Tech Lead Journal
by Henry Suryawirawan
Latest episode
How to Build a Successful Product: Stop Chasing Pain Points, Start…
How to Build a Successful Product: Stop Chasing Pain Points, Start…
About this podcast
Great technical leadership requires more than just great coding skills. It requires a variety of other skills that are not well-defined, and they are not something that we can fully learn in any school or book. Hear from experienced technical leaders sharing their journey and philosophy for building great technical teams and achieving technical excellence. Find out what makes them great and how to apply those lessons to your work and team.
Episodes
The newest 50 of 284 episodes
- How to Build a Successful Product: Stop Chasing Pain Points, Start Finding PULL - Rob Snyder · 53 min · Episode 271Why do startups with great customer research, design partners and real traction still fail to sell? Rob did everything the playbook says, then spent two years unable to close a…
- Stop Being the Hero: How Developers Become Great Software Architects - Lee Atchison · 1 h 2 min · Episode 270Why do the best developers often make the worst software architects? The skills that make someone a hero developer can become the habits that hold their team back once they move…
- The IT/OT Handbook: From Silos to Sustainable Digitalization - David Ariens & Willem van Lammeren · 1 h 7 min · Episode 269Why can’t you “move fast and break things” in a factory? Because a small software bug doesn’t just crash an app, it can shut down a plant the size of a small city. David and…
- Don't Outsource Your Thinking: How to Lead in the AI-Native Era - Emilie Schario · 59 min · Episode 268What’s the one rule that matters most when AI writes most of your code? Emilie says it comes down to a single line: don’t outsource your thinking. In this episode, Emilie…
- The Father of AI Assistant on Why Joy Comes Before Success - Kevin Surace · 56 min · Episode 267If you’re not using AI five times an hour, you’re already behind, says the man who built the first AI assistant back in 1998. Kevin explains why that pace is now the baseline…
- Software Engineering Laws Every Developer Must Know in the AI Era - Milan Milanovic · 1 h 1 min · Episode 266Does moving faster with AI mean you get to skip the laws that governed every software project before it? Milan Milanovic argues the opposite, the old laws of software engineering…
- Signals & Levers: Systems Thinking to Navigate Software Delivery Illusions - Elisabeth Hendrickson & Joel Tosi · 1 h 17 min · Episode 265(04:48) Brought to you by SpeechifyAI Tired of text-to-speech that sounds robotic or costs too much at scale? SpeechifyAI's new Simba 3.2 model ranks #1 on Artificial Analysis…
- From Technical Debt to Triple Debt: The Hidden Cost of AI-Generated Code · 1 h 10 min · Episode 264Is vibe coding quietly draining the thing that makes teams effective: their shared understanding? Margaret breaks down her new “triple debt” model, and why cognitive debt might…
- Ex-Gojek CTO: Why the Age of AI Rewards Builders as Judgment Becomes Expensive · 1 h 22 min · Episode 263If expertise is becoming almost free, why is judgment becoming the most expensive skill in tech? Ajey Gore, former Gojek CTO, explains why the age of AI agents rewards builders…
- The AI Productivity Paradox: Why 10X Output Doesn't Mean 10X Business Outcome · 1 h 5 min · Episode 262What if optimizing for AI output is actually slowing your company down? When code becomes nearly free to produce, the organizations still measuring productivity by output are…
- The Hidden Stories Sabotaging Your Culture Change · 1 h 8 min · Episode 261Why do 70% of change efforts fail — even when leadership is fully committed? The answer isn’t strategy or resources; it’s the hidden stories people unknowingly carry that…
- Creator of Meta's Hack: Your AI Will Always Cheat — Here's How to Stop It · 1 h 18 min · Episode 260What if your AI coding agent is quietly cheating on your tests — and how do you stop it? Julien Verlaguet, who built the type system Meta used to migrate tens of millions of PHP…
- Eric Ries: Why Good Tech Companies Go Bad, and How to Stop It · 1 h 0 min · Episode 259Why do companies with the best intentions end up betraying their customers, employees, and mission? Eric Ries calls it “financial gravity” — an invisible force that pulls even…
- Why Your AI Strategy Is Failing: The AI Paradox of Optimizing Coding Alone · 60 min · Episode 258What if faster coding is actually slowing your software delivery down? Most teams are pouring AI into the coding phase, but the real bottleneck is everywhere else. In this…
- The Future of Code Review: Stop Reviewing Line-by-Line, Start Governing AI Agents · 1 h 15 min · Episode 257(07:22) Brought to you by Mailtrap Mailtrap is a modern email delivery for developers with native SDKs support along with security compliant API & SMTP. Plus, you get 4,000…
