• Rapid Prototyping, Lightning Pods & the End of PRDs: Redefining product development & EPD in the age of AI w/ Nissim Lehyani #223
    2025/06/10
    ABOUT NISSIM LEHYANI

    Nissim Lehyani is the Vice President of Product at Life360, where he leads product strategy for the family safety platform used by over 60 million users worldwide. With more than two decades of experience across startups, global tech companies, and entrepreneurial ventures, Nissim is known for scaling impactful products that blend technical depth with business strategy.

    Prior to Life360, he was Senior Director of Product at Indeed, where he oversaw a portfolio of 13 consumer products reaching 300M+ monthly users, and led a team of 40+ product managers across global markets. Nissim previously held leadership roles at GoDaddy, where he helped 18M+ SMBs grow their businesses through strategic partnerships with Facebook, Yelp, and Google.

    As a founder, he built and led two ventures: Shopial (acquired by Magento) and Urban Place, raising millions to support small businesses and entrepreneurs. He also brings deep technical roots from his engineering leadership at Cisco and early career in Israeli Military Intelligence.

    Nissim is a 2024 Product Leader Award winner and active mentor in the startup ecosystem through roles at Mixpanel and SV101 by ICON. He’s passionate about user-centric innovation, data-driven growth, and the intersection of AI, engineering, and product management.

    This episode is brought to you by Side – delivering award-winning QA, localization, player support, and tech services for the world’s leading games and technology brands.

    For over 30 years, Side has helped create unforgettable user experiences—from indies to AAA blockbusters like Silent Hill 2 and Baldur’s Gate 3.

    Learn more about Side’s global solutions at side.inc. SHOW NOTES:
    • How Nissin & Patrick got connected (2:19)
    • Nissin’s light bulb AI moment (4:03)
    • Building first & defining later (5:33)
    • How AI accelerates product iteration from months to hours & fills skill gaps (6:49)
    • Recognizing your AI aha moment (9:44)
    • Why it’s time to drop the “M” from MVP (11:21)
    • New expectations for the first iteration of a product (13:37)
    • Nissim’s #1 product principle (15:56)
    • Why prototyping is replacing PRDs (17:57)
    • Strategies for socializing a prototype-first workflow in your org (19:54)
    • Tactics for inspiring AI adoption: find one annoying thing & show vs. tell (22:22)
    • Rethinking product cadence and how product rituals are evolving (24:08)
    • Defining the “lightning pod” model (25:29)
    • How “lightning pods” change the dynamic between engineering, product & design (27:20)
    • A live AI product demo: recreating Nissim’s original aha moment (29:10)
    • Iterating product in real-time (31:06)
    • How Nissim evaluates code & product outcomes (33:38)
    • Rapid fire questions (34:15)
    This episode wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our incredible production team:

    Patrick Gallagher - Producer & Co-Host

    Jerry Li - Co-Host

    Noah Olberding - Associate Producer, Audio & Video Editor https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-olberding/

    Dan Overheim - Audio Engineer, Dan’s also an avid 3D printer - https://www.bnd3d.com/

    Ellie Coggins Angus - Copywriter, Check out her other work at https://elliecoggins.com/about/

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    39 分
  • No New Episode - But We Launched Something New... Introducing the ELC Forum!
    2025/06/03

    We just launched the ELC Forum — a new space for engineering leaders to dive deeper into real challenges and get peer support It’s a discussion board (like Reddit) but focused on eng leadership. We’re sharing takeaways from recent episodes and kicking off new discussions. Plus, AMAs with guests are coming soon. See you in the Forum!

    Click here to explore the forum, ask questions, & share insights and takeaways!

    https://elc.community/home/forum

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    2 分
  • From architect to AI exec: Scaling leadership, maintaining credibility & effective communication to non-technical execs w/ Prashant Ramarao #222
    2025/05/27

    ABOUT PRASHANT RAMARAO

    Prashant is a hands-on technology executive with extensive experience in software engineering, leading large organizations, specializing in AI / ML, and large-scale systems architecture. With advanced degrees in computer science and engineering leadership, he excels at defining technical strategies that align with business goals, delivering results, and fostering high-performing, cross-functional teams. He cares about engineering excellence, leveraging cutting-edge technology to solve complex problems and scale operations for long-term growth. He has a lifelong passion for learning and looks for opportunities to challenge the status quo to drive change. He loves the outdoors and is a self-proclaimed podaholic - going on long hikes in Bay Area while listening to his podcasts is one of his favorite activities.

