Balancing technical depth & high-level business strategy
with Oded Kedem
May 7, 2024ABOUT ODED KEDEM
Oded Kedem, Chief Technology Officer at BigPanda, brings a wealth of experience in software from ground-up development to managing engineering teams and was also the founder of Zerto, a Cloud BC/DR company. Throughout his many years in the industry, Oded has developed a deep understanding of AIOps and the needs of customers. He recognizes that we are just scratching the surface with AI and automation.
“As companies evolve, people change roles and the technology changes, the requirements change. We chose in the past, the product does it in method A. Let's ask, 'Okay, why did we choose A in the first place?' And once in a while, someone from engineering came up and said, 'Yeah, I have a great idea. Let's do B.' And I would always send them, 'Okay, go back to the documentation, because if you thought this through and you think that making these changes is worth our while and the risk and the instability it may bring, let's go, let's do it.'”
<cite>- Oded Kedem </cite>
We’re less than one week away from GLOW 2024
Attend GLOW 2024 - Jellyfish’s virtual summit for engineering, product, and finance leaders who are looking to deliver greater business impact while building great software and teams. Here’s a preview of what’s in store:
- An inspiring guest keynote by TIME Magazine’s Kid of the Year, Gitanjali Rao
- Strategies for engineering excellence from CTOs at Keller Williams, Genius Sports, and FanDuel
- Jellyfish CEO and Co-Founder Andrew Lau’s keynote on the future of software engineering
- Exciting product roadmap updates from Jellyfish
Register for this May 15 event today at jellyfish.co/glow!
SHOW NOTES:
- Keeping a high-level view while diving deep into the technology (2:48)
- The story of how Oded first connected to this particular problem (5:03)
- Oded’s process for prioritizing where to go deep into the technology (7:20)
- Prioritization strategies & why it’s sometimes hard to say no to jumping in (9:40)
- How to bring technical expertise / value to the exec team (13:57)
- Best practices for tough conversations regarding org direction & capabilities (17:40)
- Types of questions to ask in executive conversations (19:58)
- Oded’s favorite question to pose (23:33)
- Bridging the gap between marketing & technology (24:26)
- How an eng perspective helps shape a product’s marketing outcome (27:12)
- Frameworks for aligning customer expectations with a product’s capabilities (29:33)
- Approaches to changing past technical decisions as an eng leader (31:21)
- Rapid fire questions (35:25)
LINKS AND RESOURCES
- Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don’t Know - Malcolm Gladwell, host of the podcast Revisionist History and author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Outliers, offers a powerful examination of our interactions with strangers -- and why they often go wrong.
This episode wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our incredible production team:
Patrick Gallagher - Producer & Co-Host
Jerry Li - Co-Host
Noah Olberding - Associate Producer, Audio & Video Editor https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-olberding/
Dan Overheim - Audio Engineer, Dan’s also an avid 3D printer - https://www.bnd3d.com/
Ellie Coggins Angus - Copywriter, Check out her other work at https://elliecoggins.com/about/