S1 - Episode #16: Jules Decol - Engineering Lead - The Big Search
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About Jules:
Jules Decol is the Engineering Lead at The Big Search, which helps manage recruitment for growing organisations. He was previously the Co-Founder and CTO at Chosen AI, a company that uses AI to provide people analytics to optimise the workforce at any organisation. Chosen AI was acquired by The Big Search in 2020.
Jules is also involved in the technical advisory of start-ups; supporting them in technical aspects of product launches. He uses his vast knowledge of the recruitment industry and a people-first approach to help solve complex business issues around hiring and innovation.
Synopsis:
In this episode of The Technology Leadership Podcast, Jules Decol discusses leading Engineering Teams in start-ups. He shares why it’s necessary to establish a clear line of communications within the company, stay up-to-date about various technological developments and master key skills before venturing into leadership roles to better guide teams through changes and innovation. He also shares the challenges to recruitment in start-ups, why hiring passionate and skilled talent is especially important and the steps to take to ensure continued growth.
Key Takeaways:
Why it’s important to implement weekly or monthly catch-ups between Data Scientists and Engineers to learn what's going on in both areas and discover how you can solve problems together as a team.
Learn how to implement a clear line of communication within a company to ensure a safe and healthy working environment where concerns can be raised and discussed respectfully and promptly.
Key considerations when joining a company: take your cultural ethos and integrate with the wider values of the company, get the respect of Engineers as a Tech Lead and understand how they work, do not implement too many changes at the same time and ensure you have a good line of communication.
Learn how to introduce a clear line of communication - raising queries, concerns or work-related questions in public channels, ensure effective prioritisation, transparency and efficiency.
Understand what a solid hiring process looks like for start-ups, how important new hires are to the success of the company and how to attract talent when you’re a new business.
Get an insight into hiring passionate candidates and creating a collaborative and friendly working atmosphere.
Learn about how to set expectations and be transparent about consequences for missed and why it can sometimes create long term inefficiencies.
Episode Outline:
[00:53] Introduction to Jules.
[02:45] Jules shares the most significant challenges in his career so far.
[06:12] Top three things every start-up founder or aspiring data science and human Engineer working in a start-up should implement in their lives.
[09:00] The acquisition experience - Jules’s role as CTO and the rules, lessons and changes observed.
[13:40] Outline of the architecture Jules and his team used to help their products quickly integrate to other platforms.
[17:11] Building trust with a new team, implementing new tools, technologies and processes, while also updating teams with these changes.
[23:46] Joining and integrating into a well-established team when working remotely.
[25:45] The things Jules would have done differently as part of the Engineering Team in addition to introducing unit testing,
[28:39] Tips for a smooth recruitment process for start-ups.
[38:35] The importance of setting expectations, keeping track of what you're doing and finding out the reasons for the work underway.
[42:28] Steps to take to develop a fledgling start-up.
[43:37] The importance of keeping a good balance between optimism and pessimism.
[45:06] Researching and reading about failed start-up ventures to learn lessons about what does and doesn’t work.
[46:55] How to ensure your start-up doesn’t fail.
[48:51] Learn about Code4COVID - a program started by Chosen AI during the pandemic to bring coders across the world together to solve the challenges posed by COVID-19.
[54:33] Jules’s view on the biggest challenges Engineering Leaders will experience in the coming years.
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