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A web show where Poornima Vijayashanker, the founder of Femgineer, interviews guests on topics related to startups, entrepreneurship, software engineering, design, product management, and marketing. Sponsored by Pivotal Tracker.
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Now displaying: Page 4
Jun 27, 2016

Have you contemplated leaving the comforts of a company to strike out on your own to pursue a creative calling?

Perhaps you have an idea for a product or service.

While there’s a strong pull to pursue it, hesitation maybe holding you back.

You’re worried about being good enough, attracting customers and clients, and how to make it all come together to find fulfillment, but also tend to the practical side of things like paying the bills!

You’ve probably heard plenty of stories around striking out to build a startup, raise capital, and pursue a BIG idea. While that sounds exciting, you’re looking for an alternative approach...

Well in today’s episode of FemgineerTV, we’re going to be tackling all these topics. To help us out, I’ve invited Jessica Hische, who is a letter, illustrator, and type designer.

Jessica began her career working for a design studio HeadCase. Then went on to work for a prominent designer, Louise Fili, and eventually struck out on her own. Jessica has had notable clients like Wes Anderson, David Eggers, Tiffany Co, and Nike just to name a few.

As you watch this episode you’ll learn:

  • Steps you can take early in your career, such as how to reach out to people or companies you want to work for and learn from
  • Why a day job can be immensely valuable and how to find one that is nurturing
  • Why you don’t have to run a 10+ person design studio or a 100+ startup, and can be a solopreneur
  • How to reconcile your client’s vision with your own creative desires
  • How to get compensated fairly by conveying the price and value of your work
  • Why learning tangential skills as a creative can be helpful when it comes to hiring
  • Balancing side projects and attracting work with the day-to-day work that pays the bills

Whether you’ve been in your career for 6 months or 6+ years, and have toyed with the idea of doing your own thing but weren’t sure how to set your own terms, this episode is for you!

For those of you who are interested in design and typography, check out Jessica latest book In Progress. We also talked about her popular post The Dark Art of Pricing, which you can read here.

May 25, 2016

Risk can mean a number a number of things. It could mean speaking up. Or striking out on your own.

But taking a risk is hard.

What’s easier is following a known path.

Creating what we’re told to create. Doing what we’re told to do.

So why not just go for the easy path?

Because it doesn’t always lead to us to feeling fulfilled in our careers and everyday lives.

What does is pushing our creative limits, and that’s where risk comes in.

The reason risk is hard is because it’s surrounded by fear.

Anytime we want to take a risk by sharing ourselves or pursuing a new experience, our inner critic: that little voice inside our heads stops us dead in our tracks. It fills us with fear...

Fear of criticism, rejection, and failure.

It’s hard to put the inner critic in its place because of the way we’ve been educated and conditioned: to not make mistakes.

So what does it take to get over our fears and take a risk?

Creative confidence.

Creative confidence is a mindset, a way of being, that comes from design thinking. Design thinking allows you to be experimental, make mistakes, let go of perception, embrace testing to see what happens, and be detached from outcomes.

In today’s episode of FemgineerTV, we’re going to be talking about how to manage the various fears we come across and gain creative confidence.

To help us out I’ve invited a good friend of mine Maria Molfino who is a women’s leadership coach and helps women gain the creative confidence to lead. With a Masters in Design from Stanford, she has worked with top managers and professionals at companies such as Facebook, Twitter, and IDEO.

Maria says, “If you care about growing and expanding then you have to find out how to relate to your fears.” She continues, “If fear isn’t coming up, you’re not playing at your edge.”

As you watch the episode you’ll learn:

- Why the fear of failure is bigger than actually experiencing failure
- Why we’re sensitive to feedback and how to remove the sting of it
- How to deal with criticism from ourselves, bosses, peers, and loved ones
- Why it’s important to create space between yourself and your creative work
- How to reframe self-promotion

This is a must watch episode if you find want to grow, but feel stuck, and especially if you are looking to help others grow!

