The Technology Leadership Podcast

About Simon

Simon Müller is a seasoned entrepreneur with a background in both computer and mechanical engineering. He founded and exited a startup and built the digital lab of a mid-sized company, which fuelled his passion for the startup world. Simon strongly believes that the combination of innovation and agility of the startup world is where the true potential for growth lies. As a company builder, Simon and the team at wattx partner with mid-sized companies to help them build new products and businesses. They approach ideation and research with the goal of identifying the unique space and competitive advantages of their partners, in order to create something truly new.


Synopsis

In this episode of the Technology Leadership Podcast, Simon Müller, CTO at wattx, shares his insights on company building, the importance of combining business and tech, as well as the focus on deep tech and climate within his work at the company.
 

Key Takeaways

• The key to starting a successful venture is to find a competitive advantage and build upon it. This involves identifying the unique value proposition of the product or service and using that to differentiate it from competitors.
• wattx combines both the business and tech sides of company building, providing inspiration and guidance for those looking to build their own businesses or startups.
• wattx's recent shift towards climate tech emphasises the importance of addressing environmental issues through technological advancements, inspiring listeners to consider the role of tech in creating a sustainable future.
• Simon explains the different approaches to starting a new product or venture with wattx, offering listeners a better understanding of the various paths to success in entrepreneurship.

Episode Outline

[00:09] Meet Simon
[02:40] How Simon started his tech journey
[11:33] How to screen for a good fit
[17:52] Broadening your knowledge
{23:02] The challenges of switching domains
[27:50] When to kill off a product
[32:52] The importance of sustainability in tech
[38:05] Building and scaling, the green way

About Chiedza

Chiedza Muguti is an experienced product leader, coach, and mentor, currently working as Chief Product Officer at Alteos. With a background in business analysis, she has extensive knowledge working with engineers, QA architects, and delivery teams. As a product leader, she emphasises the importance of understanding engineers' technical needs and empathising with them to create a cohesive business unit.


Synopsis

In the latest episode of the Technology Leadership podcast, Chiedza Muguti, Chief Product Officer at Alteos, shares her insights on product leadership, based on her experiences. Chiedza talks about how her career took a pivotal turn when she transitioned from being a team member to a leader and had to work on self-validation for confidence. She stresses that product managers should have empathy and curiosity towards both customers and engineers to ensure the success of a project. By having empathy, patience, and effective communication skills, product managers can optimize their relationship with engineers and create successful products.


Key Takeaways

• As a product manager, it's important to optimize the relationship with engineers and collaborate with them for the best possible outcome.
• Empathy and curiosity towards engineers is just as important as having it towards customers. Understanding the challenges that engineers face can help product managers create better solutions for the product.
• Technical skills can be learned on the job with patience and time. Product managers should not be afraid of not knowing everything about the technical aspect of the product.
• To break down walls and build bridges between product managers and engineers, it's important to understand the product development process and ask the right questions. This way, product managers can better understand the engineers' work and collaborate more effectively.
• Communication is key to successful collaboration between product managers and engineers. The language and tone used in communication can greatly affect the success of those conversations. Product managers should be mindful of how questioned are positioned and worded.

Episode Outline

{00:09] Meet Chiedza
[02:22] Managing confidence
[10:52] Challenges between Engineers and Product Managers
[17:20] Being patient with yourself
[20:01] The Importance of asking the right questions and setting expectations
[26:30] The first 100 days of your career
[29:18] Product management guidance
[38:36] Advice to new product managers

About Borna:

Borna Pourhossein is the Engineering Manager at Friendsurance. He's been with the company for over seven years, being promoted to team lead and engineering manager after starting as a senior frontend engineer. His experience  has shown him the importance of having an environment that allows you to grow and where you are challenged. Borna has also been instrumental in setting up engineering guilds at Friendsurance, which can drive developer-friendly topics in parallel with user-friendly features.

