Over the last decade, Leszek has developed several successful businesses, among them a software development agency that supports Fortune 500 companies. With the challenges a growing business brings, he observed that stepping out of a tech role into a leadership one brings the need for a different approach. As a host of the Better Tech Leadership podcast, Leszek is focused on bridging the gap between tech and people skills.
Working for many years with software engineering and architecture I forged skills that allowed me to cross the different layers in the organisation to communicate, align and inspire people to build the right thing. While focusing on customer success, I also strive to create better engineering experiences.I'm working with the amazing people behind the Zalando Partner Program, most specifically the Partner Growth and Optimisation pillar, where I lead a team responsible for providing insights for companies to understand how they are performing and seize growth opportunities while using our platform.
In this episode, Leszek interviews Patrick Jørgensen about his career journey and leadership style. Patrick discusses his path from software engineering to co-founding Scaleup Finance. He shares insights on how his experiences as a professional fencer influence his approach to entrepreneurship, emphasizing focus, competition, and process over results.
In this conversation, Matt and John Blythe discuss the challenges of transitioning between startups and larger organizations. John Blythe shares his experiences at Kyruus and Combined Curiosity, emphasizing the importance of understanding organizational culture and optimizing for different priorities. He also offers advice to leaders making similar career moves, highlighting the need to count the cost and align personal strengths with organizational needs.
In this episode, Matt interviews Stefano Grossi about strategies for effective R&D investment, leadership development, and achieving business outcomes through innovation and team growth. Stefano introduces the “R&D Pyramid of Needs,” an investment allocation tool, and discusses overcoming technical debt. He also shares his distaste for rigid processes in product teams, advocating for guidelines and frameworks that encourage collaboration and experimentation.
In this episode, Matt interviews Sebastiano Armeli, an engineering leader, about his experiences at various tech companies. They explore cultural differences, management frameworks, and lessons learned at Spotify, PayPal, Pinterest, Snapchat, and Upwork. Sebastiano also shares his insights on engineering management, OKRs, team leadership, remote work, and his personal management style.