Welcome to today’s episode of the groCTO Originals podcast, where host Kovid Batra talks with Jagannath Kintali, former Head of Engineering at Dojo and ex-startup co-founder, about building impactful engineering teams focused on customer delight.

Jagannath shares his extensive experience of over 18+ years in engineering, discussing the importance of building what is needed rather than overshooting with extravagant systems. He emphasises creating high-performance teams through trust, purpose, and customer empathy. Jagannath highlights his journey, the learnings from his startup, and how he implemented these insights at Dojo, including stories about curtain ordering systems and observability projects. This episode provides valuable insights on leadership, team building, and aligning engineering efforts towards solving real customer problems.

💡 Highlights

a) Getting Candid

👨‍💻 Jagannath’s rise from Orissa to tech leadership in the UK

✈️ Passion for engineering and a dream to fly

📈 Startup lessons: product focus, team-building, and execution

b) Key Takeaways

👥 Building customer-driven, high-performing teams

🛠️ How trust, purpose, and empathy drive engineering success

⚖️ Startup insights: start small, iterate fast

🔍 Implementing learnings at Dojo with real-world projects

🚀 Aligning engineering teams to solve real customer problems

👨‍💼 Practical advice for leaders balancing system design with customer needs

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🎧 Full Episode

This episode is also available on YouTube, Spotify, iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music & more.

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