In the episode Maria shares her Creative Confidence Playbook to help you overcome obstacles such as perfectionism, comparison, and more. You can download her playbook here: http://www.mariamolfino.com/free-playbook

Maria also recently launched a podcast called Heroine where she interviews creative women leaders in art, business, design, science, and tech. Listen to the podcast here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/heroine-womens-creative-leadership/id1100949693

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FemgineerTV is produced as a partnership between Femgineer http://femgineer.com/ and Pivotal Tracker: http://www.pivotaltracker.com.

San Francisco video production byStartMotionMEDIA: http://www.startmotionmedia.com/

Apr 20, 2016

Raise your hand if you’ve ever had a boss you just didn’t quite get along with. Both of mine are reaching for the stars!

I always thought it was me…

Until one day I met up with a previous boss I had, who saw all the work I had done since leaving the company and told me, “Wow we were really holding you back!”

That statement was vindicating.

But I didn’t want vindication. What I had wanted all along was a boss who would lead me by providing consistent guidance and feedback to help me improve.

I’m sure my story is not unique, but it has become an accepted leadership style, because we’re told that the best products and companies are led by bossholes people who rule through fear.

While there maybe a few of those lurking out there, it’s actually a pretty big myth, and one that we’re going to debunk in today’s episode of FemgineerTV!

We’ll also talk about how the boss who is a buddy aka Michael Scott, is even more damaging that the bosshole, because they are holding back the criticism you need to perform better.

So what does it take to be a great leader and boss?

Radical Candor.

It’s a framework for providing constructive guidance to employees, even when employees have screwed up, and was created by Kim Scott.

Kim has a rich background in tech. She formerly led Online Sales and Operations for a number of products at Google such as AdSense, YouTube, and Doubleclick. She’s also an advisor to a number of Silicon Valley startups such as Dropbox, Kurbo, Qualtrics, Rolltape, Shyp, Twitter, and more.

Through all these roles Kim has had first-hand experience with radical candor and is writing a book and building a company based on it. I’ve invited her on the show to help us explore the framework and learn how to practice it.

As you watch the episode you’ll learn:

  • How great leaders actually give a damn about their employees AND challenge them directly
  • Why the well-intentioned “nice” bosses do their employees a disservice by withholding criticism
  • Why people have learned to speak candidly the hard way
  • Why criticism has a short half life and so does praise
  • How to get through to employees using the Radical Candor framework

Even if you aren’t a leader or a boss, I’d highly recommend watching this episode, because it showcases how employees can spot toxic cultures, how to change them, and the traits to spot in great leaders.

Mar 22, 2016

You’ll recall in that in the last episode of FemgineerTV, I interviewed Maria Giudice the VP of Experience of Autodesk and author of The Rise of the DEO. We talked about how traditional CEOs have been replaced by a new breed called DEOs.

In the latest episode of FemgineerTV, I’ve got a great example of a DEO for you: Lily Sarafan, the CEO of HomeCare.

Lily began her career when HomeCare was just a startup, and has been integral to its growth and eventual acquisition.

But that’s not all, Lily is also very active in the tech community as a startup advisor, mentor, and investor, she’s also involved with a number of nonprofits, holds a political office, and avidly travels.

As you watch the episode you’ll how she manages all her projects and has learned to cultivate a leadership style over the years that resonates with her personality. Lily definitely exhibits many of the DEO traits such as:

- Evaluating and take risks
- Being a systems level thinker
- Using her intuition to guide her decision-making
- Having a high level of social intelligence
- Caring about getting shit done!
- Influencing and shaping a company’s culture through her unique leadership style

Even if you aren’t a leader, this is a very valuable episode to watch, because you’ll learn the following from Lily:

- Why it’s OK if people don’t expect much from you and how you can use that to your advantage
- Why having a leadership oriented personality is very different from being an effective leader
- Why the best advice isn’t necessarily what you’re supposed to follow
- How you can lead and built a support network even if you’re shy or introverted
- Why it’s important to value people over product

If you're interested in working for HomeCare check out their opportunities: http://homecareassistance.com/apply

Episode credits
FemgineerTV is produced as a partnership between Femgineer and Pivotal Tracker: http://pivotaltracker.com/
FemgineerTV is videographed by StartMotionMedia: http://www.startmotionmedia.com/

Feb 15, 2016

In this episode, we’ll be talking about why traditional CEOs have been replaced by a new breed called DEOs, design executive officers, and how companies are basically being led by executives who embrace design thinking.