Synopsis:

In this episode of the Technology Leadership podcast, Borna Pourhossein , a highly experienced engineering manager from Friendsurance, takes listeners on a journey through his successful career growth story. Providing valuable insights along the way, he discusses how he established an engineering guild in his company and how it It is important to have an open environment where employees can voice their concerns and suggestions. Borna also highlights the importance of fostering a culture of collaboration, innovation, and continuous learning in today's fast-paced technological landscape.

Key Takeaways:

• To grow in your career, you need a challenging environment with supportive colleagues and managers who can mentor you and give you feedback.
• Improve projects by not only pointing out flaws but also providing feasible solutions that senior management can understand and implement. This requires technical expertise, communication skills, and an understanding of the project's objectives and constraints.
• Engineering guilds are horizontal communities of practice where people with similar skills can exchange ideas and make collective decisions. Joining a guild enhances technical skills and builds relationships with colleagues.
• Guild meetings provide a regular forum for members to discuss technical issues and share best practices.
• Anyone interested in the topic can join the guild to learn from experienced professionals, get exposure to new ideas, and build their network within the company. Guilds can also serve as a platform for recruiting new talent and identifying potential leaders and mentors.

 Episode Outline:

[00:09] Meet Borna
[01:10] Borna's journey to becoming an engineering manager
[06:16] What is an engineering guild?
[10:47] When should you start an engineering guild? 
[12:42] The importance of guild communication and meetings
[24:31] How to improve your communication skills as an engineer
[27:57] 5 Years ago, what would Borna have done differently?
[32:37] Growing future leaders and management
[37:02] How to be comfortable as a leader

About Lukas:

Lukas Grillmayer is the Chief Technology Officer at craftguide, a Munich-based software and content provider that has set itself the goal of redesigning the interface between education, industry and craftsmen.

Synopsis:

In this episode of The Technology Leadership Podcast, Lukas Grillmayer discusses providing engaging digital learning content through step-by-step tutorials in video, AR, and VR. Coming from a background in the space industry, Lukas highlights the process-driven nature of the industry, emphasizing meticulous documentation due to the high stakes involved. He applies this experience to introduce structure and processes at craftguide, both in technology and business operations. Lukas advises aspiring CTOs to build relationships, maintain a network of potential collaborators, and consider joining entrepreneurship programs and incubators. The conversation underscores the importance of processes and documentation in companies, particularly for software updates and building independent systems.

Key Takeaways:

• The space industry operates in a highly process-driven manner due to the high stakes and unforgiving environment of space. Meticulous documentation and adherence to procedures are crucial in ensuring the success and safety of space missions. 
• It’s crucial to build relationships and maintain a network of potential collaborators in the startup world. Networking allows for partnerships, knowledge sharing, and access to resources that can contribute to the growth and success of a startup. 
• One of the challenges faced by technology startups is the uncertainty and insecurity surrounding the role of artificial intelligence (AI). Many products, like GPT and neural networks, have raised questions about their capabilities and how they can be effectively utilised in businesses. Understanding the potential impact of AI and identifying suitable applications for startups are essential challenges that need to be addressed.
• The shift towards cloud-based solutions is an important trend. While there are benefits to moving operations to the cloud, such as reduced infrastructure management, the biggest is probably the reliance on subscription-based models where businesses don't own their resources but rent them. This raises questions about the long-term sustainability and ownership of assets. Precautions, such as regular backups and procedures for transitioning between cloud providers, are necessary to mitigate potential risks.
• It’s important to develop a culture of processes and documentation in a company. It extends beyond technology-related processes and includes all aspects of the business, such as purchasing procedures and business operations. Clear instructions, guidelines, and documentation enable efficient execution of tasks, knowledge transfer, and minimise repetitive work. Implementing processes and ensuring meticulous documentation can enhance efficiency, reduce errors, and promote a system with high uptime.

Episode Outline:

[01:02] Meet Lukas
[02:42] How did Lukas get into the space industry? 
[10:17] Advice for those interested in getting to CTO positions
[15:27] Step-by-step process to prepare for an update
[20:46] Vacation times in the startup world
[22:49] How to create a troubleshooting procedure, document a task, and validate the procedure step by step
[27:51] An overview of the process of setting up processes and the importance of documenting processes.
[30:39] The biggest challenges to technology in Germany and globally
[35:13] How does one prepare for the future of technology? 

