In this episode of It Depends, host Kevin Goldsmith, a seasoned technology leader and CTO, explores the intricacies of Spotify's famed matrix organization model and its applicability to other companies. Drawing from his firsthand experiences at Spotify during its formative years, Kevin delves into the successes and challenges of implementing the Sp…

In this episode of It Depends, host Kevin Goldsmith dives into Chapter 26 of his book It Depends: Writing on Technology Leadership 2012–2022. Kevin shares his firsthand experiences with the Spotify model—a revolutionary approach to team organization designed to foster agility, innovation, and collaboration. Drawing on his years at Spotify, Kevin ex…

Kevin Goldsmith, Chief Technology Officer and author of It Depends: Writing on Technology Leadership (2012–2022), shares a unique chapter from his audiobook in this episode of It Depends. Recorded on the road in Chicago, Kevin reflects on his unexpected journey into the Operational Excellence (OpEx) community, a world rooted in Six Sigma and Lean m…

In this episode of The It Depends Podcast, host Kevin Goldsmith dives into the intricacies of hiring agile coaches—a role he discovered while working at Spotify and which has been transformative in his approach to building high-performing teams. Kevin shares personal stories of successes and challenges with agile coaches across different companies,…

In this episode of It Depends host Kevin Goldsmith dives into the art of management through the lens of systems thinking. Using the metaphor of gardening, Kevin explores how leaders can “plant the seeds” for success by setting up the right environment, empowering teams, and stepping back to let growth happen organically. He shares practical insight…

In this episode of It Depends, Kevin Goldsmith wraps up his insightful series on crafting and delivering effective performance reviews. Drawing from his extensive experience as a CTO and tech leader, Kevin discusses the challenges and nuances of giving feedback, especially for senior leaders who might not receive regular performance reviews themsel…

In this episode of the It Depends podcast, host Kevin Goldsmith, an experienced CTO and technology leader with over 30 years in the industry, dives into the intricacies of making raise recommendations as part of performance reviews. Drawing from his book "It Depends: Writings on Technology Leadership" and a talk he delivered at Lead Dev Berlin in 2…

In this insightful episode of The It Depends Podcast, host Kevin Goldsmith delves into a critical aspect of leadership: writing effective and fair performance reviews. Kevin, an experienced CTO and author of It Depends: Writing on Technology Leadership, shares lessons from his own career spanning over 30 years, including his time at Adobe, Spotify,…

Join Kevin Goldsmith on the "It Depends" podcast as he explores the nuanced world of performance reviews in technology leadership. Drawing from his extensive experience and his book, Kevin offers actionable insights on making performance reviews more effective and less burdensome. This episode guides listeners through assembling relevant data and p…

In this episode of the "It Depends" podcast, Kevin Goldsmith, a seasoned Chief Technology Officer, explores the importance of effective one-on-one meetings between managers and their direct reports. Drawing from his extensive experience, Kevin offers practical tips for making these meetings more productive and engaging, such as taking walks during …

In this episode of the It Depends podcast, host Kevin Goldsmith delves into the complexities of managing partially distributed engineering teams. Kevin discusses the nuances of communication, collaboration, and culture in partially distributed teams, emphasizing the unique challenges that arise when some team members work remotely while others rema…

In this episode of the "It Depends" podcast, host Kevin Goldsmith, a seasoned CTO and tech executive, explores the valuable lessons that can be gleaned from employee resignations. Drawing from his extensive experience and insights from his book "It Depends: Writing on Technology Leadership 2012-2022," Kevin delves into how a resignation can actuall…

Welcome to the It Depends podcast with your host, Kevin Goldsmith! Kevin is a seasoned Chief Technology Officer with over 30 years of experience in software development, having worked in both colossal companies and budding startups. In each episode, Kevin delves deeper into the chapters, offering more context and behind-the-scenes stories. This wee…

In this episode of the "It Depends" podcast, host Kevin Goldsmith delves into the complexities of decision-making in management and its implications on organizational policy. Titled "Every Decision Creates a Policy," this chapter is particularly significant, highlighting common managerial pitfalls and their long-term effects on company culture and …

