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- 295 - Being an architect with Mike Bowers
Shiv continues his conversation with Mike Bowers, Chief architect at FairCom.
In this conversation, Mike discusses how to identify someone with an aptitude for being a software architect.
Here are the key points:
Aptitude for a software architect, abstract thinking and PracticalityHis Experience in extensive coding and understanding of different programming languages, Data structures and algorithms knowledgeHe also talks about the Qualities of a good software architect:How to identify if you have the aptitude:In short, a software architect should be a well-rounded programmer with a strong understanding of design and practicality. They should be able to see the big picture and translate that vision into a functional system.
He also shares some career tips for aspiring architects.
Mike Bowers is the Chief Architect at FairCom with over 35 years of experience in software development and architecture. As the driving force behind FairCom's architecture and product roadmaps, Mike specializes in high-performance NoSQL and SQL databases, IIoT platforms, and legacy system modernization solutions. His wealth of knowledge extends to topics like database revolution, manufacturing 4.0, IIoT, edge computing, and data integration. With a deep understanding of the tech landscape, he actively contributes to the development of industry standards through his membership in the INCITS technical committee, focusing on SQL and GQL. Mike's insights resonate particularly well with audiences comprising CEOs, IT managers, software architects, software engineers, and controls engineers.
Sun, 05 May 2024 - 294 - Architecting database engines with Mike Bowers
My guest today is Mike Bowers, Chief architect at FairCom. We had a very interesting conversation that we decided to publish in two parts. In the first part of the conversation , MIke shares his career path and his perspective on how to approach software development. He emphasizes the importance of understanding the customer's needs and designing systems that are flexible and scalable. He also discusses the importance of data in software development and his experience working with different data models.
Here are the key points from the conversation:
Mike started programming at a young age and has been passionate about it ever since.He has a PhD in music theory and sees connections between music and software development, particularly in terms of patterns.As an architect, he focuses on designing systems that are flexible, scalable, and meet the needs of the customer.He believes that data is a crucial part of software development and that understanding data is essential for building good systems.He has experience working with different data models, including relational databases and JSON.Mike Bowers is the Chief Architect at FairCom with over 35 years of experience in software development and architecture. As the driving force behind FairCom's architecture and product roadmaps, Mike specializes in high-performance NoSQL and SQL databases, IIoT platforms, and legacy system modernization solutions. His wealth of knowledge extends to topics like database revolution, manufacturing 4.0, IIoT, edge computing, and data integration. With a deep understanding of the tech landscape, he actively contributes to the development of industry standards through his membership in the INCITS technical committee, focusing on SQL and GQL. Mike's insights resonate particularly well with audiences comprising CEOs, IT managers, software architects, software engineers, and controls engineers.
Fri, 26 Apr 2024 - 293 - Architecting solutions for the social sector with Vijayashree Urs
In this conversation with Ms. VijayashreeCTO - Shikshalokam | Director- Onlineengineer Inc.she talks about her career trajectory and how she approaches technical challenges. Here are the key points:
Vijayashree accidentally ended up in computer science after wanting to study electronics engineering.She has a passion for system software design and coding.She transitioned from a services role to a product role to focus more on the technical aspects.She believes in balancing the technical aspects with user needs and understanding the business domain.She uses a collaborative approach to design, involving the team and getting their buy-in on ideas.She acknowledges the need for analysis and design but also emphasizes the importance of getting things into production quickly using Agile methodologies.When making decisions about new technologies, she weighs the risks and benefits, using proven patterns for critical areas but also taking calculated risks to experiment with new ideas.She communicates the importance of non-functional requirements to her team and integrates them into the design process to ensure scalability, reliability, and maintainability.Vijayashree talks about the challenges and the transition from working in the commercial sector to the social sector.
Key takeaways for designing for the social sector:
Users might not have the technical expertise and may have limited internet connectivity.The solutions should be designed for a wider range of devices including low-end smartphones.Multiple languages and possibly voice interfaces should be considered.There might be a need to focus on offline functionality as well.Metrics for success in the social sector:
Adoption rate of the software by other organizations.User feedback and the resulting improvements made to the software.The impact of the software on the beneficiaries.There are also a few interesting career advices by her
https://www.linkedin.com/in/vijayashree-urs/
Thu, 18 Apr 2024 - 292 - Late career options with Shekhar Chandra
Today, my guest is Shekhar Chandra - the Global Practice Head at Irs Software Inc.
Here are the key themes from the conversation:
Shekhar initially disliked sales because he is more of an introvert.However, he was eased into the role by his company and his technical background helped him gain the confidence to sell because he understood the product.Building a brand: Shekhar highlights the importance of building a brand for oneself, especially when venturing into entrepreneurship.Shekhar talks about the concept of building practices within a company to focus on specific areas of expertise.Shekhar emphasizes the importance of trying new things and learning from failures.Shekhar highlights the need for salespeople to have a good understanding of the technical aspects of the product or service they are selling.Shekhar then talks about the challenges faced by Indian companies trying to take their products global.Marketing is crucial: Building a good product is not enough.Companies need to focus on marketing and building alliances with other companies to be successful in the global market.Shekhar describes three different methods for partnering with other companies:Highlights some challenges faced by Indian companies when they try to take their products global.Shekhar also offers his advice for people in two different career stages:Mid-life career crisis:Late career:Shekhar Chandra - aka SC Shekar is the global practice head at Iris Software Inc.https://www.linkedin.com/in/shekhar-chandra-740953/
Mon, 15 Apr 2024 - 291 - Staying curious and adaptable with Harpreet Singh
Shiv our host is in conversation with Harpreet SIngh, CO-founder and co-CEO of Launchale Inc. Harpreet has been associated with conceiving and launching many innovative products that have become a standard among developer community.
In today's conversation he talks about
How he started his career in India and then moved to the US.He emphasizes the importance of continuous learning and self-improvement.He mentions his growth mindset and his habit of reading and taking courses to stay updated.Harpreet acknowledges the challenge of scaling himself as a leader alongside the company.He talks about managing time for both work and personal growth. He highlights the importance of clear communication and context setting to empower his team and free up his time.He also mentions using a prioritization technique where he identifies the top three important tasks for both work and personal life.Harpreet acknowledges the resistance developers often have towards documentation. He discusses how he built his team by looking for individuals who value clear communication and writing skills.He describes how he identified a niche in the developer experience (DevEx) domain. He noticed that even after implementing CI/CD practices, companies weren't seeing the desired benefits quickly enough. This led him to explore how AI and machine learning could improve software delivery pipelines.Launchable's product uses machine learning to predict which tests are likely to fail based on code changes. Launchable is now expanding its offering to include intelligent test failure diagnostics using AI and machine learning.Harpreet acknowledges that coding style can influence the likelihood of errors. Launchable considers this to some extent, but the focus is on broader patterns and historical data to predict test failures.He emphasizes the importance of lifelong learning for personal and professional growth.He also talks about careers in testing and tech in general:Harpreet is an entrepreneur, innovator, developer, and creative product leader who has dedicated his life to building new solutions for software teams. His latest iteration isLaunchable Inc, an AI/ML company to help developers and QA. A seasoned DevOps leader, Harpreet has been building products for developers for the last 25+ years.
Previously, he was GM for Atlassian Bitbucket and VP of Product at CloudBees. At CloudBees he helped create the Jenkins business that scaled to multi-millions in ARR.
He has an MBA from Santa Clara University, an MS in CS from the University of Cincinnati, and a Bachelors in Computer Engineering from Pune University, India.
Fri, 05 Apr 2024 - 290 - Corporate, Entrepreneurship and Social impact with Vinaya Mallya
Today, my guest is Vinaya Mallya, is a seasoned IT professional, who has played leadership roles in the corporate sector, then was an entrepreneur building a team and moving on to create solutions to impact the social sector.
In this conversation, :
Vinaya shares her career path, including experiences in corporate IT, startups, and the social sector.Early Career in IT
Vinaya's original plan was to study civil engineering, but her principal encouraged her to switch to computer science due to her gender.Despite initial challenges and limited practical experience, a project in COBOL sparked her interest in software development.Her husband, an IT engineer, encouraged her to pursue a career in the field.Finding Passion at Infosys
After getting married, Vinaya joined Infosys despite initial reservations.The initial training period was difficult, but the collaborative work environment with diverse teams motivated her.She discovered her passion for problem-solving, particularly collective problem-solving in a team setting.Work-Life Balance Challenges
Marrying young and having a demanding job at Infosys presented work-life balance challenges.Her supportive in-laws and husband, who encouraged her to focus on her career for the first five years, helped manage the situation.Traveling abroad for work required additional compromises to maintain family harmony.Leaving Infosys and Starting a Startup
Inspired by her father's entrepreneurial spirit, Vinaya dreamt of creating jobs someday.After 11 years at Infosys, the need to care for her children and the distance from her husband in Malaysia led to her resignation.Her mother's strong words about the impact on their children became a turning point.Starting an Animation Franchise
Taking a break from corporate life, Vinaya explored franchise opportunitiesAnimation, a growing field, emerged as the final choice, and she started a franchise of an animation institute.While the business didn't generate significant profit, Vinaya takes pride in providing a platform for young talent to launch their careers.Work in the Social Sector
Vinaya's entry into the social sector was accidental. Initially, she volunteered one day a week, but her time commitment gradually increased to five days a week.The transition from corporate IT to the social sector required adjustments. Vinaya had to learn to appreciate the value of creative solutions and a less structured work environment.She also enjoyed building a team of all women who could relate to the challenges faced by the target population.Challenges of an All-Women Team
Vinaya acknowledges that managing an all-women team has its challenges, such as difficulty with travel and limited budget.However, she believes the team's ability to connect with the target population is a significant benefit.Career Advice
For Early Career Professionals:Vinaya recommends new graduates invest five years in their careers, being open to learning new skills and flexible in their work approach.For Mid-Career Professionals:She acknowledges that some individuals may need to decelerate their careers at a certain point due to life circumstances. However, Vinaya emphasizes the possibility of re-entering the workforce or even transitioning to a new field altogether.After 10 years of experience, Vinaya suggests that professionals consider how they can "give back" to their field or community.Overall
Vinaya's career path demonstrates the value of flexibility and lifelong learning.Her experiences highlight the opportunities for women in both the IT sector and the social sector.Vinaya has close to 24 years of varied experience in the IT services industry, and more recently in the social sector. She started her career with Infosys, where she spent a decade amassing technical knowledge and honing her management and customer relationship skills. During her stint in Infosys, she got the opportunity to work in different geographical cultures spanning America, Europe & Asia. During the phase of motherhood, she shifted from the hectic corporate job to founding her own startup, a design services company for training and development of multimedia solutions. She was selected for Goldman Sachs-ISB sponsored – “10000 World Women Entrepreneurs Management Program” in 2011.
Through a common network, she found an opportunity to get associated in the social sector. At Dhwani Foundation, Vinaya engages with NGOs to help them adopt technology platforms to smoothen their operations. Her motto in life has been to keep an open mind and contribute towards any opportunity that comes along. This attitude has helped her have a very diverse career in her 2+ decades of professional life and hence has not had a boring moment so far !
Handles:
Linked in:linkedin.com/in/vinaya-mallya-a30109a
EMail: kvnyak@hotmail.com
Sat, 30 Mar 2024 - 289 - No guilt career breaks with Amita Ardha
Today, my guest is Amita Ardha, an enterprise architect who has been focusing on sustainable development solutions.
In this conversation;
Amita started her career in engineering and transitioned to IT due to her interest in the "why" behindthe coding.
She realized the importance of understanding the business world and pursued an MBA with a focus onIT and software engineering.
She eventually became a certified Enterprise Architect but took a break to focus on personal goals andexplore sustainability.
This entrepreneurial experience involving a reuse studio helped her develop a broader understanding ofconnecting business with sustainability.
Currently, Amita works as a part-time Enterprise Architect and is involved in sustainability initiatives.Being a Woman in Tech
Amita acknowledges the challenges women face in tech but emphasizes focusing on the work andenjoying the journey.
She advises against attributing missed opportunities solely to gender and highlights the importance ofrecognizing individual journeys.
Amita encourages women to take breaks without guilt and to keep striving towards their goals.Sustainability in Computing
Amita views sustainability as a journey from finite to infinite resourcefulness.Focus on Achievable Goals and Resource EfficiencyAmita emphasizes using resources efficiently and highlights cloud computing as an example of improvedresource utilization.
She shares an example of identifying hygiene issues faced by sanitation workers and the potentialbenefit of providing antifungal cream.
She recommends offering online sessions like storytelling or technology workshops to contributeremotely.
You can see some of her work athttps://www.instagram.com/bharatireusestudio/
Fri, 22 Mar 2024 - 288 - The New Indian Woman, Krishna
Every year, the Software People Stories dedicates the month of March to women guests, to call out their contributions and highlight some women’s perspectives.
Today, I am very happy to introduce our guest, Krishna Kumari, who is also a podcaster, hosting the New Indian Woman podcast.
In this conversation, Krishna talks about:
Her first association with computers during her engineering student days and her first jobReflecting on the novelty and curiosity around computers and software that generated an attraction to this sectorBeing a campus hire at an IT organization and moving across various roles over the next 22 yearsLeaving the software industry and volunteering at various NGOs for about 7 yearsGetting back to IT handling the applications portfolio at a large universityHow programming languages were associated with an invisible class system among the developers with developers wanting to work only on specific languagesGetting an opportunity to talk to one of her uber-bosses and complaining about not getting an opportunity to work on a language of her choice and how he could make a differenceHow she kept learning new technologies as they evolved, and as she moved from domain to domainHer tips on cross leveraging one’s experience when moving from one domain to another How it is important to understand the user experience and design for thatSeeking inputs from others as feedback, one gets opportunities to discover one’s strengthsHow it is important to nurture the quality of transparency to gain the trust of team members and how she discloses her strength areasHow a mentor was instrumental in guiding her in switching to the social sector, by making her think what her contribution to the social sector could beFinding a niche to contribute, by bringing her experience in process management in the corporate sector, to the social sectorHow forming genuine relationships with people is very importantShe shares the reason for starting the New Indian Woman podcast, to share experience and perspectives with more women Her career tips: the importance of the qualities that a person brings to the tableListen on!
More about Krishna Kumari:
I am Krishna and I currently live in Bangalore.
I have been interested in planning, productivity and time management related topics, right from my middle school.
Over the years, this expanded to a journey of continuous improvement and learning from others and examining of how I can live my life in a better way. Better for myself and for the people I care.
These learnings have helped me a lot, no doubt. I have been looking for ways to share the same with the larger community of people around me and learn more and more. And that is the genesis of this blog 'New Indian Woman' and many more things to come…
And if you are wanting to know more about my background. I come from a small town called Alleppey(now Alappuzha, famous for its backwaters), in Kerala. My mother tongue is Tamil. On the academic front, I have done Engineering in Computer Science and then worked in the new IT industry. I started as a software developer, worked many roles in a leading IT organization. When I was performing the role of General Manager, I decided to leave the corporate world and explore.
This led me to start volunteering for different causes . During this period, I have
been a volunteer with NGOs and citizen groups involved in a range of activities from structuring and managing a variety of programs, translating ideas to project opportunities, interacting with partner organisations to facilitate IT implementation, creating visibility of organization's operations towards stakeholder agencies and so on.been a visiting faculty for Undergraduate students at a University for Data Management course .engaged at my children’s school for multiple activities including implementation of new library software using open source toolshelped with teaching a Sewing course for Undergraduates at a University as part of their Creative Expressions programmelaunched my own podcast(yes, available in this site)pursued my hobbies - the ever common reading and of course, you guessed it right, sewing!My learnings come from the 2 decades in the IT world (after a simple small town upbringing), my current explorations and interactions with a wide variety of people from all backgrounds . My learning also comes from being a mother to a young adult daughter and teenage son.
Get in touch
Website : http://thenewindianwoman.com
Facebook : http://facebook.com/newindianwoman
Email : krishna@thenewindianwoman.com
Twitter : https://twitter.com/thenewindianwo1
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/thenewindianwoman
Fri, 15 Mar 2024 - 287 - Travel, Media & Software
Happy Women's Day!
This whole month we have all women's special podcast.
Today, Malini Gowrishankar , Founder and CEO of F5escapes is in conversation with Chitra sharing her experiences as below
- Describes herself as a nerdy 1st bencher with interest in music poetry, screen tested with Doordarshan
- Support role resolving backend issues, strong fundamentals in delivering high quality software
- the disconnect between developers v/s requirements and realizing business value, software products v/s services
- An understanding of the "why" as key to building good software
- Building software is NOT a transaction, empowering people to encourage curiosity
- A process of keeping many identities, thriving and not just surviving
- Voice acting, scripting and weekend hobbies becoming her career
- Starting f5 travels post the Nirbhaya incident to create an impact
- A trip to Sikkim to prove some perceptions otherwise and travel as a transformation
- create feeling of safety through establishing local connections and traveling in groups, solo women travel
8 years in IT as a techie / project manager, 10+ years in media as voice-over/dubbing artist and creative writer, 8+ years in travel as Founder/CEO of F5 Escapes. Passionate about women empowerment, entrepreneurship and sustainable travel. Lover of rains, books, music, nature, performing arts, animals and children. In her free time, she also trains people in voice-overs; mentors young professionals and women wanting to return to the workplace.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/malini-gowrishankar-40210515/
Fri, 08 Mar 2024 - 286 - Creating an Authentic Identity
In second part of this episode, Gayatri Kalyanaraman is in conversation withBharath Kumarwho is a Marketeer from a Technologist,Head Of Marketing & Cx - Zoho Creatorand he’s a Marketing and Content Specialist.
Believing the part of Authentic marketing Creating a Product first and playing secondary to product but how do you differentiate the values of Zoho organization along with product featuresUnlearning and becoming second fiddle to the ProductChanging the model to inbound focus from an outboundGuiding through the vision instead of power Bharath also shares how he believes that one has to understand their own visionBharath furtherBharath considers himself as an entrepreneurial marketeer.Bharath has 14+ years of professional work experience that helped him develop expertise in the areas of Lead Generation, Marketing communications, Brand management, Marketing strategy & Content marketing.
Bharath is the marketing head for Zoho Creators for the last 5 years. Prior to that, Bharath was in the product marketing team for Ramco system and TinyOwl. He was the head of communication of Tamil Nadu Circle for Airtel where he was responsible for the content delivery and creating the brand promise for Airtel. Bharath was a software engineering in Infosys for 3 years.
Bharath graduated from College of Engineering Guindy in Mining Engineering and Great Lakes Institute of management.
Bharath can be contacted athttps://www.linkedin.com/in/bharathkumarb-marketer/
You can listen to the Part1 of the podcast below
https://pm-powerconsulting.com/blog/creating-your-great-day-every-day-with-bharath-kumar/
Sat, 02 Mar 2024 - 285 - Panel Discussion on Enterprise Agility
In this special episode, as part of our book launch "A Practitioner's guide to Enterprise Agility", we had a panel discussion on Enterprise agility. As part of this panel Sivaguru was in conversation with 3 eminent guest from IT industry, Ramkumar Venkatesan, CTO Cashfree payments, Vandana Malaiya, Partner Semcostyle and S Gopalan, MD Global automation Pvt Ltd.
Listen to this episode to know what were the views on enterprise agility of our guests .
Hope you enjoy the episode!
Sat, 24 Feb 2024 - 284 - 3 Authors 1 Amazing Book
In today's special episode we have our authors in conversation with our host Chitra. They share their experiences and thoughts with Chitra about the story behind this book. Here is what Chitra has to say about this podcast.
The five tantras of enterprise agility which emerged from real coaching, business and consulting experiences of PM Power Consulting authored by Paramu Kurumathur only meant a sequel was a matter of time.
So when co-author and former colleague of mine Sivaguru asked if I be the host for a podcast on the new book,
I jumped at the chance.
In this conversation, the three co-authors of a practitioner's guide to enterprise agility, J.Veeraraaghavan, Paramu and Sivaguru shared their experiences around the process of creating this piece of work and what embodies its essence, working with their individual styles and ideas especially for which PM Power is a powerhouse and how it eventually all came together.
Apparently, a trio of authors makes for the perfect book recipe. They tell listeners not only about what the practitioner's guide is but also how it enables enterprises on their agility path practically with converting philosophies of the five tantras using tried and tested tools and practices backed by over 15 years of PM Power experience. Listen to this episode of the Software People's Stories podcast.
Listen on...
Fri, 09 Feb 2024 - 283 - Documentation Dogma in Software with Prema Dhas Mohunraj
In the second part of the conversation with my friendPrema Dhas Mohunraj- aka Prem, Automotive Engineer, Product Leader in the Automotive Space, Electrobit(EB), we touched upon his career and reflections, including:
Shares his decisions and the outcomes of moving roles, company and locationTalks about family and decisions on moving career Prem shares his learnings on being part of a legal case while dealing with a software quality issueSharing his views on the role definition and switching his avatars based Riding the high on completing a software codeWorking between different meetingsShares his learnings andPremadhas started his career with Robert Bosch and moved to Wipro where he led several roles for 14+ years. His most recent role was being the Quality Lead/Project Manager for a client. Premadhas moved to Electrobit (EB) as an automotive engineer and then to lead their quality practices and now in Product lead role.
Premadhas is currently in the Detroit Metropolitan Area.
Premadhas did his engineering in REC (now NIT) Trichy in Electronics and Communication Engineering.
