The Tech Trek

In this episode, Kevin Dotzenrod, VP of Engineering at Total Expert, talks about the mental health of your team’s individual contributors. Dealing with Impostor syndrome. Being as fearless as possible when you are starting off How do you manage your first-time manager Balancing of Empathy and Accountability Managing managers on their responsibilities Helping people flourish in a new environment What triggers imposter syndrome? Adjusting different learning styles How to develop a culture of meritocracy About today’s guest: Kevin brings over 20 years of software development, technical architecture, and engineering expertise to Total Expert. He has led engineering and technology teams at some of the most recognized companies in finance and retail, including Target, Amazon, and Dow Jones, most recently serving as Director of Engineering at Target. There, he led a series of strategic initiatives in supply chain and store technology. In his new role as VP of Engineering, Kevin will lead the Total Expert engineering team as it scales product architecture to a high-throughput enterprise system. By focusing on process development and long-term architecture management, Kevin will support the rapid growth of the Total Expert platform and the team surrounding it. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-dotzenrod-7931a41/ ___ Thank you so much for checking out this episode of The Tech Trek, and we would appreciate it if you would take a minute to rate and review us on your favorite podcast player. Want to learn more about us? Head over at https://www.elevano.com Have questions or want to cover specific topics with our future guests? Please message me at  https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand)

In this episode, Balaji Prabhakar, co-founder of Clockwork and Professor of Computer Science at Stanford, discusses congestion problems in data centers and real-life congestion issues. Challenges when dealing with network congestion within cloud infrastructures. What does it mean to build out a system of accurate clocks? Understanding the package switching networking and distributor systems. Creating fair transactions (first come, first serve) Uses cases for highly accurate clocks How do to evaluate and solve congestion problems? About today’s guest: Balaji Prabhakar is VMWare Founders Professor of Computer Science and a faculty member in the Departments of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and, by courtesy, in the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. His research interests are computer networks, notably in Data Center Networks and Cloud Computing Platforms. His work spans network algorithms, congestion control protocols, and stochastic network theory.  He has also worked on Societal Networks, where he has developed "nudge engines" to incentivize commuters to travel in off-peak times so that congestion, fuel, and pollution costs are reduced. Balaji has been a Terman Fellow at Stanford University and a Fellow of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, IEEE, and ACM. He has received the NSF CAREER Award, the Erlang Prize from the INFORMS Applied Probability Society, the Rollo Davidson Prize was given to young Statisticians and Probabilists, and he delivered the Lunteren Lectures of the Dutch Operations Research Society. He is the inaugural recipient of the IEEE Innovation in Societal Infrastructure Award, which recognizes "significant technological achievements and contributions to the establishment, development, and proliferation of innovative societal infrastructure systems." He has received the IEEE Koji Kobayashi Award for his work on Computer Networks and the ACM Sigmetrics Award for his work on Stochastic Network Theory.  He is a co-recipient of a few best paper and test of time awards  In 2011, he co-founded Urban Engines (acquired by Google in 2016) and is currently on leave at Clockwork.io where he is co-founder and CEO. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/balaji-prabhakar-45426bb7/ ___ Thank you so much for checking out this episode of The Tech Trek, and we would appreciate it if you would take a minute to rate and review us on your favorite podcast player. Want to learn more about us? Head over at https://www.elevano.com Have questions or want to cover specific topics with our future guests? Please message me at  https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand)

In this episode, Karim Fanous, VP Engineering @ strongDM, talks about the impacts on an engineering team's productivity. Key Takeaways: Impacts on productivity for the team Context switching between interviewing and development Importance of Having a repeatable and objective process Challenges in onbarding process for newly hired engineers. Understanding the people retention process. ___About today’s guest: Karim Fanous https://www.linkedin.com/in/karimfan/ Link to article: https://karimfanous.substack.com/p/scaling-an-engineering-team-will Karim is the VP of Engineering at strongDM. Before that, he was in similar roles at startups like Qumulo and Dremio. Karim also spent 10 years at Microsoft. ___ Thank you so much for checking out this episode of The Tech Trek, and we would appreciate it if you would take a minute to rate and review us on your favorite podcast player. Want to learn more about us? Head over at https://www.elevano.com Have questions or want to cover specific topics with our future guests? Please message me at  https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand)

