[ BETTER TECH LEADERSHIP ]

Die Tech-Leadership-Odyssee: Vom Lernen zum Führen

[ THE SPEAKERS ]

Meet our hosts & guests

Matt Warcholinski
CO-FOUNDER, BRAINHUB

Matt, Mitbegründer von Brainhub, beschreibt sich selbst als „Serienunternehmer“. Im Laufe seiner Karriere hat Matt mehrere Startups in Deutschland entwickelt und dabei viele Hüte getragen — vom Vermarkter über einen IT-Ingenieur bis hin zum Kundenbetreuer. Als Moderator des Podcasts Better Tech Leadership spricht Matt über das Wachstum erfolgreicher Unternehmen und die Herausforderungen, die sich als Startup-Gründer und Investor stellen.

Juan Garberi
Leiter des Engineering-Teams

Juan Garberi ist der Leiter des Engineering-Teams bei Wolt und verfügt über mehr als zwei Jahrzehnte Erfahrung in der Softwareentwicklung und im technischen Management. Er hatte Schlüsselpositionen bei heycar, Forto, OLX Group und Amazon inne. Juan ist in Python, PHP, LUA und AWS versiert und begeistert sich für innovative Technologieprojekte. Er arbeitet gerne mit Arduino.

Transcript

00:09 - 00:16
My name is Matt, and I will be talking with Juan Garberi about understanding business needs and customizing leadership approach.

00:16 - 00:21
Juan, in for the past 7 years, you worked here or 8 years already. Right?

00:21 - 00:24
You are in Germany 8 years. Right? Yes.

00:24 - 00:25
Let's say 7 years almost.

00:25 - 00:27
Yeah. 7 years or something.

00:27 - 00:32
So you work as an engineer in another head of engineering, leading various teams here. Mhmm.

00:32 - 00:34
Pretty international as far as I, yep, know.

00:37 - 00:42
And I'm just always wondering, like, how was your switch from the software developer?

00:42 - 00:45
Because you are in a tech business for quite a while Yes. Like a managerial role.

00:45 - 00:48
So it was basically by accident.

00:48 - 00:50
I'll involve a lot of killing the ego.

00:50 - 00:52
But that is a separate topic.

00:53 - 00:58
But basically, I was working I started a company.

00:59 - 01:04
And then in this company, one of the strongest engineers that later became my mentor, poached

01:04 - 01:05
me to go to a start up.

01:06 - 01:09
And he told me, Look, I need a senior wagon engineer working with us.

01:10 - 01:13
I I made the jump to senior after the interviews and everything.

01:13 - 01:17
And this guy is really talented, but he was mainly a co web programmer.

01:17 - 01:22
He built an amazing team, but he was not taking care of the team in a good way.

01:23 - 01:26
I mean, because he was doing something else.

01:28 - 01:29
It's a really big challenge.

01:31 - 01:35
So basically I tried to support him on these little things about the structure and the deliveries.

01:35 - 01:38
We didn't have, like, a formal process working with Prog.

01:38 - 01:41
We were working with one of the engineers and a mathematician.

01:41 - 01:45
We needed to structure the business rules on how everything should work.

01:46 - 01:50
And then organically fell on that role while he was doing the other part while I was doing coding.

01:51 - 01:57
And eventually, one day, he decided to part ways with the companies and said, like, I want to do something else.

01:57 - 01:59
And this is great because Mariano is his name.

01:59 - 02:05
He went, talked to the owner of the startup, talked with who will be my boss, with everyone, and said, no.

02:05 - 02:08
Juan is ready to take over the team. He's already doing it.

02:08 - 02:11
And by the way, this is these are his I already talked to him.

02:11 - 02:13
These are his conversation expectations.

02:14 - 02:15
And then he came, tapped me on the shoulder.

02:15 - 02:17
I was like, Sorry, dude. I'm leaving.

02:17 - 02:22
I already get my notice in Argentina between 2 weeks and a month, and you got this.

02:23 - 02:29
And he packed the bag for Friday and then get back for a couple of holidays, and then he went on vacation and bye.

02:30 - 02:34
So, yeah, I took over the team, And that was a really nice experience.

02:34 - 02:37
And then I applied for another company called Globant.

02:39 - 02:40
Basically, I need a tech lead.

02:40 - 02:48
And the role of the engineering manager as is or as is seen here in Europe was not fully defined there.

02:48 - 02:54
So I realized, okay, this engineer maybe requires some guidance on the career development or

02:54 - 02:59
maybe it requires some tooling on how to develop themselves or how to distribute the workload.

02:59 - 03:02
We're working with project management or with project owners.

03:02 - 03:06
So I kind of fell under the role and kept maturing and maturing and evolving.

03:06 - 03:07
So it was basically organic.

03:07 - 03:14
I realized that I could contribute more by unblocking others than with my code alone.

03:14 - 03:18
I love coding, but I realise I can only code for 1 person.

03:19 - 03:24
But if I do my job right, I can grab a team of 10 people and really make a difference.

03:24 - 03:27
So, yeah, impact wise, it was a no brainer.

03:28 - 03:30
What what you said, it makes a lot of sense.

03:30 - 03:34
But I'm just wondering from your perspective, was something surprising for you?

03:34 - 03:39
Like, I mean, like because as a software developer, you see only the side of, developing the software.

03:39 - 03:42
You don't see the high level so much or, like, the video and so on.

03:42 - 03:44
So I'm just wondering what was it

03:44 - 03:54
for you. So I have this idea that, you shall sit for 50 minutes with all the stakeholders. They say, okay. You do this. I do this. I do this. You do this.

03:54 - 03:58
And then everybody goes their own way and everything is done.

03:58 - 04:04
And I discovered the human factor behind the projects and that not everybody delivers the same.

04:05 - 04:11
So I needed to understand what were the complexities of every person and how they want to deliver

04:11 - 04:14
or what they can deliver or how they want to grow.

04:14 - 04:19
I've seen really talented engineers that kind of work with other people because the setting is not right.

04:20 - 04:25
So, like, the main challenge was understanding that it was not a problem that I just needed

04:25 - 04:32
to factorise the perfect, but also to understand that there were at least 7 more layers behind.

04:33 - 04:35
And those layers were evolving constantly.

04:36 - 04:38
So it's kinda like in a battlefield.

04:38 - 04:44
Let's say, you like, if you're playing a team sport and then you see, like, an an opening, and

04:44 - 04:47
then you play there and then you fall back, and then you move forward, and then you fall back,

04:47 - 04:51
and then you see another clear, and then you move forward. So that was that.

04:51 - 04:53
Like, it was, like, the second realisation.

04:53 - 04:58
As a developer, I always thought the medical amount, everybody knows this book.

04:58 - 05:05
And how come, like, project manager, engineer, leaders, like, doesn't know this? It's not that easy. Everybody understands this conceptually.

05:05 - 05:10
But whenever you need to start working with the people, that's a complete completely separate beast.

05:10 - 05:14
Like, it's a different animal, and how you handle the process is completely different.

05:14 - 05:16
So that was the the reality check.

05:17 - 05:19
And how about the the vault?

05:19 - 05:21
Because you're working on vault for quite a while.

05:21 - 05:28
And I'm just wondering the the really specific thing because my experience with with clients

05:28 - 05:32
and people from Finland working, they are really close. They are super introverts.

05:32 - 05:38
Like, if I compare I work with guys from Norway, from Denmark, from Iceland, from Sweden, but,

05:38 - 05:45
like, to work with the guys from Finland, it's so difficult even, like, you know, to get into this,

05:46 - 05:50
you know. There are different there are different skill sets.

05:50 - 05:54
I don't like to think about the word competencies. It's a different toolbox.

05:55 - 05:57
It's funny because I ask you where you're from and you tell me you're Polish.

05:57 - 06:02
I work with my first contact with Polish engineers, for example.

06:03 - 06:06
It was the same greeting that you are telling me about the the Finnish culture.