Premadhas can be connected atlinkedin.com/in/premadhas
Sat, 03 Feb 2024 - 282 - Shortening the Cycle time in Automotive Space with Prema Dhas Mohunraj
In the first part of conversation with my friendPrema Dhas Mohunraj- aka Prem, Automotive Engineer, Product Leader in the Automotive Space, Electrobit(EB), we touched upon his career and reflections, including:
Shortest stint in Robert Bosch for 2 years and talks about today’s trend of people moving out in less than 2 monthsBeen an automotive engineer for the better part of his career and worked in different parts of business with . Premadhas jokes that he was getting only one firm to get a pay check but very different clients and even mail idsShares his view of the automotive industry - number of chips in a car to number of people who used to work in the software side during the entire transformation Proliferation of companies coming in the space - shortened the cycle of development - want to keep up with technology and mimicking the cellphone designsTalks about the connected cars and keeps the conversation on what’s happening on the road in a real-time basis. Shares the need to adapt in 2-3 year period to new roles (within or outside the firm) to ensure that we continue to learn from our ecosystemPremadhas talks about mentoring and how that support has helped him identify newer roles that he has just joined in as a Product Lead in ElectrobitPrem shares some of his personal decisions and shares his change from being a manager to an individual contributor and it brought him to a new city to write C++ codePremadhas started his career with Robert Bosch and moved to Wipro where he led several roles for 14+ years. His most recent role was being the Quality Lead/Project Manager for a client. Premadhas moved to Electrobit (EB) as an automotive engineer and then to lead their quality practices and now in Product lead role.
Premadhas is currently in the Detroit Metropolitan Area.
Premadhas did his engineering in REC (now NIT) Trichy in Electronics and Communication Engineering.
Premadhas can be connected atlinkedin.com/in/premadhas
Tue, 30 Jan 2024 - 280 - Analytics and planning with Srinivasan Sundararajan
In this conversation with my colleague Srinivasan Sundararajan - aka Srini, we touched upon many topics related to personal finance as well as non-financial planning, including:
His passion for data and analyticsUnderstanding that behavior matters as much or more than data and how his own approach to analytics has evolved over timeThe year end being a logical time window to reflect and planStart your reflection and planning from selfPicking the vital few aspects that need to be addressed and focusing measurements and analysis on thatHis reflection on the past year on a personal levelWhile he may not be very excited about planning quarter in quarter, using a quarter as a window to review financial investments , but shorter windows based on what the goals areAspects one should be clear about, both when planning and reflecting on the progress on plansHaving discretionary and non-discretionary aspects in the goals and aspirationsThe importance of making a public commitment or having an accountability buddyHow to use four words of Intrinsic / extrinsic, need/want driven to test motivationThe link to the blog post referred to by Srini on the four words related to motivation:https://pm-powerconsulting.com/blog/4-words-test-motivational-level/
Sat, 20 Jan 2024 - 279 - Golden Optimals with Mohan Ram
In this conversation, my colleague Mohan Ram shares how
His reflection and planning cycle is not necessarily synchronized with the calendar yearHis preference to not think too far ahead in the future, but focus on the next 3 monthsHow the thought process is always on in the back of one’s mindHow to avoid the analysis paralysis, but move towards action with a golden optimal ruleHis experience and learnings from two of his bossesThe significance of journals and journalingHis preference for more visually laid out elements in a journal and fitting a note within half a page or one page maxWed, 17 Jan 2024 - 277 - Year end thoughts with Chitra and Gayatri
As we approach the end of a calendar year, many of us have the practice of looking back on the year that was, reflecting on the highs and lows of the year - and shape our dreams and aspirations for the coming year.
At Software People Stories, we are running a special series of conversations with people on their own approaches as well as practices and stories of how their thinking has changed over the years.
Today, it is a conversation between the two co-hosts of the podcast, Chitra and Gayatri.
In this conversation, they touch upon:
Chitra’s practice of annual year end reflectionGayatri’s professional achievements in a large organization and being bit by the startup bugHaving many goals at the start of the year and achieving many of themPlanning for a college reunion that brought together over 250 personsSome ideas that did not see as much progress as desiredChitra shares her entrepreneurial journey in the learning spaceThe strength of the co-founders supporting each other through tough timesA new role in a new sector that she has recently taken upHer delving into authorshipTheir experiences and some practices as coaches and how that has influenced their ways of workingThe significance of time management and also ‘just be’ing.. And not doing anythingWhat Chitra would like to build up as a practice in the coming yearManaging your energy more than timeManage FOMO, by sifting through the barrage of information overload and pick the ones most relevant for you and how to get startedThe importance of having safe spaces to help explore problem spacesTheir ideas for the coming year, that they want to work onSome of the techniques they talked about include: Atomic habits and pomodoro techniqueListen on, to be inspired.
Fri, 05 Jan 2024 - 276 - Year end thoughts with Kurumathur Param
As we approach the end of a calendar year, many of us have the practice of looking back on the year that was, reflecting on the highs and lows of the year - and shape our dreams and aspirations for the coming year.
At Software People Stories, we are running a special series of conversations with people on their own approaches as well as practices and stories of how their thinking has changed over the years.
Today, my guest is Paramu Kurumathur, a colleague and a published serial author.
He talks about
Two types of books he writesHow he motivates himself to make progress, even when there is no deadlineHow he plans and prioritizes time across projectsThe significance of a calendarHis thoughts on year end reflections and analogies from astronomyAnd the repeating cycles in calendars and their relevanceThe usefulness of year end reflections and new year resolutionsYou can reach him on
https://www.linkedin.com/in/paramu-kurumathur-01489a6/
Fri, 22 Dec 2023 - 275 - Year end thoughts with Gopalan
As we approach the end of a calendar year, many of us have the practice of looking back on the year that was, reflecting on the highs and lows of the year - and shape our dreams and aspirations for the coming year.
At Software People Stories, we are running a special series of conversations with people on their own approaches as well as practices and stories of how their thinking has changed over the years.
Today, I am in conversation with S Gopalan, my colleague from PM Power and an industry veteran. He prefers to be called Gopal.
In this conversation he shares
That reflections are goodHow his own perspective on annual cycles of appraisal [and feedback] have changed over timeThat he is not fond of setting goals such as losing weight within a fixed timeline, as effective, but rather prefers to take up things that would help make changes in his daily routinesHow taking micro goals per day, could possibly be accumulated and sometimes ‘binge’ completedThe benefit of making commitments publicHow his approaches are different when reflecting on two different contexts that he is actively associated with: a loosely structured team and a more structured team with tight timelinesWhat we, as coaches, need to think about differently - about tools to help us deliver more impactful engagementsThe value of reflections - to make one feel more secure and confident of the futureYou should have a plan, but be open to modifying that to adapt dynamicallyFri, 22 Dec 2023 - 273 - Year end thoughts with Anantha Natarajan
As we approach the end of a calendar year, many of us have the practice of looking back on the year that was, reflecting on the highs and lows of the year - and shape our dreams and aspirations for the coming year.
At Software People Stories, we are running a special series of conversations with people on their own approaches as well as practices and stories of how their thinking has changed over the years.
Today, I am in conversation with Anantha Natarajan, my colleague from PM Power and an accomplished coach. He prefers to be called Anand.
In this conversation he shares
How his approach has evolved over the years, influenced by the context and environment he grew up in and moving to a larger city for studies and on to professional lifeA question he was asked by one of his mentors, about 25 years ago, about his aspirations for the futureHis practice of writing things down in his dream bookA model that has evolved and worked for him, that he calls i-fi; moving from the present I, to the future IThe importance of the role of a mentorWhether discipline is essential for these resolutionsHow considering some responsibilities as chores, obligations or blessings changes ones complete perspectiveThe high level overview of his i-fi modelAbout improving the quality of the inner mirrorThe relevance of choosing timelines for future plansFor more details on the i-fi model, check out Anand’sblog post.
Accessible at:https://pm-powerconsulting.com/blog/i-fi-a-model-for-designing-your-future-and-personal-change/
I hope you got some ideas to help you reflect and plan for the coming year.
If some other practices have worked for you - or possibly not worked for you, would you like to share your story?
Reach us onpodcasts@pm-powerconsulting.com and please do share with your networks to spread the word.
Sat, 09 Dec 2023 - 272 - Creating your great day every day with Bharath Kumar
In this episode, Gayatri Kalyanaraman is in conversation withBharath Kumarwho is a Marketeer from a Technologist,Head Of Marketing & Cx - Zoho Creatorand he’s a Marketing and Content Specialist.
In his career spanning over two decades, he shares very interesting stories –
Started his career in Infosys as a software engineerFound that his interests was in organizing events, quizzes and packaging and presenting the ideas were his strengthsDuring his career as a mainframe engineer, Bharath found that he was the most approachable and decided to approach a career in marketingHe talks about creating every day a great day and understanding what according to him made him feel greatShares his stories on what led him to choose marketing in MBABharath shares his dichotomy of experience inMadura Micro Finance LtdEndearing stories on being a communication - content management and head of circle communication for airtelBharath shares some of the data orientation and how to wear the data hat and keep visibility of the brand Identifying the patterns of data using clarity and ethical values. Bharath also shares how he always has the analytical mind and the eye for color/ patterns at the same time. In fact Bharath recommends that all of us need to keep this modelBharath considers himself as an entrepreneurial marketeer.Bharath has 14+ years of professional work experience that helped him develop expertise in the areas of Lead Generation, Marketing communications, Brand management, Marketing strategy & Content marketing.
Bharath is the marketing head for Zoho Creators for the last 5 years. Prior to that, Bharath was in the product marketing team for Ramco system and TinyOwl. He was the head of communication of Tamil Nadu Circle for Airtel where he was responsible for the content delivery and creating the brand promise for Airtel. Bharath was a software engineering in Infosys for 3 years.
Bharath graduated from College of Engineering Guindy in Mining Engineering and Great Lakes Institute of management.
Bharath can be contacted athttps://www.linkedin.com/in/bharathkumarb-marketer/
Sat, 25 Nov 2023 - 271 - Collaborate, to simplify problems and solutions with Tom Pierce
In this episode, I asked Tom Pierce, the president and founder of Integrated Information Systems (I2S) responds to my question on how the ‘integrated’ in his company name is internalized by his clients. He responded to that question and shared many more interesting thoughts in this episode. He shared:
How their weekly 5 hour workshops for clients, to get vibrant conversations goingHow he uses music in some of his interactionsHis belief in segmentation and appropriate responses, rather than fragmentationHis experience with music, when practicing first base alone and getting the big picture when the full team came togetherHis metaphor from baseball, on being present and aware of the other players and take decisionsWhy preparation and practice trumps planning aloneHow Covid had a negative impact on collaborationAbout drawing from how children learn music to make software teams more effectiveHow the artistry of code can be better when a team member ‘listens’ to the rest of the team membersHow children are very perceptive, while AI [alexa] is notHis career tips for those considering a career in IT and those considering a switch mid-career, from non-tech to tech rolesHe also draws from his experience of holding his first grand child in his hands the first time.. Beautiful!, in responding to a question of patience and a sense of urgency or rushing through lifeHow he finds time for being interested and engaged in multiple activities
Tom Pierce is the president and founder of Integrated Information Systems (I2S) of Louisville, Kentucky. He holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Wake Forest University (1981) and a Master’s in Divinity (1993) from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
After serving as an officer in the US Army, Tom has been immersed in the design and support of manufacturing software, as well as in the data-driven analysis of business and financial systems, primarily in large manufacturing facilities within the Aerospace Defense sector.
A self-described MRP philosopher and ERP contrarian, Tom is a passionate advocate of simple approaches to complex problems. As a stubbornly resolute moderate, his company seeks to promote intelligent integrity by avoiding the opposing traps of overly simplistic naivety and overly complicated sophistication.
For roughly four decades, Tom has focused his career and his company on the pursuit of trustworthy clarity and practical understanding of information, which is the light of all human pursuits.
Fri, 17 Nov 2023 - 270 - Military experience and software development with Tom Pierce
In this episode, Tom Pierce, the president and founder of Integrated Information Systems (I2S), shares:
Many in his family had been in military serviceIn his first assignment, being assigned to the analysis team because he has a background in math and computersGrabbing an opportunity to use a computer that was unusedDoing some simulation modeling solutionsLeaving the army in good terms and going back to schoolWorking for a defense contractor and then starting his own defense contracting firmLeveraging his experience in the military to solve civilian problemsSome generational differences in the approach to merge technology and processesHis experience of the rules and hierarchical models of working in the military, where, on the lighter side, ‘you cannot do anything without breaking some rule’Some examples of streaks of entrepreneurship that ran in his familyThe last straw that pushed him into entrepreneurship: a sense of frustration about how businesses were run and having his own values and ideas of how to run a companyNot compromising on the value of working with end usersHow tech fluency is more important than tech savvinessTom Pierce is the president and founder of Integrated Information Systems (I2S) of Louisville, Kentucky. He holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Wake Forest University (1981) and a Master’s in Divinity (1993) from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
After serving as an officer in the US Army, Tom has been immersed in the design and support of manufacturing software, as well as in the data-driven analysis of business and financial systems, primarily in large manufacturing facilities within the Aerospace Defense sector.
A self-described MRP philosopher and ERP contrarian, Tom is a passionate advocate of simple approaches to complex problems. As a stubbornly resolute moderate, his company seeks to promote intelligent integrity by avoiding the opposing traps of overly simplistic naivety and overly complicated sophistication.
For roughly four decades, Tom has focused his career and his company on the pursuit of trustworthy clarity and practical understanding of information, which is the light of all human pursuits
Sat, 11 Nov 2023 - 269 - Secure development with Jeremy Snyder
I continue my conversation with Jeremy Snyder, the founder and CEO of FireTail.io, an end-to-end API security startup. Towards the end of the first part, I asked Jerermy ‘how a developer should think, when using APIS - with so many moving parts - from security and performance aspects’
He answers that and continues to share his story relating to:
The extensive experience his co-founder has with API based architectures and implementationsHow APIs can implement business functions or offer specific extracts of data held in applicationsFirst, understanding how APIs could be compromised, to pick the scope for what their company firetail should be addressingHow many breaches are related to authentication and authorizationWhy a zero-trust approach is very critical and the good practice of sharing only minimum data that needs to be sharedThe importance of central loggingHow he manages to get a good night’s sleep, while playing a very crucial role in the chain of enterprise security in an API based solutionHis personal practices to handle pressure at work and stay calmThe story behind naming their company firetailHow he developed an interest in learning many languagesJeremy asked me about my linguistic interestsHis career tipsSocial media:https://twitter.com/halffinn,https://www.linkedin.com/company/77663520,https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremysnyder/
Jeremy is the founder and CEO of FireTail.io, an end-to-end API security startup. Prior to FireTail, Jeremy worked in M&A at Rapid7, a global cyber leader, where he worked on the acquisitions of 3 companies during the pandemic. Jeremy previously led sales at DivvyCloud, one of the earliest cloud security posture management companies, and also led AWS sales in southeast Asia. Jeremy started his career with 13 years in cyber and IT operations. Jeremy has an MBA from Mason, a BA in computational linguistics from UNC, and has completed additional studies in Finland at Aalto University. Jeremy speaks 5 languages and has lived in 5 countries. Jeremy was once kicked off a train in central Sweden, and another time went several days without seeing another human, but did see lots of reindeer.
Link to my podcast:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ask-a-ciso/id1596056884
Fri, 03 Nov 2023 - 268 - Scaling to the cloud with Jeremy Snyder
In this conversation, Jeremy Snyder, the founder and CEO of FireTail.io, an end-to-end API security startup, shares his professional journey and perspectives. Specifically,
How he got into IT in the late 90s, when technology was coming into businessesEarly experience in Linux, VAX and Unix and implementing solutions for a translation agencyBeing responsible to evaluate, implement and integrate with various systems and thereby increasing the empathy for users and their situationsMoving to work with one of the solution providers and taking up tech support roles and trying his hand at software developmentGetting into and liking the infrastructure related rolesHis experience, as an IT infrastructure professional, of working with software developersThe ‘healthy’ struggle between the two roles and how IT teams would specify the environments to develop and deploy intoIT teams wanting to conserve resources and giving very limited capacities for developersDays when 98% availability was taken as acceptable and when crashes occurred, devs and IT teams would work overtime to find fault with the other teamStarting with Amazon AWS in 2010 when cloud computing was just evolvingUnderstanding the power of virtualized environments and why that needs a different way of thinking about data centers, getting away from the server-hugger mentalityThe need for users to develop trust in the cloud model of workingThe experience with gaining customer confidence in the cloud model in terms of stability, security etcThe harder aspect of addressing cultural issues triggered by fear of losing jobs by IT personnelTaking up other roles in smaller companies and understanding the security and vulnerability risks that companies could get exposed toPerimeter controls, endpoint protection, logging and monitoring etcFrom replicating data center structures to auto scaling infrastructure using containers and serverless architecturesThese resulting in more and more API based architecturesSocial media:https://twitter.com/halffinn
https://www.linkedin.com/company/77663520
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremysnyder/
Jeremy is the founder and CEO of FireTail.io, an end-to-end API security startup. Prior to FireTail, Jeremy worked in M&A at Rapid7, a global cyber leader, where he worked on the acquisitions of 3 companies during the pandemic. Jeremy previously led sales at DivvyCloud, one of the earliest cloud security posture management companies, and also led AWS sales in southeast Asia. Jeremy started his career with 13 years in cyber and IT operations. Jeremy has an MBA from Mason, a BA in computational linguistics from UNC, and has completed additional studies in Finland at Aalto University. Jeremy speaks 5 languages and has lived in 5 countries. Jeremy was once kicked off a train in central Sweden, and another time went several days without seeing another human, but did see lots of reindeer.
Link to my podcast:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ask-a-ciso/id1596056884Fri, 27 Oct 2023 - 267 - Accelerating Business Outcomes with Nanthakumar Arumugam
In this episode, Gayatri Kalyanaraman is in conversation withNanthakumar Arumugamwho is a Technologist,Delivery Lead at ThoughtWorks and he’s a Quality Engineer and Financial Expert.
In his career spanning over two decades, he shares very interesting stories –
Nantha started his career as an instrumentation engineer within Polyester firm. His interest gravitated towards the PLC programming and that led him to join the software engineering full timeNantha joined Ready Test Go as a Quality engineer where he got his skill in the world of startup and certification worldNantha shares how the waterfall way of working had provided different domains and worked in 20 different programs in a very short period of timeHe also covers how he and his team ramped up on the domain and program rapidly Automation as a practice he gravitated to reduce the manual regression suite Nantha talks about the background on how Selenium tool came in as an antidote to the mercury tools (winrunner / loadrunner)Nantha shares his expertise on the passage of Automation CoE and a separate teamNantha talks about several hats he has worn in ThoughtWorks and shares the changes on how business interactions within TechnologyHe further shares the distance that’s reduced between business leads and access to leads to identify solution optionsNantha talks about the availability of tools that has made the business outcomes come out as soon as possibleNantha shares some of the key wisdom on how one has to build expertise in different facets of experienceNantha is the delivery lead and project manager in ThoughtWorks. He has been working with ThoughtWorks for a decade. He has played several roles including Quality Analyst, Quality Lead, Architect and Chennai Chapter lead prior to taking the current role. Nantha has done his PG in BITS Pilani and B.E. in University of Madras
Nanthakumar can be contacted athttps://www.linkedin.com/in/nanthakumara/
Sun, 15 Oct 2023 - 266 - Don't Choose an Easy Path with Saikat Chakrabarty
In this episode, Gayatri Kalyanaraman is in conversation withSaikatChakrabartywho is a Technologist,Director, Engineering at Mihup and he’s a AI/ML and Computer Vision Enthusiast.
In his career spanning over a decade, he has been a Telecom engineer, prompt engineering, Interaction designer and conversational AI.
Saikat is working in the pioneering world of building AI tools that map the man machine and the personHe’s working in the contact center engineering by understanding the questions and asks from our customersSaikat started his career in creating software for LTE within 4G Telecom providers and says that he has not looked back from thereSaikat’s team in Mihup creates the analysis of the several thousand conversations between the customer and contact center and understand the sentiment of the userListen to the conversation on how the vernacular language support is being created in the AI platform to build accuracyUnderstand that initial days you have to choose the right place to work and always stay invested in oneselfSaikat also talks about his mantra of “Don't choose an easy path and continue to learn”Saikat talks about his interests in Medical and Computer science and Brain networks are working. Saikat believes that the future bet is lying on medical access across the globeSaikat says that software changes in months not years - you have to keep yourself updated daily and that’s the only way to stay relevant He’s also deep believer of the growth of the technology in Tier 3 cities within India given the organizations changing to remote first or HybridSaikat has been instrumental in Mihup's success as one of the leading Conversational AI companies in India. He leads the entire tech organisation at Mihup, with a team of almost 20 people working under him, ranging from Devops to MLEs, overseeing the end to end development and shipping of the Mihup products.
Saikat Chakrabarty is a dynamic leader and Senior Engineering Manager at Mihup, a pioneering conversational AI platform founded in 2016. Mihup's revolutionary approach empowers individuals to seamlessly interact with the digital world while prioritizing inclusivity and accessibility, regardless of language, accent, or dialect.
Technical Leadership:
At Mihup, Saikat has successfully managed and mentored cross-functional teams in machine learning, R&D, product development and DevOps. His expertise in managing the development of Mihup's conversational AI products has positioned him as a trusted leader in the industry. With a deep understanding of a wide range of technologies, including Java (Spring Boot), NodeJs, Golang, Angular, Python, RabbitMQ, PostgreSQL, Redis, Kubernetes, and more, Saikat has played a pivotal role in building highly scalable cloud microservices and optimizing premise-based applications.
Diverse Experience:
Saikat's wealth of experience extends beyond his role at Mihup. He has previously worked with renowned companies like Lexmark and Polaris Network Inc., where he honed his skills and passion for AI/ML and computer vision. His contributions to these cutting-edge fields have resulted in 2 patents and 6 paper publications, consolidating his exceptional knowledge and expertise.
Recognition and Awards:
Saikat's exceptional contributions and dedication to his craft have earned him notable accolades throughout his career. Notably, he was awarded the prestigious Digital Transformation Award at Lexmark Focus-2-Future, alongside the Manager Appreciation Award and several other commendations. At Mihup, he has regularly been the recipient of special rewards for his undying passion and dedication towards delivering products that customers love to use.
