🧠 _

He’s a leader who took a role at an organization where he can expand his area of expertise and make more of a strategic impact. But he’s getting mixed signals from leadership on how to grow the company, and he’s wondering how to stay effective in influencing the senior team without burning out in the process. Host Muriel Wilkins coaches him through how to clear the path ahead.

Further reading:

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Virksomheden Technolution stod over for et problem: De havde ambitioner om at vokse. Det lyder müske som et luksusproblem, men udfordringen var, at de gerne ville holde fast i en flad organisation, vÌkst-ambitionerne til trods. Pü trods af dÊt, sad ledelsen nu og talte om at indføre endnu et ledelseslag.

Jesper Cassøe Andersen arbejder med ‘People & Organisation’ i Technolution. Han fortæller os historien om, hvordan de i sidste ende valgte at gøre noget helt andet, nemlig at indføre selvledende teams, inspireret af bogen ‘Humanocracy’.

Det starter med et sommerhus og en YouTube-video, og det fortsÌtter med, at vi udfritter Jesper om, hvordan de kom i gang med at indføre de selvledende teams. Vi slutter med status i dag, hvor honeymoon-fasen er ovre og konkrete problemer skal løses.

.................................................

👱 Det Vigtigste Først: https://rasmusgothgen.dk/podcast-page

LINKS:

I vil gerne optimere arbejdspladsen? Blive mere effektive, have bedre samarbejde, levere mere vÌrdi til slutbrugeren - den slags, ja? Sü skal I glemme alt om at stü pü ølkassen og holde taler om nye og revolutionerende forandringer. I skal holde det smüt, I skal holde det banalt - og I skal prøve jer frem.

Vi har inviteret Morten Mßnster i studiet til en snak om, hvordan man skaber bÌredygtige forandringer. Morten har skrevet flere bøger om adfÌrd og forandring. Vi taler med ham om, hvorfor vi skal glemme alt om metoder og transformationer og i stedet fokusere pü konkret adfÌrd. For i sidste ende handler det om, at mennesker skal gøre noget andet.

Til sidst vover vi ogsü pelsen og beder Morten om at komme med sit bud pü, hvad der skal stü i et dekret for, hvordan man implementerer forandringer. Vi anbefaler hermed, at alle følger dekretet.

.................................................

👱 Det Vigtigste Først: https://rasmusgothgen.dk/podcast-page

LINKS:

Elena Verna is one of Silicon Valley’s most sought-after growth advisors and operators. She previously led growth at companies like Amplitude, Miro, Dropbox, and SurveyMonkey and is currently doing full-time advising for high-growth tech companies. In our conversation, Elena and I discuss:

• 10 growth tactics that never work

• Her 3 favorite growth frameworks

• How to increase your career optionality

—

Brought to you by:

• Sinch—Build messaging, email, and calling into your product

• Vanta—Automate compliance. Simplify security

• OneSchema—Import CSV data 10x faster

—

Find the transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/10-growth-tactics-that-never-work-elena-verna

—

Where to find Elena Verna:

• Newsletter: https://www.elenaverna.com/

• X: https://x.com/elenaverna

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elenaverna

—

Where to find Lenny:

• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com

• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

—

In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) Welcome back, Elena!

(06:02) Common mistakes growth teams make

(08:31) #1: Hiring for growth roles too soon

(15:09) #2: Hiring a head of growth to fix your problems

(19:20) #3: Doing a rebrand to drive growth

(25:11) #4: Obsessing over your competition

(34:00) #5: Believing that your problems are unique

(42:32) #6: Prioritizing other growth channels above earned channels

(50:55) #7: Failing to evolve your growth model

(01:01:06) #8: Not hiring advisors

(01:05:55) #9: Over-experimenting

(01:10:44) #10: Color optimizations, third-party signups, one-email wonders, and removing friction

(01:15:00) Elena’s favorite growth frameworks

(01:18:50) Contrarian corner: full-time jobs

(01:26:05) Lightning round and final thoughts

—

Referenced:

• Elena Verna on how B2B growth is changing, product-led growth, product-led sales, why you should go freemium not trial, what features to make free, and much more: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/elena-verna-on-why-every-company

• The ultimate guide to product-led sales | Elena Verna: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-ultimate-guide-to-product-led

• Six rules of hiring for growth: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/hiring-growth

• Figma: https://www.figma.com/

• Miro: https://www.figma.com/

• Notion: https://www.figma.com/

• Carol Wong on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carol-wong-14133927/

• Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/

• The Law of Shitty Clickthroughs: https://andrewchen.com/the-law-of-shitty-clickthroughs/

• Miroverse: https://miro.com/miroverse/

• GitHub: https://github.com/

• My 9 Favorite Growth Frameworks: https://www.elenaverna.com/p/my-9-favorite-growth-frameworks

• Growth Loops are the New Funnels: https://www.reforge.com/blog/growth-loops

• Racecar Growth Framework: https://www.reforge.com/blog/racecar-growth-framework

• The Adjacent User: https://andrewchen.com/the-adjacent-user-theory/

• Unorthodox frameworks for growing your product, career, and impact | Bangaly Kaba (YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Instacart): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/frameworks-for-growing-your-career-bangaly-kaba

• Why I’m Unquitting Full-Time Roles: https://www.elenaverna.com/p/why-im-unquitting-full-time-roles

• Noah Smith’s newsletter: https://www.noahpinion.blog/

• Beef on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/81447461

• Veep on Max: https://www.max.com/shows/veep/37cb4217-c710-4166-8e9f-352a61f2cd3a

• The Last of Us on Max: https://www.max.com/shows/last-of-us/93ba22b1-833e-47ba-ae94-8ee7b9eefa9a

• Heated boots: https://www.amazon.com/heated-boots/s?k=heated+boots

• Airpods Max: https://www.apple.com/airpods-max/

• Memes by Elena: https://www.elenaverna.com/p/ten-funniest-growth-memes

—

Recommended books:

• Project Hail Mary: https://www.amazon.com/Project-Hail-Mary-Andy-Weir/dp/0593135229/

• The Martian: https://www.amazon.com/Martian-Andy-Weir/dp/0553418025

• We Are Legion (Bobiverse #1): https://www.amazon.com/We-Are-Legion-Bob-Bobiverse/dp/1680680587

• Fire Upon the Deep: https://www.amazon.com/Fire-Upon-Deep-Zones-Thought/dp/0812515285

—

Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email [email protected].

—

Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.

Karina Nguyen leads research at OpenAI, where she’s been pivotal in developing groundbreaking products like Canvas, Tasks, and the o1 language model. Before OpenAI, Karina was at Anthropic, where she led post-training and evaluation work for Claude 3 models, created a document upload feature with 100,000 context windows, and contributed to numerous other innovations. With experience as an engineer at the New York Times and as a designer at Dropbox and Square, Karina has a rare firsthand perspective on the cutting edge of AI and large language models. In our conversation, we discuss:

• How OpenAI builds product

• What people misunderstand about AI model training

• Differences between how OpenAI and Anthropic operate

• The role of synthetic data in model development

• How to build trust between users and AI models

• Why she moved from engineering to research

• Much more

—

Brought to you by:

• Enterpret—Transform customer feedback into product growth

• Vanta—Automate compliance. Simplify security

• Loom—The easiest screen recorder you’ll ever use

—

Find the transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/why-soft-skills-are-the-future-of-work-karina-nguyen

—

Where to find Karina Nguyen:

• X: https://x.com/karinanguyen_

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karinanguyen28

• Website: https://karinanguyen.com/

—

Where to find Lenny:

• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com

• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

—

In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) Introduction to Karina Nguyen

(04:42) Challenges in model training

(08:21) Synthetic data and its importance

(12:38) Creating Canvas

(18:33) Day-to-day operations at OpenAI

(20:28) Writing evaluations

(23:22) Prototyping and product development

(26:57) Building Canvas and Tasks

(33:34) Understanding the job of a researcher

(35:36) The future of AI and its impact on work and education

(42:15) Soft skills in the age of AI

(47:50) AI’s role in creativity and strategy development

(53:34) Comparing Anthropic and OpenAI

(57:11) Innovations and future visions

(01:07:13) The potential of AI agents

(01:11:36) Final thoughts and career advice

—

Referenced:

• What’s in your stack: The state of tech tools in 2025: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/whats-in-your-stack-the-state-of

• Anthropic: https://www.anthropic.com/

• OpenAI: https://openai.com/

• What is synthetic data—and how can it help you competitively?: https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/what-synthetic-data-and-how-can-it-help-you-competitively

• GPQA: https://datatunnel.io/glossary/gpqa/

• Canvas: https://openai.com/index/introducing-canvas/

• Barret Zoph on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/barret-zoph-65990543/

