Understanding Engineers' Needs 🧬 — with Lara Hogan

About this episode

Lara Hogan discusses her journey in tech and how to better understand engineers' needs, particularly in the context of AI adoption.

Today's guest is Lara Hogan , an author, public speaker and coach for managers and leaders across the whole tech industry. And she's had a long career as VP of engineering at FLY, Kickstarter, Director Etsy and more. So with Lara we talked about her journey in tech, which started with a philosophy degree. And then, taking from her work as a coach, we talked more about how successful teams are adopting AI and what you can do to make engineers feel safe about it. And finally, we explored the Biceps framework and how you can better understand people's needs at work. (00:00) Episode start (01:25) Introduction (02:59) Why nuanced AI takes matter more than slogans (04:25) Sponsor break (08:54) From philosophy major to engineering director (15:09) Becoming a manager (18:54) Do humanities give you an edge in the AI era? (22:04) Teams thriving with AI vs teams struggling (28:03) Setting clear expectations without creating fear (35:52) The AHA meetings: sharing learnings, not just wins (41:40) The BICEPS framework (47:18) When frustration isn't curiosity (52:58) Reflect back what you hear — Today's episode is brought to you by Unblocked. Unblocked is the context layer for modern…

People in this episode

Host: Luca Rossi

Guest: Lara Hogan

Topics covered

• engineers' needs
• AI adoption
• BICEPS framework
• management
• team dynamics
• philosophy in tech

Keywords

• engineering
• AI
• management
• BICEPS framework
• team success
• philosophy
• coaching

Sponsors

Unblocked

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: FLY, Kickstarter, Etsy

Products: Unblocked

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