06:07 - 06:10
And after 2 weeks, it's just like I'm from Buenos Aires.

06:10 - 06:13
It's like, these are Portunos that speak Polish.

06:13 - 06:15
In culture, we have so much in common.

06:15 - 06:18
So it's more about finding the elements that you have in common.

06:19 - 06:29
Having a professional setting and having a certain let's call it a behaviour contract, it really helps.

06:31 - 06:36
Basically, it's about being flexible and being understanding that people have different competencies.

06:36 - 06:38
I can give you an example on this.

06:38 - 06:43
For example, a bit on the spectrum. I'm still getting diagnosed.

06:43 - 06:51
And I was working with an engineer who was, I respectfully, nameless, great guy.

06:52 - 06:58
He was not diagnosed, but he was having struggles because our director was really pushing him

06:59 - 07:02
to speak in conferences but with a really good positive attitude.

07:02 - 07:07
It's like, hey dude, you can get you promoted but it's really pre pandemic to go to this conference

07:07 - 07:08
and do this and do that.

07:08 - 07:15
There was a cultural barrier as well from his country of origin and he felt like really challenged on that.

07:15 - 07:18
And he's like he doesn't need to do this, it's not like a checkbox.

07:18 - 07:24
Why don't we put this person to work on a project that they feel comfortable?

07:24 - 07:28
I don't have to be talking with people every 24 hours with a status update. I'm breaking down.

07:28 - 07:31
It's like, you know what? You do this. Callaway programmer style.

07:32 - 07:37
Get back to us every 2 days with a written report. Yes. This is this. This is it.

07:37 - 07:40
Kim didn't get up to date, man. That's it.

07:40 - 07:46
So, I'm funny because of all the people that I work with, especially from other countries, the

07:46 - 07:52
Finnish were the most warm of all That's really open. Really? Yes.

07:52 - 07:57
But it was quite interesting. Our city was Finnish. Amazing guy.

07:57 - 07:59
One of all data analysts and scientists.

08:00 - 08:06
Well, 2 of us. 1 data analyst, one of the scientists, Tori and Jakov, finished.

08:06 - 08:08
And it's 5 minutes in.

08:08 - 08:10
Okay, let's have a beer and talk.

08:10 - 08:13
The project called life and everything.

08:13 - 08:15
They have been really warm with me.

08:15 - 08:18
But people tend to open up with me.

08:18 - 08:24
And I think that is kind of like a really nice tool that I have, being an engineer leader or a manager.

08:25 - 08:31
I think it's a great skill, right, especially in such, different environment with different nationalities.

08:32 - 08:37
Being an introvert and having the skill, it's it was hard growing up.

08:37 - 08:42
But then I realized that, yeah, okay, people talk to me. Let's embrace this.

08:42 - 08:49
So it's about investing with the cultural differences, not in their limitations, but also investing

08:49 - 08:51
a lot in the strong points.

08:51 - 08:53
We are not the same and it's fantastic.

08:55 - 09:04
So I wanted to discuss the last 2 years and, like, the this year because, like, 2 years ago,

09:04 - 09:06
the the the market was hyped.

09:06 - 09:07
Like, a big techs was hyped.

09:08 - 09:09
The the hiring, it was crazy.

09:09 - 09:13
It was really hard to find anybody to call to build a digital product.

09:13 - 09:19
Then another year, I mean, 2023, we entered the recession, which heated, like, really hard.

09:19 - 09:20
I mean, so many layoffs.

09:20 - 09:26
And I'm just wondering and and and trying to ask other leaders how do they see and how does

09:26 - 09:30
the organisations, see the 2024? I'm

09:31 - 09:34
I mean, I've been at work for close to a year.

09:34 - 09:39
And before that, I worked for 2 other companies, World Photo and another one called Hecar.

09:40 - 09:45
Heavily funded startups with a lot of growth, great companies, especially Fodo.

09:46 - 09:50
But for me, it didn't make sense the aggressiveness that they have been growing.

09:51 - 09:56
And it's I could understand, there are investors and they need to show results so you get more

09:56 - 10:00
hands on to work on things, hire smart people and move things forward.

10:00 - 10:09
Yeah, it was quite a blow to see, or my last comment, to see all the layoffs, they have to reduce the scale.

10:09 - 10:12
Sadly, it happened out of their control.

10:12 - 10:15
But I think, sadly, it was to be expected.

10:15 - 10:20
For me, it didn't make sense the way many I'm not talking about these 2 companies, but overall

10:20 - 10:22
how aggressive they were hiring.

10:25 - 10:29
The compensation wise and everything, I know I'm going to be like, oh, don't say that.

10:29 - 10:37
But being a Latin American in Berlin and talking with other with people who has, I don't know,

10:37 - 10:45
a PhD and 2 masters, and and then comparing overall salaries and saying, like, okay, I'm really happy.

10:45 - 10:49
It took a lot of work to be here, but there is a lot of disparity.

10:49 - 10:54
I I kind of sense that maybe coming from Latin America and expecting the worst, it was kinda

10:54 - 10:55
expecting for this to happen.

10:55 - 11:03
It it was no surprise because something growing up, everybody in my family started their own companies.

11:03 - 11:06
And so I grew up on this start up mentality.

11:07 - 11:08
Well, they didn't call it startup.

11:08 - 11:09
They just called it companies.

11:10 - 11:14
And it was always about the revenue, and it's about about the point of we call it the point

11:14 - 11:15
of equilibrium or tipping point.

11:15 - 11:18
When you say, like, okay, I'm spending this much, I'm earning this much.

11:18 - 11:20
How long can I hold it?

11:21 - 11:26
My last company, I was I was asking, it's like on this work model, like how do we make profit?

11:27 - 11:29
And this is how I also try to run the teams.

11:29 - 11:36
And ever since I became a lead, Like, how are we becoming profitable without going into intricacies of budget?

11:36 - 11:38
But how are we delivering value? Yeah.

11:38 - 11:39
I don't know if this answers my question.

11:39 - 11:42
The way I see it is it was bound to explode.

11:42 - 11:44
It's the same that happened with real estate.

11:45 - 11:46
It's like loans, loans, loans.

11:47 - 11:50
The companies sorry, the property devalue it there, Anthony.

11:50 - 11:52
Yeah. It makes a lot of sense.

11:52 - 11:57
I fully agree that the market is a bit cleaned off, I would say. And we are getting

11:57 - 12:01
to, like, a healthy approach, right, to hiring.

12:01 - 12:03
In Argentina, it happened the same.

12:03 - 12:06
When we had the economical crash, the second to last, I believe now.

12:06 - 12:10
But in 2,001, I remember, like, the whole economy was in recession.

12:10 - 12:14
This was before the Greek recession. 2 years yeah. 2,001.

12:15 - 12:18
And I remember, like, talking with relatives that have companies and everything.

12:18 - 12:22
They said, like, if you get a loan right now, it's impossible.

12:22 - 12:29
Like it's you got it from like some weird or high rate, it's not good.

12:29 - 12:32
But the money that is on the street, there is money that is well backed up.

12:32 - 12:34
If someone sends a cheque, it's there.

12:34 - 12:38
Someone make a card payment is that because nobody gives credit.

12:38 - 12:42
And I think that now the IT companies, are the same.

12:42 - 12:47
Like the ones who remain strong, like this one, who, by the way, didn't have any lay offs. Mhmm.

12:48 - 12:53
Which is quite a lot. They kept growing. Says a lot.

12:53 - 12:55
Are the ones who are, like, they're really strong.

12:55 - 12:57
They were, like, properly organized.

12:57 - 13:02
Und sie fehlten auch, weil sie ein nachhaltiges Modell anstreben. Aber ja.

13:03 - 13:05
Und wie siehst du dieses Jahr?

13:05 - 13:07
Bist du optimistisch oder pessimistisch?