- FeatureOps: The Safety Net You Need When Shipping with AI · 1 h 4 min · Episode 256(05:00) Brought to you by Mailtrap Mailtrap is a modern email delivery for developers with native SDKs support along with security compliant API & SMTP. Plus, you get 4,000…
- Stop Vibe Coding: Spec-Driven Development with The BMad Method · 1 h 16 min · Episode 255What if vibe coding is the worst thing you could do with AI agents? The developers seeing the biggest gains aren’t prompting harder. They’re planning smarter, spec-first, and…
- Why Incumbents Will Fall: How to Build a Hyperadaptive AI-Native Organization · 1 h 3 min · Episode 254Why do 80-95% of AI initiatives fail — and why is your organization’s structure to blame? Most companies are treating AI like a software upgrade, when it actually demands a…
- How Vidio (Indonesia's #1 Streaming Platform) Built Great Engineering Culture — Now Supercharged by AI · 1 h 29 min · Episode 253What does it take to build a world-class engineering culture when you start with five engineers on minimum wage? Tommy Sullivan did exactly that at Vidio — and the team’s average…
- Why Senior Engineers Struggle as Tech Leads: The 3 Mindset Shifts That Fix It · 1 h 4 min · Episode 252Why do so many talented senior engineers struggle the moment they step into a tech lead role? Most of them are promoted based on their coding ability, but that same strength…
- Design the System, Not the Hero: Building Trust in the AI Era · 1 h 3 min · Episode 251In a world where AI can build your MVP overnight, what actually gives you a lasting competitive edge? Andrew Stevens argues it’s not the software — it’s the data, the trust, and…
- Why Coding Alone Is No Longer Enough: Become A Product-Minded Engineer · 1 h 2 min · Episode 250With AI generating code faster than ever, coding alone is no longer enough. The engineers who will stand out aren’t the ones who write the most code, but the ones who know what…
- The MCP Security Risks You Can't Afford to Ignore · 1 h 12 min · Episode 249What if the MCP server you installed last week is silently leaking your emails to a stranger? The AI tools boosting your productivity could already be your biggest security…
- Stop Telling Yourself You're Bad at “People Stuff” · 1 h 14 min · Episode 248Think you’re just “not a people person”? Most tech leaders quietly believe this about themselves, and it’s exactly what’s holding them back. In this episode, Martijn Versteeg…
- Why Your Platform Engineering Is Failing (And How to Fix It) · 1 h 12 min · Episode 247Is your platform engineering initiative struggling to deliver results? The problem might not be your tools or technology at all. In this episode, Sam Barlien, Community Organizer…
- Agnes AI: Southeast Asia's Answer to ChatGPT (And 20x Cheaper) · 1 h 5 min · Episode 246(05:13) Brought to you by Sweep AI Sweep is the fastest coding assistant for JetBrains. It lets you write code 10x faster. Finally, AI that works in JetBrains. Download for free…
- Your Home Is Launching Cyber Attacks (And You Don't Know It) · 1 h 33 min · Episode 245(05:22) Brought to you by Cyberhaven AI is exfiltrating your data in fragments. Not one big breach — a prompt here, a screenshot there, a quiet export into a shadow AI tool…
- Gene Kim: How Vibe Coding Solved What I Couldn't in 13 YEARS · 1 h 4 min · Episode 244(06:23) Brought to you by Sweep AI Sweep is the fastest coding assistant for JetBrains. It lets you write code 10x faster. Finally, AI that works in JetBrains. Download for free…
- CTO Coach: Why Tech Companies are Really Laying Off Developers (It’s Not Just AI) · 1 h 2 min · Episode 243Why are tech companies really laying off developers? The uncomfortable truth has nothing to do with AI efficiency and everything to do with running out of ideas. In this episode…
- #242 - The End of Traditional Management: Reimagining Work for AI-First Organization - Jurgen Appelo · 1 h 18 min · Episode 242(04:11) Brought to you by Jellyfish AI tools alone won’t transform your engineering org. Jellyfish provides insights into AI tool adoption, cost, and delivery impact – so you can…
- #241 - Your Code as a Crime Scene: The Psychology Behind Software Quality - Adam Tornhill · 1 h 1 min · Episode 240(04:00) Brought to you by Unleash Unleash is a private, flexible, and scalable feature flag system that lets teams decouple deployments from releases. It reduces the risk of…
- #240 - AI as Your Thought Partner: Break Boundaries & Do What You Never Could Before - Greg Shove · 1 h 6 min · Episode 240(06:03) Brought to you by Unleash Unleash is a private, flexible, and scalable feature flag system that lets teams decouple deployments from releases. It reduces the risk of…
- #239 - Taming Your Technical Debt: Mastering the Trade-Off Problem - Andrew Brown · 1 h 6 min · Episode 239(06:06) Brought to you by Jellyfish AI tools alone won’t transform your engineering org. Jellyfish provides insights into AI tool adoption, cost, and delivery impact – so you can…