To help us out, I’ve invited Maria Giudice formerly the founder of Hot Studio. Maria built and successfully ran Hot Studio through 3 tech busts, I’d say that’s enough of a reason for me to want to learn from this amazing design leader! Hot Studio was eventually acquired by Facebook. Maria’s latest role is as the VP of Experience Design at Autodesk and she has co-authored a new book called The Rise of The DEO.

Whether you’re a leader or aspire to be one, you won’t want to miss listening to this episode, because Maria and are I are going to be talking about how DEOs:

  • Are different from traditional CEOs
  • Evaluate and take risks
  • Are systems level thinkers
  • Use their intuition to guide their decision-making
  • Have cultivated a high level of social intelligence
  • Care about getting shit done!
  • Co-create with their teams and manage different roles
  • Give employees permission to fail
  • influence and shape a company’s culture through their unique leadership style
Feb 1, 2016

In this episode we’re tackling a tough topic that isn’t talked about a lot: The Challenges Immigrant Tech Entrepreneurs Face.

Whether you’re an immigrant, thinking of immigrating to the US, or just a startuper, you’re sure to be inspired by this episode, because we talk about what it takes to overcome a number of obstacles and setbacks over a 4 year period before breaking into the US market with big customers and investors!

Agustina Sartori, the CEO & Co-Founder of Glam St shares how she began her career as a software engineer in Uruguay working at a startup, and then decided to strike out on her own with her co-founder Carolina Bañales to build Glam St.

Watch and learn:

  • How she and her co-founder landed their first big client L’Oreal before building anything!

  • How they built their first prototype.

  • Alternate sources of funding they pursued because there aren’t a lot of investors in Uruguay.

  • How cultivating a level of self-awareness when talking to potential customers and investors is beneficial to attracting them.

  • Why it’s important to build relationships with organizations who can help you grow your business like accelerators.

Feb 1, 2016

It’s the final episode of FemgineerTV for the 2015 season!

It felt like just yesterday I was waking up at 5am on a January morning to buy bagels for Ben Congleton our first guest. Then driving up with him to SF to beat the traffic on 101. Still can’t believe we made it one piece for the live pilot episode!

Since then we’ve produced a total of 11 episodes with guests who are changing the landscape of technology in the way they design, engineer, and lead product innovation and their companies. If you’ve missed even one episode, then take some time this holiday season to watch them all here.

Of course none of these episodes would have been possible without the support of our sponsor Pivotal Tracker. Specials thanks to Ronan Dunlop, Charles Springer, and Dan Podsedly for believing in my vision for FemgineerTV and continuing to support it. These are some of the BEST guys in Silicon Valley to work with!

I also want to thank my team: Michael Zeligs (videographer), Nathalie Arbel (editor), Christy Buckland (editor), and Gary Kirk (video editor). They are such a pleasure to work with, and go out of their way to make the episodes look and sound amazing! 

Now on to the final episode of FemgineerTV for the 2015 season!

In this episode we’ll be exploring the theme of what it’s like to start building a technology company and product with little to no experience.

We’ve all heard stories about tech founders who started their careers as engineers, designers, product managers and sales staff, while supporting a tech company. But can someone from outside tech successfully launch a tech product? Sandi MacPherson is proof it can be done! She’s the founder of Quibband has a unique story of how she became a founder.

In the latest episode of Femgineer TV, Sandi shares how she went from working in eastern Canada as a scientist, studying climate change, to completing her MBA, and eventually moving to California to start a technology company.