13:09 - 13:14
Ich sehe viele Schicksale auf und ab kommen. Jetzt sind alle hier.

13:14 - 13:20
Gerade als ich über diese neue Technologie gelesen habe, habe ich den Namen vergessen, der angeblich Ingenieure vollständig ersetzen wird.

13:22 - 13:26
Trotz alledem habe ich das Gefühl, dass die verbleibenden Unternehmen sehr weitermachen werden

13:26 - 13:29
wieder stark, aus den gleichen Gründen.

13:29 - 13:34
Wenn sie diese jüngste Gegenreaktion überleben, können sie nur wachsen. Aber, nun, lass uns sehen.

13:34 - 13:40
Denn auch die aktuellen Wahlen in verschiedenen Ländern und der Konflikt hier,

13:40 - 13:42
Krieg in Europa hat nicht geholfen.

13:45 - 13:47
Aber ja, ich bin optimistisch.

13:47 - 13:53
Wenn nicht, sind wir, wie wir, Softwareingenieure, wir werden immer ein kleines Projekt finden und

13:53 - 13:55
etwas, um voranzukommen.

13:55 - 14:00
Zum Glück sind wir nicht so eng wie in anderen Berufszweigen, die stärker vom Ganzen abhängig sind

14:00 - 14:05
Ökosystem der Welt, ihrer Entschuldigung, ihres Dorfes, wenn man so will, oder der Stadt.

14:05 - 14:07
Ich kann von überall auf der Welt aus arbeiten.

14:07 - 14:12
Meine aktuelle Einschränkung ist momentan die Schule meines Kindes. Das war's. Also ja.

14:12 - 14:17
Auf die eine oder andere Weise denke ich, dass Softwareentwickler weiter vorankommen werden.

14:20 - 14:26
Ich wollte die Probleme und Herausforderungen angehen, nachdem ich so viele Jahre lang quasi als Leiter von Ingenieurteams gearbeitet hatte. Ja.

14:26 - 14:33
Ich frage mich, kannst du vielleicht einige nennen, die nicht gerade beliebt sind, von denen niemand spricht,

14:33 - 14:36
Schmerzpunkte, die Sie vielleicht hatten oder gesehen haben.

14:36 - 14:41
Ja. Als wir anfingen, als ich 20 war, war es so und das hielt an.

14:42 - 14:43
Es waren die Jungs von IT.

14:45 - 14:51
Diese Typen mit den komischen T-Shirts und sie sehen aus wie der Bote, aber sie bauen

14:51 - 14:53
ein ganzes Ökosystem in der Cloud.

14:54 - 14:57
Und wir haben sozusagen Leute gesehen, mit denen man nur schwer reden kann.

14:58 - 15:04
Und es gibt jetzt eine Tendenz, die aber immer noch sehr langsam geht.

15:04 - 15:10
Wo die Unternehmen es den Ingenieuren ermöglichen, die Produkte, die sie bauen, besser zu verstehen.

15:11 - 15:13
Und wir verhindern, dass Wasser fällt.

15:13 - 15:16
Nehmen wir im Grunde an, die Wirtschaft hat eine Idee.

15:16 - 15:18
Dann sprechen sie mit dem Designer.

15:18 - 15:19
Der Designer erstellt eine Schnittstelle.

15:20 - 15:23
Produktmanager oder Eigentümer entwickeln dies weiter.

15:23 - 15:25
Und dann kommen sie zum Ingenieur.

15:25 - 15:28
Der Ingenieur sagt, ich weiß nicht, wie man das baut, oder es wird 2 Jahre dauern.

15:29 - 15:34
Jetzt sind viele Unternehmen von Anfang an mit dem Engineering befasst und das gefällt ihnen.

15:34 - 15:35
Wir sitzen alle am selben Tisch.

15:35 - 15:36
Das machen wir hier.

15:37 - 15:39
Und wir versuchen zu verstehen, was der Problemraum ist.

15:39 - 15:44
Ich meine, wir können hochkommen und sagen, schau, ja, wir können das Ganze bauen, aber was du brauchst

15:44 - 15:47
Im Moment überwacht es diese 3 Ereignisse.

15:48 - 15:51
Hier, gib mir eine Stunde. Da hast du's.

15:51 - 15:56
Wir haben das Projekt gerade für 3 Monate gekauft, während wir es bauen, und die Leute können weiterarbeiten.

15:56 - 16:03
Also, aber ich sehe immer noch viele Unternehmen, die dazu neigen, Ingenieure zu ächten, weil sie es sehen

16:03 - 16:08
wie die bessere oder die schlechte Nachricht. Ich weiß nicht.

16:08 - 16:13
Ich habe zum Beispiel Freunde von Bauingenieuren, die sehr eng mit Architekten zusammenarbeiten und sie haben tolle

16:13 - 16:20
Gebäude, weil sie wissen, wie sehr sie die Struktur vorantreiben können, weil sie die Simulation hier genau dort haben.

16:20 - 16:25
Was ist also der Unterschied zu Softwareentwicklern? Wir verstehen die Möglichkeiten.

16:26 - 16:28
Das ist also eine Herausforderung, die gerade stattfindet.

16:29 - 16:34
Es geht auch darum, die verschiedenen Kommunikationskompetenzen zu verstehen, wie ich bereits erwähnt habe.

16:35 - 16:41
There are many companies that still see usually big companies that are not just IT.

16:41 - 16:43
They just have an IT department.

16:43 - 16:49
And they see the production of software like that, like a line of production, which I get it.

16:49 - 16:53
It's not like we are, like, smoking a cigarette and thinking about how we can build something

16:54 - 16:57
or just ringing coffee and coding at night.

16:57 - 17:01
We need to be involved with the company and their needs and the KPIs and everything.

17:01 - 17:08
But it's really hard to get the same output for every single person in the same way. You cannot predict this.

17:09 - 17:14
So that is another challenge that I think us leaders need to be accommodated.

17:14 - 17:16
We have to be the buffer.

17:16 - 17:21
We need to bring engineering to the table, but also we need to make sure that the engineering

17:21 - 17:24
team understand the needs and we find a solution together.

17:25 - 17:29
Because it's no way that we are going to keep the cadence of work the same way across the year.

17:30 - 17:35
Do you have any, like, specific processes or, like, a product that's helping you to build the

17:35 - 17:38
products here at at the vault, like, if you compare to previous organizations?

17:40 - 17:47
That is specific here. Here I really like the way that they allow us a lot of operational freedom.

17:47 - 17:48
They say, look, we need this.

17:48 - 17:50
This is not even, we need this.

17:50 - 17:51
This is the problem space.

17:52 - 17:56
We should provide we should be able to provide this functionality to our customers.

17:59 - 18:01
What do you think? Okay, give me I don't know.

18:01 - 18:03
Give me 2 days, I'll get back to you.

18:03 - 18:04
Or give me some time.

18:05 - 18:07
You come up with that idea.

18:08 - 18:12
You build up the small team, and we work really close with pro leads.

18:12 - 18:18
So here, the managers are colleagues because I think the the word manager is a bit tainted.

18:18 - 18:20
And I this is what I like. What?

18:20 - 18:21
And you come up with a plan.

18:21 - 18:24
You analyse the feasibility, and then you say, okay. What do we need? Okay.

18:24 - 18:33
Maybe we need, like, 2 people that were like this, 2 people that were like that, a designer, another analyst. Okay. Here's the team. Let's see the plan.

18:33 - 18:36
Let's check-in a couple of weeks, and let's move forward. And it's really organic.

18:37 - 18:41
And it's not that I'm shifting people left to right because usually it's not for small projects.

18:41 - 18:47
It's for really long lasting features project that may require years, because but they have

18:47 - 18:49
clear milestones on a high level.

18:50 - 18:53
So the product area is really well organized. It's really well.

18:53 - 18:57
I'm super happy to work on that, and they don't waste time.