About Tamer:

Tamer El-Hawari is the CPO at Project A Ventures and has been with the company for 11 years. He has a background in information systems, studying computer science and business. After founding his own company and gaining valuable experience, Tamer went on to work at Rocket Internet GmbH, where he helped scale up e-commerce companies worldwide. However, he felt that the emphasis on product management and customer centricity was lacking. So, when the opportunity arose to join Project A, Tamer was eager to be part of the journey. Over the past 11 years, he has worked with around 50 different ventures across various industries, and he finds it fascinating to see how these companies operate.

Synopsis:

In this episode of The Technology Leadership Podcast, Tamer discusses product management and leadership. He outlines six key areas to consider when working with early-stage startups, such as problem-solution fit and the competitive landscape, and emphasizes the importance of understanding user needs and motivations. He stresses the importance of having a solid product manager who can focus on user research, strategy, and product development and highlight the challenges of shifting from growth to profitability. To build a successful company, companies must give importance to being close to the customer, having a strong product vision, and the need for caution when adopting methodologies and frameworks.

Key Takeaways:

• To develop a successful value proposition and marketing strategy, it's crucial to understand the user's needs and motivations.
• Tamer's six key areas to consider when working with early-stage companies are: problem-solution fit, customer/user profiles, product capabilities and strategy, competitive landscape, and commercialization approach.
• When starting a company, focus on the problem solution and uniqueness of your product. Conduct user research and customer research to gain a deep understanding of their needs and "jobs to be done". Understand your competition and where your product can make a difference in the market.
• Follow a four-step product management framework: generate insights, give direction, design collaboration, and create the product. Within each step, there are various elements that a product manager needs to get right to be successful.
• Collaboration is essential, as product managers work with a variety of stakeholders and need to design effective communication channels.
• A solid product manager is essential for successful product development, and they should focus on user research and strategy.
• The changing market dynamics and advancements in AI present challenges for product managers.
• Product managers need to be close to the customer and have a strong product vision.
• Going from growth to profitability requires a change in strategy and evaluating the roadmap.
• It's important to focus on solving small problems and cleaning up the product.
• Understanding the underlying principles behind every framework is crucial.

Episode Outline:

[03:08] Understanding product venture capital
[05:55] How to look at early stage companies and the role of their product managers.
[11:44] Understanding customer needs and value propositions.
[14:45] Product development: how to start with a problem, figure out the differentiation factor, and carry out product management
[20:15] Four main areas for product managers to focus on + how to give direction to product managers.
[22:55] The process of creating and integrating a product and solving customer problems.
[25:00] How do you create a product strategy?
[29:05] The importance of understanding the market and product managers.
[31:21] The importance of understanding the underlying business principles.

About Jürgen:

Jürgen Vogel is an Engineering Leader and Co-Founder of Solvemate (now acquired by Dixa), a customer service platform for businesses. Juergen has in his career built and scaled multiple companies and led their teams to noteworthy success.

Synopsis:

In this episode of the Technology Leadership Podcast, Jürgen Vogel discusses the significance of an open culture in a company's success. He explains that open culture has two sides: individual and collective. He attributes the success of Solvemate, his most recent company (now acquired by Dixa), to its open culture, which helped with conflict resolution, team cohesion, and recruitment. Jürgen believes that an open culture is essential for building high-performing teams, as it addresses core needs such as belonging, improvement, choice, equality, predictability, and significance. He shares how companies can cultivate an open culture by starting right at the recruitment process and how it gives them an edge in the competitive market.