This chapter discusses what you can do as a manager to protect your team from layoffs: Ensure the team is aligned with company goals. Raising the visibility of the good work of the individuals on the team. Managing performance. All of these things will help when someone is trying to decide if anyone from your team should be laid off. This episode a…

Politics! The word has such a negative connotation when discussing work and corporate culture. Political tactics or maneuvers aren't inherently bad. It is the intent behind them that makes them so. You can leverage those same tactics for good instead of evil. In this episode, Kevin delves into 'The P Word' and discusses the good and bad sides of po…

Teams create their own languages organically, which is essential to team bonding and belonging. Understand this and use it to improve how your team works together and to make it easier when onboarding new members. Links: The newsletter with the text of the chapter: https://kevingoldsmith.substack.com/p/building-a-vernacular-with-your-engineering "I…

If you are on the technology management track, the final role is Chief Technology Officer. Still, the path to the role is not obvious because the role itself differs greatly from company to company. The episode includes chapter 10 from "It Depends: Writing on Technology Leadership 2012-2022," "Becoming a CTO." This chapter discusses the common skil…

Once again, two shorter chapters in this podcast from the book. How I get my focused work done: When you are a manager, constantly interrupted, how can you get focus time to devote to your projects? The Known Unknowns: Understanding the mastery curve. Links: Book/Podcast/Newsletter website: https://itdependsbook.net/ Questions/Comments/Suggestions …

Two chapters from the book this week! Discussing a deliberate approach to managing your calendar and tracking how you actually are using your time, and then how to approach your work with thoughtfulness and decisiveness instead of just making decisions based on instinct. More information about the book: https://itdependsbook.net/ Ask a question or …

Taking a day, once, twice, or even four times a year to reflect on how things are going and think about where you want to go next is a valuable practice. This episode includes how to approach this practice and get value from it. This episode also includes Chapter 5 of the audiobook "It Depends: Writing on Technology Leadership 2012-2022" by Kevin G…

One of the questions I most frequently get from engineering leaders or aspiring leads is "how much coding do you do?" or "How do you handle coding and managing?" One of the hardest things for me in my development journey was letting go of developing features on the products I worked on. This episode is all about that. I include Chapter 4 of the aud…

Chapter 3 from It Depends: Writing on Technology Leadership 2012-2022 In this episode, we discuss my experience building an exercise to help me better understand what is important to me in a role or company and then how I used the results to help prepare for job interviews. I also discuss some of the mistakes people make when interviewing for roles…

How can top-down culture change be effective? Looking at Microsoft and Yahoo as examples. Links: It Depends book: https://itdependsbook.net Questions/comments: contact@itdependsbook.netKirjoittanut Kevin Goldsmith

We discuss how critical failure is to innovation and how to handle failure well. We talk about how software used to be written, Clippy and why it was bound to fail, how Spotify uses the Think It/Build It/Ship It/Tweak It framework to build fail-safe products, and more... links: Newsletter: kevingoldsmith.substack.com Book: itdependsbook.net Videos …

Welcome to the podcast! This episode introduces the podcast and includes the introduction to the book "It Depends: Writing on Technology Leadership 2012-2022" by Kevin Goldsmith. Links: Book info https://itdependsbook.net/ Blog https://blog.kevingoldsmith.com/Kirjoittanut Kevin Goldsmith

What next for Blockchain? Lauren Grendon, Director of Blockchain Engineering at Mastercard, sits down with us this month to discuss the current state of the technology, as well as its potential going forward.

On this month's episode of Morgan McKinley's Leaders In Technology Podcast, we sit down with Donal O'Mahony, Head of UX, Service Design & Product Design at Verizon Connect. Donal speaks with us about how he has managed to carve out such a successful career for himself within a still maturing field, why design matters for the businesses of today, an…

In the first episode of our Morgan McKinley 'Leadership in Technology' Podcast, we sit down with Tony O'Donnell, VP of Engineering and Site Head for Shutterstock Ireland. Tony recounts a career spent working in areas of major technological disruption, and provides some significant insights into establishing and building out technology teams at spee…