Saikat can be contacted atSaikat Chakrabarty:
Fri, 06 Oct 2023 - 265 - Smart hiring for startups with Prasenjit Sarkar
In this episode, I continue my conversation with Presenjit Sarkar, who is a Technologist, Innovator, Disruptor - and distinguished engineer with Rubrik inc.
In his career spanning over 25 years, he has been a researcher, inventor, startup founder among other key roles he has played.
I asked Prasenjit, if an entrepreneur should take outside help in building teams and people..
The answer to that question and a lot more in the second part of the conversation.
Today, he talks about:
Taking professional support to build a psychological profile of a new hireThe importance of reaching out to references and understand any challenges the candidates facedHow he finds time to manage multiple things and also stay current on technology, competition etcWhy one should not try to do everything oneself, particularly the founders, rather focus on the core strengthsHis thoughts on data protection and data qualitySome career tips for roles related to data scienceI asked Prasenjit in building teams and people, if an entrepreneur should take outside help..
The answer to that question and a lot more in the second part of the conversation.
Stay tuned in for the next episode.
Prasenjit Sarkar is a Distinguished Engineer at Rubrik responsible for the architecture and development of relational, NoSQL, and Big Data backup and recovery products. He has previously led initiatives to formulate product strategy, deliver industry-leading backup and recovery features, and superior performance at scales of thousands of databases.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/psarkar24/
On X - @psarkar24
Sat, 30 Sep 2023 - 264 - Joys and pains of entrepreneurship with Prasenjit Sarkar
In this episode, Sivaguru is in conversation with Presenjit Sarkar, who is a Technologist, Innovator, Disruptor - and distinguished engineer with Rubrik inc.
In his career spanning over 25 years, he has been a researcher, inventor, startup founder among other key roles he has played.
Today, he talks about:
His background, growing up years in IndiaDoing his PhD and moving to corporate research, as he is more of a hands on personAfter about 15 years with IBM, as a successful research scientist, left to start a companyGetting enterprise customers and then getting acquired by another companyHaving experience in large, small companies, startups, connected to academiaWorking in storage, big data management, backup and recovery spaceMoving from data protection to data securityThe experience of shifting from academics to corporateHow research focuses on thought leadership, while the priority in corporate is about market leadershipThe pleasures and pains of founding a startupThe feelings when one’s startup is acquired by someone elseAspects of chemistry and work styles that play out in acquisitionsThe need to be pragmatic, accept decisions, adjust and move aheadTips to manage one’s personal stresses and some techniques that have worked for him, particularly during transitionsHis tips for motivating people, and sharing your founder’s vision and excitement with the team that joins youManaging people, their aspirations and expectation, ambitions - is more difficult to manageThe answer to that question and a lot more in the second part of the conversation.
Stay tuned in for the next episode.
Prasenjit Sarkar is a Distinguished Engineer at Rubrik responsible for the architecture and development of relational, NoSQL, and Big Data backup and recovery products. He has previously led initiatives to formulate product strategy, deliver industry-leading backup and recovery features, and superior performance at scales of thousands of databases.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/psarkar24/
On X - @psarkar24
Fri, 22 Sep 2023 - 263 - Building Confidence and Career with Kamala Srinivasa
In this episode, Gayatri Kalyanaraman has the conversation with Kamala Srinivasan who is a Technologist, Founder & CEO, Upahara, and women in tech influencer.
In her career spanning over 25 years, she has been a STEM engineer, fintech developer, women in tech influencer and startup founder among other key roles she has played.
Kamala grew up in a home with professors and engineers she recalls how having a clean room with AC blasting made her fascinated with the technology industryKamala shares her experiences of introducing reverse mentoring in India to enable senior people understand the pulse of the young people Started her career in the early 90s in the technology industry and worked in the financial sector Shares her decision making nugget to create a calculated move with the family onboard as well as a clear timeKamala shares that one needs to take care of self be it in your physical and mental stateKamala talks about her experience in fintech companies in India and US and how she found very less women in her age group. This made her take a call in the non-profitorganizationKamala talks about creating ethically viable future and gives examples for thatKamala shares how her company is an app in your mobile phone to provide the application to connect people in need with people who would like to give. Her firm Upahara.com provides that service and she wants to share more about the firm in the future She shares some of the her book recommendation and philosophies that has helped her groundKamala shares tips on networking that listeners can help stay connected and learning from othersA technologist and an exec coach with more than 20 years of experience in both nonprofit organizations and technology industries. Kamala’s broad areas of expertise include global technology product delivery and operations, go-to-market strategy, digital transformation, and SAAS in Fintech, retail, legal, and media.
Kamala’s expertise in non-profit and philanthropic fields, and in information technology has led her to seek a solution using emerging technology to create a robust platform that serves the needs of both donors and charitable organizations: a personalized, curated, discovery-based interface, connecting organizations and donors without extensive effort on both sides, like Fintech investment management products.
www.linkedin.com/in/kamalasrinivasan/
https://twitter.com/Kamalasrini
Sat, 16 Sep 2023 - 262 - Becoming a consultant with Dan Balcauski
In this episode, my co-host Gayatri continues her conversation with Dan Balcauski, founder and chief pricing officer at product tranquility, a company thathelps high-volume B2B SaaS CEOs define pricing and packaging for new products
Gayatri asked him what challenges he faced when he became a consultant
Dan shares
How he did a solo backpacking around the world and the transformational experiences he gotHow he had to talk himself away from self-talk that would shoot any ideas for entrepreneurshipWanting to explore a ‘brain for hire’ model, to see if he could sell his expertiseValidating the niche to be in - of SaaS pricing advisoryWhy he did not consider a model of being a fractional product manager role, as a consultantWhat some of the inflexion points in his career have beenHow he has been able to support global clients, remotelyHis advice for young professionals who want to take up product management as a careerDan Balcauski, the founder and Chief Pricing Officer at Product Tranquility, dispels B2B SaaS Pricing Illusions.
Dan is an expert in helping high-volume B2B SaaS CEOs define pricing and packaging for new products. He has 15 years of experience managing multiple products throughout their life cycles, from start-ups to publicly traded multinationals. A fun fact about him: before founding the company, he took a sabbatical and completed a solo, round-the-world expedition to 21 countries.
Linkedin:https://www.linkedin.com/in/balcauski/
Sat, 09 Sep 2023 - 261 - Pricing Software Services with Dan Balcauski
In this episode, my co-host Gayatri is in conversation with Dan Balcauski, founder and chief pricing officer at product tranquility, a company thathelps high-volume B2B SaaS CEOs define pricing and packaging for new products
In this conversation he talks about
His student days in 1999, the peak dotcom eraGot a job in Austin, TexasGetting into engineering manager role, which included envisioning product roadmapsDeveloping an interest in articulating value of solutions Signing up for an MBA and doing work on pricingSeeing some of the mistakes made by others during mergers and acquisitionsSetting up his company about 4 years agoHow he learns from other experts and booksHis views and recommendations on pricing and inflationThe impact of Covid on pricing patterns in hardware and softwareListen on!
Gayatri asked him what challenges he faced when he became a consultantThe answer to that question and a lot more interesting stuff in the next episode.
Dan Balcauski, the founder and Chief Pricing Officer at Product Tranquility, dispels B2B SaaS Pricing Illusions.
Dan is an expert in helping high-volume B2B SaaS CEOs define pricing and packaging for new products. He has 15 years of experience managing multiple products throughout their life cycles, from start-ups to publicly traded multinationals. A fun fact about him: before founding the company, he took a sabbatical and completed a solo, round-the-world expedition to 21 countries.
Linkedin:https://www.linkedin.com/in/balcauski/
Sat, 02 Sep 2023 - 260 - Making teaching exciting with Shailaja Venkatasubramanyan
I continue my conversation with Shailaja Venkatasubramanyan.
In the first part, she talks about how she got into Information systems and her career spanning education and startup sectors.
How she balanced professional and personal demands and challenges.
How she never hesitated to get into new areas and was always ready to learn.
In this part of the conversation Shai talks about
Differences in teaching approaches for young adults and childrenHow she likes to learn when she is interested in a topic, and not for grades etcPeople learn best when they are invested in itI bring a lot of enthusiasm, by being funny and a pinch of entertainmentGiving interesting assignments (designing assignments that I would want to do)Also taught a strategy class: lot of case studies, that had a lot of learning valueOne of the aspects to address in teaching is to manage short attention spansHow teamwork is important even in academic coursesTrends and concerns related to Evolving Knowledge managementHer career tipsShailaja "Shai" Venkatsubramanyan is an Associate Professor Emeritus at the School of Information Systems and Technology at San Jose State University (SJSU), where she has taught and researched for over 15 years. She has a Ph.D. in Management Information Systems (MIS) from the University of Arizona, and is a Fellow of the Salzburg Global Seminar and a Master Teacher Award recipient.
Shai is passionate about using technology and data to solve real-world problems and to make the world a better place. She has also worked as a General Manager at theCoderSchool, a franchise that teaches coding and programming skills to kids and teens, and as a Knowledge Engineer at Kanisa, a Silicon Valley start-up that developed innovative solutions for online customer service. She has expertise in MIS, data analysis, databases, online customer service, and coding education. She enjoys writing, teaching, and learning about various topics related to MIS and beyond.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/shailaja-venkatsubramanyan-b47742
Thu, 24 Aug 2023 - 259 - Balancing professional and personal pressures with Shailaja Venkatasubramanyan
I am in conversation with Shailaja Venkatasubramanyan, who is an Associate Professor Emeritus at the School of Information Systems and Technology at San Jose State University. She is also a Fellow of the Salzburg Global Seminar and a Master Teacher Award recipient.
A special note on this episode: during this conversation Shailaja talks about some very personal moments in her life that some may find disturbing or moving.
In this conversation, she talks about:
Wanting to do science, but was influenced to take up commerceEncouraged by her mother, choosing to study accounting in the USATaking up courses in Information systems and computer scienceBeing encouraged by a professor to take up PhD in information science and getting a PhD in Management Information SystemsFinding herself amidst engineers and how she got over the initial fearsTaking up a teaching job at Tulane University, but leaving that after a year to take up a position with a startup in CaliforniaHow she had to do literally a cross country trip one weekend a month for one more semesterEnjoying the work culture in a startup, till they decided to start a familyMoving to San Jose State university after a first meeting at a StarbucksThe hectic and intense pace of life, juggling work and family, with an incident at home that needed help from the Fire departmentRealizing that it is best to focus on one thing at a timeGoing through a tough phase personally, with family health challengesFacing some unfair situations and harassment at workNot getting an empathetic hearing from seniorsHow all these experiences made her more patientWanting to spend more time with her ailing father, choosing to pause her career and focus on familyFeeling happy about her choices as she has a sense of overall satisfactionHow she was able to find her niche, and differentiate her strengths, particularly when among others with more technical backgroundsAn example was about learning what she needed to know for processing satellite dataShailaja "Shai" Venkatsubramanyan is an Associate Professor Emeritus at the School of Information Systems and Technology at San Jose State University (SJSU), where she has taught and researched for over 15 years. She has a Ph.D. in Management Information Systems (MIS) from the University of Arizona, and is a Fellow of the Salzburg Global Seminar and a Master Teacher Award recipient.
Shai is passionate about using technology and data to solve real-world problems and to make the world a better place. She has also worked as a General Manager at theCoderSchool, a franchise that teaches coding and programming skills to kids and teens, and as a Knowledge Engineer at Kanisa, a Silicon Valley start-up that developed innovative solutions for online customer service. She has expertise in MIS, data analysis, databases, online customer service, and coding education. She enjoys writing, teaching, and learning about various topics related to MIS and beyond.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/shailaja-venkatsubramanyan-b47742
Fri, 18 Aug 2023 - 258 - Modeling the celestial objects with Kishore Kumar
This is a continuation of the conversation with Kishore Kumar.
He talks about how he started his youtube channel and trigger for his interest on astronomy after ending his formal professional careerHe talks about how he prepares , be it scripting, location , photography, tools for animation, java scripts and creativity to produce one episode on his channel.His views on “Time” before and after astronomy in his life.If you want time for something you will find it.His advice or tips on career questionsKishore Kumar is a youtuber with a unique youtube channel called @ahargana. This channel has the singular purpose of explaining the astronomical basis of the Hindu panchanga using custom-built planetary orbital simulations.
Kishore was not always a youtuber. In his previous avatar, Kishore was a software professional for over thirty five years playing a variety of roles from programmer to program manager, general manager and vice president in leading companies such as Tata Unisys, Cognizant and Siemens. He has earned a masters degree in computer science from SUNY at Buffalo, USA and a bachelors degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from NIT Trichy. A lifelong self-learner, Kishore has leveraged all his learnings from his education and professional experience in the making of @Ahargana and contrary to appearance, considers it an entirely logical continuation of his life journey.
Kishore may be reached at:
Email: kishore.kumar@counterpointconsultants.com
Youtube: youtube.com/@ahargana
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/kishoresridharakumar
Fri, 11 Aug 2023 - 257 - Software professional to Youtuber with Kishore Kumar
Kishore Kumar is a software professional turned youtuber. He shares his career journey with Sivaguru
Starting career as system engineer later moved to programing on mainframes Moving to the USA and feeling the need of studies did his Masters in computer science . Learning AI way back in 1989 to 1991. How this helped later in his careerHow his career mirrors the Indian software industry which has changed shapes over years. How things changed from convincing the US for jobs to how later their trust on Indians helped increase workflow.Moving from service to product companyHis views on handling ambiguous requirements in old and new software development cyclesInfluencing teams with his systematic approach/processTalks about his personal transition while transitioning professionallyKishore Kumar is a youtuber with a unique youtube channel called @ahargana. This channel has the singular purpose of explaining the astronomical basis of the Hindu panchanga using custom-built planetary orbital simulations.
Kishore was not always a youtuber. In his previous avatar, Kishore was a software professional for over thirty five years playing a variety of roles from programmer to program manager, general manager and vice president in leading companies such as Tata Unisys, Cognizant and Siemens. He has earned a masters degree in computer science from SUNY at Buffalo, USA and a bachelors degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from NIT Trichy. A lifelong self-learner, Kishore has leveraged all his learnings from his education and professional experience in the making of @Ahargana and contrary to appearance, considers it an entirely logical continuation of his life journey.
Kishore may be reached at:
Email: kishore.kumar@counterpointconsultants.com
Youtube: youtube.com/@ahargana
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/kishoresridharakumar
Fri, 04 Aug 2023 - 256 - Being in the limelight puts a spotlight with Mathan Ramanujam
In the second part of the podcast episode, Gayatri Kalyanaraman is in conversation withMathan Ramanujam, Product Influencer and Hardware Designer and Director atSiMa.ai, shares his career journey
Mathan shares on values on why would you work in a startup - Working for today’s salary or invest in tomorrow’s growth He also shares matching personal believes in the firm and extracting learning from failures and failure in itself Talks about each person needs to think of themselves as an IC irrespective of product or service worldMathan shares his customer to customer philosophy - Ensuring that customer need from marketing to end product launch - Development and productisation and sales & customer desk to the customerPutting onself in the fray in the various roles - shares learning to put oneself in the same role Shares his experience in doing a verification in two different decadesMathan shares how his Contacts have helped in getting Contracts Creating your own psychological safety and how one can create that in the team with 8-15 yearsHow can you build high potential people by building safe environment for failure as well as skill buildingMathan shares how he relates to being system centric and hence able to manage community between hardware and software and thus being successful in the embedded industryMathan Ramanujam is the director in SIMa.ai. SiMa.ai™ is a machine learning company delivering the industry’s first software-centric purpose-built MLSoC™ platform. Mathan is a front-runner, growing high performance team ground-up! He’s is using his versatile nature and cross-functional experience to to build CoE for Infrastructure IPs for ML SoC, while Challenging himself to learn ML/AI.
Mathan has over 27 years of total industry experience with 17+ years of Team responsibilities. Mathan has taken multiple Si from concept to production, specialized in Digital design, with FPGA in the semiconductor industry. Mathan started his career in Atlaz Telecom and moved to the bay area for Arasan Chip Systems Inc.in the role of USB Device, Ethernet controller and XGMII IP development - RTL.
Mathan later moved back to India took up team leadership roles in Nokia, Texas Instruments, QualComm, Western Digital and STMicroelectronics.
Mathan Ramanujam has done his B.Tech in Bharathidasan University in Electronics and Communication Engineering.
Mathan can be contacted athttps://www.linkedin.com/in/mathan-ramanujam-4495082/
Tue, 01 Aug 2023 - 255 - Harnessing your curiosity with Mathan Ramanujam
In the first part of the podcast episode, Gayatri Kalyanaraman is in conversation withMathan Ramanujam, Product Influencer and Hardware Designer and Director atSiMa.ai , shares his career journey
Mathan started his journey as a hardware engineer at Atlaz Telecom and identified that creating Mathan’s growth can be traced very similar to Moore’s law - shares experiences on how tools, circuitry and semiconductor industry has exponential world and how he has adapted himselfSystem on the chip or SoC is the trend that’s making hardware Mathan realised his skill in building relationship and ability to deliver in the operational and later strategic rolesHe shares a few stories on being a product influencer and being invited to be part of panels on SoC and verificationHarnessing the team members strength and learning from them and ensure that the value is being always deliveredMathan shares stories on enabling people not different from learning to swim by giving a moving target and in the end people recognizing themselvesMathan talks about how he has ability to tell stories and discovered it Mathan shares a crumple zone as a story - End zone in view Story on moving from US to India and shares his experiencing of supporting his familyMathan shares India’s cities that are opening up for the embedded and hardware designMathan Ramanujam is the director in SIMa.ai. SiMa.ai™ is a machine learning company delivering the industry’s first software-centric purpose-built MLSoC™ platform. Mathan is a front-runner, growing high performance team ground-up! He’s is using his versatile nature and cross-functional experience to to build CoE for Infrastructure IPs for ML SoC, while Challenging himself to learn ML/AI.
Mathan has over 27 years of total industry experience with 17+ years of Team responsibilities. Mathan has taken multiple Si from concept to production, specialized in Digital design, with FPGA in the semiconductor industry. Mathan started his career in Atlaz Telecom and moved to the bay area for Arasan Chip Systems Inc.in the role of USB Device, Ethernet controller and XGMII IP development - RTL.
Mathan later moved back to India took up team leadership roles in Nokia, Texas Instruments, QualComm, Western Digital and STMicroelectronics.
Mathan Ramanujam has done his B.Tech in Bharathidasan University in Electronics and Communication Engineering.
Mathan can be contacted athttps://www.linkedin.com/in/mathan-ramanujam-4495082/
Sat, 29 Jul 2023 - 254 - Anticipating adverse events with Matt Genovese
Matt Genovese Founder and CEO ofPlanorama Designcontinues his conversation with Chitra and shares his thoughts on-
Writing effective stories or work behind defining the requirements Working in collaboration with the development team, discussing the challenges of an APIIssues working with IOT projects and hardware have synchronous issues and different hardware failuresWhat failures to take care of and what can be ignoredImportance of functional verificationAlong with writing user stories, discovery and thinking is also importantWhole process of discovering problems, asking questions, naturally brings the right people in How diagrams help all the stakeholders understand/Visualize the flow togetherHow and when a design sprint happensHis message to someone who is aspiring hardware or software careers–Matt Genovese is the founder and CEO of Planorama Design, bringing over 25 years of career experience in high-tech, spanning semiconductors, hardware, IoT, IT, and software product development. He has a strong track record of planning, launching, and shipping products that work. Matt’s company, Planorama Design, is a software user experience design professional services company, designing complex, technical software that is simple and intuitive to use. Staffed with seasoned engineers and user experience (UX) designers, the company is headquartered in Austin, Texas, USA.
Matt earned a B.S. in Computer Engineering from the Rochester Institute of Technology and an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin. He began his career at Motorola-Freescale Semiconductor in product & test engineering and moved into design verification of RISC processors and SoCs. Matt has also held product leadership roles for complex and technical software development. As a result of his deep professional experience, Matt strives to “get it right the first time” starting with the software application’s user experience design, down to the hardware at the bottom of the stack. Planorama helps drive product development processes that create products that work out of the gate.
Social Media Handles:
Way to reach Matt : https://planorama.design/podcast/Join AI Product Hive – an AI-focused Community for Product Managers, Designers, and Development Teams (Slack) https://aiproducthive.com/Wed, 26 Jul 2023 - 253 - Diving inside the black box with Matt Genovese
Matt Genovese Founder and CEO ofPlanorama Designshares how he -
Started learning programming as a kid on 8-bit computersFounding Planorama Design, software experimentsImpact of dinner table conversations around trigonometry, tinkering and electronics projectsNeed to know “why”, diving inside the black box, having the freedom to take things apart to learnWorking at Motorola, from fabrication to production, moving into functional design and verification for SoC for Power PC based RISC processorsPoints of view on the cost of releasing bugsBringing design into software engineering, getting requirements right to build the right productFocus on delivering hi-fidelity requirements for software engineers to do a great job, reduce time to deliver a quality productMatt Genovese is the founder and CEO of Planorama Design, bringing over 25 years of career experience in high-tech, spanning semiconductors, hardware, IoT, IT, and software product development. He has a strong track record of planning, launching, and shipping products that work. Matt’s company, Planorama Design, is a software user experience design professional services company, designing complex, technical software that is simple and intuitive to use. Staffed with seasoned engineers and user experience (UX) designers, the company is headquartered in Austin, Texas, USA.
Matt earned a B.S. in Computer Engineering from the Rochester Institute of Technology and an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin. He began his career at Motorola-Freescale Semiconductor in product & test engineering and moved into design verification of RISC processors and SoCs. Matt has also held product leadership roles for complex and technical software development. As a result of his deep professional experience, Matt strives to “get it right the first time” starting with the software application’s user experience design, down to the hardware at the bottom of the stack. Planorama helps drive product development processes that create products that work out of the gate.
