During this episode, Natalie shares how she has been working with organizations to apply wonder and rigor to amplify growth and business value. She unleashes creativity in people and areas that have previously not thought of themselves as creatives. Putting it simply, Natalie says that "to be human is to be hard wired to be creative". Natalie suggests that the organizations and leaders that work at the intersection of technology, productivity and meaningful human experience will be most likely to flourish in the new way of working. She also shares that the best businesses she has worked with a ..read more

During this episode, Mike discusses the importance of giving back to the community and to young people earlier in their careers. He explains that we need to give people room to fail safely, so that they can absorb important lessons along the way. We discuss the lack of inclusion that women in technology face, and how these factors are enhanced even further for Black and Hispanic women. Mike also talks about his experiences with being the only Black man in the room, and how he tackled that by always showing up as his authentic self. Mike A. Williams, has over 30 years of experience as a managem ..read more

Lisa Shissler Smith is an Engineering Manager at Netflix and a Director for Women Who Code. She lives near Raleigh, NC with her husband and their 5 children. She is passionate about inclusion and diversity, and has spoken to groups large and small about recruiting and retention. Outside of work, she enjoys cooking, video games, desk dancing, and all things small. Lisa shares her non-linear career path, from starting out as a librarian to becoming an Engineering Manager at Netflix, one of the most prominent tech companies in America. Lisa gives advice to those applying for jobs, as well as thos ..read more

Larry Quinlan is a principal at Deloitte—one of the world’s largest professional services organizations, with over 330,000 people in more than 150 countries and territories. He has held a number of roles including Global Chief Information Officer, and was responsible for all facets of technology. Additionally, he serves as dean of the Next Generation CIO Academy, Deloitte’s CIO leadership development program for client executives. In his own words, Larry asks "how does the skinny Black Boy raised on an island of 35, 000 people in the Caribbean, become the Global Chief Information Officer at th ..read more

Jasmine James is a Senior Engineering Manager at Twitter, leading the developer experience pillar in the engineering effectiveness organization. Prior to Twitter, she worked at Delta Air Lines enabling cloud native application development by providing modern tooling and capabilities utilizing open source projects. Jasmine has delivered multiple keynotes at various technology conferences including KubeCon and Cloud NativeCon, focused on her experience during the last decade both as an engineer and a leader. Jasmine lives in Atlanta, GA. Some of the topics we discuss include Chaos Engineering, p ..read more

During this episode, Tiffany discusses being a role model and some of the pros and cons this carries. Promotions and career growth usually go hand in hand with being a role model to others, and sometimes navigating that responsibility takes time to learn. Integrity and authenticity go a long way - Tiffany talks about how leaders have to show up as their authentic selves now more than ever in the world of virtual work. We discuss mentorship. Tiffany explains that “it’s not about the number of mentors you have, it’s where they show up in your life that I think is really critical.” Tiffany uses m ..read more

During this episode, Madhu compares her experiences working in a large bank to the environment in her current role in a high growth startup. We compare the differences between Agile culture and Agile practices. Madhu and I discuss some of the blockers to enterprise transformations and some useful ways to avoid these potential hurdles. We talk about continuous improvement and building quality into our systems, as well as the importance of fast and regular customer feedback to build better products and services. Mathura Srinivasan was born in Chennai, India educated in the UAE and moved to Canad ..read more

During this episode we spoke with Sai Adivi, Vice President of Technology at Inspire Brands. We discussed the digital transformation of the restaurant industry, which is modernizing everything from the kitchen to the customer experience and payment systems. We covered topics ranging from robotic process automation to platform and site reliability engineering. Sai talks about the importance of culture, people and process and how these are still the drivers for any technology transformation. Similar to most industries today, the war on talent is adding increasing pressure on pricing, strategy an ..read more

During this episode, Trina explains how her own personal 'Board of Directors' give her the mentorship, sponsorship and accountability that she needs to continue growing in all areas of her life. They are a diverse group of people who want to help each other win and give direction, feedback and advice. Trina occupies many seats as an Executive, a mother and a wife to name a few. She opens up about motherhood and leading her family during the pandemic and after the murder of George Floyd. We discuss Trina's experiences being the first or the 'only' as an African-American woman with a graduate de ..read more

During this episode, Jen shares how a 176 year old financial services institution with ~70, 000 employees is able to innovate and stay relevant at a time of rapid change and increasing competition in the FinTech space. Jen addresses how her organization is searching for talent in underserved and underrepresented communities by looking at earlier stages of the talent pipeline, such as those without college degrees, given that many people in African-American, Hispanic and Rural American communities have a lower likelihood of attaining a college degree. Building trust for a 176 year old bank mean ..read more