Having no prior experience in tech, Sandi went through a series of steps and received a lot of hands-on help that led her to eventually start Quibb, a service that shares articles and reports that influencers and experts are reading, in a newsfeed and daily email.

In this episode, you’ll learn the following from Sandi:

  • The risk she took that helped launch her tech career.
  • How founders without a tech background can get started.
  • How she turned to the users of Quibb for funding and how you can use this strategy, too.
  • A special side project she is working on!
Feb 1, 2016

We know that funding is critical for the life of a startup, and founders can opt to bootstrap or raise capital from VCs. Many do both as we saw in episode 8 when I interviewed Melody McCloskey.

Then in episode 9, I spoke to Shruti Gandhi, the founding and managing partner at Array VC, a fund that invests in early stage startups. Shruti shared with us the different ways investors can help a company grow, plus tips for dealing with different types of investors, and how to dig into an investor’s thesis to see if they’re the right fit for you.

In today’s episode, we’re going to expand beyond the mechanics of funding, and learn about a startup that’s helping investors and founders learn all they can to make decisions when it comes to investing.  Danielle Morrill is the CEO and co-founder of Mattermark, a data platform that keeps track of startups and their growth signals.

Danielle began her startup career working Pelago, then went on to become the first employee at Twilio, and recently launched Mattermark.  

Her goal is to make Mattermark the go-to source for information about startups and their investment potential.  Think of it as Bloomberg  for private companies.  

In this episode you’ll learn:

  • How Mattermark compiles information about private companies and help investors make informed investment decisions
  • What Mattermark’s Startup Index and Growth Score are, and how they benefit startups
  • How startup founders can benefit from Mattermark using it as a one-stop shop for finding the right investors
  • How Mattermark helps startup discover potential customers
Feb 1, 2016

If you’ve been following along with FemgineerTV, you’ll have learned what the investor-founder dynamic is like from the viewpoint of an entrepreneur. In the last episode, I sat down with the CEO & co-founder of StyleSeat, Melody McCloskey, to understand what it takes to raise capital at the various stages of a startup, from Seed to Series A and beyond.

In today’s episode, we’re going to get the opposite perspective by diving into an investor’s mindset. We’ll try to understand what compels them to write a check and, more importantly, how they add value beyond a check.

(That’s right, they’re not just a source of capital; they can be an indispensable partner!)

I’ve invited Shruti Gandhi to chat with us. Shruti is the founding and managing partner at Array VC, a fund that invests in early stage startups. She began her career as software engineer. Since then, she has been a startup founder and an investor in five funds; now, she has started her own.

Having been in many roles, Shruti understands the importance of capital, but she also knows firsthand that founders need help beyond the check.

During our conversation, you’ll learn:

  • How investors can help you accelerate your company’s sales
  • How investors test a founder’s commitment to their product and company
  • How to work with different types of investors: corporate, institutional, and angels
  • Why investors look for founders who have been an early employee at a startup before striking out on their own
  • How to dig into an investor’s thesis to find out if they are a right fit for you
Feb 1, 2016

You’ve probably noticed the ongoing debate about whether or not we’re in a tech bubble. Headlines are always gushing about the latest companies with billion dollar valuations.

There’s a lot of investment capital out there right now, and if you’re a startup founder who hopes to raise money, you might be wondering what it takes to attract some of that capital to you .

You have to figure out what to say to attract investors, but here’s the thing: depending on whether it’s your first fundraise or a follow-on round, you have to take a different approach.

So, what do investors look for in a startup ripe for Series A versus Series B? When should you stop bootstrapping and search for seed funding?

To help us out with these questions, I’ve invited Melody McCloskey, the CEO & Co-Founder of StyleSeat, who has successfully raised $39.9M for her company through 4 separate fundraising rounds, ranging from seed to Series B.