- #238 - AI is Smart Until It's Dumb: Why LLM Will Fail When You Least Expect It - Emmanuel Maggiori · 1 h 16 min · Episode 238Why does an AI that brilliantly generates code suddenly fail at basic math? The answer explains why your LLM will fail when you least expect it. In this episode, Emmanuel…
- #237 - Tackling AI and Modern Complexity with Deming's System of Profound Knowledge - John Willis · 1 h 9 min · Episode 237Can decades-old management philosophy actually help us tackle AI’s biggest challenges? In this episode, John Willis, a foundational figure in the DevOps movement and co-author of…
- #236 - From Figma to Code: The Rise of Design Engineers (And Why It Matters Now) - Honey Mittal · 1 h 24 min · Episode 236In this episode, Honey Mittal, CEO and co-founder of Locofy.ai, explores one of the most exciting transformations in software development: the convergence of design and…
- #235 - From AI Chaos to Clarity: Building Situational Awareness with Wardley Mapping - Simon Wardley · 1 h 10 min · Episode 235Can you navigate AI disruption without understanding your landscape? Discover how to gain true situational awareness. The rise of AI has exposed a fundamental problem in how…
- #234 - Building for Reliability: Durable Execution & Insights from Temporal's Report - Preeti Somal · 1 h 2 min · Episode 234How much of your code exists only to prevent failures? Discover a new paradigm for building reliable applications. In this episode, Preeti Somal, SVP at Temporal, explores a…
- #233 - Data Beats Hype: Measuring Your AI Adoption Impact - Laura Tacho · 1 h 7 min · Episode 233“Engineering leaders are stuck between the expectations put out by sensational headlines and the reality of what they’re seeing in their organization. There’s a big…
- #232 - Hibernate Creator on Why Developers Hate ORM (And How We're Fixing It) - Gavin King · 1 h 35 min · Episode 232“Architecture is something that has to emerge naturally from the code. If it doesn’t make the code better, more elegant, and more flexible, then you should not be doing it.” Why…
- #231 - Faster Code Reviews, Faster Code Shipping with Stacked PRs - Greg Foster · 1 h 0 min · Episode 231Are long code review cycles killing your engineering team’s velocity? Learn how top engineering teams are shipping code faster without sacrificing quality. In this episode, Greg…
- #230 - Technical Coaching in the Age of AI with Samman (Ensemble) - Emily Bache · 57 min · Episode 230Struggling with technical debt and code quality? Learn how a technical coach can help your team level up. In this episode, Emily Bache, a Samman technical coach, shares her…
- #229 - The Management System for High-Performing Engineering Organizations - Michi Kono · 1 h 1 min · Episode 229Why do engineering teams slow down as they scale? It’s not the technology—it’s the management systems. In this episode, Michi Kono, CTO at Garner Health and former engineering…
- #228 - Leading Transformational Engineering Teams with Craft in the AI Era - Mohan Krishnan · 1 h 9 min · Episode 228How do you build a high-performing engineering team in the AI era? And will AI make fundamental engineering skills obsolete? In this episode, Mohan Krishnan, Head of Engineering…
- #227 - Infrastructure as Code: Delivering Dynamic Systems for the Cloud Age - Kief Morris · 56 minHow has Infrastructure as Code changed in the last five years? Explore the key shifts and how to align your infrastructure to real business value. In this episode, Kief Morris, a…
- #226 - Ex-Google Duplex Eng Lead on Disrupting $2B Clinical Trials with AI - Patrick Leung · 54 min · Episode 226Ever wondered how AI is being applied in the world of clinical trials where human lives are at stake? In this episode, Patrick Leung, CTO of Faro Health and former Google Duplex…
- #225 - Driving Engineering Excellence with Platform Engineering and IDP - Ganesh Datta · 1 h 1 min · Episode 225Is your engineering team running like the wild, wild west? What does engineering excellence look like in practice? In this episode, Ganesh Datta, co-founder and CTO of Cortex…
- #224 - Move Fast, Break Silos: Leadership for Interdisciplinary Teams - Klaus Breyer · 1 h 4 min · Episode 224Is your software development process stuck on a conveyor belt? Discover how to break free from outdated manufacturing mindsets and build truly high-performing, agile teams that…
- #223 - The Software Engineer Identity Crisis in the AI-Driven Future - Annie Vella · 1 h 7 min · Episode 223Is AI taking over the craft of coding? Many engineers now face an identity crisis. In the episode, Distinguished Engineer Annie Vella discusses her research on AI’s impact on…
- #222 - Closing the Knowledge Gap in Your Legacy Code with AI - Omer Rosenbaum · 1 h 0 min · Episode 222What if your most critical systems run on code that no one fully understands? In this episode, Omer Rosenbaum, CTO and co-founder of Swimm, explains how to use AI to close the…