18:58 - 19:06
And so that, for me, was a welcoming base because it was something that we did with my former

19:06 - 19:08
head of product when I was head of engineering at HEICAD.

19:09 - 19:11
And we tried to get this process, and we got it going.

19:11 - 19:15
And then and eventually, the company have a setback, a really big one.

19:15 - 19:20
And then I came here and well, I mean, I I was looking forward to this company, and I see it.

19:20 - 19:25
It's already going, and they have a lot of experience, and they have so many iterations on top of it. So that is welcoming.

19:25 - 19:28
Again, it's bringing everybody to the table and don't waste time.

19:28 - 19:33
So is it like, because I read on your on your website blog that you have, like, a product lead.

19:33 - 19:38
You have different roles in the team, and you focus on building, like, specific, like, a feature.

19:39 - 19:42
So, like, small teams responsible for the feature.

19:42 - 19:45
Mhmm. Iterate fast. Iterate fast.

19:45 - 19:48
We have plenty of freedom on the tech stack.

19:48 - 19:51
So we have a decorator. We share a lot.

19:51 - 19:56
But we don't have a top down mandate that it should be built this way. We have engineering principles.

20:00 - 20:01
Obviously, these are like predicated.

20:02 - 20:05
So on the engineering alone side, we have a lot a lot of freedom.

20:05 - 20:08
And then it's basically how the product leads is.

20:08 - 20:13
Like, it might take, and this is the world takes as well, is product set the direction.

20:13 - 20:16
We are the engine that makes the team go move forward.

20:16 - 20:19
Like, the engineers make the code go that way.

20:20 - 20:22
But, it's product who decides.

20:22 - 20:27
Look, we need to get this, and we need x, y, zed, and these are our this is our definition of success.

20:28 - 20:30
Guys, what can we do about this?

20:30 - 20:32
Team, let's work on this together.

20:33 - 20:36
That is really important because it gives the engineer purpose as well.

20:37 - 20:38
They sit on the table.

20:38 - 20:43
And I keep sorry I keep repeating this, but for anybody who gets the reason for this, it's really

20:43 - 20:46
important, especially the new leaders that are in the role.

20:46 - 20:50
They need to understand that you need to work with the pro players and this is the way the world does.

20:51 - 20:57
This is the way that Forto did and Solar Heikar and many other really successful companies. They come as well.

20:57 - 21:03
You mentioned you are, that the company is really open and not closing the way what technology

21:03 - 21:05
to use or language to use. Right?

21:05 - 21:09
But, my experience was, for instance, with the JavaScript developers.

21:09 - 21:11
They are they are really hype driven.

21:11 - 21:15
There are so many things going on on the market, new libraries, new new tech.

21:15 - 21:18
Like, I mean, like, the trick there's something newer each day.

21:18 - 21:22
So, how do you cope with that? Right?

21:23 - 21:30
Well, it's it's tricky because on one side, you really want to build something that lasts.

21:30 - 21:32
So you want to put the best technology there.

21:32 - 21:36
But I think it's all boils down to being practical and removing the ego.

21:38 - 21:42
I something that I ask on interviews is like, how do you understand the difference between a

21:42 - 21:46
say like, let's say, a mid level engineer and a senior engineer?

21:47 - 21:49
And you can always have, like, a senior senior engineer.

21:49 - 21:54
Like, he's this person is about he or she or them is about, to to jump to stuff.

21:55 - 21:59
And they understand that technologies are such tools.

22:00 - 22:04
If you remove the ego from that and you say, like, this tool is doing this, and I can understand

22:04 - 22:08
the issuing principle on this, then they shall move forward with that.

22:08 - 22:15
If you keep updating to the bleeding edge on absolutely everything, You also are on the bleeding

22:15 - 22:21
edge of the updates from the 3rd party tools that you may use or the open source community and

22:21 - 22:23
some technologies come and run fast.

22:23 - 22:26
I remember a couple of years ago, we all needed to.

22:26 - 22:29
We were either you were team Kotlin or team Go.

22:30 - 22:32
And it was a lot of there was a lot of polarization.

22:32 - 22:35
And many companies said no, we need to keep a hard line working on this.

22:37 - 22:39
Technologies are a one way door.

22:39 - 22:41
Like, libraries and small features are 2 way doors.

22:41 - 22:45
Maybe you try it and you see it doesn't work and then you can pull back.

22:45 - 22:47
But why are you adding that tool? What is the sense?

22:47 - 22:52
And that's what the engineer lead, and especially staff engineers, to say, like, are we adding

22:52 - 22:54
it because it look cool or because it's saving us time?

22:54 - 23:00
There are some prototype libraries on Android that, that are experimental, that make some transition

23:00 - 23:06
that are fantastic, But you still need to support things devices that are, I don't know, 5 years

23:06 - 23:12
old for for a person, for a consumer that is a client that wants to order food. Well, okay.

23:12 - 23:14
Maybe don't do the, like, the flashy thing.

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Make sure that it works first.

23:16 - 23:18
Ich weiß also nicht, ob das die Frage beantwortet.

23:18 - 23:20
Ja. Ja. Gut gesagt. Du musst quasi pragmatisch sein.

23:21 - 23:23
Ich glaube, ein Ego in der Tasche.

23:23 - 23:28
Ja. Genau. Also warum, weil der Grund ist, warum willst du dieses schicke Ding hinzufügen? Nein. Weil es cool aussieht. Ja.

23:28 - 23:30
Weil es in deinem Portfolio cool aussehen wird.

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Aber bieten Sie einem Kunden wirklich einen Mehrwert?

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Machst du dir das Leben in 6 Monaten leichter?

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Nun, du gibst auch etwas Freiheit.

23:40 - 23:44
Ich habe den, du weißt schon, sag mir, Juan, ich will das auf diese Weise machen. Ich meine, warum?

23:44 - 23:47
Vertrauen Sie mir, es wird gut werden und ich denke, es wird einen Mehrwert bieten.

23:47 - 23:52
Und manche Dinge bewerten wir vielleicht ein bisschen zu sehr.

23:52 - 23:57
Aber es geht auch darum, dem Szenario die Möglichkeit zu geben, etwas wirklich zu erkunden.

23:57 - 24:02
von dem Sie wissen, dass es sich auszahlen wird, um eine, Entschuldigung, eine Kapitalrendite zu erzielen, keine Amortisation.

24:03 - 24:06
Lassen Sie uns über verschiedene Ingenieurskulturen sprechen, denn jetzt arbeiten Sie im Tresor.

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Vorher hast du bei Amazon gearbeitet, bei OLX Ja. Und in vielen Unternehmen.

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Aber ich denke, diese 3 sind wirklich bekannt.

24:14 - 24:20
Und ich meine, die Ingenieurskultur zwischen diesen, diesen Unternehmen, wie siehst du das?

24:20 - 24:22
Also, was sind vielleicht die Hauptunterschiede?

24:23 - 24:28
Als ich nach Deutschland gezogen bin, habe ich im Grunde genommen die Aufsichtsbehörde zu Amazon gebracht.

24:28 - 24:35
Es war nicht die positivste Erfahrung, weil ich mich wirklich mit der kundenorientierten Produktkultur verbunden fühlte.

24:35 - 24:41
Aber die Art und Weise, wie die Ingenieurteams unter Druck gesetzt wurden, war typisch amerikanisches Unternehmen, das, ich meine, Sie

24:41 - 24:43
Bleib da und du wächst sehr schnell.

24:43 - 24:45
Aber ich hatte keine Verbindung zu dieser Kultur.

24:46 - 24:53
Mir ist es lieber, wir sind es nicht, wenn ich mit Ingenieuren zusammenarbeite, wir liefern keine Software.

24:53 - 24:56
Ich bin im Geschäft, kohärente Teams aufzubauen.