Social Media Handles:
Way to reach Matt :https://planorama.design/podcast/Join AI Product Hive - an AI-focused Community for Product Managers, Designers, and Development Teams (Slack)URL: https://aiproducthive.com/
Sat, 22 Jul 2023 - 252 - Personal lessons from podcasting with guest host Gopalan
This is part 2 of the conversation celebrating the milestone of 250 episodes, with our guest host Gopalan.
Gopalan was the first guest on the show and agreed to play host and have the hosts as guests!
In part 1, he was exploring aspects related to how the hosts prepare for an episode and how different formats worked for the Software People Stories.
In this part, he continues to explore his curiosity of how the minds of podcast hosts work, in handling planned and unplanned situations.
He asks
Some things that went wrong and what went right.. About similarities of podcast editing and movie makingSome difficult guests, who would veer off topicHow does one stay in the conversation, but stay detachedHandling situations when known persons say things that you do not feel the same way about or know it may not be completely factualHow one would resist the temptation to not get into arguments or negating something that a guest saysSome of the podcasts that Gopal listens toWe hope you enjoyed some of our experiences in bringing you 250 episodes of stories of software people.
We believe that everyone has a story to tell that will inspire or educate others.
When would you like to tell your story?
Or, if you would like to submit somebody else’s story, and be a guest host, please record a sample or the full conversation and share it with us.
Tue, 18 Jul 2023 - 251 - Celebrating 250 with guest host Gopalan
This a very special episode for all us, hosts - and assume, for you, our listener as well.
This is the 250th episode of the Software People Stories.
About 5 years ago, A desire to learn something new and leverage that learning to pay it forward to the community, led to the launch of this podcast.
What started as Software Lifecycle Stories pivoted to Software People Stories and thanks to all your encouragement and love, we are at 250.
This episode is a little different from the usual episodes in that we have reversed the roles.
The very first guest on the show, Goplan, plays the host and the three co-hosts, me, Chitra and Gayatri are the guests.
In a freewheeling conversation, Gopal had many questions about what happens behind the scenes and inside our minds in the context of being associated with the podcast.
The topics covered include:
What the experience has been for the hosts to have a consistent and regular scheduleHow was the experience of discovering new aspects of people that you have known for long, through the podcast conversationIf the hosts had a structure in mind for the conversationsHow such structures work when there are multiple guestsGopal asked for some examples of things that went right and some things that did not go as per plan.
The answers to that questions and more interesting questions, listen to the next episode, which is part 2 of this special conversation, to celebrate the milestone of 250 episodes.
Fri, 14 Jul 2023 - 250 - Try experiments Over Talking with Woody Zuill
In the second part of the podcast episode, Gayatri Kalyanaraman is in conversation withWoody Zuill, Expert Coach and co-author of Mob Programming, shares his career journey
Balancing the speeches and consulting with consulting engagementsWoody shares tips and tricks of being in the speaking networksWoody talks about joy of creating his own businesses - Almost 16 of them is creating Woody shares early experiments on signs and making new thingsHe shares his passion of making his day productive by avoiding repeated steps and automateWoody shares his deep inflection points in his career that has positioned him today Woody also shares his ideal places to work and attracting like minded people to work Instead of Doing what others are expecting of us and always uplifting to oneself alsoWoody also shares deep views on how one needs to contribute for a better tomorrowWoody has been programming computers for almost 40 years, and have 20+ years of experience as an Extreme Programmer, and 15+ years as an Agile Guide of some sort. He truly believes that code must be simple, clean, and maintainable so that we can realize the Agile promise of Responding to Change, and that we must constantly "Inspect and Adapt".
Woody is a co-author with Kevin Meadows of the book "Mob Programming, A Whole Team Approach". He’s a prolific speaker on this topic at conferences, user groups, and meet-ups all over the world.
More generally, I've delivered workshops, trainings, and coaching sessions on Agile Software Development, Mob Programming, and Software Development Practices for a number of firms including Ericsson, Schneider Electric, Qualcomm, Intel, H & M, King Games, Capital One, Twitter, and Spotify.
Woody can be connected athttps://www.linkedin.com/in/woodyzuill/
Mon, 10 Jul 2023 - 249 - Leading from With”Out” with Woody Zuill
In the first part of the podcast episode, Gayatri Kalyanaraman is in conversation withWoody Zuill, Expert Coach and co-author of Mob Programming, shares his career journey
Shares how he joined software development after he created tools to improve his day-to-day lifeJokingly Woody mentions how he didn’t have to clean up(unlike doing carpentry) after a hard day at writing codeEarly experimentation on pair programming and having fun and how he found that explaining ideas, listening each other and accepting each others opinions - most importantly stop interrupting othersTalks about the story of using pair programming for knowledge transfer in a rapid mannerShares his principle on how experimenting is the fastest way to build cultural nuancesPaying attention to others emotions and deeply listening enables - Listen as if the next sentence is the most important thing we are going to listenHis motto - Be the best team member that you can be Woody shares tips and tricks on deep listening skill and staying curiousAha moments Woody has had how “Teams” have evolvedHow can you lead from without any of the influence and how that led him to become a speaker and teacherWoody has been programming computers for almost 40 years, and have 20+ years of experience as an Extreme Programmer, and 15+ years as an Agile Guide of some sort. He truly believes that code must be simple, clean, and maintainable so that we can realize the Agile promise of Responding to Change, and that we must constantly "Inspect and Adapt".
Woody is a co-author with Kevin Meadows of the book "Mob Programming, A Whole Team Approach". He’s a prolific speaker on this topic at conferences, user groups, and meet-ups all over the world.
More generally, I've delivered workshops, trainings, and coaching sessions on Agile Software Development, Mob Programming, and Software Development Practices for a number of firms including Ericsson, Schneider Electric, Qualcomm, Intel, H & M, King Games, Capital One, Twitter, and Spotify.
Woody can be connected athttps://www.linkedin.com/in/woodyzuill/
Fri, 07 Jul 2023 - 248 - Navigating ambiguity with Mohan Ram
In the second part of the podcast episode, Shiv Sivaguru continues his conversation with Mohan Ram
Mohan talks about
The challenges in working with details as well as abstractionsThe cost of not understanding implicit requirements and the importance of progressive elicitation of requirementsHow coaching and observations of people who were doing well in these aspectsWhy crossing the initial hurdle of winning the confidence of your clients / users is extremely critical for the success of a projectHis personal philosophy in working under contractual constraints - of cost or timelinesHow Agile approaches are suitable to work more effectively under dynamic scope conditionsHow individuals can find a balance between having or not having an aptitude for technical or managerial flavors of workHow he developed an interest in philosophy and constant learningWhat he would like to do with the ancient wisdom, in applying them to day-to-day contextsHis thoughts and tips for career questionsMohan Ram is a Principal Consultant at PM Power Consulting, he works with Clients in their Agile Transformation initiatives, Digital Innovation and Transformation journey and helping build Individuals and Teams that are capable of effectively Delivering outcomes and Managing these Transformations in a Confident and Sustained manner.
Tue, 04 Jul 2023 - 247 - Attention to details with Mohan Ram
In the first part of the podcast episode, Shiv Sivaguru is in conversation with Mohan Ram, a senior professional in the IT industry who has played various roles related to networking software development to business line management and now a coach with PM Power Consulting.
Mohan shares
His growing years in a conservative family in Thanjavur district in Tamil NaduAbout how his life was comfortable, not luxurious and how those days and culture had a strong influence on his lifeGetting into IT. probably more by chance and then liking the opportunities to apply logical thinking and solving problems for others and the gratification of seeing users benefitting from the solutionsMoving to systems engineering and networks and looking at those technology areas and find applications in the commercial worldThe opportunity to be mentored and coached by good managersDiscovering his strength of going beyond just technology and connect with customers, into more techno commercial rolesHis feeling of being thankful for being at the right places at the right timesHis interest in ancient wisdom, yoga, vedanta, music etc - all towards finding and keeping a balance in lifeLooking forward to the next phase of his lifeThe support and concerns that he received from friends and familyThe opportunity to work with geek, to contribute to create and refine a network operating system with one of the early startups in the networking space, that triggered his curiosity to get into softwareGetting into creating software products as well as services, particularly managed services Seizing an opportunity to address new and greater challenges nd moving from C-DAC to HPThe two important switches:Coming out of monotonySeeing a bigger opportunityAn important aspect of being a good mentor; and learning to look at the forest and not get lost among the trees - leveraging his strength of paying attention to detailSwitching to project and program management roles and stress the need to understand the nuances of project managementI asked him about how he was able to work in zones of abstraction or ambiguity, while interacting with customers - to understand requirements and come up with an approach or solution and create a project plan to execute, when his strength of attention to detail.
The answer to this question and a lot more in part 2 of the conversation.
Mohan Ram is a Principal Consultant at PM Power Consulting, he works with Clients in their Agile Transformation initiatives, Digital Innovation and Transformation journey and helping build Individuals and Teams that are capable of effectively Delivering outcomes and Managing these Transformations in a Confident and Sustained manner.
Fri, 30 Jun 2023 - 246 - Creating a courageous and inclusive environment with Vadeesh
In the second part of the podcast episode, Shiv Sivaguru is in conversation withVadeesh Budramane,Founder and CEO of AlgoShack, shares his career journey
Shares his thought processes on why a product company to be started He also shares the decision parameters that he considered and that’s common across entrepreneursJourney to be gratifying to the founders and early employeesCelebrating every small milestone from ID issuance, website, logo and creating a sense of moving in the right directionAbility to make an impact in the automation - Vadeesh talks about creating an inclusive environmentVadeesh shares the principles in which AlgoShack is created in terms of usage of tools and techniques and democratization of quality engineeringHe further shares how AI is embedded in the test processVadeesh talks about creating fit-for-purpose solutions that’s specific in the domainVadeesh talks about his advice to people joining the testing industryEnabling automation testers to modularise and optimise test cases constantly keeping users and non functional scenarios in mindVadeesh is currently CEO at AlgoShack and he has held several roles such as Senior Vice President at Sutherland Global Services, Director & Head of Healthcare Vertical at Computer Sciences Corporation and Managing Director at FCG.
Vadeesh has 32 years of experience focused on product engineering, innovation & IP creation. In his 15+ years of experience in senior leadership positions, Vadeesh has been responsible for strategic planning, end-to-end operations, and P&L. He has built globally competitive leadership teams, orchestrated strategic customer engagements, and created significant value for stakeholders.
Vadeesh is a leader with experience in managing offshore delivery center and vertical delivery with a team size of 3000+ people & $250m P&L. He has experience across healthcare, ISVs, telecom, and real-time embedded systems industry verticals and North America, UK and Europe markets that include global delivery, customer engagement, business development and P&L responsibilities.
A leader with hands-on experience in seeding and developing globally competitive leadership teams, developing competencies, transforming delivery organizations and driving business models for outcomes.
Vadeesh can be contacted athttps://www.linkedin.com/in/vadeeshbudramane/
Wed, 28 Jun 2023 - 245 - Multiplexing across Domains with Vadeesh Budramane
In the first part of the podcast episode, Shiv Sivaguru is in conversation withVadeesh Budramane, Founder and CEO of AlgoShack, shares his career journey
Vadeesh talks about starting in the embedded programming with Time Division Multiplexing and has built and learnt numerous protocols and standardsHe has also multiplexed his time across different domains such as Automotive, Medical instruments, Healthcare and Telecommunication Vadeesh shares his experience why he started the firm AlgoShack focused on the QE Combat the challenge of building quality software by automating automation testingHe shares his experiences on how critical devOps processes in the medical field and thinking about holistic environment He shares how he has built a keen sense of understanding the domain of telecom with different protocolsWhile he took up assignments in Healthcare, the type of stakeholders and touchpoints has moved him back to a learner of the domainVadeesh shares his passion of teaching and learning and thanks his Wipro days to inculcate that and further strengthened while working for HCGVadeesh decided to start a firm in test automation for embedded systems and we will hear more about the start up journey in the next episode.Vadeesh is currently CEO at AlgoShack and he has held several roles such as Senior Vice President at Sutherland Global Services, Director & Head of Healthcare Vertical at Computer Sciences Corporation and Managing Director at FCG.
Vadeesh has 32 years of experience focused on product engineering, innovation & IP creation. In his 15+ years of experience in senior leadership positions, Vadeesh has been responsible for strategic planning, end-to-end operations, and P&L. He has built globally competitive leadership teams, orchestrated strategic customer engagements, and created significant value for stakeholders.
Vadeesh is a leader with experience in managing offshore delivery center and vertical delivery with a team size of 3000+ people & $250m P&L. He has experience across healthcare, ISVs, telecom, and real-time embedded systems industry verticals and North America, UK and Europe markets that include global delivery, customer engagement, business development and P&L responsibilities.
A leader with hands-on experience in seeding and developing globally competitive leadership teams, developing competencies, transforming delivery organizations and driving business models for outcomes.
Vadeesh can be contacted athttps://www.linkedin.com/in/vadeeshbudramane/
Sun, 25 Jun 2023 - 244 - Understanding 5 key way of Agility in AI world with Fred George
In the second part of the podcast episode, Gayatri Kalyanaraman is in conversation withFred George,Consulting Developer in Scienta AS and master change agent, shares his career journey
Fred shares his experience in creating and nurturing thinking diversity in his London projectEnsuring that you create a blameless culture and a wonderful experimentation and that’s what enables innovation to flow and no permission culture He shares about creating change management in behaviors starting with extreme rigor in processes. Once the barriers are broken in, processes are completely taken out and that’s when you become truly agileUnderstanding the five key principles on agility Fred shares about rewilding and increasing experimentation He shares his expertise on balancing his brand, building products and consultingFred shares about inculcating no-fear environment and ensuring that he picks the team around him Fred shares his thoughts around how AI needs to be looked at as a way to do your repeated steps - Understanding the essence of the workStay in the learning journey and that’s what enables you to be successfulFred can be contacted athttps://www.linkedin.com/in/fred-george/
Fred considers himself a hands-on software developer with executive responsibilities and experience. Early experimenter in micro-service architectures from 2005, and father of the post-Agile process termed Programmer Anarchy. Earlier implementer of new technology for his entire career, including computer networking in the 70's, LAN's and GUI in the 80's, and OO and Agile in the 90's. Very early adopter of Kanban processes. He has used over 70 programming languages in his career.
Tue, 20 Jun 2023 - 243 - Continuously Stay Transparent with Fred George
In the first part of the podcast episode, Gayatri Kalyanaraman is in conversation withFred George, Consulting Developer in Scienta AS and master change agent, shares his career journey
Fred is a career IBM developer and speaks about the skills he developedFred shares his experience in gaining an MBA degree and speaks about how IBM is great in building great people around yourTalks about how one needs to imbibe oneself in the talking to executives Shares some of the stories on ensuring that fears are quelled and anticipate the people who are fearing Talks about hard and complex problems that he welcomes to solveFred’s mantra is “I can't do everything well, butMost things can do as well as anyone else”Fred shares how he ensures that he gets the right set of team members and mentor them around you. Ensuring that management are taken into confidence in the journey using transparency and metricsFred shares his movement from being in the management cadre in IBM to a consultant and ensuring that he taught himself new language skills. Fred knows about 75 languages over the period of timeFred shares his experience on how job descriptions have become very convoluted and complex and that’s leading to dysfunctionsFred shares about the new concept of thinking Diversity and what type of innovations that are coming inFred can be contacted athttps://www.linkedin.com/in/fred-george/
Fred considers himself a hands-on software developer with executive responsibilities and experience. Early experimenter in micro-service architectures from 2005, and father of the post-Agile process termed Programmer Anarchy. Earlier implementer of new technology for his entire career, including computer networking in the 70's, LAN's and GUI in the 80's, and OO and Agile in the 90's. Very early adopter of Kanban processes. He has used over 70 programming languages in his career.
Sat, 17 Jun 2023 - 242 - Agenda Shifter with Karl Scotland
In the second part of the podcast episode, Gayatri Kalyanaraman is in conversation withKarl Scotland,Agile Transformation Services Practice Manager at TEKsystems Global Services and a master facilitator, shares his career journey
Karl shares his journey of how he became a master facilitator and that started when he was experiencing tremendous resistance with Scrum. (Karl moved to using Kanban and lean concepts :) )Later when he was designing for larger change, Karl came across using X-matrix - with an agile transformation flavor embeddedKarl talks about his realisation that one should not think about just to implement scrum/kanban Agility needs to be baked is created my own sense of self discovery - Achieving flow And the next step was to start looking for evidence to look for and think about strategy as always about tough choicesSomething similar to Agile manifesto - A even over BKarl shares his views on Tool selection and it should not define process. Usage of tool should stay at the tactical side Choice of tool should always be to help us capture flow data and understand blockers on Interesting story on the balancing the speaking and consulting engagement Shares the passion on building community eventsKarl can be reached athttps://www.linkedin.com/in/kjscotland/
Karl helps businesses become Learning Organisations. Karl has held several engineering and management positions in Neural technologies, BBC, Cisco, Yahoo and Rally software.
Over the last 20 years Karl has been an advocate of Lean and Agile approaches to achieve this, working with companies including the BBC, Yahoo!, EMC Consulting, Rally Software, Cisco, SDL, Legal & General and Alegis. During this time, he has been a pioneer of using Kanban Systems and Strategy Deployment for product development, a founding member of both the Lean Systems Society and Limited WIP Society, as well as being active in the community and a regular conference speaker.Karl is a co-founder of the Lean Agile in Brighton.
Tue, 06 Jun 2023 - 241 - Creating Change Makers with Karl Scotland
In the first part of the podcast episode, Gayatri Kalyanaraman is in conversation withKarl Scotland,Agile Transformation Services Practice Manager at TEKsystems Global Services and a master facilitator, shares his career journey
Started his education with a passion with music and quickly found that he was enjoying the software part of the music over creative musicKarl has held several engineering and management positions in Neural technologies, BBC, Cisco, Yahoo and Rally softwareLater on he moved to become a consultant in helping organizations transform themselves to writing clean code, good practices and happier peopleKarl shares his thesis on why technology roles have become extremely complex - while we started writing C++ code, there were relatively less requirements and hence the need to change became less relevant. But as software and technology become ubiquitous, the roles also needed to be wider and deeperKarl talks about curiosity and learning and how he has built it within himself. He talks about the story where the subject matter experts Approach from the perspective of what does organizations need to do to become change initiators themselvesKarl shares his model of Agenda Shift hypothesisKarl loves the perspective of ‘Cynics will become your biggest supporters’ - as they want to share the obstacles that’s preventing them from making it happenHypothesis driven change creates a sense of ownership on their obstacleKarl can be reached athttps://www.linkedin.com/in/kjscotland/
Karl helps businesses become Learning Organisations. Karl has held several engineering and management positions in Neural technologies, BBC, Cisco, Yahoo and Rally software.
Over the last 20 years Karl has been an advocate of Lean and Agile approaches to achieve this, working with companies including the BBC, Yahoo!, EMC Consulting, Rally Software, Cisco, SDL, Legal & General and Alegis. During this time, he has been a pioneer of using Kanban Systems and Strategy Deployment for product development, a founding member of both the Lean Systems Society and Limited WIP Society, as well as being active in the community and a regular conference speaker.Karl is a co-founder of the Lean Agile in Brighton.
Fri, 02 Jun 2023 - 240 - Limit Is What You Set with Vikrant Viniak
In this podcast episode, Gayatri Kalyanaraman is in conversation withVikrant Viniak,Senior Managing Director of Accenture and a prolific speaker on Technology at the frontier, shares his career journey
Started as a mechanical engineer in the areas of supply chain. After taking his management degree in Chicago he chose to become a consultantShares his reasons for reinventing himself every 3-5 years and starts the root cause for itTalks about personal board of directors creating mentors around and why one need to reach their own potentialTalks about pushing himself physically, mentally and professionally by continuous improvement on oneselfVikrant shares the art of building Reseliance by creating a beautiful 15 min ‘me’ time over a period of timeVikant shares his belief that he likes to listen from each and every person he comes in contact with. This helps in learning and unlearning in a more seamless wayAlso he’s found his passion in physical fitness His Ethos, As written by Robert Frost - The woods are lovely, dark, and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep. Vikrant shares his stories in taking and receiving feedback and it has also helped to become more genuine Vikrant shares how he has applied rapid changes that are happening and expectation of business leaders on where technology is heading. He shares how he keeps up with the rapid pace of learningVikrant shares his key wisdom around being kind to yourself, learning and constantly learn to unlearnVikrant V is a Senior Managing Director in Accenturefor the last 16+ years.In his current role as Senior Managing Director at Accenture Strategy, he has worked in Telecom, Media and Technology Industry. He’s a dynamic business leader who is passionate about challenging myself to solve complex problems using creative thinking; bold and iconoclastic action; and data-driven analysis and decision making. He enables his clients with their most strategic imperatives including Digital Transformation, Driving Growth through Digital Operating Models, Everything As a Service (EaaS) transformations, ESG, and Strategic Partnerships.
An avid runner and fitness enthusiast who loves people and technology. In his professional and personal life, he has committed to going the extra mile in supporting, mentoring and coaching people to achieve their goals. I like to push my physical and intellectual boundaries.
Vikrant started his career as a software engineer in Wipro and moved to become a supply chain consultant. After completing his management graduation in Quinlan School of Business, Loyola university in Chicago, he became a consultant. He has a degree in Mechanical Engineering in NIT Trichy, India.
Vikrant can be contacted here -https://www.linkedin.com/in/vikrantviniak/or
Follow in twitter -https://twitter.com/vviniak?lang=en
Fri, 26 May 2023 - 239 - Build Better Software Faster with Dave Farley
In the second part of the podcast episode, Gayatri Kalyanaraman is in conversation withDave Farley,Independent Software Developer and Consultant, Founder and Director of Continuous Delivery Ltd.
