Tech Waka Podcast
by Tech Waka Podcast
Latest episode
The Engineer/Manager Pendulum with Barbara Gruber
The Engineer/Manager Pendulum with Barbara Gruber
About this podcast
Tech Waka Podcast: Journeys of New Zealand Tech and Product Leaders.
Here we dive into the stories of New Zealand's top tech and product leaders. Your host, Jakub Jurkiewicz, brings you conversations with CTOs, CIOs, CPOs, CPTOs and tech innovators from across Aotearoa. Join us as we uncover the experiences, challenges, and successes that shape our tech community.
This is where New Zealand's technology and product journeys unfold.
Episodes
The newest 20 of 48 episodes
- The Engineer/Manager Pendulum with Barbara Gruber · 29 min · Season 3 Episode 9Barbara Gruber spent years as a senior developer wondering what managers actually did. Then she became one. The feedback was great, and she still couldn't sleep thinking about…
- The best leaders don't have a style. They have a whole wardrobe. Situational leadership: the map I wish I'd had ten years ago · 17 min · Season 3 Episode 3For a long time I was proud of how I lead: give people the vision, give them trust, get out of the way. Then I handed a big new area to someone brilliant, did exactly that, and…
- Rework Is the Modelling You Didn't Do — Andrea Magnorsky on systems, decisions and feeling · 39 min · Season 3 Episode 7Andrea Magnorsky started out writing Delphi and C#, went off to build video games, fell for functional programming and F#, and somewhere along the way accidentally invented a…
- Teaming as a Verb with Ammar Sagban · 41 min · Season 3 Episode 8We call almost any group of people "a team." But is it? Ammar Sagban has spent his master's research chasing that exact question, and his answer starts with a small shift that…
- The Search Is the Job: What Nobody Tells You About Exec Roles in NZ · 29 min · Season 3 Episode 6Looking for an executive role in New Zealand is nothing like looking for a senior one. The market is smaller, the rules are unwritten, and most of what decides outcomes happens…
- What If the Agent Gets Promoted? Joekub Joins Tech Waka · 25 min · Season 3 Episode 6After three years, Joekub is back, and this time they brought a startup, an AI agent that writes project updates in five minutes, and some very uncomfortable questions about your…
- "Quit If Your CEO Isn't Using AI" with John-D Trask · 40 min · Season 3 Episode 5JD Trask has been building global tech companies from Wellington since 2007, first Mindscape, then Raygun, now Autohive. When ChatGPT arrived, he didn't wait to see what…
- 27% More Productive or Just Working Weekends? The Real Impact of AI on Dev Teams with Lauren Peate · 38 min · Season 3 Episode 4Lauren Peate and her team at Multitudes spent 15 months researching how AI is actually impacting engineering teams, following 500+ developers, surveying hundreds of leaders, and…
- What CTOs Need Help With - with Daniel Walters · 33 min · Season 3 Episode 3Daniel Walters is a consultant, CTO coach, and former CTO of Seek Asia - one of Southeast Asia's largest job platforms. He is the founder of Great CTO, where he works with…
- Stop Scaling Functions, Start Scaling the Journey with Sarah Clearwater · 40 min · Season 3 Episode 2Why are your teams busy, but the business isn't growing the way it should? Sarah Clearwater, founder of Reframer and customer experience strategist, explains how siloed KPIs…
- Are NZ leaders underrated? with Paul Meyrick and Stuart Collins · 34 min · Season 3 Episode 1Sometimes it feels like senior leadership in New Zealand tech isn’t recognised at the level it should be , especially when big roles come up, and decision-makers look offshore…
- From Episodes to Ecosystem: Tech Waka Year Two · 6 min · Season 1 Episode 37This episode is a little different. Instead of a guest, I’m taking a moment to reflect on Tech Waka’s second year — and how it grew from a podcast into a community for New…
- High-Stakes Transformations with Allan Sampson · 37 min · Season 1 Episode 36Transformations don’t fail because of slide decks – they fail in the messy middle, where people are stressed, alignment drifts, and hard problems finally make their way to the…
- From IC to Leader (and Back Again): Owning Your Career Path with Craig Bensemann · 31 min · Season 1 Episode 35What makes a retro actually useful—and why do so many senior devs stall out? Craig Bensemann brings sharp insights and real-world fixes. Too many teams are “doing agile” without…
- 1 in 4 Users Left Out? Why Accessibility Is a Tech Leadership Issue with Maia Miller · 36 min · Season 1 Episode 341 in 4 New Zealanders live with a disability. Maia Miller says it’s time our tech reflected that, and she shows how leaders can start today. In this episode of the Tech Waka…
- From Outsider to Security Founder with Ankita Dhakar · 29 min · Season 1 Episode 33From no tech background to leading a cybersecurity startup — Ankita Dhakar is reshaping how NZ does pentesting. What happens when you have no tech background, no network, and…
- BEACON - The off-site NZ tech leaders need with Andrea Magnorsky · 26 min · Season 1 Episode 32Andrea Magnorsky joins Jakub to pull back the curtain on BEACON — a tech leadership off-site in Auckland on Mon 13 October 2025. Morning: six 20-minute talks + panels across…
- Half-Year Check-In: What We Built Together at Tech Waka · 5 min · Season 1 Episode 31A mid-year pit stop for Tech Waka. In this short solo episode, Jakub wraps the first ten episodes and what the community built together—mentoring, meetups, and a new conference…
- It’s OK Not to Be OK: Mental Health and Leadership in Tech with Diego Nievas · 32 min · Season 1 Episode 30In this deeply honest episode of the Tech Waka Podcast, Diego Nievas, CTO at Atturra, opens up about mental health in the tech industry — from personal struggles with depression…
- Mentorship Power: Real Stories from the Tech Waka Community · 25 min · Season 1 Episode 29episodeWhat happens when you give experienced mentors and ambitious tech professionals a space to connect, reflect, and grow together? In this episode, we hear from Barbara and…