24:57 - 25:05
Und das ist für mich von entscheidender Bedeutung, denn wenn Sie eine Möglichkeit haben, ein Team aufzubauen, das funktioniert

25:05 - 25:14
Die Menschen orientieren sich an den Stärken der Menschen, und Sie bringen ihre Mitglieder auf normale Weise aus der Komfortzone heraus.

25:15 - 25:19
Und das nicht, weil sie überarbeitet werden, sondern weil sie weiterentwickelt werden.

25:19 - 25:25
Und ich lerne neue Dinge, probiere neue Technologien aus und sehe die Dinge, weißt du, aus einer anderen Perspektive.

25:25 - 25:31
Wenn Sie dazu in der Lage sind, können Sie eine nachhaltigere Ingenieurskultur aufbauen, die konsistent einen Mehrwert bietet.

25:32 - 25:37
Viele Unternehmen, die wirklich aggressiv mit ihren Produkten umgehen, haben aggressivere oder

25:37 - 25:40
anspruchsvolle Nachfrage nennen wir sie anspruchsvolle Ingenieurkultur.

25:42 - 25:45
Aber sie sind stark darauf angewiesen, dass neue Leute kommen.

25:46 - 25:53
Ich glaube, die durchschnittliche Betriebszugehörigkeit, die Sie in Europa im IT-Bereich haben, beträgt eineinhalb Jahre.

25:53 - 25:55
Und dann gehen die Leute im Durchschnitt.

25:55 - 25:59
Hier sind 3 ½ Jahre oder 3 Jahre 3 Monate, ungefähr so.

25:59 - 26:03
Also mehr als sagen wir mindestens das Doppelte, was ein Nein ist.

26:05 - 26:15
Also meine Meinung von anderen Unternehmen zum Beispiel, ich habe auch für Ad Globant gearbeitet, ich habe für Disney und ESPN gearbeitet. Tolle Leute, tolle Produkte.

26:16 - 26:22
Ich meine, ich habe Parks gemacht, ich habe Kreuzfahrtlinien gemacht, ich habe ESPN gemacht, all die internen Anwendungen, die Fantasy-Spiele und so.

26:23 - 26:26
Sie konzentrierten sich jedoch mehr darauf, ein bestimmtes Feature bereitzustellen.

26:26 - 26:31
Nennen wir es hier eher europäisch orientierte Unternehmen, sie konzentrieren sich alle auf den Aufbau

26:31 - 26:34
eine Kultur und ein Unternehmen und damit verbinde ich mich mehr.

26:35 - 26:41
Denn sagen wir morgen, Wandpaneele, ich weiß nicht, SpaceX.

26:41 - 26:47
Jedes Unternehmen, SpaceX, kommt und kauft das Unternehmen, weil es an sie liefern will.

26:47 - 26:53
Und vielleicht bauen wir am Ende Leitsysteme für die Raketen zum Mars. In Ordnung.

26:53 - 26:57
Sie werden uns zu Spezialisten für Luftfahrt bringen, aber wir werden Software entwickeln müssen.

26:58 - 27:02
Ich weiß mit Sicherheit, dass die Ingenieure, die ich in meinem Team habe und mit denen ich das Glück habe, zusammenzuarbeiten,

27:02 - 27:07
könnte zu so einem Projekt umgezogen werden, und die Jungs werden erfolgreich sein Weil wir versuchen zu unterrichten

27:07 - 27:12
sie haben eine Mentalität, wie sie arbeiten, lernen, ihre Komfortzone verlassen und das Wissen anwenden können

27:12 - 27:15
das haben sie vom College und auch von der täglichen Arbeit bekommen.

27:16 - 27:20
Also, wenn Sie das haben und Sie das Produkt, das Sie sind, radikal ändern können

27:20 - 27:24
Ein Gebäude oder eine kleine Änderung, und es wird immer funktionieren.

27:25 - 27:29
Und das ist für mich wertvoller für das Unternehmen, denn wenn sie die Richtung ändern müssen oder

27:29 - 27:33
Sie brauchen Sie, um einen anderen Ort und einen anderen Ort des Unternehmens zu unterstützen, das können Sie.

27:34 - 27:39
Du bist nicht einfach nur Versand, Versand, Versand, Versand, und dann öffnet quasi jemand deinen Code.

27:40 - 27:42
Ich möchte noch eine Frage dazu stellen.

27:42 - 27:46
Also, wenn ich mir Amazon ansehe, ist es quasi super kundenorientiert. Richtig?

27:46 - 27:52
Wenn Sie mir von dem Tresor erzählen und ich mit dem Produktleiter von Tier Mobility spreche, hier

27:52 - 27:57
aus Berlin, du sprichst davon, es muss den Gewinn für das Unternehmen bringen.

27:57 - 27:58
Es muss rentabel sein.

27:58 - 28:02
Wir machen das, weil wir damit Geld verdienen wollen.

28:02 - 28:05
Es ist nicht so, dass wir es tun, weil wir es tun wollen. Richtig?

28:05 - 28:12
Also versuche ich zu verstehen, was Amazon zum Beispiel von Volt und der Europäischen Organisation lernen könnte?

28:16 - 28:20
Du musst auf dem Whiteboard sortieren, superschnell, das ist die beste Art, einen Tierarzt zu verwandeln

28:20 - 28:24
Baum, der ein gewisses Maß an Komplexität aus dem Gleichgewicht bringt.

28:24 - 28:30
Und viele Unternehmen haben diesen Interviewprozess und lassen die Ingenieure an etwas arbeiten.

28:30 - 28:33
das ist nicht aussagekräftig oder nicht fesselnd.

28:34 - 28:40
Ich denke also, dass viele Unternehmen, unabhängig vom Unternehmen, verstehen müssen, ist

28:40 - 28:44
Sie investieren viel in Einstellungen, Sie investieren auch viel Vergütung.

28:45 - 28:47
Bring die Leute auf den kritischen Pfad.

28:47 - 28:49
Lassen Sie die Menschen arbeiten und ihren Wert einbringen.

28:50 - 28:51
Das ist also etwas, das wir alle lernen müssen.

28:51 - 28:59
Und ich denke, viele Unternehmen mögen, sagen wir, eher amerikanische Mentalität, die ziemlich erfolgreich sind,

29:00 - 29:03
bitte, könnte sie benutzen, um sie anzapfen.

29:03 - 29:09
Aber sie beeilen sich so sehr, einen Mehrwert zu liefern, dass manchmal einige Projekte irgendwie in dieser Limousine stattfinden.

29:09 - 29:11
Es geht mehr um den Versand als um alles andere.

29:11 - 29:15
Schauen Sie sich nun auf der anderen Seite den Erfolg an, den sie haben.

29:15 - 29:22
Also, zum Beispiel, etwas, das ich genommen habe und auf das ich sehr stolz bin, ist die Art und Weise, wie Amazon

29:22 - 29:26
Handles, ihren eigenen Anruf und ihre eigenen Operationen. Es ist fantastisch.

29:27 - 29:33
Sie, ich meine, du kannst es googeln. Vorgang „Das Rad drehen“. Fantastisch.

29:33 - 29:39
Aber die Geschichte hinter dem Spin the Wheel-Prozess war, dass mehrere talentierte Ingenieure, Mitarbeitende,

29:39 - 29:45
Ich habe beschlossen, ein System zu entwickeln, das es uns ermöglicht, richtige Einblicke zu erhalten und alle zu haben

29:46 - 29:49
quasi wie ein Kontroll-Panoptikum und bereit zur Präsentation.

29:49 - 29:52
Weil dein Team jeden Tag kommen könnte und du Antworten brauchst.

29:52 - 29:56
Und es war ein völlig akademischer Weg. Es gibt kein Böses.

29:56 - 29:58
Es ist also so, warum hast du diesen Gipfel?

29:58 - 29:59
Warum machst du das, wie misst du das?

29:59 - 30:02
Warum misst du das nicht? Jeder ist am Tisch.

30:03 - 30:04
Also rufen wir sie von dort aus an.