Dave shares his perspective on the new fads that are constantly coming in and what he’s rooting himself into the basicsCritical to focus on Fundamentals - exercise on learning, ensure that you have modular and building blocks, get feedback constantly, separation of concernsHaving these basic models in place will be always durable Dave shares secret in balancing the content creation and software consulting as well as community buildingHe also shares the reason why he started the conference speaking - recruit people! Dave believes in being generous in sharing ideas and creating collective and learning from colleaguesDave shares some of the key inflection points in his career from being consultant to LMAX product and starting his own consulting as well as his recent experience of building a YouTube channelDave shares identify areas that gives one joy and identify areas of influencing. Whats your professional duty and taking pride in what you doGuest Introduction
Dave Farley is a pioneer of Continuous Delivery, thought-leader and expert practitioner in CD, Devops, TDD and software development in general.
Dave has been a programmer, software engineer and systems architect for many years, from the early days of modern computing, taking those fundamental principles of how computers and software work, and shaping ground-breaking, innovative approaches that have changed how we approach modern software development. Dave has challenged conventional thinking and led teams to build world class software.
Dave is co-author of the - Continuous Delivery, and a popular conference speaker on Software Engineering. He built one of the world’s fastest financial exchanges, is a pioneer of BDD, an author of the Reactive Manifesto, and a winner of the Duke award for open source software with the LMAX Disruptor.
Dave is passionate about helping development teams around the world improve the design, quality and reliability of their software, by sharing his expertise through his consultancy, YouTube channel, and training courses.
Dave can be contacted here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dave-farley-a67927/
Published works - https://continuousdelivery.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/The-Deployment-Pipeline-by-Dave-Farley-2007.pdf
https://www.amazon.com/Continuous-Delivery-Pipelines-Better-Software/dp/B096TTQHYM
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCfqyGl3nq_V0bo64CjZh8g
Tue, 23 May 2023 - 238 - Creating 10X Teams with Dave Farley
In the first part of the podcast episode, Gayatri Kalyanaraman is in conversation withDave Farley,Independent Software Developer and Consultant, Founder and Director of Continuous Delivery Ltd.
Dave started his career as a visual designer even before user experience became center stage He later became a systems engineer in designing large complex softwareDave shares his experience in working with stalwarts in ThoughtWorks building software in an agile fashion and the kind of innovations that the team were doing in developing terms that have became common place nowDave shares his experience in architecting LMAX as the Financial exchange in a truly continuous deliveryHe says that it's impossible to break compliance in a continuous delivery environment and makes a clear business case for financial sector to rapidly adopt the modern software practicesStarted experimenting the idea of Extreme programming with colleague Jez with a single chapter and extended the notion of continuous deliveryHe’s inspired by Feymann’s theory that, If you can synthesize an idea in a way a child can understand, your solution is half doneDave shares his 10X teams and not necessarily 10X developersHe further shares the story of overlapping developing teams in lean manufacturing and how transformation of people in taking accountability Dave talks about software practices by decade and he’s enjoying being part of the journey.Dave Farley is a pioneer of Continuous Delivery, thought-leader and expert practitioner in CD, Devops, TDD and software development in general.Dave has been a programmer, software engineer and systems architect for many years, from the early days of modern computing, taking those fundamental principles of how computers and software work, and shaping ground-breaking, innovative approaches that have changed how we approach modern software development. Dave has challenged conventional thinking and led teams to build world class software.
Dave is co-author of the - Continuous Delivery, and a popular conference speaker on Software Engineering. He built one of the world’s fastest financial exchanges, is a pioneer of BDD, an author of the Reactive Manifesto, and a winner of the Duke award for open source software with the LMAX Disruptor.
Dave is passionate about helping development teams around the world improve the design, quality and reliability of their software, by sharing his expertise through his consultancy, YouTube channel, and training courses.
Dave can be contacted here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dave-farley-a67927/
Published works - https://continuousdelivery.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/The-Deployment-Pipeline-by-Dave-Farley-2007.pdf
https://www.amazon.com/Continuous-Delivery-Pipelines-Better-Software/dp/B096TTQHYM
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCfqyGl3nq_V0bo64CjZh8g
Fri, 19 May 2023 - 237 - Success through shared goals with Venu Subramania Iyer
In this episode, Shiv continues his conversation with a colleague in PM Power, Venu Subrmania Iyer.
In the previous episode, he asked Venu if testing should always be independent or it can be embedded in the development process itself
He shared his answer to that question and more
From earlier models of independent testing centers, testing is being shifted left [particularly in Agile approaches], but there is a need for both approachesHow he got exposed to Agile approaches, by starting with organizational transformational initiativesHow management support and culture are critical for any transformation projectWhat he considers as critical for success in agile transformation projectsHow his perception and appreciation for Agile approaches changed from the days of being a tester to getting into a transformation initiativeOn applying Agile based on the context and determining the best optionsThe importance of having shared or collaborative goals for team successHis thoughts on what skills are needed to be an effective testerHis tips for persons considering a career in testingVenu has been in the embedded technology space for 24 years, working on cutting-edge R&D in the areas of Consumer Electronics, Display Systems, Semiconductor & Automotive domains. Starting his career as a Hardware Engineer in Philips,later switched to Software Testing due to his passion for finding software defects. He was 1st independent software testing engineer in Bosch Car Multimedia, Bangalore and later played several leadership roles in testing, Project Management and Quality assurance.
Prior to joining PM Power consulting, I was Director, Delivery and test in Harman for Automotive Digital cockpit and Telematics software solutions. I have played leadership role for delivery management, software testing and supplier delivery management.
More about Venu : https://pm-powerconsulting.com/experts/venu/
Fri, 12 May 2023 - 236 - A passion for testing with Venu Subramania Iyer
In this episode, Shiv is in conversation with a colleague in PM Power, Venu Subrmania Iyer. Venu, who started his career as a systems engineer, shares
Starting with hardware, software and testingBorn in Kerala and grew up in Alleppey and grew up in KottayamStudied Electrical EngineeringPassion for engineering was inspired by an uncle and it was a difficult journey due to personal situationsHow he goes about in identifying solutionsHis passion was in electrical engineering, designing various elements in power engineeringWanting to get into some public sector enterprises, but getting into a multinational - as a customer service engineer to service TV systems and DVD, Audio systemsLocating problems and isolating them based on simple documentation, using systematic approachesUsing only 2 tools: multimeter and CRO [cathode ray oscilloscope]How he was able to adapt to a problem resolution approach from a designer-inventor aspiration [from R&D to service mindset]The pressure of solving issues while customers were watching over your shoulder and doing all it takes, including visiting a consumer courtMoving to the software domain - as a hardware engineer and working with test engineers, taking an interest and choosing to get into systems testingSetting a personal goal to get into software and system testingAttending training from ISTQB and getting a formal certificationMoving to an automotive company as the first independent test engineerGrowing his team to over 200 in about 10 yearsHow he was able to pick up the technology and domain aspects and the importance of having a team with complementary skillsHis approach to personal scaling by investing in developing othersHis thoughts on creating the awareness of testing in developersInjecting defects into software under test, to train testersTransitioning to managerial roles and then to a display manufacturing companyTaking up a delivery role, to get experience on the right side of the V modelThe answer to a question on :His view on whether testing should always be independent or it can be embedded in the development process itself in the next episodeVenu has been in the embedded technology space for 24 years, working on cutting-edge R&D in the areas of Consumer Electronics, Display Systems, Semiconductor & Automotive domains. Starting his career as a Hardware Engineer in Philips,later switched to Software Testing due to his passion for finding software defects. He was 1st independent software testing engineer in Bosch Car Multimedia, Bangalore and later played several leadership roles in testing, Project Management and Quality assurance.
Prior to joining PM Power consulting, I was Director, Delivery and test in Harman for Automotive Digital cockpit and Telematics software solutions. I have played leadership role for delivery management, software testing and supplier delivery management.
More about Venu :https://pm-powerconsulting.com/experts/venu/
Mon, 08 May 2023 - 235 - Building a platform that performs with Robert Cooke
In this episode, I continue my conversation with our guest Robert Cooke, founder of 3forge, a provider of data virtualization and visualization technology. In this conversation, Robert shares
What was the startup bug that bit him.. The urge to reinvent how software is developed based on experience, after getting a feeling that 90% of the code written is quite similar across teams and organizations and how that can be a base for reuseSolve it once, solve it well, reuse it.His approach to abstracting many of the operations needed, for example, the user interface widgets and experience, to reduce the work needed to create and deploy solutions quicklyThe story behind the name of his company 3forge -- started asForge financial framework and then evolved into 3forgeHis thoughts on processing data in real time v/s in batch or offline mode His thoughts on defensive coding and a 2 minute intro to defensive codingHow he manages his time and what stresses himRobert Cooke is the Founder and Principal Architect at 3Forge, a New York-based provider of data virtualization and visualization technology. 3Forge has achieved significant growth over the years as a result of increasing demand for its award-winning, web-based browser AMI platform.
Robert’s accomplishments have spanned across electronic trading, middle and back office, regulatory reporting, compliance and risk management.
His LinkedIn profile:https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-cooke-a7835b69/
Fri, 28 Apr 2023 - 234 - A coder at heart with Robert Cooke
In this episode, our guest is Robert Cooke, founder of 3forge, a provider of data virtualization and visualization technology solutions. In this conversation, Robert shares
His origin story of starting with computers when he was a kid in the 80sHis liking to build things - in wood or legoDiscovering that he could build a lot more without needing a lot more money, with computersDeveloping Video games, accounting software - helping manage things in college with software solutionsHis experience with writing code in 128k memoryWorking in silicon valley in 2000s, getting a job in an insurance company4Vs of data: volume, velocity, variety and validity of dataLast 15 years has been about solving problems with the 4VsBeing a self proclaimed software addict, sometimes upto 10-12 hours per dayHis early experience with writing software for his club, in his teens - when hardcoding was more naturalLearning later that parameterization, lookup tables etc were more elegant and genericStarting his company in 2012Same software for all customers, with a single branch of codeAnyone who takes the art form of writing code seriously, will get better with timeHis transition from being in individual contributor to delivering as a teamThe advantage of getting different insights from team membersNaming, logical architecture decisions become important when working in teamsThe need for consistency across team members..but what is right or wrongLearning from the NEC - National Electrical Code - that codifies the minimum requirements for safe electrical installations in a single, standardized sourceWe do not have anything similar in softwareVery hard to get rid of code, but it can be a therapeutic processInsert or create is easy; update or modify is somewhat difficult and deleting is extremely hardAbout the urge to do Ctrl-A and delete.. And rewrite code from the scratchHow he balances his engineering thinking and artist’s thinking [developing software as a work of art, as there are so many ways to solve a problem]Balancing maintainability, the efforts needed and how well the software performsHe looks for people with strong math and logic background and problem solving, not necessarily experience in codingHardest part on software development is debugging somebody else’s codeMore on his entrepreneurial experience, tips on defensive coding and a whole lot more in the next episode
Robert Cooke is the Founder and Principal Architect at 3Forge, a New York-based provider of data virtualization and visualization technology. 3Forge has achieved significant growth over the years as a result of increasing demand for its award-winning, web-based browser AMI platform.
Robert’s accomplishments have spanned across electronic trading, middle and back office, regulatory reporting, compliance and risk management.
His LinkedIn profile:https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-cooke-a7835b69/
Fri, 21 Apr 2023 - 233 - Lasting Impact and Tea Shop Conversations with Sathyanarayanan Vijayaraghavan
In this podcast episode, Gayatri Kalyanaraman is in conversation withSat (Sathyanarayanan) Vijayaraghavan,Founder and CEO at Adept Labz AKA "Ajira.Tech" and CASA Retail AI
Sat started dabbling with computers at the age of 11 and started keenly interested in problem solvingSat also shares his interests in computers while also sharing his earlier thoughts of following his fathers business and gently moved towards software technologyJoined Cognizant as one of the earlier employees and moved to back to US and showed early interest in the field of product development and consulting. At this time (late 90s), Building a web page was a cutting edge and started building a product in work flow development. Sat shares his learnings of nuts and bolts of problem solvingHis next experience was with Diamond cluster consulting that sharpened his strategy consulting skills for about 5.5 years and built the first marketplace Sat later talks about his decisions of location from India to US to across the globe and his love for problem solvingSat covers the initial set of vision that started in a Tea shop Mangalambika and conceptualized the company Sat shares his stories of creating a brand new firm Ajira in 2016. He also shares the struggles and wiggles that he had to ride out ofSat has sold off his first venture and building the next set of venturesWhat is the impact that we are leaving behind in the workplace that we are in. Sat shares some profound ideas from his experience and links it to general happiness and financial freedomDifferences between being a executive and Founder and risks and struggles of being an entrepreneur Sat shares how as a start up first question to answer is there a person out there who will be ready to pay for it and ensure that you build fault tolerance from the get go.Sathyanarayanan (SAT for his friends) did his bachelor engineering in Venkateshwara college in Chennai and post grad in Cincinnati college. Started working for Cognizant. Moved on the Diamond Cluster and later to Wpro. He became the General manager and the vertical head for Retail in ThoughtWorks.
Sat has about 23 years of overall IT management and delivery experience with 4 years in management (P&L responsibility, operations etc), 6 years in technology strategy and 9 years in global software sourcing; 8+ years in US working with ‘C’ level executives of Fortune 500 firms
He has been a Founder and CEO of Ajira, General Manager of Chennai at ThoughtWorks, Retail practice development at Wipro and created Retail practice at ThoughtWorks
Sat shares a passion for enterprise architecture having architected some of the largest online and trading platforms for Fortune 500 customers. He has also defined strategic enterprise architectures for several Fortune 100 customers
He is a true Thought leader with international publications in global retailing, customer experience, cross channel retailing, supply chain and eCommerce
Sat can be contacted athttps://www.linkedin.com/in/satvijayaraghavan/
Fri, 07 Apr 2023 - 232 - Embedded programming to heading Cloud Platforms with Bindu
In this podcast episode, Gayatri Kalyanaraman is in conversation withBindu Sunil,Sector Head and Engineering Director - Cloud Data Platforms and AI in Wipro.
Bindu started her carrier in Kirloskar as a design engineer for alternators.She then moved to Tata Elxsi as an embedded developerBindu shares her experience of building the teams being a techie at heartLearnt the basics of cloud right at the beginning of 2012Shares her growth story within Wipro cloud Talks about being Cloud advisory, program director, cloud center of excellence within WiproShe then moved to become a practice leader in the cloud platformBindu shares how she has rediscovered herself from embedded engineer to Cloud Practice headBindu shares how her perspective changed from a constraint based environment on embedded to cloudBindu Sunil is theDirector of Engineering with 21 years of experience, developing and applying new technologies to manage and deliver complex projects spanning Internet Scale Computing, Cloud platforms, AI/ML in Medical Devices and Healthcare, Consumer Electronics, Electrical manufacturing domains on Data platforms, AI, Cloud (AWS), Embedded Systems, and Firmware technologies. R&D leadership in various roles - engineering manager, program manager, delivery manager, cloud consultant, and practice lead.
Bindu can be reached athttps://www.linkedin.com/in/bindusunil/
Sat, 01 Apr 2023 - 231 - Democratizing education of Space with Pramitha
In this podcast episode, Gayatri Kalyanaraman is in conversation withPramitha Ramaprakash, CEO of Transcend Satellite Technology
Pramitha talks about her passion in aerospace and how that shaped her early experiences while working in WiproShe talks about Satellite launching as an extremely cool team sport as there are several field that come together Further she shares what it has taken to launch herself (literally) in the field She talks about her dream to launch 75 Indian student satellites in the next decadeShares her experiences of bridging the students learning with the deeper corporate needs in the satellite industryShe shares about sustainability in the space and how her firm is bringing visibility and transparency towards this goalPramitha believes that today’s students are highly motivated towards this field and only need guidance and support. That way she is extremely grateful towards the kind of interactions that she’s been bestowed She shares how the building blocks approach is the way aheadPramitha shares several decisions that she’s taken and how the positive outlook energizes her dayShe covers the kind of cross functional skills and anyone can join the space industryShe shares her mantra “Do Not Limit Yourself”Pramitha Ramaprakashis an industry leader in the field of Satellite education, She’s the CEO of Transcend Satellite Technology. She’s a co-author ofPayload design and System design for CubeSats (1U to 27U) and Microsatellites. She’s also designed Payload Design for EO, Remote sensing, communication and IoT Payloads as well as Designed the Payload Interface Computer using Raspberry Pi for MirrorSat of AAReST Satellite Mission as part of MSc Space Engineering dissertation.
She had held several hardware engineer roles in Wipro, BAE systems, Concurrent Technologies, Cadac holding, Intel and Dell prior to starting her own firm in the field of Space education
Pramitha can be reached at -https://www.linkedin.com/in/pramitharamaprakash/
Fri, 24 Mar 2023 - 230 - Micro and Macro Goals with Puja Issar
In the this podcast episode, Gayatri Kalyanaraman is in conversation with Puja Issar, Managing Director of AnitaB.org India
Puja started her career in the investment banking world in United Kingdom dealing with multiple banks and large corporates. She talks about the stresses of the job and the highs that came with itPuja talks about her career in 3 different decades with the first decade in advising large corporates on M&A dealsHer second decade she talks about her foray into the world of Not for profit segmentShe shares her experiences of enabling school girls in the india’s rural sector with their first computer and how it has transformed her as a personShe talks about bringing her experience of working in corporate in the not for profit and creating a rewarding experience for herself and the volunteers as wellHer third decade of work experience she has started as Managing Director for AnitaB.org where she mixes both corporate and her philanthropic angles as wellShe covers her excitement of launching GHCI in November 2023 that will have more than 6000+ women technologists across the globeListen to Puja to share about more excitement around the Grace Hopper India conferencePuja talks about having macro goals for oneself that acts as a guiding beacon and ensuing that one has micro goals that can be ticked off on a regular basisPuja Issar is a Result driven senior executive with proven ability to evaluate ,identify and execute meaningful business across national and international boundaries. Skilled imaginative analytical strategist with excellent track record in creating strategic objectives and developing value creating business models.Wealth of experience and knowledge and awareness of alternate management approaches has been a key to success. Extensive experience in planning ,implementing and managing strategic initiatives and building and scaling of business lines across Financial services,hospitality ,real estate and not for profit sectors.
Puja is a chartered accountant with CFA and MBA from Henley business school
Puja Issar can be contacted athttps://www.linkedin.com/in/puja-issar-a2264a48
Sat, 18 Mar 2023 - 229 - Connecting the Dots in the career and life journey with Vaishali James
In this podcast episode, Gayatri Kalyanaraman is in conversation with Vaishali James, ex-CMO of OpenTap, Community Director for AnitaB.org and mentor at HopeWorks Foundation
Vaishali starts the episode with a very funny interaction of giving a technology solution ahead of its timeShe shares her tryst with doing an engagement on brand alignment and how simple steps could be taken at different levels to create that viable and clear brand promise to the end customerVaishali talks about the cross section of people who have to come together to understand each other's vantage point before creating a coherent marketing story.She shares about why she took the plunge towards the startup - OpenTap that worked in the financial inclusion spaceShe also shares experiences as the co-Founder and what it takes to be in the financial spaceImpact of Covid and what it took for the company and needing to shutdown the firmVaishali shares how her own modest upbringing has influenced her to create an ecosystem where women can depend on one another for a sense of sisterhoodVaishali shares her experiences of being a mentor and community director for the AnitaB.org and Hopeworks foundation and how its deeply ful fillingWhat it took to unlearn from hi-tea in corporate world to having coffee with the customers in their humble housesVaishali is the brand aficionado and a deep understanding of developing products. She has worked for 19 years in different roles as a marketeer for Servion Software. Later she became the co-founder and CMO for OpenTap for 5 years.
Vaishali has the additional benefit of understanding / working on designing and aligning organizational strategy across all functions with the brand strategy to ensure that brand conversations externally and internally talk the same language. So that, the entire organization works towards living and breathing a single ideology to ensure that the promise and the experience is consistent – both internally and externally.
Vaishali can be reached inhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/vaishali-james-25066815/
Sun, 12 Mar 2023 - 228 - Intersection of social change, technology and data science with Palashi V
In this episode, Gayatri Kalyanaraman is in conversation with Palashi V, research scholar with Cornell University
Palashi started her career as a software engineer where she played the role of business analystsHer interests in social impact stemmed from Dhirubhai Ambani College where she did her thesis in web tools that empowered womenPalashi decided to pivot from software towards the intersection of social impact and technologyShe shares her learnings in training technology tools for underprivileged kidsPalashi shares her vision of creating an equitable environment for marginalised social segments. She shares how she’s working in information science and data but powering change She also covered how corporate social responsibility can be extended towards more deeper change and that forms like a continuum Palashi shares how her research is shaping up and how this education has transformed her thinkingPalashi’s research interests lie at the intersection of Information Science, Science and Technology Studies and South Asian Studies. For her dissertation research, she focused on the relationship between computing, gender and caste in India.
She’s a trained Information and Communications Technology engineer with experience in SAP and core java development. Her work focuses on the social impact with the background of gender and technology, specifically with feminist organizations and initiatives in India closely engaged with issues of women's rights and technology.
Palashi has worked in technology consulting, marketing and non-profit sector before starting her PhD.
She was also the founder and editor-in-chief at Fangirl.in, an collaborative e-zine that promotes independent art/music and artists in India.
