(2016 - 8/9) Embracing Inconsistency

Calibrate 2016 (8/9) - http://www.calibratesf.com/

"Embracing Inconsistency" - Kallol Das, Invoice2go, VP of Engineering

"Hiring and retaining teams, facilitating their productivity, focusing on both speed and delivery: this is what we do every day and it's full of obstacles. I've noticed a common thread in many of the obstacles I've faced, so often it has become like an old friend (or frenemy is a better term): inconsistency. I'll talk about some examples of the inconsistencies that are part and parcel of our roles as technical leaders and I'll describe some strategies for not only mitigating this ever-present companion but for embracing it."

Kallol is Invoice2go’s first Vice President of Engineering. He is responsible for leading engineering efforts across a global team that spans three continents, and driving software innovation for small business owners around the world. Prior to Invoice2go, Kallol served as the Vice President of Engineering at Path. Before Path, he was the Vice President of Software Engineering at Salesforce, where he led the teams working on the company’s Service Cloud and Sales Cloud product lines. Das’ career has also included software development management roles at Amazon. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from McGill University.

https://twitter.com/daska

Calibrate is a conference for new engineering leaders hosted by seasoned engineering leaders. Organized and hosted by Sharethrough, it was conducted on September 30, 2015 and September 30, 2016 in San Francisco, California.

Transcript

1. Embracing Inconsistency The Struggle and the Obstacle
2. Who and Why • Managing for 12 years at these places:
3. The Struggle is not
4. The Struggle is not
5. The Struggle is not
6. The Struggle is not
7. The Struggle is only partially
8. The Struggle is
9. The Struggle is
10. The Struggle is
11. The Struggle is
12. The Struggle is
13. The Struggle is REAL
14. THE OBSTACLE
16. INHERENT INEVITABLE INCORRIGIBLE INESCAPABLE INCONSISTENT
17. 9:15 AM “Our burn is getting high. Negotiate better with new hires!” 11:25 AM “Competition launching big feature next quarter. What can we do to bring our killer feature into next month’s release?” 10:40 AM “Important customer is experiencing a bug. Can we get our best engineer to look into it?”
20. People want … to be informed Until they …don’t want to be informed … to be responsible … to be empowered … to be build new things … to follow their passions …don’t want to be accountable …don’t want to be responsible …don’t want to take big risks …don’t want to take a pay cut
21. EMBRACE INCONSISTENCY
22. What does this mean in practical terms? • Don’t whine about it. Really. Commiseration is ok. Whining is not. • Derive a decision making framework/heuristic. • Use your framework judiciously/ruthlessly.
23. Example? 1. Do/commit to what is possible. 2. Optimize for company success. 3. Optimize for customer success. 4. Optimize for team success. 5. Optimize for a given employee’s success. 6. Optimize for your success.
24. 9:15 AM “Our burn is getting high. Negotiate better with new hires!” 11:25 AM “Competition launching big feature next quarter. What can we do to bring our killer feature into next month’s release?” 10:40 AM “Important customer is experiencing a bug. Can we get our best engineer to look into it?”
27. This is the end!