Each round was different, and it wasn’t all smooth sailing for Melody. Hear how she succeeded in her 4 rounds and learn:

  • Why it’s important to start bootstrapping before you consider taking capital;
  • What investors are looking for at different stages, like seed, Series A, and Series B; and
  • How to pitch investors who know very little about your industry.
Aug 24, 2015

You might have used products that just get the job done. (Think Excel.) They compete with similar products on features, cost, and other mechanics. The problem is, these products become commodities and can lose their users to competition in a heartbeat. 

Meanwhile, there are standout products that are heralded as works of art. They inspire people and change lives, and consumers stick with these brands for a long time thanks to a glue called love. Most of us want to make amazing products and are looking for that je ne sais quoi to take it to the next level:

Why do Apple and Nike stores continue to make money during retail recessions?

What do the Jony Ive’s and Tom Gruber’s of the world know that we don’t?

And when we hear that our products need to “delight” the user, what does “delight” really mean?

Today on FemgineerTV we’re going to talk about the balance of science and art that goes into amazing design and discuss the building process behind products that delight users every single time.

To help us out I’ve invited Pauly Ting, a user experience designer who has helped brands like Bloomingdale’s, Lexus, and American Express to reveal their purpose, express their personality, and deliver a complete and authentic user experience. 

Whether you’re building a product for a startup or a larger corporation, you’ll want to watch this episode to learn:

- Why it’s hard to differentiate your product if you fixate on features and the science behind them

- Why most companies fail to make a meaningful connection with users

- A simple 4-step framework that helps you clarify your design and speeds up development time

After you’ve listened to the episode join the conversation here: http://femgineer.com/2015/08/the-art-vs-science-of-user-experience-design/

Aug 24, 2015

We all have ideas for features, products, and companies. But we cannot bring them to life alone. Partners and teams help us get out of our echo chambers, see possibilities we’ve never imagined, and put one foot in front of the other when the going gets rough. 

The best teams are composed of individuals with complementary skill sets, and as we learned back in Episode 4, empathy for one another.

But you might be wondering: How does a team form over time? And how do you pick an initial partner or co-founder if you’re starting from scratch?

In today’s episode of FemgineerTV we’re going to talk about how to pick partners, assemble a founding team to get your idea off the ground, and reveal the key ingredient to a lasting partnership.

To help us out I’ve invited the co-founders of Pop Up Archive, Anne Wootton and Bailey Smith. Pop Up Archive is a startup based in Oakland, CA that makes sound searchable by using cutting edge speech-to-text technology. Anne Wootton is the CEO and Bailey Smith is the CTO. We’ll learn about how, as co-founders, they split their responsibilities, support each other, and resolve conflicts.

Listen to the episode and learn:

- The traits you should look for in a potential co-founder that are different from a teammate or an employee

- How to communicate setbacks to your co-founder

- How to critique each other constructively

If you’re actively looking for a co-founder or if you already have one and want to improve your partnership, you’ll want to watch this episode! 

After you’ve listened to the episode join the conversation here: http://femgineer.com/?p=7246

Aug 24, 2015

If you’re a technical person, such as an engineer or designer, then your todo list is probably filled with product launches, bug fixes, interviewing candidates, attending meetings, answering emails, and fighting fires. 

The daily grind can leave you wondering if the work that you do is actually worthwhile and makes a big impact.

While it’s easy for people to tell us to work smarter, not harder, the bulk of the work still falls on our shoulders, and it often feels like the only way to get it all done is to put in more hours!

In today’s episode of FemgineerTV, we’re going to tackle your todo list. We’ll talk about how you can identify activities that will make a big impact for your organization, your team, and yourself, and how to feel good about deprioritizing those that don’t!

For expert guidance, I’ve invited Edmond Lau, who is the author of the new book The Effective Engineer. Edmond has worked as an engineer at big companies like Google and growth-stage startups like Ooyala, Quora, and, most recently, Quip. While he onboarded and mentored many new engineers at work, he discovered which habits, techniques, and mindsets set them up for success early on (read: huge impact in less time).

