S1 - Episode #1: Oleksii Ishchenko - Head of Engineering at dentolo (Part of Zurich Insurance Group)
Subscribe:
About Oleksii:
Oleksii has more than 15 years of experience in building and leading development teams, as well as collaborating with other business departments to build amazing products. With 10+ years of those in start-ups, his previous roles have spanned a multitude of sectors including insure-tech, healthcare, gaming, real estate and fintech. His knowledge encompasses engineering, web and cloud based applications and developer operations - managing multiple teams and setting strategy and goals.
Synopsis:
During this episode Oleksii explores his career and talks about joining dentolo, the importance of pivoting, getting product features delivered quickly to enable iteration, the power of hackathons and his role as Head of Engineering during a period of massive change resulting from acquisition.
Key takeaways:
Perfecting constant communication with your team
Gathering valuable feedback from users
Developing iterative process and workflows
Creating productive remote environments and removal of distractions
Nurturing empowered teams with a strong sense of ownership, accoutability and decision making responsibility
Using the power of hackathons
Trying out new technologies and tools to improve systems and products
Episode Outline:
[00:58] Introduction, experience and background
[03:44] Pivoting strategy at dentolo from price comparison to insurance.
The importance of building and rapidly launching an MVP
[05.07] Olekskii’s experience of getting funding from Zurich Insurance
[08.04-11:39 ] Managing rapid iteration, getting products out quickly, the power of Agile and understanding your customers
[12:24] The importance of empowering your team and giving them decision making responsibility including the example of deciding the best Agile framework to use
[18.26] Reflections on his experience working as a remote developer in eastern Europe and how that prepared Oleksii to manage his team remotely during the pandemic
[24:40] Staying productive, removing distractions and the power of Leapsome (performance management and engagement tool)
[31.28] Moving from a monolithic application to a micro-services architecture
The advantages of hackathons and trying new technology
[33.28 ] The power of Graphql
[35.43] Using Elixir and why he’s found it particularly useful when working in Ruby
[42:30] Experiences of coping with acquisition when working with Zurich
[50:20] The power of bringing in experts and consultants to help you through the acquisition process
[54:35 ] Areas of focus for development to be a strong future leader
[57:56] Recommended books: The Culture Code, The Five Dysfunctions Of A Team, The First 90 Days
[59:50] The biggest challenges facing technology right now
Follow Oleksii:
