In this conversation, Ben speaks to Afiya Chohollo, VP of Engineering & Technical Program Management at Onfido.

They discuss why specialists and generalists are complementary to one another, as well as the concept of multi-potentiality. Afiya explains the Einstellung effect, and why being more generalist often gives us an advantage when it comes to problem-solving.

Afiya delineates two psychological drivers in her life: positive forces like curiosity, problem-solving and inspiring leaders, and forms of hardship, as well as being underestimated and the imposter syndrome that results. This set of drivers leads Afiya to be intensely competitive with herself which, paradoxically, has enabled her to outperform her doubters over the years.

She also describes a model she calls “the cone of uncertainty,” which she uses to approach decision-making and to inform how involved she gets with her teams’ planning.