More information about me on her website - https://palashi.xyz/
For more details and contact Palashi herehttps://www.linkedin.com/in/palashiv/
Sat, 04 Mar 2023 - 227 - Design is like poetry with Jeremy Kriegal
In this episode, I continue my conversation with Jeremy Kriegel. He talks about
How UX can help users stay focused and also providing opportunities to take a break or breather to stay productiveMicro level thinking and system level thinkingMay need local inefficiencies for overall system wide efficiencyAnalogy of a relay race team member, who needs to wait for the moment to take the baton and runThe zappos example of helping customersOn the balance between personalization and privacyThe skills needed for an effective UX professionalCuriosity, humility and influencing skillsUX professionals as change agents, or as sales peopleClever v/s usable designThe benefit of spending time to understand the problem and analyze solutions and approaches before jumping in to create wireframes etcThe limitations of canvas based design toolsThe reason for starting his podcast, saving UXSignificance of lean approaches and fast learning loops in UXThe role of design in customer loyaltyImpact of AI based approaches on UX professionalsHis career tips for new entrants as well as persons considering a career switch to UX domainJeremy Kriegel is a UX leader, very active on various professional forums.He is also the host of the podcast ‘Saving UX’
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremykriegel/
Sun, 26 Feb 2023 - 226 - Creativity is everybody’s job with Jeremy Kriegel
In this episode, I am in conversation with Jeremy Kriegel, a UX leader and the host of the Saving UX podcast.
Jeremy shares
Getting into UX accidentallyStarted in the mid 90s, Undergrad in CMU, Art and EnglishStudying electronic and time based media and working with robotic sculptureA friend asking for help with creating a websiteHiring friends and colleagues to start an agencyGetting introduced to HCI and taking a more formal approach to learning UXHow his stint with Xerox was a great learning experienceMoving on to various companies across industriesOne common theme has been agile ways of workingWorking with xerox printers that were complex -- from tree to book - and managing the various steps and interactionsThe relevance of user research and how or why many organizations do not do thatAbout creating processes that meets a team’s needsHow creativity is part of everyone’s workJeff Patton’s guidance on creating a holistic vision in lightweight way and a tree analogyShares a story about an experience with working on a poker platform that needed to comply with new taxability regulations in FranceHis thumb rule of gathering inputs from 8 people, for a more comprehensive understandingQuantitative gives a lot of what, but not why..Letting go of internal bias [not asking leading questions etc]Why role based personas approach need to be re-looked at, to identify inflexion points to understand how their needs change over timeLearning from the model used by many gamesThe benefit of not optimizing for first use experienceHelping the user stay focused and accomplish their goals; with post-pandemic, how can UX discipline help not only stay focused, but also provide breaks to refresh themselvesJeremy Kriegel is a UX leader, very active on various professional forums.He is also the host of the podcast ‘Saving UX’
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremykriegel/
Fri, 17 Feb 2023 - 225 - Continuously Curious with Rohit Salecha
In the second part of the podcast episode, Gayatri Kalyanaraman is in conversation with Rohit Salecha, Security Engineering Manager in Disney+Hotstar and book author of GitOps
Rohit continues to share the areas that he’s planning to learn in terms of Web3 He shares how he ties complex technologies and the necessity that has driven him to learn it as he’s responsible for security He shares some of the key areas he wants to improve in being a manager for other team members as well as give back to the community that has helped himRohit gives a nugget of wisdom to keep coding and continue to learnRohit Salecha is a technology geek who loves to explore anything that runs and understands binary. As a security engineer he is passionate about learning the length,breadth and depth of technology.
Being more on the defensive side he has evangelised secure software development at various organizations for more than a decade.
Rohit is driven by “everything as code” mantra and strongly believes that the security team must strive towards making themselves irrelevant. In his free time he is either readingbooksor watchingmovies. He is a fitness freak who loves to jog,swim and cycle on different terrains.
More details checkout his linked in page -
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rohitsalecha/
Fri, 10 Feb 2023 - 224 - Embrace Code in Everything with Rohit Salecha
In the first part of the podcast episode, Gayatri Kalyanaraman is in conversation with Rohit Salecha, Security Engineering Manager in Disney+Hotstar and book author of GitOps
Rohit talks about his passion towards electronics and how he was experimenting in many of the areas. He also shares how he joined the software journey by accidentRohit believes that every engineer out there needs to be exceptional in what they do, but also know how to do basic coding. When he talks about coding he’s not only discussing about software as Java, C++ but also no code, system design level understanding as wellRohit started as a software engineer in Mastek and realised that he was passionate about how the embedding security in the software modules that he was developingAfter a few years of being a software engineer, he join NII consulting with specialisation in secure software. In each step, he talks about the want to expand his knowledge and thirst in this areaRohit is the author of the book GitOps and he shares some of the key challenges that he encountered in writing the book including creating a fully functional design, code and keeping up with the versions of the software modulesRohit Salecha is a technology geek who loves to explore anything that runs and understands binary. As a security engineer he is passionate about learning the length, breadth and depth of technology.
Being more on the defensive side he has evangelised secure software development at various organizations for more than a decade.
Rohit is driven by “everything as code” mantra and strongly believes that the security team must strive towards making themselves irrelevant. In his free time he is either readingbooksor watchingmovies. He is a fitness freak who loves to jog, swim and cycle on different terrains.
More details checkout his linked in page -
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rohitsalecha/
Sat, 04 Feb 2023 - 223 - Connecting at all levels with Bill Hall
In this second part of my conversation, Bill Hall, President of Simulation Studios shares
Some of his professional failures when he was given large responsibilities at a very young ageHow sims enable executives to get a feel for the impact of their decisions and learn from that experienceThe role of software in the simulation exercises he runsA quick walkthrough of how a sim is runAspects of an organization that need to be built into a simulationQualities that would help someone be like BillNo fear of failure or encouraging failure as an opportunity to learnGiving things a go and learning from the experienceHow he communicates with all levels of roles in any organizationHow he understands the context of an organization quicklyUsing butcher paper to spatially and visually organize his thoughtsTaking a break and breathing in nature - to organize thoughts and doing a brain dumpCascading learnings in an organization by training learners to also be trainersRelevance of simulation based tools to enable high performing teams quicklyWhat he readsLimits of simulationBill partners with companies and individuals to build highly strategic mindsets resulting in accelerating change. Utilizing business simulations, leadership development, and business coaching, Bill helps shift mindsets and build skillsets resulting in driving positive change more quickly and with less friction. Currently President of Simulation Studios, Bill closely partners with companies and people in all types of corporate development scenarios. Bill has successfully worked for and with companies such as Apple, Sony, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Korn Ferry, Caterpillar, Sephora, and many more. Prior to Simulation Studios, Bill managed Skype’s global strategic software business, was in executive marketing roles at AOL and Nortel, and enjoyed working with Steve Jobs on various strategic projects during his 15+ years working with Apple where he was a five-time Apple MVP, and a Golden Apple Award winner. Bill authored a #1 Training and Development Amazon best-selling book, been featured in major publications and podcasts, and earned an MBA in Entrepreneurship and a Strategy Execution certificate from Harvard Business School. Bill spends the majority of his time with his family in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Book Link:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CMBP1TA
Forbes Articles:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/people/billhall1/?sh=373b957726aa
Contact Info:
Contact at SimulationStudios.com and ask for Bill
LinkedInwww.linkedin.com/in/wphall
Fri, 27 Jan 2023 - 222 - Simulation based learning with Bill Hall
In this conversation, Bill Hall, President of Simulation Studios shares
How he used to be part of a bandThen deciding to go to college and doing some work for AppleGetting into roles that needed to turnaround organizationsImportance of getting people to be behind the turnaroundsGetting an inspiration to start simulation studiosThe importance of unlearning in a turnaround situation, along with relearn and learn newChallenges of changes in an organization across teams, geographies etcTechnology should not come in the way of learningTeam and learning architectures for transformationsUsing personality profiling tools, such as MBTIHow he got into simulations or games, as he calls themHow a typical sim session looks likeAttributes of an effective simIdentifying metrics and justifying investments for a turnaroundI asked how simulations help with individual contributors taking up transformation leadership roles.
The answer to this question and more in the next episode.. When Bill starts taking about some failures he had faced in his career
Bill partners with companies and individuals to build highly strategic mindsets resulting in accelerating change. Utilizing business simulations, leadership development, and business coaching, Bill helps shift mindsets and build skillsets resulting in driving positive change more quickly and with less friction. Currently President of Simulation Studios, Bill closely partners with companies and people in all types of corporate development scenarios. Bill has successfully worked for and with companies such as Apple, Sony, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Korn Ferry, Caterpillar, Sephora, and many more. Prior to Simulation Studios, Bill managed Skype’s global strategic software business, was in executive marketing roles at AOL and Nortel, and enjoyed working with Steve Jobs on various strategic projects during his 15+ years working with Apple where he was a five-time Apple MVP, and a Golden Apple Award winner. Bill authored a #1 Training and Development Amazon best-selling book, been featured in major publications and podcasts, and earned an MBA in Entrepreneurship and a Strategy Execution certificate from Harvard Business School. Bill spends the majority of his time with his family in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Book Link:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CMBP1TA
Forbes Articles:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/people/billhall1/?sh=373b957726aa
Contact Info:
Contact at SimulationStudios.com and ask for Bill
LinkedInwww.linkedin.com/in/wphall
Fri, 20 Jan 2023 - 221 - Being a Fremen with Steven Aberle
In this episode, I continue the conversation with Steven Aberle, founder of a company in stealth mode, working on domain aware, large language model based processing for very niche applications.
In the previous episode, Steven spoke about his origin story and also how he got into and some of the technical challenges related to a domain aware large language model solution - and his patent in that area.
He continues to share about
How the same engine can still retain some originality and uniquenessHow updates to the base model can happen, to mature the model over timeHow ingesting content from various sources is becoming easier with APIsThen the reverse podcast starts! The questions are Steven’s and responses are mineSteven asked about where young companies could go wrongFounders’ passionChemistry with the investorsScaling too fastHis own trigger to jump into this venture.. That it was born out of hating some of the persistent pain points in the area of workHis philosophy of ‘what you do is what you are’Fremen culture - from DuneThe importance of being frugal during the startup phase and being funded by customersHis experience of playing a CEO role; the moment when he made the decision and support from his familyYou must take care of the people in the community you are trying create and be fanatic about solving their problemsHis personal practices to stay calmNot measuring success only by monetary standardsSteven Aberle is the Co-Founder of The Rohirrim, a start-up bringing Domain-Aware Generative AI to the Enterprise. He has 18 years of leadership and executive-level technology capacities and is a recognized expert in unstructured data processing at scale. Steve holds the patent for Domain-Aware Generative AI, Generative Stitching and Vector-Attributable Large Language Models.
Sat, 14 Jan 2023 - 220 - The potential of Large Language Models with Steven Aberle
Hope you had a wonderful start to the new year.
This episode is special for multiple reasons.
This is one of the few episodes when I had the conversation with a guest in person - and that was also video recorded, with a fireplace in the background, on a cold day!
You would be able to watch this conversation as a video on the PM Power youtube channel.
This episode was recorded in November, 2022 - much before ChatGPT was made available to the public and the subsequent increased interest.
My guest today, Steven Aberle, is a founder of a company that is in stealth mode, working on domain aware, Large Language model based processing for very niche applications.
In this conversation, Steven shares
How he joined the military half way through college and then went back to finish his studiesGetting interested in IT during the military serviceNavigating away from the back end to the front and, focusing on how the users interact with the systemsBeing in the Washington DC area, getting to work on Defense related areasWorking on defense proposals, that need to be technical, unique and bring out the uniqueness of the proposed approachCreating a piece of patented technology for domain aware generative AI, based on Large Language models and transformersThe challenge for small technology companies to break into the defense procurement spaceCouple of challenges with the open LLMsTrained on open content available, thereby missing contextual insights that are more valuableNone of the data that is generated, can be attributed to the source material [explainable AI]How he organizes his own learning even when moving across specialization areasIt is always about the dataHis exposure and experience with ETL approaches, including working with unstructured dataAbout being a full stack engineer, to be aware of many areasNot be as much of an expert as one may want to be in any one area, but connect the learnings to the new areas as wellHis approach for being a T-shaped individual, going deep into LLM, on how they are trained Transformers are the next big wave now, after the cloud a couple of decades agoThe concept or role of a solutions architect and how that may be implemented in a large language modelAspects related to LLMs and content / data more than just text, to also include images, figure descriptions etcHow generative AI has made the life of graphic designers / UX specialists much easierCapturing conversations with solutions architects, use a transformer to generate a proposal-language based outputHis answer to that question and a lot more - including questions he asked me, related to startups - effectively making role reversal - the guest becoming the host!
Steven Aberle is the Co-Founder of The Rohirrim, a start-up bringing Domain-Aware Generative AI to the Enterprise. He has 18 years of leadership and executive-level technology capacities and is a recognized expert in unstructured data processing at scale. Steve holds the patent for Domain-Aware Generative AI, Generative Stitching and Vector-Attributable Large Language Models.
Sat, 07 Jan 2023 - 219 - Reflections with PM Power coaches
This is another year end special episode.
As coaches engaged with various organizations and teams, PM Power coaches are always learning, adapting, helping others internalize good practices in work and life situations.
We have the personal reflections of some of the coaches at PM Power Consulting on what they have learnt during the year and what they plan to learn in the coming year.
As Shiv - Sivaguru - reflected on 2022, these were his thoughts
He talks about hybrid working modelHow he could start reading books againHow we handle longer podcastsWhat he would like to do for 2023Anantha Natarajan, or Anand, as he likes to be called, shared this
Vision, Love and Courage : 3 words that are his key reflections of 2022How he learnt the importance of coaching in his lifeThe vital life lessons from his experienceFocus areas for the upcoming years 2023This is what JV, had to say
How things have changed after Covid.How at Pm Power we found innovative ways to handle online workshopsHelping customers in their Enterprise Agile transformation journeyWhat we can expect in 2023Next, here are the thoughts from Zafar Ahmed
Engaging with people in person though technology had brought us together virtuallyMore and More organizations are embarrassing AgileIf Agile coaching needs domain knowledge or is it domain independentAlways Mindful, Vishu's reflections are next.
Engagements and contributions in Agile transformation, leadership developmentHow fulfilling was Mindful leadership coachingBelow is the link to know more about our PM Powerian’s
https://pm-powerconsulting.com/experts/
Also, watch what our PM powerian’s have to say on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3F2N5Abhcz-OEcqg9B20OQ
Tue, 27 Dec 2022 - 218 - A Message from the Co-hosts
This is a special episode.
After a long time, the co-hosts of the show had an opportunity to get together to reflect on what the impact of this podcast has been on our own lives and ways of working.
We also talk about what else or more we can do for you, our listeners in the coming year.
We hope that this podcast has brought cheer and some inspiration over the last 200+ episodes and thank you for the love and support.
Do share your reflections as well with us.
You can subscribe to this podcast on your favorite podcast client, so that you don't miss any of the exciting episodes.
You can also subscribe to the PM Power newsletter, S-curve - on LinkedIn.
Thank you
Fri, 16 Dec 2022 - 217 - Supporting usage of technology with Baktha Muralidharan
In this episode, the conversation continues with Bhaktha Muralidhran, AVP, Unified Communications at Sompo International..
In the first part, he shared:
A brief history of some of the computer networking technologies based on his experienceWorking on some of the emerging standards at that timeExploring roles in sales and marketing supportPreferring to work with customers and solve their problems using appropriate technologiesI asked him about: how comfortable it was to be working with customers and supporting them, coming from an engineering or developer mindset?We continue the conversation with Murali sharing
The importance of understanding the customers’ temperament, beyond technology glassesBeing comfortable with not developing cutting edge technologyThe experience of being part of a sales teamThe importance of considering the cost of solutionsHis move to the current role, working with a Japanese firmThe impact of covid on the collaboration infrastructureSome interesting metrics about when meetings really startThe shift from being an individual contributor in technology to an enabling roleSome options he considered from a career advancement perspectiveThe stress when one has to let team members goHis suggestions on what can be done to increase and improve the adoption of technology, to be more effectiveOver three decades of experience in software development in computer networking technologies and support. Experienced in managing a team of engineers. Led several projects from concept to delivery.
Specialization: VoIP, Cisco Collaboration technologies, UNIX, Embedded Programming, TCP/IP, QoS, SNMP, Wireless, ATM, Frame Relay
https://www.linkedin.com/in/baktha-muralidharan-2221344/
Fri, 09 Dec 2022 - 216 - Selecting appropriate technology with Baktha Muralidharan
In this episode, Bhaktha Muralidhran, AVP, Unified Communications at Sompo International shares:
His first job to develop electronics solutions for use in the Indian Navy, for data collectionGetting an exposure to software towards the end of his course and liking itAfter masters, getting a job at Digital and getting an opportunity to work on ethernet that was just becoming more widely adoptedCreating an ethernet with existing hardware and infrastructure, in the lab - to connect computersExploring client server approaches in the early days, understanding the close relationship between computers and networkingDeveloping a print server and later working on frame relay technology and network managementLearning SNMP [Simple Network Management Protocol] that opened up new opportunities for his careerMoving to Lucent, when AT&T was split upWorking on MIB - Management Information Base - for knobs that could be manipulated to change the behavior of networksHow DSL technology enabled having multiple phones [numbers] in a homeMoving to Cisco, when the company was acquiredPreferring to work more with technology and interfacing with people - read customers - and so, taking up roles in service, over software developmentWhy one needs appropriate technology and not necessarily the latest technology, when IT is an enabler for the core businessOver three decades of experience in software development in computer networking technologies and support. Experienced in managing a team of engineers. Led several projects from concept to delivery.
Specialization: VoIP, Cisco Collaboration technologies, UNIX, Embedded Programming, TCP/IP, QoS, SNMP, Wireless, ATM, Frame Relay
Sat, 03 Dec 2022 - 215 - Scaling your company with Maha Mahadevan
In this episode, the conversation continues with Maha Mahadevan, CEO of BOSS Solutions - a company providing technology solutions for ITSM, Help desk and 811 ticket management for the damage prevention industry. Maha talks about
How he built and kept the team together and stay motivatedHow he bridges the gap between developers and actual usersHow they sharpened the positioning and chose industry segments to operate inHow to handle scale and stay current, as the # customers and team size growsHis secret sauce about acquiring and retaining new customers and growthThe importance of new member selection, onboarding and cultural integration for building a high performing teamMotivating team membersHis career guidance tips for mid career transitions as well as entry level Domain expertise and experience in industry segmentsMaha Mahadevan is the founder CEO of BOSS Solutions, an Atlanta GA based company providing SaaS solutions BOSSDesk for service management and BOSS811 for Onecall ticket management for the damage prevention industry. The company started off as an IT staff augmentation business and transformed into developing innovative solutions providing SaaS solutions to a sizable customer base across the US. Maha has a bachelors in engineering from the Indian Institute of Science Bangalore and Masters from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. He is a regular tennis player and practices yoga. He enjoys traveling and spending time with family and friends.
Fri, 25 Nov 2022 - 214 - Startup, stay focused with Maha Mahadevan
In this episode, Shiv is in conversation with Maha Mahadevan, CEO of BOSS Solutions - a company providing technology solutions for ITSM, Help desk and 811 ticket management for the damage prevention industry. Maha shares
His origin story of getting into IT after graduating in electrical engineeringGetting a call from a friend asking if he would like to start a businessWanting to create IT solutionsHow he approached a selling role, that was needed for the startupProviding staff augmentation services to start and developing a solution to help with Windows NT migrationExtending the solutions with additional products, some based on suggestions or requests from customersHow a ticket management solution could be enhanced to manage a solution for utilities and serving many customers for over seven yearsIn hindsight, learning that drastic steps and dropping the old could be very risky - and happy that his bets have proven successful in the longer runThe context when he chose to become an entrepreneur, and the risks he faced at that timeHis advice: do it as if there is no other option, network and tap into your networkHow to retain confidence, when things may not appear to go the way one would like toBeing ready to adapt and change, when in uncertain situationsHis personal practices to stay calm under all circumstancesHow to communicate the value of IT solutions - in terms of benefits and not featuresWhom to engage in a customer organization, not just what to communicateHow he built and kept the team together and stay motivatedMaha Mahadevan is the founder CEO of BOSS Solutions, an Atlanta GA based company providing SaaS solutions BOSSDesk for service management and BOSS811 for Onecall ticket management for the damage prevention industry. The company started off as an IT staff augmentation business and transformed into developing innovative solutions providing SaaS solutions to a sizable customer base across the US. Maha has a bachelors in engineering from the Indian Institute of Science Bangalore and Masters from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. He is a regular tennis player and practices yoga. He enjoys traveling and spending time with family and friends.
Thu, 17 Nov 2022 - 213 - Social aspects of teamwork with Jutta Eckstein
In this episode, the conversation continues with Jutta Eckstein, an independent coach, consultant and trainer, based in Germany.
In the first part, she shares-
Her origin story as a product engineerTransition from an engineer to a coachThe importance of listeningWe continue the conversation with:
In her initial explorations with organizations, one pattern she found is- The understanding for leaders to introspect and understand their own responsibilitiesThat it is not always only technical aspects, but also the social aspects
- Diversity, inclusion, accessibility, equity Carbon footprint, wasteHolistic picture of the product: is or product improving lives everywhere or in a limited area
Jutta Eckstein works as an independent coach, consultant, and trainer. She has helped many teams and organizations worldwide to make an Agile transition. She has a unique experience in applying Agile processes within medium-sized to large distributed mission-critical projects. Jutta has recently pair-written with John Buck a book entitled Company-wide Agility with Beyond Budgeting, Open Space & Sociocracy (dubbed BOSSA nova). Besides that, she has published her experience in her books Agile Software Development in the Large, Agile Software Development with Distributed Teams, Retrospectives for Organizational Change, and together with Johanna Rothman Diving for Hidden Treasures: Uncovering the Cost of Delay in your Project Portfolio.
