Category: Episodes

  • S2E31 – Vacationcast – Some stats on the show

    Show Notes  With Mon-Chaio travelling from Taiwan to Seattle, Andy provides an overview of the podcast’s stats. He shares insights into listener demographics, reveals the most popular episodes, and discusses the community engagement they’ve experienced. Tune in for some interesting statistics and a heartfelt thank you to the audience. References Transcript Andy: Hello, and welcome…

  • S2E30 – MX (not the DNS records!)

    Show Notes  In this episode of the TTL podcast, the hosts, Andy and Mon Chiao, discuss the concept of ‘Management Experience’ and its distinction from ‘Employee Experience.’ They explore the importance of management surveys, the challenges of delegation, and ethical implications in a hierarchical setting. They debate the effectiveness of the proposed four pillars for…

  • S2E29 – Critical, Tame, and Wicked Problems

    Show Notes One way of categorizing problems faced by engineering organizations is Keith Grint’s framework of wicked, tame, and critical problems. These problem types, each with their unique characteristics and challenges, require distinct approaches to effectively address them. Join Andy and Mon-Chaio as they provide practical insights and real-world examples to illustrate how engineering leaders…

  • S2E28 – Making better hiring decisions with Edward Morgan

    Show Notes  In this episode of the TTL podcast, the hosts welcome Ed Morgan, founder of Gordian Knot, to discuss enhancing the hiring process for software engineers. Ed highlights the concept of ‘sensemaking’ and its impact on interview outcomes, stressing the importance of structured versus unstructured interviews. The trio touches on creating effective rubrics, the…

  • S2E27 – Evaluating Leadership Excellence

    Show Notes It’s something that all companies do and yet it’s still a very misunderstood topic: evaluating the performance of people managers. The majority of methods regularly used for measuring managers rely heavily on superficial metrics and outdated practices that fail to capture the true essence of effective leadership. Join Andy and Mon-Chaio as they…

  • S2E26 – Out of the wartime crisis trap

    Show Notes  In this episode of the Tactics for Tech Leadership podcast, hosts Andy and Mon-chaio explore where leaders should spend their time, touching on the importance of signaling dedication, performance, identity, and power through time management. They discuss the contrast between crisis, wartime leadership, and peacetime stability, emphasizing the Eisenhower Matrix as a tool…

  • S2E25 – VacationCast – Stories from the Plato Elevate Conference

    Show Notes While Andy is away, Mon-Chaio shares anecdotes and stories from his time at the Plato Elevate conference, snippets that didn’t make their way into the prevous episode. References Transcript Mon-Chaio: Hello everyone, and thanks for tuning in to this week’s VacationCast episode. Andy is an Ireland attending a wedding and so I’ll be…

  • S2E24 – Leadership Insights from the Plato Elevate Conference

    Show Notes  In this episode of the TTL podcast, Mon-Chaio and Andy review the recent Plato Elevate Conference in San Francisco. As a unique gathering focused on engineering leadership, Mon-Chaio shares his key takeaways from sessions on effective reorgs, experiments in culture engineering, and the innovative EngOS. The duo also explores the broader value of…

  • S2E23 – Doing What is Impossible

    Show Notes From pair programming to NoEstimates, the industry brims with creative minds proposing new ideas and methodologies to tackle longstanding challenges. The issue, however, isn’t the scarcity of innovative concepts, but rather the failure to implement them, often dismissed with the notion “it won’t work” … or, in other words, “it’s impossible.” In this…

  • S2E22 – Making Use of the Theory of Constraints

    Show Notes  In this episode of the TTL Podcast, hosts Mon Chaio and Andy delve into the Theory of Constraints, an approach developed by Eliyahu Goldratt. They discuss how this methodology applies to various systems, including technical, people, and cultural systems, emphasizing its importance in software leadership. The hosts explain the core principles of the…