30:05 - 30:07
Ich denke, es ist eine Frage des Gleichgewichts.

30:07 - 30:14
Aber vor allem müssen wir alle verstehen, dass wir mit Menschen arbeiten, und wir müssen sie auf den kritischen Pfad bringen. Das ist eine andere Frage.

30:14 - 30:16
Ja. Ja, es ist wirklich gut.

30:16 - 30:22
Und ich kann, und ich stimme dem voll und ganz zu, wie die Amerikaner das machen.

30:22 - 30:24
Sie machen also wirklich schnell, die Lieferung ist wirklich schnell.

30:24 - 30:29
Manchmal, wenn man von außen schaut, ist es unglaublich, aber von innen schaut man hin und sagt, hey.

30:29 - 30:32
Vielleicht ist es ein bisschen zu schnell, aber trotzdem sind sie erfolgreich. Also

30:33 - 30:36
Ich meine, aber die Sache ist, dass alles seinen Preis hat.

30:36 - 30:43
Wenn wir quasi superachtsame und kumbayische Ingenieurteams sind, liefern wir nicht schnell einen Mehrwert.

30:45 - 30:49
Wenn wir extrem aggressiv sind und Leute verbrennen, sehe ich keine Argumente für diese Community, aber

30:49 - 30:57
Nehmen wir an, sie verbrennen Menschen und wenn sie viel Burnout haben, verlässt man sich darauf, dass es einen konstanten Zustrom von Menschen gibt.

30:58 - 31:04
Ich meine, jemand wie ich kann mir die Arbeit nicht vorstellen, die die Anzahl der Menschen, die sie

31:04 - 31:10
Ich werde täglich von Amazon in den Prozess aufgenommen, weil sich jeder für jede einzelne Stelle beworben hat. Jeder möchte bestellen.

31:13 - 31:14
Es ist also eine Frage des Gleichgewichts.

31:15 - 31:16
Es ist eine Frage des Gleichgewichts.

31:16 - 31:20
Wir müssen lernen, kundenorientiert zu sein, aber alles hat seinen Preis.

31:20 - 31:22
Wenn wir nach Kumbaya sind, sind wir ein Muss.

31:22 - 31:29
Deshalb habe ich gesagt, lassen Sie uns die klugen Leute dazu bringen, die intelligenten Probleme zu lösen und ihnen einfach eine Priorität einzuräumen. Lasst sie operieren.

31:29 - 31:33
Und je länger sie in Ihrem Unternehmen bleiben, desto mehr Wert bringen sie.

31:33 - 31:35
Weil sie verstehen, dass es einen Ausweg gibt.

31:35 - 31:42
Nein, es ist super teuer, jemanden an Bord zu holen. Es ist super teuer.

31:43 - 31:49
Zum Beispiel, um zunächst im Kernteam voll einsatzfähig zu sein, ist eines meiner Teams das Kernteam.

31:50 - 31:53
7, 8 Monate voll abhängig zu sein.

31:54 - 31:57
Auf dem Niveau zu sein, das wir von dieser Person erwarten.

31:58 - 32:02
Wenn ich Leute geboren habe, in dem Moment, in dem sie an Bord sind, bleiben sie wofür?

32:02 - 32:04
Für 4, 6 Monate, und dann gehen sie.

32:05 - 32:11
Aber wir reden viel, und du hast viel über die Leute erwähnt, die wirklich praktisch sind, wirklich

32:12 - 32:16
proaktiv, quasi und du sagtest, wenn du die Projekte zum Beispiel von SpaceX bekommen hast

32:16 - 32:20
und jetzt hast du etwas ganz anderes gebaut, du wirst es tun.

32:20 - 32:25
Aber es gibt viele Projekte innerhalb des Unternehmens, besonders wenn das Unternehmen groß ist,

32:25 - 32:26
und du musst sie ausführen.

32:26 - 32:32
Und nicht jedes Projekt ist, weißt du, super sexy, und nicht jeder freut sich riesig darauf.

32:32 - 32:36
Also, aber bei allem Respekt, ich verstehe deinen Standpunkt, aber ich

32:36 - 32:38
Ich weiß, wo du hingehst, und ich weiß, dass du das nicht ernst meinst.

32:39 - 32:41
Aber es fühlt sich an wie eine Verallgemeinerung.

32:41 - 32:44
Ich denke zum Beispiel, dass es viele Möglichkeiten gibt.

32:44 - 32:46
Ich möchte die Leute nicht in eine Schublade stecken.

32:46 - 32:48
Also werde ich dieses Beispiel auf mich selbst anwenden.

32:49 - 32:52
Aber es gibt viele Ingenieure, die Greenfield-Projekte lieben.

32:52 - 32:55
In meinem Fall verwende ich einen Refactor. Ich weiß es nicht.

32:55 - 32:58
Es geht darum, welcher Teil meiner Persönlichkeit.

32:59 - 33:03
Aber wenn ich ein Durcheinander sehe, verstehe ich es gerne und finde es heraus.

33:03 - 33:07
Ich mag es, die Logik zu entziffern, und ich mache das gerne, wenn sie in Betrieb ist.

33:07 - 33:16
Wenn ich zu OLX komme, haben sie diese wirklich große Plattform und ein System, das in PHP eingebaut ist. Ja.

33:16 - 33:17
Lass uns nicht über PHP lachen.

33:17 - 33:19
Es hat viele Jahre lang Brot auf meinen Tisch gelegt.

33:19 - 33:21
Das habe ich gemacht und bin glücklich damit.

33:21 - 33:24
Und du kannst einige wirklich tolle Dinge bauen, wenn du es richtig machst.

33:24 - 33:26
Zum Glück musst du das nicht mehr.

33:26 - 33:35
Wie dem auch sei, und mein Gegenüber, mein polnischer Freund, den ich erwähnt habe, Michal Wasowski, er hat das Greenfield-Projekt gemacht.

33:35 - 33:39
Ich meine, der Typ kann überall operieren, aber sie sagten, weißt du was?

33:39 - 33:40
Lass mich die Brücke machen.

33:40 - 33:41
Lass mich die Leerstände bauen.

33:41 - 33:47
Lassen Sie mich damit beginnen, das alte System zu entfernen und aufzuräumen, aufzuräumen, während es noch betriebsbereit ist.

33:47 - 33:48
Und hier ist das Greenfield-Projekt.

33:48 - 33:53
Es gibt Ingenieure, die gerne Projekte ausreifen lassen, es gibt Ingenieure, die das Greenfield mögen

33:53 - 33:57
Projekte und andere, die sie gerne perfektionieren, wie mein Fall.

33:57 - 34:00
Also ich denke, es geht darum, die richtige Person zu finden.

34:00 - 34:08
Im Moment besteht mein Team, für das ich verantwortlich bin, beispielsweise aus 12 Ingenieuren plus einem angestellten Ingenieur. Wir wachsen weiter. Es gibt 3 Teams.

34:10 - 34:18
Und als wir anfingen, war es so ein richtig großer Tag mit 11 Leuten. Entschuldigung, 10 Leute. Irgendwann bin ich gewachsen.

34:18 - 34:22
Aber es war wie, oh, lieber Gott. Das ist wirklich groß.

34:22 - 34:25
Mobile engineers back and front and full stack.

34:25 - 34:32
But when we make the divisions of the team, we try to put the people based on not only on their

34:32 - 34:35
tenure but in when they feel more comfortable to operate.

34:35 - 34:41
Or one of our latest hires, based in Estonia, it's a fully operational guideline.

34:41 - 34:43
He it's up to him.

34:43 - 34:47
He will sit next to the ploughed leader and say okay give me the list of 5:5 shipping.

34:47 - 34:54
And it's doing amazingly on the on calls, handovers, and the trial engineer analysis. He's there.

34:54 - 35:00
He's thinking about the scale infra or a staffing engineer who is basically a code demigod.

