Tech Leaders Hub by STX Next

By STX NextTechnology

Tech Leaders Hub by STX Next episodes

June 24, 2022Product management culture: building a team where everyone is a product owner with Ron Zionpour, monday.com | TLH #23
“Everyone on the team should understand that they are the product owners. They are responsible for the product.” – Ron Zionpour, R&D Group Lead at monday.com
At monday.com, the culture is all around being impact-driven and creating the best product for the customers. It’s understood that great engineering should be a tool to build and empower a good product and great user experience.
When we heard about monday’s approach to product development, we knew we had to get them on Tech Leaders Hub—and we’re happy to share that we have the perfect guest for our upcoming session!
Ron Zionpour is currently R&D Group Lead at monday.com, where his team is growing the monday workdocs product. He also worked at Amdocs and spent 8 years at Innovid, where he rose through the ranks all the way to the role of VP of Engineering.
If you want to avoid getting distracted in your software development and deliver the most value to the end users as quickly as possible…
If you care about having your engineering team focus on what's important…
And If you want to reduce the tension between the engineering team and product management team to have everyone work together towards a common goal...
…you would do well to join our discussion on this Tech Leaders Hub episode and benefit from Ron’s experience.
We touched upon:
How to handle product management without a Product Manager

Building a “team of product owners” where some of them are in engineering and some aren’t

What it means to “connect the world straight into the team’s face” and how it leads to better prioritization and a huge motivation boost for developers

Specific tactics for building, propagating, and maintaining a product-focused culture
Get more guides, news, and videos from STX Next!
Website: https://stxnext.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/stx-next-python-experts
Twitter: https://twitter.com/STXNext/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StxNext/
Behance: https://www.behance.net/STXNextTeam/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stx_next/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/STXNextPythonPowerhouse
1 hr 3 min
June 17, 2022STX Next Mexico: How to make a software company go global with Jose Mendoza | TLH #22
If you’re serious about growing your business, at some point you will face the challenge of taking it to the international level.
This Tech Leaders Hub session is for anyone who wants to get priceless, practical tips from someone who has actually done the work of starting a new company branch on another continent.
Jose Mendoza is Managing Director Latam at STX Next, and the pioneer in charge of our new delivery center in Mexico.
We discussed about:
How to get buy-in from the leadership of the company

How to conduct the research and preparation that goes into starting a new global office

The not-so-obvious steps that sped up the whole process
Get more guides, news, and videos from STX Next!
Website: https://stxnext.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/stx-next-python-experts
Twitter: https://twitter.com/STXNext/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StxNext/
Behance: https://www.behance.net/STXNextTeam/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stx_next/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/STXNextPythonPowerhouse
1 hr
June 10, 2022The unseen complexity of building a fintech business with Ron Shteinberg, Bounce | TLH Fintech #8
“What people get wrong about fintech is that on the surface it seems like an industry that is very easy to disrupt because a lot of the current players are so bad at what they’re doing. But to do real innovation without harming customers is actually really complicated, more complicated than it may look like from the outside.” – Ron Shteinberg, CTO at Bounce
Ron Shteinberg is a powerhouse of fintech expertise.
Ron’s impressive experience includes such entries as Head of DevOps at Wonga.com, CTO at paze and Capitalflow, Director of Product and Engineering in Lending at Newable and Senior Director of Product Delivery at Cashflows. Now he’s co-founder and CTO of Bounce, a payments startup currently in stealth mode.
Since 2017, he has also worked as a technology and product consultant for fintech companies such as Tide, Tandem, Sugar, and Elsewhen.
During his career, Ron has seen the struggles of fintech businesses:
the Build vs Buy conundrum,

picking the right financial model for the business,

creating a smooth and exciting user journey,

ensuring compliance.
Ron has also seen how these struggles can be solved to unlock massive growth for fintechs.
Get more guides, news, and videos from STX Next!
Website: https://stxnext.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/stx-next-python-experts
Twitter: https://twitter.com/STXNext/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StxNext/
Behance: https://www.behance.net/STXNextTeam/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stx_next/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/STXNextPythonPowerhouse
1 hr 1 min
April 15, 2022The magic formula of growing in all directions at once with Daniel Gebler, Picnic | TLH #21
One of the largest food and logistics tech scale-ups (with investment from The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Trust) is coming to Tech Leaders Hub!
Our guest is Daniel Gebler, co-founder and CTO at Picnic, a cutting-edge Dutch company revolutionizing the way people buy groceries in the Netherlands, Germany, and France
What makes Picnic special?
There are three general directions in which a business of this type can grow:
massive expansion,