Jutta is a member of the Agile Alliance (having served the board of directors from 2003-2007) and a member of the program committee of many different American, Asian, and European conferences, where she has also presented her work. She holds a M.A. in Business Coaching & Change Management, a Dipl.Eng. (MSc.) in Product-Engineering, a B.A. in Education, and is trained as pollution control commissioner on ecological environmentalism.
links: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juttaeckstein/ https://www.jeckstein.com/
https://www.agilebossanova.org
https://jeckstein.com/sustainability
Mon, 14 Nov 2022 - 212 - Teaching, consulting and coaching with Jutta Eckstein
In this episode, Jutta Eckstein, an independent coach, consultant and trainer, based in Germany, shares
Her origin story of starting as a product engineer, with an interest in software developmentStarted as a trained teacher and when the need for teachers dropped, went on to study product engineering and studying Pascal - and completely falling in love with software developmentAlso getting trained as pollution control commissioner, when she could move from street protests to actually working to keep pollution under controlHer early experience with Pascal and Assembler, and Smalltalk being her all time favoriteBeing part of the professional communities such as OOPSLA, and getting an orientation on the techniques and practices that got crystallized as Agile practicesHer transition from an engineer to a coach : discovering her strength based on a trigger by her project managerMoving into areas of architecture and design and becoming a team coachThe difference between a consultant and coach rolesStudying business coaching and change management, to get a formal understanding and foundationHow that enabled developing connections with people across various industriesMy task is not to create the right mindset, my task is coming with the right mindset myselfThe importance of listening, coming with experience, and working with expertsStarting with a retrospectiveStarting with a few questions: clients having prior experience with changeWhy do you think it will be successful this timeWhat hinders you from starting nowIf she discovered anything surprising in these initial explorations… her response of a pattern she sees.. In the next episodeJutta Eckstein works as an independent coach, consultant, and trainer. She has helped many teams and organizations worldwide to make an Agile transition. She has a unique experience in applying Agile processes within medium-sized to large distributed mission-critical projects. Jutta has recently pair-written with John Buck a book entitled Company-wide Agility with Beyond Budgeting, Open Space & Sociocracy (dubbed BOSSA nova). Besides that, she has published her experience in her books Agile Software Development in the Large, Agile Software Development with Distributed Teams, Retrospectives for Organizational Change, and together with Johanna Rothman Diving for Hidden Treasures: Uncovering the Cost of Delay in your Project Portfolio.
Jutta is a member of the Agile Alliance (having served the board of directors from 2003-2007) and a member of the program committee of many different American, Asian, and European conferences, where she has also presented her work. She holds a M.A. in Business Coaching & Change Management, a Dipl.Eng. (MSc.) in Product-Engineering, a B.A. in Education, and is trained as pollution control commissioner on ecological environmentalism.
links: @JuttaEckstein |https://www.linkedin.com/in/juttaeckstein/ | https://www.jeckstein.com/| https://www.agilebossanova.org | https://jeckstein.com/sustainability
Sat, 05 Nov 2022 - 211 - Co-founder chemistry with Scott Ford
In the previous episode, Scott Ford, the co-founder and CTO of Corgibytes, a company focused on modernizing legacy code, shared
His interest in legacy codePatterns he has seen evolve in solution development over the yearsUsing metaphors of archeology and home renovation in the context of understanding and breathing new life into old softwareAnd moreThis is the second part of the conversation with Scott Ford, where he shares
The origins of his company corgibytes, with a focus on helping companies take something that already exists and make it betterThis includes analyzing the structure of the code, test suites etc or the way the teams are structured and workflows, to help address a business needHow his team focuses on the craft more than the urgency to ship something out quicklyHe talks of the mindsets for makers and menders in the software development spaceThat it is no a binary, but more of a spectrum that one can and may need to move inMany makers may want to move on after 80%, when they may be bored; the menders can step in and help complete the remaining 20%Why he felt the need to have a co-founder and how he found the ideal partner, in business and lifeHow he started with developing websites and small apps, and then pivoted to the current focusThe process they have evolved over the years for the inspection and understanding existing codeUsing Cyclomatic complexity, duplication of code, coverage, churn etc, to identify hotspotsHis career tipsM. Scott Ford is the Co-Founder & CTO of Corgibytes, where he has quietly led a software maintenance revolution for the past decade. Where most people find nothing but frustration, shame, and bugs in legacy code, Scott has centered his work around his genuine love of software modernization and helping others use joy, empathy, and technical excellence to make their systems more stable, scalable, and secure. Scott’s ideas have been featured in books such as The Innovation Delusion and as a guest lecturer at Harvard University. Scott is the author of three courses on LinkedIn Learning and he is the host of the Legacy Code Rocks! Podcast.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mscottford/
Sat, 29 Oct 2022 - 210 - Modernizing software with Scott Ford
In this conversation with Shiv, Scott Ford, the co-founder and CTO of Corgibytes, a company focused on modernizing legacy code, shared
How he found his interest in legacy code after about 10 years of working in various roles and organizationsBeing given bugs to fix, in his early career - and after addressing them well, taking on more responsibilitiesDeriving joy in fixing code or refactoring more than just writing new featuresHaving a trigger moment while watching a PBS show on home improvement ‘This old house’, that gave due credit to the earlier architects and designers and respect their decisions, rather than calling the old work as bad or stupidWanted to add new functionality to something that may not have been thought of in the original design - and apply the same principles to modernizing old softwareHow he navigates and understands documentation or lack of it - for the old codeHow documentation is best recorded after an experiment is concluded, when writing code experimentally and incrementallyLikening modernization of code to an archeologist’s way of workingWhen boredom might make the code more complex, to keep oneself challenged, even to solve simple problemsSeeing flips back and forth between static and dynamically typed languages influencing styles of coding over the yearsSimilarly, centralization and decentralization themes also keep switching from time to time over the yearsHow he leverages his strength of being a polyglot - among computer languages, by actually working on real world problems using these languagesScott’s experience and thoughts on being an entrepreneur will be covered in the next episode.
M. Scott Ford is the Co-Founder & CTO of Corgibytes, where he has quietly led a software maintenance revolution for the past decade. Where most people find nothing but frustration, shame, and bugs in legacy code, Scott has centered his work around his genuine love of software modernization and helping others use joy, empathy, and technical excellence to make their systems more stable, scalable, and secure. Scott’s ideas have been featured in books such as The Innovation Delusion and as a guest lecturer at Harvard University. Scott is the author of three courses on LinkedIn Learning and he is the host of the Legacy Code Rocks! Podcast.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mscottford/
Sat, 22 Oct 2022 - 209 - Building to learn with Dorai Thodla
This is part 2 of a repeat episode of one of my conversations, first published in 2019. Since then, we have crossed 200 episodes and the listenership has also grown.
Some of you have been asking how you can know more about some of the topics covered in recent episodes.
We felt that there could be related points shared by other guests in earlier episodes, but for new subscribers, it may not be easily discoverable.
So, we thought that we would bring you select past episodes from time to time, to discover more people and their stories.
Also, over time, the formats of the intro and show notes have also changed.
This conversation with Dorai Thodla is the second of two parts. The first part was published last week and Dorai spoke about his serial entrepreneurship experience and how he innovatively finds problems to solve etc. In this part he continues to share his thoughts and experience on:
Helping students learn to code by starting with codingThe joy of achievement when creating software that worksAnd how reuse and other software engineering concepts may be introduced gradually to build larger solutionsHow a solution such as a bookstore can be used as an example to learn breaking the larger solution to smaller pieces that can be implemented incrementallyUsing the KWAC architecture - essentially, learning by watching someone - as an apprentice, where the instructor also shares the thought process behind what is being doneLeveraging learning patterns among students, to learn in groups and each person guiding othersAbout his experience from organizing hackathons and activating communitiesHow he finds and manages time to do so many things and where he derives his energy and inspiration fromDorai is the founder and CTO of Technology Strategies LLC, based in the United States. He is a mentor at KCG College of Technology Chennai. He is passionate about teaching students and mentors product startups. Dorai also gives talks on emerging technologies and their impact while consulting with companies on how to build tech communities. He believes in the paradigm of “building to learn” by encouraging teaching via “doing” so students see their learning transform into a product that extends around a complete stack.
Dorai lives in Chennai and spends time in the Bay Area and Seattle outside of India. He is currently involved with the following initiatives :
Build2Learn (http://www.build2learn.in/ ) and
InfoAssitants ( http://infoassistants.com/ ) – a set of tools for collecting and analyzing information.
Dorai can be reached via
[LinkedIn]( https://www.linkedin.com/in/doraithodla/)
[@dorait]( https://twitter.com/dorait )
Sat, 15 Oct 2022 - 208 - Technopreneurship with Dorai Thodla
This is a repeat episode of one of my conversations, first published in 2019. Since then, we have crossed 200 episodes and the listenership has also grown. Some of you have been asking how you can know more about some of the topics covered in recent episodes.
I felt that there could be related points shared by other guests in earlier episodes, but for new subscribers, it may not be easily discoverable.
So, we thought that we would bring you select past episodes from time to time, to discover more people and their stories. Also, over time, the formats of the intro and show notes have also changed.
This conversation with Dorai Thodla will be published in two parts, to keep the episode length to around 30 minutes.
In this first part, Dorai shares
His serial entrepreneurship journeyHis definition of a microproduct and how one can build very small things and still be very successfulHow he identifies problems to solve, by soaking in the problem spaceHis experience of concepts associated with a lean startup - to validate ideas quicklyA story of one of his products that has been innovatively repurposed by users to create a vertical applications to make their work easier, beyond what the product was originally intended to doHow he builds in quality in horizontal products that may be used by various personas of usersThe answer to this question and more stories from Dorai, do not miss the next episode.
In part 2 of my conversation with Dorai Thodla, he shares more details about his Build to Learn concept, to help students learn programming by doing. Do not miss next week.
Dorai is the founder and CTO of Technology Strategies LLC, based in the United States. He is a mentor at KCG College of Technology Chennai. He is passionate about teaching students and mentors product startups. Dorai also gives talks on emerging technologies and their impact while consulting with companies on how to build tech communities. He believes in the paradigm of “building to learn” by encouraging teaching via “doing” so students see their learning transform into a product that extends around a complete stack.
Dorai lives in Chennai and spends time in the Bay Area and Seattle outside of India. He is currently involved with the following initiatives :
Build2Learn ( http://www.build2learn.in/ )InfoAssitants ( http://infoassistants.com/ )a set of tools for collecting and analyzing information.
Dorai can be reached@
https://www.linkedin.com/in/doraithodla/
[@dorait] https://twitter.com/dorait
Fri, 07 Oct 2022 - 207 - Starting up as a team with Yev Khessin
In part 2 of my conversation with, Yev Khessin, CTO and founder of DIMO (Digital Infrastructure for Moving Objects) - with a goal to ‘build something disruptive’, continues to share his story and shares his thoughts and experiences related to
How he decided to startup DIMOFinding a partner and picking a few use cases in the automotive space that need to be addressedThe experience of launching a company as a team - and why that was needed to address a large problem spaceGetting together during Covid, taking up a couple of consulting assignments to validate their assumptionsThe role of a chief architect, particularly in a close team of foundersHow the founders defined their individual roles to ensure that there is little overlap, but address different parts of the roadmapHis personal style of being a servant leader and the need for various teams to come togetherHow he keeps track of evolving technologies and identify the right ones for DIMOThe tech stack they are usingLeaving things with the persons closest to the code or the customersHow consistency of user experience is ensured, with multiple teamsLeveraging the large community with testing, validation to help rapid iterationThe implication of personal and shared data preferences in making a connected system effectiveAnd, how DIMO addresses this challenge, with fine grained options to the usersThe role of smart contracts in the DIMO ecosystemHis views on Electric Vehicles or alternative fuel vehicles and the implication of complex software that may be energy guzzlingThe implication of recycling for battery powered vehiclesHis career tips related to entering the automotive solutions spaceYev is the CTO and founder of DIMO (Digital Infrastructure for Moving Objects) - with a goal to ‘build something disruptive’.
Yev has spent 10 years working in lead engineering and technical product with automotive manufacturers and suppliers on IoT connectivity, embedded software, self driving and electric vehicles. As a car lover through and through, he believes that we are at a crossroads similar to the moment when we went from horses to cars. Creating a better connected device protocol, governed by the people who use it, is the only sane way to advance how we get around.
Fri, 30 Sep 2022 - 206 - Helping Objects in Motion with Yev Khessin
In this episode, Yev Khessin, CTO and founder of DIMO (Digital Infrastructure for Moving Objects) - with a goal to ‘build something disruptive’, shares his thoughts and experiences related to
Starting to code at a very young age and getting interested in carsDoing computer science in college and working in the automotive spaceMoving to Michigan and working across various departments - internal toolonigm product planning, handling recalls etcMoving to OnStar - in the connected vehicle spaceStarting a consulting company on autonomous carsFord, VW, Mitsubishi - as clientsFrom dumb cars to smart carsWhat it takes to programming an ecosystem and the thinking needed for thinking at that scaleMoving at a high speed, being and staying connected and complying with local regulationsDifference between earlier approaches of building vertically integrated systems to a flatter peer-connected modelFord, connected fleet: parking, user requesting and unlocking a car - in Miami; everything worked till we went to a different cityEvery city, parking lot having different APIsRole of open source products and specifications helping with security and making it a more level playing fieldUnderstanding the difference between centralized and decentralized systems, being born in UkraineWhere the human fits in, when we think of autonomous vehicles..DIMO is very generic; we started with a vehicle: second biggest purchase that most people makeDIMO lets you own your vehicle and the data that comes from itAbility to record and maintain historical data that is personal and can help with safetyThe black box v2 as a neutral body on a carBattery health in the context of EVsTrust and experience depends on developers writing software for the platform; making DIMO an open platformAbility to retain the personal preferences and custom experiences across OEMs to make the experience much better for an individualWill continue the conversation on how Yev got into the startup mode and how the founding team at DIMO came together -- in the second part of our conversation - in the next episode.Yev is the CTO and founder of DIMO (Digital Infrastructure for Moving Objects) - with a goal to ‘build something disruptive’.
Yev has spent 10 years working in lead engineering and technical product with automotive manufacturers and suppliers on IoT connectivity, embedded software, self driving and electric vehicles. As a car lover through and through, he believes that we are at a crossroads similar to the moment when we went from horses to cars. Creating a better connected device protocol, governed by the people who use it, is the only sane way to advance how we get around.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/yevgeny-khessin/
Fri, 23 Sep 2022 - 205 - Following the money with Sam Fonoimoana
In this episode, Sam Fonoimoana, Founder and CEO of Datajoin – a B2B marketing analytics company, shares his thoughts and experiences related to
Growing up in Hawaii and California and studying at BYUChoosing business as a career in joining his Father in law’s export businessGetting into MBA to study FinanceStarting with a role to plan budgets and review progress with various departments in a publishing companyLearning to code, to get various reports to analyze data, as an analystHow he gets and associates context with data, to infer meaningHis philosophy of following the money: get customers, retain customersHis trigger to start his company, Datajoin, to connect data from the web and data that resides within an enterprise using contextExperience of working with techies, after the export businessHis experience from being part of sports teams influencing the core values at Datajoin - that include Aloha! and ‘it takes a village to raise a child’Confidence he got from his mother - about being able to get anything he wanted to achieveHis joy and frustrations with Information technologyHow he sees the impact of AI/ML techniques on data analyticsHis career advice, for people considering a career or aspiring to shift to Data techniquesSam Fonoimoana started his career in Finance (FP&A) and transitioned into Marketing Analytics helping companies such as Adobe, DOMO and Ancestry.com. He also taught Marketing Analytics at BYU Hawaii in beautiful Laie, HI.Today, he is the Founder and CEO of Datajoin – a B2B marketing analytics company that is the go-to solution for connecting first-party data across the MarTech stack through their proprietary “Micro Integrations”. Their customers include Cisco, ARM, Adobe and Equifax.Sam is the first VC-backed tech Founder and CEO of Polynesian descent in Utah having closed a seed round led by Sepio Capital.Sam and his wife Sabrina never have a dull moment with their children. They have 3 beautiful daughters and 4 wonderful sons. All 4 of their sons have been diagnosed with autism. When Sam is not at his computer, he can be found with his family at the park, rec center, restaurant, or on a road trip!Sam received his MBA in Finance from Brigham Young University.
You can reach him at
Linkedin.com/in/sam-fonoimoana
Fri, 16 Sep 2022 - 204 - Building respectful relationships with Ramesh Rajagopal
We continue our conversation with Ramesh Rajagopal, a coach at PM Power Consulting. In the first part he shared his origin story and also experiences of his childhood and career. In this episode, he continues to share more details about
Leveraging his lean manufacturing experience to get into Agile approaches and becoming an Agile evangelistWorking in a company wide transformation planning processBeing summoned to the office one day,early morning - to be told that his position being made redundant, just a few months before a planned retirementThe support he got from his wifeGetting an opportunity to work in MalaysiaBecoming a trainer and exploring certification opportunities - such as SPC when he was 63The transferable skills from his manufacturing career that he was able to use in IT as wellImportance of communication and the need to relate to the people one interacts with.The importance of respecting dignity of every person and understanding their value systemsTeamwork and giving credit wherever it is dueBeing a continuous learnerBeing a listener 90% of the time while interacting with othersHow to become a better influencer to ensure results, by maintaining a respectful relationship and not limit interactions to only transactionsUnderstanding the aspirations and motivations of individuals first before helpingHis personal practices to develop empathy as a person based onThe Sahaja Marg or heartfulness approachHis career advice and tips for persons who want to get into IT from other domainsHe started my career as an R&D engineer at the Engineering Research Centre at Tata Motors (TELCO) in 1981, then he joined L& T during 1984, initially as a Design Engineer for Earthmoving machines. Later, he moved into Manufacturing Planning. He joined GE India Technology Center during end 2000, as a Project Manager-Delivery and stayed with the organization as it later changed hands to become GXS and OpenText. He also worked as a consultant for the Agile Transformation group for 4 years at Standard Chartered Bank, Kuala Lumpur helping teams and teams of teams to adopt to the new ways of working – from Technology teams, Retail Teams to Data and Privacy teams.
With over four decades of experience which includes over 20+ years in software Product development, Delivery, Quality and several years in manufacturing domains of Automobile and Earth moving equipment, mow a Principal consultant at PM Power, part of Agile Transformation and DevOps Service lines.
Sat, 10 Sep 2022 - 203 - Shop Floor experience with Ramesh Rajagopal
This is part 1 of a 2 episode conversation. In this episode, Ramesh Rajagopal, a Coach at PM Power Consulting, shares his experience related to
Growing up in Madurai, a major temple town Learning Tamil, though his grandparents were from KarnatakaHis temple visits, on the way to school as well as on specific occasionsMoving to Bangalore and seeing the changes over the decadesPassing out as topper in his school for the SSLC gradeChoosing to switch colleges to study with his cousinDeveloping a talent - in his own words -of sleeping in moving buses, whether sitting or standingLearning the importance of extra curricular activitiesApplying to TELCO, based on a newspaper adAsking for a role in R&D, though TELCO was a predominantly manufacturing organization and getting itNot being able to join as planned, due to his father’s health, but being able to make it a little later, when things got betterUnderstanding that work culture varies from context to context and his interesting experience on the shop floor with his managerImportance of practical experience on the shop floorTaking interest in and learning computersLeveraging his engineering and manufacturing experience to help the software development teams in L&TJoining GE and diving deeper into software engineeringWith a focus on systems, getting an opportunity to lead the quality functionFour stages in career development: learning, doing, guide others, shape people by laying the pathGetting into Agile approachesHe started my career as an R&D engineer at the Engineering Research Centre at Tata Motors (TELCO) in 1981, then he joined L& T during 1984, initially as a Design Engineer for Earthmoving machines. Later, he moved into Manufacturing Planning. He joined GE India Technology Center during end 2000, as a Project Manager-Delivery and stayed with the organization as it later changed hands to become GXS and OpenText. He also worked as a consultant for the Agile Transformation group for 4 years at Standard Chartered Bank, Kuala Lumpur helping teams and teams of teams to adopt to the new ways of working – from Technology teams, Retail Teams to Data and Privacy teams.
With over four decades of experience which includes over 20+ years in software Product development, Delivery, Quality and several years in manufacturing domains of Automobile and Earth moving equipment, mow a Principal consultant at PM Power, part of Agile Transformation and DevOps Service lines.
Sat, 03 Sep 2022 - 202 - Riding the wave with K Ramkumar
In this episode, K Ramkumar, known as Ram or Kram - Director Product Mangement, Salesforce, in conversation with Gayatri shares
Starting his passion in software in the way of coding Fortran in his alma matter BITS Pilani. Ram talks about starting in the software development working in small organisation in their ecommerce portals before moving into collaboration softwareWithin the span of 25 years Ramkumar has travessed the depths of collaboration, communication and security using cloud and data analytics technologiesRamkumar describes his journey as continuing to expand in complex areas due to his deep problem solving skillsRam talks about taking a plunge in the product management after nearly spending a decade in engineering. He also shared some of his vulnerable moments when he moved from being a team leader of 20 individuals to an individual contributor.Product management certification in IIM and ISB has helped but his innate curiosity is what has catapulted to being a product leader todayRamkumar advises professionals to try different areas within software from business analysis, program management, scrum mastery, automation, data analytics and product management before assessing the area of specialisationRamkumar shares of the his keen sense of understanding where the customers needs and marry that with technology potential and continuous experimentRamkumar’s key advise to software professionals is to stay curious and continuous learn technologies with a beginners mindsetRamkumar is an engineering graduate of BITS Pilani, with management education from IIM B, certification from ISB. Ramkumar is the Director of Product Management for Salesforce. He specializes in the field of security.
Ramkumar started his career in India in Novell, Siemens before moving to the US to join startup boom in ecommerce.
He leveraged his email/collaboration experience in Cisco and released several notable products for Cisco Systems. His products have won several awards.
Ramkumar joined the product management in Cisco systems as an experiment. Ramkumar is a recipient of Presidents’ award for Salesforce along with several coveted awards.