35:00 - 35:06
He's working on the core, and the way that we can build our system and protect the volume and everything, he's doing amazingly.

35:07 - 35:08
So it's a matter of competencies.

35:08 - 35:15
But if I bring this super smart, intelligent man to the everyday meetings that I have, he will be depressed.

35:15 - 35:17
Like, he would be unhappy, let's say.

35:18 - 35:22
So it's a matter of finding the right people for for in the right space.

35:23 - 35:28
And many teams have to go to that transition, especially if you started with a small team that created a concept.

35:29 - 35:35
When the concept to a prototype and the prototype is successful, you have a like like a change

35:35 - 35:36
of guard, if you will.

35:37 - 35:41
And usually in my experience around Cinec as a world but on other companies, you have 1 or 2

35:41 - 35:47
of the financial engineers that remain attached, really committed to the project and a lot of new people.

35:48 - 35:55
And if you think as talented as they are, the new people personality wise align, where, like,

35:55 - 36:00
the people that who should have been there, the hustlers to create a project. No. They have different personality.

36:01 - 36:07
I don't know if I would be I'm doing really well at work, but I don't know if I'm the right

36:07 - 36:10
kind of lead to start a project from nothing.

36:11 - 36:17
I'm my based on my experience, I work on more corporate settings when I need to try to understand

36:17 - 36:21
the metering of the tools, the operational scale, working with the business stakeholders.

36:21 - 36:23
I have a different upbringing, if you will.

36:24 - 36:27
So that's the difference that I see.

36:27 - 36:28
Sorry for the long answer.

36:28 - 36:34
No. It's it's great. I think the last thing that you mentioned is, it's good to start another question.

36:34 - 36:40
So because you said, like, I'm not a good leader maybe to start the greenfield project. Right?

36:40 - 36:45
So I would say this is really much your answer, and what I want to what what I want to ask,

36:46 - 36:50
what are your biggest, like, lessons learned that, you know, that each year I feel like each

36:50 - 36:56
year as a as a leader, especially in in tech, you learn something new, and you have this moment. Right?

36:56 - 37:01
So maybe you could mention some moments that were, really important for you and for your career.

37:02 - 37:08
My biggest I have 2. 1 was about my skill set.

37:08 - 37:10
When I moved to Europe, I felt like, yeah.

37:12 - 37:14
I got hired by Amazon. I know everything.

37:14 - 37:16
I don't think I did a good job there.

37:17 - 37:20
I mean, I talked with many other engineers there.

37:20 - 37:22
I was like, no, dude. You were doing great. So, like, yeah.

37:22 - 37:24
But maybe I didn't connect with the culture.

37:25 - 37:30
But that was like okay, first let's kill the ego. You think you know? You know nothing.

37:31 - 37:35
And even if you do know, you cannot come here saying, like, you know everything.

37:35 - 37:36
That was the big uh-huh.

37:37 - 37:44
The second one was when I was at Doel X because I feel like I fell like as a lead, and I went back to coding.

37:44 - 37:46
And when I was hired, they told me, you know what?

37:46 - 37:48
The team doesn't have an an insurance manager.

37:49 - 37:51
The person who was an insurance manager was getting promoted to head.

37:52 - 37:54
That's like the the position is there.

37:55 - 37:58
Whenever you're ready, step in, which I eventually did.

37:59 - 38:04
And in the process, like, let's say, going from the ranks as a senior back end again as a manager,

38:05 - 38:07
I was able to see there were problems.

38:07 - 38:10
Now there's a problem behind the problem behind the problem behind the problem.

38:11 - 38:13
And I saw this on the business side.

38:13 - 38:15
I saw this on the product side.

38:15 - 38:17
I see this on the planning side.

38:17 - 38:20
And I saw this on the personal side of every person on every area.

38:21 - 38:22
That was my second half.

38:23 - 38:30
And the third was showing what is they asked me and this is something that kinda like on a Peter

38:30 - 38:34
Parker Marvel Spider Man thingy with great power comes great responsibility.

38:36 - 38:41
It's after a couple of years and pressure is under your belt and performance reviews and success

38:41 - 38:47
and nice contracts and nice roles and positions and traveling a lot, you realize that you know a lot.

38:47 - 38:51
Like, you know, like, I have other people coming up to ask me, like, how should I do this?

38:51 - 38:52
And so, like, I don't know anything.

38:54 - 38:56
I I my interview process here was like that.

38:56 - 38:57
I needed to present the case.

38:57 - 39:04
I really show my first experience here at work with really specific variables in the middle

39:04 - 39:05
of the work, quite complex.

39:06 - 39:13
And then I realized okay, I know I I certainly know I'm senior enough now. Well, I'm senior enough.

39:13 - 39:17
And it kind of gives you, like, this feeling of speed.

39:18 - 39:21
Then you say, like, I'm operating on a level that I cannot make so many mistakes.

39:22 - 39:24
So it's kind of like you're going downhill.

39:24 - 39:29
It's like speed in full with your bike and then you realize how fast you're going.

39:29 - 39:30
You know you're in control.

39:30 - 39:34
You know everything is fine. But you do realize.

39:34 - 39:39
And you need to keep up on that level, and you realize that you are responsible for a lot of people.

39:39 - 39:42
I I believe in leadership, my servitude.

39:42 - 39:45
That will be the whole closing comment on this answer.

39:46 - 39:53
And if I can have a couple of bad days, but if I systematically fail on doing my job, I'm making

39:53 - 39:59
the life of out of the 12th engineer, probably I'm winning the life for at least half of them.

39:59 - 40:06
If I don't have the right mindset on the 1 on ones, if I don't work properly with our product

40:06 - 40:11
lead, if I'm not responsive enough on the things that I need to do, if I don't plan things properly,

40:12 - 40:16
if I don't do my job well, I'm affecting a lot of people and I don't want that on my conscience.

40:16 - 40:26
So but being able that you need to operate on that and be on that level, it also, like, spills

40:26 - 40:28
to other parts of your of your life.

40:28 - 40:30
You start taking good care of yourself.

40:30 - 40:32
You start, like, doing meditation.

40:32 - 40:34
I do a lot of therapy for since many years.

40:34 - 40:36
I cannot recommend it enough.

40:36 - 40:41
And then you realize, yes, I I'm operating this really big engine.

40:41 - 40:42
I need to be careful.

40:43 - 40:47
So, yeah, on my current process, like, the show was, like, don't worry.

40:47 - 40:48
I won't crash the Ferrari.

40:49 - 40:53
It's the side of the show, referring to a World Cup here in Germany.

40:53 - 40:57
It's like, they crashed the Ferrari because we lost the World Cup. Yeah.

40:57 - 41:07
So I can't you can't cross the Ferrari and you're driving really fast. That was the moment. Oh, god moment. So yeah.

41:08 - 41:10
The last question that I have Yeah.

41:10 - 41:16
It's, can you recommend any books, podcasts, or maybe resources that were particularly helpful for yourself?

41:17 - 41:22
Buy it to our boss phone or wherever you get your books, the daily stoic.

41:22 - 41:26
Because I can talk about many mythologies, so I'm going to say 2 things.

41:27 - 41:29
On the ego part, the daily stoic.

41:30 - 41:34
You make your coffee in the morning, you wake up before anybody in your family and this is what I do.

41:35 - 41:40
Well, I usually go to a gym but when I do it, I have my family so quiet, I do my daily reflection.

41:41 - 41:43
You can do the journal, in the meditation, whatever.

41:43 - 41:47
This is what works for me: coffee and a reflection, like staying humble on that.

41:48 - 41:55
And the second one is try to find your own style of working because I can suggest is, keep mentioning

41:55 - 42:02
this thing that the 3 amigos, everybody on the same table, be an empathetic leader, That might

42:02 - 42:04
work for you, and that might not.

42:04 - 42:09
And maybe based on your personality, you need to be like a super assertive leader that is a

42:09 - 42:11
nice person that is super direct.