Key Takeaways:

• Open culture is an approach to making the culture of an organization explicit and shareable, and is not just something that happens organically over time.
• Spending time with your team, understanding their values, and bringing everyone together is crucial for a progressive company. Allowing everyone to have a say in decision-making can lead to high retention rates.
• Open communication and an open culture are essential for a company to succeed. A process should be developed for taking decisions, and everyone who will be affected by a decision should be consulted.
• In times of economic hardship, transparency and communication are even more crucial. Openness is a multiplier for shared understanding in the company of why things are the way they are. Companies that communicate well during difficult times can come up with better solutions.
• Reducing salaries instead of laying off employees can be an option in times of economic hardship. An open culture and communication with employees can lead to better solutions.
• The core needs of a team, called psychological safety, include Belonging, Improvement, Choice, Equality, Predictability, and Significance, represented by the acronym BICEPS. 

Episode Outline:

[00:09] Meet Juergen Vogel
[02:37] What is an open culture? Why is it important to have an open culture in your company?
[06:39] Reinventing organizations, a book by Frédéric Laloux, and what it teaches about open culture
[08:27] Developing the company vision, progressive vs. traditional companies, and company culture
[10:39] The importance of having an open culture
[16:04] Covid-19 and getting back to strength + the importance of accountability
[18:47] The positive impact of having an open culture.
[23:39] Having a culture deck for candidates + how to build high-performing teams.[26:33] The core needs of a high-performing team.
[31:13] Building a high-performing team with an open culture.
[33:13] Book Recommendations from Juergen

About Adriana:

Adriana Ellice Flint is an accomplished product leader with a wealth of experience in senior roles. Adriana's career in financial services began as a product advisor, and she has since risen to become a Vice President of Product. Currently the VP of Product at receeve, Adriana's expertise in connecting the vision and mission of a company to short-term goals and objectives is essential in achieving success. Her ability to navigate the bigger picture while keeping an eye on the details makes her an invaluable asset to any team. 

Synopsis:

In this episode of The Technology Leadership Podcast, Adriana discusses the importance of product strategy and the pillars of strategy. Product strategy helps connect a company's vision and mission to its short-term goals and objectives, allowing for both the consideration of the bigger picture and the navigation of details in the short term. She breaks down the four pillars of strategy: participants, subjects, processes, and dimensions and emphasizes the importance of partnerships, which can be commercial or non-commercial. Furthermore, she suggests that businesses should look at their long-term strategy at least once a year, during the annual planning process, and that product strategy should always be a subset of the overall business strategy. Adriana suggests that by bringing together product strategy and business strategy, product leaders can ensure that their companies hit their goals for the next three to five years.

Key Takeaways:

• Product strategy is a concept that connects a company's vision and mission to short-term goals and objectives to achieve success.
• Product strategy ties together product management and the rest of the company. It allows for the consideration of the bigger picture while navigating the details in the short term.
• A product leader can influence or help a company build an adaptable and flexible strategy that can adjust execution, speed, and investment as necessary.
• The four pillars of strategy are participants, subjects, processes, and dimensions.
  • Participants include investors, employees, and customers, while subjects refer to entities that influence the business.
  • Processes are the methods used to bring up ideas and create a tangible plan, and dimensions refer to different aspects of a business.
  • Partnerships, both commercial and non-commercial, should be considered in a product strategy.
• Long-term strategy should be looked at least once a year during the annual planning process, and inputs like competitive research and market analysis should be continuous.
• Having a framework and processes set up correctly allows for more confidence in planning resources, investments, and deliverables.
• Product strategy should be a subset of overall business strategy, and a product leader should always start by asking about the business strategy.
• Product strategy and business strategy should be brought together to hit goals for the next three to five years.

Episode Outline:

[00:15] Meet Adriana Ellice Flint
[00:09] Why is product strategy important?
[02:43] Goals: From operational and executional levels
[05:19] How product leaders step in to plan and execute product strategies
[08:38] How to plan out the next steps of a product strategy without losing continuity.
[13:49] Macroeconomics and strategy: The biggest shifts and changes in the macroeconomic climate over the past few years
[15:50] Breaking down the four pillars of a product strategy
[23:59] How often should businesses be thinking about their product strategy?[24:39] How often should business leaders stay back thinking about risks, changing market conditions, and competitions?
[28:04] How to come up with a product strategy

About Christian:

Christian Rebernik is an accomplished entrepreneur with a plethora of professional expertise and experiences under his belt. He’s been an experimental startup founder and advisor, served as the CTO and MD during the early days of the 2006 group, and co-founded Vivy as its CEO. Christian has also served on the boards of various startups over the years. Now, he's the CEO and founder of Tomorrow University of Applied Sciences, an institution dedicated to helping individuals develop the skills and competencies necessary to thrive in the modern world. 

