Cover art for podcast The Engineering Leadership Podcast

The Engineering Leadership Podcast

179 EpisodesProduced by The Engineering Leadership Community (ELC)Website

We share the most critical perspectives, habits & examples of great software engineering leaders to help evolve leadership in the tech industry. Join our community of software engineering leaders @ www.sfelc.com!

53:01

How eng orgs (and careers) evolve through hyper-growth w/ Samir Naik #77

How eng orgs (and careers) evolve through hyper-growth w/ Samir Naik #77

Samir Naik (Head of Engineering, Core Products @ Plaid) shares how Plaid’s engineering org has evolved over the last 10 years & the many unexpected ways his own career has transformed alongside Plaid. Samir deconstructs 3 different growth phases at Plaid, the indicators that your company is ready for the next growth stage, and how to choose an emerging tech city to expand to! Plus critical questions that helped guide Samir’s career within Plaid.

ABOUT SAMIR NAIK

Samir Naik (@samirnaik) is Head of Engineering for Plaid’s Core Products, overseeing a cross-functional team of product managers, engineers, designers, marketers building and scaling our core APIs. Having worn many hats throughout his years at Plaid, he’s managed teams large and small and as the first external engineering manager hire, he’s been instrumental in building Plaid’s engineering function from the ground up. Previously, Samir led teams at Dropbox, Zynga, and Disney.

"I made the comment... I was like, 'I don't think a lot of this is really engineering focused, right? It doesn't seem super relevant to the engineering team..."

And he kind of just paused and looked at me and was like, 'That is your job! Doesn't matter if it's engineering or not, you need to fix these problems.'

And I think it was a mindset shift for me, and it was really helpful feedback. But I think it kind of framed that there's a bunch of seams in an organization. Doesn't matter whether they're engineering or not, but I really need to look for those seams and those opportunities and make sure they're addressed, whether that's in my job description or not.

- Samir Naik   

Check out our friends and sponsor, Jellyfish. Jellyfish helps you align engineering work with business priorities and enables you to make better strategic decisions.

Learn more at Jellyfish.co/elc

The ELC Virtual Summit is BACK on April 20th-22nd!

We’re bringing together engineering leaders from around the world to surface fresh industry insights & help you build peer support. Don’t miss out on expert conversations, peer-led roundtables & workshops to help you accelerate your leadership growth.

Learn more and register HERE: sfelc.com/summit2022

SHOW NOTES:
  • What was Plaid like in 2017? (2:56)
  • Approaching Eng Mgmt as a business within a business (6:47)
  • The three growth phases of Plaid (7:55)
  • Deciding the sequence of scaling for an engineering organization (13:10)
  • Relying on Eng Managers for project management (14:56)
  • How to attract Sr Engineers during hyper-growth (16:55)
  • Maturing from a single product to multiple business units (18:35)
  • Org maturity as a lagging indicator of success (20:08)
  • Indicators that your company is ready for growth stage 2 (21:10)
  • How scaling turned Samir’s role into a more business-focused function (24:04)
  • How to choose an emerging tech city to expand to (27:32)
  • The need for “2nd communities” in remote organizations (31:58)
  • Indicators that your company is ready for growth stage 3 (34:48)
  • How long should you delay growth stage 3? (38:29)
  • Evolving company culture as the organization scales (40:10)
  • Handing off easy tasks that can be growth opportunities for others (43:40)
  • Rapid Fire Questions (46:23)
  • Takeaways (50:00)
Educational emoji reaction

Educational

Interesting emoji reaction

Interesting

Funny emoji reaction

Funny

Agree emoji reaction

Agree

Love emoji reaction

Love

Wow emoji reaction

Wow

Listen to The Engineering Leadership Podcast

RadioPublic

A free podcast app for iPhone and Android

  • User-created playlists and collections
  • Download episodes while on WiFi to listen without using mobile data
  • Stream podcast episodes without waiting for a download
  • Queue episodes to create a personal continuous playlist
RadioPublic on iOS and Android
Or by RSS
RSS feed
https://feeds.simplecast.com/Z8Dl_qAv

Connect with listeners

Podcasters use the RadioPublic listener relationship platform to build lasting connections with fans

Yes, let's begin connecting
Browser window

Find new listeners

  • A dedicated website for your podcast
  • Web embed players designed to convert visitors to listeners in the RadioPublic apps for iPhone and Android
Clicking mouse cursor

Understand your audience

  • Capture listener activity with affinity scores
  • Measure your promotional campaigns and integrate with Google and Facebook analytics
Graph of increasing value

Engage your fanbase

  • Deliver timely Calls To Action, including email acquistion for your mailing list
  • Share exactly the right moment in an episode via text, email, and social media
Icon of cellphone with money

Make money

  • Tip and transfer funds directly to podcastsers
  • Earn money for qualified plays in the RadioPublic apps with Paid Listens