    This episode is brought to you by Side – delivering award-winning QA, localization, player support, and tech services for the world’s leading games and technology brands.

    For over 30 years, Side has helped create unforgettable user experiences—from indies to AAA blockbusters like Silent Hill 2 and Baldur’s Gate 3.

    Learn more about Side’s global solutions at side.inc. SHOW NOTES:
    • Behind Prashant’s rapid leadership evolution (3:26)
    • Transitioning from IC to management: early steps and surprises (5:51)
    • Navigating the mindset shifts from tech expert to people leader (7:31)
    • Friction points in moving from informal to formal leadership (11:00)
    • Skills for communicating with less technical audiences (13:46)
    • Learning to talk with GMs & other non-technical leaders (16:32)
    • Frameworks for effective meeting planning (19:03)
    • Examples of communicating technical work to execs (20:08)
    • Learning the impact of the “observer effect” (21:59)
    • Incorporating feedback gathered by observing (27:03)
    • Strategies for maintaining technical credibility as a senior leader (29:29)
    • Why personal projects and experimentation matter for leadership growth (32:21)
    • How Prashant’s personal projects enhance technical credibility & leadership skills (36:59)
    • Rapid fire questions (37:57)
    This episode wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our incredible production team:

    Patrick Gallagher - Producer & Co-Host

    Jerry Li - Co-Host

    Noah Olberding - Associate Producer, Audio & Video Editor https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-olberding/

    Dan Overheim - Audio Engineer, Dan’s also an avid 3D printer - https://www.bnd3d.com/

    Ellie Coggins Angus - Copywriter, Check out her other work at https://elliecoggins.com/about/

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    44 分
  • The Startup Epoch: Rethinking Company Building & Defensibility in an AI World w/ Craig McLuckie #221
    2025/05/20

    AI is reshaping the fundamental economics of startups—lowering product development costs, compressing GTM cycles, and rewriting the rules of competition. In this episode, Craig McLuckie (Co-Founder & CEO @ Stacklok, co-creator of Kubernetes) unpacks “the epoch of the startup,” a moment of massive disruption where fast-moving founders have a unique edge over incumbents. We explore how Craig is navigating this new era from rethinking cost structure, value capture, and defensibility to leveraging open-source, community, and asymmetric advantages as core pillars of Stacklok’s strategy. Craig shares lessons from pivotal product shifts, frameworks for identifying moats, and the broader societal implications of AI-driven disruption. Whether you’re leading a startup, pivoting in the face of AI, or thinking about your next big move, this conversation offers a strategic playbook for thriving in today’s shifting landscape.

    How do you see AI reshaping the startup landscape? Join the discussion on our forum and share your insights, questions, and takeaways.

    ABOUT CRAIG MCLUCKIE

    Craig is the CEO and co-founder of Stacklok, where his team is working to tip AI code generation on its side, from vertical, closed solutions to horizontal, aligned systems. Craig was previously CEO and co-founder of Heptio, which was acquired by VMware in 2018; he has also led product and engineering teams at Google and Microsoft. Craig is a co-creator of Kubernetes and he bootstrapped and chaired the Cloud Native Computing Foundation. x

    This episode is brought to you by Side – delivering award-winning QA, localization, player support, and tech services for the world’s leading games and technology brands.

    For over 30 years, Side has helped create unforgettable user experiences—from indies to AAA blockbusters like Silent Hill 2 and Baldur’s Gate 3.

    Learn more about Side’s global solutions at side.inc.

    SHOW NOTES:
    • Why this moment is “the epoch of the startup” (2:03)
    • How AI shifts startup economics: from cost structures to value capture (4:18)
    • Why incumbents struggle during disruption—and how startups can win (8:17)
    • The origin story behind Stacklok & lessons from Craig’s pivot (11:04)
    • Frameworks for identifying asymmetric advantages as a founder (14:48)
    • How to map your unique asymmetric advantages to new opportunities and secure stakeholder buy-in (16:34)
    • Rethinking defensibility & value capture in the AI era (16:29)
    • How Craig applied cost, GTM & product perspectives to strategic pivots @ Stacklok (18:07)
    • Building investment theses: Aligning cultural strengths & asymmetric advantages with evolving opportunities (20:05)
    • Determining your startup’s investment themes (22:53)
    • Structuring experiments & validating opportunities (24:15)
    • Defensibility & building community-driven moats in early ideation phases (26:54)
    • Signals of early community-product alignment (31:24)
    • Conversation frameworks to assess asymmetric advantages (32:22)
    • Societal implications of AI disruption & the “startup epoch” (35:14)
    • Rapid fire questions (38:12)
    This episode wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our incredible production team:

    Patrick Gallagher - Producer & Co-Host

    Jerry Li - Co-Host

    Noah Olberding - Associate Producer, Audio & Video Editor https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-olberding/

    Dan Overheim - Audio Engineer, Dan’s also an avid 3D printer - https://www.bnd3d.com/

    Ellie Coggins Angus - Copywriter, Check out her other work at https://elliecoggins.com/about/

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    43 分
  • AMD’s unified hardware + software strategy & building an open-source AI ecosystem w/ Anush Elangovan #220
    2025/05/13
    ABOUT ANUSH ELANGOVANAnush Elangovan leads the Artificial Intelligence Group (AIG) as Corporate Vice President of AI software and solutions.Anush has 23 years of industry experience in AI, computer science, compilers, network security, operating systems, math, and its materialization on complex hardware systems. This co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Nod.ai oversaw product strategy and the overall business until AMD acquired Nod.ai (see related article here) today.Anush will lead the acceleration of deploying AI solutions optimized for AMD products while aligning with AMD’s AI growth strategy centered on an open software ecosystem. In the near term, he and his team will introduce the code generation (CodeGen) capabilities from the Nod.ai flagship software, Shark, to unlock customer engagements via the ROCm™ and Vitis™ AI platforms. Over time, Anush will lead the contributions of the Nod.ai team to the AMD Unified AI Stack.Before starting Nod.ai, Anush was instrumental in the graphics stack on the first ARM Chromebook. He led the movement of the Chrome operating system from Debian to Gentoo Linux to enable Google to gain full control of the shipping software. Previously, he was Principal Engineer for Agnilux, which Google acquired. The Agnilux team became crucial to the Chrome OS team, building a fusion of Android and Chrome OS.Previously, Anush was a technical lead at Cisco Systems in its Datacenter Group, creating the first distributed virtual switching platform. He has also been an early member of FireEye, where he led in-memory taint-check analysis for networking and security in virtualized environments. He started his career in an earlier stint at Cisco, contributing to metro Ethernet initiatives.Anush holds a Master of Science in computer science from Arizona State University and a Bachelor of Engineering in computer science from the Mepco Schlenk Engineering College at Madurai Kamaraj University in India. He has earned 10 patents. In his spare time, he enjoys skiing, mountaineering, and trail running. Anush lives with his family, including three children and two dogs, in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area.This episode is brought to you by Side – delivering award-winning QA, localization, player support, and tech services for the world’s leading games and technology brands.For over 30 years, Side has helped create unforgettable user experiences—from indies to AAA blockbusters like Silent Hill 2 and Baldur’s Gate 3.Learn more about Side’s global solutions at side.inc. SHOW NOTES:AMD’s AI hardware + software strategy, explained (2:24)From startup founder to leading AI software at AMD (3:50)How AMD is unifying hardware through a shared AI stack (6:01)What the VP of AI Software @ AMD owns across software & customer enablement (7:17)AMD’s daily standup and real-time prioritization rituals (10:32)Strategies for building a unified AI ecosystem from first principles (13:06)How to approach building for complex technical workflows (15:38)Navigating hardware ecosystem requirements & aligning AI software (17:48)Challenging legacy software assumptions & why AI requires a new mindset for software development (19:38)AMD’s integration of community contributors into product cycles (21:21)AMD’s approach to cultivating an open-source ecosystem & community experience (22:48)Open-source & AMD’s ecosystem strategy: Building trust by building in public (26:57)How AMD collects and acts on user feedback fast within a community ecosystem (29:24)AI’s impact on everyday human experiences (32:15)Rapid fire questions (34:50) This episode wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our incredible production team:Patrick Gallagher - Producer & Co-HostJerry Li - Co-HostNoah Olberding - Associate Producer, Audio & Video Editor https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-olberding/Dan Overheim - Audio Engineer, Dan’s also an avid 3D printer - https://www.bnd3d.com/Ellie Coggins Angus - Copywriter, Check out her other work at https://elliecoggins.com/about/
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    37 分
  • Lessons Leading EPD: Mindset, decision-making, 80/20 product strategy & pivoting for leverage/speed w/ Farnaz Azmoodeh #219
    2025/05/06
    ABOUT FARNAZ AZMOODEH

    Farnaz is the CTO at Linktree, the leading social platform for creators and small businesses. Linktree enables its users to unify, curate, and monetize their online presence. Farnaz started her career at Google, focusing on the ad tech space. Farnaz then joined Snap, leading Snap's AR monetization team before scaling to run Snap's Platform and product engineering. Farnaz earned her bachelor's degree in computer science from Sharif University of Technology before moving to the U.S. to pursue a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Southern California. After fulfilling the credits for a master’s degree, she decided to enter the tech industry where she could contribute to human progress by bringing products to millions of users.