Synopsis:

In this episode of The Technology Leadership Podcast, Christian discusses the factors that lead to startup success. He emphasizes the importance of team, execution, and problem solution fit and tells how to identify the most immediate next step and build a solution that fits the customer's needs despite being tight-resourced. He also discusses striking a balance between over-engineering and under-engineering a product, citing iteration and optimization. Further, he emphasizes the need for startups to pivot and iterate frequently to succeed, but to also be persistent and customer-focused. Finally, Christian highlights the importance of communication, iteration, and ownership in increasing the speed of development and getting products to market. His mission is to help people develop 21st-century competencies.

Key Takeaways:

• To be successful in life, it is important to have a growth mindset and focus on learning from failures rather than avoiding them.
• When it comes to building healthy relationships, communication and empathy are key. It's important to listen actively, express your needs and feelings clearly, and show understanding and compassion towards others.
• Maintaining good physical and mental health is crucial for overall well-being. This includes getting enough sleep, exercising regularly, eating a healthy diet, and managing stress.
• To succeed in a professional setting, it's important to develop strong time management and organizational skills, be proactive, and take ownership of your work. Additionally, networking and building strong relationships with colleagues can be helpful in advancing your career.
• Cultivating a positive mindset and practicing gratitude can have a significant impact on happiness and well-being. It's important to focus on what you have, rather than what you lack, and to appreciate the good things in your life.
• To be an effective leader, it's important to communicate clearly and authentically, set a positive example, and empower and inspire those around you. Additionally, being open to feedback and willing to learn from others can help you grow as a leader.
• Pursuing your passions and finding meaning and purpose in your life can bring great fulfillment. It's important to identify your values and interests and pursue activities and opportunities that align with them.
• Developing resilience and the ability to bounce back from setbacks is an important skill for navigating life's challenges. This can involve cultivating a growth mindset, building a strong support system, and practicing self-care.

Episode Outline:

[00:25] Meet Christian Rebernik
[02:18] Nailing product solution fit / problem solution fit
[09:05] The dangers of building an all-in-one solution
[10:19] How not to under or over-engineer your products
[14:20] Scaling vs. Retention and how not to overdo them
[19:28] Conscious periodization of development cycles
[23:57] Creating an account for parents with teenagers
[26:52] The best time to pivot is when the customer shows you that you need to
[32:39] Why you must have confidence in your decisions
[37:10] Advice for early-stage startups
[42:58] How to figure out your strengths and weaknesses

About Patrick:

Patrick Toy is the team leader of the engineering department at Climate Partner, Munich, Germany, a company that’s been around for over 15 years serving the global climate protection mission.

Synopsis:

In this episode of The Technology Leadership Podcast, Patrick Toy discusses the digital solutions department at Climate Partner, which focuses on creating a software platform to help the company scale and meet global demand for climate action. The platform involves onboarding customers, collecting data, and providing options for reducing their carbon footprint. Over the past two and a half years, the digital solutions department has grown from 10 people to over 100, with teams located in Munich, Berlin, and Barcelona. He delves into the company's approach to hiring and culture, describing the challenges in the coding section of the hiring process, and shares how they carry out a live coding session with two engineers as a better alternative. He discusses the importance of building a healthy work environment, supporting individuals, and promoting individual growth and values over strictly defined roles.

