Navigating 2024: Engineering management principles to tackle the unknowns & challenges ahead w/ Andrew Lau #161

Andrew Lau, CEO & Co-founder @ Jellyfish, shares the engineering management principles that eng leaders will most want to develop and invest in as we transition from 2023 into 2024. We cover year-end reflection techniques, how eng leaders can become more resilient / adaptable, why honing financial acumen is key, and how eng leaders can better plan ahead to face upcoming technology & industry challenges. We also preview Andrew’s new podcast called 5 to 9, aimed to identify meaningful ways eng leaders spend their time outside of the office. Check out Andrew’s new podcast 5 to 9 here: https://jellyfish.co/5-to-9-podcast

ABOUT ANDREW LAU

Andrew Lau is a Co-Founder and CEO of Jellyfish, where he helps leaders use data to align their engineering teams with business strategy. He was trained as an engineer and grew to VP of Engineering at Oracle acquired company, Endeca. He is also a multi-time entrepreneur and co-founder. At every company, Andrew saw the challenges of leading engineering teams at scale. He co-founded Jellyfish to give engineering executives the tools they need to be great leaders.

Andrew holds a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Originally from Oakland, CA, he's a devoted fan of the Oakland A's, despite residing in Red Sox territory for more than two decades. Andrew currently calls Cambridge, MA his home, where he lives with his wife Elsie and their two adorable young children, Callie and Mira.

“As a leader, your job is to know the context and translate the context. You have the benefit of seeing more things, but less deeply and your job is to kind of gather these informations and help other people understand it. People forget, you think you're an engineering leader. You think it's actually about making things. It is, but it's also about translating, especially at scale. You're not making anything anymore. You're enabling other people to make, and in order to do that, you've actually got to be translating and providing context.”

- Andrew Lau   

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SHOW NOTES:

• Andrew’s observations on how the tech industry is evolving from 2023 to 2024 (3:40)
• Questions to help you reflect at year-end about family, team & business (5:03)
• How eng leaders can build adaptability & resiliency (7:16)
• Skills / focus areas eng leaders should hone heading into 2024 (10:51)
• Developing better financial acumen (13:15)
• Bridging the gap between engineering strategy & business alignment (16:40)
• Why it’s important for businesses to build a plan for a year or two out (19:50)
• How this relates back to eng leadership development & financial acumen (23:00)
• Tips for identifying skill gaps in financial expertise (24:07)
• Knowing what metrics to measure your company against (26:07)
• About Andrew’s new podcast, 5 to 9 (28:42)
• How eng leaders make it work in business & outside of work (31:35)
• Where to follow & listen to 5 to 9 (34:40)

LINKS AND RESOURCES

• 5 to 9 Podcast - By day, engineering leaders craft innovative solutions with elegant strings of code. But when the work day ends, who do these keyboard warriors and people managers become? Tune in to 5 to 9 to explore this question and others with Jellyfish CEO, Andrew Lau.

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/