In this episode, Beth Scheer, Talent Partner at Homebrew, talks about the drivers for hiring a coach and what to look out for while going through the process. Key Takeaways: Why would a founder should look for a coach? Big commitment to hiring a coach Make sure you do a reference check with people the coach has worked with the right questions are a must. A good coach for someone else might not be the right coach for you How to interview a coach Costs of hiring a coach Red Flags to look for when hiring a coach About today’s guest:  At Homebrew, Beth Scheer works closely with founders and their executive team members as an advisor on all things Talent-related, including recruiting, diversity & inclusion, compensation, onboarding, and people operations. Before Homebrew, Beth spent 5+ years at Salesforce leading executive search, sales leadership search and the sales growth/professional services recruiting teams. Before that, she built the Google AdSense team in 2003 and then spent 6 years hiring for business operations, corporate communications, and various engineering teams. She is a proud graduate of The Colorado College with a BS in Psychology. https://www.linkedin.com/in/bethscheer/ beth@homebrew.co  ___ Thank you so much for checking out this episode of The Tech Trek, and we would appreciate it if you would take a minute to rate and review us on your favorite podcast player. Want to learn more about us? Head over at https://www.elevano.com Have questions or want to cover specific topics with our future guests? Please message me at  https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand)

In this episode, Jeremy Eastwood, the Head of Engineering at DroneDeploy, talks about velocity and adding processes as your team grows. Key Takeaways: Metric to measure velocity Reconciling struggles Experimenting while using guardrails Devote an engineer to reliability during each sprint Making sure there is an expected result when experimenting When to sit back and let the team execute Definition of done and compliance Seeing the whole field and providing feedback to your managers About today’s guest: Jeremy Eastwood is the Head of Engineering at DroneDeploy.  Jeremy oversees the talented engineering org at DroneDeploy and aspects of its core product offering, including mobile applications, cloud platform and infrastructure, computer vision engine, and 3rd party ecosystem.  He was one of the first hires at DroneDeploy and has been a part of the growth from a seed-stage startup to the market leader in digital reality capture, with over 250 employees and offices worldwide. Before DroneDeploy, Jeremy worked in research on the design of jet engines and holds a Ph.D. in aerodynamics from the University of Cambridge.  Outside work, he enjoys hiking around the Bay Area with his family. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremy-eastwood/ ___ Thank you so much for checking out this episode of The Tech Trek, and we would appreciate it if you would take a minute to rate and review us on your favorite podcast player. Want to learn more about us? Head over at https://www.elevano.com Have questions or want to cover specific topics with our future guests? Please message me at  https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand)

In this episode, Che Sharma, Founder & CEO of Eppo, talks about the relationship between data and engineering teams and how both teams can originate impactful experiments. Key takeaways: Data teams are trying to improve decision quality across the org How do data quality metrics affect the engineering team? Importance of experiments and feedback loops Experimentation maturity curve Engineering can be a source of experimentation Leadership needs to provide clear metrics to help prioritize Moving requirements from sales-driven to product-driven About today’s guest:  Che Sharma is the Founder & CEO of Eppo, a next-gen AB experimentation platform designed to spur entrepreneurial culture. As the 4th data scientist at Airbnb and early data scientist at companies like Webflow, Che has been focused on the maturity curve of growth-stage companies and how data can drive ROI. Che previously led the team that developed Airbnb's knowledge repo and has led data teams focused on production machine learning and instrumentation integrity. Twitter:  @chesharma87 LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/chetanvsharma/ ___ Thank you so much for checking out this episode of The Tech Trek, and we would appreciate it if you would take a minute to rate and review us on your favorite podcast player. Want to learn more about us? Head over at https://www.elevano.com Have questions or want to cover specific topics with our future guests? Please message me at  https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand)

In this episode, Ty Sbano, an Information Security executive with over 17 years of experience heavily focused on empowering end users securely, talks about “Empathy-Driven Process Development.” He speaks about driving change and how we are changed by empathy. Key takeaways: What is empathy-driven process development Taking yourself out of the equation when changing processes How fast do you want to drive change Understand the impact of change on people The larger the scale of the impact, the more time you might need Understanding your change curve and having your champions Avoiding thrash by making only a finite number of touches to your process Intentional process development Thinking about the process, so your successor is set up for success About today’s guest:  Ty Sbano is an Information Security executive with over 17 years of experience heavily focused on empowering end users securely.  Ty currently serves as Vercel’s Chief Information Security Officer (CISO). Previously, Ty was the Chief Security & Trust Officer at Sisense.  Ty’s career has been focused on developing application and product security programs for Capital One, JPMorgan Chase, LendingClub, and Target. Key areas of knowledge include developing security champions, threat modeling, secure code training, static code analysis, component analysis, dynamic analysis, penetration testing, and red teaming. Outside of being a CISO, Ty is an active angel investor in Silicon Valley CISO Investment Groups (SVCI) and advisor to Cider Security, Nightfall.ai, and Identify Security. Ty’s security mentality has been concentrated on enabling engineering and product teams to move securely at the speed of the business to make it a competitive advantage. Ty graduated from Penn State University with a B.S. in Information Science & Technology and from Norwich University with a M.S. in Information Assurance. He currently holds a CISSP, CEH, CCSK, and CPT. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tysbano/ Thank you so much for checking out this episode of The Tech Trek, and we would appreciate it if you would take a minute to rate and review us on your favorite podcast player. Want to learn more about us? Head over at https://www.elevano.com Have questions or want to cover specific topics with our future guests? Please message me at  https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand)