Key Takeaways:

• The digital solutions department at Climate Partner and its software platform - Patrick talks about the software platform Climate Partner has developed to help businesses reduce their carbon footprint, which involves onboarding customers, collecting data, and providing options for carbon reduction. You’ll learn about the challenges of scaling and meeting global demand for climate action and the importance of digital solutions to help achieve this.
• The company's approach to hiring and culture - Patrick describes the challenges in the coding section of the hiring process and offers a better alternative. You’ll also learn about the company's failure culture that focuses on responding to failures, learning from them, and not repeating them in the future. 
• Foster a high trust environment that enables collaboration and communication between your software engineers.
• Climate Partner' unique approach to career growth and development - You’ll learn that they don’t use traditional roles for engineers and instead consider each engineer a software engineer. The company has two growth paths for engineers: individual contributor and management. The company promotes individual growth and values strengths over strictly defined roles.
• Building a healthy work environment and the company's growth from 10 to 100 people - You’ll learn about how the company supports individuals, builds a healthy work environment, and has grown from 10 to 100 people. 

Episode Outline:

[00:08] Meet Patrick
[02:14] Patrick’s transition from an individual contributor to team-lead engineer at Climate Partner.
[07:40] How has the digital solutions department at Climate Partner grown over the past two years?
[12:11] What has Patrick learned in the past two years?
[16:30] Why Climate Partner looks for generalists and not specialists at their company?
[17:50] The generalist coding challenge problem devised at Climate Partner
[23:55] The difference between a low-trust environment and a high trust environment at the workplace.
[27:48] What does Climate Partner mean by a T-shaped engineer?
[33:52] The importance of culture and retention and how Climate Partner maintains its high levels of retention
[39:16] Progression/career growth as an engineer
[46:13] Allowing for the transition from isolated feature branches to the main branch.

About Jorrit:

Jorrit Enzio Posor is a seasoned technology professional, who currently serves as the Tech Lead for the centralized data team at FINN, a fast-growing car subscription company. With his deep-seated passion for utilizing data to drive business growth, he leads a team responsible for defining and maintaining the tooling necessary for data analysts and other data teams to effectively access the data warehouse and gather key performance indicators, reports, and insights. Jorrit also has a deep understanding of data management and a commitment to excellence. He is poised to drive Safin's continued success through innovative and effective data solutions.

Synopsis:

In this episode of The Technology Leadership Podcast, Jorrit discusses the Data Mesh strategy that aligns both the technical and organizational aspects of data management. He shares the bottlenecks caused by the traditional centralized data team structures and explains how a Data Mesh solves this by decentralizing data teams, with each department having its own data team. The centralized data team builds a platform for the decentralized teams to use and focuses on bringing engineering knowledge and capabilities closer to each department. Software-as-a-service (SaaS) tools such as Fivetran and Google BigQuery are combined with a data mesh approach to manage this data architecture and prevent technical debt. Jorrit also explains data analytics and management using this structure before getting into the business benefits of it.

Key Takeaways:

• Jorrit discusses the Data Mesh concept, which is about aligning the technical and organizational aspects of data teams.
• When does a centralized data team become a bottleneck? How can you overcome the challenge? When a centralized data team receives too many requests from different departments, it becomes a challenge to use. The solution is to decentralize data teams, and assign each department with its own data team. The infrastructure can still stay centralized.
• Central data teams can provide support to decentralized teams and aid in faster speed of execution and shipping of insights.
• Use a combination of Fivetran, Google BigQuery, and DBT to manage data from multiple sources.
• The most important aspect of building a data platform is focusing on the central data team and balancing centralization and decentralization.
• An essential business benefit of using a decentralized data team is being able to avoid bottlenecks in shipping insights and having data that accurately reflects changes in the business.
• You can determine if a data mesh is the right strategy for you by understanding the trade-offs involved. This can be done by evaluating your current problems and future growth plans.

Episode Outline:

[00:37] Meet Jorrit
[01:48] What is meant by scaling a decentralized organization?
[03:12] How data mesh impacts data and other business teams
[07:03] The benefits of decentralized data teams in business
[08:55] How to implement decentralized data teams in your company and the bottlenecks to centralized data teams
[16:37] How Jorrit implemented decentralized data teams in his company
[24:31] 3/4 things Jorrit would’ve told himself a year ago that would help him become more successful 
[27:32] How can a technical lead communicate the benefits of a decentralized data team in his company?
[30:18] One piece of advice Jorrit would like to leave you with