Episode 342 | Fernando Cardenas - Listen to Understand

Guest:

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Fernando Cardenas talks with Dave Rael about teaching, aspirations, relationships, software, technology, business, and being an influencer

Fernando is the VP of Software and Platform at Faction in Denver, and is responsible building the software and APIs for internal and external users of the Faction Cloud. He has over 20 years of experience as an individual contributor and technology leader. Fernando has built high-performing teams and critically acclaimed software products that have been featured in the Wall St. Journal, Bloomberg, and other major media outlets. He has a degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT.

Chapters: 1:17 - Dave introduces the show and Fernando Cardenas6:26 - Fernando's life at Faction9:24 - The things that "light Fernando up"11:29 - Developing people in addition to developing software and Fernando's desire and reality to be a teacher16:41 - How Fernando got started in software23:00 - Fernando's path into organizational leadership and the value of being a practitioner before being a leader28:19 - Fernando on starting and running businesses and aligning incentives34:15 - Liberty via constraints and the appeal of the technical36:31 - Fernando's story of failure - the hubris of thinking what users want is understood40:12 - Fernando's book recommendation41:45 - Aligning incentives, human nature, relationships, honest conversations, and making it OK to change one's mind48:50 - Fernando's top 3 tips for delivering more value52:31 - Keeping up with Fernando

Resources: Faction Darth Vader - "Now I am the master." Commodore 64 "The wand chooses the wizard" Mark Seemann on .NET Rocks! - Constraints Liberate Mark Seemann on Developer On Fire The Power of ‘And’ Versus The Tyranny of ‘Or’ That Every Leader Faces Henry Ford, Innovation, and That “Faster Horse” Quote - Patrick Vlaskovits The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses - Eric Ries

Fernando's book recommendation: Running Lean: Iterate from Plan A to a Plan That Works (Lean Series) - Ash Maurya

Fernando's top 3 tips for delivering more value: Really listen so that you can understand Learn how to say "no" Give people the right level of information at the right time for their level of need-to-know