S5E17 Shobana Radhakrishnan | Blameless Post-Mortems, Google TV, & Engineering Leadership

Shobana discusses her remarkable engineering career journey through tech giants like Roku, Netflix, Yahoo and Symantec. She shares insights on engineering leadership, building innovative solutions, and her commitment to diversity in STEM.

Main Topics:

• Shobana's pivotal career moments
• Lessons on Engineering Leadership
• Navigating unknowns as lead for Netflix's House of Cards
• Achieving groundbreaking results through diverse teams

About the guest: Shobana Radhakrishnan is a distinguished figure in the engineering world with a remarkable journey through the tech landscape. As the Senior Director of Engineering at Google TV, Shobana has left her mark on industry giants like Roku, Netflix, Yahoo, and Symantec, showcasing her prowess in engineering leadership and her dedication to building innovative technology solutions. Her commitment to STEM diversity and empowering future women leaders in engineering is both inspiring and transformative. Shobana's story is a testament to the power of perseverance, innovation, and the importance of fostering diverse teams in achieving groundbreaking results. Join us as we delve into her insights and experiences, offering valuable lessons for engineers at all stages of their careers.

Links:

Shobana Radhakrishnan - LinkedIn

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About Being An Engineer

The Being An Engineer podcast is a repository for industry knowledge and a tool through which engineers learn about and connect with relevant companies, technologies, people resources, and opportunities. We feature successful mechanical engineers and interview engineers who are passionate about their work and who made a great impact on the engineering community.

The Being An Engineer podcast is brought to you by Pipeline Design & Engineering. Pipeline partners with medical & other device engineering teams who need turnkey equipment such as cycle test machines, custom test fixtures, automation equipment, assembly jigs, inspection stations and more. You can find us on the web at www.teampipeline.us

Chapters

• 2:59 Shobana discusses a pivotal career moment as a technical leader at Yahoo mentoring other engineers and testing engineering leadership skills
• 3:16 Another pivotal moment leading a cross-company initiative for Netflix's House of Cards launch, stretching outside her comfort zone
• 6:43 Balancing technical requirements with creative needs, iterating quickly for content and enabling experimentation
• 10:00 Architecting recommendations algorithms at Google TV to provide personalized content while keeping the UI simple
• 13:00 Testing recommendations with user groups and tracking real user behavior to continuously iterate
• 17:05 Fostering an environment where people feel comfortable giving feedback through blameless retrospectives and leaders admitting mistakes