Leading Engineers in Uncertain Times | A Conversation with CircleCI, Blockchain.com & Oliver Wyman

**Conor Bronsdon** (0:00)
Hi, everyone, this episode of Dev Interrupted is special. It features a panel of talented engineering leaders who joined us at our Interact Conference. Their goal, to help us understand what it means to lead a team through difficult times. We hope you find today's conversation as thoughtful and compelling as we did. The team here at Linear B applied some of what we learned from these amazing leaders to our own teams. We hope you can do the same.
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Now, on to today's episode.
Welcome to Interact in our Leading Uncertain Times panel. I'm your panel moderator, Conor Bronsdon, co-host of the Dev Interrupted Podcast. It's no secret that this year has been difficult for many companies. The news has been filled with stories about a shifting macroeconomic climate, hiring freezes, layoffs some places, and difficult times may create leaders. It's easy to be a leader when times are good. If growth is always going up and to the right, it goes a long way towards covering up any shortcomings. I know it covers up mine sometimes. But all companies will be tested eventually, just as all leaders will be. And that's what this panel is here to talk about. The leadership principles that help guide an organization no matter what else is going on in the world.
So to help us stay on course, it's my pleasure to introduce the following exceptional leaders. With us today, we have Carolyn Vo. She is a partner and head of engineering at Oliver Wyman. Carolyn, welcome. And then we also are all joined by Michael Stahnke. He's the VP of Platform at CircleCI. Michael, incredible to have you here. Thanks.
And then Lewis Tuff, last but not least, is the VP of Engineering at blockchain.com. Lewis, thanks so much for joining us.

**Lewis Tuff** (2:09)
Thank you.

**Conor Bronsdon** (2:10)
Let's start by getting to know you all a little bit better, make sure our audience can understand the context of who you are.
Lewis, I want to start with you. You're the VP of Engineering at blockchain.com. How is the current economic climate affecting you?

**Lewis Tuff** (2:24)
Sure, great question. This has definitely been an exceptional year for different macro and micro impacts and events on all businesses.
For us in the cryptocurrency industry, we've been building and preparing for this for a long time. In the last kind of decade, there's been a lot of challenging volatility in the markets and industry, whether it's kind of regulators or countries or big entities coming out saying that it's doomed to fail.
And I think now they've reported many, many times over the last few years that Bitcoin is dead and it continues to bounce back. So I think for us, we've been kind of preparing to diversify our technology stack, our products, and also set expectations of the team that this is not going to be a smooth ride. And rarely, when you're building new technology and pushing boundaries, is it kind of a linear path, right? You're always going to take a more complex direction to get there. And so really it's about focusing on core product, focusing on the value that you're creating for your users, understanding what it is that provides utility, and making sure the team is kind of already brought into the long-term mission.

**Conor Bronsdon** (3:46)
If that makes sense, and I think it's something that Michael can probably speak to as well. Michael, before you became the VP of Platform at CircleCI, I know you were at Puppet for eight years. You've been on that forefront of building new technology and innovating.
What have those experiences done to shape your leadership style today?

**Michael Stahnke** (4:06)
Well, I mean, I think I look at a lot of it about who are the customers you're selling into and what are the problems that they're having. You know, it always starts with if you understand what your customer is trying to accomplish, then you can probably help them achieve their goals and that's going to, you know, really kind of soften the blow for whatever's happening for your company or help it or, you know, whatever, I guess.
If you remain customer oriented, I think you're going to do the best. Now, the issue is, you know, you have to figure out am I helping existing customers? Am I trying to attain new ones? Am I helping a certain vertical more than another?