Edmond will help us identify common myths about productivity in software development that hold us back from making a big impact. We’ll also share our favorite framework for evaluating how much impact our activities and tasks actually have, using the concept of leverage.

Watch the episode and learn:

1. Why it’s important to focus on more than just technical skills

2. Why you shouldn’t drop everything to satisfy a request

3. Why you should dedicate time to activities like automation as well as mentoring and onboarding new employees

If you find yourself drowning in tasks and feel like you’re not making the kind of impact you want to make, then you’ll want to watch this episode!

Check out Edmond's latest book here: http://www.theeffectiveengineer.com/book

After you’ve listened to the episode join the conversation here: http://femgineer.com/?p=7197

Aug 24, 2015

There’s one skill that every wildly successful product manager, UX designer, businessperson, and leader has in common. It helps them unite teams and ship products that customers love time and time again. 

What could possibly unite all these technologists? 

It’s conscious and deliberate empathy. 

Most people believe empathy is just about being compassionate, like lending your friend a shoulder to cry on when they’re going through a breakup. Others dismiss it altogether as a distraction, because they believe it’s more important to be efficient, focus, and get stuff done!

Well, it just so happens that when a company is plagued by lack of motivation, missed deadlines, and high employee turnover, often it’s because employees feel that their teammates, bosses, and management don’t “get them.” They might feel like coworkers jump to conclusions or assume their intentions and motivations. In other words, they don’t feel that anyone has empathy for them as an individual.

Lack of empathy is terrible for team-building, but it also impacts another crucial part of your business…

 

It actually seeps into how products are created, so customers feel like your company doesn’t “get” them either! Why would a customer who feels misunderstood stay loyal to you or recommend you to your friends? 

 

Empathy isn’t just about being compassionate. There are actually several different types of empathy. And there’s one that’s most helpful for success in business and technology.

We’ll tell you how to start using it right away in today’s episode of FemgineerTV. For expert guidance, I’ve invited Indi Young, a founder of Adaptive Path, user experience consultant, and author of two books: Mental Models and, most recently, Practical Empathy. 

Indi will help us clarify several misconceptions and avoid some misuses of empathy...and of course to learn how to actually practice it in the right way.

Watch the episode and learn:

1. Why Tom Gruber, the designer and co-founder of Siri, believes empathy is crucial to getting things done in tech companies.

2. Why empathy isn’t limited to just building products but extends to processes and building teams.

3. Why we’ve fallen in love with quantitative data, but it isn’t enough to develop a deep understanding of our teammates and customers—we need qualitative data too.

4. Why empathy is a skill that can be learned and practiced.

5. How to translate our learnings from practicing empathy into actionable insights for our business.

 

If you’re struggling to understand your customers and find alignment with your teammates then you’ll want to watch this episode!

After you’ve listened to the episode join the conversation here: http://femgineer.com/?p=7110

Aug 24, 2015

We all want customers to crave the products we build. Next, we want them to spread the word, because WOM (word-of-mouth) marketing is THE strongest and most authentic for your product. 

WOM is a testimonial delivered from one customer to another. The customer spreading the word cares about helping the other person out and is willing to vouch for the product based on benefits they’ve personally experienced. 

These days, most customer-to-customer testimonials live on the internet through social media, forums, forwarded emails, and other online communities. 

They also live on Product Hunt, TechCrunch’s Best New Startup of 2014.

Product Hunt is an online community where members submit and vote up the best new tech products. A simple upvote arrow is the site’s distilled version of word of mouth, and highly recommended products float to the top of the site and get an influx of visitors. According to TechCrunch, Product Hunt is “taking the industry by storm as founders, investors, early adopters and other tech enthusiasts now check the site on a daily basis.” 

Recommendation-driven user acquisitions aren’t the only benefit for products that succeed on Product Hunt; they might also nab press coverage, investor interest, or high-quality feedback from the tech enthusiasts.

