Refactoring Podcast

Thiago Ghisi, Director of Engineering at Nubank, discusses what makes managers successful, career development in tech, and transitioning from expert to strategist. Topics include productivity, feedback loops, becoming a technical manager, and the Four Ps model for effective management.

Andrew Weaver is co-founder and CEO of CTO Academy, an educational product that works with thousands of CTO today. Andrew has over 25+ years of executive-level experience with companies of various size, including enterprises, SME and early-stage companies across multiple sectors. With Andrew, we discussed gaining the proper skillset to be a good CTO, the imbalances in the tech space, and how to keep up with the current technologies. Here is what we talked about: (00:00) Introduction (03:02) What is CTO Academy and how it works (07:53) What makes a good CTO (14:01) The CTO mindset (20:06) Being a CTO in a remote environment (23:20) Unleashing the "quiet genius" (28:11) How AI is changing tech (36:58) Education & micro-learning (45:11) Q&A — You can also find this at: 📬 ⁠⁠⁠⁠Newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠ 📺 ⁠⁠⁠⁠Youtube⁠⁠⁠⁠ 📱 ⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple⁠

Wes Kao discusses managing up and bridging the gap between managers and reports. The 'Bad Things / Good Things' framework, good communication in the remote era, and the transition to remote work at Maven are explored. Sync vs async communication, the importance of over-communicating, and Wes' approach to reading are also highlighted.

Discussion with Maria Gutierrez on building healthy engineering orgs, balancing speed and quality, remote work impact, transitioning to manager roles, engineering productivity metrics, AI utilization in teams, and career advice for engineers.

Explore how Netflix fosters a unique culture, the challenges of developer productivity, the role of platform teams in software development, the importance of detailed planning, and the intricacies of measuring team productivity using AI and customer-centric metrics.

VP of Engineering at Shopify discusses remote work dynamics, VR meetings, pair programming, AI productivity, and engineering metrics. Emphasizes digital-first culture, unique collaboration, and balancing remote vs IRL. Insights on using VR for work, role of managers, and being an AI Centaur for enhanced productivity.

Kent Beck, original signer of the Agile manifesto, creator of Extreme Programming, and all-round programming legend, discusses the state of software engineering today, including topics such as agile vs power structures, the return of waterfall, extreme programming & TDD, feedback loops, code reviews & stacked diffs, and AI for writing and engineering.

Disheng Qiu is VP of Engineering at Translated, one of the largest translation companies in the world, powering localization for the likes of Airbnb, Uber, Skyscanner, and more. Translated has been working on proprietary AI models and tools for 20+ years. It has an internal research team and develops tools that power the work of tens of thousands of professionals. With Disheng we explored what it means to be an AI-first company. We talked about many things, including: (00:00) Introduction (03:24) What does Translated do? (12:40) Challenges and costs of fine-tuning AI models (30:36) Bringing AI research into products (43:30) The role of AI in enhancing productivity (57:12) The future of AI and human collaboration — You can also find this at: 📬 ⁠Newsletter⁠ 📺 ⁠Youtube⁠ 📱 ⁠Apple⁠

Aadil Maan, Lead Engineering Program Manager at Humane and a big tech veteran, talks about the World Builder Framework, startups vs big tech, hardware vs software, and joining a new team. They discuss the role of technical program management, the importance of a jack of all trades, and the complexity of issue management. They also explore mixing and matching frameworks for customizable solutions and the importance of understanding people and the tech stack.

Lena Reinhard, VP of Engineering at CircleCI, discusses challenges in the tech industry, creating a healthy work environment, and the importance of self-care for leaders in this episode. They also explore generational shifts, recognizing signs of burnout, and investing in a healthy work environment.