    Build AI Voice Agents with ElevenLabs

    ElevenLabs is the leading Voice AI platform for developers with thousands of ultra-realistic, human-like voices across 32 languages.

    Developers use ElevenLabs to build life-like, conversational AI voice agents to handle customer support queries, appointment scheduling, and even offer personalized 1-1 tutoring.

    Get started for free at elevenlabs.io/elc

    SHOW NOTES:
    • Taking on product & design 3 months into a new role (3:01)
    • Going from delivery to discovery: mindset shifts for eng leaders (5:58)
    • Identifying the current state of engineering, product & design (10:59)
    • Decision-making based on anecdotes vs. data (12:50)
    • Pivoting strategies to optimize for small, fast teams to improve cross-functional collaboration (15:04)
    • Signals to pivot your product approach & ****make different bets (16:59)
    • Complementary skill sets for rapid iteration (19:14)
    • How to avoid silencing critical input & transform team frustration into product insight (20:41)
    • Applying the 80/20 rule to complex product surfaces (23:46)
    • Case Study: Reprioritizing the LinkTree product w/ 80/20 approach (25:46)
    • Bringing on a strategic product partner & kicking off org change (27:28)
    • Be honest about your knowledge gaps (29:09)
    • How Farnaz’s experiences at Snap inform her leadership as CTO (33:21)
    • When pattern matching fails: frameworks for checking assumptions (35:22)
    • Where EPD Is headed: cross-functional evolution in the age of AI (38:10)
    • Rapid fire questions (38:58)
    This episode wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our incredible production team:

    Patrick Gallagher - Producer & Co-Host

    Jerry Li - Co-Host

    Noah Olberding - Associate Producer, Audio & Video Editor https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-olberding/

    Dan Overheim - Audio Engineer, Dan’s also an avid 3D printer - https://www.bnd3d.com/

    Ellie Coggins Angus - Copywriter, Check out her other work at https://elliecoggins.com/about/

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    43 分
  • Empowering Teams & Cultivating True Ownership in Engineering Orgs w/ Wade Chambers #218
    2025/04/29
    ABOUT WADE CHAMBERS

    Wade Chambers will be leading Engineering at Amplitude. Amplitude is the leading digital analytics platform that helps companies unlock the power of their products. Wade has over 25 years of engineering leadership experience, both advising companies and being hands-on in key leadership positions at companies such as Included Health, Twitter, TellApart, Proofpoint, Yahoo, and Opsware. He is a deep technical expert with a proven track record of scaling teams, leaders, market-defining technology innovations, and business growth.

    Build AI Voice Agents with ElevenLabs

    ElevenLabs is the leading Voice AI platform for developers with thousands of ultra-realistic, human-like voices across 32 languages.

    Developers use ElevenLabs to build life-like, conversational AI voice agents to handle customer support queries, appointment scheduling, and even offer personalized 1-1 tutoring.

    Get started for free at elevenlabs.io/elc

    SHOW NOTES:
    • Why empowering engineering teams to own their mission matters (3:16)
    • Common traps that prevent eng leaders from empowering teams (5:15)
    • Understanding the “why” behind ownership & systemizing individual ownership (7:09)
    • Systems change for empowerment: Aligning company vision, outcomes, competencies & behaviors (9:48)
    • How to bring someone from low ownership back to high ownership (13:49)
    • Developing trust & having tough conversations around ownership (15:17)
    • Nonobvious factors to that erode ownership over time (17:42)
    • Empowering teams through meaningful missions, clear expectations, defining success, & ongoing check-ins (20:55)
    • Identifying engineers w/ competencies & behaviors that align w/ your org’s vision & goals (24:00)
    • When having too much ownership becomes a problem (27:22)
    • Wade’s process for officially transferring ownership (28:47)
    • Coaching and navigating conversations around ownership (32:01)
    • Impactful questions to ask during the coaching / check in process (34:08)
    • Closing gaps in leadership competencies & behaviors (37:27)
    • Coaching leaders to align personal growth with org goals (39:25)
    • Rapid fire questions (41:34)
    This episode wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our incredible production team:

    Patrick Gallagher - Producer & Co-Host

    Jerry Li - Co-Host

    Noah Olberding - Associate Producer, Audio & Video Editor https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-olberding/

