Lead Time Chats

In this episode of Lead Time Chats, Jean Hsu, VP of Engineering at Range, chats with Hong Quan, owner of Hire Haus, about building remote teams.

Hong and Jean discuss:

• the main challenges in hiring for and building remote teams
• how companies and hiring managers think differently about hiring for remote teams
• how to fill in the gaps so that remote hiring doesn't feel isolating or impersonal
• what candidates are looking for and what’s important to them as the work environment has changed over the last few years

In this episode of Lead Time Chats, Jean Hsu, VP of Engineering at Range, chats with Najeeb Khan, founder of TeamLand, about team-building and belonging.

Najeeb and Jean discuss:

• why it's important for people to have a sense of belonging on their team
• the challenges most teams are facing these days in terms of team connectedness and belonging
• the biggest differences in fostering belonging on a remote team vs a co-located one
• what leaders or managers can do to build belonging into their culture

In this episode of Lead Time Chats, Jean Hsu, VP of Engineering at Range, chats with Anna Sulkina, Director of Engineering at Twitter, about the parallels between endurance spots and software engineering.

Anna and Jean discuss:

• The many parallels between long-distance running and software development
• How important prioritizing recovery and recharge time is
• Understanding the why in the short-term (why you’re running a race, or why you’re building something in a two-week sprint)
• Understanding the why in the long-term (an active lifestyle, or what you want out of your tech career)
• Using retros as a way to debrief in life, not just in software development

In this episode of Lead Time Chats, Jean Hsu, VP of Engineering at Range, chats with Pat Kua, engineering leadership coach, about the different flavors of tech leadership.

Pat and Jean discuss:

• Different archetypes of tech leadership, including engineering managers, staff engineers, tech leads, and senior ICs.
• The importance of influence without authority 
• The implicit values that your company incentivizes, that may or may not be aligned with stated values 
• Applying systems thinking from technical systems to people and teams

In this episode of Lead Time Chats, Jean Hsu, VP of Engineering at Range, chats with Dan Na, Senior Engineering Manager at Squarespace, about pushing through friction.

Dan and Jean chat about:

• The inevitable friction that arises in fast-growing teams and companies
• Mindsets for thinking about pushing through friction as part of the job
• The normalization of deviance and how it shows up on engineering teams
• Focusing on what you can control vs. being a victim of your circumstances
• When and how burnout shows up, and frameworks for alleviating or avoiding it.

Additional Resources:

• Pushing Through Friction (the talk) by Dan Na
• Normalization of Deviance by Dan Luu

In this episode of Lead Time Chats, Jean Hsu, VP of Engineering at Range, chats with Jessie Duan, Chief of Staff to the CTO at Roblox, about the Chief of Staff role.

They discuss:

• What the Chief of Staff role looks like and the different kinds of work it entails
• How the role is similar and different to past roles like engineering manager and tech lead
• The importance of influencing without authority and learning how to effectively navigate relationships throughout different functions
• Learning to let go of optimal solutions in favor of getting something done

In this episode of Lead Time Chats, Jean Hsu, VP of Engineering at Range, chats with Kate Heddleston, Senior Engineering Manager at Samsara, about how to manage burnout on your engineering team.

Kate and Jean discuss:

• What is burnout, and what does it look like in its early stages
• How to talk to teammates about activities that energizes or drains them, to mitigate or relieve burnout
• Giving team members permission to work flexibly and create effective conditions for creative work
• Leveraging other factors to engineering speed (not just hours worked)

Kicking off Season 3 of Lead Time Chats, Jean Hsu, VP of Engineering at Range, chats with Jennifer Kim, startup advisor and founder of Startup Recruiting Bootcamp, about how startups can hire better.

Jen and Jean discuss:

• The current hiring environment that has shifted in favor of candidates
• What candidates are looking for when they read your job description
• How hiring highlights false positives in hiring, but overlooks false negatives
• The importance of screening for motivation fit early on when hiring
• What to watch out for when using backchannel and reference checks

Additional Resources

• Startup Recruiting Bootcamp

In Season 2, Episode 12 of Lead Time Chats, Jean Hsu, VP of Engineering at Range, chats with Ellen Wong, Director of Engineering at Calm, on practical advice for working on hybrid teams. 

Ellen and Jean discuss: 

• The questions you should be asking when interviewing for a remote or hybrid team. 
• Having the team (and not just the manager) feel ownership of having healthy hybrid and remote processes that are inclusive and effective. 
• How to set up working across timezones so that it can bring regular moments of delight and momentum, not just create friction. 
• Times when they both failed to create inclusive hybrid environments 
• Techniques to create visibility (and celebrate!) of the impact of your work and your team's work 

In this very first live episode of Lead Time Chats, Jean Hsu, Range’s VP of Engineering, chats with Sarah Milstein, VP of Engineering at ConvertKit, about how to set remote and hybrid teams up for success. 

 Sarah and Jean discuss: 

• The biggest challenges hybrid and remote teams face 
• Tactical tips for making hybrid meeting inclusive 
• The importance of exercising your team's experimentation muscle, as there's no one-size-fits-all answer for teamwork or meetings 
• The role of equity in forming team and company policies about who can work remotely