On this episode for Tech & Chai - we chat with Rathi Gnanasekaran. Rathi is the director of program management at Unqork. She oversees three functional areas on the platform team—Program Management, Release Management, and Change & Incident Management. With her team of program managers, she is responsible for creating scalable and repeatable processes to help Unqork scale up and ensure high-quality releases are delivered on time and on schedule. Managing all these moving parts keeps Rathi busy, but nobody knows how to multitask better than a working mother. 

Rathi and I went to the same school (Queen's University) back in the day and it’s awesome to have her on Tech & Chai

Episode timestamps: 

3:02 -  Rathi's life story
4:30 - Engineering to program management
11:33 - Developing a process
15:12 - Technical program management for startups
25:10 - Future of no code tech
35:46 - On balancing life, motherhood & work

Maheen is a product design manager working at the intersection of AI, AR & VR/ 

She conceptualizes new product opportunities as part of Facebook AI team with AI at the center. Prior to that, she was a lead designer at Oculus where she helped build the future of Social VR. She built facebook’s first two social VR experiences: Facebook Horizon and facebook spaces.

Outside of work, she is an avid storyteller and loves experimenting with various techniques of storytelling such as producing design travel guides in the form of short films, documentaries on design/architecture, and most recently she started a  podcast on identity called FAKE ID podcast! 

Episode timestamp:

2:46 - Maheen's life story

6:34 - On creative work in AI

13:00 - Working in VR

14:50 - Creating new products

18:21 -On finding inspiration

31:00 - VR & Education

32:56 - Transition to management

Hello and welcome to Tech & Chai podcast. On this episode of Tech & Chai, we chat with Shamil Parbhoo. Shamil is a product designer, Googler, cross-fitter and a globe trotter. We hear Shamil's story of navigating from a comp-sci background into a design career, living across the globe and re-charging through cross-fit. 

Follow us along and feel free to share your thoughts with me - [email protected]

On the very first episode we meet with Sowmya Ranganathan and talk about motherhood, math and creativity . Sowmya is currently the Controller at Rippling, previously she was at Brightloom & Square. She played an important role in Square's IPO. With a background in Math & Accounting from University of Waterloo, her creative side is impressive. She previously ran a small business called Joy of Henna. From juggling her mom life to conquering her career aspirations Sowmya does it all. 

Follow us along and feel free to share your thoughts with me - [email protected]