    Dan Overheim - Audio Engineer, Dan’s also an avid 3D printer - https://www.bnd3d.com/

    Ellie Coggins Angus - Copywriter, Check out her other work at https://elliecoggins.com/about/

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    45 分
  • Building partnerships w/ complex stakeholders, aligning tech debt w/ business value & decisive vs. thoughtful decision-making #217
    2025/04/22
    ABOUT FUNMI OLUDAIYEFunmi is a Managing Director and the Head of the Digital Risk Office for Enterprise Partnerships at Goldman Sachs, where she is pioneering a first-of-its-kind global initiative to embed critical business, security, and engineering risk practices within the engineering organization. With nearly 15 years of experience as a software engineer, architect, and engineering manager, she has a proven track record of leading high-performing teams, delivering innovative technology solutions, and championing best practices in developer experience and productivity across large-scale engineering teams. Most recently, she was the Head of Engineering for Consumer Deposits at Marcus by Goldman Sachs, and prior to that, she led the product engineering teams that built and launched the firm's award-winning credit card partnerships with Apple and later, General Motors. Funmi is a passionate advocate for underrepresented groups in the technology industry and is committed to mentoring the next generation of engineering leaders. Her wealth of experience and dedication to driving positive change make her a sought-after speaker and advisor.ABOUT KETAN GUPTAKetan is a seasoned engineering leader with 13+ years in software development, cloud, architecture, product delivery, and organizational leadership. He excels at building high-performing engineering teams and driving strategic initiatives. As an active community builder, he contributes to the Engineering Leaders Community and champions software craftsmanship.ABOUT SASHA HALLSasha Hall is an Engineering Manager at Planitar Inc, makers of iGUIDE. A University of Waterloo graduate with over 5 years of leadership experience at Pegasus Aeronautics and Deep Trekker, Sasha brings valuable insights on decisive leadership, effective communication, and strategic vision in growing organizations. Their career path through underwater robotics at Deep Trekker, aerial drone systems at Pegasus Aeronautics, and spatial mapping technologies at Planitar showcases a passion for innovative hardware and sensing solutions. This diverse technical background, combined with consistent leadership dedication, has equipped Sasha with a unique perspective on navigating today's complex engineering challenges. Build AI Voice Agents with ElevenLabsElevenLabs is the leading Voice AI platform for developers with thousands of ultra-realistic, human-like voices across 32 languages.Developers use ElevenLabs to build life-like, conversational AI voice agents to handle customer support queries, appointment scheduling, and even offer personalized 1-1 tutoring.Get started for free at elevenlabs.io/elc SHOW NOTES:Funmi discusses why successful eng leaders build true partnerships between engineering & business stakeholders (1:58)Navigating the dynamics of engineering & cross-functional team partnerships (3:00)Creating alignment / building relationships through fostering trust & curiosity (4:42)How engaging w/ curiosity is key to building cross-functional relationships (7:21)Funmi’s framework to help identify gaps in understanding (8:56)Recognizing knowledge gaps and relying on subject matter experts (10:15)Tips for navigating partnerships with multiple stakeholders (13:14)What’s going on with ELC New York & the power of connecting with eng leaders (14:45)Ketan discusses cloud transformation and AI integration (17:08)Considering challenges w/ security, scalability, cost, flexibility & AI in cloud vs. hybrid migrations (18:04)Explaining the impact of technical debt on organizations (20:04)The STIR framework for managing tech debt during cloud migrations (21:17)Translating tech debt into business value w/ STIR (24:17)Separating continuous improvement / performance from tech debt (27:02)Understanding team strengths & bolstering team motivation (29:24)Ketan’s experience with ELC London (31:07)Have fun with decision-making (33:29)Sasha discusses optimizing team processes amid company growth & new hires (35:11)Effective decision-making - balancing being decisive & thoughtful (37:36)Examples of balancing quick decision-making w/ thoughtfulness (39:05)How to refactor repetitive tasks to improve efficiency (40:32)Balancing time, risk & impact in decision-making processes (42:06)The value of building a network & finding mentors outside your own company (45:03)Advice for jumping into ELC community events (47:41)This episode wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our incredible production team:Patrick Gallagher - Producer & Co-HostJerry Li - Co-HostNoah Olberding - Associate Producer, Audio & Video Editor https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-olberding/Dan Overheim - Audio Engineer, Dan’s also an avid 3D printer - https://www.bnd3d.com/Ellie Coggins Angus - Copywriter, Check out her other work at https://elliecoggins.com/about/
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    49 分