massive robotized automation,

new business lines.
Most companies can only do one out of three at the same time.
But Picnic is not like most companies.
Their explosive growth in recent years confirms that their business strategy is working extremely well.
Just last year, they raised $706 million from investors including The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Trust. They were also named the number one startup in the Netherlands by LinkedIn.
Unlike most companies, Picnic is managing to grow in all directions at once: expansion, automation and new business lines are all happening in parallel.
On top of that, they’re managing to make it happen with 10x fewer developers than would normally be needed for such an effort.
Naturally, we decided to invite them to Tech Leaders Hub to find out how they did it!
Tune in to benefit from Daniel’s vast experience as a tech leader.
Get more guides, news, and videos from STX Next!
Website: https://stxnext.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/stx-next-python-experts
Twitter: https://twitter.com/STXNext/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StxNext/
Behance: https://www.behance.net/STXNextTeam/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stx_next/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/STXNextPythonPowerhouse
58 min
April 08, 2022What CTOs need to know about product strategy with Jarek Feith | TLH #20
“Many CTOs don’t realize that they have a huge impact on product strategy.” – Jarek Feith, Senior Product Consultant
What is product strategy? What impact do you have on it as a CTO?
In other words, how do you answer the “what to build next?” question at your company?
As a CTO, you need to know whether the features your teams are building are bringing business value. You need to know how to show the business impact of the code being shipped by your developers. And you need to know how to make plans that will lead your teams to provide maximum business value as soon as possible.
Thankfully, our next Tech Leaders Hub guest knows all about that—and is willing to share!
Our guest will be Jarek Feith, Senior Product Consultant at STX Next.
Tune in to learn:
What product strategy is, why you should care about it, and how to drive it at your company as a CTO

The unconscious product management competencies that many CTOs already have

What to do if your tech department is an “internal agency” fulfilling the requests of the business layer

Why you should build teams of missionaries, not mercenaries
Get more guides, news, and videos from STX Next!
Website: https://stxnext.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/stx-next-python-experts
Twitter: https://twitter.com/STXNext/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StxNext/
Behance: https://www.behance.net/STXNextTeam/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stx_next/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/STXNextPythonPowerhouse
1 hr 2 min
April 01, 2022Your first 100 days as a CTO with Aviv Ben-Yosef | TLH #19
“At the beginning of your work as a CTO, it will feel like every random chat you have unearths more issues that you should be dealing with.
Do not become overwhelmed. Instead, diligently keep track of what you’re hearing and pass it along to the next steps in the process.” – Aviv Ben-Yosef, consultant and author of “The Tech Executive Operating System”
Our next Tech Leaders Hub guest loves what he does—and what he does is help CTOs create even better product engineering teams.
Aviv Ben-Yosef is a global advisor coach for tech leaders and author of “The Tech Executive Operating System”. In his book, Aviv lays out a set of tools and guidelines with which you can create highly autonomous delivery teams that make the impossible possible.
We couldn’t possibly cover everything in the book during one session, so we’ll focus on the beginning: your first 100 days as CTO.
When you take up the CTO role, everything can seem urgent and important. How do you filter out the critical issues from the noise? What are the most important moves to make in your first 100 days? What are the areas most often overlooked?
We’ll dig deep into all of that, so join us to become a smarter, more prepared CTO.
(And even if you’re way past your first 100 days, there’s a good chance Aviv’s framework will help you identify areas you’ve been neglecting all this time.)
Tune in to the session with Aviv to learn:
The four areas you need to explore as you get your bearings as a CTO

The four elements of an effective CTO’s plan for the first 100 days

How to drive huge changes even when you’re in a large organization

How to turn R&D from a cost center to an innovation center

What tech capital is and how to bring it into your company
Get more guides, news, and videos from STX Next!
Website: https://stxnext.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/stx-next-python-experts
Twitter: https://twitter.com/STXNext/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StxNext/
Behance: https://www.behance.net/STXNextTeam/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stx_next/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/STXNextPythonPowerhouse
1 hr 3 min
March 25, 2022 How to get in the room and create company-wide impact as CTO with Matt Greenberg, Reforge | TLH #18
“It doesn’t matter how good your code is if you aren’t meaningfully moving the needle for the company.” – Matt Greenberg, CTO at Reforge
The mission of our next Tech Leaders Hub guest is to help you avoid the Engineering Leadership Death Spiral.
What is that?
Early in your career as a line programmer, life is simple. You get a ticket in Jira, you do what the ticket tells you to do—your job is to figure out the “how”.
And even as you climb the organizational ladder and become a leader and manager, it still feels like “how” is your job: how the application works, how the teams are structured, how work flows within and between teams…
But in reality, as you move up, the “how” matters less and less. Software gets rewritten every few years anyway.
As you advance further to an executive position and you start having meetings with other departments like Product and Marketing, they’re all about the “what” and the “why”. Your “how” thinking turns you into the person who always shoots down ideas before they even have time to properly form.
The more you do this, the less you get invited to strategy meetings, and thus you get fewer opportunities to influence where the company is going… And so the spiral continues until you become sidelined in deciding your own company’s direction, even if you’re a CTO.
How can you escape this trap? How can you start having more of a say not just in the technical strategy, but the company strategy as a whole?
That’s what we talk about with Matt Greenberg on Tech Leaders Hub!
Matt is the CTO at Reforge, a company trying to reinvent the professional network for tech by building specialized MBA programs for product engineering. Reforge’s work helps tech leaders plug into expertise that they couldn’t access otherwise.
Get more guides, news, and videos from STX Next!
Website: https://stxnext.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/stx-next-python-experts
Twitter: https://twitter.com/STXNext/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StxNext/
Behance: https://www.behance.net/STXNextTeam/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stx_next/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/STXNextPythonPowerhouse
1 hr 2 min
March 18, 2022Why you need your own philosophy of software development with Chris Thacker, PHMG | TLH #17
“When you start to compromise on how you want to work, it leads to bad outcomes.” – Chris Thacker, Director of Engineering at PHMG
Have you ever considered what your unique approach to software development is?
In other words: what’s your software development philosophy?
And if you have one, does your team know about it? Do you check for it when hiring?
Chris Thacker, Director of Engineering at PHMG and our next Tech Leaders Hub guest, is here to convince you why you shouldn’t wait with defining your software development philosophy—especially if you want to build teams that work well together and to create better outcomes for your business.
Chris is part of PHMG, the largest audio branding agency with 23 years on the market. They make small businesses sound professional—and big corporations sound as impressive as they look.
(If you’ve ever heard the McDonalds “ba da ba ba ba” in your head, you know what audio branding is.)
Tune in to learn:
Why you need a software development philosophy