• Mira Murati on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mira-murati-4b39a066/

• JSON Schema: https://json-schema.org/

• Anthropic—100K Context Windows: https://www.anthropic.com/news/100k-context-windows

• Claude 3 Haiku: https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-3-haiku

• A.I. Chatbots Defeated Doctors at Diagnosing Illness: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/17/health/chatgpt-ai-doctors-diagnosis.html

• Cursor: https://www.cursor.com/

• How AI will impact product management: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-ai-will-impact-product-management

• Lee Byron on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lee-byron/

• GraphQL: https://graphql.org/

• Claude in Slack: https://www.anthropic.com/claude-in-slack

• Sam Altman on X: https://x.com/sama

• Jakub Pachocki on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakub-pachocki/

• Lennybot: https://www.lennybot.com/

• ElevenLabs: https://elevenlabs.io/

• Westworld on Prime Video: https://www.amazon.com/Westworld-Season-1/dp/B01N05UD06

• A conversation with OpenAI’s CPO Kevin Weil, Anthropic’s CPO Mike Krieger, and Sarah Guo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxkvVZua28k

• Tuple: https://tuple.app/

• How Shopify builds a high-intensity culture | Farhan Thawar (VP and Head of Eng): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-shopify-builds-a-high-intensity-culture-farhan-thawar

—

Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email [email protected].

—

Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.

“Looking at the development pace of this area, it’s just a question of when generative AI will take over larger parts of software engineering. It’s a leadership responsibility to ensure your organization is ready for AI and you are taking the right path.”

AI is changing EVERYTHING – including the way we build software. Are you READY for it?

In this episode, we dive deep into the impact of AI on the future of work, particularly in the software development space. Join me and AndrĂŠ Neubauer as we explore:

* The evolution of AI: From early code generation to today’s advanced Generative AI and Large Language Models (LLMs).

* The rise of Agentic AI: How AI agents are collaborating to automate complex tasks and reshape software development workflows.

* The impact on organizations: How companies can leverage AI to boost productivity, foster innovation, and navigate the challenges of this new era.

* The future of software teams: Will AI replace developers or empower them? Discover why smaller, leaner, high-performing teams might be the way forward.

* Leadership in the age of AI: Essential strategies for leaders to successfully integrate AI into their organizations and address the concerns of their teams.

Listen out for:

(00:02:11) Career Turning Points

(00:07:56) Giving a Talk on “The Role of AI in Future Workplaces”

(00:10:30) What Drives the AI Advancements

(00:18:54) The Levels of AI Advancement

(00:25:01) AI in Software Engineering

(00:26:53) Concerns on Tech Debt and Issues

(00:31:11) Impact of AI to Organizations

(00:34:34) Smaller and Leaner Teams

(00:37:15) The Rise of Solopreneurship

(00:41:32) Getting People Onboard to AI

(00:44:40) Leadership Measures for Adopting AI

(00:49:34) 3 Tech Lead Wisdom

_____

André Neubauer’s Bio

For nearly two decades, André Neubauer has shaped Tech & Product and its interface with the business in varied settings, from startups to major corporations. His journey began in software engineering and evolved into technical leadership, a role he’s passionately undertaken for the past 15 years.

As CTO, he’s spearheaded transformative projects and strategies, backed by an academic foundation in informatics and business economics. Always at the forefront of modern leadership practices, he’s transformed companies into tech powerhouses. Beyond his role as CTO, he actively mentors tech leaders and consults businesses, guiding them through their tech challenges.

Follow Andre:

* LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/andreneubauer

* Newsletter – devpg.substack.com

_____

Our Sponsors

Enjoy an exceptional developer experience with JetBrains. Whatever programming language and technology you use, JetBrains IDEs provide the tools you need to go beyond simple code editing and excel as a developer.
Check out FREE coding software options and special offers on jetbrains.com/store/#discounts.
Make it happen. With code.

Manning Publications is a premier publisher of technical books on computer and software development topics for both experienced developers and new learners alike. Manning prides itself on being independently owned and operated, and for paving the way for innovative initiatives, such as early access book content and protection-free PDF formats that are now industry standard.
Get a 40% discount for Tech Lead Journal listeners by using the code techlead24 for all products in all formats.

Like this episode?
Show notes & transcript: techleadjournal.dev/episodes/202.
Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.
Buy me a coffee or become a patron.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.