This episode is brought to you by 📈 LinearB, the software engineering intelligence platform enabling engineering leaders improve their team’s operational efficiency, and align R&D investments to business goals.
🙋♂️ Today’s guest
Aadil Maan is Lead Engineering Program Manager at Humane and a big tech veteran, having worked at the likes of Google, Apple, and Blackberry.
He also writes the Building Romes newsletter, which acts as a field manual for TPMs and, I should say, any manager in tech, really.
The theme of today’s chat is The World Builder Framework — Aadil's own approach to problem solving and solutioning processes, frameworks and workflows for product and engineering teams.
Aadil's framework builds upon the experience of shipping hardware & software at big tech and fast paced startups, and gives a new lens for leaders to solve problems, instead of forcing rigid, off-the-shelf, traditional methodologies.
📌 Topics
Here are some things you will learn from this chat:
🗺️ What do TPMs do? — Aadil explains how Technical Program Managers connect different teams and ensure the strategic execution of projects, bridging the gap between engineering, product, design, and other functions.
🌎 The World Builder Framework — Aadil encourages a holistic approach to problem-solving by considering the three main elements of a given situation: Environment, People, and Physics.
🏢 Startups vs Big Tech — Having worked at both, Aadil explains startups vs big tech approaches to problem-solving. We discuss focus, and being thoughtful vs being a first mover.
🤖 Hardware vs Software — Hardware products are a totally different beast from software. Aadil explains how to ensure that hardware products are delivered, and how to create long roadmaps while retaining agility.
🎽 Joining a new team — Understanding people, the tech stack, building relationships, and identifying centers of power.
🎙️ Episode
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🙏 Thank you
Thank you so much for listening! Let us know what you think about the podcast in the comments or via email!
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See you next week! 👋
Luca