42:11 - 42:20
I had I I had one of my best leads, Tech Lead, Marco Soradino, really wise man on so many areas

42:20 - 42:21
of life, especially in engineering.

42:22 - 42:27
He would sit with me, and he said, like, on the core reviews, I like me growing up professionally.

42:29 - 42:30
And he would do the gesture.

42:30 - 42:32
Like, I'm what do you think?

42:35 - 42:39
And usually, when I sit with a person, it's like, I think we should consider the 3 variables.

42:40 - 42:44
And I'm already framing the discussion because I think that this is more convenient, the way I communicate.

42:45 - 42:49
But this great man, he will just be quiet and let me do the work.

42:49 - 42:51
So it depends on you.

42:51 - 43:00
So meditate, be humble, and yes, and I'm pretty sure on your podcast there are a lot of really great books.

43:00 - 43:03
The Managed Path, 1st Break All the Rules.

43:03 - 43:09
Also, I forgot the the authors that I know about, but they are pretty like, if you Google them, you can find them.

43:10 - 43:15
They are fantastic books. 1st protocol the rules if you really want to have 1, but, on the manager path.

43:17 - 43:19
But, yeah, but try to find your style.

43:19 - 43:26
Like, think about what how are you happy operating or doing things and then go into that because

43:26 - 43:31
we'll always be missing some technique or book or reading. I read everything.

43:31 - 43:33
I mean, reading is fun.

43:33 - 43:35
We have a lot of downtime between meetings. Read.

43:37 - 43:42
So to to be honest, like, a lot of what I notice, a lot of experienced guys and leaders with

43:42 - 43:47
whom I talk and I'm making those podcasts, they usually are saying, like, maybe I will surprise

43:47 - 43:53
you and are saying about the stoics, about the philosophy, about the things that are outside

43:53 - 43:56
of the tech bubble and, like, classical things.

43:56 - 43:58
And to be honest, they are the most successful.

43:58 - 44:03
This is what I notice within, like, you know, the the committee with Huang Talk.

44:03 - 44:05
So it makes a lot of sense to me.

44:05 - 44:09
Yeah. I I don't know what I it worked well for me. I humbly present it.

44:09 - 44:17
But, I I mean, I I was lucky enough to go to a couple of talks in the building here from Sarando.

44:17 - 44:20
There was this LGBTQ leader.

44:21 - 44:24
And, she was talking about many topics.

44:24 - 44:27
But one of the topics was about consent in communication.

44:27 - 44:31
Because we always talk about consent Like, okay.

44:31 - 44:35
Do can I hold your hand or like break this barrier or like many things?

44:36 - 44:39
But there is also consent of communication and, I really like this idea.

44:39 - 44:41
And then I said, like, okay.

44:41 - 44:42
I'm going to apply this.

44:42 - 44:45
Who am I communicating with?

44:45 - 44:47
Am I imposing my communication style?

44:47 - 44:50
And then I took that, and then I realized that really improved my one on ones.

44:50 - 44:56
But it's a matter of saying, like, guys, we all code.

44:56 - 44:59
Sometimes we don't know what's going on in production, and we try things.

45:00 - 45:02
So try, measure the result, try again.

45:03 - 45:07
And whatever keeps you driving and moving forward, go for it.

45:07 - 45:08
We have to read about everything.

45:09 - 45:18
The best designers in the world, the best engineers in the world not as we said not a sign that

45:18 - 45:22
I preach to but the strip shops always have like a rather higher engineer that scored 8, but

45:22 - 45:27
also plays guitar and read books, than an engineer that scored 10 and the only thing he does is coding.

45:28 - 45:29
And I think he got that right.

45:30 - 45:36
Again, it's not I know he's really great at selling computers and a great person but, but he

45:36 - 45:38
got that right among many other things.

45:38 - 45:44
We have to be more, renaissance or more holistic as professionals. No issues, everyone.

45:45 - 45:47
Okay. So the last question. Last question

45:47 - 45:49
Yeah. I love this. Thank you.

45:49 - 45:52
Because, you mentioned how you learn.

45:52 - 45:55
So you learn a lot from the mentor, from your leader. Right? Yeah.

45:55 - 46:01
You said about the books outside of the, let's say, the classical scope of the manager or the leader.

46:03 - 46:07
And, for me my experience was, like, I read those books.

46:07 - 46:10
Like, I I read 10 of like tons of business books.

46:10 - 46:15
But what I learned the most are is the experience in my own mistakes, which is maybe Yeah.

46:15 - 46:21
Quite obvious, or I learned from other people talking with them, like, in general, in really loose atmosphere.

46:21 - 46:31
But maybe I was not, lucky enough, but I never learned anything from the organized trainings. Like, any

46:31 - 46:36
anything. Well, because maybe some companies, not everyone.

46:36 - 46:38
Luckily, I was lucky enough on that.

46:39 - 46:40
They they make the trials for compliance.

46:40 - 46:42
They don't make the trials to make you grow.

46:43 - 46:51
And also I tried several platforms And there is this, kind of like easy pill to swallow trainings.

46:53 - 46:55
I don't want to mention any because I think it will be unfair.

46:55 - 47:00
And the second that I saw is, like, take this course about handling disagreement.

47:00 - 47:08
And there was this person, and they bring, like, I know, the chief staff engineer from Microsoft. I was like, yes.

47:08 - 47:15
This person, like, started with Bill Gates, and they presented 5 bullet points, and that's it. Finished course.

47:15 - 47:17
Share a link in our social network.

47:19 - 47:23
Dude, it was like 12 millions. Where's the meat?

47:24 - 47:31
So the last source of knowledge that I got to operate and also to understand the system that

47:31 - 47:35
I'm building, that we are building, I should talk with the engineers.

47:35 - 47:38
I mean, I'm lucky enough to work now with 2 staff engineers.

47:39 - 47:42
I I sit with them like technical handovers.

47:42 - 47:49
I I grab a metaphorical bubble popcorn. Yes. Take me to school. It's fantastic.

47:50 - 47:53
And they are telling you all this information you're missing out on the day to day.

47:53 - 47:57
And there are highly skilled engineers that are able to condense it properly and they are not

47:57 - 48:01
giving me a special class for me, they are talking to engineers so I better keep up.

48:01 - 48:03
So that keeps me on the edge of knowledge.

48:04 - 48:09
And then I talk with the pro plate and it's the same, then I talk with the CTO and try to understand the business need.

48:09 - 48:15
I mean every time I show a company it's I literally ask what is the why are you hiring me? Not not not me.

48:15 - 48:21
What what's the problem that you're trying to solve? And why me? Why me? No. No.

48:21 - 48:25
Because we need an Israeli that is going to be the x y zed. What?

48:25 - 48:28
Any any lead can do that. That is not interesting. No.

48:28 - 48:29
We have this really big product. We don't understand.

48:30 - 48:35
We are in the process of phasing out this this, thing a now to thing b.

48:35 - 48:38
Like we need someone to set a strategy on that. Okay, that's more interesting.

48:39 - 48:40
So who are the people anymore?

48:40 - 48:43
Talk to that that and let's talk to other people. Like, get in deep.

48:44 - 48:46
That's the knowledge that we need to do on the day to day.

48:46 - 48:50
Dann liegt die Methodik bei uns. Lesen und sprechen.

48:50 - 48:52
Ja, normalerweise sind Firmenschulungen konform.

48:53 - 48:57
Fantastisch. Juan, vielen Dank für das super interessante Gespräch.

48:57 - 48:58
Ich schätze Ihre Erkenntnisse sehr.

48:58 - 49:01
Danke, dass du mir beim Laufen zugehört hast.

49:02 - 49:04
Bessere Technologieführerschaft unterstützt von Brainhub.

49:06 - 49:11
Folgen Sie Les Schick auf LinkedIn und abonnieren Sie den Better Tech Leadership Newsletter.

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