When Product Hunt was just getting started, it faced a classic chicken-and-egg problem that typically burdens community-based products. You need users on your home turf to attract other users, but how do you go from an initial 0 users to 10 or 100? 

Product Hunt did a phenomenal job building up a following. The founder, Ryan Hoover, started with a simple email list that grew into a strong community of evangelists eager to use the product every day. 

In this episode of FemgineerTV, we’ll cover how he did it. Any new startup—even if it’s not social or community-based—can use these strategies to drive word-of-mouth recommendations for their product. 

I’ve invited Ryan Hoover and his founding team member Erik Torenberg to candidly share how they used evangelists to accelerate Product Hunt’s growth in the early days. They’ll also explain how they continue to build fervor for the product through an engaged and growing community.

Watch the episode and learn:

1. What they did to create a positive first impression of their company on prospective users and influencers.

2. How they attracted early adopters even before ProductHunt was built.

3. How they mobilized their early adopters to evangelize the product and bring in more users.

4. Strategies that did and didn’t work to increase community engagement.

5. How they keep users hooked and coming back.

If you’re struggling to get traction for your software product, watch the episode. You’ll definitely walk away with some valuable insights to apply to your business right away!

After you've listened to the episode join the conversation in the comments here: http://femgineer.com/?p=7086

Aug 24, 2015

As technologists we want to build software that is friendly, fast, beautiful, reliable, secure, and scalable. And we expect ourselves to deliver it on time and under budget, because our ultimate goal is to have lots of happy customers who can do what they want: cue Daft Punk’s Technologic!

But time and energy are finite, and we simply cannot deliver it all at once. We need to choose our priorities, and this choice is one we should make consciously.

Evaluating our software development priorities while dealing with constraints is known as the tradeoff space.

How can you make wise tradeoffs for your product?

The choice is based on a balance between your technology stack and business model type.

“Move fast and break things!”

While this has become a popular motto, it doesn’t apply to every company.

For example, enterprise software companies that are building system-level software prioritize reliability because customers need to use them. Each change needs to be rigorously tested, and often approved before it can be released.

Meanwhile, consumer internet companies spend time and money on making their UX delightful so that people want to use them. Reliability is something they’re willing to sacrifice. Since many are web-based applications, they can iterate quickly and release changes frequently.

So yes, they can move fast and break things.

The tradeoff space may seem insurmountable, but you too can become confident about your decisions by learning from a true pro!

In the second episode of Femgineer TV, I’ve invited Jocelyn Goldfein, the Former Director of Engineering at Facebook, to talk about:

- What the tradeoff space is

- How to not get overwhelmed by the tradeoff space

- How to make decisions that will help you ship product that your customers will love and help you meet business goals

Jocelyn has led engineering teams at early to growth-stage startups like VMWare and enterprise companies like Trilogy, so she’s definitely had her fair share of dealing with constraints and having to make tradeoffs to ship product and meet business goals.

We also dig into the cost of a mistake, how to take risks, the BIGGEST mistake Jocelyn sees technical folks making over and over again, and how to avoid making it!

Watch the episode to learn how you can make smart tradeoffs when developing software products.

Read Jocelyn's blog: http://www.jocelyngoldfein.com

Follow Jocelyn on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jgoldfein

Join the conversation after listening to the episode at: http://femgineer.com/?p=7004

Aug 22, 2015

While a lot of people talk about the financial benefits of a remote team, that’s actually NOT the reason why Ben Congleton and his team decided to build a remote team. You’ve probably also heard over and over again the importance of company culture, but Ben actually breaks down what him and his team at Olark do to build a strong company culture!

During the show we covered the following 3 misconceptions people have about remote working:

1. Employees won’t be as productive and progress will stagnate

2. Communication between employees and teams will break down

3. A remote team will be devoid of culture

In the pilot episode of FemgineerTV Ben and I tackled each of these misconceptions. And Ben shares how he and his co-founders have built an amazing remote team of 30-people, which spans San Francisco to Europe.

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