Ramkumar can be contacted at https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramkumarkaleeswaran/
Sat, 27 Aug 2022 - 201 - Lessons in work life harmony
We continue our conversation with Sowmya Gopalan and Ramya Gopalan, the first software twins to be featured on this podcast.
In the first part they shared their origin story and also experiences of working in cutting edge technologies.
We paused with a question on how they pay it forward to nurture young professionals.
In this episode, Sowmya and Ramya continue to share
How one might feel hesitant to approach colleagues or seniors, when starting on a careerNurturing the quality of giving space to others in their seniors, particularly to the junior members in the teamBeing open to solutions and valuing inputs from all; about sharing tasks to be done equally among the team membersTheir experience of being women in techBeing in a team with more womenNow the ratios are more skewedFeeling more comfortable when there are more women colleaguesMoving into teams where being the only woman in the teamThough bonding well with colleagues irrespective of gender, having women colleagues being more supportingHaving a lady mentor when starting one’s career being of great helpTheir thoughts on metaverse and spaces removed further from reality and need for better regulation and ethicsTheir thoughts on the importance of data in machine learning and how to address situations where there may not be sufficient dataAbout using non verbal cues in video processingAbout extracting intelligence from any kind of audio signalsTheir career advice for persons starting in ITTheir approach to balancing work and life.. Work life harmony!Sowmya Gopalan has 12+ years experience in researching and developing computer vision technologies for consumer electronics. With a formal background in signal processing, I specialize in researching, prototyping and developing robust software solutions for image and video understanding. I tend to be most satisfied when I have the opportunity of seeing a product through its entire lifecycle - from concept, to PoC, to production software. I thrive in collaborative, kind and multi-disciplinary settings where interest and drive matter more than qualification. Outside work, you will find me trying out new recipes in the kitchen with Ramya, or reading a book in the historical fiction genre - I am curious about the world wars and modern history in general, so if you have a good book to recommend, feel free to drop in a line at
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sowmya-gopalan-1840719/
Ramya Goplan is a software engineer who has worked on various consumer electronic products during her 12 year tenure in Amazon. Her interests and expertise include working on applications that are rooted in traditional signal processing and machine learning science. Having worked on the speech enhancement pipeline for the first gen and next gen Echo and Alexa products, she is slightly partial to speech and audio tech. She finds taking an idea from prototype to optimized embedded C/C++ implementation extremely enjoyable and satisfying. Outside work, Ramya loves to cook, sketch and listen to podcasts about health and wellness; Huberman Lab being her current favorite.
You can reach Ramya at https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramya-gopalan-b3bb506/
Fri, 19 Aug 2022 - 200 - Cutting edge work with Sowmya Gopalan and Ramya Gopalan
First, our heartfelt thanks to all you listeners for the love you have shown and for permitting the Software People Stories to be part of your listening time over the last 200 weeks!
Your wishes and encouragement is what has kept us going and will continue to do so.
Thank you
This is a very special episode for the Software People Stories. This is the 200th episode.
So, for this occasion, we have 2 guests - Sowmya Gopalan and Ramya Goplan - twin sisters, now working at two of the IT giants, doing leading edge work. They have very interesting stories of their careers and perspectives.
This episode is also special, as we have all the three hosts present!
We will be publishing this conversation in 2 parts.
This is part 1 , where Sowmya and Ramya share
How they got into IT and chose engineering for studies: Sowmya:electronics and communicationMasters in signal processingInternship in interdigital : cognitive radio applicationsInterest in images and videosJoining Amazon for a startup like project working on cutting edge technologies Computer vision features of Amazon EchoThen joining Apple, continuing to work on camera and photos appRamyaBeing clear about not doing biology, and preferring match and computer scienceTelecom as specialization in undergraduateGetting in to same university and having the same advisorInterning in the same companyAudio signal processingAfter 8 years, getting into health org, applying AI/ML etcTheir experiences and thoughts on developing embedded solutionsUsing the customer satisfaction parameters as primary indicators of readiness of a releaseAbout the dependency management and change control practices at AppleThe thrill of knowing that the first code written getting into productionHow aware the developers are of customer issues and usage experience, being emphasized by the customer obsession culture at AmazonOne disappointing experience when the market acceptance of a child safety feature was somewhat underwhelmingTheir experience of having 21 patents between the two of them and tips for others to think of developing patentable ideasIf they have tried pair programming between the two of themHow they bounce off ideas and support each otherTheir mantra: start simple, keep improving, keep fundamentals strong, how textbooks and theory always helpIf they had any thoughts of creating something togetherWhether they lean in on each other and how they support each otherAnd, the difference having or not having such support makes on an individualHaving a safe space when the other person is non-judgemental and trustworthyWe conclude this episode with the question of how they nurture or develop younger professionals.
The answer to that question and a lot more insights, some technical and many on the softer aspects such as work life harmony will be in part 2 of this conversation. Do not miss the next episode, coming up in a week.
Sowmya Gopalan has 12+ years experience in researching and developing computer vision technologies for consumer electronics. With a formal background in signal processing, I specialize in researching, prototyping and developing robust software solutions for image and video understanding. I tend to be most satisfied when I have the opportunity of seeing a product through its entire lifecycle - from concept, to PoC, to production software. I thrive in collaborative, kind and multi-disciplinary settings where interest and drive matter more than qualification. Outside work, you will find me trying out new recipes in the kitchen with Ramya, or reading a book in the historical fiction genre - I am curious about the world wars and modern history in general, so if you have a good book to recommend, feel free to drop in a line at
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sowmya-gopalan-1840719/
Ramya Goplan is a software engineer who has worked on various consumer electronic products during her 12 year tenure in Amazon. Her interests and expertise include working on applications that are rooted in traditional signal processing and machine learning science. Having worked on the speech enhancement pipeline for the first gen and next gen Echo and Alexa products, she is slightly partial to speech and audio tech. She finds taking an idea from prototype to optimized embedded C/C++ implementation extremely enjoyable and satisfying. Outside work, Ramya loves to cook, sketch and listen to podcasts about health and wellness; Huberman Lab being her current favorite.
You can reach Ramya at https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramya-gopalan-b3bb506/
Fri, 12 Aug 2022 - 199 - Innovation, Incubation and starting up with Jani
This is the second part of the conversation with Janakiraman Srinivasan, known as Jani.
In the first part, Jani spoke of his initial years in IT and the long career he had with Wipro. We ended that episode when it was a segue into his entrepreneurial roles.
In this episode,Jani continues to share more stories related to
The startup bug that led him to be a co-founder of MindtreeGetting an international experience, and the tech boom and startup culture in the silicon valley creating a strong impression The emotional connect he had with Mr. Ashok SootaChanges in his experience between two startup contexts 19 years apartHow these changes influenced some of the policies and strategies in the second startupThe benefit of complementary strengths among the co-foundersThe experience of incubating startups within mindtreeHow he moved on to set up NuveproHow he keeps himself updated on emerging and futuristic technologiesAnd how he finds time for all thisHis emotionally stressful phases, when thinking of or making transitions across organizationsThe importance of people in the success of a companyHis career advice for people considering a career in IT and for those already in ITJanakiraman Srinivasan is currently the Chairman of Nuvepro Technologies, a startup in Cloud Technologies and also President of Indo Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industries (IJCCI) - Karnataka.
Prior to above, Janakiraman was the President & CTO of Mindtree Ltd, and was one of the Co-Founder and Board Member too. He served Mindtree from 1999 to 2014.
Prior to Mindtree, Janakiraman served as the Chief Executive of Global R&D Unit of Wipro where he started his career as one among first five employees in 1980.
Janakiraman was one of the Co-Founder of India Semiconductor Association (ISA) in 2002 and served for six years in its executive council, and later as its Chairman and Advisor too.
Janakiraman did his BE at Regional Engineering College - Trichi (1973-78) and MTech from IIT-Chennai (1978-80). He is a Distinguished Alumni of REC for his Entrepreneurial Excellence.
Janakiraman has served the board of Yokogawa India Ltd till March 2019 for four years. Currently a Board Member in startups Nuvepro Technologies, Innohub Technologies, Sanohub Technologies and Netra Accelerator Foundation. He is actively involved in promoting startups and entrepreneurial environment in Karnataka.
Jani may be contacted at janiuma @ gmail.com
Sat, 06 Aug 2022 - 198 - Learning from new roles with Janakiraman (Jani) Srinivasan
In this episode, Janakiraman Srinivasan, known as Jani - an IT industry veteran, in conversation with Shiv shares
His childhood days in Kumbakonam, Tamil NaduHis Bachelors from REC Trichy and Masters from IIT Madras and getting into Wipro as a campus recruitee as Employee # 3 His father’s role in getting him good educationThe experience of being among the first employees in a newly launched company in a truly entrepreneurial environmentSetting up an R&D team and activity in Bangalore and then setting up a factory in MysoreHow they needed to dismantle the door, to get the first computer outThe significance of bonds with colleaguesThe early culture at Wipro that stressed on many core valuesHis experience in transitioning across various roles - from technical to business responsibilitiesSetting up a system integration or engineering groupWanting to move base to Chennai for personal reasons, taking up a role of a field specialist for the southern regionTaking up the role of a regional field engineering manager, as the person playing that role moved onThe transition to an individual contributor to leading a 50 member team and manage the business operationsBecoming the product manager for the micro systems [PCs], that was a volume, low margin business that still needed superlative customer support experienceAround 1991, being ‘elected’ to become the R&D head, when the then head took up a role to set up Wipro Systems Launching the Product Engineering Services business to take the R&D expertise to customersAround 94-95, when quality standards were becoming more popular and mandatory, becoming CEO of Global R&D Growing the R&D team from about 350 to 2200 personsIn part 2, we hear Jani’s story with mindtree and beyond.
Janakiraman Srinivasan is currently the Chairman of Nuvepro Technologies, a startup in Cloud Technologies and also President of Indo Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industries (IJCCI) - Karnataka.
Prior to above, Janakiraman was the President & CTO of Mindtree Ltd, and was one of the Co-Founder and Board Member too. He served Mindtree from 1999 to 2014.
Prior to Mindtree, Janakiraman served as the Chief Executive of Global R&D Unit of Wipro where he started his career as one among first five employees in 1980.
Janakiraman was one of the Co-Founder of India Semiconductor Association (ISA) in 2002 and served for six years in its executive council, and later as its Chairman and Advisor too.
Janakiraman did his BE at Regional Engineering College - Trichi (1973-78) and MTech from IIT-Chennai (1978-80). He is a Distinguished Alumni of REC for his Entrepreneurial Excellence.
Janakiraman has served the board of Yokogawa India Ltd till March 2019 for four years. Currently a Board Member in startups Nuvepro Technologies, Innohub Technologies, Sanohub Technologies and Netra Accelerator Foundation. He is actively involved in promoting startups and entrepreneurial environment in Karnataka.
Jani may be contacted at janiuma @ gmail.com
Fri, 29 Jul 2022 - 197 - Employee #1 experience
In this episode, Victor Jayakaran- shares his story and experiences related to:
His graduation from the Madras Institute of Technology and post graduation from the Indian Institute of ScienceGetting a campus placement at ITI and applying for a job with ISROOn his guide NJ Rao’s suggestion, choosing to join a small and growing company, WiproJoining Wipro in August 1979 and starting work at an IISc labBeing part of the team that decided what systems to go forWorking on technology transfer, with a view to make it as ready to use as possible for their customersMoving on to a hardware specific role, doing everything from system design, testing, purchasing the BOMInterfacing with the Govt. of Karnataka for setting up the Mysore factoryMoving to Mysore as part of the team that set up the facilityReturning to bangalore in 1983 - 88 MG RoadBeing into hardware, subsystems design etcWhen Wipro Systems Limited was set up, moving a part of that teamGetting back to Wipro InfotechHardware, software [OS port], to VLSI technologiesExploring opportunities in VLSI designRecalling that he had the best bosses in all his rolesGL, purchasing, sales processing etc apps as part of delivering computers that can be readily usedOn taking up and playing different roles across organizational functionsExperience of working with other organizations that operate at different pacesWorking in an open culture, where everyone’s ideas and experience are welcomeWorking 18 hour days - in a charged up atmosphere, as part of a very small teamGetting opportunities to meet customers, when they had issues!Making problems into an advantageTechie customers like to buy from techies, rather than sales rolesHis experience of working with Japanese customers, who were very detail orientedGrowing to be a leader of others who were peers till the previous dayLearning to be objective in assessments and sharing reinforcing feedbackOn the emphasis on processes in Wipro, that helped doing things systematically and consistentlyThe friendship bonds that kept him in the organization over timeThe courage a leader needs to bring in the right people as well as be ready to let go of people who don't fitAbout the experience of a spin-in, that could not meet the initial set business goalsOne important ingredient for startup success: fire in the bellyHow technologically deep should a leader be? The team should be confident of your visionGenuineness of the leader is critical to build a successful teamHis experience and views on work-life balance, particularly after getting marriedGetting an advice from one of his bosses about working Smart v/s working hardHis career tips for entry level and mid career IT professionalsEnjoy the workbuild camaraderieVictor Jayakaran, did his B.Sc (Physics), at A.M. Jain College, Madras. He then did his graduation in Electronics From the Madras Institute of Technology. He then did his M.E. from the School of Automation, at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, in 1979. He then started with Wipro as their first employee, to be part of Wipro’s Information Technology Business. He was with Wipro for more than 20 years, from 1979 starting off as their first employee (R&D Engineer), till 2000, when he was the Vice President of Engg at EnThink, Wipro’s startup venture. He then left them in May 2000, to join SCM India as President of its India operations, which was one of the two core development centers, worldwide, in the domain of Digital Media and Smart Card readers and terminals. Then in 2006 he stepped out of SCM to create SCOLIS Technologies which later was acquired by the Identiv Group and merged with his former company SCM. He headed the new Identiv Tech Center in India, located in Chennai till 2016, when he retired from hands-on operations.
Victor is married to Sunithy, and they have two grown up children, both of whom are married and are blessed with four grand children. Victor and Sunithy as part of the team of trustees, started and are running Amazing Love Home, a home for the elderly near Chennai, since 2009.
Victor may be contacted at: vjayakaran@gmail.com
Sun, 24 Jul 2022 - 196 - Startup founders formula with Sai Krishna
In this episode, Sai Krishna, a serial entrepreneur, who calls himself a metaverse plumber, loves creating interesting applications based on emerging and maturing technologies. In this conversation, he shares
How a decentralized squad model, working with local partners and having an engineering focus for differentiation would help scale and localize, as neededHow to build an organization to realize the vision of the foundersCadence of 2 weeks or 12 weeks, multi-skilled squadsWillingness to learn and time to feedbackA founder’s feelings related to exit decisionsFounder’s formula: have fun, optimize for joyA founder’s job is to make everyone in the team to reflect back and feel the impact of their workMetaverse: hype or old wine or something substantial?Why 3D printing technology underdelivered on its promiseHow finances (and capital) are critical to help new technologies become practical and increase wide adoptionHow commoditized solutions can trigger a race to the bottom affecting the survivability of a companyImpact of new technologies on the carbon footprintOblivious, brash and corrective : the three stages of companies operating to exploit new and emerging technologiesTips for anyone looking to get deeper into the metaverse ecosystemStep1: understand what variables you want to optimize forFinancial gains, Wealth: building a company is probably the hardestJoy of learning being part of an emerging spaceSolving a problem that itches youFind a reason to resonate with the causeThe market also needs to be readyWould you see it as a decades long journey, 15 hour days.. Yes, not just as an option to make quick moneyCobbling a team of like minded lunatics..If he chose to be in AI because AI is in his name!Sai has spent more than 9 years in building deep tech startups. He was an early believer and pioneer in the Metaverse, and built & backed startups in the domain. Notably:
- His Virtual & Augmented Reality venture, Scapic was acquired by Walmart/Flipkart
- He backed a venture studio for the Metaverse, Cope. Studio, which was acquired by Polygon/Matic
- His marketplace for Metaverse assets, Reality Tools, was acquired by MotionPage
Sai currently leads Flipkart Labs, where he focuses on new deep tech initiatives such as Camera (Augmented Reality) & Firedrops (NFTs & Web3) in the Walmart Group. He is currently an advisor at Polygon & Polygon Studios. He is alum of Stanford University Graduate School of Business, recipient of the Indian National Startup Awards and a fellowship recipient from Ondeck.
He's been awarded by organizations such as Facebook, the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards, Wharton and IIM. Sai has delivered 80+ keynotes at international conferences, IIT-Bombay, NSRCEL & more.
When it's not about work, Sai is quintessentially south Indian, with an affinity to dosas and filter coffee. You can reach out to Sai at oho@5saitec.com on anything around building moonshots.
Sat, 16 Jul 2022 - 195 - Plumbing for the metaverse with Sai Krishna
In this episode, Sai Krishna, a serial entrepreneur, who calls himself a metaverse plumber, loves creating interesting applications based on emerging and maturing technologies. In this conversation, he shares
His adventures and misadventures in ITHailing from a south Indian family that emphasized educationMoving to Bangalore to continue his education in RV CollegeHis attraction to build products, more with an intention of having fun in doing itHis first product in the education spaceUnderstanding the need to think like an entrepreneurship and getting sponsored for an entrepreneurship program at StanfordStarting his company Scapic - with AR/VR as core technologies and being acquired by FlipkartHis approach to identifying problems to solveShiny toy syndrome: to pick something that looks cool; these may not be a venture worthy ideaChoosing a problem that matches your expertise: your and your team’s complementary skills; this helps accelerating to marketSelect entrepreneurs: going after massive market opportunityLousy team, great market, market winsGreat team , lousy market, market winsGreat team, great market - nonlinear outcomesHow to think scaleVisualizing the finish line: that is not a goal post; focus on the next milestoneThe importance of obsessing over the first cohort for a startupThe value of creating a playbook after validation and further experimentation with the second and third cohortsDifferences between B2B and B2C solutionsHow a decentralized squad model, working with local partners and having an engineering focus for differentiation would help scale and localize, as neededSai has spent more than 9 years in building deep tech startups. He was an early believer and pioneer in the Metaverse, and built & backed startups in the domain. Notably:
- His Virtual & Augmented Reality venture, Scapic was acquired by Walmart/Flipkart
- He backed a venture studio for the Metaverse, Cope.Studio, which was acquired by Polygon/Matic
- His marketplace for Metaverse assets, Reality Tools, was acquired by MotionPage
Sai currently leads Flipkart Labs, where he focuses on new deep tech initiatives such as Camera (Augmented Reality) & Firedrops (NFTs & Web3) in the Walmart Group. He is currently an advisor at Polygon & Polygon Studios. He is alum of Stanford University Graduate School of Business, recipient of the Indian National Startup Awards and a fellowship recipient from Ondeck.
He's been awarded by organisations such as Facebook, the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards, Wharton and IIM. Sai has delivered 80+ keynotes at international conferences, IIT-Bombay, NSRCEL & more.
When it's not about work, Sai is quintessentially south Indian, with an affinity to dosas and filter coffee.
You can reach out to Sai at oho@5saitec.com on anything around building moonshots.
Sat, 09 Jul 2022 - 194 - Finding solutions with self reliance with Usha
In this episode, Usha from PM Power Consulting is in conversation with Chitra and shares her 3 plus decades of experience in software and technology around -
Working at Raman institute for 10 years, her first exposure to computing A research institute expects you to do your own learning, but of courseWriting programs for 'astronomical' data analysis and structures of crystals in pascal & Fortran, Finding logic was easy, testing with missing data and reconstructing it was challengingBecoming self-reliant, so finding solutions is now naturalBuilding test harnesses from scratch, Joining i2 tech in supply chain planningSetup the first performance testing lab, getting things startedWorking with resource constraints while setting up the performance labLearned how software products were sold, understanding product ROILearning from Eliyahu Goldratt's book and seeing those principles applied in product developmentCustomer experiences & product deliveryA stint in Australia via Siemens in the telecom domain - testing & system integrationThe evolution towards collective responsiblity from specialized roles & functionsConcept of quality and embracing culture around it, getting people aligned around quality goalsViews on establishing test procedures, measuring effectiveness & ROICustomer experiences right under their nosesImportance of building the right teamsImportant to follow your heart & passionUsha is a Consultant with PM Power. She has worked for companies like Tech Mahindra, Siemens and Mindtree before founding LastMile Consulting Technology Solutions.
She has been a practitioner of Agile for 15+ years. She trains and helps large teams adopt agile methods
Fri, 01 Jul 2022 - 193 - Techie turned investor with Abhay Havaldar
In this episode, Abhay Havaldar shares his story and experiences related to:
Starting his IT career with a role in testing software and going on to play other roles of marketing support and salesProduct management and support with a dealing room packageAlways willing to experiment and joining a venture capital firm - Draper InternationalEarly stage investing, General Atlantic, India - and a boutique investment firmWhy he got into ITHow he positions an IT solution to a prospective clientHis experience of product management, explained in today’s terminology, as Software as a ServiceHis experience with developing software solutions under a contract and the benefit of listening skills to add context to contractsThe power users wield in product led growth modelsHis starting out being a venture capitalist as a partner directly with the legendary Bill DraperHis approach of investing in the plan first, than the market opportunity that is forecastThe importance of evaluating all risks and being humbleHis thoughts on scaling startups and the Powerlocker model adopted by his formHis views on reviews by investors in the context of fundraising and context of goalsHow he approaches theme based investingHis approach to learning from othersBeing wrong is a great time to learnHis experience and perspectives on the social sectorThe importance of being comfortable with storytelling, particularly for entrepreneursExperienced Board Member with a demonstrated history of working in the venture capital and private equity industry. Skilled in Corporate Finance, Venture Capital, Investment Banking, Strategy. Strong business development professional with a MSc (Sloan Fellow) focused in Business Administration and Management, General from London Business School.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/abhay-havaldar-a4a46523/
Fri, 24 Jun 2022
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