In technology, scaling your team is not an easy thing to do!  In this episode, Doron Segal, the Co-Founder & CTO at Per Diem, talks about his insights regarding hiring & retention. Key Takeaways: Improving your hiring and retention process. Recruiting pitfalls and how to avoid them. Hiring junior vs. senior-level employees Going after different talent as you scale Hiring the right person at the right time How employee feedback loops increase employee retention About today’s guest:  Doron Segal: Co-Founder & CTO at Per Diem (YCW21) A seasoned, hands-on, technical leader with a track record of building teams and products. He focuses on building organizations and enabling them to get things done. His leadership mantra is Leadership is not wielding authority; it's empowering others. I lead by listening and example. He served in the Israeli Army as Platoon Commander for four years in a technology combat unit. He led a platform team at Beats Music (later Apple);  was an Engineering manager at OpenTable, and was Director of platform engineering at Saildrone. Currently, Doron is the CTO & co-founder of TryPerDiem, a YC-backed startup. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/doronsegal ----------------------- Thank you so much for checking out this episode of The Tech Trek, and we would appreciate it if you would take a minute to rate and review us on your favorite podcast player. Want to learn more about us? Head over at https://www.elevano.com Have questions or want to cover specific topics with our future guests? Please message me at  https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand)

On the show, I speak to Yanyan Wu, the Vice President of Data and Analytics at Verisk. Yanyan shares her strategies, from structuring to scaling an analytics team.  Key Takeaways: Challenges in building and scaling an analytics team. Dealing with the technology gap Getting the right people on your team, Roles and responsibilities of a team leader Learning metrics that matter to your members. Challenges in finding someone technically strong and a great analyst. Ways to Identify the future leader in your team and traits that must-haves. About today’s guest:  As a vice president and data analytics expert, Yanyan Wu develops innovative data analytics strategies and transformed data platforms for big data used in the oil&gas industry. She layout the multi-year product development roadmap and execution to deliver the data and data insights to internal and external clients to enable them to make smart investment decisions/recommendations. Yanyan’s 15-year career in product management and digital technologies spans the head of data analytics in Halliburton digital solution, Principal digital production manager at GE Digital and Senior production manager at GE Oil&Gas from transforming digital technologies to new product development and its commercialization in financial service and energy businesses. She led the team to help businesses to increase productivity by more than LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wuyanyan/ ___ Thank you so much for checking out this episode of The Tech Trek, and we would appreciate it if you would take a minute to rate and review us on your favorite podcast player. Want to learn more about us? Head over at https://www.elevano.com Have questions or want to cover specific topics with our future guests? Please message me at  https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand)

In this episode, Ishmael Samuel, the co-founder and CTO at Paragon, discusses how to effectively onboard new hires. He goes over what should be included in onboarding and thinking about the team's velocity when making a new hire. Key Takeaways: Walk through the onboarding process A holistic view of products as a customer Importance of filing issues Opinionated frameworks and tools Integrations as a core value prop Understanding a new hire's biggest blocker is key Why is it important to ask team members for feedback? Building a real relationship with your team members. Sprint planning About today’s guest:  Ishmael Samuel is CTO and co-founder of Paragon, an embedded integration platform that allows SaaS companies to connect their product to their customers’ data and expedite their integration roadmap. Before Paragon, Ishmael founded CTRL LA, a software development agency that built web and mobile apps for companies, including Universal Studios and Uber. Alongside building Paragon, Ishmael advises technical teams and angel invests in startups. https://www.linkedin.com/in/ishmaelsamuel ___ Thank you so much for checking out this episode of The Tech Trek, and we would appreciate it if you would take a minute to rate and review us on your favorite podcast player. Want to learn more about us? Head over at https://www.elevano.com Have questions or want to cover specific topics with our future guests? Please message me at  https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand)