate with all sorts of people. You also gain knowledge, because your mentee will share stories and challenges from their industry. If there’s an age gap between the mentor and mentee, it’s also a chance to get new perspectives from a different age group. Last but not least, the feeling of helping others and giving back is just extremely rewarding. It’s an amazing feeling to see your mentee improve in their career."

    58 min
  7. Leave Toxic Work Environments in 2023: Spotting and Fixing Unhealthy Work Cultures

    01/24/2024

    Leave Toxic Work Environments in 2023: Spotting and Fixing Unhealthy Work Cultures

    Dave Yeager, Director of Data Infrastructure at Recurve, shares aspects of healthy organizations, lists some signs of unhealthy ones and gives you actionable tips that you can implement today to make your company a better place to work at. Sign up to the Level-up Engineering newsletter! In this interview we're covering: Creating healthy work environments in bigger vs. smaller organizationsSome aspects of a healthy cultureSpotting an unhealthy cultureThe impact of managersAdvice for managers Excerpt from the interview: “One thing I find very interesting about continuous integration is that it only works if the tests are successful. However, there are endless stories about engineers not understanding why the release failed on the test, so they change the test itself.  It’s a good example of a broken company culture - instead of being vulnerable and admitting there’s an unsolved problem that the team needs to address, we just twist the tests around to meet a deadline. This way, nobody’s going to learn anything. Pull requests should be an opportunity for engineers to walk each other through the task, discuss solutions and overcome potential hurdles.”

    1h 6m
  8. Implementing Agile in Big Corporations - Proven Tips from Salesforce

    01/10/2024

    Implementing Agile in Big Corporations - Proven Tips from Salesforce

    Mayakrishnan Chakkarapani, Senior Director of Software Engineering at Salesforce, shares interesting insights on how his organization uses Agile to meet business goals and empower developers while doing so. Sign up to the Level-up Engineering newsletter! In this interview we're covering: Agile in SalesforceSome benefits of implementing Agile What to keep in mind when implementing AgileHow to empower developers when following AgileSetting up and managing virtual teams Excerpt from the interview: "View your organization as a doctor and your customers as patients; getting your customers’ desired business outcomes means you treated a patient. If one of your patients needs surgery, you need to focus on ensuring they recover as quickly as possible. Agile is nothing but an operational procedure ensuring you’re doing the operation methodically and iteratively.  It means you’re running a diagnosis first, then you come up with various techniques, and finally, you perform the operation the best way possible.   But just because you have a thorough pre-surgery process, it doesn’t mean you can neglect postoperative care. You still have to monitor the patient, and if something seems off, you have to do the process all over again.  A lot of times, I’ve seen people taking Agile for granted, thinking it’ll solve everything on its own without thinking about the culture or empowering their teams. It leads them to just force people to do more, causing lots of engineers to burn out eventually. What happens with these dysfunctional organizations is that the operation may succeed because they followed Agile, but the patient still died."

    58 min
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4.5
out of 5
11 Ratings

About

Level-Up Engineering brings you actionable management insights straight from top tech leaders. Each episode tackles real challenges faced by engineering managers—like hiring, motivating teams, and scaling organizations—and shares how they have navigated them. Discover best practices in management and leadership to master the art of understanding people and organizations, just as well as you understand code. Brought to you by **Apex Lab**, a software development agency creating stress-free, expert-led digital products. Tune in to level up your skills and take your team to new heights! Learn more at [apexlab.io](https://www.apexlab.io/). Got feedback or want to be featured on **Level-Up Engineering**? Reach out to us at [podcast@apexlab.io](mailto:podcast@apexlab.io).

Information

  • Creator
    Apex Lab
  • Years Active
    2019 - 2024
  • Episodes
    99
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2025 Apex Lab
  • Show Website
    Level-up Engineering

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