Chris’ philosophy of software development based on the 4 Ps

How to set (and enforce) high standards for your people

How to build a team that you can trust to make its own decisions

Chris’ surprising approach to interviewing (with no tech tasks involved)
Get more guides, news, and videos from STX Next!
Website: https://stxnext.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/stx-next-python-experts
Twitter: https://twitter.com/STXNext/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StxNext/
Behance: https://www.behance.net/STXNextTeam/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stx_next/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/STXNextPythonPowerhouse
1 hr 2 min
March 11, 2022 The value of building a great developer experience with Skyler Nesheim, Dwolla | TLH Fintech #7
“Tech leaders often wear lots of hats in their organizations and while we all know we’re responsible for the technical aspects of our jobs, evangelizing developers is often an overlooked area that can prove to bring great value to a product.” - Skyler Nesheim, SVP of Technology at Dwolla
Dwolla is a US-based fintech company specializing in sophisticated A2A (account-to-account) payment solutions that power innovations. With a single API integration, businesses can collect, send or facilitate funds through various A2A rails some tens, hundreds or even thousands of times per day—Dwolla’s powerful payment technology provides customizable solutions for these types of use cases.
Skyler Nesheim, Dwolla’s SVP of Technology, says the key to growing Dwolla’s business has been building technology with tooling and resources that developers love—and that’s a key responsibility of tech leaders.
Dwolla’s platform is designed to be API-driven and tailored so businesses can add rich payments functionality to their application while maintaining their own user experience. The consultative approach of integration experts, robust documentation and a strong testing environment has helped engineering teams maximize their speed to market with a rock solid integration. Dwolla’s platform is feature-rich and includes not only an API, but infrastructure that supports real-time webhooks, drop-in components and other tools to reduce the amount of work required of developers.
If that sounds like a goal to strive towards for your API, be sure to tune in to our upcoming Tech Leaders Hub session for tips on how to level up your evangelism and developer experience.
Get more guides, news, and videos from STX Next!
Website: https://stxnext.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/stx-next-python-experts
Twitter: https://twitter.com/STXNext/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StxNext/
Behance: https://www.behance.net/STXNextTeam/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stx_next/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/STXNextPythonPowerhouse
1 hr 5 min
March 04, 2022Beyond onboarding: why leaders should focus on the employee lifecycle with Dave Marsland, Finematter | TLH #16
“As an industry, we haven’t nailed how to scale businesses in a people-friendly way.” – Dave Marsland, CTO at Finematter
When you’re hiring new people and helping them grow, you should think about their whole career—not just their career with you.
Great onboarding is an important piece of the puzzle, but it’s just the beginning of the employee lifecycle which runs from onboarding through development all the way to exiting the company.
Our Tech Leaders Hub guest Dave Marsland is big on focusing on his team’s career development.
“When people leave, you should have a brand ambassador in the industry”—that’s the standard Dave sets for himself in taking care of his people.
It’s the standard he applies as CTO at Finematter, a groundbreaking emerging marketplace for independent jewelers which is quickly becoming the authority for jewelry ownership.
Tune in to the session with Dave to learn:
Why having a framework for hiring is not enough

What the employee lifecycle is, why it’s important, and how to improve it at your organization

The stages each employee goes through in their lifecycle, and how to excel at them

Why leaders focus on the wrong timeframe when onboarding

Why Dave is happy to see engineers break something on prod in their first week
Get more guides, news, and videos from STX Next!
Website: https://stxnext.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/stx-next-python-experts
Twitter: https://twitter.com/STXNext/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StxNext/
Behance: https://www.behance.net/STXNextTeam/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stx_next/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/STXNextPythonPowerhouse
1 hr 2 min

About Tech Leaders Hub by STX Next

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Interviews with tech leaders about their experiences, challenges, and tips they can share with others in similar roles.

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Tech Leaders Hub by STX Next

Tech Leaders Hub by STX Next episodes

About Tech Leaders Hub by STX Next